Part 6. From the Babylonian Captivity to the Coming of Christ

I come now to the last period of the Old Testament, namely that which begins with the Babylonian captivity and extends to the coming of Christ, being the greatest part of six hundred years, to show how the work of redemption was carried on through this period.

But before I enter upon particulars, I would observe in three things wherein this period is distinguished from the preceding periods of the times of the Old Testament.

1. Though we have no account of a great part of this period in the scripture-history, yet the events of this period are more the subject of scripture-prophecy, than any of the preceding periods. There are two ways wherein the scripture gives account of the events by which the work of redemption is carried on; one is by history, and another is by prophecy: and in one or the other of these ways we have contained in the scriptures an account how the work of redemption is carried on from the beginning to the end. Although the scriptures do not contain a proper history of the whole, yet there is contained the whole chain of great events by which this affair hath been carried on from the foundation, soon after the fall of man to the finishing of it at the end of the world, either in history or prophecy.

It is to be observed, that where the scripture is wanting in one of these ways, it is made up in the other. Where scripture-history fails, there prophecy takes place: so that the account is still carried on, and the chain is not broken, till we come to the very last link of it in the consummation of all things.

Accordingly it is observable of this period or space of time that we are upon, that though it is so much less the subject of scripture-history, than most of the preceding periods, so that there is above four hundred years of it that the scriptures give us no history of; yet the events of this period are more the subject of scripture-prophecy, than the events of all the preceding periods put together. Most of those remarkable prophecies of the book of Daniel do refer to events that were accomplished in this period: so most of those prophecies of Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, against Babylon, and Tyre, and against Egypt, and many other nations, were fulfilled in this period.

So that the reason why the scripture gives us no history of so great a part of this period, is not because the events of this period were not so important, or less worthy to be taken notice of, than the events of the foregoing periods; for I shall hereafter show how great and distinguishedly remarkable the events of this period were. But there are several other reasons which may be given of it. One is, that it was the will of God that the spirit of prophecy should cease in this period, (for reasons that may be given hereafter); so that there were no prophets to write the history of these times; and therefore God designing this, took care that the great events of this period should not be without mention in his word; and so ordered it, that the prophecies of scripture should be more full here, than in the preceding periods. It is observable, that that set of writing prophets that God raised up in Israel, were raised up at the latter end of the foregoing period, and at the beginning of this; which it is likely was partly for that reason, that the time was now approaching, of which the spirit of prophecy having ceased, there was to be no scripture-history, and therefore no other scripture-account but what was given in prophecy.

Another reason that may be given why there was so great a part of this period left without an historical account in scripture, is, that God in his providence took care, that there should be authentic and full accounts of the events of this period preserved in profane history. It is remarkable, and very worthy to be taken notice of, that with respect to the events of the five preceding periods, of which the scriptures give the history, profane history gives us no account, or at least of but very few of them. There are many fabulous and uncertain accounts of things that happened before; but the beginning of the times of authentic profane history is judged to be but a little before Nebuchadnezzar's time, about an hundred years before. The learned men among the Greeks and Romans, used to call the ages before that the fabulous age; but the times after that they called the historical age. From about that time to the coming of Christ, we have undoubted accounts in profane history of the principal events; accounts that wonderfully agree with the many prophecies that we have in scripture of those times.

Thus did the great God, that disposes all things, order it. He took care to give an historical account of things from the beginning of the world, through all those former ages which profane history does not reach, and ceased not till he came to those later ages in which profane history related things with some certainty: and concerning those times, he gives us abundant account in prophecy, that by comparing profane history with those prophecies, we might see the agreement.

2. This period being the last period of the Old Testament, and the next to the coming of Christ, seems to have been remarkably distinguished from all others in the great revolutions that were among the nations of the earth, to make way for the kingdom of Christ. The time now drawing nigh, wherein Christ, the great King and Saviour of the world, was to come, great and mighty were the changes that were brought to pass in order to it. The way had been preparing for the coming of Christ from the fall of man, through all the foregoing periods: but now the time drawing nigh, things began to ripen apace for Christ's coming; and therefore divine providence wrought wonderfully now. The greatest revolutions that any history whatsoever gives an account of, that ever had been from the flood, fell out in this period. Almost all the then known world, that is all the nations that were round about the land of Canaan, far and near, that were within the reach of their knowledge, were overturned again and again. All lands were in their turns subdued, captivated, and as it were emptied, and turned upside down, and that most of them repeatedly in this period; agreeable to that prophecy, Isaiah 24:1. "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty; he maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof."

This emptying, and turning upside down, began with God's visible church, in their captivity by the king of Babylon. Then the cup from them went round to all other nations, agreeable to what God revealed to the Prophet Jeremiah, 25:15-27. Here special respect seems to be had to the great revolutions that there were on the face of the earth in the times of the Babylonian empire. But after that there were three general overturnings of the world before Christ came, in the succession of the three great monarchies of the world that were after the Babylonian empire. The king of Babylon is represented in scripture as overturning of the world; but after that, the Babylonian empire was overthrown by Cyrus; who founded the Persian empire in the room of it; which was of much greater extent than the Babylonian empire in its greatest glory. Thus the world was overturned the second time. After that, the Persian empire was overthrown by Alexander, and the Grecian empire was set up upon the ruins of it; which was still of much greater extent than the Persian empire: and thus there was a general overturning of the world a third time. After that, the Grecian empire was overthrown by the Romans, and the Roman empire was established; which vastly exceeded all the foregoing empires in power and extent of dominion. And so the world was overturned the fourth time.

These several monarchies, and the great revolutions of the world under them, are abundantly spoken of in the prophecies of Daniel. They are represented in Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold, silver, brass, and iron, and Daniel's interpretation of it in the second chapter of Daniel; and then in Daniel's vision of the four beasts, and the angel's interpretation of it in the seventh chapter of Daniel. And the succession of the Persian and Grecian monarchies is more particularly represented in the eighth chapter in Daniel's vision of the ram and the he-goat, and again in the eleventh chapter of Daniel.

Besides these four general overturnings of the world, the world was kept in a constant tumult betweenwhiles: and indeed the world was as it were in a continual convulsion through the whole period till Christ came. Before this period, the face of the earth was comparatively in quietness: though there were many great wars among the nations, yet we read of no such mighty and universal convulsions and overturnings as there were in this period. The nations of the world, most of them, had long remained on their lees as it were, without being emptied from vessel to vessel, as is said of Moab, Jeremiah 48:11. Now these great overturnings were because the time of the great Messiah drew nigh. That they were to prepare the way for Christ's coming, is evident by scripture particularly by Ezekiel 21:22. "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him." The prophet, by repeating the word overturn three times, has respect to the three overturnings, as in the Revelation, 8:13. The repetition of the word woe three times, signifies three distinct woes; as appears by what follows, 9:12. "One woe is past;" and 11:14. "The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly."

It must be noted, that the Prophet Ezekiel prophesied in the time of the Babylonian captivity; and therefore there were three great and general overturnings of the world to come after this prophecy, before Christ came; the first by the Persians, the second by the Greeks, the third by the Romans; and then after that Christ, whose right it was to take the diadem, and reign, should come. Here these great overturnings are evidently spoken of as preparatory to the coming and kingdom of Christ. But to understand the words aright, we must note the particular expression, "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it" that is the diadem and crown of Israel, or the supreme temporal dominion over God's visible people. This God said should be no more, that is the crown should be taken off, and the diadem removed, as it is said in the foregoing verse. The supreme power over Israel should be no more in the royal line of David, to which it properly belonged, but should be removed away, and given to others, and overturned from one to another: First the supreme power over Israel should be in the hands of the Persians; and then it should be overturned again; and then it should be in the hands of the Greeks; and then it should be overturned again, and come into the hands of the Romans, and should be no more in the line of David, till that very person should come, that was the son of David, whose proper right it was, and then God would give it to him.

That those great shakings and revolutions of the nations of the world, were all to prepare the way for Christ's coming, and setting up his kingdom in the world, is further manifest by Haggai 2:6-7. "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." And again, verse 21, 22, and 23. It is evident by this, that these great revolutions and shakings of the nations, whereby the thrones of kingdoms and armies were overthrown, and every one came down by the sword of his brother, were to prepare the way for the coming of him who is the desire of all nations.

The great changes and troubles that have sometimes been in the visible church of Christ, are in Revelation 12:2 compared to the church's being in travail to bring forth Christ: So these great troubles and mighty revolutions that were in the world before Christ was born, were, as it were, the world's being in travail to bring forth the Son of God. The Apostle, in the eighth of Romans, represents the whole creation as groaning and travailing in pain together until now, to bring forth the liberty and manifestation of the children of God. So the world as it were travailed in pain, and was in continual convulsions, for several hundred years together, to bring forth the first-born child, and the only begotten Son of God. And those mighty revolutions were as so many pangs and throes in order to it. The world being so long a time kept in a state of war and bloodshed, prepared the way for the coming of the Prince of peace, as it showed a great need the world stood in of such a prince to deliver the world from its miseries.

It pleased God to order it in his providence, that earthly power and dominion should be raised to its greatest height, and appear in its utmost glory, in those four great monarchies that succeeded one another, and that every one should be greater and more glorious than the preceding, before he set up the kingdom of his Son. By this it appear how much more glorious his spiritual kingdom was than the most glorious temporal kingdom. The strength and glory of Satan's kingdom in these four mighty monarchies, appeared in its greatest height: for these monarchies were the monarchies of the Heathen world, and so the strength of them was the strength of Satan's kingdom. God suffered Satan's kingdom to rise to so great a height of power and magnificence before his Son came to overthrow it, to prepare the way for the more glorious triumph of his Son. Goliath must have on all his splendid armour when the stripling David comes against him with a sling and a stone, for the greater glory of David's victory. God suffered one of those great monarchies to subdue another, and erect itself on the other's ruins, appearing still in greater strength, and the last to be the strongest and mightiest of all; that so Christ, in overthrowing that, might as it were overthrow them all at once; as the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, is represented as destroying the whole image, the gold, the silver, the brass, the iron, and the clay; so that all became as the chaff of the summer threshing floor.

These mighty empires were suffered thus to overthrow the world, and might destroy one another: and though their power was so great, yet they could not uphold themselves, but fell one after another, and came to nothing, even the last of them, that was the strongest, and had swallowed up the earth. It pleased God thus to show in them the instability and vanity of all earthly power and greatness; which served as a foil to set forth the glory of the kingdom of his Son, which never shall be destroyed, as appears by Daniel 2:44. "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces, and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." So greatly does this kingdom differ from all those kingdoms: they vanish away, and are left to other people; but this shall not be left to other people, but shall stand forever. God suffered the devil to do his utmost, and to establish his interest, by setting up the greatest, strongest, and most glorious kingdoms in the world that he could, before the despised Jesus overthrew him and his empire. Christ came into the world to bring down the high things of Satan's kingdom, that the hand of the Lord might be on every one that is proud and lofty, and every high tower, and every lofty mountain; as the Prophet Isaiah says, chapter 2:12 and so on. Therefore these things were suffered to rise very high, that Christ might appear so much the more glorious in being above them.

Thus wonderfully did the great and wise governor of the world prepare the way for the erecting of the glorious kingdom of his beloved son Jesus.

3. Another thing for which this last period or space of time before Christ was particularly remarkable, was the wonderful preservation of the church through all those overturnings. The preservation of the church was on some accounts more remarkable through this period, than through any of the foregoing. It was very wonderful that the church, which in this period was so weak and in so low a state, and mostly subject to the dominion of Heathen monarchies, should be preserved for five or six hundred years together, while the world was so often overturned, and the earth was torn in pieces, and made so often empty and waste, and the inhabitants of it came down so often every one by the sword of his brother. I say it was wonderful that the church in its weak and low state, being but a little handful of men, should be preserved in all these great convulsions; especially considering that the land of Judea, the chief place of the church's residence, lay in the midst of them, as it were in the middle between the contending parties, and was very much the seat of war amongst them, and was often over-run and subdued, and sometimes in the hands of one people, and sometimes another, and very much the object of the envy and hatred of all Heathen nations, and often almost ruined by them, often great multitudes of its inhabitants being slain, and the land in a great measure depopulated; and those who had them in their power, often intended the utter destruction of the whole nation. Yet they were upheld; they were preserved in their captivity in Babylon, and they were upheld again under all the dangers they passed through, under the kings of Persia, and the much greater dangers they were liable to under the empire of the Greeks, and afterwards when the world was trodden down by the Romans.

Their preservation through this period was also distinguishingly remarkable, in that we never read of the church's suffering persecution in any former period in any measure to such a degree as they did in this, under Antiochus Epiphanes, of which more afterwards. This wonderful preservation of the church through all these overturnings of the world, gives light and confirmation to what we read in the beginning of the 46th Psalm: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar, and be troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof."

Thus I have taken notice of some general things wherein this last period of the Old Testament times was distinguished. I come now to consider how the work of redemption was carried on in particulars.

1. The first thing that here offers is the captivity of the Jews into Babylon. This was a great dispensation of providence, and such as never was before. The children of Israel in the time of the judges, had often been brought under their enemies; and many particular persons were carried captive at other times. But never had there been any such thing as destroying the whole land, the sanctuary, and the city of Jerusalem, and all the cities and villages of the land, and carrying the whole body of the people out of their own land into a country many hundred miles distant, and leaving the land of Canaan empty of God's visible people. The ark had once forsaken the tabernacle of Shiloh, and was carried captive into the land of the Philistines: but never had there been any such thing as the burning the sanctuary, and utterly destroying the ark, and carrying away all the sacred vessels and utensils, and breaking up all their stated worship in the land, and the land's lying waste and empty for so many years together. How lively are those things set forth in the Lamentations of Jeremiah!

