There was a group of people during the first century that
we have not explored and history begs us to look at them and understand them so
that we might in fact see that the twists and turns of political upheavals of
our time are very much a repeat of other peoples and nations. Some might have
speculated that the Zealots were Essenes; but they were not. If someone was to
say that, it would be clear that that one has not read or understood history.
There are Zealots who were an actual group of people who intended to take
Jerusalem back from the Greeks and then from the Romans by force. The Zealots
thought of themselves as freedom fighters. What they were, were fascists, who
had no concern with religion or their religious brethren. The Zealots promoted
their movement as trying to gain liberty from evil oppressive Rome. They
disregarded the words of the prophets and they were not religiously pious. They
were secularists who gathered others to war and even killed their own
countrymen to fulfill their own purposes. Today we see Zealot fascists that play
the same games to build their numbers and cause turmoil. They accuse others of
being oppressive, and anyone they disagree with they attack with violence.
History can teach us a lot about what we see happening today. There are some
very important points that Josephus makes that are worth our attention,
because, as we will see, we have not been taught history with the required
detail to understand what actually happened during the destruction of the
temple. We tend to credit Vespasian with the temple’s destruction, but there
were several important events leading up to the temple’s destruction and the
expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem.
Mixed into this tumultuous time we have prophets, false
prophets, and imprecations. We have several signs that were given before the
time of the destruction of the temple, but they were overlooked by the majority
of people. With all the unrest we see during the time of Jesus between
religious factions, we can now understand where it all led just forty years
later.
It would be wonderful to read Josephus’ Wars of the Jews,
Book 4, Chapter 3 though to Chapter 6. The dialogue and speeches are a
fascinating understanding into that period. But to save time I will highlight a
short version. From Josephus’ viewpoint, the Zealots were also called robbers,
and a few other derogatory names, such as vile, wicked, ignoble, seditious, etc.
He notes them as mad when they decided to take it upon themselves to appoint
high priests. This was to their own wicked purposes and they polluted the
sanctuary with their “polluted feet”, 4:3:6. So the people rose up along with
the true high priest Ananus to try and stop the tyranny of the Zealots. As both
groups started physically fighting, the Zealots fled into the temple and into
the inner court and shut the gate. Ananus didn’t think it proper to fight in
the temple, nor allow people to go into the inner courts as they were not
sanctified. So Ananus posted guards around them so the Zealots could not leave,
and locked the gates. The Zealots put a “plant” or a spy in among Ananus and
the people who gathered to try and stop the Zealots, his name was John. John
was the informant to the Zealots and told them of all their secret plans.
Eventually John lied and told the Zealots to call on the Idumeans for help
because Ananus was going to get the Romans to help them. The Idumeans were also
Jews and thought that the people who had risen up against the Zealots were the
evil ones. Once the Idumeans got to the temple they were met by a man named
Jesus who was another of the true high priests. He explained the truth to the
Idumeans, but the Idumeans did not believe him. Some of the Idumeans had
regretted coming to Jerusalem, but they encamped there that night and a violent
storm came. There was so much thunder and lightning, and the rain was so loud,
that the Zealots started sawing the gates in the inner court during the storm
and no one heard the noise they were making. The Zealots were freed and civil
war broke out among the Zealots and Idumeans against the people of the city and
true priests. The Zealots and Idumeans killed many people, young, old, women,
children, and left the bodies in the streets. Ananus died as well, and Josephus
notes his death as the beginning of the destruction of Jerusalem. Civil War,
Jews fighting Jews. Zealots who wanted freedom from Rome had help from the
Idumeans, and they together killed their kinsmen; Jews who sided with the true
high priests and Pharisees.
