When the Apostle Paul and his cohort Barnabas were on their first missionary journey to evangelize the Gentile world they spent a good chunk of their time in Asia Minor which is now modern day Turkey. In one narrative from the Book of Acts, they came to the city of Lystra and found a man in the public square who was crippled in his feet and lame from birth, never having walked. Paul seeing that the man had faith, commanded him to get up on his feet and immediately the cripple jumped up and began to walk. Seeing the stupendous miracle, the crowds who had been gathered around were ecstatic and convinced that divine beings had come down to earth to visit them that day shouted, “The gods have come down to us in human form.”
The people decided that Barnabas was Zeus, the mythical king of the Greek gods while Paul they determined was Hermes since he was the chief speaker. This association was probably not arbitrary as Hermes was traditionally the messenger of the gods to humans. He would bring tidings from high up on Mt. Olympus where the gods lived to the mortal world below. According to the legend, he wore shoes with wings on them (Roman Mercury) and used to fly freely between the mortal and immortal worlds facilitating communication with those below.
Of all the Greek gods, Zeus and Hermes were probably the most likely candidates in the minds of the people to make a visit to earth especially because of an ancient legend within the city of Lystra that they had come on one occasion in time past. Unfortunately no one recognized them except for an old couple at that time and they slipped away before the people could pay them homage. But this time, the crowds were intent on not letting the same mistake happen twice. So they quickly acclaimed the two men as the expected divine visitors and together with the local priest of Zeus were preparing to sacrifice bulls as an offering to their favorite gods who had come to them in the flesh.
Clearly it was in the expectation of the ancient Greeks to receive periodic visits from their deities in human form, and this biblical example is just one such story illustrating their zeal for the notion that the divine occasionally comes to walk among mortals. But not only did the citizens of the Greco-Roman world have these sentiments, various civilizations in far away places had these ideas as well. In India it was a popular belief that Vishnu, the second member of the Hindu Trinity would periodically come to earth in the form of a man with some mission to the people. In the Hindu belief system it is commonly suggested that Vishnu has come to earth in the form of man (an avatar) a total of nine times. The seventh and eighth visits are very popular among the Indians who revere the legendary figures of Rama and Krishna.
There are elaborate stories attached to both of these men, but traditionally Rama was known as the son of a king who went into exile for the sake of his father’s honor. While away in the forests, his wife was kidnapped and he subsequently waged a valiant war to liberate her. When he had conquered his enemies, he was ultimately crowned king, the position that was due to him. And he is revered among Indians for his many attributes including heroism and humility as the ideal or perfect man, a role model for mortals to follow. Krishna on the other hand who is acclaimed as the next appearance of Vishnu on earth after Rama had a different story, and according to the legend he was known as a cowherder. In one account he is praised as rescuing his flock from a menace that was trying to poison their water supply, and he is credited with teaching the people to take care of their animals and their environment. Later in life he was also made a king but set an example of non-violence being unwilling to raise a weapon in battle.
In many cultures then, there was a notion that the gods would descend to earth periodically on a mission to assist or teach humans. However there was one very familiar people group who didn’t embrace this idea. While having a firm belief in God, the Jewish people didn’t entertain the idea that their Creator would ever appear among them as a man. And in considering why this should be, we can recall the events of the Israelites in the desert where encounters with the presence of God were downright terrifying for them. At the base of Sinai they quaked in fear as fierce thunder and lightning emanated forth from the dark cloud that had settled on top of the mountain where the presence of God had descended.
Besides seeing great manifestations of God’s power in the form of mighty miracles in the desert, the people were also familiar with the testimony of Moses who on top of Mt. Sinai desired to see the face of God. He asked the Lord to show him his glory to which God replied that Moses could not see his face for no one can see God’s face and live. Instead the Lord accommodated the prophet’s request by putting him safely in the cleft of a rock where shielding him at first with his hand he would only allow Moses to see his back, the most that would be possible for a mortal.
These experiences in the desert undoubtedly etched into the consciousness of the Israelites that God was too transcendent and lofty to ever appear as a man. They were convinced that he was too big and glorious to ever come in a human body. And on top of this, even if he could condescend to the level of a mortal it would be unsafe to interact with men for in seeing God’s face they would immediately perish. For no one can see the face of God and live.