The work of redemption was promoted by this remarkable dispensation in these following ways.

1. It finally cured that nation of their itch after idolatry. The Prophet Isaiah, speaking of the setting up of the kingdom of Christ, chapter 2:18, speaks of the abolishing idolatry as one thing that should be done to this end: "And the idols he shall utterly abolish." When the time was drawing near, that God would abolish Heathen idolatry, through the greater part of the known world, as he did by the preaching of the gospel after Christ came, it pleased him first to abolish Heathenism among his own people; and he did it now by their captivity into Babylon; a presage of that abolishing of idols, that God was about to bring to pass by Christ through so great a part of the Heathen world.

This nation that was addicted to idolatry before for so many ages, and that nothing would cure them of, not all the reproofs, and warnings, and corrections, that they had, and all the judgements God inflicted on them for it; yet now were finally cured: so that however some might fall into this sin afterwards, as they did about the time of Antiochus's persecution, yet the nation, as a nation, never showed any hankering after this sin any more. This was a remarkable and wonderful change in that people, and what directly promoted the work of redemption, as it was a great advancement of the interest of religion.

2. It was one thing that prepared the way for Christ's coming, and setting up the glorious dispensation of the gospel, as it took away many of those things wherein consisted the glory of the Jewish dispensation. In order to introduce the glorious dispensation of the gospel, the external glory of the Jewish church must be diminished, as we observed before. This the Babylonish captivity did many ways; it brought the people very low.

First, it removed the temporal diadem of the house of David away from them, that is, the supreme and independent government of themselves. It took away the crown and diadem from the nation. The time now approaching when Christ, the great and everlasting king of his church, was to reign, it was time for the typical kings to withdraw. As God said by Ezekiel, chapter 21:26. "He removed the crown and diadem, that it might be no more, till he should come whose right it was." The Jews henceforward were always dependent on the governing power of other nations, until Christ came, for near six hundred years, excepting about 90 years, during which space they maintained a sort of independence, by continual wars under the dominion of the Maccabees and their posterity.

Again, by the captivity, the glory and magnificence of the temple was taken away, and the temple that was built afterwards, was nothing in comparison with it. Thus it was meet, that when the time drew nigh that the glorious antitype of the temple should appear, that the typical temple should have in glory withdrawn.

Again, another thing that they lost by the captivity, was the two tables of the testimony delivered to Moses, written with the finger of God; the two tables on which God with his own finger wrote the ten commandments on Mount Sinai. These seem to have been preserved in the ark till the captivity. These were in the ark when Solomon placed the ark in the temple, 1 Kings 8:9. There was nothing in the ark, save the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb. And we have no reason to suppose any other, but that they remained there as long as that temple stood. But the Jews speak of these as finally lost at that time; though the same commandments were preserved in the book of the law. These tables also were withdrawn on the approach of their antitype.

Again, another thing that was lost that the Jews had before, was the Urim and Thummim. This is evident by Ezra 2:63. "And the Tirshatha said unto them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, till there should stand up a priest with Urim and Thummim." We have no account that this was ever restored; but the ancient writings of the Jews say the contrary. What this Urim and Thummim was, I shall not now enquire; but only observe, that it was something by which the high priest enquired of God, and received immediate answers from him, or by which God gave forth immediate oracles on particular occasions. This was now withdrawn, the time approaching when Christ, the antitype of the Urim and Thummim, the great word and oracle of God, was to come.

Another thing that the ancient Jews say was wanting in the second temple, was the Shechinah, or cloud of glory over the mercy-seat. This was promised to be in the tabernacle: Leviticus 16:2. "For I will appear in the tabernacle upon the mercy-seat." We read elsewhere of the cloud of glory descending into the tabernacle, Exodus 40:35; and so we do likewise with respect to Solomon's temple. But we have no account that this cloud of glory was in the second temple. And the ancient accounts of the Jews say, that there was no such thing in the second temple. This was needless in the second temple, considering that God had promised that he would fill this temple with glory another way, namely by Christ's coming into it; which was afterwards fulfilled. See Haggai, 2:7. "I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts."

Another thing, that the Jews in their ancient writings mention as being now withdrawn, was the fire from heaven on the altar. When Moses built the tabernacle and altar in the wilderness, and the first sacrifices were offered on it, fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt-offering, as in Leviticus 9:24; and so again, when Solomon built the temple, and offered the first sacrifices, as you may see in 2 Chronicles 7:1. And this fire was never to go out, but with the greatest care to be kept alive, as God commanded, Leviticus 6:13. "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar: It shall never go out." And there is no reason to suppose the fire in Solomon's time ever went out till the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. But then it was extinguished, and never was restored. We have no account of its being given on the building of the second temple, as we have at the building of the tabernacle and first temple. But the Jews, after their return, were forced to make use of their common fire instead of it, according to the ancient tradition of the Jews. Thus the lights of the Old Testament go out on the approach of the glorious Sun of righteousness.

3. The captivity into Babylon was the occasion of another thing which did afterwards much promote the setting up of Christ's kingdom in the world, and that was the dispersion of the Jews through the greater part of the known world, before the coming of Christ. For the whole nation being carried away far out of their own land, and continuing in a state of captivity for so long a time, they got them possessions, and built them houses, and settled themselves in the land of their captivity, agreeable to the direction that Jeremiah gave them, in the letter he wrote to them in the twenty-ninth chapter of Jeremiah. Therefore, when Cyrus gave them liberty to return to the land where they had formerly dwelt, many of them never returned; they were not willing to leave their settlements and possessions there, to go into a desolate country, many hundred miles distant, which none but the old men among them had ever seen; and therefore they were but few, but a small number, that returned, as we see in the accounts we have in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Great numbers tarried behind, though they still retained the same religion with those that returned, so far as it could be practiced in a foreign land. Those messengers that we read of in the seventh chapter of Zechariah, that came to inquire of the priests and prophets in Jerusalem, Sherezer and Regemmelech, are supposed to be messengers sent from the Jews that remained still in Babylon.

Those Jews that remained still in that country were soon, by the great changes that happened in the world, dispersed thence into all the adjacent countries. Hence we find, that in Esther's time, which was after the return from the captivity, the Jews were a people that were dispersed throughout all parts of the vast Persian empire, that extended from India to Ethiopia; as you may see, Esther 3:8. "And Haman said unto King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad, and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom," etc. And so they continued dispersed till Christ came, and till the apostles went forth to preach the gospel. But yet these dispersed Jews retained their religion in this dispersion. Their captivity, as I said before, thoroughly cured them of their idolatry; and it was their manner, for as many of them as could from time to time to go up to the land of Judea to Jerusalem at their great feasts. Hence we read in the second chapter of Acts, that at the time of the great feast of Pentecost, there were Jews abiding at Jerusalem out of every nation under heaven. These were Jews come up from all countries where they were dispersed, to worship at that feast. Hence we had, in the history of the Acts of the Apostles, that wherever the Apostles went preaching through the world, they found Jews. They came to such a city, and to such a city, and went into the synagogue of the Jews.

Antiochus the Great, about two hundred years before Christ, on a certain occasion, transplanted two thousand families of Jews from the country about Babylon into Asia Minor; and so they and their posterity, many of them, settled in Pontus, Galatia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, and in Ephesus, and from thence settled in Athens, Corinth, and Rome. Whence came those synagogues in those places that the Apostle Paul preached in.

Now, this dispersion of the Jews through the world before Christ came, did many ways prepare the way for his coming, and setting up his kingdom in the world.

One was, that this was a means of raising a general expectation of the Messiah through the world about the time that he actually came. For the Jews, wherever they were dispersed, carried the holy scriptures with them, and so the prophecies of the Messiah; and being conversant with the nations among whom they lived, they, by that means, became acquainted with these prophecies, and with the expectations of the Jews of their glorious Messiah; and by this means, the birth of such a glorious person in Judea about that time began to be the general expectation of the nations of the world, as appears by the writings of the learned men of the Heathen that lived about that time, which are still extant; particularly Virgil, the famous poet that lived in Italy a little before Christ was born, has a poem about the expectation of a great prince that was to be born, and the happy times of righteousness and peace that he was to introduce; some of it very much in the language of the prophet Isaiah.

Another way that this dispersed state of the Jews prepared the way for Christ was, that it showed the necessity of abolishing the Jewish dispensation, and introducing a new dispensation of the covenant of grace. It showed the necessity of abolishing the ceremonial law, and the old Jewish worship: For, by this means, the observance of that ceremonial law became impracticable even by the Jews themselves; for the ceremonial law was adapted to the state of a people dwelling together in the same land, where was the city that God had chosen; where was the temple, the only place where they might offer sacrifices; and where it was lawful for their priests and Levites to officiate, where they were to bring their first fruits, and where they were their cities of refuge, and the like. But the Jews, by this dispersion, lived, many of them, in other lands, more than a thousand miles distant, when Christ came; which made the observation of their laws of sacrifices, and the like, impracticable. Though their forefathers might be to blame in not going up to the land of Judea when they were permitted by Cyrus, yet the case was now, as to many of them at least, become impracticable; which showed the necessity of introducing a new dispensation, that should be fitted, not only to one particular land, but to the general circumstances and use of all nations of the world.

Again, another way that this dispersion of the Jews through the world prepared the way for the setting up of the kingdom of Christ in the world, was, that it contributed to the making the facts concerning Jesus Christ publicly known through the world. For, as I observed before, the Jews that lived in other countries, used frequently to go up to Jerusalem at their three great feasts, which were from year to year; and so, by this means, they could not but become acquainted with the news of the wonderful things that Christ did in that land. We find that they were present at, and took great notice of, that great miracle of raising Lazarus, which excited the curiosity of those foreign Jews that come up to the feast of the Passover to see Jesus; as you may see in John 12:19-21. These Greeks were foreign Jews and proselytes, as is evident by their coming to worship at the feast of the Passover. The Jews that lived abroad among the Greeks, and spoke their language, were called Greeks or Hellenists: so they are called Grecians, Acts 6:1. These Grecians here spoken of were not Gentile Christians; for this was before the calling of the Gentiles.

By the same means, the Jews that went up from other countries became acquainted with Christ's crucifixion. Thus the disciples, going to Emmaus, say to Christ, when they did not know him, Luke, 24:18. "Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which have come to pass there in these days?" plainly intimating, that the things concerning Jesus were so publicly known to all men, that it was wonderful to find any man unacquainted with them. And so afterwards they became acquainted with the news of his resurrection; and when they went home again into their own countries, they carried the news with them, and so made these facts public through the world, as they had made the prophecies of them public before.

After this, those foreign Jews that came to Jerusalem, took great notice of the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, and the wonderful effects of it; and many of them were converted by it, namely Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Egypt, and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and the strangers of Rome, Jews and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. And so they did not only carry back the news of the facts of Christianity, but Christianity itself, into their own countries with them; which contributed much to the spreading of it through the world.

Again, another way that the dispersion of the Jews contributed to the setting up of the gospel kingdom in the world was, that it opened a door for the introduction of the apostles in all places, where they came to preach the gospel. For almost in all places where they came to preach the gospel, they found Jews, and synagogues of the Jews, where the holy scriptures were accustomed to be read, and the true God worshipped; which was a great advantage to the apostles in their spreading the gospel through the world. For their way was, into whatever city they came, first to go into the synagogue of the Jews, (they being people of the same nation), and there to preach the gospel unto them. And hereby their coming, and their new doctrine, was taken notice of by their Gentile neighbors, whose curiosity excited them to hear what they had to say; which became a fair occasion to the apostles to preach the gospel to them. It appears that it was thus by the account we have of things in the Acts of the Apostles. These Gentiles having been before, many of them, prepared in some measure, by the knowledge they had of the Jews' religion, and of their worship of one God, and of their prophecies, and expectation of a Messiah; which knowledge they derived from the Jews, who had long been their neighbors; this opened the door for the gospel to have access to them. And the work of the apostles with them was doubtless much easier than if they never had heard anything before of any expectation of such a person as the apostles preached, or anything about the worship of one only true God.

So many ways did the Babylonian captivity greatly prepare the way for Christ's coming.

2. The next particular that I would take notice of is, the addition made to the canon of scripture in the time of the captivity, in those two remarkable portions of scripture, the prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel. Christ appeared to each of these prophets in the form of that nature which he was afterwards to take upon him. The prophet Ezekiel gives an account of his thus appearing to him repeatedly, as Ezekiel 1:26: "And above the firmament that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire-stone, and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it." And so chapter 8:1-2. So Christ appeared to the prophet Daniel, Daniel 8:15-16: "There stood before me as the appearance of a man." "And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision." There are several things that make it evident, that this was Christ, that I cannot now stand to mention particularly. So Christ appeared again as a man to this prophet, chapter 10:5-6: "Then I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude." Comparing this vision with that of the Apostle John in the first chapter of Revelation, makes it manifest that it was Christ. And the prophet Daniel, in the historical part of his book, gives an account of a very remarkable appearance of Christ in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We have the account of it in the third chapter. In the twenty-fifth verse, Christ is said to be like the Son of God; and it is manifest that he appeared in the form of man: "Lo, I see four men loose,—and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."

