The Book of Acts and the Jews of “This Generation”
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WORD'S AND THE POWER OF CONTEXT
Nowadays, if you want to insult someone in the English tongue or undermine the credibility of their position in a self-righteous sort of way, all you need to do is call them a racist, a lover of Hitler, or some other equally aggressive postulate, and that should do the trick. The reason such a flimsy and lazy tactic, usually employed by the left, has any teeth at all is because it is undergirded with a contextual meaning that is shared by both the communicator and receiver. Apart from the grisly background those terms were born in, the words "racist" and "nazi" have no intrinsic meaning. They are mere sounds. You could even imagine a language somewhere on earth where words sounding like "racist" or "Nazi" meant something very different entirely, like lovers of fine wines and expensive cheeses. This lets us know that words are mere sounds that function as vehicles for meaning, constricted by a unique and nearby context.
The problem generally occurs when you are attempting to understand a word or phrase that does not happen within a near-enough context. The reason "nazi" evokes such a visceral reaction among Westerners, Europeans, and Americans is because the events of the Holocaust happened near enough in proximity to where we now stand to provoke a guttural reaction. But, if I level an insult, such as "you are as crooked as a tax collector," there is a good chance most people are substantially removed from the political situation of first-century Judah and do not fully comprehend the degree of infamy embedded in the term. And there are more examples than just this one.
This is precisely why, as budding Bible students and faithful exegetes, we must attempt to understand the original setting and context of the words in Scriptures. If the meaning is carried along through words embedded in a particular context, to the degree we understand that setting will be to the degree, we rightly understand the potency and accuracy of Biblical words. With this in mind, I would like us to dive back into Peter's Pentecost sermon to examine the context under one particular phrase: "This generation." Once we have seen what is under that phrase, looking at it from Moses to Jesus to Paul, our understanding of what that phrase means will be refined and sharpened. Furthermore, once we understand this phrase rightly, we can no longer hold to a futurist interpretation of this passage but will instead see how various eschatological passages have already found their completion in the first century.
But before we get there, let us quickly recap where we have been.
THE OPTIMISTIC RECAP
Over the last seven weeks, we have examined the eschatological passages in the book of Acts, intending to see what they teach us about the end times. You know, context. As you will remember, after a brief introduction in week 1, we saw in week 2 how Christ ascended physically and bodily into heaven in fulfillment of Daniel chapter 7. By doing this, Christ sat on the throne to reign over His Kingdom. The sign that He was reigning was the wind and fire theophany set aloft His disciples' heads, who, according to Daniel 7, would not only inherit His worldwide Kingdom but would participate in its global dominion. In week 3, we saw how all of the events of Pentecost constitute eschatological events.
From there, in week 4 and week 5, we moved beyond the miraculous events in Pentecost to examine Peter's magnificent Jerusalem sermon. In that message, Peter uses passages like Joel 2 and others to alert his audience that the messianic age had just begun and that the reign of Christ was inaugurated in their viewing. And in case we fail to make the connections elsewhere, this is the millennial reign of Christ on His throne, whereby He will bring the nations under the reign of His government and under the blessing of His peace.
After seeing that last week, we examined the nature of Christ's reign and looked specifically into what milestones His reign would accomplish on earth before He returns to close out human history. By quoting Psalm 110, Peter gives us the essential context to see that Jesus will reign unabated on earth until all His enemies have been put under His feet. Thus, the reign of Christ will continue until Jesus has no more enemies left on earth, and then He will hand the Kingdom over to His Father in heaven (1 Corinthians 15).
THE PESSIMISTIC RECAP
Now, with all of this optimism, it would be easy to forget the context of impending doom that is soon to come upon the reprobate Jews, who announced to Pilate, "Let His blood be on us and on our children." This is not antisemitism but merely an accurate portrayal of the facts of history. This same group of first-century Jews were the ones Jesus was referring to when he prophesied 43 days earlier that all of God's fury would be poured out on "that generation," leaving their house (the temple and Jerusalem) completely desolate (Matthew 23:34-38). This is the group that Jesus said were children of Satan (John 8:44), whose covenantal status would be taken away and given to the Gentiles (Matthew 21:43), the ones who would be cut off from the vine for fruitlessness (John 15), and because of her crimes against God, He would send the armies of Rome, and burn their city Jerusalem to the ground (Matthew 22:7).
THE MEANING OF "THIS GENERATION"
Understanding this context, it is unsurprising how Luke records the end of Peter's great Pentecost sermon. He tells us:
"And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." - Acts 2:40
Luke doesn't describe Peter as having briefly mentioned a few trifle things. He is not standing up and reviewing the list of safety features while uninterested passengers read a nearby vomit bag. Luke tells us that Peter was urgent! That he expended numerous words trying to compel the Jews to flee from the doom that was coming. Luke tells us that he continually testified to the crowds, beckoning them to save themselves from the coming destruction.
Why was Peter so urgent? Because he understood, perhaps better than we do today, what was meant by the phrase "This generation" or "This crooked generation." That word, at that particular time, was filled with a lot of embedded meaning and context that remains two thousand years removed from us. If we are going to understand rightly what "this generation" means and what subsequent impact that will have upon our eschatology, we will have to put on our work boots and get to diggin'.