Josephus, Wars 4:5:2 But the rage of the Idumeans was not
satiated by these slaughters; but they now betook themselves to the city, and
plundered every house, and slew every one they met; and for the other
multitude, they esteemed it needless to go on with killing them, but they
sought for the high priests, and the generality went with the greatest zeal
against them; and as soon as they caught them they slew them, and then standing
upon their dead bodies, in way of jest, upbraided Ananus with his kindness to
the people, and Jesus with his speech made to them from the wall. Nay, they
proceeded to that degree of impiety, as to cast away their dead bodies without
burial, although the Jews used to take so much care of the burial of men, that
they took down those that were condemned and crucified, and buried them before
the going down of the sun. I should not mistake if I said that the death of
Ananus was the beginning of the destruction of the city, and that from this
very day may be dated the overthrow of her wall, and the ruin of her affairs,
whereon they saw their high priest, and the procurer of their preservation,
slain in the midst of their city. He was on other accounts also a
venerable, and a very just man; and besides the grandeur of that nobility, and
dignity, and honor of which he was possessed, he had been a lover of a kind of
parity, even with regard to the meanest of the people; he was a prodigious
lover of liberty, and an admirer of a democracy in government; and did ever
prefer the public welfare before his own advantage, and preferred peace above
all things; for he was thoroughly sensible that the Romans were not to be
conquered. He also foresaw that of necessity a war would follow, and that
unless the Jews made up matters with them very dexterously, they would be
destroyed; to say all in a word, if Ananus had survived, they had certainly
compounded matters; for he was a shrewd man in speaking and persuading the
people, and had already gotten the mastery of those that opposed his designs,
or were for the war. And the Jews had then put abundance of delays in the way
of the Romans, if they had had such a general as he was. Jesus was also joined
with him; and although he was inferior to him upon the comparison, he was
superior to the rest; and I cannot but think that it was because God had doomed
this city to destruction, as a polluted city, and was resolved to purge his
sanctuary by fire, that he cut off these their great defenders and
well-wishers, while those that a little before had worn the sacred garments,
and had presided over the public worship; and had been esteemed venerable by those
that dwelt on the whole habitable earth when they came into our city, were cast
out naked, and seen to be the food of dogs and wild beasts. And I cannot but
imagine that virtue itself groaned at these men's case, and lamented that she
was here so terribly conquered by wickedness. And this at last was the end of
Ananus and Jesus.
Meanwhile Vespasian decided not to engage in this affair as
his men needed a rest from war. But he also wisely considered that the Jews
would kill each other and they would not have to fight, they could declare a
victory without even fighting. He was right as the killing continued. We really
don’t ever hear about a civil war among the Jews leading up to the destruction
of Jerusalem, but this is what was taking place. The people were not given
proper burials which had been a very important part of their culture, but
remember that the Zealots were not religious people, they simply wanted liberty
from Rome and bullied the people into joining their group. Then the Idumeans
left and we see Simon Niger (a prophet we noted last week from Acts 13) make an
imprecation while they were torturing him.
4:6:11. THE Idumeans complied with these persuasions; and,
in the first place, they set those that were in the prisons at liberty, being
about two thousand of the populace, who thereupon fled away immediately to
Simon, one whom we shall speak of presently. After which these Idumeans retired
from Jerusalem, and went home; which departure of theirs was a great surprise
to both parties; for the people, not knowing of their repentance, pulled up
their courage for a while, as eased of so many of their enemies, while the
zealots grew more insolent not as deserted by their confederates, but as freed
from such men as might hinder their designs, and plat some stop to their
wickedness. Accordingly, they made no longer any delay, nor took any
deliberation in their enormous practices, but made use of the shortest methods
for all their executions and what they had once resolved upon, they put in
practice sooner than anyone could imagine. But their thirst was chiefly after
the blood of valiant men, and men of good families; the one sort of which they
destroyed out of envy, the other out of fear; for they thought their whole
security lay in leaving no potent men alive; on which account they slew Gorion,
a person eminent in dignity, and on account of his family also; he was also for
democracy, and of as great boldness and freedom of spirit as were any of the
Jews whosoever; the principal thing that ruined him, added to his other
advantages, was his free speaking. Nor did Niger of Peres escape their hands;
he had been a man of great valor in their war with the Romans, but was now
drawn through the middle of the city, and, as he went, he frequently cried out,
and showed the scars of his wounds; and when he was drawn out of the gates, and
despaired of his preservation, he besought them to grant him a burial; but as
they had threatened him beforehand not to grant him any spot of earth for a
grave, which he chiefly desired of them, so did they slay him [without
permitting him to be buried]. Now when they were slaying him, he made this
imprecation upon them, that they might undergo both famine and pestilence in
this war, and besides all that, they might come to the mutual slaughter of one
another; all which imprecations God confirmed against these impious men, and
was what came most justly upon them, when not long afterward they tasted of
their own madness in their mutual seditions one against another. So when
this Niger was killed, their fears of being overturned were diminished; and
indeed there was no part of the people but they found out some pretense to
destroy them; for some were therefore slain, because they had had differences
with some of them; and as to those that had not opposed them in times of peace,
they watched seasonable opportunities to gain some accusation against them; and
if any one did not come near them at all, he was under their suspicion as a
proud man; if any one came with boldness, he was esteemed a contemner of them;
and if any one came as aiming to oblige them, he was supposed to have some
treacherous plot against them; while the only punishment of crimes, whether
they were of the greatest or smallest sort, was death. Nor could any one escape,
unless he were very inconsiderable, either on account of the meanness of his
birth, or on account of his fortune.
