[sgmb id="1"] To fully appreciate the Sermon on the Mount, it is of benefit to any Bible student to see it from the perspective of an Israelite of the first century. The modern reader comes to the New Testament sermons without considering Jesus’ purposes in impacting listeners with only a limited historical understanding of God and His plan. Without having the provenance behind the Sermon on the Mount, it is possible to misunderstand the message it contains, and to make wrong assumptions about certain aspects of the lessons.

Visiting the historical context of Jesus’ Sermon of the Mount, we know that John the Baptist, who preceded the great Messianic work of Jesus by several months, was said in Luke 3:1-2 to have begun his ministry in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar. Lenski sets this beginning of John’s ministry in the year 26 AD, allowing for the joint years of Tiberias’ reign with Augustus.¹ Jesus began preaching not long after this, either in 26 AD or 27 AD.

But much of Israel’s understanding of the Messiah predated this time period. Beginning with the Exodus from Egypt in the year 1446 BC (cf. 1 Kings 6:1), the Israelites wandered for forty years in the wilderness and, then, began their conquest of Canaan in the year 1406 BC. They were then blessed with a period of judges for about 200 years from c. 1350 BC to c. 1150 BC,² after which three great kings ruled over United Israel. Saul’s reign (c. 1150 BC to 1110 BC) was followed by David’s (c. 1110 BC to 1070 BC), which was in turn followed by Solomon’s (c. 1070 to 1030 BC). After this period of United Israel, the kingdom of Israel divided into the Northern and Southern dominions under Jeroboam and Rehoboam, respectively. Following this division (c. 1030 BC), the Northern kingdom of Israel, under evil kings, lasted until they were carried away into Assyrian captivity (c. 722 BC). The Southern kingdom continued until c. 606 BC, at which time Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem and made Judah a vassal kingdom. The first deportation of the people of Judah was accomplished into Babylon (Daniel was among those taken). A second deportation into Babylon occurred c. 596 BC (in which Ezekiel was taken along with the other captives to the river Chebar in Babylon). The final destruction of the city and its Solomonic temple was accomplished c. 586 BC under the reign of Zedekiah (after which Jeremiah was kidnapped and carried to Egypt to live out his remaining days). In c. 536 BC, a small remnant of Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple (erected c. 516 BC) and later the walls of the city. The last prophet of the Old Testament time period was Malachi (c. 430 BC). Following Malachi, there was a period of over 400 years of silence until John the Baptist began to herald the arrival of Messiah and his Messianic Kingdom (c. 26 AD).

This is an overview of the lengthy history of Israel’s existence up to the time of Jesus. Across this span of time, the Spirit of God set before the nation of Israel a mystery of a coming Messianic King and His Messianic kingdom. Moses spoke of a prophet to come to whom absolute obedience was necessary lest the disobedient ones be destroyed from among the people:

“The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken… I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him” (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18-19).

The people waited for this Prophet for over 1500 years, anticipating His arrival. They were not ignorant of His coming and had certain expectations of what He would mean to them.

Discussion of these expectations will be supplied in the following post, “The Sufferings of Christ.”

Read the 5-part series: The Context of the Sermon on the Mount.

Footnotes

1. R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation’s of St. Luke’s Gospel, First Edition (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Ausburg Publishing Co., 1961), 173.

2. Steve Ruud, “Timeline, Maps, Chronology, Sermons of Judges: Gideon 1191 - 1144 BC,” accessed August 24, 2014, http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-maps-conquest-timeline-chronology-judges-gideon-ishmaelites-midianites-1191-1144bc.htm.

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[sgmb id="1"]To delve into the context of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, it is important to consider the historical and theological ideas of the Jews listening to Him. Their expectations relied on the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit had a two-prong purpose for these prophecies, which Peter points out. They foretold of the coming of this unsurpassed prophet and promised the coming of the greatest age of the world:

"Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow (1 Peter 1:10-11)."