Christ did not only here appear in the form of the human nature, but he appeared in a furnace, saving those persons who believed on him from that furnace; by which is represented to us, how Christ, by coming himself into the furnace of God's wrath, saves those that believe in him from that furnace, so that he has no power on them; and the wrath of God never reaches or touches them, so much as to singe the hair of their heads.

These two prophets, in many respects, were more particular concerning the coming of Christ, and his glorious gospel kingdom, than any of the prophets had been before. They both of them mention those three great overturnings of the world that should be before he came. Ezekiel is particular in several places concerning the coming of Christ. The prophet Daniel is more particular in foretelling the time of the coming of Christ than ever any prophet had been before, in the ninth chapter of his prophecy; who foretold, that it should be seventy weeks, that is seventy weeks of years, or seventy times seven years, or four hundred and ninety years, from the decree to rebuild and restore the state of the Jews, till the Messiah should be crucified; which must be reckoned from the commission given to Ezra by Artaxerxes that we have an account of in the seventh chapter of Ezra; whereby the very particular time of Christ's crucifixion was pointed out, which never had been before.

The prophet Ezekiel is very particular in the mystical description of the gospel church, in his account of his vision of the temple and city, in the latter part of his prophecy. The prophet Daniel points out the order of particular events that should come to pass relating to the Christian church after Christ was come, as the rise of Antichrist, and the continuance of his reign, and his fall, and the glory that should follow.

Thus does gospel-light still increase, the nearer we come to the time of Christ's birth.

3. The next particular I would mention is, the destruction of Babylon, and the overthrow of the Chaldean empire by Cyrus. The destruction of Babylon was in that night in which Belshazzar the king, and the city in general, was drowned in a drunken festival, which they kept to their gods, when Daniel was called to read the hand-writing on the wall, Daniel 5:30; and it was brought about in such a manner, as wonderfully to show the hand of God, and remarkably to fulfill his word by his prophets, which I cannot now stand particularly to relate. Now that great city, which had long been an enemy to the city of God, his Jerusalem, was destroyed, after it had stood ever since the first building of Babel, which was about seventeen hundred years. If the check that was put to the building this city at its beginning, whereby they were prevented from carrying of it to that extent and magnificence that they intended; I say, if this promoted the work of redemption, as I have before shown it did, much more did this destruction of it.

It was a remarkable instance of God's vengeance on the enemies of his redeemed church; for God brought this destruction on Babylon for the injuries they did to God's children, as is often set forth in the prophets. It also promoted the work of redemption, as thereby God's people, that were held captive by them, were set at liberty to return to their own land to rebuild Jerusalem; and therefore Cyrus, who did it, is called God's shepherd therein, Isaiah 44, latter end, and 45:1. And these are over and above those ways wherein the setting up and overthrowing the four monarchies of the world promote the work of redemption, which have been before observed.

4. What next followed this was, the return of the Jews to their own land, and rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple. Cyrus, as soon as he had destroyed the Babylonish empire, and had erected the Persian empire on its ruins, made a decree in favor of the Jews, that they might return to their own land, and rebuild their city and temple. This return of the Jews out of the Babylonish captivity, next to the redemption out of Egypt, the most remarkable of all the Old Testament redemptions, and most insisted on in scripture, as a type of the great redemption of Jesus Christ. It was under the hand of one of the legal ancestors of Christ, namely Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, whose Babylonish name was Sheshbazzar. He was the governor of the Jews, and their leader in their first return out of captivity; and, together with Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest, had the chief hand in rebuilding the temple. This redemption was brought about by the hand of Zerubbabel and Joshua the priest, as the redemption out of Egypt was brought about by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

The return out of captivity was a remarkable dispensation of Providence. It was remarkable, that the heart of a Heathen prince, as Cyrus was, should be so inclined to favor such a design as he did, not only in giving the people liberty to return, and rebuild the city and temple, but in giving charge that they should be helped with silver and gold, and with goods, and with beasts, as we read in Ezra 1:4. And afterwards God wonderfully inclined the heart of Darius to further the building of the house of God with his own tribute money, and by commanding their bitter enemies, the Samaritans, who had been striving to hinder them to help them without fail, by furnishing them with all that they needed in order to it, and to supply them day by day; making a decree, that whosoever failed of it, timber should be pulled down out of his house, and he hanged thereon, and his house made a dunghill; as we have an account in the sixth chapter of Ezra. And after this God inclined the heart of Artaxerxes, another king of Persia, to promote the work of restoring the state of the Jews, by his ample commission to Ezra, which we have an account of in the seventh chapter of Ezra; helping them abundantly with silver and gold of his own bounty, and offering more, as should be needful, out of the King's treasure-house, and commanding his treasurers beyond the river Euphrates to give more, as should be needed, unto an hundred talents of silver, and an hundred measures of wheat, an hundred baths of wine, and an hundred baths of oil, and salt, without prescribing how much; and giving leave to establish magistrates in the land; and freeing the priests of toll, tribute, and custom, and other things, which render this decree and commission by Artaxerxes the most full and ample in the Jews' favor of any that, at any time, had been given for the restoring of Jerusalem: And therefore, in Daniel's prophecy, this is called A decree for restoring and building Jerusalem; and hence the seventy weeks are dated.

After this, another favorable commission was granted by the King of Persia to Nehemiah, which we have an account of in the second chapter of Nehemiah.

It was remarkable, that the hearts of Heathen princes should be so inclined. It was the effect of his power, who hath the hearts of kings in his hands, and turneth them whithersoever he will; and it was a remarkable instance of his favor to his people.

Another remarkable circumstance of this restitution of the state of the Jews to their own land was that it was accomplished against so much opposition of their bitter indefatigable enemies the Samaritans, who, for a long time together, with all the malice and craft they could exercise, opposed the Jews in this affair, and sought their destruction; one while by Bishlam, Mithridath, Tabeal, Rehum, and Shimshai, as in Ezra 4, and then by Tatnai, Shetharboznai, and their companions, as in chapter 5 and afterwards by Sanballat and Tobiah, as we read in the book of Nehemiah.

We have showed before how the settlement of the people in this land in Joshua's time promoted the work of redemption. On the same account does their restitution belong to the same work. The resettlement of the Jews in the land of Canaan belongs to this work, as it was a necessary means of preserving the Jewish church and dispensation in being, till Christ should come. If it had not been for this restoration of the Jewish church, and temple, and worship, the people had remained without any temple, and land of their own, that would be as it were their headquarters, a place of worship, habitation, and resort; the whole constitution, which God had done so much to establish, would have been in danger of utterly failing, long before that six hundred years had been out, which was from about the time of the captivity till Christ. And so all that preparation which God had been making for the coming of Christ, from the time of Abraham, would have been in vain. Now that very temple was built that God would fill with glory by Christ's coming into it, as the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah told the Jews to encourage them in building it.

5. The next particular I would observe, is the addition made to the canon of the scriptures soon after the captivity by the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah, who were prophets sent to encourage the people in their work of rebuilding the city and temple; and the main argument they made use of to that end, is the approach of the time of the coming of Christ. Haggai foretold that Christ should be of Zerubbabel's legal posterity, last chapter, last verse. This seems to be the last and most particular revelation of the descent of Christ, till the angel Gabriel was sent to reveal it to his mother Mary.

6. The next thing I would take notice of, was the pouring out of the Spirit of God that accompanied the ministry of Ezra the priest after the captivity. That there was such a pouring out of the Spirit of God that accompanied Ezra's ministry, is manifest by many things in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Presently after Ezra came up from Babylon, with the ample commission which Artaxerxes gave him, whence Daniel's seventy weeks began, he set himself to reform the vices and corruptions he found among the Jews; and his great success in it we have an account of in the tenth chapter of Ezra; so that there appeared a very general and great mourning of the congregation of Israel for their sins, which was accompanied with a solemn covenant that the people entered into with God; and this was followed with a great and general reformation, as we have there an account. The people about the same time, with great zeal, and earnestness, and reverence, gathered themselves together to hear the word of God read by Ezra; and gave diligent attention, while Ezra and the other priests preached to them, by reading and expounding the law, and were greatly affected in the hearing of it. They wept when they heard the words of the law, and set themselves to observe the law, and kept the feast of tabernacles, as the scripture observes, after such a manner as it had not been kept since the days of Joshua the son of Nun; as we have account in the eighth chapter of Nehemiah: after this, having separated themselves from all strangers, they solemnly observed a fast, by hearing the word of God, confessing their sins, and renewing their covenant with God; and manifested their sincerity in that transaction, by actually reforming many abuses in religion and morals; as we learn from the ninth and following chapters of Nehemiah.

It is observable, that it has been God's manner in every remarkable new establishment of the state of his visible church, to give a remarkable outpouring of his spirit. So it was on the first establishment of the church of the Jews at their first coming into Canaan under Joshua, as has been observed; and so it was now in this second settlement of the church in the same land in the time of Ezra; and so it was on the first establishment of the Christian church after Christ's resurrection; God wisely and graciously laying the foundation of those establishments in a work of his holy Spirit, for the lasting benefit of the state of his church, thenceforward continued in those establishments. This pouring out of the Spirit of God, was a final cure of that nation of that particular sin which just before they especially run into, namely intermarrying with the Gentiles; for however inclined to it they were before, they ever after showed an aversion to it.

7. Ezra added to the canon of the scriptures. He wrote the book of Ezra; and he is supposed to have written the book of Chronicles, at least of compiling them, if he was not the author of the materials, or all the parts of these writings. That these books were written, or compiled and completed, after the captivity, the things contained in the books themselves make manifest; for the genealogies contained therein, are brought down below the captivity; as 1 Chronicles 3:17, etc. We have there an account of the posterity of Jehoiachin for several successive generations. And there is mention in these books of this captivity into Babylon, as of a thing past, and of things that were done on the return of the Jews after the captivity; as you may see in the ninth chapter of 1 Chronicles. The chapter is mostly filled up with an account of things that came to pass after the captivity into Babylon, as you may see by comparing it with what is said in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. That Ezra was the person that compiled these books, is probable by this, because they conclude with words that we know are the words of Ezra's history. The two last verses are Ezra's words in the history he gives in the two first verses of the book of Ezra.

8. Ezra is supposed to have collected all the books of which the holy scriptures did then consist, and disposed them in their proper order. Ezra is often spoken of as a noted and eminent scribe of the law of God, and the canon of scripture in his time was manifestly under his special care; and the Jews, from the first accounts we have from them have always held, that the canon of scripture, so much of it as was then extant, was collected, and orderly disposed and settled by Ezra; and that from him they have delivered it down in the order in which he disposed it, till Christ's time, when the Christian church received it from them, and have delivered it down to our times. The truth of this is allowed as undoubted by divines in general.

9. The work of redemption was carried on and promoted in this period, by greatly multiplying the copies of the law, and appointing the constant public reading of them in all the cities of Israel in their synagogues. It is evident, that before the captivity, there were but few copies of the law. There was the original, laid up beside the ark; and the kings were required to write out a copy of the law for their use, and the law was required to be read to the whole congregation of Israel once every seventh year. We have no account of any other stated public reading of the law before the captivity but this. And it is manifest by several things that might be mentioned, that copies of the law were exceedingly rare before the captivity. But after the captivity, the constant reading of the law was set up in every synagogue throughout the land. First, they began with reading the law, and then they proceeded to establish the constant reading of the other books of the Old Testament. Lessons were read out of the Old Testament, as made up of both the law and the other parts of the scripture then extant, in all the synagogues, which were set up in every city, and everywhere, wherever the Jews in any considerable number dwelt, as our meeting-houses are. Thus we find it was in Christ's and the apostles' time, Acts 15:21. "Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day." This custom is universally supposed, both by Jews and Christians, to be begun by Ezra. There were doubtless public assemblies before the captivity into Babylon. They used to assemble at the temple at their great feasts, and were directed, when they were at a loss about anything in the law, to go to the priest for instruction; and they used also to resort to the prophet's houses: and we read of synagogues in the land before. Psalm 74:8. But it is not supposed that they had copies of the law for constant public reading and expounding through the land before, as afterwards. This was one great means of their being preserved from idolatry.

10. The next thing I would mention, is God's remarkably preserving the church and nation of the Jews, when they were in imminent danger of being universally destroyed by Haman. We have the story in the book of Esther, with which you are acquainted. This series of providence, was very wonderful in preventing this destruction. Esther was doubtless born for this end to be the instrument of this remarkable preservation.

11. After this the canon of scripture was further added to in the books of Nehemiah and Esther; the one by Nehemiah himself; and when the other was written by Nehemiah, or Mordecai, or Malachi, is not of importance for us to know, so long as it is one of those books that were always admitted and received as a part of their canon by the Jews, and was among those books that the Jews called their scriptures in Christ's time, and as such was approved by him: For Christ does often in his speeches to the Jews manifestly approve and confirm those books, which amongst them went by the name of the scriptures, as might easily be shown, if there were time for it.

12. After this the canon of the Old Testament was completed and sealed by Malachi. The manner of his concluding his prophecy seems to imply, that they were to expect no more prophecies, and no more written revelations from God, till Christ should come. For in the last chapter he prophesies of Christ's coming; verses 2 and 3. "But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." Then we read in verse 4. "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments," that is, Remember and improve what ye have; keep close to that written rule you have, as expecting no more additions to it, till the night of the Old Testament is over, and the Sun of righteousness shall at length arise.