For this reason there was much resistance among the Jews at the time of Jesus who could not conceive of the Messiah as being a truly divine being. While it was unfathomable for many Jewish people who were closed to the idea, it was far more acceptable to the Gentiles who had within their own cultures the tradition of visitations from heaven in human form. Clearly the people of Israel with their preconceived notions missed the appearance of their God 2000 years ago and this despite messages from their prophets like Zechariah who heralded a direct word from God that he would come and live among them (Zechariah 2:10.)
Now while as Christians we accept the coming of God in the person of Jesus Christ, it may be because of the Jewish roots of our faith that we often do not entertain the idea that he has perhaps also come on previous occasions as is a common theme among the pagans and ancient Gentiles. It may be because of a little Jewish bias within our own tradition that we ignore the possibility of prior visitations, and yet there is ample biblical evidence for at least a few appearances of God in human form within the pages of the Old Testament. Most noteworthy are those encounters of Abraham with God within the Book of Genesis
Initially Abraham seemed to be getting some messages from God through the form of dreams and visions after he had left the Chaldees with his father’s family. Through mystical messages he had been instructed to leave his kin and travel to Canaan where God would make him a great nation. In one vision he was promised that he would be given an heir that would ultimately produce offspring more numerous than the sand on the seashore. While in a trance God initiated a covenant with him to pledge that these things would certainly come to pass. But on another subsequent occasion relating an interaction between Abraham and God, it is said that the Lord appeared to Abraham introducing himself as God Almighty at which point Abraham fell facedown before him. This was seemingly a face to face meeting of the man and the divine, and in this episode the Lord instituted the covenant of circumcision with Abraham requiring all of the males within his household and all his subsequent descendants to be circumcised.
In the next chapter is recorded another eventful meeting between Abraham and God while the patriarch was encamped at Mamre. The passage describes Abraham sitting in the entrance to his tent when he noticed three men approaching. When they arrived, Abraham addressed himself to one of the men as his servant and requested that he show them hospitality in the form of a meal. After preparing a calf, they sat down and ate before him at which point a dialogue began between Abraham and the Lord who we are to understand was one of the three men. A fairly lengthy face to face conversation ensued between God and Abraham beginning with the Lord promising that his wife Sarah would bear a son the following year. After that exchange, God revealed his other purpose in stopping by which was to inform him that he was prepared to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their many sins. At that point two of the three visitors began to walk toward Sodom while the Lord remained with Abraham who bargained with him to spare the city. At last the Lord left and Abraham returned home.
Then we learn about the destruction of the cities in the next chapter. The two men came to the city and escorted out Abraham’s nephew Lot along with his wife and daughters to escape the imminent danger. Interestingly we have a strange verse that actually describes how the cities were punished. The text says, “Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens.” In other words, the Lord brought down fire from the Lord in heaven. Though it may sound a little redundant, it is indicating that the Lord present on earth called down destruction from the Lord who is also always present in heaven. In New Testament language it would be equivalent to Jesus calling upon the Father to do some great miracle, God asking God for help.
Now after considering these various passages, we may ask if there is any New Testament evidence to further substantiate the idea that God was present on earth in the form of a man at the time of Abraham. That is, did Jesus in the course of his ministry ever speak about the matter? Within the gospel of John is a heated exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees as was often the case when they had an encounter. At one point in the dialogue the Pharisees became miffed when they accused Jesus of claiming to be greater than Abraham, the father of the entire nation of Israel. To this Jesus gave a pungent response saying, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” In another gospel passage from Matthew Jesus asserted that many prophets and righteous men longed to see his coming but never did, but in this discussion with the Pharisees he clearly made known that the great father of faith, Abraham did see his day. According to Jesus, at some point in Abraham’s life he saw the Son of God face to face, a belief that was espoused by the famous church historian Eusebius who wrote, “The Lord God it is said, appeared as a common man to Abraham … at the oak of Mamre.”
Now while all of these accounts both from the Old and New Testaments suggest that the Lord had made a few personal appearances in the time of Abraham, we need to ask if there is any common link between any of them. Should we see them as random visitations of God descending to earth? Were they just disjointed manifestations of the Savior, or is there some unifying element in the various stories? Certainly it is possible that God made several round trips from heaven to earth in this period to personally interact with Abraham and also to punish Sodom, but it is also conceivable that he was visiting the land of Canaan on a more prolonged basis making day trips to visit certain people and attend to his business. If this was the case, we could ask if there existed any prominent figure in the time of Abraham who happened to be living in the region and to whom we may potentially ascribe deity. If there were such a man, then he is probably the mysterious person we are introduced to in Genesis 14.