Simon Niger’s imprecations came to pass as God saw to it. Then
the Zealots blocked the passages out of the city so that people who were trying
to flee were killed. If the people were rich they could pay their way out.
4:6:3 And now the commanders joined in their approbation of
what Vespasian had said, and it was soon discovered how wise an opinion he had
given. And indeed many there were of the Jews that deserted every day, and fled
away from the zealots, although their flight was very difficult, since they had
guarded every passage out of the city, and slew every one that was caught at
them, as taking it for granted they were going over to the Romans; yet did he
who gave them money get clear off, while he only that gave them none was voted
a traitor. So the upshot was this, that the rich purchased their flight by
money, while none but the poor were slain. Along all the roads also vast numbers
of dead bodies lay in heaps, and even many of those that were so zealous in
deserting at length chose rather to perish within the city; for the hopes of
burial made death in their own city appear of the two less terrible to them.
But these zealots came at last to that degree of barbarity, as not to bestow a
burial either on those slain in the city, or on those that lay along the roads;
but as if they had made an agreement to cancel both the laws of their country
and the laws of nature, and, at the same time that they defiled men with their
wicked actions, they would pollute the Divinity itself also, they left the dead
bodies to putrefy under the sun; and the same punishment was allotted to such
as buried any as to those that deserted, which was no other than death; while
he that granted the favor of a grave to another would presently stand in need
of a grave himself. To say all in a word, no other gentle passion was so
entirely lost among them as mercy; for what were the greatest objects of pity
did most of all irritate these wretches, and they transferred their rage from
the living to those that had been slain, and from the dead to the living. Nay,
the terror was so very great, that he who survived called them that were first
dead happy, as being at rest already; as did those that were under torture in
the prisons, declare, that, upon this comparison, those that lay unburied were
the happiest. These men, therefore, trampled upon all the laws of men, and
laughed at the laws of God; and for the oracles of the prophets, they ridiculed
them as the tricks of jugglers; yet did these prophets foretell many things
concerning [the rewards of] virtue, and [punishments of] vice, which when these
zealots violated, they occasioned the fulfilling of those very prophecies belonging
to their own country; for there was a certain ancient oracle of those men, that
the city should then be taken and the sanctuary burnt, by right of war, when a
sedition should invade the Jews, and their own hand should pollute the temple
of God. Now while these zealots did not [quite] disbelieve these predictions,
they made themselves the instruments of their accomplishment.
Eventually the Romans showed up. What is interesting is
that there were false prophets that told them that God would deliver them. But
the former prophets foretold of the destruction of the temple and the city. The
people may have disregarded the former prophets in favor of the good news the
false prophets declared. As we will see, these false prophets were bribed to
speak lies so that the people would not leave the city. Who bribed them?
