The best place to start would be with the Kingdom of God.
First and foremost, we must understand
that this concept is a Jewish
concept. There is nothing about it that is Gentile. The entire faith itself
came out from Judaism. All of the disciples were Jewish. Though they were
scattered and though some held positions that were contrary to respectable
Judaism (like a tax collector), that does not relinquish them from being
Jewish. Most scholars would agree that their names were Hebrew names like
Mattityahu (Matthew in English), Jochanan (John in English), Jakov (James in
our English versions), or Bar-Talmai (Bartholomew).
It is from this understanding that the faith is Jewish that
we can move on. Have you ever noticed that some Jewish authors, scholars, or
rabbis will not say or write “God?” They will write G-d. It is from a practice
that stems back millennia. If you cannot see the face of God and live, then we
ought to have the utmost respect for all aspects of God – including His name.
Many people won’t say His name, and when it comes to saying or writing God,
they find another way of addressing Him. In the 1st century, one of
the ways they would address God is by addressing His habitation: heaven. Thus,
when we read in the Gospel of Matthew (which was written to the Jews), we find
that Jesus refers to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is not different than the
Kingdom of God. They are the same thing – the one respecting God’s name, and
the other unafraid to pronounce God’s name.
So what was the Hebrew thought when speaking of the Kingdom
of God? They didn’t have the New Testament to tell them it was “within you.”
Jesus’ statement here is typically taken out of context to make a point that
the Kingdom is invisible. But is it really? We find the Kingdom of God stems
back to the first book of the Bible:
2 And I will make
of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and
thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all
families of the earth be blessed.
Genesis 12:2-3
Genesis 12:2-3
This is the first time that God promises a blessing of all
the nations – or “families of the Earth.” It is going to be through a
people/nation that come from Abram. When we trace this story, we find that
these people were known as the people Israel. In this passage everything hangs.
Certain aspects of doctrine that we claim in Christianity
come from this passage. It even bears weight on the question of circumcision
asked in the New Testament. Paul makes the argument that the promise was given
to Abram before the covenant of circumcision. Therefore, if you have not been
circumcised of body, but have been circumcised of heart, then you are under
this Abrahamic Covenant.
The importance of this passage that God will have a people
for Himself stretches through to the very end of the Bible. But lets for now
take it bit-by-bit and piece-by-piece. When you reach Exodus, God brings His
people Israel out of Egypt. They are called to be His people. Lets examine a
couple of Scriptures and glean from them the importance.
And ye shall be unto me a
kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt
speak unto the children of Israel.
Exodus 19:6
Exodus 19:6
8When the Most High divided to
the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the
bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot
of his inheritance.
Deuteronomy 32:8-9
Deuteronomy 32:8-9
29 For the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance.
Romans 11:29
Romans 11:29
I suggest looking into that last passage a bit more. Read
Romans 11 for the whole context. You’ll see that I’m not pulling it out of
context, but actually bringing it into a more precise context. The point is
more upon the first 2 Scriptures. Israel was called to be a nation of priests.
In Deuteronomy 32 it claims that the boundaries of the other nations were
actually set up according to the number of Israel.
Why would God select this people? What is it that they have to offer that is so different than
the rest of the world? The answer, strangely, is exactly the same reason why
God chooses anything. Why does
God choose to take John Wesley from the rich and send him out to preach to the
poor? Why does God choose the Land of Israel over any other land in the world?
What is it that God sees in David that he didn’t see in his brothers? What did
God see in the cross that we have missed? Why would God choose the cross as the
execution of His Son instead of some other form of suffering? Why would God
choose suffering anyway? Isn’t this unbecoming?
And here lies the intrinsic characteristic of God. God
suffers. He doesn’t suffer because He has to suffer. He suffers because He chooses to suffer. Notice I did not say He wants to suffer. No one wants to suffer. Suffering isn’t
what God desires; it is, however, what He has chosen. Why? In the foolishness
of suffering, we see clearly the wisdom of God. God is not afraid of suffering.
He is willing to suffer in order
to attain the greater good. What is the greater good? The best and highest good
is the glory of God. There is nothing loftier than for God to be glorified, for
in it is the creations greatest good.
