Reflections on Matthew 1:12-16

And after they were brought to Babylon,
  Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
  and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel.
  Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud,
  Abiud the father of Eliakim,
  and Eliakim the father of Azor.
  Azor was the father of Zadok,
  Zadok the father of Akim,
  and Akim the father of Eliud.
  Eliud was the father of Eleazar,
  Eleazar the father of Matthan,
  and Matthan the father of Jacob.
And Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
Matthew 1:12-16, Modern English Version (MEV)
 
Where to begin? Another period of approximately five hundred years, an era of significant turmoil for Israel. This period begins with the Babylonian exile and carries us up until the birth of Jesus. Once again it will be impossible for us to go into everything that happened, it is also a period which saw many significant changes on the world scene. To help us understand what was taking place we are going to turn to what some might consider an unlikely source, which is the prophet, Daniel.
³¹ “You, O king, were watching, and there was a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you. And its form was awesome. ³² This image’s head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, ³³ its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. ³⁴ You watched until a stone was cut out without hands which struck the image upon its feet, which were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. ³⁵ Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
³⁶ “This was the dream. Now we will tell its interpretation before the king. ³⁷ You, O king, are the king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. ³⁸ Wherever the sons of men dwell, or the animals of the field, or the fowl of the heavens, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are the head of gold.
³⁹ “After you, another kingdom inferior to you shall arise, and a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. ⁴⁰ And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, it shall crush and shatter all these. ⁴¹ As you saw the feet and toes, partly of potters’ clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. But there shall be in it some of the strength of the iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. ⁴² As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. ⁴³ Whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave to one another, even as iron does not mix with clay.
⁴⁴ “In the days of these kings the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. ⁴⁵ Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.” Daniel 2:31-45, Modern English Version (MEV)
To break things down a bit easier for us, here is a short interpretive list of this statue Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about:
 

• Head of gold – Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar. First temple destroyed and Israel (Judah) taken into exile.

• Arms of silver – Medes and Persians. Israel allowed to return to the promised land and rebuild temple.

• Belly and thighs of bronze – Greece and Alexander the Great. Alexander conquered a large portion of the then known world but died young. His empire was divided among his generals, leading to a lot of conflict which Israel unfortunately got caught in the middle of. This eventually led to the arrival of Antiochus Epiphanes whose desecration of the temple led to the rise of the Maccabees, which led to the rise of the Hasmoneans, which led to the Herods.

• Legs of iron – The Roman Empire which carries us up to the birth of Jesus.

 
It was a period of great turmoil and rapid change. It was also a period when, except for approximately one hundred years following the Maccabean revolt, Israel was under constant foreign occupation. This period also saw the rise of several groups which were prominent in Jesus’ day, being the Sadducees, the Pharisees and the Essenes. Additionally, during this time, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, the Septuagint, was written and, significantly, the hope of Israel for a savior, the Messiah, to save them from all these calamities, began to solidify although never into a single view or belief.