At one point during Abraham’s sojourn in Canaan, a skirmish occurred between two federations of kings. The king of Sodom was involved and Lot who happened to be a resident of that city got carried off along with all of his possessions. Abraham not willing to see his own nephew be carted off as a potential slave advanced a campaign to rescue him. Along with the 318 men of his household, Abraham pursued the enemy and rescued Lot. Then Abraham returned to the Valley of Shaveh and was met by the nearby king of Salem named Melchizedek who brought out bread and wine, perhaps a gesture of kindness to Abraham’s hungry men.
This city of Salem is one in the same with Jerusalem. A fortified city built upon the two hills Mount Zion and Mount Moriah, archaeological evidence suggests that Jerusalem has been inhabited since the 4th millennium B.C. Throughout the centuries since it was first settled it seems to have exchanged hands several times between the original Canaanite natives and western Semites. At times it was probably abandoned and didn’t become a permanent dwelling until the time of the Jebusites in the 2nd millennium B.C. Ultimately David would conquer the city for Israel around 1000 B.C. from which point it would remain under mostly Jewish control. According to the 1st century Jewish historian Josephus, Melchizedek founded the city of Salem in 2108 B.C., and presumably at that point in history the settlement upon the two mountain tops had been previously abandoned for some time.
Not only was Melchizedek the king of this citadel, he was also its high priest. According to Genesis 14, he was the priest of El Elyon or God Most High, the popular patriarchal Deity of the Semitic peoples. It wasn’t completely unusual for a one to serve both functions in ancient times. Certainly among the Egyptians, the Pharaoh was known as the divine ruler and governed the land through a staff of his priests. Throughout the centuries we have seen both powers vested in one individual even in Europe with its prince-bishops, the most popular being the Roman Pontiff who up until the 19th century controlled all of central Italy. Nowadays it is much more common to have a separation of Church and State in most nations unlike the situation in ancient Salem.
Considering the meanings of the city name and its king, most would be familiar with Salem as similar to the Hebrew Shalom. In this sense it is best translated as peace, harmony, or completeness. Melchizedek, the name of the king is perhaps really a title. It is a compound word formed from the Hebrew “melek” meaning king and “zedek” meaning righteousness. Putting it together we have the “King of Righteousness” ruling over the “City of Peace.”
Returning to the Genesis narrative, it is said that after Melchizedek brought out bread and wine for Abraham, he blessed him saying, “Blessed be Abraham by God Most High, Creator of Heaven and Earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abraham gave him a tenth of everything he owned. His gesture of homage to the king of Salem was an ancient custom of Mesopotamian whence Abraham originally came. In the Fertile Crescent, one would pay a tenth (or a tithe) either to a secular official or to one of the gods as a form of taxation known as “esretu.” Hence it was either an acknowledgement of royalty or deity depending on the situation.
Contemplating what we know about Melchizedek from the brief Genesis account, there are a number of elements that would probably resonate with most as bearing a resemblance to Jesus Christ. We have a King of Righteousness ruling over the City of Peace which immediately provides us with imagery of the Savior who would be known as the Prince of Peace. As one of the major attributes of the divine, deep pervasive peace characterized the person of Jesus. He imparted a portion to the disciples before he was about to go to the cross saying, “Peace I leave you; my peace I give you.” And after his resurrection he frequently greeted his disciples with the words “Peace be with you.” This City of Peace or Salem over which Melchizedek reigned was once again the same city of Jerusalem which the prophets frequently identified as the “city of God” as well as the “city of the Great King” particularly as rendered in the Psalms, and so serves as a foreshadowing of the holy city that would later come in view.
As priest and king of Salem, we can also see a parallel between Melchizedek and Jesus. Theologically the Savior has been identified as fulfilling both roles as the great Messianic King-Priest. The many Old Testament prophecies envisioned the Messiah as the heir to David’s throne, the ruler of Israel in an everlasting kingdom. But he was also seen to have fulfilled an equally significant role as priest offering himself as a sacrifice to God in a continual oblation to the Father on behalf of humanity. Throughout the bible, many kings and priests typified Christ who would have a dual function, but none performed both roles like Melchizedek king of Salem.
