Last week we finished the Old Testament in our Arc of the Bible series. We took a whirlwind tour of thousands of years of history, and saw how our God is constantly faithful to his purposes and his promises. This Sunday we will begin looking at how God’s story continues in the New Testament. But what happens between these testaments?
In your Bible, these two sections are separated by a single page that reads “New Testament.” This mostly-blank page can make it seem like we simply move from Malachi and the next chapter of the story is Matthew. However, that page represents 400 years of waiting.
Israel was waiting for a “new age,” a time when God would finally step in to cleanse and renew creation. It would begin with Israel, and then they would extend God’s blessing and restoration to the nations. This was thought to be the end of days when God would pour his Spirit out and the present “evil age” would be finished. They were waiting for God’s messiah to come and save creation from sin and death.
Israel was waiting for the kingdom of God to be restored. You will hear more about this on Sunday, but, the Kingdom of God was a time when there would be no king but God. The nation of Israel would be liberated from their oppressors. The presence of God would once again inhabit the temple and all things would be set right again.
So they waited. And they waited. What kind of messiah would come? When would he come? How would he do what needed to be done? But the Lord God had something unexpected in mind. He was not sending a military or political leader. God was not sending a messiah that anyone would recognize. He sent a Middle-Eastern man, born in the middle of nowhere. He sent a carpenter with no rank, title, or power. He sent Jesus, and Jesus turned the world upside down.
This week, my hope is that you see that Jesus’s story is built on and birthed out of Israel’s story. He is the promised heir. The seed of Abraham. The son of David. He is Isaiah’s suffering servant. He is the faithful king who will usher in the kingdom of God: not through power, but through self-sacrificial death.