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REDEMPTIVE HISTORY TAKES PLACE WITHIN THE CONTEXT of ordinary history; it occurs in real time and space. To be sure, however, there is a transcendent and vertical dimension to it. In redemptive history the eternal intersects the temporal; eternity intersects time; the infinite touches the finite. Because the two touch, it is improper to view them in terms of radical discontinuity. The life of Christ begins in the framework of world history: And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:1-7) Jesus was born during the Pax Romana, the zenith of Roman culture and conquest. Emperor Augustus Caesar had ascended the throne. After the internecine struggle between the famous triumvirates, and after Julius Caesar had been assassinated at the feet of the bust of Pompey, the young and gifted Octavian took the Roman government to unprecedented heights.
The Roman Empire had introduced a system of communication designed to facilitate the movement of its armies; this system of roads linking the parts of the empire was the envy of the world. The roads were designed, engineered, and constructed with such efficiency that some of them survive even to this day. In addition, the Romans developed an efficient postal system that perhaps should be copied by the American government.
It is impossible to conceive of the rapid expansion of the early Christian church apart from these cultural advantages. The gospel was carried to the known world over Roman roads and via the Roman postal system. Much of the New Testament is a result of letters, or epistles, that were written and circulated via this system.
From time to time the Roman government took a census for the chief purpose of taxation. Residents were required to enroll at the place of their birth, a requirement that sometimes necessitated arduous travel. It was during such an enrollment that Jesus was born, fulfilling what the prophet Micah had prophesied centuries earlier as to the geographical site of the future Messiah's birthplace: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."
Therefore He shall give them up, Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel.
And He shall stand and feed His flock In the strength of the LORD, In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God; And they shall abide,
For now He shall be great
To the ends of the earth. (Micah 5:2-4) The tiny village of Bethlehem, the city of David, was selected by God to be the birthplace of the Messiah. But Joseph and his betrothed wife, Mary, lived in Nazareth, a circumstance that had prompted Nathaniel to ask, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" The New Testament does not regard the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem as a fortuitous accident of history. It was not by chance that the decree of Augustus Caesar forced Mary and Joseph to journey to this village.
Behind the political power of Caesar was the transcendent providence of God.
Completely unknown to Augustus himself, his decree was but a tool in the hand of God to ensure that the truth of Old Testament prophecy be made manifest and that His Word would come to pass.
Scripture declares that Jesus was born in the "fullness of time." The word that is translated "fullness" is the Greek word pleroma. The English word fullness does not quite capture the meaning of this word. Pleroma refers to a fullness that is absolute, a fullness that reaches its bursting point. When we fill a glass of water, we do not fill it to the rim. A small, empty space is left lest we spill the contents when we lift the glass to drink. The fullness of pleroma would be more like what happens when we put the glass under a spigot and turn on the water and let it run. The glass fills up and then begins to spill over the side. In this case there is no room left in the glass for any more water.
The "fullness of time" means that history was ripe for the birth of Christ. All of the chronos of the past and all of the kairoi that had gone before converged in this moment. Jesus was born at the precise second and in the precise place that God had ordained from the foundation of the world. Luke records it with these words: "So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered." But it was not only the days of Mary's pregnancy, the normal period of gestation, that was completed. It was the years, centuries, and millennia that had been completed in preparation for this moment.
Luke's reference to Caesar Augustus and to Quirinius, governor of Syria, place the incarnation account squarely in the context of secular history. Providence
caused the meeting of primary and secondary causes, secular and redemptive history.
But it was not only Christ's birth that is placed within the record of secular history; His death also took place in the fullness of time. The Apostles' Creed makes no mention of Augustus, but it does make reference to another historical figure, the Roman official Pontius Pilate, the procurator of Jerusalem. The phrase "suffered under Pontius Pilate" is recited by thousands of people every week. Why is Pilate singled out for this mention? Why not Herod or Caiaphas?
Historians and theologians have speculated that Pilate exercised a unique role in redemptive history. It was he who pronounced the death sentence on Jesus. He was the Gentile ruler who condemned the Messiah, fulfilling the prophecy that the Messiah would be "delivered into the hands of the Gentiles."
Pilate exercised the role of publica persona, but he was more than just a run-ofthe-mill public official. He was appointed by God in His providence to pronounce judgment upon Christ. The New Testament labors the point that no one was able to take Christ's life from Him; Jesus was actively involved in laying down His life for His sheep. In light of this, Jesus had an interesting interchange with Pilate regarding Pilate's authority: Then Pilate said to Him, "Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?"
Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin." (John 19:10-11) Jesus challenged Pilate's claim to have power or authority over Him. Jesus said, "You could have no power . . . unless. . . ."The word could here refers to human ability. The word unless points to a necessary condition that must be met before something can happen. These words indicate that Pilate's power or authority was dependent upon a necessary condition. That condition was the giving of that power or authority by God.
During the interrogation of Jesus by Pilate, their conversation had Pilate uttering
words that carried far more meaning than he possibly could have realized: Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered him, "Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?"
Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?"
Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here."
Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?"
Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.
Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."
Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, "I find no fault in Him at all." (John 18:33- 38) Jesus was a king, but not in the sense that Pilate understood the term. After this exchange Pilate's declaration to the crowd, "I find no fault in the man," was his official judgment as the publica persona. But it was more than that. Again Pilate had no idea how true his judgment was. He couldn't find any fault in the man because there was no fault to be found in Him. Obviously Pilate's judgment was a restricted one. He was simply declaring that he could find no violation of Roman law in Jesus that would warrant or justify His crucifixion. But in a deeper and broader sense Pilate was speaking the judgment of God. There was absolutely no fault in this man, neither from the scrutiny of Roman law nor from the scrutiny of divine law. This was the sinless One who stood before Pilate, the Lamb without blemish who was being readied for the slaughter.
Pilate made another statement regarding Christ, which on the surface appears innocuous: So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. Then they said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck Him with their hands.
Pilate then went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him."
Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Behold the Man!" (John 19:1-5) The phrase "Behold the Man" in Latin was uttered as "ecce homo." It may seem strange that these two words have received the attention they have in church history. In its context it appears to be simply a part of the mockery to which Jesus was subjected. His cap-tors dressed Him in the mock garments of a king, belittling the ascription of royalty to Him. Pilate's words simply mean, "Look at the man." But theologians of antiquity saw in this another example of an unintentional double meaning provoked by Providence. When Jesus was put on display before the watching world, He was not presented as God but as "the man." Indeed this was not merely a man standing there. It was the Man. This One was the embodiment of a new humanity, the Second Adam, the Man who perfectly fulfilled the purpose of human creation, to mirror and reflect the character of God by bearing His divine image. As the author of Hebrews declared: God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Heb. 1:1-3) Note that Jesus is described as the "brightness" of God's glory and "the express image of His person." This He was, not only in His deity, but also in His
humanity. Pilate's call to the world to behold this man is counsel that transcends his intended mockery.
In birth, life, and death Jesus carries out the redemptive purpose of God on the plane of human history. It is ironic that all of secular history is measured by reference to Him. I am writing this book in 1995. These numbers might have the initials A.D. added to them. The A.D. refers to the Latin anno domine, or "the year of our Lord." All of history is framed around this Person who came in the fullness of time and whose coming gives definition to all of time.
Esther's Moment of Destiny
Another example of the intersection of redemptive history with secular history may be seen in the narrative history of Esther. The book of Esther is somewhat strange. Some have argued that it does not even belong in the canon of sacred Scripture because it seems more like a chapter in the secular history of the Persian Empire than it does a chapter in Old Testament revelation. Some scholars have said the book appears to be a-theological because it doesn't focus upon God.
On the contrary! The book of Esther is filled to the brim with God as it reflects a chapter in the history of His invisible hand of Providence. The book begins with a reference to secular history: Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (this was the Ahasuerus who reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India to Ethiopia), in those days when King Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the citadel, that in the third year of his reign he made a feast for all his officials and servants—the powers of Persia and Media, the nobles, and the princes of the provinces being before him—when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the splendor of his excellent majesty for many days, one hundred and eighty days in all.
