I have a question about Christ’s
earthly ministry. Did Jesus know that He
would stop offering the kingdom to the Jews prior to the start of his ministry;
or did he realize it partway through and then change his message to Israel?
Your
question is fantastic and I get this a lot.
He knew that he would if they
did not receive the kingdom when it was offered. Jesus knew scripture. He could read the verses in the old testament
that say that if Israel did not receive the kingdom, they would receive the
wrath of the Almighty God. But He also
knew that there would be a remnant of Jews who would believe by the testimony of His disciples.
Isaiah 8:16
Bind up the testimony,
seal the law among my disciples.
He
knew all this, but it was a legitimate offer of the kingdom to Israel. He knew that there would be a remnant of Jews
who would believe on him.
Matthew 21:43
Therefore say I unto you,
The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits
thereof.
Luke 12:32
Fear not, little flock;
for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
John 17:24
Father, I will that they
also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may
behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the
foundation of the world.
He
knew that some would believe, but that the majority would reject him. Truth is accepted by the minority but
rejected by the majority. He knew that
the minority would be given the kingdom because it was prophesied in the Old
Testament scriptures.
Did
the cross have to happen? Yes and
no. Did Jesus have to die? Yes He knew he had to die.
Hebrews 10:5
Wherefore when he cometh
into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a
body hast thou prepared me:
Jesus
knew that all those blood sacrifices and types and shadows were pointing to him. He was obedient unto death.
Philippians
2:8
And being found in
fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross.
The
problem was that the death Christ suffered was one of rejection and shame. The law of Moses and the book of Psalms made
it clear that Messiah was to die for Israel’s sins – the New covenant (Jeremiah
31:31-34). But he was not to die on
the cross in rejection because of Israel’s unbelief (the cross means rejection
in Israel’s program). He was supposed to
die on the altar in the Temple. He was
to be the lamb of God.
John 1:29
The next day John seeth
Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world.
But
here is what he was hoping would happen and what could have happened - if Israel had believed on him as their Messiah, the priests
in Israel would have taken him and sacrificed him on the altar in the
Temple. The picture of that is found in Abraham
and Isaac:
Genesis 22:8
And Abraham said, My son,
God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
God
told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son…
Genesis 22:2
And he said, Take now thy
son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land
of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the
mountains which I will tell thee of.
…which
is a picture of God the Father sacrificing his only Son. Remember, Abraham was going to sacrifice
Isaac on an altar.
The
offer of the kingdom didn’t have to be withdrawn. The religious leaders of Israel could have
received Christ and convinced the people of Israel that Jesus was the Messiah
and that they should do what they were supposed to do according to the Law: sacrifice him for their sins and then God
would raise him up on the third day.
Luke 24:46
And said unto them, Thus
it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the
dead the third day:
Psalm 16:10
For thou wilt not
leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see
corruption.
Matthew 12:39
But he answered and said
unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there
shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
Jonah 1:17
Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to
swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and
three nights.
That
sacrifice would have been made, not on a cross, but in the Temple.
But
Jesus saw over the course of time that the offer of the kingdom to Israel would
be withdrawn for a time. Remember that
Christ in his earthly ministry was God, and he was also man. He is called Son of God and Son of Man in
scripture.
John 3:18
He that believeth on him
is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Hebrews 4:14
Seeing then that we have
a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold fast our profession.
Daniel 7:13
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.
He called himself the Son of Man.
Matthew 8:20
And Jesus saith unto him,
The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of
man hath not where to lay his head.
As the Son of Man he lived in his
humanity and he limited the independent use of his deity (omniscience, etc.)
while he was on earth. In other words,
as Jesus of Nazareth he did everything according to the word of God and what
his father revealed to him by the Spirit.
Israel could have believed him; he
expected them to believe him, but he upbraided them for their unbelief.
Mark 16:14
Afterward he appeared
unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief
and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him
after he was risen.
When we preach the truth we expect
people to believe it. We know that
everyone won’t, but they can; they have the ability, the free-will volition to
believe. So Jesus was positive and
expected Israel to believe and sacrifice him on the altar in the Temple, just
like Abraham would have done to Isaac (Genesis
22:10-13). He expected to die and
shed his blood for their sins under the old covenant - the law, and for the new covenant (Jeremiah
31:31); and then Israel would receive the kingdom.
You are exactly right that Christ realized
his offer of the kingdom would be rejected during his ministry to Israel, so he
changed the focus of his ministry.
Matthew 16:20-21
Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was
Jesus the Christ. [Why? He’s out
there preaching the gospel of the kingdom and his disciples are sharing Christ
with the people of Israel, so why would he tell them to “tell no man”?] From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that
he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief
priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Up until that point, which is years
into his ministry, he had been offering the kingdom; but once he realized that
Israel was for the most part rejecting it, he began to focus on going to the
cross. That’s what the cross represents
– Israel’s rejection of him. From that
point, he confined his ministry to the little flock of believers
– his disciples.
Hopefully this
helps!
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