The Messianic prophecies testified of the sufferings of Messiah and of a glorious age to follow. These prophecies bewildered the Jewish readers as to what could be meant by the idea of a suffering, yet triumphant, Messiah. Isaiah had foretold in Isaiah 53 that He would be despised and rejected (vs 3), afflicted of men (vs 4), wounded for our transgressions (vs 5), oppressed (vs 7), and stricken (vs 8). Daniel had foretold that He would be cut off (Daniel 9:26). The 22nd Psalm had foretold that He would be poured out like water (vs 14), having his hands and feet pierced (vs 16), and having His garments parted (vs 18). Zechariah added that He would be wounded in the house of His friends (13:6), and told of the smiting of God’s Shepherd and the scattering of His flock (13:7). Zechariah further foretold that He would be sold for 30 pieces of silver (11:12) and that the mourning for Him would be like the weeping for Josiah in the valley of Megiddo (12:11-14), a shadow cast by the death of the last great righteous king of Israel as they mourned the righteous crown prince of the Davidic line before the Babylonian destruction. Every sacrifice for sin and uncleanness found in the book of Leviticus foreshadowed the horrific coming sacrifice of the nation’s Messianic Redeemer. The blood poured out of every animal for the transgressions of the nation founds its counterpart in the suffering Messiah, who would be poured out like water (Psalm 22:14), and his cutting off by wounding (Isaiah 53:5; Daniel 9:26).

While the suffering of their mysterious Messiah certainly filled Israel’s hearts with wonder and bewilderment, it was the age of glory to follow which filled them with hope and longing.

Read about “The Glory that Should Follow.”
See the first post in the series, “Knowing the Context of the Sermon on the Mount.”

Read the 5-part series: The Context of the Sermon on the Mount.

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[sgmb id="1"]While the Jews questioned the prophetic claims that their Messiah would suffer, Israel longed for the age of glory to follow when their coming King would reign. When Daniel saw that Morning Star of Hope approach the Ancient of Days, it was not as the Suffering Lamb, but Daniel records,

"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:13-14)."

Daniel had told of a kingdom greater than all the glorious kingdoms of old. The Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman empires would all pale beside the kingdom of Messiah, which would be a kingdom made without hands. It would have more power than all the ancient empires and would be of such a lasting nature that of this kingdom there would be no end (Daniel 2:44). Isaiah and Micah had prophesied of that glorious kingdom in Isaiah 2:1-4 and Micah 4:1-4,

"But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it."

It would be a time when there would be one Davidic, Shepherd King (Ezekiel 37:22, 24), and the age of a new and different tabernacle of worship (37:27). The sweet shepherd king and psalmist of Israel had heralded a warning concerning any who would dare to stand against this King of kings on His throne,

"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him (Psalm 2)."

A great new covenant would arise which would finally do what the Mosaic law could not; it would grant the right to its adherents to stand with every sin forgiven, never to be remembered for evermore (Jeremiah 31:31-32). The citizens would be covered with a garment of salvation (Isaiah 61:10) and become an ever thriving planting of God (Isaiah 27:1-6; 61:3, 11). This Messiah would reign as a Priest and King upon his throne (Zechariah 6:12, 13), and a fountain would be opened to Israel for sin and uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1). Of this magnificent Messiah, it was written,

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6-7)."

In this coming kingdom,

"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious (Isaiah 11:6-10)."

A final age of the Feast of Tabernacles would be kept not only by Israel, but would be attended by every nation under heaven, on penalty of curse if ignored (Zechariah 14:16-19). As Jehovah left his final post-exilic word to the returned remnant of Israel, He set them looking for the Sun of Righteousness rising with healing in His wings, heralded by none other than Israel’s greatest oral prophet, Elijah (Malachi 4:2-6),

"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts. Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

Then prophetic silence fell upon the land for over 400 years, as Israel pondered this incredible suffering Messiah and the age of the glorious Messianic kingdom to come.

Read “What Israel Expected of the Messiah and His Kingdom.”

Read the 5-part series: The Context of the Sermon on the Mount.[sgmb id="1"]

[sgmb id="1"]The net result of all these marvelous prophecies of hope in Messiah and His coming Kingdom was that both the prophets who prophesied them and the people who heard them were “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:11). So wondrous was the marvel of this Messiah and the dawning of the golden age of His warring, yet peaceful, kingdom, the scriptures inform us that even angels desired to look into these things (1 Peter 1:12). The masses were enthralled with these visions, and yet at the same time were highly puzzled concerning their meaning.

