Let’s return to Josephus’ Zealots. Remember they arose in Israel, when Jesus was about 7 or 8 years old, growing up in Nazareth, north of Judea in Galilee. The year is AD 6, and Archelaus was removed by Caesar Augustus from ruling Judea and Samaria and banished to Gaul. Judea and Samaria were placed in the province of Syria and under the authority of its governor. Cyrenius (Quirinus) was appointed by Caesar to take account of the people’s affairs, vis-à-vis determine their taxation, which would be sent annually to Caesar.[1] It was about this time that Judas the Galilean rebelled with a number of others, calling themselves Zealots. They claimed that God, and only God, should be their ruler.[2]
If, indeed, the Lord returned to Jerusalem and reigned as King there, what would that look like? Moreover, although the idea encapsulates the desires of the Zealots, how would it affect the national aspirations of the people at large? Would the people agree with the Zealots? Would the people’s national aspirations be the same, or would the Zealot’s national hopes go beyond and replace that of the people?
The problem seems to be that, although the Lord did promise to return to his people (Malachi 3:1), the scriptures are ambivalent concerning how that would occur, and what the people would see once it happened. When the Lord appeared to Abraham, Abraham made him a feast (Genesis 18:1-8). When Moses met the Lord, he found him in a burning bush (Exodus 3:1-4)! Later, the same Lord appeared as a pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:22). Still later, when the Lord appeared to the prophets, he was sitting on his throne, high and lifted up and surrounded by angels, while the hem of his robe filled the Temple (Isaiah 6:1-5). Is this what is meant, when later Isaiah records that all flesh would see the glory of the Lord (Isaiah 40:5)?
This is the problem. The Jews were told that their God would return, but what would that look like in reality? What should the Jews have expected, if and when such an event would occur? Similarly, the Apostles saw Jesus ascend into heaven in a cloud (Acts 1:9; cp. Daniel 7:13-14), and they were told that Jesus would return, just as they saw him leave (Acts 1:11), but, really, what should we expect to see, when the angel’s prophecy is fulfilled? Shouldn’t it be the same as the Lord’s prophecy (cp. Matthew 24:30)? The scriptures speak of the return of our God, but they are, nevertheless, not very clear about how the return would appear to them who observed it happen.
During the first century AD, Jesus did many miracles to show that he was sent by God (cp. John 3:1-2; 5:36; 7:31; 9:16; 12:37; 15:34). Three times during Jesus’ final Passover season Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey in fulfillment of prophecy (Zechariah 9:9-11), and the people wondered about him (Matthew 21:10). Afterward, they received him as their Messiah (John 12:12-13), but, when they discovered he wasn’t the messiah they expected, they rejected him (John 12:34). Although Jesus warned them about their disbelief (John 12:35-36), they wouldn’t repent and believe (John 12:37). When Jesus returned the next day, it became apparent the people continued to reject their Messiah, proving their unrepentance, when they didn’t receive him into the city, as they had done a day earlier (Luke 19:41-42).
Nevertheless, the Lord promised to return to his people, saying he would dwell in their midst, and Jerusalem would be called ‘the city of truth’ and ‘the mountain of the Lord, the holy mountain’ (Zechariah 8:3). Moreover, it was also promised that he, the Angel of the Covenant, would come suddenly to his Temple (Malachi 3:1). Nevertheless, what would that look like? Consider that: “When the day of Pentecost was being celebrated, all of them were together in one place. Suddenly, a sound, like the roar of a mighty windstorm, came from heaven and filled the whole house, where they were sitting. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated, and one rested on each of them” (Acts 2:1-3). While the coming of the Lord wasn’t to a Temple made with hands (Acts 7:48-49), it was a House in the same sense that the Lord built David a house (2Samuel 7:11). He came, just as he said he would, to dwell with his people. Then, out of heaven came a great voice, saying “Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God!” (Revelation 21:3; cp. Luke 17:21).
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[1] See Josephus; Antiquities of the Jews; 17.13.1-5.
[2] See Josephus; Antiquities of the Jews; 18.1.6.
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