THE NEARNESS OF "THIS GENERATION"
First, Peter does not refer to "generations" in general terms. He does not tell all Christians at all times to flee from any crooked people who exist in any sort of land. While that could be a responsible strategy, it is not what Peter says here or other New Testament writers say elsewhere (e.g., 1 Corinthians 5:9-11).
In this case, Peter uses the near demonstrative pronoun, saying, "Save yourself from THIS crooked generation," which identifies the generation right before him as his referent. Peter was not telling them to adopt a cultural escapism similar to the modern-day Amish. He was telling them that there was something unique about that particular generation of Jews in the first century regarding their sin and the punishment that was coming upon them. He said that this particular generation of Jews, living in Judea between the ascension of Christ and the harrowing events of AD70, was a unique grouping of people with a special impending punishment worthy of the imperative "save yourselves from" them. Put simply, Peter was warning any rational person living in Judea in those days to convert to Jesus Christ and to flee from the consequences coming on this generation. Could this be why the Christians sold their property in Jerusalem? Could this be why they were spared when the Romans arrived in AD 70, because they knew to be on the lookout for these things, and they fled? These are fascinating questions.
When looking at how Peter uses the phrase "this generation," we can see that the term applies to near-term events that would soon occur in his time and immediate location. Yet, Peter is not the only one who uses the term "generation" in this way. For a moment, let us examine some other notable examples.
WHAT DID MOSES SAY ABOUT "THIS GENERATION"
In Moses' final exhortation to the people of Israel, before he died, and before Joshua would take over leadership, Moses said this to the people:
"Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death! Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my death, you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And in the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands." - Deuteronomy 31:24-29
After this scathing rebuke, Moses breaks out into the final song he would ever sing. Here is one of the verses:
"They have dealt corruptly with Him (God); they are no longer His children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation.” - Deuteronomy 32:5
Because Moses knew the character of these people, he called heaven, earth, and even God's law as witnesses against them. He foresaw the inevitability of their future rebellions against God and even prophesied a time when they would no longer be considered His children.
Throughout the Bible, we get glimpses of this prophecy coming true. For instance, the stiff-necked people were crushed by pagan peoples and cyclically destroyed throughout the book of Judges for their idolatry. This hard-hearted people were repeatedly wiped out by invading empires throughout the era of the kings, with the north being permanently decimated by Assyria for her whoredom against Yahweh and Judah losing all rights to her national sovereignty after the Babylonian exile for the despicable and loathsome behaviors she perpetrated in the land. And for those sins, she was bounced from one empire to the next, all the way until we get to the New Testament, where the ultimate manifestation of God's wrath coming on this nation was clearly seen.
Because she did not repent through exile, did not repent through the reconstruction of the temple, and did not repent throughout the 400 years of intertestamental history leading up to the incarnation, she was primed for judgment. The straw that broke Jerusalem's camel was when she brought her unrepentant heart into the New Testament, and instead of listening to her righteous God, who had come in person with healing in His wings, she rejected Him and murdered Him (Malachi 4:2). For that treachery, God's righteous fury broke out against them for the murderous work she did with their own hands.
While Moses could not foresee precisely how this would play out when he called the second wilderness generation "A crooked generation," we know that Peter is borrowing this exact same language from Moses to describe the generation of the people in his day. In the Scripture, "this generation" is not a very common phrase, which means when Peter spoke it, it would have immediately alerted his audience that Peter was making this connection back to Deuteronomy. By connecting these two generations, Peter is warning His listeners that the long-ago Mosaic woe the former had prophesied was coming quickly in full upon that very people in that very time.
WHAT JESUS SAID ABOUT "THIS GENERATION"
Jesus also used the phrase "this generation." He did so, in fact, more than any other person in Scripture to describe the covenantal judgment soon to break out against faithless first-century Judah. For instance, when Jesus began to pronounce covenantal woes upon entire cities, such as Chorazin and Bethsaida, for their astonishing unbelief, he says: "To what shall I compare 'this generation'" (Matthew 11:16; Luke 7:31). He tells them it would be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, even Sodom and Gomorrah, on the day of judgment that it would be for those unbelieving cities. Why? Because Sodom and Gomorrah would have repented if they had seen the miracles Jesus had done in Judah. And yet, because they were harder of heart than the wicked towns of the plain (e.g., Genesis 19), their judgment would be even more severe.
Later, Jesus calls the Jews of that day "an evil and adulterous generation" (Matthew 12:39; 16:4; 17:17; Mark 8:12) because they were looking for signs and wonders from the Messiah instead of loving Him and living by faith. He tells them that the nation of Nineveh and the Queen of the South would stand up in judgment against them, condemning them, because they both repented at the preaching of the Word, unlike "this generation" of Judeans (Matthew 12:41-42), who were behaving as if they were possessed by legions of demons (Matthew 12:45).