The Holy Spirit informs us that the full meaning of these prophecies, while filling Israel with hope, at the same time were purposely written in mystery form,

“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7-8).

The mysteries of the prophecies spawned many interpretations in all aspects of the kingdom. In the time of the first century, the Messiah was viewed in several disparate ways. He was thought by some to be two Messiahs: a lay Messiah, and a priestly Messiah. In some writings there was a Messiah of Ephraim (or Joseph) whom some saw as the suffering forerunner of Messiah, the son of David.³ While some saw this suffering Messiah as one who would die, still, when Jesus told of his coming death, there were those who responded, “We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man” (John 12:34)? The Qumran scrolls (1QS, IX, 11) spoke of “the coming of a prophet and the anointed ones of Aaron and Israel.”⁴ Others spoke of the Messiahs of Judah and Levi.⁵ Roy Rosenberg notes, “The priestly ruler was to be superior to the royal figure.”⁶ Still others expected “a purely angelic being.”⁷ However, concerning the idea of a Messiah with both deific and human natures, Cullen Story points out, “No concept of the union of the two natures in Messiah seems to have presented itself to the Jewish minds in the time of Christ.”⁸ As a matter of fact, it was the idea of combining the concept of Messiah with a deific nature that became the basis for the priests’ charge of blasphemy against Jesus (Mark 14:61-64) leading to his death.⁹ Likewise, in the days of John the Baptist, the person and work of Messiah was associated with a prophet and with Elijah. John the Baptist denies three things: first that he is the Messiah, second that he is Elijah; and third, that he is “that prophet” (John 1:20-21). John indeed was not the Messiah; neither was he what they envisioned as the Elijah to come; nor was he some variant interpretation of either the prophet announced by Moses, or their misunderstanding of Malachi 3:1-3. Many and varied were the expectations of the person of the Messiah and his attendants.

Likewise, the Messianic kingdom, desired by every man in Israel, was subject to their expectations of “an earthly kingdom, a feast of fat things, and it includes military glory and conquered foes.”¹⁰ The problem that faced the Old Testament reader was the fact that it was “also a kingdom of righteousness and peace, ruled over by a prince of peace.”¹¹ They had great difficulty combining these two concepts. Thomas Royds goes on to point out, “The Jews who crucified Jesus…corrupted the idea of the Messiah by fierce nationalism… They wanted a savior or deliverer in the earthly sense – a great patriot, whose kingdom might indeed ultimately be a kingdom of righteousness and peace, but still a kingdom of this world and a Jewish kingdom.”¹² In this kingdom, there would be “an ideal Davidic king who would defeat Israel’s enemies and preside over a reunified Israel…composed of the northern and southern tribes.”¹³ The Psalms of Solomon chapter 17 (pseudepigraphal work) show “a fundamentally violent” kingdom.¹⁴ They believed that their Messiah “would strike terror into the Roman hearts.”¹⁵ A “kingdom of this world” dominated the hopes and aspirations of the first century Jew. No longer would Jerusalem be at the mercy of Roman armies and mercenaries. No longer would the nations inflict their will upon fleshly Israel. The dominion would belong to Israel, and the Gentiles would be ruled with a rod of iron. Finally, and at long last, God would raise his people to their proper place of world domination, and the tents of David would rise from the ruins and “possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this” (Amos 9:11-12).

It is into this maelstrom of struggling Messianic hopes and expectations that John the Baptist came preaching in the Judean countryside, “Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Read the final post in this series, “The Messianic Announcement.”

Read the 5-part series: The Context of the Sermon on the Mount.

Footnotes

3. Joseph Heinemann, “Messiah of Ephraim and the Premature Exodus of the Tribe of Ephraim,” Harvard Theological Review 68, no. 1 (January 1, 1975): 1.

4. Jacob Liver, “The Doctrine of the Two Messiahs in Sectarian Literature in the Time of the Second Commonwealth,” Harvard Theological Review 52, no. 3 (July 1, 1959): 152.

5. Ibid., 183.

6. Roy A. Rosenberg, “The Slain Messiah in the Old Testament,” Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 99, no. 2 (January 1, 1987): 260.

