“Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham … It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first.” (Acts 13:26 & 46b, NKJV)
In the last teaching we learnt that God promised to establish, in the futute, an eternal covenant in our midst. BUT, THIS NEW COVENANT HAD TO BE OFFERED TO THE JEWS FIRST. This explains Jesus explicitly commissioning the twelve disciples in Matt 10:5b-6 – “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The CEV makes it clear, “Go only to the people of Israel …” The disciples and the apostles were all Jews, so were the seventy who were sent out (Luke 10:1 – based on Num 11:16); and so were the 120 people who were present during the pouring out of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:15; 2:5). Even the 3000 people who had afterwards been added to the ekklesia were Jews (Acts 2:41)! The word of the gospel of the Kingdom of God was exclusively preached to the Jews in the temple and the synagogues.
In the light of Daniel’s time line, which describes what has been determined concerning the people of Israel and the city of Jerusalem (Dan 9:24), Jesus had first, during the first three and a half years of the prophetic week, come to his own people and to Jerusalem, the holy city . He had first come to the Jews in explaining this new covenant (Matt 10:5-6; 15:24; John 1:31). The disciples first made his death known to the Jews, and we find that Peter, in Acts 2:36, explicitly states that “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Through the apostles this message was firstly brought to the Jews during the second three and a half year period – thus the last half of the last prophetic week (Mark 16:20). Thus Rom 1:16 rightly spells out that the gospel of Christ was brought “for the Jew first”. In Acts 13:26 and 46b it could not be made more clear – “Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham … It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first” (Acts 13:26 & 46b, NKJV).
Thus – the first half of the last prophetic week had taken place from the fall of 27 BC to the spring of 31 AC. The next three and a half years from that point in time then concludes the Jews’ prophetic week. What would be this epochal event which would terminate the history of the Jews?
The martyring of Stephen.
The stage had been set for one of the greatest dramas in the history of the world – the high priest was there, so were the Sanhedrin, and Stephen “full of the Holy Spirit”, starts to preach. At the beginning of Acts 7 the high priest asks: “Are these things so?”, and then the naked truth unfolds before the Jews. And after Stephen had briefly explained God’s plan of salvation to the audience he plays his trump card – “But Solomon built Him a house. However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands.” (Acts 7:47-48). Then he concluded by stating that the law, the Jews’ covenant with God, had been broken by their own conduct (Acts 7:53; Ps 78:10), the straw that broke the camel’s back.
In the fall of 34 AC the history of the Jews had concluded in prophetic precision.
- Sela: Pray over Matt 3:9-10 in the light of this teaching.
- Read: Num 26; Hos 5; Ezek 18
- Memorize: Ezek 18:32
