Have We Missed the Boat?

The span of time was 28 generations.  If the accepted span of a generation is 25 years, then the time between Isaiah and Jesus was approximately 28 generations; around 700 years.   As we move through another advent, we read the prophesy of Isaiah that points toward the arrival of John and Jesus.  A great deal happened in the meantime.  The Diaspora, numerous redemptions and falls of Israel, and the destruction and rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem along with invasions by the Assyrians, various Persian sects, the Greeks and the Romans.  State behavior didn’t change much and Israel remained a relatively minor country with varying levels of independence from the regional empires of various epochs.   In spite of all of this John and Jesus arrived in Palestine.  Later recognized by Christians as the Messiah,  Jesus was the realization of Isaiah’s prophesy 700 years earlier.  So what did the people reading, or hearing, this prophesy think during the 28 generation wait?  Did they feel abandoned by God?   Did they lose hope?  Is this why so many refused to acknowledge that Jesus was the Messiah?

It can be effectively deduced that at the time of Jesus, Israel was a country under oppression.   Rome was all-powerful with wealth and weaponry that was overwhelming to the people of Palestine.   As the priestly class acquiesced with the Roman authority, the people of Israel were living life day to day with little hope of change.   It could only be assumed that the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah would have to be some all powerful leader who could represent the will of God to smite the Roman oppressors and bring in a reign that had no known equal.   Jesus shows up in sandals and starts talking to the poor about a kingdom no one could understand or imagine.   

What would Isaiah think?   He writes of a Messiah of humble origins, but did he see this in the model of David or the simple carpenter that threatened the existing order without raising a sword.   Jesus’ ministry and death were mere blips in the time continuum that is human kind, yet the influence arguably covers 2700 years.   Roughly 108 generations. This encourages those awaiting a second coming.  God takes his time.  As I wrote earlier, many things happened between the time of Isaiah and Jesus.  Many leaders rose and fell.  Israel experienced various levels of prosperity, destitution and obscurity.    

Jews have not recognized Jesus as the Messiah of Isaiah and have not acknowledged any one yet.   Christians, expecting Jesus’ return have not experienced that return.  Or have we?  The dreaded or anticipated apocalypse, depending on one’s point of view, has not occurred despite numerous predictions.  Or has it? Some thirty years after Paul, Jerusalem was razed.  In the 5^th century, Rome fell.  Throughout the middle ages one conquest after the other lead to millions of dead.  Plagues occurred resulting in the deaths of millions.  Europe was in a constant state of war through World War II.   The twentieth century resulted in 100 million deaths from war.  What constitutes an apocalypse?  Maybe we just don’t understand that we should be better now.  Or did everyone miss the rapture?