6:5:1 WHILE the holy house was on fire, every thing was
plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were
slain; nor was there a commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity,
but children, and old men, and profane persons, and priests were all slain in
the same manner; so that this war went round all sorts of men, and brought them
to destruction, and as well those that made supplication for their lives, as those
that defended themselves by fighting. The flame was also carried a long way,
and made an echo, together with the groans of those that were slain; and
because this hill was high, and the works at the temple were very great, one
would have thought the whole city had been on fire………
2. …………A false prophet was
the occasion of these people's destruction, who had made a public proclamation
in the city that very day, that God commanded them to get upon the temple, and
that there they should receive miraculous signs of their deliverance. Now there
was then a great number of false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose on
the people, who denounced this to them, that they should wait for deliverance
from God; and this was in order to keep them from deserting, and that they
might be buoyed up above fear and care by such hopes. Now a man that is in
adversity does easily comply with such promises; for when such a seducer makes
him believe that he shall be delivered from those miseries which oppress him,
then it is that the patient is full of hopes of such his deliverance.
False prophets always speak things that appeal to those who
don’t want to take action during adversity. Today people hire false prophets
and false protesters to push their agenda. It amazes me how many folks do not
realize that there is a Zealot group behind every protest trying to gain more
members, just like the Zealots of the first century.
Remember, Jesus told them that because they missed his
coming that the city and temple would be destroyed. As soon as the Idumeans
showed up people should have left. Those who did not leave suffered and many
died. Once the Zealots blocked the roads leading out of Jerusalem it was much
harder to leave, and again many died. The Zealots coerced Jews to join them,
and then threatened and killed those who refused. Next Josephus tells us of
signs that the people should have recognized. Here is the first one.
6:5:3 Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these
deceivers, and such as belied God himself; while they did not attend nor give
credit to the signs that were so evident, and did so plainly foretell their
future desolation, but, like men infatuated, without either eyes to see or
minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to them. Thus
there was a star resembling a sword, which
stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole year.
Sign 2.
Thus also before the Jews' rebellion, and before those
commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to
the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] and at the ninth hour of the night,
so great a light shone round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared
to be bright day time; which lasted for half an hour. This light seemed to be a
good sign to the unskillful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes, as
to portend those events that followed immediately upon it.
Sign 3.
At the same festival also, a heifer, as she was
led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the midst of
the temple.
Sign 4.
Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner [court of the] temple, which was of brass,
and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested
upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm
floor, which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its
own accord about the sixth hour of the night. Now
those that kept watch in the temple came hereupon running to the captain of the
temple, and told him of it; who then came up thither, and not without great
difficulty was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to
be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness.
But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house
was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was opened for the advantage
of their enemies. So these publicly declared that the signal foreshowed the
desolation that was coming upon them.
Sign 5.
Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and
twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and
incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a
fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that
followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for,
before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen
running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities.
Sign 6.
Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the
priests were going by night into the inner [court of the temple,] as their
custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first
place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they
heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, "Let us remove hence."
Sign 7.
But, what is still more terrible, there was one Jesus, the
son of Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years before the war
began, and at a time when the city was in very great peace and prosperity,
came to that feast whereon it is our custom for every one to make tabernacles
to God in the temple, (23) began
on a sudden to cry aloud, "A voice from the east, a voice from the
west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy
house, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this
whole people!" This was his cry, as he went about by day and by night,
in all the lanes of the city. However, certain of the most eminent among the
populace had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took up the man,
and gave him a great number of severe stripes; yet did not he either say any
thing for himself, or any thing peculiar to those that chastised him, but still
went on with the same words which he cried before. Hereupon our rulers,
supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine fury in the
man, brought him to the Roman procurator, where he was whipped till his
bones were laid bare; yet he did not make any supplication for himself, nor
shed any tears, but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at
every stroke of the whip his answer was, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!"
And when Albinus (for he was then our procurator) asked him, Who he was? and
whence he came? and why he uttered such words? he made no manner of reply to
what he said, but still did not leave off his melancholy ditty, till Albinus
took him to be a madman, and dismissed him. Now, during all the time that
passed before the war began, this man did not go near any of the citizens, nor
was seen by them while he said so; but he every day uttered these lamentable
words, as if it were his premeditated vow, "Woe, woe to
Jerusalem!" Nor did he give ill words to any of those that beat him
every day, nor good words to those that gave him food; but this was his reply
to all men, and indeed no other than a melancholy presage of what was to come. This
cry of his was the loudest at the festivals; and he continued this ditty for
seven years and five months, without growing hoarse, or being tired therewith,
until the very time that he saw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege,
when it ceased; for as he was going round upon the wall, he cried out with his
utmost force, "Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the
holy house!" And just as he added at the last, "Woe, woe to
myself also!" there came a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him,
and killed him immediately; and as he was uttering the very same presages he
gave up the ghost.