13. Soon after this, the spirit of prophecy ceased among that people till the time of the New Testament. Thus the Old Testament light, the stars of the long night, began apace to hide their heads, the time of the Sun of righteousness now drawing nigh. We before observed, how the Kings of the house of David ceased before the true King and head of the church came; and how the cloud of glory withdrew, before Christ, the brightness of the Father's glory, appeared; and so as to several other things. And now at last the spirit of prophecy ceased. The time of the great Prophet of God was now so nigh, it was time for their typical prophets to be silent, and shut their mouths.

We have now gone through with the time that we have any historical account of in the writings of the Old Testament, and the last thing that was mentioned, by which the work of redemption was promoted, was the ceasing of the spirit of prophecy.

I now proceed to show how the work of redemption was carried on through the remaining time that were before Christ: in which we have not that thread of scripture history to guide us that we have had hitherto; but have these three things to guide us, namely the prophecies of the Old Testament, human histories of those times, and some occasional mention made, and some evidence given, of some things which happened in those times, in the New Testament. Therefore,

14. The next particular that I shall mention under this period, is the destruction of the Persian empire, and setting up of the Grecian empire by Alexander. This came to pass about sixty or seventy years after the times wherein the prophet Malachi is supposed to have prophesied, and about three hundred and thirty years before Christ. This was the third overturning of the world that came to pass in this period, and was greater and more remarkable than either of the foregoing. It was very remarkable on account of the suddenness of that conquest of the world which Alexander made, and the greatness of the empire which he set up, which much exceeded all the foregoing in its extent.

This event is much spoken of in the prophecies of Daniel. This empire is represented by the third kingdom of brass in Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, as in Daniel 2; and in Daniel's vision of the four beasts, is represented by the third beast that was like a leopard, that had on his back four wings of a fowl, to represent the swiftness of its conquest, chapter 7; and is more particularly represented by the he goat in the eighth chapter, that came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground, to represent how swiftly Alexander over-ran the world. The angel himself does expressly interpret this he-goat to signify the king of Grecia, verse 21. The rough goat is the king of Grecia; and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king, that is, Alexander himself.

After Alexander had conquered the world, he soon died; and his dominion did not descend to his posterity, but four of his principal captains divided his empire between them, as it there follows. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power; so you may see in the eleventh chapter of Daniel. The angel, after foretelling of the Persian empire, then proceeds to foretell of Alexander, verse 3. "And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will." And then he foretells, in the fourth verse, of the dividing of his kingdom between his four captains: "And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven; and not to his posterity nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up even for others besides those." Two of these four captains, whose kingdoms were next to Judea, the one had Egypt and the neighboring countries on the south of Judea, and the other had Syria and the neighboring countries north of Judea; and these two are those that are called the kings of the north and of the south in the eleventh chapter of Daniel.

Now this setting up of the Grecian empire did greatly prepare the way for the coming of Christ and setting up his kingdom in the world. Besides these ways common to the other overturnings of the world in this period, that have been already mentioned, there is one peculiar to this revolution which I shall take notice of, which did remarkably promote the work of redemption; and that was, that it made the Greek language common in the world. To have one common language understood and used through the greater part of the world, was a thing that did prepare the way for the setting up of Christ's kingdom. This gave advantage for spreading the gospel from one nation to another, and so through all nations, with vastly greater ease, than if every nation had a distinct language, and did not understand each other. For though some of the first preachers of the gospel had the gift of languages so that they could preach in any language; yet all had not this particular gift; and they that had, could not exercise it when they would, but only at special seasons, when the Spirit of God was pleased to inspire them in this way. The church, in different parts of the world, as the churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, Galatia, Corinth, and others, which were in countries distant one from another, could not have had that communication one with another, which we have an account of in the book of Acts, if they had had no common language. So it was before the Grecian empire was set up. But after this, many in all those countries well understood the same language, namely the Greek language; which wonderfully opened the door for mutual communication between those churches, so far separated one from another. Again, the making the Greek language common through so great a part of the world, did wonderfully make way for the setting up of the kingdom of Christ, because it was the language in which the New Testament was to be originally written. The apostles propagated the gospel through many scores of nations; and if they could not have understood the Bible any otherwise than as it was translated into so many languages, it would have rendered the spreading of the gospel vastly more difficult. But by the Greek language being made common to all, they all understood the New Testament of Jesus Christ in their language in which the apostles and evangelists originally wrote it: so that as soon as ever it was written by its original penmen, it immediately lay open to the world in a language that was commonly understood everywhere, as there was no language that was so commonly understood in the world in Christ's and the apostles' times as the Greek; the cause of which was the setting up of the Grecian empire in the world.

15. The next thing I shall take notice of is, the translation of the scriptures of the Old Testament into a language that was commonly understood by the Gentiles. The translation that I here speak of is that into the Greek language, that is commonly called the Septuagint, or the translation of the Seventy. This is supposed to have been made about fifty or sixty years after Alexander's conquering the world. This is the first translation that ever was made of the scriptures that we have any credible account of. The canon of the Old Testament had been completed by the prophet Malachi but about a hundred and twenty years before in its original; and hitherto the scriptures had remained locked up from all other nations but the Jews, in the Hebrew tongue, which was understood by no other nation. But now it was translated into the Greek language, which, as we observed before, was a language that was commonly understood by the nations of the world.

This translation of the Old Testament is still extant, and is commonly in the hands of learned men in these days, and is made great use of by them. The Jews have many fables about the occasion and manner of this translation; but the truth of the case is supposed to be this, that multitudes of the Jews living in other parts of the world besides Judea, and being born and bred among the Greeks, the Greek became their common language, and they did not understand the original Hebrew; and therefore they procured the scriptures to be translated for their use into the Greek language: and so henceforward the Jews, in all countries, except Judea, were wont in their synagogues to make use of this translation instead of the Hebrew.

This translation of the scriptures into a language commonly understood through the world, prepared the way for Christ's coming, and setting up his kingdom in the world, and afterwards did greatly promote it. For as the apostles went preaching through the world, they made great use of the scriptures of the Old Testament, and especially of the prophecies concerning Christ that were contained in them. By means of this translation, and by the Jews being scattered everywhere, they had the scriptures at hand in a language that was understood by the Gentiles: and they did principally make use of this translation in their preaching and writings wherever they went; as is evident by this, that in all the innumerable quotations that are made out of the Old Testament in their writings in the New Testament, they are almost everywhere in the very words of the Septuagint. The sense is the same as it is in the original Hebrew; but very often the words are different, as all that are acquainted with their Bibles know. When the apostles in their epistles, and the evangelists in their histories, cite passages out of the Old Testament, it is very often in different words from what we have in the Old Testament, as all know. But yet these citations are almost universally in the very words of the Septuagint version; for that may be seen by comparing them together, they being both written in the same language. This makes it evident, that the apostles, in their preaching and writings, commonly made use of this translation. So this very translation was that which was principally used in Christian churches through most nations of the world for several hundred years after Christ.

16. The next thing is the wonderful preservation of the church when it was imminently threatened and persecuted under the Grecian empire.

The first time they were threatened was by Alexander himself. When he was besieging the city of Tyre, sending to the Jews for assistance and supplies for his army, and they refusing, out of a conscientious regard to their oath to the king of Persia, he being a man of a very furious spirit, agreeable to the scripture representation of the rough he goat, marched against them, with a design to cut them off. But the priests going out to meet him in their priestly garments, when he met them, God wonderfully turned his heart to spare them, and favor them, much as he did the heart of Esau when he met Jacob.

After this, one of the kings of Egypt, a successor of one of Alexander's four captains, entertained a design of destroying the nation of the Jews; but was remarkably and wonderfully prevented by a stronger interposition of Heaven for their preservation.

But the most wonderful preservation of them all in this period was under the cruel persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, and successor of another of Alexander's four captains. The Jews were at that time subject to the power of Antiochus; and he being enraged against them, long strove to his utmost utterly to destroy them, and root them out; at least all of them that would not forsake their religion, and worship his idols: and he did indeed in a great measure waste the country, and depopulate the city of Jerusalem; and profaned the temple, by setting up his idols in some parts of it; and persecuted the people with insatiable cruelty; so that we have no account of any persecution like his before. Many of the particular circumstances of this persecution would be very affecting, if I had time to insist on them. This cruel persecution began about a hundred and seventy years before Christ. It is much spoken of in the prophecy of Daniel, as you may see, Daniel 8:9-25; 11:31-38. These persecutions are also spoken of in the New Testament, as, Hebrews 11:36, 37, 38.

Antiochus intended not only to extirpate the Jewish religion, but, as far as in him lay, the very nation; and particularly labored to the utmost to destroy all copies of the law. And considering how weak they were, in comparison with a king of such vast dominion, the providence of God appears very wonderful in defeating his design. Many times the Jews seemed to be on the very brink of ruin, and just ready to be wholly swallowed up: their enemies often thought themselves sure of obtaining their purpose. They once came against the people with a mighty army, and with a design of killing all, except the women and children, and of selling these for slaves; and they were so confident of obtaining their purpose, and others of purchasing, that above a thousand merchants came with the army, with money in their hands, to buy the slaves that should be sold. But God wonderfully stirred up and assisted one Judas, and others his successors, that were called the Maccabees, who, with a small handful in comparison, vanquished their enemies time after time, and delivered their nation; which was foretold by Daniel 11:32. Speaking of Antiochus's persecution, he says, "And such as do wickedly against the covenant, shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God, shall be strong, and do exploits."

God afterwards brought this Antiochus to a fearful, miserable end, by a loathsome disease, under dreadful torments of body, and horrors of mind; which was foretold, Daniel 11:45 in these words, "Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him."

After his death, there were attempts still to destroy the church of God; but God baffled them all.

17. The next thing to be taken notice of is the destruction of the Grecian empire, and setting up of the Roman empire. This was the fourth overturning of the world that was in this period. And though it was brought to pass more gradually than the setting up of the Grecian empire, yet it far exceeded that, and was much the greatest and largest temporal monarchy that ever was in the world; so that the Roman empire was commonly called all the world; as it is in Luke 2:1. "And there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed;" that is all the Roman empire.

This empire is spoken of as much the strongest and greatest of any of the four: Daniel 2:40. "And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaks in pieces, and subdues all things: and as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces, and bruise." So also Daniel 7:7, 19, 23.

The time that the Romans first conquered and brought under the land of Judea, was between sixty and seventy years before Christ was born. Soon after this, the Roman empire was established in its greatest extent; and the world continued subject to this empire henceforward till Christ came, and many hundred years afterwards.

The nations of the world being united in one monarchy when Christ came, and when the apostles went forth to preach the gospel, did greatly prepare the way for the spreading of the gospel, and the setting up of Christ's kingdom in the world. For the world being thus subject to one government, it opened a communication from nation to nation, and so opportunity was given for the more swiftly propagating the gospel through the world. Thus we find it to be now; as if anything prevails in the English nation, the communication is quick from one part of the nation to another, throughout all parts that are subject to the English government, much easier and quicker than to other nations, which are not subject to the English government, and have little to do with them. There are innumerable difficulties in travelling through different nations, that are under different independent governments, which there are not in travelling through different parts of the same realm, or different dominions of the same prince. So the world being under one government, the government of the Romans, in Christ's and the apostles' times, facilitated the apostles travelling, and the gospel's spreading through the world.

18. About the same time learning and philosophy were risen to their greatest height in the Heathen world. The time of learning's flourishing in the Heathen world was principally in this period. Almost all the famous philosophers that we have an account of among the Heathen, were after the captivity into Babylon. Almost all the wise men of Greece and Rome flourished in this time. These philosophers, many of them, were indeed men of great temporal wisdom; and that which they in fact chiefly professed to make their business, was to inquire wherein man's chief happiness lay, and the way in which men might obtain happiness. They seemed earnestly to busy themselves in this inquiry, and wrote multitudes of books about it, many of which are still extant. And they were exceedingly divided in their opinions about it. There have been reckoned up several hundreds of different opinions that they had concerning it. Thus they wearied themselves in vain, wandered in the dark, not having the glorious gospel to guide them. God was pleased to suffer men to do the utmost that they could with human wisdom, and to try the extent of their own understandings to find out the way to happiness, before the true light came to enlighten the world; before he sent the great Prophet to lead men in the right way to happiness. God suffered these great philosophers to try what they could do for six hundred years together; and then it proved, by the events of so long a time, that all they could do was in vain; the world not becoming wiser, better, or happier under their instructions, but growing more and more foolish, wicked, and miserable. He suffered their wisdom and philosophy to come to the greatest height before Christ came, that it might be seen how far reason and philosophy could go in their highest ascent, that the necessity of a divine teacher might appear before Christ came. And God was pleased to make foolish the wisdom of this world, to show men the folly of their best wisdom, by the doctrines of his glorious gospel which were above the reach of all their philosophy. See 1 Corinthians 1:19, 20, 21.

After God had showed the vanity of human learning, when set up in the room of the gospel, God was pleased to make it subservient to the purposes of Christ's kingdom, as an handmaid to divine revelation; and so the prevailing of learning in the world before Christ came, made way for his coming both these ways, namely, as thereby the vanity of human wisdom was shown, and the necessity of the gospel appeared; and also as hereby an handmaid was prepared to the gospel: for so it was made use of in the Apostle Paul, who was famed for his much learning, as you may see Acts 26:24, and was skilled not only in the learning of the Jews, but also of the philosophers; and improved it to the purposes of the gospel; as you may see he did in disputing with the philosophers at Athens, Acts 17:22, etc. He by his learning knew how to accommodate himself in his discourses to learned men, as appears by this discourse of his; and he knew well how to improve what he had read in their writings; and he here cites their own poets. Now Dionysius, that was a philosopher, was converted by him, and as ecclesiastical history gives us an account, made a great instrument of promoting the gospel. And there were many others in that and the following ages, who were eminently useful by their human learning in promoting the interests of Christ's kingdom.