Jesus announces to "this generation" who was ashamed of their Messiah that He would be ashamed of them when He sits down on the throne to rule His Kingdom (Mark 8:38). He asks them: How long am I to put up with this evil and unbelieving generation? (Mark 9:19). He calls them a "perverted generation" (Luke 9:41), a "wicked generation" (Luke 11:29), and the specific generation who would reject Him and kill Him (Luke 17:25).
And because this generation of first-century Jews rejected their covenant Lord, all of the covenantal woes and curses promised in the law would come upon them (Matthew 23:36). More specifically, all of the guilt for spilling the prophets' blood would be levied against them (Luke 11:50). Even more, all of the innocent blood spilled on earth, from Abel who was slaughtered by Cain, to Zechariah who was slain by the Pharisees, would be poured out on "that generation" (Luke 11:51). And, just in case there was any confusion, after listing in explicit details all of the judgments that God would bring upon His end-time enemies (Matthew 24:1-33), Jesus told His disciples:
"Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." - Matthew 24:34
Clearly, Jesus envisioned all of Matthew 24 and the covenant curses of Matthew 23 to be poured out on that particular generation. He was not gazing aimlessly into the future. He was tightening the noose on specific people for specific crimes. This is precisely what Peter has in mind when he tells the crowds to "Save themselves from this crooked generation." He knew because Jesus had told him on the Mount of Olives that the generation alive during his day would soon be decimated, which is why he vehemently and repeatedly called for them to repent before it was too late.
WHAT PAUL SAID ABOUT "THIS GENERATION"
Two additional examples of "this generation" in the New Testament come from Paul and the writer of the book of Hebrews. Paul encourages the Philippian church, saying:
"Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world" - Philippians 2:15
Just as Jesus and Peter before him, Paul compares his contemporaries in Judea, and the Jewish persecutors he met from one synagogue to the next, to the wilderness generation who were both crooked and perverse and would die for their crimes. He admonishes the Philippian Christians to act as lights even amid such darkened people, knowing that God will judge them for their perversities (Philippians 2:15). Think I am making a hasty generalization here? In chapter 3 of Philippians, Paul identifies who the crooked generation is. They are not a generic people. It is a specific people that he calls the "dogs," the "evil workers," and the "false circumcision." This latter title, an apparent reference to the Jews who practiced circumcision, would be held in juxtaposition with the church, which he calls the true circumcision.
Again, in this passage, he is alluding to the fact that in the same way, God left an entire generation dead in the desert, He would soon leave that whole generation of Judeans either dead in Jerusalem, scattered without a homeland, or deported back to Rome as captives, when the wrath of God, in the day of Christ, was revealed against them (Philippians 2:16; 3:19). The role of the church, the ones who were circumcised in the heart by the power of the Spirit of God, was to preach the Gospel like Peter, beckoning brothers to leave their sins and come to Jesus. They were to live a life worthy of the Gospel (Philippians 1:27) while calling upon everyone to abandon every allegiance except Christ since He was coming and would make His people into citizens of His heavenly Kingdom (Philippians 3:20).
WHAT HEBREWS SAYS ABOUT "THIS GENERATION"
Like the examples cited before, the author of Hebrews compares "this generation" of Judeans to the former generation from the wilderness, who hardened their hearts against the Lord and provoked Him to wrath against them. He tells us
Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years. "Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways'; As I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'" - Hebrews 3:7–11
The author tells us that the wilderness generation tested God and refused to believe in Him despite countless signs and wonders attesting to His power. And in the end, God poured out His fury upon that generation, refusing to let them enter His rest. In the same way, the first-century generation of Jews refused to believe in the Messiah and would not enter into the rest of His Kingdom. They ignored sign after sign, miracle after miracle, even acknowledging the empty tomb but still refusing to believe in Him (Matthew 28:11-15). To that generation, instead of marching along with the saints of God toward Zion, in the Lamb's Kingdom of liberty and life, they would soak the sands around Jerusalem with their blood and litter the plain with their corpses. This would occur because they defied the living God and murdered His only Son.
CONCLUSION
As we have seen throughout today's blog, the phrase "this generation" is embedded with context and meaning that we must understand if we are going to understand Peter correctly. That context goes back to the wilderness generation who rebelled against God and would be destroyed for their idolatries and crimes. This is precisely why Peter compares his contemporaries, the Jews of Jerusalem who killed the Messiah, to that original crooked and perverse generation. Peter was not speaking about things that would happen thousands of years in the future; he was talking about long-foretold judgments soon to come down on the people of Judah. When we understand the phrase "this generation" and all that it means, we will see clearly what Peter is saying.
Furthermore, seeing this passage rightly does not excuse us from its rightful application. If we harden our hearts against God, like the Jews long ago, we will likewise perish. As Paul says in Romans 11, if we reject Him, we will be cut off in the same way they have been, and if they repent of their rejection, they, like us, will be grafted back in (Romans 11:17-24). Thus, instead of smugness or pride, let us, with humility, understand that if it were not for God's grace, we would be no different. And during such horrific circumstances that are going on in Israel in our days, let us pray that the Lord would bring our long-lost brothers and sisters to repentance so that they can join us, like the prodigal son, back in the family of God.