7. Cullen I K Story, “What Kind of Messiah Did the Jews Expect?,” Bibliotheca Sacra 105, no. 417 (January 1, 1948): 107.

8. Ibid., 108.

9. Joel Marcus, “Mark 14:61 : ‘Are You the Messiah-Son-of-God?,’” Novum Testamentum 31, no. 2 (April 1, 1989): 127–130.

10. Thomas Fletcher Royds, “Jesus the Messiah,” Modern Churchman 23, no. 3 (June 1, 1933): 128.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid., 128, 129.

13. Matt Jackson-McCabe, “The Messiah Jesus in the Mythic World of James,” Journal of Biblical Literature 122, no. 4 (December 1, 2003): 715, 716.

14. Ibid., 718.

15. Story, “What Kind of Messiah Did the Jews Expect?,” 114.[sgmb id="1"]

[sgmb id="1"]When John the Baptist preached repentance to the Jews, telling them “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” this announcement heralded the incipient rise of the Messianic kingdom in the context of the Messianic prophetic word (Isaiah 40). It would have electrified the nation of Israel. We are told, “Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:5-6). That is not a filler statement in the text. This Messianic announcement was heard like the trumpeting of a final, glorious victory on a nation that had been waiting for over a millennium for the rise of the great age of the Messianic kingdom; and, with it, Israel’s fond expectation of world domination rose to the forefront.

Following John’s preparatory work, Jesus began his unparalleled task of cutting with perfect precision through the morass of flawed ideas and expectations. The true Messiah of Israel would blend all of the Messianic prophecies in Himself and establish the world-wide kingdom foretold by the prophets’ voices across the centuries. And it was the masterful work of the Son of God which brought such a kingdom into existence by His teaching and His death. In our next series, we shall see how He accomplished this task by beginning with the preaching He did across Israel as seen in the example of one of His inimitable lessons as recorded for us in the Sermon on the Mount. When one reads the Sermon on the Mount, one is seeing the voice of Heaven’s wisdom in its first stage of preparing Israel for her Messiah and the golden age of the kingdom that would last till the end of time.

Now, with an understanding of the hearts and minds of the Jewish listeners, read about The Beattitudes from the standpoint of a Messiah who must prepare the hearts of His hearers for a very different kingdom from the one they’d looked to find.

Previous post - “Israel’s Expectations of the Messiah and His Kingdom”

Read the 5-part series: The Context of the Sermon on the Mount.

Sources Cited

Heinemann, Joseph. “Messiah of Ephraim and the Premature Exodus of the Tribe of Ephraim.” Harvard Theological Review 68, no. 1 (January 1, 1975): 1–15.

Jackson-McCabe, Matt. “The Messiah Jesus in the Mythic World of James.” Journal of Biblical Literature 122, no. 4 (December 1, 2003): 701–30.

Lenski, R. C. H. The Interpretation’s of St. Luke’s Gospel. First Edition. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Ausburg Publishing Co., 1961.

Liver, Jacob. “The Doctrine of the Two Messiahs in Sectarian Literature in the Time of the Second Commonwealth.” Harvard Theological Review 52, no. 3 (July 1, 1959): 149–86.

Marcus, Joel. “Mark 14:61 : ‘Are You the Messiah-Son-of-God?.’” Novum Testamentum 31, no. 2 (April 1, 1989): 125–41.

Rosenberg, Roy A. “The Slain Messiah in the Old Testament.” Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 99, no. 2 (January 1, 1987): 259–61.

Royds, Thomas Fletcher. “Jesus the Messiah.” Modern Churchman 23, no. 3 (June 1, 1933): 128–34.

Ruud, Steve. “Timeline, Maps, Chronology, Sermons of Judges: Gideon 1191 - 1144 BC.” Accessed August 24, 2014. http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-maps-conquest-timeline-chronology-judges-gideon-ishmaelites-midianites-1191-1144bc.htm.

Story, Cullen I K. “What Kind of Messiah Did the Jews Expect?” Bibliotheca Sacra 105, no. 417 (January 1, 1948): 102–14.[sgmb id="1"]