19. Just before Christ was born, the Roman empire was raised to its greatest height, and also settled in peace. About four and twenty years before Christ was born, Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor, began to rule as emperor of the world. Till then the Roman empire had of a long time been a commonwealth under the government of the senate: but then it became an absolute monarchy. This Augustus Caesar, as he was the first, so he was the greatest of all the Roman emperors: he reigned in the greatest glory. Thus the power of the Heathen world, which was Satan's visible kingdom, was raised to its greatest height, after it had been rising higher and higher, and strengthening itself more and more from the days of Solomon to this day, which was about a thousand years. Now it appeared at a greater height than ever it appeared from the first beginning of Satan's Heathenish kingdom, which was probably about the time of the building of Babel. Now the Heathen world was in its greatest glory for strength, wealth, and learning.

God did two things to prepare the way for Christ's coming, wherein he took a contrary method from that which human wisdom would have taken. He brought his own visible people very low, and made them weak; but the Heathen, that were his enemies, he exalted to the greatest height, for the more glorious triumph of the cross of Christ. With a small number in their greatest weakness, he conquered his enemies in their greatest glory. Thus Christ triumphed over principalities and powers in his cross.

Augustus Caesar had been for many years establishing the state of the Roman empire, subduing his enemies in one part and another, till the very year that Christ was born; when all his enemies being subdued, and his dominion over the world seemed to be settled in its greatest glory. All was established in peace; in token whereof the Romans shut the temple of Janus, which was an established symbol among them of there being universal peace throughout the Roman empire. This universal peace, which was begun that year that Christ was born, lasted twelve years, till the year that Christ disputed with doctors in the temple.

Thus the world, after it had been, as it were, in a continual convulsion for so many hundred years together, like the four winds striving together on the tumultuous raging ocean, whence arose those four great monarchies, being now established in the greatest height of the fourth and last monarchy, and settled in quietness, now all things are ready for the birth of Christ. This remarkable universal peace, after so many ages of tumult and war, was a fit prelude for the ushering of the glorious Prince of Peace into the world.

Thus I have gone through the first grand period of the whole space between the fall of man and the end of the world, namely that from the fall to the time of the incarnation of Christ; and have shown the truth of the first proposition, namely: That from the fall of man to the incarnation of Christ, God was doing those things that were preparatory to Christ's coming, and were forerunners of it.

I come now to the last period of the Old Testament — the period that begins with the Babylonian captivity and extends to the coming of Christ, covering nearly six hundred years. I will show how the work of redemption was carried on through this period.

Before turning to the details, I want to note three ways in which this period is distinct from all the preceding periods of the Old Testament.

1. Although Scripture does not give us a historical account of a large part of this period, the events of this period are more extensively covered in biblical prophecy than any of the preceding periods. Scripture gives us an account of how the work of redemption is carried on in two ways: through history and through prophecy. Together, these two means provide a complete account of the work of redemption from beginning to end. Although Scripture does not contain a continuous history of the whole, it does contain the entire chain of great events by which God has been carrying this work forward — from just after the fall of man to its completion at the end of the world — either in history or in prophecy.

Where one of these means is lacking, the other fills in the gap. Where biblical history is silent, prophecy steps in — so the account continues unbroken all the way to the final link in the chain at the end of all things.

This is exactly what we find in the period under consideration. Although it is far less covered by biblical history than most earlier periods — with more than four hundred years for which Scripture gives us no historical record at all — the events of this period are actually more extensively covered in biblical prophecy than the events of all the preceding periods combined. Most of the remarkable prophecies in the book of Daniel refer to events that came to pass during this period. Likewise, most of the prophecies in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel against Babylon, Tyre, Egypt, and many other nations were fulfilled during this period.

The reason Scripture gives us no historical account of such a large portion of this period is not that the events were less important or less significant than those of earlier times — for I will show later how great and distinctively remarkable the events of this period were. There are several other explanations. One is that God willed the spirit of prophecy to cease during this period — for reasons I may discuss later. With no prophets to write the history of these times, God ensured that the great events would not go unmentioned in His word by arranging for the scriptural prophecies to be more extensive here than in earlier periods. It is worth noting that the group of writing prophets God raised up in Israel was raised up at the end of the previous period and the beginning of this one — likely in part because the time was approaching when the spirit of prophecy would cease and there would be no scriptural history, leaving prophecy as the only scriptural account of what was coming.

Another reason such a large portion of this period was left without a biblical historical account is that God, in His providence, ensured that reliable and detailed accounts of this period's events would be preserved in secular history. It is remarkable and worth careful attention that for the five preceding periods covered by biblical history, secular history gives us no account — or only very limited accounts. Many legendary and uncertain stories survive about earlier times, but authentic secular history is generally considered to begin only a little before Nebuchadnezzar's time, about a hundred years earlier. Scholars among the Greeks and Romans called the earlier ages the age of legend, and the time after that the historical age. From roughly that point until the coming of Christ, reliable secular history gives us clear accounts of the principal events — accounts that align remarkably well with the many biblical prophecies about those times.

This is how the great God, who orders all things, arranged it. He provided a historical account of events from the beginning of the world through all those earlier ages that secular history cannot reach, and continued it until reaching those later ages where secular history becomes reliable. Regarding those later times, He provided abundant coverage in prophecy — so that by comparing secular history with those prophecies, we could see how perfectly they agree.

2. This period, being the last period of the Old Testament and the one immediately before Christ's coming, was marked by extraordinary upheavals among the nations of the world — upheavals designed to prepare the way for the kingdom of Christ. As the time drew near when Christ, the great King and Savior of the world, was to come, the changes taking place were enormous and far-reaching. The way had been being prepared for Christ's coming since the fall of man, throughout all the previous periods. But now, as the time drew near, things were rapidly ripening for His arrival, and divine Providence was working in remarkable ways. The greatest political revolutions recorded in any history since the flood took place during this period. Nearly all of what was then known as the civilized world — all the nations surrounding the land of Canaan, both near and far, within the scope of their knowledge — were overturned again and again. Almost every land was at some point conquered, taken captive, and turned upside down — most of them repeatedly — during this period. This agrees with Isaiah 24:1: "Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty and desolate, He distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants."

This overturning and upheaval began with God's visible church in their captivity to the king of Babylon. From there the cup passed to all other nations, in keeping with what God revealed to the prophet Jeremiah in 25:15-27. There the primary reference seems to be to the great upheavals that occurred during the era of the Babylonian empire. But after that there were three more general overturnings of the world before Christ came, through the succession of three great world empires that followed the Babylonian. In Scripture the king of Babylon is portrayed as an overturner of the world. But then the Babylonian empire was overthrown by Cyrus, who established the Persian empire in its place — which was far more extensive than the Babylonian empire at its greatest. This was the second overturning of the world. Then the Persian empire was overthrown by Alexander, and the Greek empire was built on its ruins — extending even further than the Persian empire. This was the third general overturning. Then the Greek empire was overthrown by the Romans, who established the Roman empire — which vastly exceeded all previous empires in power and the extent of its rule. This was the fourth overturning of the world.

These successive empires and the great upheavals they caused are extensively described in the prophecies of Daniel. They appear in Nebuchadnezzar's statue of gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in Daniel's interpretation of it in Daniel 2. They also appear in Daniel's vision of the four beasts and the angel's interpretation in Daniel 7. The succession of the Persian and Greek empires is depicted in more specific detail in Daniel 8, through the vision of the ram and the male goat, and again in Daniel 11.

Beyond these four major overturnings, the world was in constant turmoil between them — indeed, the entire period from the Babylonian captivity to Christ was essentially one prolonged convulsion. Before this period, the world was comparatively settled. There were many great wars among the nations, but nothing like the massive, sweeping upheavals that characterized this period. Most of the nations of the world had long remained undisturbed, so to speak — never emptied from one vessel to another, as Jeremiah 48:11 says of Moab. These great overturnings happened because the time of the great Messiah was drawing near. That they were meant to prepare the way for Christ's coming is clear from Scripture, especially Ezekiel 21:27: "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him." The prophet's threefold repetition of the word overturn refers to three distinct overturnings, just as in Revelation 8:13 the threefold repetition of the word woe indicates three distinct woes — as the following chapters confirm: Revelation 9:12 says, "One woe is past," and Revelation 11:14 says, "The second woe is past, and behold, the third woe is coming quickly."

It is important to note that the prophet Ezekiel was prophesying during the Babylonian captivity — and so after this prophecy there were still three great and general overturnings of the world to come before Christ arrived: first by the Persians, then by the Greeks, then by the Romans. After those, Christ — whose right it was to take the crown and reign — would come. Here these great overturnings are clearly spoken of as preparation for the coming and kingdom of Christ. To properly understand the passage, we must pay attention to the specific expression "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it" — that is, the crown of Israel, or the supreme earthly authority over God's visible people. God declared that this authority would be no more — meaning the crown would be removed and the diadem taken away, as stated in the preceding verse. Supreme authority over Israel would no longer remain in the royal line of David, to which it properly belonged, but would pass to others and be shifted from one power to another. First the Persians would hold it; then it would shift again, and the Greeks would hold it; then it would shift once more to the Romans. It would remain out of the Davidic line until the very person who was the Son of David — whose proper right it was — would come, and then God would give it to Him.

That these great upheavals and revolutions among the nations were all intended to prepare the way for Christ's coming and the establishment of His kingdom is further confirmed by Haggai 2:6-7: "For thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the Lord of hosts." And again in verses 21-23. It is clear from this passage that the great revolutions and upheavals among the nations — by which thrones were overthrown and armies fell by each other's swords — were to prepare the way for the coming of the One who is the desire of all nations.

The great upheavals that have sometimes occurred within the visible church of Christ are compared in Revelation 12:2 to a woman in labor giving birth to Christ. In the same way, the great troubles and mighty revolutions that shook the world before Christ was born were, in a sense, the world in labor to bring forth the Son of God. The apostle Paul in Romans 8 portrays the whole creation as groaning and laboring in pain together, waiting for the freedom and revelation of the children of God. So the world, in a sense, labored in pain through continual convulsions for several hundred years to bring forth the firstborn, the only begotten Son of God. Those mighty revolutions were like the contractions of that labor. The world being kept in a state of war and bloodshed for so long a time prepared the way for the coming of the Prince of Peace — for it showed how desperately the world needed such a prince to deliver it from its miseries.

God ordained in His providence that earthly power and dominion should reach its greatest heights — appearing in its fullest glory through these four great successive empires, each greater than the one before — before He established the kingdom of His Son. This made clear how much more glorious His spiritual kingdom was than even the most magnificent earthly kingdom. The strength and glory of Satan's kingdom reached its peak in these four mighty empires — for these were heathen empires, and their strength was the strength of Satan's kingdom. God allowed Satan's kingdom to rise to such heights of power and magnificence before His Son came to overthrow it, in order to make the Son's triumph all the more glorious. Goliath had to be in full armor when the young David came against him with a sling and a stone, so that David's victory would be all the greater. God allowed one great empire to conquer another and rise even higher on its ruins, each appearing stronger than the last — with the final empire the mightiest of all — so that when Christ overthrew it, He would in a sense overthrow them all at once. This is pictured in Daniel 2, where the stone cut from the mountain without hands destroys the entire statue — the gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay — so that all of it becomes like chaff on a summer threshing floor.

These mighty empires were permitted to overthrow the world and destroy one another — yet for all their power, not one of them could sustain itself. They fell one after another and came to nothing, including the last and greatest, which had swallowed up the earth. God used them to demonstrate the instability and emptiness of all earthly power and greatness, setting off by contrast the glory of the kingdom of His Son, which will never be destroyed. Daniel 2:44 makes this clear: "In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever." The contrast is striking: those kingdoms vanish and pass to other peoples, but Christ's kingdom will never pass to another — it will stand forever. God allowed the devil to do his utmost — to establish his influence through the greatest, strongest, and most glorious kingdoms in the world that he could build — before the despised Jesus overthrew him and his empire. Christ came into the world to bring down every high thing in Satan's kingdom — so that God's hand would fall on everything that is proud and lofty, every high tower, and every towering mountain, as Isaiah describes in chapter 2:12 and following. Therefore these things were allowed to rise very high, so that Christ would appear all the more glorious in surpassing them.

How wonderfully did the great and wise Governor of the world prepare the way for the establishing of the glorious kingdom of His beloved Son Jesus.

3. Another remarkable feature of this last period before Christ was the wonderful preservation of the church through all these upheavals. The church's preservation during this period was in some respects more remarkable than in any period before it. It was truly extraordinary that the church — so weak and so low in status during this time, and mostly under the rule of heathen empires — should be preserved for five or six hundred years while the world was so repeatedly overturned. The earth was torn apart again and again, made desolate and empty, and its inhabitants slaughtered repeatedly by one another's swords. What made this preservation all the more remarkable was that the church was only a small band of people, yet it survived every one of these great convulsions. This is especially striking because the land of Judea — the main place where the church lived — lay right in the middle of the conflict, directly between the contending powers. It was frequently the theater of war, repeatedly overrun and conquered, sometimes held by one people and sometimes by another. It was the object of envy and hatred from all the heathen nations around it. Time and again it was nearly destroyed — great numbers of its people were killed, the land was largely depopulated, and those who had power over the nation often intended to annihilate it completely. Yet the church endured. It was preserved through its captivity in Babylon. It was sustained through all the dangers it faced under the kings of Persia, through the even greater dangers under the Greek empire, and later when the Romans dominated the world.

