When the Fullness of Time Came

When the Fullness of Time Came (Gal 4:4) – God, by means of His Word given through prophets, gave many timelines as to what He would oversee happening before the Messiah would come.  He told Abraham his heirs would spend four hundred years in affliction (Gen 15:13) and they did after Joseph’s time in the land of Egypt before the Exodus (Ex 12:40f).  Isaiah, along with many other prophets, preached warning of another great exile on the northern and then upon the southern kingdoms.  Isaiah named the future Persian king who would release the Jews to go and rebuild the temple (Isaiah 44:28f).  While in exile, Daniel, interpreting the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, foretold of four kingdoms who would rise up before the kingdom of God would be set up (Dan 2:31-45); a similar vision was given to Belshazzar in his first year of reign, the last king of Babylon before their fall to the Medes (Dan 7).  Following these and other prophecies of Daniel, with the establishment of the Roman Empire and the Caesars who claimed to be the manifestation of a divine kingdom, the time had come (Luke 2:1).