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The Kingdom of God
| Bro Gordon Ochieng (Madiany, Kenya)
I
n all God’s doings there is a purpose.
Everything is planned and happens as
planned. So whatever the kingdom of God is,
it must have been the perfect subject for the
apostles and the Lord himself to talk about.
What then is the kingdom of God? Different
people will give different answers, but to
ascertain the true meaning of this term, we
must look at it from its origins.
We find the kingdom of God used in contrast
to the kingdom of men in the book of Daniel.
The kingdom of men consists of the aggregate
of human governments, the rule of man by
man. Good news of God’s kingdom was
preached to Abraham through promises
concerning eternal life on earth. God is
frequently described as the “King of Israel”
(Isaiah 44:6). The Israelites became God’s
kingdom after the covenant on Mount Sinai
(Exodus 19:5-6). As God was their King, they
were ruled by judges like Samson and Gideon.
The judges were not kings but divinely guided
administrators. The last judge to guide Israel
was Samuel. The Israelites pressed him to
appoint a king for them like the neighboring
nations had (1 Samuel 8:7). So Israel rejected
God as their King. God gave them various
kings such as Saul, David and Solomon who
ruled on God’s throne.
Israel failed to live up to the Sinai covenant
and slid into apostasy. God then rejected
them and eventually the kingdom split into
two: ten tribes (Israel) and two tribes
(Judah). The last king of the ten-tribe Israel
was Hoshea. The last king of the two-tribe
Judah was Zedekiah. Due to apostasy, God
exiled both Israel and Judah and announced
the termination of this type of kingly rela-
tionship (Ezekiel 21:25-27).
Prophets lamented over the rejection of
Israel and Judah (Hosea 10:3). God had given
Israel laws that touched on all aspects of life
e.g. religious, social and agricultural. When
Israel had been the kingdom of God previ-
ously, the duty of the priests had been to
teach the knowledge of God (Malachi 2:5-7).
The priests were placed in various towns for
this purpose. In the future the saints will take
over the priests’ function in God’s future
kingdom (Revelation 5:10). At present this is
not possible (Luke 11-27).
Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Thy
kingdom come”. It is not yet come. If it were,
then the kingdoms of men would not be in
existence. When it comes, every aspect of
human life will be affected: social,
economic, moral and religious. They will
come under a new directing power. In chapter
two of the book of Daniel, we find the history
of the world condensed in prophetic form.
The dream prophesied what will happen in
the latter days (v 28); ‘the latter days’ refers
to the closing period of human affairs.
Having prophetically outlined the world’s
history to our days Daniel prophesied, “In the
days of these kings shall the God of heaven
set up a kingdom, which shall never be
destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left
to other people, but it shall break in pieces
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall
stand for ever” (Daniel 2:44).
Now what does the setting up of a kingdom
mean? What does a kingdom constitute? A
king, a people, territory, laws, aristocracy. It
is a new order of things which shall have a
God-appointed king, a God-constituted aris-
tocracy, God-selected people, a God-chosen
land and God-given laws. God chose the Jews
to be a special people unto Himself
(Deuteronomy 7:6) but the subject inhabi-
tants of the earth of the future will come
from “all peoples, nations and languages”.
They will be to that kingdom as Kenyans are
to Kenya.
God promised Abraham the land of Palestine.
The Israelites occupied it temporarily under
Moses on condition that they obeyed the Law.
The land of Palestine is the natural centre of
the earth. It has witnessed God’s operations
in the past and the sending forth of the
gospel.