The church's preservation through this period was also uniquely remarkable in that no earlier period saw the church endure persecution anywhere near the severity of what it suffered under Antiochus Epiphanes — which I will discuss in more detail later. This wonderful preservation of the church through all the world's upheavals gives vivid meaning to the opening of Psalm 46: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride."

I have now noted several general features that distinguished this last period of Old Testament times. I turn now to consider how the work of redemption was carried on in specific detail.

1. The first event to note is the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. This was a major work of Providence — unlike anything that had come before. During the period of the judges, Israel had frequently been brought under foreign oppressors, and individual people had been taken captive at various times. But never before had there been anything like the complete destruction of the entire land — the sanctuary, the city of Jerusalem, and all the cities and villages — with the entire people carried out of their own land to a country hundreds of miles away, leaving the land of Canaan empty of God's visible people. The ark had once left the tabernacle at Shiloh and been captured by the Philistines — but never before had the sanctuary been burned, the ark completely destroyed, all the sacred vessels carried away, all regular worship brought to an end, and the land left desolate and empty for so many years. The book of Lamentations portrays all of this with vivid power.

The work of redemption was advanced by this remarkable act of Providence in the following ways.

1. It permanently cured the nation of its addiction to idolatry. Speaking of the establishment of Christ's kingdom in chapter 2:18, the prophet Isaiah identifies the abolishing of idolatry as one of the things that would accompany it: "And the idols He will completely abolish." As the time was approaching when God would abolish heathen idolatry through much of the known world — as He did through Gospel preaching after Christ came — He first pleased to remove it from among His own people. He accomplished this through the Babylonian captivity, which foreshadowed the abolishing of idolatry that God was about to bring about through Christ across so much of the heathen world.

This was the nation that had been addicted to idolatry for ages on end — a sin that nothing had been able to cure. Not all the rebukes, warnings, and punishments they had received, nor all the judgments God had brought upon them for it, had made any lasting difference. Yet now they were permanently cured. While some individuals may have fallen into this sin afterward — as happened during Antiochus's persecution — the nation as a whole never showed any appetite for it again. This was a remarkable and extraordinary change in the people, and it directly advanced the work of redemption by greatly strengthening the cause of true religion.

2. The captivity prepared the way for Christ's coming and the establishment of the glorious Gospel dispensation by removing many of the things in which the outward glory of the Jewish system had consisted. As we noted before, the outward glory of the Jewish church had to be reduced to make room for the glorious dispensation of the Gospel. The Babylonian captivity accomplished this in several ways, bringing the people very low.

First, it stripped the house of David of its royal crown — that is, of sovereign and independent self-government. The crown and authority were taken from the nation. As the time was drawing near when Christ, the great and eternal King of His church, was to reign, it was time for the typical kings to step aside. As God declared through Ezekiel in chapter 21:26, He removed the crown and diadem, so that it would be no more until He came whose right it was. From that point on the Jewish people were subject to the governing power of other nations for nearly six hundred years until Christ came — with one exception of about ninety years, during which they maintained a degree of independence through the continual wars of the Maccabees and their descendants.

The captivity also stripped away the glory and magnificence of the temple. The temple that was later rebuilt was nothing in comparison to what it had been. It was fitting that as the time drew near for the glorious fulfillment the temple had pictured to appear, the temple itself should have its glory removed.

Another thing lost in the captivity was the two stone tablets of the law — the testimony delivered to Moses, written with God's own finger. These were the tablets on which God had inscribed the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. They appear to have been preserved in the ark until the captivity. They were in the ark when Solomon placed it in the temple, as 1 Kings 8:9 records: "There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb." There is no reason to think they were removed before the temple was destroyed. Jewish tradition says they were permanently lost at that time, though the same commandments were preserved in the written book of the law. These tablets were also withdrawn as their fulfillment drew near.

Another thing lost was the Urim and Thummim, which the Jews had possessed before. This is clear from Ezra 2:63: "And the governor said to them that they should not eat from the most holy things until a priest stood up with Urim and Thummim." There is no record that the Urim and Thummim was ever restored, and ancient Jewish writings indicate it was not. I will not attempt to explain exactly what the Urim and Thummim was, but simply note that it was something by which the high priest inquired of God and received direct answers, or through which God gave direct guidance on specific occasions. It was now withdrawn, as the time was approaching when Christ — the fulfillment of the Urim and Thummim, the great Word and Oracle of God — was to come.

Ancient Jewish writings also record that another thing absent from the second temple was the Shekinah — the cloud of glory above the mercy seat. This had been promised to be present in the tabernacle, as Leviticus 16:2 states: "For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat." Scripture records the cloud of glory descending into the tabernacle in Exodus 40:35, and similarly with respect to Solomon's temple. But there is no record of this cloud of glory being present in the second temple, and ancient Jewish tradition confirms it was not there. This was unnecessary in the second temple, because God had promised to fill that temple with glory in a different way — through the coming of Christ into it, which was later fulfilled. See Haggai 2:7: "I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts."

Ancient Jewish writings also record that the fire from heaven on the altar was withdrawn at this time. When Moses built the tabernacle and altar in the wilderness and the first sacrifices were offered, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering, as Leviticus 9:24 records. The same happened when Solomon built the temple and offered the first sacrifices, as 2 Chronicles 7:1 shows. This fire was never to go out — it was to be kept burning with the greatest care, as God commanded in Leviticus 6:13: "The fire shall be kept burning continuously on the altar; it is not to go out." There is no reason to think this fire ever went out during Solomon's time before the Babylonians destroyed the temple. But then it was extinguished and never restored. There is no record of it being given again when the second temple was built, as there had been at the building of the tabernacle and the first temple. According to ancient Jewish tradition, after the return from captivity the people had to make do with ordinary fire instead. So the lights of the Old Testament system went out as the glorious Sun of righteousness drew near.

3. The Babylonian captivity also led to something that would later greatly advance the establishment of Christ's kingdom in the world: the scattering of the Jewish people throughout much of the known world before Christ came. The entire nation had been carried far from their own land and kept in captivity for a long time. During that time they acquired property, built homes, and settled in the land of their captivity — following the direction Jeremiah gave them in the letter he wrote to them in Jeremiah 29. When Cyrus gave them permission to return to their former homeland, many chose not to go. They were unwilling to leave their property and established lives behind and travel hundreds of miles to a desolate country that most of them had never seen. And so, as the books of Ezra and Nehemiah show, only a relatively small number returned. Many remained behind but continued to practice the same religion as those who returned, as far as was possible in a foreign land. The messengers mentioned in Zechariah 7 — Sharezer and Regemmelech — who came to inquire of the priests and prophets in Jerusalem are believed to have been sent by the Jews who had remained in Babylon.

The Jews who remained in that region were soon scattered further by the great upheavals happening throughout the world, spreading into all the surrounding countries. By the time of Esther — which was after the return from captivity — the Jews were dispersed throughout all parts of the vast Persian empire, which stretched from India to Ethiopia. Esther 3:8 records Haman's words to King Ahasuerus: "There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom." They remained dispersed throughout the world until Christ came and until the apostles went out to preach the Gospel. Yet these scattered Jews held on to their religion throughout their dispersion. As I noted before, the captivity had permanently cured them of idolatry. It was also their custom for as many as possible to travel to Jerusalem for the great festivals. This is why Acts 2 records that at the feast of Pentecost there were Jews staying in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven — they had come from all the countries where they were scattered to worship at the feast. It also explains why throughout the book of Acts, wherever the apostles went to preach, they found Jews. They came to one city after another and went into the Jewish synagogue.

About two hundred years before Christ, Antiochus the Great on one occasion transplanted two thousand Jewish families from the region around Babylon into Asia Minor. Their descendants settled in Pontus, Galatia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, and Ephesus, and from there spread into Athens, Corinth, and Rome. These are the communities that gave rise to the Jewish synagogues in those cities where the apostle Paul later preached.

This worldwide dispersion of the Jewish people before Christ came prepared the way for His coming and the establishment of His kingdom in several important ways.

One way was that it created a widespread expectation of the Messiah across the world at roughly the time He actually came. The Jews carried the holy Scriptures with them wherever they were scattered, including the prophecies of the Messiah. As the nations among whom they lived became familiar with these prophecies and with the Jewish expectation of their glorious Messiah, the birth of such a glorious person in Judea at around that time began to be the general expectation of the nations of the world. This is evident from the writings of learned heathen authors living around that time that are still available to us. In particular, Virgil — the famous Roman poet who lived just before Christ was born — wrote a poem about the expected birth of a great prince and the happy era of righteousness and peace he would bring in, using language closely resembling that of the prophet Isaiah.

Another way the dispersed state of the Jews prepared the way for Christ was by demonstrating that the Jewish dispensation had to be abolished and replaced with a new dispensation of the covenant of grace. It showed the necessity of abolishing the ceremonial law and the old Jewish system of worship. The ceremonial law was designed for a people living together in their own land — where the city God had chosen was located, where the temple stood as the only place sacrifices could be offered, where priests and Levites could legitimately serve, where people were to bring their firstfruits, and where the cities of refuge were located. But many of the scattered Jews were now living in other lands more than a thousand miles away when Christ came, making the observance of the sacrificial laws and similar requirements impossible. Though their ancestors may have been at fault for not returning to Judea when Cyrus gave permission, the situation had now become practically impossible for many of them — and this demonstrated the need for a new dispensation that would not be fitted to one particular land but would be suited to the circumstances and needs of all nations of the world.

Another way the dispersion of the Jews throughout the world prepared for the establishment of Christ's kingdom was by helping to make the facts about Jesus Christ publicly known throughout the world. As I noted before, Jews living in other countries regularly traveled to Jerusalem for their three great annual festivals. Through this, they inevitably learned about the remarkable things Christ was doing in the land. We find them present at, and deeply impressed by, the great miracle of raising Lazarus — which stirred the curiosity of foreign Jews who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover to seek out Jesus, as John 12:19-21 shows. These men described as Greeks were foreign Jews and converts to Judaism, as is clear from their coming to worship at the Passover. Jews living abroad among Greek-speaking people and speaking their language were called Greeks or Hellenists — referred to as Grecians in Acts 6:1. The Grecians referred to here were not Gentile Christians, since this was before the calling of the Gentiles.

Through the same process, Jews who had come from other countries became acquainted with Christ's crucifixion. This is evident when the disciples on the road to Emmaus, not recognizing Christ, said to Him in Luke 24:18, "Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?" — clearly implying that the events surrounding Jesus were so publicly known that it was remarkable to find anyone ignorant of them. They also learned of His resurrection, and when they returned to their home countries they carried the news with them, spreading these facts throughout the world just as they had previously spread the prophecies about them.

Later, those foreign Jews who had come to Jerusalem were deeply affected by the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and its remarkable effects. Many of them were converted — Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome who were Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs. They returned to their home countries carrying not only the news of Christian events but Christianity itself — which contributed greatly to the spread of the faith throughout the world.

Another way the dispersion of the Jews helped establish the Gospel kingdom in the world was by opening a door for the apostles wherever they went to preach. In almost every city they entered they found Jews and Jewish synagogues where the Scriptures were regularly read and the true God worshiped — which was a great advantage to the apostles in spreading the Gospel. Their pattern was to go first into the Jewish synagogue in whatever city they entered, since the Jews were their own people, and there preach the Gospel to them. This naturally drew the attention of their Gentile neighbors, whose curiosity led them to come and hear what was being proclaimed, giving the apostles an opportunity to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles as well. This pattern is clearly seen throughout the book of Acts. Many of these Gentiles had already been prepared to some degree by their acquaintance with Jewish religion — their worship of one God, their Scriptures, and their expectation of a Messiah, all of which they had learned from their Jewish neighbors. This prior knowledge opened the door for the Gospel to reach them, and the apostles' work among them was certainly much easier than it would have been had those people never heard of any expectation of such a person as the apostles were proclaiming, or anything about the worship of the one true God.

In all these ways, the Babylonian captivity greatly prepared the way for Christ's coming.

2. The next event to note is the addition made to the canon of Scripture during the captivity in the two remarkable portions known as the prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel. Christ appeared to each of these prophets in the form of the human nature He would later take upon Himself. Ezekiel records this happening to him repeatedly. Ezekiel 1:26 says: "Now above the expanse that was over their heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance; and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance of a man." And again in chapter 8:1-2. Christ similarly appeared to the prophet Daniel in Daniel 8:15-16: "There stood before me one who looked like a man." "And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Ulai, and he called out and said, 'Gabriel, give this man an understanding of the vision.'" There are several reasons it is clear that this was Christ, which I cannot pause to detail here. Christ appeared again as a man to Daniel in chapter 10:5-6: "I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a certain man dressed in linen, whose waist was wrapped with a belt of pure gold of Uphaz. His body also was like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and feet like the gleam of polished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude." Comparing this vision with the apostle John's vision in Revelation 1 makes it clear that this was Christ. Daniel also gives an account in the historical section of his book of a remarkable appearance of Christ in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, recorded in chapter 3. Verse 25 describes Him as looking like the Son of God, and He clearly appeared in the form of a man: "Look! I see four men loose and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods."

