Why did Jesus enter history when He did?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. As you probably know, we just began a new series in the book of Mark this last Sunday, and we talked about how Mark is the story of God coming to earth, Jesus coming to Earth, what He He came here to do, why he came here to do it. And we are only at the beginning of that story at this point in our series. So the question is, why did Jesus come when he did? Why didn’t he come at some other point in history?

Why was it specifically at the moment when he came? And we can certainly connect some dots to other parts of scripture, but ultimately the answer is going to be God’s. Timing is for God’s purposes, which are in God’s mind alone. We can’t connect all the dots. But first there are some prophecies at the Old Testament that give a general timeline of when Jesus would arrive there’s.

These kingdoms that are in Daniel two, beginning with Babylon and then Persia, and then Greece, and then Rome would be the order of which kingdom conquers the next. So we kind of know which kingdoms those are. And the Christ, the eternal kingdom, is supposed to be set up during the reign of that fourth kingdom, which is Rome. So that puts it in a general ballpark. Other people look to Daniels 70 weeks in Daniel, chapter nine, for a more specific date of, of when the Christ would be born, would be cut off from his people.

And so that could be part of the answer, but that doesn’t really answer the question, because prophecies are just foretelling what is going to happen. And if God had chosen for Christ to come at some other time, then we would just assume the prophecies would be different because they would be foretelling something else. So it doesn’t really answer why God sent Christ when he did, only that Christ was foretold to come when he did. Other people look at when the temple was historically destroyed, 70 Ad. Saying, hey, something else needed to be in place before the temple was destroyed, so people could worship God in kind of an authentic way, which he had prescribed, that he had given them.

He’d given them this temple as part of their worship. And so before that’s destroyed, people need to switch to some other kind of authentic form of worship which God is prescribed in the Spirit through Jesus Christ. And that could be fine too. It is certainly convenient that Christ in his crucifixion and resurrection happened before the temple was destroyed. However, remember, the temple had been destroyed before by Babylon, and there was these at least 70 years where there was no temple.

And so God’s people were still around then. God’s people were still worshiping in an authentic way. Certainly Daniel had a vibrant relationship with God without any temple before Christ. So we can’t really say god needed Christ in place before the temple was destroyed. It just kind of works out that way, which is nice.

So ultimately we can’t pinpoint a definitive reason of why God chose this place at this time for Jesus to arrive. It’s similar to so many other things in scripture. We could ask why did God choose Abraham and not someone in modern day China in 2000 BC or whenever Abraham was alive? Why Abraham? Why did God choose Abraham for all the descendants to come from him?

And he would use that people to have the Christ born from that group of people to redeem the world. It’s hard to know why God does exactly what he does. Those are things that are reserved in the mind of God. Same thing with Christ’s second coming. Romans eleven talks about until the fullness of Gentiles has come in two, Peter three talks about his patience.

That he’s not here yet means salvation for however many people. And so we have some clues of timing throughout Scripture, but ultimately it’s in God’s mind for God’s purposes. What we do know, of course, is that God is good. God is in control of time. God knows exactly what he’s doing, and he’s doing what he’s doing for his glory and our good that we can enjoy Him and be with Him forever.

So whether we know the exact reason or not, less consequential than we know the character of the one who is making those decisions. So thanks for the question. Thanks for following along with our brand new series and we will see you next time.