Another important element in the short story of Melchizedek within Genesis is the common meal that he spread before Abraham and his men. Though on one level we could clearly say that he was graciously feeding a hungry a mob, we may also see a symbolic gesture for an institution that would follow 2000 years later. We could very quickly see in the bread and wine an allusion to the Eucharist that Jesus would establish with his disciples at the Last Supper. In that setting he took the simple elements and consecrated them as his Body and Blood to serve as the spiritual nourishment of mankind.
And finally looking at Abraham’s gesture of paying a tithe to Melchizedek, we see in this an action an acknowledgement that Abraham considered Melchizedek to be greater than himself. While in Mesopotamia, the tax of a tenth portion of one’s assets was to be rendered either to a royal figure or to a deity, certainly by the time of Moses a tithe was interpreted as property of God alone. Jacob after having his dream of a ladder reaching up to heaven was said to pledge to God a tenth of all he had, and the law as laid down in the Book of Leviticus stated that “a tithe of everything … belongs to the Lord.”
Perhaps considering all of these particular details of Melchizedek and the little we know of him, we couldn’t necessarily say that they are all in fact proof that he was God on earth. While many would not quite want to take that big step of equating the ancient king of Salem with an earlier visitation of Jesus, most would probably at least acknowledge the various parts of Melchizedek’s story as a prefiguration or foreshadowing of Jesus who would come a couple thousand years later. Many stories of the Old Testament have served as typifications of Christ or his work and the story of Melchizedek is undoubtedly one of them, but before we relegate this shadowy figure from Genesis to the status of a simple forerunner or precursor of Jesus, we would do well to consider the testimony of the Apostle Paul on the figure of the great Melchizedek.
In the Book of Hebrews, Paul devotes a whole chapter to discuss this mysterious King of Salem. Initially he reiterates what we know from Genesis including the facts that he was both king and priest of the city. He then mentions how Abraham came to meet him after rescuing his nephew Lot from captivity and received a blessing at his hands. He also provides the detail of Abraham giving Melchizedek a tithe of his possessions and then proceeds to reveal more information about the shadowy king-priest that is not found in Genesis. Though the Old Testament narrative by itself didn’t provide enough details to put a clear lock on the identity of Melchizedek what Paul says next in his epistle clearly does. The Apostle speaks of the king’s origin declaring him “without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life.” Essentially Paul affirms what was hinted at in Genesis, namely that the Priest of Salem was in fact God himself in human form and he supports it with an appeal to his eternality, having no beginning or end and without ancestors or a family tree.
After this revelation from the great missionary to the Gentiles, Paul also makes a point of recalling how Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder that he scavenged from the kings when he rescued Lot. Desiring to underscore how significant Melchizedek really was, the apostle mentions the paying of this tithe to drive home “how great he was.” Essentially Paul is telling us that the gesture of giving Melchizedek a tenth of his belongings was a recognition of deity just as it was for the Israelites in the centuries to follow.
Paul then develops other ideas pertaining to the priesthood of Melchizedek linking it with the priesthood of Jesus Christ, another move equating the two personalities, for Jesus was never compared with anyone else in the entire Bible. He quotes a Messianic Psalm which referring to Christ says, “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” His purpose in writing this was not just to form a link between the two figures, but he wanted to make clear that Jesus was not a priest in the line of Aaron, the Jewish priesthood which was soon coming to an end. Rather he was a priest of eternal vintage of the same line and identity with Melchizedek, the name of his earlier appearance to humanity.
Now while there is ample support for a link between Jesus and Melchizedek through biblical evidence, the connection can be further strengthened by considering additional external writings and beliefs of various sects near the time that the Savior was on earth. A little more than a century and a half before Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, Judas Maccabeus a Jewish priest led a successful revolt against the Seleucids who were in control of Palestine and oppressed the Jews. With newly won independence the Jewish people elevated Maccabeus into power both as king and high priest which offended some within the Hasidim, the collective body of priests and teachers of the Law. Those who disapproved of this action claimed that the high priesthood rightfully belonged to the line of Zadok, the high priest of King David. The disagreement caused a schism with what would later be known as the Pharisees and Sadducees on one side and a sect called the Essenes on the other.