Christ did not merely appear in the form of human nature here — He appeared in a furnace, saving those who believed in Him from it. This illustrates how Christ, by entering Himself into the furnace of God's wrath, saves those who believe in Him from that furnace, so that the fire has no power over them. The wrath of God never reaches or touches them — not so much as to singe a hair of their heads.

In many respects these two prophets were more specific about the coming of Christ and His glorious Gospel kingdom than any prophet before them. Both spoke of the three great overturnings of the world that would precede His coming. Ezekiel addresses Christ's coming in detail in several places. Daniel is more specific about the timing of Christ's coming than any previous prophet — in the ninth chapter of his prophecy he foretold that it would be seventy weeks — that is, seventy weeks of years, or seventy times seven years, or four hundred and ninety years — from the decree to rebuild and restore Jerusalem to the Messiah's crucifixion. This reckoning begins from the commission given to Ezra by Artaxerxes, recorded in Ezra 7. In this way the specific time of Christ's crucifixion was pointed out further in advance than ever before.

Ezekiel provides a detailed mystical description of the Gospel church in his vision of the temple and city in the latter part of his prophecy. Daniel outlines the sequence of particular events that would unfold in the Christian church after Christ's coming — including the rise of Antichrist, the duration of his reign, his fall, and the glory that would follow.

The light of the Gospel keeps growing brighter the closer we come to the time of Christ's birth.

3. The next event to note is the destruction of Babylon and the overthrow of the Chaldean empire by Cyrus. The destruction of Babylon occurred on the night when King Belshazzar and the city at large were absorbed in a drunken festival held in honor of their gods — the very night Daniel was called in to read the handwriting on the wall, as Daniel 5:30 records. It came about in a way that powerfully displayed the hand of God and remarkably fulfilled His word through His prophets, which I cannot stop to trace in detail here. That great city — which had long been an enemy to God's Jerusalem — was destroyed after having stood since the first building of Babel, a period of about seventeen hundred years. If the interruption to Babel's construction at its very beginning — which prevented the city from reaching the extent and grandeur its builders intended — advanced the work of redemption, as I have already shown, then its final destruction advanced it even more.

It was a striking example of God's judgment on the enemies of His redeemed church — for God brought this destruction on Babylon because of the harm they had done to His people, as the prophets repeatedly declare. It also advanced the work of redemption by setting God's people who had been held captive free to return to their own land and rebuild Jerusalem. This is why Cyrus, who accomplished it, is called God's shepherd in Isaiah 44 (at the end) and Isaiah 45:1. These are in addition to all the ways already noted in which the rise and fall of the four world empires advanced the work of redemption.

4. The next event to note is the return of the Jews to their own land and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. As soon as Cyrus had destroyed the Babylonian empire and erected the Persian empire on its ruins, he issued a decree permitting the Jews to return to their own land and rebuild their city and temple. This return from Babylonian captivity was, after the redemption from Egypt, the most significant of all Old Testament deliverances — and the one Scripture most insistently describes as a picture of the great redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ. It was led by one of Christ's legal ancestors — Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, whose Babylonian name was Sheshbazzar. He served as governor of the Jewish people and led the first group returning from captivity. Together with Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest, he played the central role in rebuilding the temple. This deliverance came through the hands of Zerubbabel and Joshua the priest, just as the exodus from Egypt had come through the hands of Moses and Aaron.

The return from captivity was a remarkable work of Providence. It was remarkable that the heart of a heathen king like Cyrus was so inclined to support such a project — not only giving the people permission to return and rebuild the city and temple, but ordering that they be provided with silver, gold, goods, and animals, as Ezra 1:4 records. Later God wonderfully moved the heart of Darius to advance the building of the house of God at his own expense and to command the Jews' bitter enemies, the Samaritans — who had been working to obstruct them — to assist them fully, supplying everything they needed on a daily basis. Darius made a decree that anyone who failed to comply would have timber pulled from his own house, be hanged on it, and have his house made a dunghill, as Ezra 6 records. After this, God moved the heart of Artaxerxes, another king of Persia, to promote the restoration of the Jewish state through his generous commission to Ezra, recorded in Ezra 7. He provided abundantly from his own treasury in silver and gold, offered to supply whatever more might be needed from the royal treasury, and commanded his treasurers west of the Euphrates to supply additional resources up to one hundred talents of silver, one hundred measures of wheat, one hundred baths of wine, one hundred baths of oil, and unlimited salt. He also authorized the establishment of magistrates in the land and exempted the priests from taxes, tribute, and customs duties. Taken together, this decree and commission from Artaxerxes was the most complete and generous ever granted in favor of restoring Jerusalem. For this reason Daniel's prophecy refers to it as a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, and from it the seventy weeks are counted.

After this, another favorable decree was granted to Nehemiah by the king of Persia, as recorded in Nehemiah 2.

It was remarkable that the hearts of heathen kings were so moved. This was the effect of His power who holds the hearts of kings in His hands and turns them wherever He wills — a striking display of His favor toward His people.

Another remarkable aspect of the restoration of the Jews to their land was that it was accomplished despite the fierce and relentless opposition of their bitter enemies, the Samaritans, who worked persistently with every form of malice and cunning to obstruct the Jews and bring about their destruction — first through Bishlam, Mithridath, Tabeal, Rehum, and Shimshai as described in Ezra 4, then through Tattenai, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates as described in chapters 5-6, and later through Sanballat and Tobiah as recorded in Nehemiah.

We have already shown how the settling of the people in the land in Joshua's time advanced the work of redemption. The same is true of this restoration. The resettlement of the Jews in Canaan was necessary to preserve the Jewish church and its institutions until Christ should come. Without this restoration of the Jewish church, temple, and worship, the people would have had no temple, no homeland, no center of worship, habitation, and gathering. The entire structure that God had done so much to establish would have been in danger of completely collapsing long before the six hundred years between the captivity and Christ had run their course. All the preparation God had been making for the coming of Christ since the time of Abraham would then have come to nothing. It was that very rebuilt temple that God would fill with glory through Christ's coming into it — as the prophets Haggai and Zechariah told the Jewish people in order to encourage them in the work of building.

5. The next event to note is the addition made to the canon of Scripture soon after the captivity by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, who were sent to encourage the people in their work of rebuilding the city and temple. The main argument they used for this purpose was the approaching time of Christ's coming. Haggai foretold that Christ would be of Zerubbabel's legal line, as the last verse of his last chapter records. This appears to be the last and most specific revelation of Christ's lineage until the angel Gabriel was sent to reveal it to His mother Mary.

6. The next event to note is the outpouring of God's Spirit that accompanied the ministry of Ezra the priest after the captivity. That such an outpouring accompanied Ezra's ministry is clear from many things recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Shortly after Ezra came up from Babylon carrying the generous commission Artaxerxes had given him — which is the starting point of Daniel's seventy weeks — he set himself to reform the sins and corruptions he found among the Jewish people. His remarkable success is recorded in Ezra 10, where we read of a widespread and profound mourning among the congregation of Israel for their sins, followed by a solemn covenant the people made with God and a thorough, general reformation. Around the same time, the people gathered together with great zeal, earnestness, and reverence to hear the word of God read by Ezra. They listened attentively as Ezra and the other priests read and explained the law, and they were deeply moved. They wept when they heard the words of the law, committed themselves to obeying it, and observed the feast of Tabernacles in a manner not seen since the days of Joshua son of Nun, as Nehemiah 8 records. After this, having separated themselves from all foreigners, they observed a solemn fast — hearing the word of God, confessing their sins, and renewing their covenant with God — and demonstrated their sincerity by actually reforming many abuses in both religion and morals, as Nehemiah 9 and the following chapters show.

It is notable that God's pattern at every significant new establishment of His visible church has been to give a notable outpouring of His Spirit. This happened at the first establishment of the Jewish church when they entered Canaan under Joshua, as we have observed. It happened again at this second settlement of the church in the same land in Ezra's time. And it happened once more at the first establishment of the Christian church after Christ's resurrection. God wisely and graciously grounded each of these new beginnings in a work of His Holy Spirit, laying a spiritual foundation for the lasting benefit of His church in each era that followed. This outpouring of God's Spirit also permanently cured the nation of the particular sin they had most recently fallen into — intermarrying with Gentiles. Whatever inclination they had felt toward it before, from that point on they showed a strong aversion to it.

7. Ezra also added to the canon of Scripture. He wrote the book of Ezra, and is generally believed to have written or at least compiled the books of Chronicles — whether or not he was the original author of all the material. That these books were written or compiled after the captivity is clear from the books themselves, since the genealogies extend beyond the captivity. For example, 1 Chronicles 3:17 and following records the descendants of Jehoiachin for several successive generations. The books also refer to the Babylonian captivity as a past event and mention things that happened after the return from captivity, as 1 Chronicles 9 shows when compared with Ezra and Nehemiah. That Ezra was the one who compiled these books is suggested by the fact that they end with words known to be Ezra's own — the last two verses are Ezra's words from the opening verses of the book of Ezra.

8. Ezra is also believed to have collected all the books then comprising the holy Scriptures and arranged them in their proper order. Ezra is consistently described as a distinguished and respected scribe of the law of God, and it is clear that the canon of Scripture during his time was under his special care. Jewish tradition, from the earliest accounts we have, has always held that the canon of Scripture — as much of it as existed at that time — was collected, properly ordered, and established by Ezra. From him they passed it down in the order he arranged it, all the way to Christ's time, when the Christian church received it from the Jewish people and has handed it down to our own day. Theologians generally accept this as established fact.

9. The work of redemption was also advanced during this period by the widespread copying of the law and the establishment of regular public readings in synagogues throughout all the cities of Israel. Before the captivity, copies of the law were very few. There was the original, kept beside the ark. Kings were required to make their own copy for personal use, and the law was to be read to the entire congregation of Israel once every seven years. There is no record of any other regular public reading of the law before the captivity. Several other indications confirm that copies of the law were extremely rare before that time. But after the captivity, regular public reading of the law was established in every synagogue throughout the land. They began with reading the law, then expanded to regular readings from the other books of the Old Testament. Passages were read from the Old Testament — both the law and the other portions of Scripture then in existence — in all the synagogues, which were established in every city and wherever Jews lived in significant numbers, functioning much as churches do today. This was the practice in Christ's and the apostles' time, as Acts 15:21 confirms: "For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath." Both Jews and Christians universally attribute the beginning of this custom to Ezra. There were certainly public gatherings before the Babylonian captivity — people would assemble at the temple for the great festivals, they were instructed to go to the priests when they had questions about the law, and they would go to the prophets' homes for guidance. Psalm 74:8 even mentions synagogues. But it is not thought that there were copies of the law for regular public reading and teaching throughout the land before this time the way there were afterward. This became one of the main safeguards against idolatry.

10. The next thing to note is God's remarkable preservation of the Jewish church and nation when they faced imminent destruction at the hands of Haman. The story is recorded in the book of Esther, with which you are familiar. The chain of providences that prevented this destruction was extraordinary. Esther was undoubtedly raised up for this very purpose — to be the instrument of this remarkable deliverance.

11. After this, the canon of Scripture was further enlarged by the books of Nehemiah and Esther — one written by Nehemiah himself. Whether the other was written by Nehemiah, Mordecai, or Malachi is not essential to know, as long as it was one of the books always received as part of the canon by the Jewish people, counted among the Scriptures in Christ's time, and as such approved by Him. Christ repeatedly and clearly affirmed those books that the Jewish people called the Scriptures — as could easily be demonstrated, given sufficient time.

12. After this, the Old Testament canon was completed and closed by Malachi. The way he concludes his prophecy seems to imply that the people were to expect no further prophecy and no more written revelation from God until Christ should come. In the last chapter he prophesies of Christ's coming, verses 2-3: "But for you who fear My name, the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing, says the Lord of hosts." Then verse 4 says, "Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel." The meaning is: hold fast to the written rule you have, expecting no more additions to it until the long night of the Old Testament is over and the Sun of righteousness at last rises.

13. Shortly after this, the spirit of prophecy ceased among that people until the time of the New Testament. So the light of the Old Testament — the stars of the long night — began to fade rapidly as the time of the Sun of righteousness drew near. We noted before how the kings of the house of David ceased before the true King and head of the church came, how the cloud of glory withdrew before Christ — the brightness of the Father's glory — appeared, and how similar things happened in several other areas. Now at last the spirit of prophecy also ceased. The time of the great Prophet of God was so close that it was time for the typical prophets to fall silent and close their mouths.

We have now worked through all the period that the Old Testament gives us a historical account of, and the last event noted by which the work of redemption was advanced was the ceasing of the spirit of prophecy.

I now turn to show how the work of redemption was carried on through the remaining time before Christ — the period for which we no longer have the thread of biblical history to guide us as we have had until now. Instead, we have three guides: the prophecies of the Old Testament, secular historical accounts of those times, and occasional references and evidence from the New Testament about events of that period. Therefore:

14. The next event to note is the destruction of the Persian empire and the establishment of the Greek empire by Alexander. This occurred about sixty or seventy years after Malachi is believed to have prophesied, and about three hundred and thirty years before Christ. This was the third overturning of the world in this period, and it was greater and more remarkable than either of the two before it. It was especially remarkable for the speed of Alexander's conquest of the world and the enormous scale of the empire he established, which far exceeded all previous empires in its extent.