And when these days were completed, the king made a feast lasting seven days for all the people who were present in Shushan the citadel, from great to small, in the court of the garden of the king's palace. (Esther 1:1-5)
On the occasion of this great feast the king summoned his queen, Vashti, to present herself to the dignitaries assembled. His purpose was to put her beauty on display to the people and the officials. It was clearly an act of pride on the part of Ahasuerus. But Vashti refused to come, defying the king's command, provoking his rage and fury. His ego had been assaulted, and his authority challenged. The king sought counsel from his sages to determine how to deal with his obstreperous queen. The answer reflected the insecurity of all the men gathered there: And Memucan answered before the king and the princes: "Queen Vashti has not only wronged the king, but also all the princes, and all the people who are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. For the queen's behavior will become known to all women, so that they will despise their husbands in their eyes, when they report, 'King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought in before him, but she did not come.' This very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media will say to all the king's officials that they have heard of the behavior of the queen. Thus there will be excessive contempt and wrath. If it pleases the king, let a royal decree go out from him, and let it be recorded in the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it will not be altered, that Vashti shall come no more before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she." (Esther 1:16-19) What followed was an attempt to find a suitable replacement for Vashti as queen.
A spectacular beauty pageant was held throughout the kingdom as a search was undertaken to find a virgin beautiful enough to please the king. It was like a chapter out of Cinderella.
In the kingdom resided Mordecai, a Jew who had been among those carried away in the Babylonian captivity. His uncle's daughter had been left orphaned by the death of her father and mother, and Mordecai had taken her under his care and treated her as his own daughter. Her name was Esther. As a result of the massive beauty pageant, Esther was chosen to be the new queen.
Mordecai instructed her not to reveal her ethnic identity, not to disclose that a Jewess had risen to the rank of queen of the Persians.
It so happened that the king elevated a man named Haman to a rank above all the
princes of Persia, commanding that all the servants pay homage to him. But because of his Jewish convictions, Mordecai refused to bow down before Haman. In his furious quest for revenge against Mordecai, Haman sought not only to punish him but all the Jews in the land. Haman proposed to Ahasuerus that the king issue a decree to destroy all the Jews in the empire, and Haman personally offered a reward of ten thousand talents of silver to those who would carry out the decree. This was an attempt at genocide, a threat of holocaust against the Jews.
An edict from the king was the "law of the Medes and the Persians," meaning it could not be repealed; it was irrevocable. When the Jews heard of it, there was great fear and mourning among them; they considered their situation to be hopeless. Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes. Then, in desperation, he sent a message to Esther, calling on her to intercede for her people. Esther's initial response was less than heroic: "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days." (Esther 4:11) When Mordecai received this message he was distressed. He shot off a reply to Esther, calling upon her to consider the gravity of the situation and to consider her role in history: And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: "Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:13-14) Mordecai's reply and charge to Esther was done with a view to the providence of God. He warned her that she would not escape the purge of the Jews and then raised the crucial question: "Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom
for such a time as this?" The words "such a time as this" drip with a sense of providence. This was a time of crisis, a kairotic moment in the history of Israel.
It was a time for divine intervention when God would use a human agent to bring about His deliverance of His people. It was Esther's moment of destiny, the moment for which she was born.
Esther's second response was radically different from her first. She took seriously her vocation and said: "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!" (Esther 4:16) With these words Esther threw herself into the hands of Providence. She understood the law of the Medes and the Persians.
She was familiar with the fate of queens like Vashti who dared to defy the mandate of the king. But she determined to act in behalf of her people anyway, hoping against hope that she would succeed: Now it happened on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, across from the king's house, while the king sat on his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the house. So it was, when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that she found favor in his sight, and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter.
And the king said to her, "What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you—up to half the kingdom!" (Esther 5:1-3) The queen had come to the inner court of the palace when she had not been summoned. She did this at the risk of provoking the king's fury. She awaited his response. When the king extended the royal scepter to her, it was the sign of his approval. The audience was granted. Esther then asked the king to come to a banquet she had prepared for him and for Haman. In the meantime Haman
had prepared a gallows in order to hang Mordecai. At the banquet Ahasuerus asked Esther for her petition, stating his willingness to grant her up to half the kingdom: Then Queen Esther answered and said, "If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request. For we have been sold, my people and I, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be annihilated. Had we been sold as male and female slaves, I would have held my tongue, although the enemy could never compensate for the king's loss."
So King Ahasuerus answered and said to Queen Esther, "Who is he, and where is he, who would dare presume in his heart to do such a thing?"
And Esther said, "The adversary and enemy is this wicked Hainan!"
So Haman was terrified before the king and queen. (Esther 7:3-6) When Esther explained the wicked machinations of Haman, the law of the Medes and the Persians was altered. The decree against the Jews was rescinded, and Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Esther had done what she was called to do. Redemptive history intruded into the history of the Persians, and the intersection of the divine and the human accomplished the rescue of the Jews.