These Essenes withdrew into the wilderness, and as a mystical body of prophets and seers they became very preoccupied with the coming of the Messiah. In fact part of their identity was in paving the way for the Christ who would be born in the not too distant future, and they ultimately trained John the Baptist within their community in the desert south of Jerusalem for his special role. The Essenes had many rituals and observances in their tradition including one that they called the “Wedding Feast of the Messiah.” While not to be confused with the Eucharist that Jesus would institute, it was more akin to the Agape or Love Feasts that early Christians used to celebrate and what John the Evangelist envisioned as the “Wedding Feast of the Lamb.” Using bread and wine along with other elements they would celebrate the time when the Messiah would come to earth to share a banquet with all his faithful followers.
Many of the Essenic works have been found at Qumran in modern times and have been known collectively as the Dead Sea Scrolls. On one particular parchment, they recorded their belief in the Coming of the Messiah who they identify with the return of Melchizedek to mark a Great Jubilee year for the Jewish people. Quoting many Messianic scriptures, they foresaw Melchizedek proclaiming liberty to the captives upon his coming. The Essenes recorded their conviction that Melchizedek would release the people from their debt of sin making an atonement for all the “Sons of Light.” They wrote that he would establish a righteous kingdom and deliver the people from the power of Belial, a Satan like figure popular in Jewish apocrypha.
Clearly the Essenes were prophets who well foresaw the work of the Messiah who would come very shortly, and their belief that the Messiah was none other than Melchizedek the King of Salem only reinforces the notion that Jesus and Melchizedek are one in the same person only separated by 2000 years of history. But they were not the only ones to have such a belief. The Melchisedechians, a 9th century sect in Phrygia maintained that Melchizedek had been an incarnation of the Logos or the Divine Word that John speaks of. Consequently they saw Christ as a reincarnation of the King of Salem who lived upon the earth an age earlier.
Other Judeo-Christian sects had similar opinions about Christ. The Elkasites who lived in and around Palestine in the second century were written about by Saint Hippolytus, an early churchman and prolific writer. According to his writings, they believed that “… Christ was not for the first time on earth when born of a virgin, but that both previously and frequently again He had been born and would be born. Christ would thus appear and exist among us from time to time.”
A comparable idea was also found in the large apocryphal work known as Pseudo-Clement. A 3rd century philosophical and dogmatic work, it interweaves the story of Peter in his early apostolic work in Caesarea and the surrounding region with a young man named Clement who would go on to become bishop of Rome. At one point in the lengthy story, a reference is made to the Son of God along the same lines as those associated with the Elkasites. In a chapter titled “Christ the Only Prophet Has Appeared in Different Ages” we have a quote that says, “[Christ] who has changed his forms and his names from the beginning of the world, and so reappeared again and again in the world, until coming upon his own times, and being anointed with mercy for the works of God, he shall enjoy rest for ever. His honor it is to bear rule and lordship over all things, in air, earth, and waters.”
It is actually very interesting that the Elkasites along with the author of Pseudo-Clement had this conviction about Jesus, for a popular verse from the Old Testament tends to support their view. A Messianic scripture that many are familiar with comes from Micah regarding the place where the Savior would be born. It says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Probably most people focus in on the first part of the verse which reveals that Bethlehem would be the little town among many to have the honor of hosting the birth of the Savior. But some of the details in the latter part of the verse often go unnoticed. Specifically the text indicates that the Messianic ruler has had “goings forth” from of old or from ancient times. Though perhaps it sounds a little cryptic to our ears, it is a revelation of a pattern concerning the 2nd person of the Trinity, namely that he has gone forth from heaven to earth many times before even stretching back to distant prehistory.
The indication is that the Son of God journeys to earth on regular intervals to visit mankind. While his last visit to earth was unique in that it was an incarnation, the appearance of true God and true Man to be a sacrifice for sins, his prior comings may be thought of a little differently. Melchizedek though in the appearance of a flesh and blood man nonetheless did not have a human nature and for that matter was not even born of a mother. Rather he was what we may call a materialization of the divine, an appearance in the form of man which when his work was done simply dematerialized and returned to heaven.
The Divine Son has apparently visited the earth from time immemorial in a fashion like Melchizedek coming at the end of every age. Jesus frequently spoke about the end of the age in the gospels usually with an apocalyptic context. He indicated that a great harvest of souls would take place at that time including his own return. He promised his disciples that he would be with them until the end of the age. While for many this can be an indefinite and very long period of time, in a historical and biblical context an age is a fairly quantifiable and regular time period that has been recognized since ancient times.