These were the seven signs that the wise understood, and
the vulgar or those who are spiritually unaware did not understand. The end
destruction of the temple came when the Jews rebelled and attempted to demolish
the tower of Antonia, which was part of the Roman fortress in Jerusalem. Josephus’
words of wisdom remind us of the words spoken by the prophets.
6:5:4 Now if any one
consider these things, he will find that God takes care of mankind, and by all
ways possible foreshows to our race what is for their preservation; but that
men perish by those miseries which they madly and voluntarily bring upon
themselves; for the Jews, by demolishing the tower of Antonia, had made their
temple four-square, while at the same time they had it written in their sacred
oracles, "That then should their city be taken, as well as their holy
house, when once their temple should become four-square." But now, what
did the most elevate them in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle that
was also found in their sacred writings, how," about that time, one from
their country should become governor of the habitable earth." The Jews
took this prediction to belong to themselves in particular, and many of the
wise men were thereby deceived in their determination. Now this oracle
certainly denoted the government of Vespasian, who was appointed emperor in
Judea. However, it is not possible for men to avoid fate, although they see it
beforehand. But these men interpreted some of these signals according to their
own pleasure, and some of them they utterly despised, until their madness was
demonstrated, both by the taking of their city and their own destruction.
Prophets’ words come to pass. Even if we do not understand
the events the prophets speak of, we can see them in hindsight. But we have to
remember these prophecies were spoken specifically to Jerusalem. The Essenes
left Jerusalem at the time of the Hasmoneans. Many of the prophets were in
other areas; as we saw, Simon Niger was in Antioch, Syria among the prophets at
the time that Paul and Barnabas were commissioned to go out on a mission for
the Holy Spirit. Simon Niger’s imprecation came to pass, and remember that the
Essene view of death is a release from the prison of the body. Josephus recaps
the abominations and desolations of Jerusalem.
Wars 6:10:1 AND thus was Jerusalem taken, in the second
year of the reign of Vespasian, on the eighth day of the month Gorpeius [Elul].
It had been taken five (34) times
before, though this was the second time of its desolation; for Shishak, the
king of Egypt, and after him Antiochus, and after him Pompey, and after them
Sosius and Herod, took the city, but still preserved it; but before all these,
the king of Babylon conquered it, and made it desolate, one thousand four
hundred and sixty-eight years and six months after it was built. But he who
first built it. Was a potent man among the Canaanites, and is in our own tongue
called [Melchisedek], the Righteous King, for such he really was; on which
account he was [there] the first priest of God, and first built a temple
[there], and called the city Jerusalem, which was formerly called Salem.
However, David, the king of the Jews, ejected the Canaanites, and set-tied his
own people therein. It was demolished entirely by the Babylonians, four hundred
and seventy-seven years and six months after him. And from king David, who was
the first of the Jews who reigned therein, to this destruction under Titus,
were one thousand one hundred and seventy-nine years; but from its first
building, till this last destruction, were two thousand one hundred and
seventy-seven years; yet hath not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor
the diffusion of its nation over all the habitable earth, nor the greatness of
the veneration paid to it on a religious account, been sufficient to preserve
it from being destroyed. And thus ended the siege of Jerusalem.
***(34) End Note: Besides
these five here enumerated, who had taken Jerusalem of old, Josephus, upon
further recollection, reckons a sixth, Antiq. B. XII. ch. 1. sect. 1, who
should have been here inserted in the second place; I mean Ptolemy, the son of
Lagus.
Josephus points out that Jerusalem has been abominated and
desolated many times. But here he takes Jerusalem’s founding all the way back
to Melchizedek/Shem/Adonizedek, the founder of the school in Jerusalem that
Isaac and Jacob attended, which eventually produced the school of the prophets,
the Zedeks, the Nazarenes, the Essenes, and the Therapeutaes. Up to the time of
David, Jebus was its own little independent area, like Switzerland. David
bought the threshing floor in Jebus and put the tabernacle there, and
eventually Solomon built the Temple in the same place over the Gihon Springs.
