I find it interesting that the Lord told Moses to have the people “gird up their loins” at the time of their exodus out of Egypt (Exodus 12:11). This was how they were to eat the Lord’s Passover, which in the New Testament was the day upon which Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. Moreover, Jesus’ command, that his disciples gird up their loins, seems to point to a second exodus out of what was spiritually called Egypt, i.e. Jerusalem, the place where Jesus was crucified (Luke 12:35; cf. Revelation 11:8).
Notice that the rabbis taught about a second exodus, which they interpreted would occur during the time of the Messiah:
It has been taught: Ben Zoma said to the Sages: Will the Exodus from Egypt be mentioned in the days of the Messiah? Was it not long ago said: Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say: As the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, As the Lord liveth that brought up and that led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country and from all the countries whither I had driven them?[1]
Eliezer said:
The days of the Messiah will last forty years, as it is written, Forty years long shall I take hold of the generation.[2]
Thus, the rabbis of the first century taught that, not only would there be a second exodus during the days of the Messiah, but this exodus would last forty years, or would be about the same length of time as the original exodus from Egypt. Moreover, the context of the reference to the forty years (cf. Psalm 95:10-11) is that the Lord would be displeased with Israel during the forty years, and it is this forty years that they refer to as the days or time of the Messiah. This places the context of Psalm 95:10-11 to the time of the preaching of the Gospel between Pentecost in 31 AD to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD.
Moreover, Paul, also applying the metaphor of the exodus in the wilderness to the time before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (1Corinthians 10:1-10), said that these things occurred to them for examples (G5179) for us (1Corinthians 10:11. The Greek word for examples probably should be rendered types as in Young’s Literal Translation.[3] Notice as well, that Paul concluded that the time in which he lived and in which the first century Corinthians lived was the end of the ages, as many translations render it. If Paul considered the first century AD to be the end of the ages, what right do we in our day have to contradict him by concluding that our modern day must be the time of the end of the ages? Shouldn’t we derive our faith, i.e. what we believe, from those who delivered the word of God to us? It seems to me that it would be the height of arrogance to contradict Paul and the other writers of the New Testament, by saying they were confused, but we have it together.
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[1] Babylonians Talmud: Berachaoth 12b, referring to Jeremiah 23:7-8
[2] Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 99a, referring to Psalm 95:10
[3] See also Darby, Diaglott, Companion Bible and Jubilee translations as well as the KJV notes.
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