Here we have a problem of semantics. The question could be
posed, “Why?” Why is it that God’s glory is the greatest earthly good? Have you
ever heard the statement, “Don’t be too heavenly minded, or else you will be no
earthly good?” It is quite the contrary. Unless you are heavenly minded, you are
no earthly good. How else do you explain Jesus? Was he too heavenly minded?
Nothing was spoken out of the mouth of Christ that did not have its inception
within heaven.
So why would God choose Israel? Here is where the Biblical
scholar must understand. You sacrosanct saints that want a cheapie and a nice
lackadaisical understanding and grasp of the faith cannot comprehend the beauty
of the eternal purposes of God. Who else have you ever heard speak this way?
What is Israel? What are the Jews? Is it the people? Is it the Land? Is the
nation? Is it a religion? What is it for heaven’s sake?
When we desire to define terms, know that I will only refer
to Israel as the people in this writing. However, there is a much larger usage
of this word. Israel, from the perception of God, is the people, within that
Land, as a kingdom of priests to all nations. This requires something. It requires that they be in the Land. It
requires that they are God’s people, and God is their God. It requires that
they know their God as He in fact is.
It requires that they do not break the Laws given; otherwise they will be
exiled from that Land, and therefore no longer the people (Deuteronomy 28). It
requires that they are priests.
The Israel that is God’s inheritance is the people, Land, Torah (teachings),
God within the people, and the covenants between God and that people.
Unless all of these things are fulfilled, God has gone against Himself in revoking (or repenting)
His gifts and callings. This is crucial to understanding. There must be a time when Israel is saved and they know their
Messiah Jesus. There must be a
time when they are the priesthood to all nations. There must be a time when they possess the Land and will never
be uprooted again (Amos 9). If these things do not happen, then God is not God.
He chose these things because they are despised. They are foolish.
We see the character of God revealed within His choosing of
this people and that land and their calling and their purposes. The Kingdom of
God is not complete without them. We, as
the Church, are in need of them and they are in need of us. We are for now a
different people, but will be one under the same Head in the end. I would even
argue that we are not a different entity from Israel, but that they are the
separate entity from Israel. Israel can only be Israel when all of these things
are met. Anyone who rejects the Messiah cannot be Israel. But we know from
Romans 11:26 that “All Israel shall be saved, as it is written.” Is this mere
homiletic mysticism and rhetoric?
What is the ultimate form of the Kingdom of God? What is it
that we should be striving toward and looking toward? The Kingdom of God is and
always will be a theocracy. Theo- means God and -cratic is rule or government.
It is the government of God. He will forever be the supreme ruler. We find
later in the Old Testament how God intends to be this:
12 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.
13 He shall build
an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
14 I will be his
father, and he shall be my son.
2 Samuel 7:12-14
2 Samuel 7:12-14
God is speaking to the Israeli King David. The Messiah must be a descendant from David. But He can’t just be a
descendant of David. He has to surpass David. He has to be greater than David.
It says in Jonah 2:9, “Salvation is of the Lord.”
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my
right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Psalm 110:1
Psalm 110:1
Here we see a Psalm of David where David actually calls the
Messiah “Lord.” How can the Messiah be both the Lord and also a descendant of
David? We find answer in that Jesus was born of a virgin. He was without human
father. He only had God as His father. This is important. The rule of God
depends upon one who will be able to rule the nations with an iron scepter
(Psalm 2), but at the same time be a human descendant of David, and at the same
time be God. But it isn’t enough that He is King. He must be a priest, for
Psalm 110 continues:
4 The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou
art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
Psalm 110:4
Psalm 110:4
In the Book of Hebrews, there is an excellent exposition on
this very thing. The Kingdom of God is best summed up as follows: The
government of God ruled by the Davidic King and Melchizedek Priest out of
Israel and upon Zion. How about them apples?
Now, when we’re talking about the theocratic kingdom, we’re
discussing something that we have a piece of today. The full expression is yet
future. But we do experience a taste (or foretaste if you read King James) of
what is ahead. Our very salvation and sealing of the Holy Spirit attest to the
future glory that is to come. Words cannot express the depths. I would be
willing to bet that words are unlawful to speak about what glories are to come
(2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
What is it that we need to apprehend in order to get there?