This event is discussed extensively in the prophecies of Daniel. The Greek empire is represented by the third kingdom of bronze in Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2. In Daniel's vision of the four beasts in chapter 7 it is represented by the third beast, which resembled a leopard with four wings on its back — picturing the speed of its conquests. It is represented in even more detail in chapter 8 by the male goat that came from the west, sweeping across the whole earth without touching the ground — portraying how swiftly Alexander overran the world. The angel himself explicitly interprets this goat as representing the king of Greece in verse 21: "The shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king" — that is, Alexander himself.

After Alexander had conquered the world, he died shortly afterward, and his empire did not pass to his descendants but was divided among four of his leading generals, as Daniel 8 goes on to describe. Daniel 11 follows the same pattern. After foretelling the Persian empire, the angel foretells of Alexander in verse 3: "And a mighty king will arise, and he will rule with great authority and do as he pleases." Then verse 4 predicts the dividing of his kingdom among his four generals: "But as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out toward the four points of the compass, though not to his own descendants, nor according to his authority which he wielded, for his sovereignty will be uprooted and given to others besides them." Two of these four generals ruled kingdoms adjacent to Judea — one controlled Egypt and the surrounding regions to the south, and the other controlled Syria and the surrounding regions to the north. These two are the kings of the north and south described throughout Daniel 11.

The establishment of the Greek empire greatly prepared the way for Christ's coming and the establishment of His kingdom in the world. Beyond the ways this upheaval shared in common with the other great overturnings already discussed, there was one distinctive contribution that particularly advanced the work of redemption: it made the Greek language the common tongue throughout much of the world. Having one widely understood language spread across most of the world was a major preparation for the establishment of Christ's kingdom. It made it vastly easier to spread the Gospel from one nation to another and ultimately to all nations. Without a common language, the barriers would have been enormous. Although some of the first preachers of the Gospel had the gift of languages and could preach in any tongue, not all had this particular gift. Even those who did could not exercise it at will — only at special times when the Spirit of God chose to move in that way. The churches in different parts of the world — Jerusalem, Antioch, Galatia, Corinth, and others in distant countries — could not have maintained the communication with one another recorded in the book of Acts without a common language. Before the Greek empire was established, this was the situation. But after the rise of that empire, people throughout all those regions shared a common language — Greek — which wonderfully opened the door for communication among those widely separated churches. Making Greek the common language throughout so much of the world also served the establishment of Christ's kingdom in another way: it was the language in which the New Testament was to be written. The apostles spread the Gospel through dozens of nations. If people could only access the Bible through translations into their own native languages, spreading the Gospel would have been immensely more difficult. But because Greek was already the common language everywhere, everyone could read the New Testament in the language in which the apostles and evangelists originally wrote it. The moment it was written, it was immediately accessible to the world in a language universally understood. No language was as widely understood in Christ's and the apostles' time as Greek — and the cause of that was the rise of the Greek empire.

15. The next thing to note is the translation of the Old Testament Scriptures into a language widely understood by the Gentiles. The translation I am referring to is the Greek translation commonly known as the Septuagint, or the Translation of the Seventy. This is believed to have been made about fifty or sixty years after Alexander's conquest of the world. It is the first translation of the Scriptures of which we have any reliable account. The Old Testament canon had been completed by the prophet Malachi only about a hundred and twenty years earlier in its original Hebrew language, and up to this point the Scriptures had been inaccessible to all other nations, locked away in Hebrew — a language no other people understood. Now it was translated into Greek, which, as noted above, was a language commonly understood throughout the nations of the world.

This Greek translation of the Old Testament still exists today and is widely used by scholars. Jewish tradition has many legends about how and why this translation came to be made. The truth of the matter is generally understood to be this: large numbers of Jews living outside Judea had been raised among Greek-speaking people, and Greek had become their everyday language. They could no longer read the original Hebrew. They therefore arranged for the Scriptures to be translated for their use into Greek. From that point on, Jews in all countries outside Judea used this translation in their synagogues instead of the Hebrew original.

This translation of the Scriptures into a widely understood language prepared the way for Christ's coming and the establishment of His kingdom, and afterward greatly advanced it. As the apostles went preaching throughout the world, they made extensive use of the Old Testament Scriptures, especially the prophecies concerning Christ. Through this translation, and through the dispersal of the Jewish people everywhere, the apostles had the Scriptures readily available in a language the Gentiles could understand. They primarily used this translation in their preaching and writings everywhere they went — as is clear from the fact that in the countless quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament writings, they almost universally follow the exact wording of the Septuagint. The meaning is the same as in the original Hebrew, but the words are often different — as anyone familiar with their Bible will recognize. When the apostles in their letters and the evangelists in their histories quote from the Old Testament, the wording often differs from what we have in the Old Testament. But in nearly every case these quotations match the exact words of the Septuagint, which is easily confirmed by comparing them directly since both are in Greek. This makes it clear that the apostles commonly used this translation in their preaching and writing. And this same translation was the one primarily used in Christian churches throughout most parts of the world for several hundred years after Christ.

16. The next thing to note is the wonderful preservation of the church when it was under imminent threat and persecution during the Greek empire.

The first threat came from Alexander himself. While besieging the city of Tyre, he sent to the Jews for assistance and supplies for his army. When they refused out of faithfulness to their oath to the king of Persia, Alexander — a man of fierce and violent spirit, in keeping with Scripture's depiction of him as the rough male goat — marched against them with the intention of destroying them. But when the priests went out to meet him in their priestly garments, God wonderfully turned Alexander's heart to spare them and show them favor — much as He had turned Esau's heart when he met Jacob.

After this, one of the kings of Egypt — a successor of one of Alexander's four generals — formed a plan to destroy the Jewish nation. He was remarkably and wonderfully prevented by a direct intervention of heaven on their behalf.

But the most remarkable preservation of all during this period was under the brutal persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria and successor of another of Alexander's four generals. The Jews at that time were under Antiochus's power. Filled with rage against them, he worked relentlessly to destroy them entirely — or at least to eliminate all who refused to abandon their religion and worship his idols. He did in fact largely devastate the country, depopulate the city of Jerusalem, and desecrate the temple by setting up his idols in parts of it. He persecuted the people with unrelenting cruelty, surpassing any previous persecution on record. Many of the specific details of this persecution would be deeply moving, if time permitted me to describe them. This brutal persecution began about a hundred and seventy years before Christ. It is described extensively in Daniel's prophecy — see Daniel 8:9-25 and 11:31-38. These persecutions are also referred to in the New Testament in Hebrews 11:36-38.

Antiochus intended not only to destroy the Jewish religion but, as far as he could, the Jewish nation itself. He also worked tirelessly to destroy every copy of the law. Given how weak the Jewish people were compared to a king of such enormous power, God's providence in defeating his plan was truly remarkable. Many times the Jews appeared to be on the very edge of destruction, about to be completely overwhelmed. Their enemies often felt certain of victory. On one occasion an enemy army came against the Jewish people with the specific plan of killing all the men and selling the women and children as slaves. Their confidence was so great, and the demand for slaves so anticipated, that over a thousand merchants accompanied the army with money in hand, ready to buy the captives. But God remarkably raised up and strengthened a man named Judas and his successors, known as the Maccabees, who with a small force by comparison defeated their enemies again and again and delivered their people — just as Daniel 11:32 had foretold. Speaking of Antiochus's persecution, it says, "By smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action."

God afterward brought Antiochus to a terrible and miserable end through a loathsome disease, with dreadful physical agony and mental torment — as Daniel 11:45 had foretold: "Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him."

After his death, further attempts were made to destroy the church of God, but God defeated them all.

17. The next event to note is the fall of the Greek empire and the rise of the Roman empire. This was the fourth great overturning of the world during this period. Though it came about more gradually than the rise of the Greek empire, it far surpassed it — the Roman empire was by far the largest and most powerful earthly empire ever. It was so dominant that it was commonly called "all the world," as in Luke 2:1: "Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth" — meaning the entire Roman empire.

This empire is described as by far the strongest and greatest of the four in Daniel 2:40: "Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces." See also Daniel 7:7, 19, and 23.

The Romans first conquered and subjugated the land of Judea between sixty and seventy years before Christ was born. Shortly after that the Roman empire reached its greatest extent, and the world remained under its rule from that point until Christ came and for many hundreds of years afterward.

The fact that the nations of the world were united under one empire when Christ came and when the apostles went out to preach greatly prepared the way for the spread of the Gospel and the establishment of Christ's kingdom. With the world under a single government, communication between nations was open and travel was far easier — giving the Gospel a much faster path through the world. This is similar to how things work today: when something spreads within England, it moves quickly from one part of the country to another throughout all the regions under the English government — far more easily than it spreads to other nations with separate governments and little connection to England. Traveling between countries under different independent governments involves countless obstacles that simply do not exist when traveling between different parts of the same kingdom under the same ruler. So the fact that the world was under one government — Roman rule — in Christ's and the apostles' time made travel easier for the apostles and greatly facilitated the spread of the Gospel.

18. Around this same time, learning and philosophy had reached their peak in the heathen world. The great flowering of learning in the heathen world occurred primarily during this period. Nearly all the famous philosophers of antiquity lived after the Babylonian captivity. Almost all the great thinkers of Greece and Rome flourished during this time. Many of these philosophers were men of considerable worldly wisdom, and their main professed pursuit was to discover where human happiness truly lay and how people could obtain it. They threw themselves into this inquiry with apparent earnestness and produced vast numbers of books on the subject, many of which still survive. Yet they were sharply and endlessly divided in their conclusions — scholars have counted several hundred different opinions among them on this single question. They exhausted themselves in vain, wandering in the dark, without the glorious Gospel to guide them. God was pleased to allow men to do the utmost that human wisdom could accomplish and to test the limits of human understanding in seeking the way to happiness — before the true light came to enlighten the world, before He sent the great Prophet to lead humanity in the right way. God allowed these great philosophers to make the attempt for six hundred years, and the result of all that time showed that everything they could do was useless. The world did not become wiser, better, or happier under their instruction — it became more foolish, more wicked, and more miserable. God allowed human wisdom and philosophy to reach their highest point before Christ came, so that it might be clearly seen how far human reason could go even at its best — and so that the necessity of a divine teacher would be evident before Christ arrived. God then made the wisdom of this world look foolish, exposing the futility of humanity's best efforts, through the doctrines of His glorious Gospel, which were completely beyond the reach of all their philosophy. See 1 Corinthians 1:19-21.

After God had demonstrated the emptiness of human learning when set up in the place of the Gospel, He was pleased to make it a servant to the purposes of Christ's kingdom — a tool in the hand of divine revelation. In this way, the flourishing of learning in the world before Christ came prepared for His arrival in two ways: it revealed the emptiness of human wisdom and showed the necessity of the Gospel, and it also prepared a tool that could serve the Gospel. This is exactly how it was used in the apostle Paul, who was noted for his extensive learning, as Acts 26:24 shows. He was skilled not only in Jewish learning but also in philosophy, and he put that knowledge to work in service of the Gospel — as seen in his engagement with the philosophers in Athens in Acts 17:22 and following. Through his learning he knew how to speak effectively to educated audiences, as his speech there shows. He knew how to draw on what he had read in their own writings, and he quotes their own poets. Dionysius, who was a philosopher, was converted through Paul's preaching and, according to church history, became a significant instrument in advancing the Gospel. Many others in that and following generations were of great service to Christ's kingdom through their classical learning.

19. Just before Christ was born, the Roman empire was at its greatest height and had been settled in peace. About twenty-four years before Christ was born, Augustus Caesar — the first Roman emperor — began to rule as emperor of the world. Until that time the Roman state had long been a republic governed by the senate. Now it became an absolute monarchy. Augustus Caesar was not only the first Roman emperor but the greatest — he reigned in supreme glory. So the power of the heathen world — which was Satan's visible kingdom — had now reached its highest point, having been rising and growing stronger from the days of Solomon to this time, a period of about a thousand years. It had now reached a height greater than at any time since the beginning of Satan's heathen kingdom, which had its probable origin around the time of the building of Babel. The heathen world now stood at its peak of power, wealth, and learning.

In preparing the way for Christ's coming, God took an approach completely opposite to what human wisdom would have chosen. He brought His own visible people very low and made them weak — while the heathen, who were His enemies, He raised to their greatest height — so that the triumph of Christ's cross would be all the more glorious. With a small, weakened people, He conquered His enemies at their most powerful. In this way Christ triumphed over principalities and powers through His cross.

For many years Augustus Caesar had been consolidating the Roman empire — subduing enemies in one region after another — until the very year Christ was born, when all opposition had been overcome and his dominion over the world stood at its greatest glory. Everything had settled into peace. In recognition of this, the Romans closed the temple of Janus — their established symbol of universal peace throughout the empire. This universal peace, which began in the year of Christ's birth, lasted twelve years, until the year when Christ debated with the teachers in the temple.

So after centuries of turmoil — like four winds driving together on a stormy sea, out of which the four great empires had arisen — the world had now reached the peak of the fourth and last empire and settled into calm. Everything was now ready for the birth of Christ. This remarkable universal peace, following so many ages of upheaval and war, was a fitting introduction to usher the glorious Prince of Peace into the world.

I have now completed the first great period of the entire span from the fall of man to the end of the world — the period from the fall to the incarnation of Christ. I have demonstrated the first proposition: that from the fall of man to the incarnation of Christ, God was doing all the things that were preparatory to Christ's coming and forerunners of it.