Astrologically it is a period of about 2150 years or one-twelfth of the Great Year of approximately 25,800 years. It represents the time required for the vernal equinox to retrograde through the thirty-degree arc of one of the twelve constellations. According to many astrologers, the Earth is now moving from the Age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius which as many would recognize has been celebrated in popular folk tunes in recent times. There were roughly 2100 years between the coming of Melchizedek and the birth of Jesus which corresponds well with this ancient definition of an age, and with the greater than 2000 years that have elapsed since the Savior last appeared, many are keenly aware that his return draws nigh once again.
But if it is true that the 2nd person of the Trinity visits the human race roughly every 2000 or so years, we should wonder about the purpose of his stays on earth. We have a good understanding of the reason for his coming as Jesus of Nazareth to offer himself up as a sacrifice for the life of the world, but is there a more general purpose to his many appearances on earth in times past? Interestingly, we may have a partial answer to this question in the tradition of India that we considered at the beginning of this discussion. It was said that Vishnu, the 2nd person of the Hindu Trinity was believed to incarnate periodically among the peoples of India since ancient times. He is known within Hindu theology as the Preserver as it is his mission to preserve mankind from evil, and along these lines the spiritual writings of India contain a quote from Krishna who is believed to be the 8th incarnation of Vishnu. While serving as the charioteer for a prince named Arjuna, he revealed the purpose for his coming among men. He said, “Whenever there is a decline in righteousness and a rise in unrighteousness then I send forth myself. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, and for the establishment of righteousness, I come into being from age to age.”
According to what we may learn from the teachings of the Hindu religion, part of the mission of the Son of God is to revive the spirituality of humanity and restore teachings that have faded into oblivion since his last visit. The coming of the Divine Son then serves as a periodic “shot in the arm” to bolster the spiritual condition of mankind which ultimately decays in his absence. This is because the visit of this member of the Trinity is accompanied by a phenomenal amount of spiritual power that quickens a sleeping world that has fallen into corruption. As any historian would say, the 20th century has been the worst in terms of man’s inhumanity to man along with bloodshed and loss of life, and it is in no small part a result of the fact that the Savior has been gone from the planet for a great amount of time. Ultimately he must return and will do so to save humanity from destroying itself. Jesus alluded to this in the gospel of Matthew when he was speaking of the end of the age. He said, “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days would be shortened.” In other words, Jesus will return just in time to intercept man from a collision course with annihilation.
But as was just suggested, when he comes he will seek to refresh the teachings that he brought on his last visit that have since faded off the radar. This is evident in the gospels where Jesus attempted to reinstate principles that were made known to mankind through Melchizedek. In an age of polygamy and all sorts of marital arrangements, it seems likely that Melchizedek strove to raise the moral bar for humanity by instituting marriage between one man and one woman, an equal partnership that was more evident in the union of Abraham and Sarah than in any of their descendants who would follow. It wasn’t long after Melchizedek departed from the earth that the budding Israelite nation would embrace polygamy and strong patriarchal dominance over women. Jesus reestablished the standard in his conversation with the Pharisees to assert that the higher ideal is a partnership between one man and one woman. And on top of this he brought to light that divorce which had been permitted by Moses was in fact not part of the original plan and reestablished the permanence of the marital union. This ancient concept had been perhaps ignored or forgotten by the time of Moses so that he included provisions for divorce in his law to the Israelites, but Jesus clarified to the Pharisees that this was only a concession to the hardness of their hearts, an abandonment of a higher ideal to accommodate a spiritually weak people.
On another occasion Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees with another corrupted notion that they had regarding the contingencies of a marriage and remarriage scenario that they presented to him in order to trip him up. They hypothesized that a woman had been married to a man and then was widowed, and she subsequently married six other men one by one who all died leaving her a widow at the end of her life. Then the Pharisees hoping to catch Jesus in a trap asked to which man the woman would be married at the resurrection from the dead. But seeking to refresh an ancient truth which had been lost by this time, Jesus debunked the corrupted understanding of the Pharisees who envisioned a materialistic resurrection that included sexuality. Rather he made clear that the resurrection of man would be a spiritual one indicating that man is destined to be like the angels with a spiritual body that is obviously free from the physical senses.