This was Shem’s portion of land allotted by Noah; but between 70 CE and 1948 CE
the Jews no longer had a right to this region. As we previously studied, the
temple was not on what we today call the “temple mount”, but rather in the area
of the Fortress Antonia. The temple was over the Gihon Springs and the Jews own
that land today. But Jesus warned the people when he was on earth forty years
earlier.
Matt 24:1-2 And Jesus went out, and departed from the
temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the
temple.2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say
unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not
be thrown down. KJV
Remember this section in context as the disciples ask Jesus
three distinct questions. http://musingsofawinsomeheart.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-elect-coming-of-jesus-with-his.html
Matt 24:15-22 When ye therefore shall see the abomination
of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso
readeth, let him understand:)16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the
mountains:17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing
out of his house:18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take
his clothes.19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck
in those days!20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on
the sabbath day:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since
the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.22 And except
those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the
elect's sake those days shall be shortened. KJV
Because they did not recognize Jesus’ visitation these
things happened.
Luke 19:43-44 For the days shall come upon thee, that thine
enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee
in on every side,44 And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children
within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because
thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.KJV
Luke adds Jesus’ words regarding seeing the city
surrounded. The Idumeans surrounded the city, and then the temple. Meanwhile
the Zealots defiled the temple by being held up in the inner courts. That would
have been the time to get out of the city.
Luke 21:20-24 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed
with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.21 Then let them
which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst
of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.22
For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be
fulfilled.23 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck,
in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon
this people.24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led
away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. KJV
This was Jesus’ recorded warning, but maybe 37 years later
the people had forgotten what was said. Had there not been these contentions
regarding Jesus as Messiah, people would have been reading his words in the
synagogues and would have known when to leave Jerusalem. In our studies from
the last few weeks, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, as well as the Essenes,
all moved out of the region after the day of Pentecost. A primary reason we
should not think it is a mystery that the Essenes left, is because they
believed Jesus as Messiah and were willing to change locations as the Holy
Spirit led them. The Pharisees lost the Holy Spirit because they stayed and
served in the temple from the Hasmonean era until the temple’s destruction.
Whereas the Essenes, the Nazarenes, the Therapeutaes, and the prophets lived in
other areas outside of Jerusalem and did not serve in the temple as they
realized that they themselves, like us, are the temple.
Peter had a few words for the people after healing the lame
man. The Pharisees had no prophets of their own, and they did not listen to the
prophets of old. They were ignorant because they had forgotten the prophecies
and rejected Jesus.
Acts 3:17-26 And now, brethren, I know that you acted in
ignorance [not aware of what you were doing], as did your rulers also. 18 Thus
has God fulfilled what He foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that His
Christ (the Messiah) should undergo ill treatment and be afflicted and suffer.
19 So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return [to God],
that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of
refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air)
may come from the presence of the Lord; 20 And that He may send [to you] the
Christ (the Messiah), Who before was designated and appointed for you — even
Jesus, 21 Whom heaven must receive [and retain] until the time for the complete
restoration of all that God spoke by the mouth of all His holy prophets for
ages past [from the most ancient time in the memory of man].
Peter says that the complete restoration of all that God
spoke was still in the future. Peter mentions Moses’ words.
Acts 3:22 Thus Moses said to the forefathers, The Lord God
will raise up for you a Prophet from among your brethren as [He raised up] me;
Him you shall listen to and understand by hearing and heed in all things
whatever He tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul that does not listen
to and understand by hearing and heed that Prophet shall be utterly
exterminated from among the people. [Deut 18:15-19.]
Just like God raised up Moses, another prophet would rise
up, but those who do not listen will be exterminated. That seems to be what we
saw during the civil war of the Jews between the Zealots and the Jews. Peter
reminds them they were the sons of the prophets.
