400 years of silence

Here's Precept's verse of the week - Malachi 3:1:

I remember the first time I learned about the 400 years of silence between Malachi and Matthew. And how interesting that was.   How in that 400 years, God was setting everything up to prepare the way for Jesus.  

When we studied the book of John, Kay Arthur did a video introduction to the book. She talked about the 400 years of silence. God did not communicate to His people through a prophet during this time, but God was not inactive.   She said that during this 400 years, God was doing a work to prepare the way for His Son.

1)  The Roman Roads

Pax Romana -  The Roman empire brought civil and military peace between all the nationalities that were in the empire.  Because of this peace, the Romans were able to build thousands and thousands of miles of roads.  This peace lasted from 27 bc to 180 ad.

In fact, Paul, who wrote many of our New Testament books, was a Roman citizen.  And that citizenship protected him from the Jews.  Acts 23 records one such incidence.

Here's a map from (https://www.vox.com/world/2018/6/19/17469176/roman-empire-maps-history-explained) that shows how large the Roman Empire was.  It was roughly the area of the current United States, with the Mediterranean Sea in the middle of it.

Because of this peace and ability to travel long distances quickly and in relative safety, this set the stage for when the Gospel would be spread from Jerusalem throughout the Roman Empire. 

 

2)  Koine Greek

During the time of Alexander the Great, about 336-323 bc, his Greek Empire took the Greek language throughout his Empire.  The Greek language transformed into Koine Greek during this time and it became the standard language of commerce and government.  By the time of Jesus, the whole Old Testament had been translated from Hebrew into Koine Greek (this is the translation known as the Septuagint).    So that God had a universal book for the whole world - that they might know The Truth and The Gospel.

3)  Highway through Palestine

Palestine was the crossroads of the Roman Empire.   There was a highway (I believe it was the Kings Highway) that ran from Egypt, around the Mediterranean Sea and up the side of the Mediterranean to Syria.  This highway went right through Palestine.   It was one of the more important roads in the Roman Empire for commerce and military purposes.  This road was so very important so that the Word could be brought to the entire world.

In Galatians 4:4-5, Paul writes " But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under ^[e]the Law, ⁵ so that He might redeem those who were under ^[f]the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."  This fullness of time seems to refer to this 400 years of silence that preceded the birth of Jesus.  God was getting ready for the single most important and significant person of all time on this Earth - the birth of His Son, Jesus Christ.