*Witness and Warning to the Powerful

The Bible contains an interesting phenomenon, one found especially in the Old Testament, in which God coordinates events to place one of His servants in a position of high visibility and sometimes great power at the center of world events. In this way, He sounds a warning and makes a witness of His will and His way among the "greats" of the time.

The Bible hints that such placements happened more often than we generally realize. A few of His servants may have held such positions or at least been highly visible to the powers that were then in control, but we are not given any Scriptural details. For instance, Noah, "a preacher of righteousness" (II Peter 2:5), may have done something of the sort before the Flood, warning the rulers of the pre-Flood world of their imminent doom. Early myth/history drops clues that his son, Shem, proved a thorn in the side of early Mesopotamian and Egyptian kings post-Flood.

Nevertheless, the Bible explicitly ties several of God's servants to rulers of kingdoms and great empires:

• When Abram hears that Lot and his family have been taken captive by a host out of Mesopotamia, he gathers his 318 trained servants and goes in pursuit. He not only recovers his relatives, but he also brings back to Sodom all of the city's captives and their plundered goods. This earns him the boundless gratitude of the king of Sodom, but Abram and Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, give all the credit to the Almighty (see Genesis 14:14-24). His rescue of Lot and his refusal of reward make a witness to all of Sodom, which would soon be destroyed by God for its sins (Genesis 19).
• Though his brothers cruelly sell young Joseph into slavery, he is eventually promoted to second-in-command over Egypt, the world's superpower of the day. The Pharaoh tells him in Genesis 41:40, "You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you." When the prophesied great famine comes, he garners even more power as the one to whom all have to come if they want to buy grain. Significantly, Joseph gives God all the credit for his wisdom, telling Pharaoh, "It is not in me [to interpret your dream]; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace" (Genesis 41:16). Through Joseph, God saves Egypt and provides for Israel throughout the famine, as well as arranging for Israel's astounding growth in Goshen while "the iniquity of the Amorites" (Genesis 15:16) ran its course in Canaan.
• A few generations later, God again manipulates events to allow Moses to be brought up by the crown princess in the very house of Pharaoh, giving him the title "son of Pharaoh's daughter" (Hebrews 11:24) and putting him in line for the throne of Egypt. He also has access to "all the wisdom of the Egyptians" so that he becomes "mighty in words and deeds" (Acts 7:22). When God later brings him out of the wilderness to confront Pharaoh and bring His people out of Egyptian slavery, Moses has both the access and stature to bring God's message directly to the king. Through ten terrible plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea, he delivers a tremendous warning and witness to Egypt.
• We may not consider the prophet Jonah in this light, but his prophecy finds its way into a palace. Once the prophet finally arrives in Nineveh, the capital city of the mighty Assyrian empire, his preaching reaches the king's ears: "Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes" (Jonah 3:6). It is the king who decrees that everyone in the city—even all the animals!—are to fast, cry out to God, and repent of their evils. A great tragedy is delayed by their repentance and a great witness made of the power and mercy of the God of Israel.
• In the story of Daniel, God takes a youth from among the captives of the Jews in Babylon, and by interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream, raises him to prominence in his court. "Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts; and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon" (Daniel 2:48). Later, Belshazzar makes Daniel third ruler in the kingdom (Daniel 5:29), behind only himself and his father. Darius, the first ruler of Babylon under the Medes and Persians, appoints Daniel to be one of three governors over the entire empire (Daniel 6:1-2), a position he holds under Cyrus when he takes up the reins of power not long thereafter. For six or seven decades, the prophet witnesses constantly before the rulers of these powerful empires, giving all the credit to God (Daniel 2:28; 5:18; 6:22).
• Less than a century later, another Persian king, Ahasuerus (most likely Xerxes I), appoints another Jew, Mordecai, to great power in the empire: "For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen" (Esther 10:3). The good service he gives to the king probably paves the way for both Ezra and Nehemiah to do their work in Jerusalem not long thereafter.
• Nehemiah, as cupbearer to the Persian king, is a highly trusted confidant of Artaxerxes (successor to Xerxes I). The cupbearer is with the king at all meals, ensuring that the king's drink is not poisoned (and perhaps his food as well). As soon as Nehemiah asks permission to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, the king immediately appoints him governor of the region and sends forces with him to make sure he arrives safely. His every action shows him to be a trustworthy and godly servant.
• Finally, among these examples should be included the apostle Paul, who appeals to Caesar while imprisoned in Caesarea on charges trumped up by the Jews (Acts 25:10-12). Through many trials, Paul is eventually delivered to Rome, where he spends two whole years "preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him" (Acts 28:31). Although we have no biblical record of it, he must have come to trial before Caesar and been acquitted of all charges, as he is released to continue his ministry after the two years are up. So, Paul witnesses before the greatest ruler of his day, the Roman emperor!

In the not-too-distant future, Christ will raise His Two Witnesses to preach and warn the whole world that He is coming to bring His Kingdom to this earth (see Revelation 11). God always ensures that no one—and especially those with real power in the world—can claim ignorance before Him in the Day of Judgment.

