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The concept of the “last days” plays a unique role in inmillennialism. (We invite the reader to verify this by clicking on the “last days” tag in the column to the right of this post.) This is the only prophetic framework that assigns this term to the end of the Mosaic Age, not the end of history.
The “last days” idea first occurs in Jacob’s blessing of his twelve sons. Before his death, he declared what would befall Israel “in the last days” (Gen 49:1). Jacob’s most important blessing fell on Judah: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah . . . until Shiloh come” (Gen 49:10). Israel’s last days would produce the Messiah.
This provides a starting point for the “last days” period. Jesus gave the terminal point. He associated “the end” with the Temple’s destruction (Matt 24:1–3, 6, 13–14). This “end” would occur in his generation (Matt 24:34).
So, Israel’s “last days” comprised the period from the birth of Christ to AD 70 when the Romans destroyed the Temple. Inmillennialism says this is the usual meaning of this term in Scripture.
Matthew conforms to this definition in the second chapter of his gospel record. He cites four Old Testament prophecies. All involved the birth of Christ. All were prophecies of Israel’s “last days.”
Commentators debate how New Testament writers quote the Old Testament. Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. approves C. H. Dodd’s observation that such “citations were pointers to the larger contexts in which they were found.”1
We agree. When Matthew asserts certain events fulfilled Old Testament prophecies, he has the context of those prophecies in view. (He is not lifting “proof texts” out of their original setting to serve his purposes.) These contexts allow us to see the “last days” setting for each of the four prophecy fulfillments in Matthew 2.
Christ Would be Born in Bethlehem
The report of the birth of another king disturbed Herod (Matt 2:3). He demanded the chief priests and scribes tell him the birthplace of this King. They replied, “In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel” (Matt 2:5–6). This is a citation of Micah 5:2.
This prophecy was a vital part of the larger context in Micah. It was part of how God would establish the Messianic kingdom.
In the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Mic 4:1–3; emphasis added)
The birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem would occur in Israel’s “last days.”
The fulfillment of this prophecy did not await the “last days” of planet earth. It occurred in the “last days” of the Mosaic Age. This validates the inmillennial perspective.
God’s Son in Egypt
After learning Christ’s birth would occur in Bethlehem, Herod determined to kill him. An angel warned Joseph and Mary to take the child to Egypt for safety. Joseph “took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Matt 2:14–15).
The prophecy occurs in Hosea 11:1. It describes God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. A discussion of how Matthew knew it pertained to the young Christ child is beyond this post. We refer the reader to Typology and Inmillennialism for some hints. Our purpose here is to show the context of Hosea’s prophecy places the fulfillment in Israel’s “last days.”
Hosea lived just before the Assyrians destroyed Israel (the northern kingdom). Most of his prophecy deals with that soon-coming destruction. Yet, there are glimmers of hope for the future beyond that event. Hosea scatters these suggestions throughout his book. For example, he reports what God said to Israel.
Ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. (Hos 1:9–10)
God began to fulfill this prophecy in the apostles’ generation (cp. Rom 9:24-26).
Hosea makes an explicit statement about his optimistic prophecies. They would occur in the “last days.” God would judge Israel in his near future. “Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king (i.e., Christ); and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days” (Hos 3:5).
The fulfillment of Hosea’s “latter days” prophecy does not await the end of time.
The Murder of the Innocents
Herod ordered the death of all children two years old and younger in Bethlehem.2 This “murder of the innocents” fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jer 31:15).
The Lord provided directions for when this dreaded event happened. The people were to remember that this event would precede the goal of Israel’s history. As they wept for their children, they should remember God’s promise: “There is hope in thine end, saith the LORD” (Jer 31:17; emphasis added). The nation’s end (or goal) would come when God established a new covenant with them in Christ.
God fulfilled his word just as he promised. Herod committed mass murder but failed to kill the Christ child. Then the Mosaic Age reached the goal for which God designed it. This occurred when God established the new covenant through Christ (Jer 31:31–34; Heb 8:8–12; 10:16–17).
The context in Jeremiah links these events to Israel’s “latter days.” “The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it” (Jer 30:24, emphasis added; cp. Heb 1:2).
Herod performed his horrid act in “the latter days” of the Mosaic Age.
Jesus the Nazarene
After Herod’s death, Joseph brought Mary and the Christ child out of Egypt. He “turned aside into the parts of Galilee: And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene” (Matt 2:22–23).
This presents a problem because “these words are found nowhere in the OT.”3 John Gill offers a solution. He says the name “Nazarene . . . signified a branch, according to Isa. 11:1.”4
Several Old Testament prophecies show Christ as the Branch. Jeremiah, for example, says “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth” (Jer 23:5). This would occur in Israel’s “latter days” (Jer 23:20).
Also, Zechariah says,
Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD: Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. (Zec 6:12–13)
Again, this would occur during “the time of the latter rain” (Zech 10:1).
The fulfillment of the Branch (or Nazarene) prophecy occurred in the “last days” of the Mosaic Age.
Conclusion
Matthew’s citations fit well within inmillennialism. God fulfilled these prophecies in the “last days” of the Mosaic Age. Terms like this almost always carry this meaning. They seldom, if ever, refer to the end of history.
The other prophetic models5 must assign a different meaning to these terms. Sometimes they refer to the entire Messianic Age. In other contexts, they mean the time just before the end of history. This is inconsistent and contrary to the way Scripture uses these terms.
God brought salvation through Christ in the “last days” of the Mosaic Age. As a result, our Lord Jesus Christ now reigns in his kingdom. He will continue to do so until he defeats all his enemies. The final enemy, death, will fall in the resurrection at the end of Christ’s reign (1 Cor 15:25–26).
In the meantime, saints go to be with the Lord when they die. They live and reign with him until the resurrection (2 Cor 5:8; Rev 20:4). They witness the triumph of the kingdom of God in history.
After the resurrection, God will conduct the final judgment. He will then banish sin and all its effects from his creation.
The “last days” work of God prepared the way for this glorious future.
Footnotes
- Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., The Uses of the Old Testament in the New (Chicago: Moody Press, 1985), 11.
- The above image is Slaughter of the Innocents by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448–94). This file (here) is in the public domain (PD-US).
- D. A. Carson, “Matthew,” in Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 97.
- John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments in The Baptist Commentary Series (Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 7:18. Emphasis added.
- As described here: amillennialism, postmillennialism, dispensational premillennialism, and historic premillennialism.