Now considering again that the Son of God comes to earth on a periodic basis, there is a more fundamental reason that his visits are of a cyclical nature. If we observe the physical creation we notice that cycles are part of the fabric of life. From the electron that orbits around the atom’s nucleus to the planets that orbit the sun, from the micro scale to the macro scale cycles are a part of the working of the universe. Just as the seasons pass from summer to winter and back again, so are there cyclical patterns in the life of man. Not just the routine of daily or weekly living, the development of man’s spiritual nature follows a circular course as well, and this is no better illustrated than through the pattern of the children of Israel as they wandered the desert of Sinai.
Though it was a short trip from Egypt to Canaan, a journey that should have taken only a few weeks, the Israelites spent 40 years circling the desert sands before finally entering the Promised Land. Their trek is well documented in the Books of Moses where it is cited that they visited the same location in the wilderness a number of times. One of these was Meribah, a place name meaning bitterness where the Israelites complained to God that there was no water to drink. There they were tested and failed on both occasions with a rebellious attitude toward God. They might not have had to revisit the place a second time had they made another choice 40 years earlier. Shortly after coming up out of Egypt, they had an opportunity to enter Canaan directly, but after hearing reports that there were giants in the land, they got scared and declined making an invasion and so entered a seemingly endless cycle of retracing their steps in the desert. At one point they came to a place called Shur which has much relevance to this topic, for it means “going round about” as if circling a city wall much like the Israelites did in the conquest of Jericho.
Though reading about the story of these wanderers many centuries later, we may be tempted to pass judgment on them as a bunch of foolish rebels who could have done a lot better. Yet their story bears a message for us in revealing the pattern of our own spiritual development, for in our journey of faith we are many times retracing our steps coming to the same place where we were tested and failed on a prior occasion. Though we may circle a number of times and fail at the same point repeatedly, each time unbeknownst to us we are becoming a little stronger and more experienced so that eventually we fully learn our lesson and break out of what seems to be an endless cycle. The reality is that the Israelites weren’t strong enough in the inner man to invade the Promised Land when they first came out of Egypt. But after 40 long years of struggle and learning from the harsh experiences of the wilderness, they were at last equipped to do so and entered the land of milk and honey.
Now not only do individual people experience spiritual growth in a circular pattern as did the children of Israel, so also does mankind as a whole trace its spiritual progress in a cyclical manner. The human race is also developing in a corporate way both intellectually and spiritually just as individuals do on a personal basis. One may be thought of as the macrocosm and the other as the microcosm but the patterns are very similar and mirror each other. In the midst of mankind’s greater cycle, there comes a point along the way where it arrives at a critical juncture, a place of trial and testing where like the Israelites of old there is an opportunity to take the next step and progress to a higher place. For the human race, this critical point occurs at the end of an age where mankind finds itself in desperate need of the spiritual assistance and teaching of the Savior to propel it to a higher level. For this reason does the Son of God come forth to aid mankind at this time that it needs him the most.
When he comes, the Divine Son brings with him an incredible amount of spiritual power with him that gives a boost to the whole planet. Reestablishing his teachings from the last visit, he prepares the world to receive a slightly higher revelation of the truth that it was previously incapable of receiving the last time around. When he came 2000 years ago, part of this mission was elevating mankind to accept his law of love, a difficult task for a culture that was steeped in the tradition of an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” His goal was to move the human race from the low road of justice and retribution to the high road of love and forgiveness. Though clearly the entire race hasn’t yet learned this truth, the Christian faith that Jesus established has brought this message throughout the entire world. Though the impact of his last visit is by no means complete, the effects of it can still be seen overall with an increase in the moral standard throughout the world. Institutions like polygamy and slavery which were common and considered normal an age ago have now been largely eradicated as the consciousness of the race has been elevated to a higher standard.
As the advent of his next coming is upon us, humanity is once again in great need for the revelation that he will bring to us. Building on the old teachings, he will divulge to the spiritual seekers of the world information that will take humanity to the next step. Like the Essenes of old who with John the Baptist prepared the way for his coming as Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God is looking to us to prepare the way for his return, making the world ready to receive him as Christ the King. For when he appears, he will take his power to reign over the whole earth from one ocean to the next. He will establish a righteous kingdom in which there will be peace that the world has never yet known. Many of us may live to see him in that day, and yet we should soberly remember the words of Luke who tells us that we “should pray that we have the strength to stand before the Son of Man.”