Acts 3:24 Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel and those
who came afterwards, as many as have spoken, also promised and foretold and
proclaimed these days. 25 You are the descendants (sons) of the prophets and
the heirs of the covenant which God made and gave to your forefathers, saying
to Abraham, And in your Seed (Heir) shall all the families of the earth be
blessed and benefited. [Gen 22:18; Gal 3:16.] 26 It was to you first that God
sent His Servant and Son Jesus, when He raised Him up [provided and gave Him
for us], to bless you in turning every one of you from your wickedness and evil
ways. [Acts 2:24; 3:22.] AMP
This reminder of the Pharisees heritage takes us back to
the Seleucid Empire just before the Hasmonean era. As we looked at last week,
the Maccabee time period was the time of the split when the Essenes, Nazarenes,
and prophets left the region and established a community in Damascus. Those who
stayed became the Pharisees and workers of the law. The Pharisees rejected
Jesus more so because he was an Essene/Nazarene and not a worker in the temple
and teacher of the law. If Jesus had come from the Pharisees line, he would
have served in the temple, but Jesus was only allowed in the outer courts, not
the inner courts. The stubbornness to stay connected to the temple by the
Pharisees and the other Jews of the time caused their near complete
extermination. Stephen reiterates Moses’ words as well. The way to witness
Jesus to the Pharisees and the people who followed the Pharisees was to go back
to their heritage when the prophets were guiding the people. They should have
respected the words of the prophets.
Acts 7:37-48 It was this [very] Moses who said to the
children of Israel, God will raise up for you a Prophet from among your
brethren as He raised me up. [Deut 18:15,18.] 38 This is he who in the assembly
in the wilderness (desert) was the go-between for the Angel who spoke to him on
Mount Sinai and our forefathers, and he received living oracles (words that
still live) to be handed down to us. [Ex 19.] 39 [And yet] our forefathers
determined not to be subject to him [refusing to listen to or obey him]; but thrusting
him aside they rejected him, and in their hearts yearned for and turned back to
Egypt. [Num 14:3,4.]
Next Stephen reminds them all what actually happened in the
wilderness. They made a golden calf, they worshipped and served the hosts and
the stars. They carried a tent for worshipping Moloch and worshipped Rephan,
they worshipped the cherubim as well.
Acts 7:40 And they said to Aaron, Make us gods who shall
[be our leaders and] go before us; as for this Moses who led us forth from the
land of Egypt — we have no knowledge of what has happened to him. [Ex 32:1,23.]
41 And they [even] made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol
and made merry and exulted in the work of their [own] hands. [Ex 32:4,6.] 42
But God turned [away from them] and delivered them up to worship and serve the
host (stars) of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: Did you
[really] offer to Me slain beasts and sacrifices for forty years in the
wilderness (desert), O house of Israel? [Jer 19:13.] 43 [No!] You took up the
tent (the portable temple) of Moloch and carried it [with you], and the star of
the god Rephan, the images which you [yourselves] made that you might worship
them; and I will remove you [carrying you away into exile] beyond Babylon. [Amos
5:25-27.]
Stephen goes on reminding the people that Solomon built a
house for God. Then he points out that God doesn’t dwell in houses or temples.
The benefit of a house or temple for God is not for God’s benefit, but for
man’s benefit. If they moved the tabernacle from place to place during the time
of Moses through to the time David, and David established Jebus as the
permanent place for it until Solomon could build a temple, then why did these
people feel they had to be so rooted to the temple? The tabernacle had a
history of moving to different place. Besides this wasn’t even Solomon’s temple,
it was the second temple of Nehemiah and Herod. Technically, they could have
had a tabernacle on wheels and moved it anywhere they wanted. However, the permanent
structure was not mobile and someone had to defend it since the Babylonians had
destroyed it once before. It was the hill many chose to die on.
Acts 7:48 However, the Most High does not dwell in houses
and temples made with hands; as the prophet says, [Isa 66:1,2.] 49 Heaven [is]
My throne, and earth the footstool for My feet. What [kind of] house can you
build for Me, says the Lord, or what is the place in which I can rest? 50 Was it not My hand that made all these
things? [Isa 66:1,2.] 51 You stubborn and stiff-necked people, still heathen
and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively resisting the Holy
Spirit. As your forefathers [were], so you [are and so you do]! [Ex 33:3,5; Num
27:14; Isa 63:10; Jer 6:10; 9:26.]
