It’s a two way dependency: The only way to understand the New Testament is to fully embrace the Hebrew mind, the Old Testament imagery and promises of God. The only way to fully understand those promises is to match them up with what happened in the New Testament. Today we are going to dig into another bit of Old Testament imagery and show how it becomes the reality of the New Testament.
As the Wandering in the Wilderness came to a close, Moses sat down with the nation and recounted the Covenant they had received a generation ago at Mount Sinai. That’s the Book of Deuteronomy (“second recounting of the Covenant”). Starting in 4:25, Moses warned them that disobedience to the Covenant would result in being exiled from the land God was about to give them.
Fast forward to Isaiah, who renewed this warning, among other things. He spoke of a time when the nation would be broken down, the City of Jerusalem destroyed, and the people carried away into exile. It was a time in their future. Then, a day would come when the Lord would restore them, speaking of a coming Messiah to lead them into a fresh future.
As the day of exile approached, Jeremiah hammered home the message that they had brought this upon themselves. At that point, the only thing left was for the people to individually choose to submit to God’s will and save their lives to live in exile. At about the same time, Ezekiel prophesied in the Babylonian Exile why these things were happening. He further warned the exiles already there that the Lord would not relent from His declared punishment.
Sure enough, in Ezekiel 33, a refugee escaped from the destruction of Jerusalem to inform Ezekiel that the city had fallen. Just before that happens, Ezekiel had been called on the carpet before God, as it were, given a stern message about staying the course. His commission was to be the watchman on the wall. We are all familiar with the protocol here. He must remain faithful in warning the people, regardless of how they react. If not, he will become accountable for when God’s wrath falls on them. If they refuse to listen, then their sins will be on their own heads. Connected to this timely reminder, Ezekiel is struck dumb for a time. The arrival of the messenger looses his tongue.
We all know that the job of watchman was a metaphor. Ezekiel was in Babylon, not Jerusalem. He was a moral watchman over the message of God to a people already in exile. Their biggest threat was not a literal invasion there under the watchful eye of the Babylonians, but of their own tendency to assume they had God’s favor unconditionally. They forgot what Moses said back in Deuteronomy. Where else does this image of the watchman show up? We need a broader grasp of how this was used in Hebrew lore.
It showed up earlier in Isaiah 40, where the prophet speaks for God, addressing someone who is given the mission to comfort the nation after a storm of divine wrath — they had paid double for their sins. This is one of those places where Isaiah had warned the nation of coming wrath and exile, followed by restoration. Thus, God is telling some agent of His to restore the people to His favor. The city has been destroyed, but God is coming to remedy things. Thus, a herald is commissioned to run through the land telling the people to prepare a welcome for Him. Prepare a path for the coming restoration! He will come as a conquering hero.
Where was that quoted in the NT? John the Baptist (John 1:19-31) was accosted by a commission of Pharisees examining his ministry. They were asking peculiar questions based on their corrupt interpretation of the Scriptures, so John denied being anyone fitting their labels. Instead, he quoted Isaiah 40 about being that herald who was running through the land before the Messiah came, warning everyone to prepare to welcome Him. It wasn’t literal, of course, because Jesus wasn’t expecting road building projects and rest stations along some highway route.
The Pharisees were being obtuse about this, but they should have realized John the Baptist was calling himself the forerunner of the Messiah. The Messiah was coming to restore the nation and reign as King. Not in a literal sense, because the Covenant was slated for translation to a spiritual kingdom.
But notice that God’s voice in the first few verses of Isaiah 40 is addressing someone in a Hebrew plural, something that doesn’t come across in most English translations. He’s calling out to some persons watching over the ruins of the City of Jerusalem. That could not be human watchmen — it was ruins — but spiritual beings guarding a spiritual heritage for renewal. It’s a Divine Council scene. That would be more obvious in Isaiah 6, where the prophet is called before God’s divine courts. There would be the divine host and all the heavenly staff of God present.
And while this image in Isaiah 40 includes the idea of a divine herald running over the mountain tops, it is more bluntly stated in those terms in Isaiah 52. John the Baptist was in verse 7 there. And in that next verse, we see the divine watchmen again. They celebrate to see John the Baptist coming to prepare the way for Jesus. And then comes Isaiah’s Suffering Servant messages shortly after that.
We can find other references to human watchmen in the OT: Micah 7:4, Jeremiah 31:6 and 51:12. The symbol is more important than the historical instance in each case. They represent the role over the actual figures. It was not merely John the Baptist who filled this role; the ultimate use of such symbols is in the Book of Revelation 14:1-4. It’s a case of “already, but not yet”.
Who has been standing ready, “watchmen” waiting for the final Day of Christ’s ascension to His Throne? The Apostle John describes 144,000 male virgins — both the numbers and the virginity are symbols. These are not mere humans, but people who have “endured to the end”. That image of enduring and passing on into an eternal form is echoed in lots of NT passages. This is where we remind ourselves that in Eternity, humans restored to their eternal form will displace the rebellious Divine Council. This hoard of male virgins are celebrating the same thing Isaiah 52 prophesies.
