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Introduction
In part 1 we saw
Israel was overturned because of disobedience to God’s
commandments. We have seen too that the Bible teaches that Israel
will one day be restored and that this restored nation of Israel
will be the Kingdom of
God.
Every kingdom may
be considered as consisting of:
-
A king.
-
A government.
-
A people.
-
A land.
-
A capital
city.
The King
Remember how
Ezekiel predicted that Israel would be overturned “UNTIL
he come whose right it is, and I will give it him” (Ezekiel
21:27). To know who this person is who has the right to the throne of
Israel we
must be aware of the covenant that God made with David:
“And when thy
days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will
set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy
bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a
house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom
for ever. I will be his father and he shall be my
son...” (2 Samuel 7:12-14)
From this we
learn that:
-
David would
have a seed, or descendant.
-
God would be
the Father of this son.
-
This seed would
reign on David’s throne.
-
He would reign
for ever.
There can be no
doubt that the promised seed of David is the Lord Jesus Christ who
was Son of God, but son of David through his mother. This is
proved conclusively by the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary:
“He shall be
great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
and he shall reign over the house of Jacob (Israel) for ever;
and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32-33. Also see
Acts 2:30; Psalm 132:11)
THUS THE KING OF
THE FUTURE KINGDOM WILL BE JESUS CHRIST.
The Government
The disciples of
Jesus, who learned about the Kingdom of
God
from the lips of the Son of God himself, looked for the
restoration of Israel (Remember Acts 1:6?). Jesus had promised
them:
“Ye which have
followed me, in the the regeneration when the Son of man shall
sit on the throne of his glory; ye also shall sit on twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”
(Matthew 19:28)
The promise of
Jesus to all his faithful followers is that they will share in the
ruling of the Kingdom:
“He that
overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give
power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod
of iron...Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy
blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
and hast made us unto our God kings and priests:
and we shall reign on the earth”(Revelation
2:26,27; & 5:9,10)
THUS THE
GOVERNMENT WILL BE MADE UP OF THE FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS OF JESUS.
They will be given eternal life when Jesus comes to
claim his throne. More about this later.
The People
Since the Kingdom
of
God is to be the kingdom of
Israel restored, it follows that the people will be the Jews.
“I will make her
that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong
nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion
from henceforth, even for ever. And thou O tower of the flock, the
stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even
the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of
Jerusalem” (Micah 4:7-8)
Great changes
will have to take place in the attitude of the Jewish people
towards Jesus but the apostle Paul, quoting from Isaiah, assures
us that this will happen:
“They (the Jews)
also, if they abide not still in unbelief shall be graffed in: for
God is able to graff them in again......blindness in part is
happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be
come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is
written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall
turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto
them when I shall take away their sins” (Romans
11:23,25,26)
But the influence
of Jesus, reigning on David’s throne, will extend beyond the
boundaries of the land of
Israel. His rule will gradually spread to all the nations of
the earth and they will come under his rulership:
“Yea, all
kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall
serve him” (Psalm 72:11)
“The kingdoms of
this world are become the the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his
Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever”(Revelation 11:15)
THUS THE PEOPLE
WILL BE THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL but ultimately ALL NATIONS will
become subject to Jesus.
The Land
In the first
instance, the land of
Israel will be the territory of the Kingdom. This land that has been desolate
because of the sins of the people of
Israel (Remember
Leviticus 26:33?) will be transformed into a land of great beauty.
We shall consider this in detail in a later study when we consider
the promises which God made to Abraham the father of the Jewish
race.
Although Israel
will be the land where Jesus will establish his Kingdom, his
rulership will gradually extend over the entire earth:
“And the LORD
shall be king over all the earth: in that day there shall
be one LORD, and his name one” (Zechariah 14:9)
We may say, then,
that THE LAND WILL BE THE
LAND OF ISRAEL
BUT ULTIMATELY JESUS WILL ESTABLISH A WORLD-WIDE EMPIRE.
The Capital City
Jesus is the heir
to David’s throne which was in Jerusalem. This is where Jesus will
reign as king:
“At
that time they shall call
Jerusalem the throne of the LORD;
and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the
LORD, to
Jerusalem:
neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their
evil heart” (Jeremiah 3:17)
“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” (Micah 4:2)
THUS THE CAPITAL
CITY WILL BE JERUSALEM
Conclusion
From what we have
seen so far, we may be absolutely sure that:
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The Kingdom of
God is
NOT in heaven.
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The Kingdom of
God is
NOT the Church.
-
The Kingdom of
God is
NOT in mens’ hearts.
Rather, the
Kingdom of
God will be the kingdom of
Israel restored with Jesus as King, the faithful believers as rulers with
him, the Jews (and ultimately the other nations) as the people,
the land of
Israel (and ultimately the whole earth) as the territory of the Kingdom and
Jerusalem as the capital city.
This is what we
pray for when we say the Lord’s Prayer:
“THY KINGDOM
COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH...
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