sense kings were looked upon as a go-between between God and his people.
The king could therefore also be called the “Son of God” and the country
could be called the “Kingdom of God.”
But before long Israel began to lose its power and the kingdom was
divided into a Northern kingdom (Israel) and a Southern kingdom (Judea). In
722 B.C. the Northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians and it lost all
political and religious significance. The Southern kingdom fared no better,
being conquered by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. Its temple was destroyed
and most of its people were carried off to slavery in Babylon. This “Babylonian
captivity” lasted until 539 B.C. when the people were permitted to return to
Jerusalem, and the great temple was restored. But for the rest of the period
before the birth of Christ the Jews continued to live under foreign domination.
The question Jews constantly asked themselves was why the Kingdom
of David was destroyed and why catastrophe after catastrophe rained down
on them, for God had promised to hold Israel in his hand. But the people had
also promised to keep God’s commandments. It gradually became widely
accepted that God was punishing Israel for her disobedience.
From around 750 B.C. various prophets began to come forward
preaching God’s wrath over Israel for not keeping his commandments. One
day God would hold a Day of Judgment over Israel, they said. We call
prophecies like these Doomsday prophecies.
In the course of time there came other prophets who preached that God
would redeem a chosen few of his people and send them a “Prince of Peace”
or a king of the House of David. He would restore the old Kingdom of David
and the people would have a future of prosperity.
“The people that walked in darkness will see a great light,” said the
prophet Isaiah, and “they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon
them hath the light shined.” We call prophecies like these prophecies of re-
demption.
To sum up: The children of Israel lived happily under King David. But
later on when their situation deteriorated, their prophets began to proclaim
that there would one day come a new king of the House of David. This
“Messiah,” or “Son of God,” would “redeem” the people, restore Israel to
greatness, and found a “Kingdom of God.”
Jesus
I assume you are still with me, Sophie? The key words are “Messiah,”
“Son of God,” and “Kingdom of God.” At first it was all taken politically. In the
time of Jesus, there were a lot of people who imagined that there would come
a new “Messiah” in the sense of a political, military, and religious leader of the
caliber of King David. This “savior” was thus looked upon as a national
deliverer who would put an end to the suffering of the Jews under Roman
domination.
Well and good. But there were also many people who were more
farsighted. For the past two hundred years there had been prophets who
believed that the promised “Messiah” would be the savior of the whole world.
He would not simply free the Israelites from a foreign yoke, he would save all
mankind from sin and blame—and not least, from death. The longing for
“salvation” in the sense of redemption was widespread all over the Hellenistic
world.