In the Beginning
For as long as mankind has walked upon the face of the earth, there has existed the Kingdom of Heaven. As Israel's redeemer, creator and the father of our faith through Isaac, Abraham and Jacob, God is the creator of all worlds and the redeemer of all souls. When Jesus spoke to His disciples about the Kingdom, He said in (Matthew 13:11, NIV), “To you is granted to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of God.” Even the prophets of old had difficulty understanding the true meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven. “Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens” (Psalms 8:1-2, NIV). Jesus spoke frequently of the need of repentance, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is close at hand” (Matthew 4:17, NIV).
Alexander (2009) says, “The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor, the distressed and the suffering. He taught His disciples, not to the rich, the powerful and the self-sufficient” (p. 213). Jesus also taught that in order to see the kingdom of God that a person must be born again or born from above. He also made it clear that those who could not see the kingdom of God were not born again, nor could they sense it, feel a need for it or even desire it. Jesus wanted to open the eyes of the people so they could become aware of the wonders of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Under Hasmonean rule, there were three factions that emerged in early Judaism: the Essenes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees were the spiritual fathers of Judaism, hence making them the most important out of all religious sects during the time of the second Temple.
Although the Pharisees believed in the oral law that God imparted from Moses, they also believed in the Torah or written law which they interpreted from their own point of view. The Pharisees had the belief that there was an afterlife and that the wicked should be punished. Camille (1998) said about the Pharisees,
“But the Pharisees were actually the liberals of their day, championing both the written Law of Moses and the oral law of tradition” (p. 44). There were rewards in heaven for the righteous and that a messiah would come to usher in a world of peace.
The Sadducees differed from the Pharisees in the sense they insisted on a more literal interpretation of what the written law represented. Hence, they did not believe in the same afterlife the Pharisees believed in. They were also elitists and liberal in what they were willing to incorporate as far as Hellenism into their lives. They believed that since Heaven wasn’t mentioned in the Torah, it did not exist.
The Sadducees focused on their rituals that were associated with the Temple. Regev (2006) states, “It seems that the Sadducees also literally followed the commands pertaining to execution.
A later source suggests they maintained that execution by burning should be practiced by ‘wood and ropes’ whereas the rabbis substituted this torturous procedure with swallowing a poisonous (hot lead) and, if the sentenced person resisted, strangling” (p. 134). Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees served in the Jewish Supreme Court, also known as the Great Sanhedrin who were responsible along with seventy one other members to interpret the civil and religious laws of the times.
The Essenes were unique in the sense that they were people who were known for the deep and illuminated inner life and knowledge they embodied as well as (hidden mysteries).
They had very selective tests in order for others to be admitted into their sect. They believed they were the rightful heirs of God and heirs to a great civilization and were not limited to a single religion. They were fascinated by all religions and wanted to learn how to extract the true Science out of each one.
The Zealots were also part of the Sicarii who were known for being political criminals by Josephus and were also nationalists to the extreme. There was no separation between what they believed politically and what they believed religiously--they were one and the same.
They were known to promote violent deaths through rebellion and killed many Jews who were opposed to them by setting fire to some grain in Jerusalem and thus caused some of the citizens to turn to cannibalism. Jesus chose Simon who was a Zealot to be one of his disciples.
While there were early Christian societies that met regularly, Christianity was mainly seen as a Jewish sect or community. Although Jesus knew the Messianic expectation of His chosen ones, He did not refer to himself as Christ. Jesus actually comes from the root of Joshua. This means one who saves. The original king who was known to be in the line of David as (one who unites people), releases oppression and bring new prosperity was thought of as being the Messiah. As Paul writes about this crucified Jesus, it could possibly be a stumbling block but also it could fulfill the Messianic expectation. His thinking was that
some Jews might be looking for unblemished royalty. Truly, the Messiah would be sent to restore Israel. In the Psalms of Solomon, “He will gather a holy people whom He will lead in righteousness; and He will judge the tribes of the people that have been made holy by the Lord their God.” (Psalms of Solomon 17:26-28, NIV).
As the Holy Spirit acknowledged Jesus, our Lord is led into the wilderness where he will be tempted by Satan for 40 days and 40 nights. The barren wilderness where Jesus went, (in the wilderness of Judea) was rocky, desolate and hostile to any kind of environment a human would want to dwell in. Although there seems to be some variances as to how this actually occurred as in (Luke 4:1-14, NIV) leaving the Jordan and being led by the Spirit, (Matthew 4:1, NIV) where it says, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil,” (Mark 4:1, NIV) which says, “At once the Spirit led Him out into the desert.” We already know that God will not directly tempt man (James 1:13, NIV), but provide the circumstances for Satan to tempt him.
This was not possible for Jesus to arrange because it is against God’s law for any man to seek temptation. We are to be delivered from evil as in (Luke 11:4, NIV). Jesus reminded His disciples regularly to “pray that you not enter into temptation.” (Luke 22:40, NIV). Mankind is pleasing to the Lord when he is doing the Lord’s will. It has always been a part of God’s plan that Jesus be tempted while here on earth.
The Holy Spirit hence, directed Jesus to endure this temptation. Even though Jesus was God in the flesh, He was also a man. He had the same hunger pangs, sufferings and temptations. Although He was a man, he was tempted – yet He was without sin. In (Hebrews 2:17, NIV), “For this reason He had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people,” we see His true purpose. Because Jesus was able to resist temptation, He became the perfect example mankind needed. He wasn’t like others of His time in Rome or Greece who constantly gave into temptation but were deemed as being heroes of their time.
References
Alexander, P., & Alexander, D. (2009). Zondervan handbook to the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Camille, A. (1998). Be fair to the Pharisees. U.S. Catholic: Oct 2004: (pp. 43-45).
Regev, E. (2006). The Sadducees, the Pharisees, and the Sacred: Meaning and Ideology in the Halakhic Controversies Between the Sadducees and Pharisees. Review of Rabbinic Judaism 9: Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden (2006): (pp. 126-140).
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