The Pre-Incarnate Christ

Where did Jesus come from? A person reading the Bible for the first time could easily finish the last verses of Malachi and begin to read Matthew only to feel somewhat blindsided by the sudden announcement and birth of Jesus, called Immanuel, "God with us." From one page to the next, the Messiah appears out of the blue, as it were, the divine abruptly breaking into human affairs.

Of course, this is only a perception by some, not reality. In fact, many Jews of that day, watching the signs of the times, were expecting the Messiah at any time. First-century ad Judea was awash in Messianic expectation and fervor. Every few years, a new Messianic candidate would arise, gather a following, revolt against the Romans, and be executed (see, for instance, Acts 5:36-37; 21:38). Between the death of Herod the Great in 4 bc and the suppression of the Bar Kochba Revolt in ad 135, as many as eighteen men, including Jesus of Nazareth, were acclaimed Messiah in the region of Roman Judea.

In the midst of this period, the apostle Paul writes in Galatians 3:24, "Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ," a principle suggesting that the Old Testament is a guide in preparation for Messiah. In this context, it implies that the Old Testament is full of references, allusions, prophecies, and instructions concerning the true Christ. In other words, far from being mostly silent about Jesus, the Old Testament is a vital source of revelation about Him! Jesus verifies this Himself in Luke 24:44, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me" (see also Acts 18:28; 28:23).

Most people realize that the Old Testament contains many prophecies of Christ, and in fact, Jesus fulfilled about 300 individual prophetic details. More broadly, however, the Old Testament chronicles, not just prophecies of His coming, but also the historical activities of the One who became Jesus Christ. Unlike other humans, Jesus was not a created Being but God the Word who "became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:1, 14). In short, He pre-existed as God—with all that entails—before His physical life and ministry.

In the famous passage in Philippians 2:5-8, Paul declares:

. . . Jesus Christ, . . . being in the form of God, did not consider it [a thing to be grasped] to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Clearly, Paul believes that Jesus had existed as a divine Being before His birth, and that He volunteered to divest Himself of much of His glory, power, and prerogatives to become a lowly human being and to die to redeem humanity from its sins. Moreover, the apostle asserts in other places that the pre-incarnate Christ was Creator of all things (I Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2), that He led Israel through the wilderness (I Corinthians 10:1-4), and that, as "Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, . . . [He] met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him" (Hebrews 7:1-3).

Did Jesus makes similar claims about Himself—that He had existed as God before His birth to Mary? Yes, many times! The Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—contain many claims of divinity and pre-existence, though few of them are explicit. In Matthew 12:8, He proclaims, "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath," equating Himself with the Creator, who "rested on the seventh day" and hallowed it (Genesis 2:1-3; Exodus 20:11). When Jesus drove out the moneychangers, He claims the Temple to be "My house" (Matthew 21:13). In lamenting over Jerusalem, He grieves over how He wanted to comfort and protect the people "often" throughout history, but they resisted (Matthew 23:37). After the scribes argue, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Jesus specifically says, ". . . the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins," a not-so-subtle declaration of His divinity, which He backs up with an astounding miracle of healing (Mark 2:7, 10-12). In Luke 10:18, He tells His disciples, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven," referring to an event that occurred before man was created (see Isaiah 14:12; Ezekiel 28:12-16). Later, under arrest and facing the Sanhedrin, He answers the question, "Are You then the Son of God?" with a firm, "You rightly say that I am" (Luke 22:70).

In contrast, the gospel of John proclaims the divine nature of Christ from its opening salvo: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). John shows Jesus doing little to obscure His divinity. Before the first chapter ends, He is acknowledged as "the Son of God" and "the King of Israel" (verse 49), and He Himself declares, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (verse 51). When in John 5:17 Jesus asserts, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working," the Jewish authorities "sought all the more to kill Him, because He . . . said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God" (verse 18). In John 5:26, He claims to have "life in Himself," that is, inherent life as ever-living God. He informs the Jews that He knew Abraham, who "rejoiced to see My day" (John 8:56), and when they protest that He was far too young, He announces, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM" (verse 58), taking upon Himself the divine name of the Eternal God. Later, He tells His disciples, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9), meaning that Jesus is "the express image" of the Father (Hebrews 1:3). In His final prayer with the disciples, He asks, "And now, O Father, glorify Me . . . with the glory which I had with You before the world was" (John 17:5).

These few examples only scratch the surface of the Bible's claims to the divinity and pre-existence of Jesus. Our salvation, in fact, depends on it, for if He were merely human, His death would be insufficient to pay for others' sins, even though He never sinned. However, if He were more than human—say, the Creator of all things—His sinless death would be priceless, more than enough to atone for the sins of all humanity for all time. Only the sacrificial death of the blameless Creator God makes redemption possible, and only His resurrection to life makes salvation and eternal life available to the called and chosen (Romans 3:21-26; 5:6-11). For this, we can truly be thankful.