Here is the answer, they resisted the Holy Spirit. They
resisted the Holy Spirit’s leading to leave when Jonathan defiled the
priesthood by accepting the position of high priest of which he had no right to.
Then later, as we just read, the Zealots took over the priesthood for their own
fascist purposes. The true prophets and the Essenes/Nazarenes/Therapeutaes did
not resist the Holy Spirit. Remember Apollos, who came from Alexandria, Egypt
and was a Therapeutae? He didn’t feel impressed to minister in Jerusalem, and he
was receptive to the new way to receive the Holy Spirit. This is what the
Pharisees were not doing. So Stephen points out that they were really of the
group who killed the prophets.
Acts 7:52 Which of the prophets did your forefathers not
persecute? And they slew those who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the
Righteous One, Whom you now have betrayed and murdered — 53 You who received the Law as it was
ordained and set in order and delivered by angels, and [yet] you did not obey
it! 54 Now upon hearing these things, they [the Jews] were cut to the heart and
infuriated, and they ground their teeth against [Stephen]. 55 But he, full of
the Holy Spirit and controlled by Him, gazed into heaven and saw the glory (the
splendor and majesty) of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand; 56 And he
said, Look! I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at God's
right hand! 57 But they raised a great shout and put their hands over their
ears and rushed together upon him. 58 Then they dragged him out of the city and
began to stone him, and the witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a
young man named Saul. [Acts 22:20.] 59 And while they were stoning Stephen, he
prayed, Lord Jesus, receive and accept and welcome my spirit! 60 And falling on
his knees, he cried out loudly, Lord, fix not this sin upon them [lay it not to
their charge]! And when he had said this, he fell asleep [in death]. AMP
Yikes, Stephen understood the Essene way. Stephen did not
fear death, he even witnesses the glory of his soul being freed from his body
by announcing the heavens opened and Jesus standing at the Fathers’ right hand.
People will see Jesus standing at the Father’s right hand again during the
tribulation, Rev 6:16-17. Many will believe on Jesus as Messiah during the
tribulation, but as the Essenes might suggest, wouldn’t it be better to simply
receive Jesus as Messiah now, so that one can strive for rewards for the future
kingdom.
We see the resistance to the Holy Spirit as the problem for
those in Jerusalem. Had those people been led by the Spirit, they would not
have suffered through civil war and eventual tribulations in Jerusalem. The
evil people, the Zealots, started the insurrection even at the expense of their
own brothers, the Jews. The Zealots killed those Jews who didn’t want to
partake in their movement. If that wasn’t bad enough, they hired false prophets
to mislead the people. Even though there were seven notable signs that Josephus
points to that the people should have been aware of, they missed them all. I’m
pretty sure if today we see any of those signs, let alone all seven, we’d get
out of town. Imagine what the Essenes and Nazarenes, and Therapeutaes were
thinking. They were probably all heartbroken that so many suffered and died
because they resisted the Holy Spirit.
Now let’s consider our day and time. In Israel we have Zealot
factions between conservative Jews who hate Christians, and we have Zealot Palestinians
who hate the Jews. There are Zealot Jews who hate the Messianic Jews as well.
It is a continual struggle between various groups of people. The Zealot
Palestinians act like fascists against the Jews and cause violence to innocent
people. But this is not unlike the United States where we have Zealot Fascist
groups’ intentionally inciting violence, aggressively protesting when they do
not like someone or something. Intentionally killing police officers and
demonizing law enforcement. We have political wrangling’s that are deceitful
and underhanded, and the general population typically hates all politicians,
but can’t get rid of them. Today Zealot people are hired to protest and hired
to provoke people to anger against someone or something, much like the hiring
of the false prophets who led many to their deaths. As in Josephus’ time,
Jerusalem was primed for civil war, so is Jerusalem today, as well as the
United States of America. But the difference we have for our day and time is
that we are all personally responsible to hear from the Holy Spirit. Prophets
and prophecies do not speak for God in the way they used to because the Holy
Spirit is spread out to all who desire Jesus as Lord. We will look into this
further next week.