This is going to be a bit of eschatology, but it won’t necessarily be
commentary on Revelation. Ultimately, this view that I have is a view of
covenant – covenant failure, covenant obligation, covenant blessing, and
covenant curse. This idea comes from Deuteronomy. It plainly states (especially
within Deuteronomy 28) that if the people Israel follow and obey the covenant,
then they will keep the Land, and all these blessings will come upon them.
However, if they disobey this covenant, then they will be uprooted from the
Land, and they will suffer curse and judgment from God as chastisement.
It is to this that I speak. There will be a final judgment or chastisement that the Israel of God must
undergo. It is for the lack of understanding of both the future calamity and
the ultimate glory of Israel – and thus the glory of God – that people
misinterpret Scripture after Scripture and hope that the Jewish state will
change its tune and come to God and find Jesus and everything will be groovy.
If we think that priesthood comes from some sort of calling
or some sort of ordination without appropriation of character, then we have
lost the biblical mindset. Priesthood requires something ultimate. The priest
must identify with those to whom he is
ministering, taking upon self their guilt and sin. It takes a very certain kind
of person – one that states, “I am the chief of all sinners” – that can
minister in a priestly way. It requires the deepest breaking over sin and
understanding that we in our humanity are only too easily deceived and ready to
snatch up any sin. Nothing is too off limits. There is nothing too risqué.
There is nothing too provocative. We are all capable of the same grotesque
sins, and we are all guilty before God.
In order for the people Israel to be priestly, that kind of
mindset and character must come upon them. I believe that Paul’s apostolate to
the Gentiles was a foretaste of Israel’s ultimate call to be an apostolic
entity to the nations. The Gentiles hung
upon the neck of Paul and wept when they heard the news that he would be bound
in chains at Jerusalem. Imagine a nation of Pauls going out into the world and
the Gentile nations having the same kind of love and adoration of them.
When we browse Isaiah 35 we find an End Time stratagem for
that people:
The wilderness and the
solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and
blossom as the rose.
Isaiah 35:1
Isaiah 35:1
4 Say to them that
are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
5 Then the eyes of
the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Isaiah 35:4-5
Isaiah 35:4-5
7 And the parched
ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the
habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
8 And an highway
shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the
unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men,
though fools, shall not err therein.
Isaiah 35:7-8
Isaiah 35:7-8
10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 35:10
Isaiah 35:10
Their return shall be with “everlasting joy.” Why
everlasting? Because, they will never sorrow again. God will wipe away every
tear. But how do they come to such a place? It is in the judgment of God upon
their sin. They will be cast out into the wilderness places, and God will meet
with them face-to-face. How does God meet with them face-to-face? He does it
through a servant Body that is already upon this Earth, though it is not a part
of the Israel that is being judged…
Do you see how the pieces fit together yet? Our role and
function as the Church is to be that priestly nation to them. Paul even says, “…to the Jew first, and then to the Greek,” Romans 1:16. Our call and
chief role is not to be the priesthood to the nations like we have thought.
That does not come until the Millennium with them. Until that time, our calling and role is to drive
them to jealousy (Romans 11). We are to be priestly in identifying with them in
their sin and possibly going to our death in that identification.
When this end time calamity is upon us, I don’t doubt that
there will be persecution of Christians. It says this blatantly in both Old and
New Testament. Daniel says the Antichrist will overcome the saints, and again
will wear out the saints. Revelation 13 says that the Antichrist will war
against the saints and overpower them. It says in Revelation 12, though, that
the dragon makes war with the woman first,
and goes after the believers in Jesus after (Revelation 12:17). The woman is undoubtedly Israel.
A woman almost always (I can’t think of any exceptions off the top of my head)
means Israel in the prophetic writings.
If the persecution comes upon Israel first, then why do we
not expect them to receive any kind of persecution? Why do leading speakers
seems to indicate quite the opposite? So many believe that Israel won’t be
uprooted again and that they are indestructible. From what biblical bases does
this come? Their history has only shown the opposite. They rejected God and
were carried away to Babylon. They rejected the Messiah and were scattered
through the nations. Why would this be different?
10Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations,
and declare it in the isles afar
off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a
shepherd doth his flock.
11For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and
ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
12Therefore they shall come and sing in the
height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat,
and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and
their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at
all.
13Then shall the virgin rejoice in the
dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into
joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
Jeremiah 31:10-13
Virtually every time that this Millennial blessedness of
Israel’s is mentioned, it makes mention that they will sorrow no more, they
will be comforted, they will have peace, they will suffer no more terror and
violence, etc. It eventually starts to make sense that this time of blessedness
happens immediately after a time of
persecution.
2Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let
them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy
cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
3For thou shalt break forth on the right
hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the
desolate cities to be inhabited.
Isaiah 54:2-3
Here is another statement of millennial promise: “Your
descendants will possess the nations,” and before the sentence is concluded,
God adds, “And will resettle the desolate cities.” In the whole
redemptive program of God, His intention is to bless the nations. He is the God
of the nations. They shall come to know God through a redeemed Israel, and they
will come to the brightness of that nations rising:
1Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and
the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
2For, behold, the darkness shall cover the
earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and
his glory shall be seen upon thee.
3And the Gentiles shall come to thy light,
and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
4Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:
all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come
from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.
5Then thou shalt see, and flow together,
and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea
shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.
Isaiah 60:1-5
10And the sons of strangers shall build up
thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote
thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.
11Therefore thy gates shall be open
continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.
12For the nation and kingdom that will not
serve thee shall perish; yea, those
nations shall be utterly wasted.
Isaiah 60:10-12
23Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those
days it shall come to pass, that
ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take
hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we
have heard that God is with you.
Zechariah 8:23
18Violence shall no more be heard in thy
land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls
Salvation, and thy gates Praise.
Isaiah 60:18
21Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.
Isaiah 60:21
Notice here what I have been saying all along. There will
come a time when Israel will inherit the Land forever. But that cannot happen
if the covenant will continue to get broken. If they continue to reject God,
then they will never be His people in that Land. This qualifies for a
definition of terms. There is an immense difference between appropriation and inheritance. An inheritance is only given to those in right relation with God.
Appropriation can be given to whomever. The redeemed nation is given an
everlasting covenant that cannot be broken, and in that condition, the Land can
be inherited as “the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be
glorified.” There is something about the Lord planting that gives the mind an
image of peace. It is not exacerbating to the neighbors of Israel (unlike what
we see today), but instead brings them peace and blessedness.
In that day, there shall be one King, one kingdom, and one
Lord over all. But that cannot come unless Israel suffers her own road to
Calvary experience. There must be a putting to death all that would trust in
the arm of the flesh. She must go down
out of the Land and into the wilderness places. It is in that wilderness that
she will meet her God. But if we’re raptured out of this world, then I suppose
that means that Israel will need some other way of coming to know her God.
This is where I’ve heard ridiculous theories. Some say that
the rabbi’s will have a revelation and start teaching about Jesus (because that
worked the first time?). Others say that Israel has no part. Still others say
that they will come to Christ by our witnessing to them before the Tribulation, and then they will preach the
Gospel during the Tribulation.
For reasons that I think we’ve already been through, I have immense problems
with these. I think the one thing I hate more than any other is the idea that
we’re beyond chastisement or undergoing suffering. If God did not even spare
His own Son, then why would He spare you? By what means of reasoning do you
honestly believe that God will rapture His Church out at all?
It is in this end time scenario that we are met face-to-face
with our own inadequacy. It haunts us. We aren’t mature enough to struggle
this. We aren’t ready. We’re complacent and lazy. We’re too lukewarm and
pampered to endure to the end. It will take a certain kind of person to be able
to handle the grit and trauma of this extreme. It is one thing for me to give
Scripture evidence and speak of this calamity, but how will I react when it
actually happens? Will I be able to handle it? Will I collapse under the weight
of hearing stories and meeting people and watching gruesome tales play out
before my eyes?
It is to this that I wish to speak in the next segment.
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