May 25, 2010
Thinking about the Kingdom
Is it just me, or is the Kingdom of God one of the most vast and difficult to understand subjects in the Bible? The language of the Kingdom is used all the time throughout the Old and New Testaments in a variety of different contexts and settings, each pointing and linking to the others in a large web of truth that seems tough to untangle. Jesus preached ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near”, so understanding it is definitely integral to living the Christian life. In many ways though, in today’s church the word ‘Kingdom’ can be overused to the extent that it becomes meaningless and a ‘truism’. Although I’m not advocating that we talk about it less, I personally need to strive to understand it more and talk about it wisely.
So this blog entry is an announcement of my intention to look into it (and to organise my thoughts by trying to communicate them on here). Please chuck in any insights, reading suggestions, Bible verses etc. that you can think of. I know there’s lots of stuff out there, but I own too many books already. Feel free to lend me some though!
My thinking actually started with my post ‘No King?’, which seems to make sense Biblically, as it is our universal ‘starting point’ in salvation history. We have no King and the consequences for us and for this world are dire, as we try to rule by the pleasures of our own sinful hearts. Actually that isn’t the real starting point as the world did once have a King, so maybe here is a good place to explain how we got into the salvation position of the Judges days. It is explained clearly in 1 Samuel 8:6-9, when the people want a real King like the nations around them. The Lord’s response is revealing:
But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”
So the Lord links idolatry, rebellion and sin with the rejection of Him as their king, both at this point in time and continuously throughout their time in the wilderness. Strangely, sin then is both the desire to rule ourselves (“everyone did what was right in their own eyes”) and the reality of giving allegiance to Idols and other gods. The Lord then tells Samuel to warn the people what the human king will do to them, treating them unjustly and bringing strife, poverty and destruction rather then peace, riches and prosperity. This is the consequence of our sin.
The Kingdom of God then is brought in as the answer to this problem, and is particularly prevalent in the Gospel of Luke I find. But how exactly does this work? Could we start by defining what ‘the Kingdom’ is? This seems to have stumped a lot of people and caused many arguments, but is there a simple definition that we can all agree on? As a starting point I would like to propose the following:
The Kingdom of God is the earthly rule of Christ.
Simple, isn’t it? Almost too simple. But it’s so straightforward that it is actually just a rewording of the common phrase, so I find it difficult to argue against. From this though you can see the start of the pattern of the Kingdom in salvation history, the rejection of God’s rule, judgment for sins then redemption through reinstating God’s rule in Christ (but does it work if Jesus is not fully God, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other suggest?) From this starting point there are a number of questions still to answer. So give it a go! Have a Bible study on the Kingdom, alone or with some friends. Here are some starter bits and pieces I think might be relevant:
The Kingdom in the Bible storyline
The books of 1, 2 Samuel, 1, 2 Kings and 1, 2 Chronicles talk about the earthly Kings of Israel and Judah. How do they live up to the standard of God’s King? How do they point to Jesus? What happens when Kings obey or rebel? Who else is important in the King’s life and rule?
The Pentateuch, particularly Exodus to Deuteronomy are the stories, laws and covenant of the people of Israel. They are brought out of Egypt to be God’s people. How is this done? How does God demonstrate His rule? What are the consequences? Who is rewarded and who is punished? What do these books look forward to?
The Gospel of Luke has great and deep things to say about the Kingdom. How is it announced? What does it look like? How does Jesus talk about himself? What has he come to do, and how? How do we respond?
Search the prophets, particularly in Isaiah and Hosea I have found some great stuff on Kings. Keep looking around the Bible and build up a picture of the Biblical Kings. Let me know what else you find!
Key words used to talk about the Kingdom
Obviously the words King and Kingdom are used a lot. Also ‘authority’ and ‘rule’ might possibly be used with Kingdom connotations. Who rules, and what are the consequences?
‘Laws’, ‘Commandments’ and other words to describe the covenant books of the Pentateuch. These might signify God’s rule as he gives good and gracious commandments to his people. Take a look for example at how the Lord’s rule helps the Psalmist in his suffering in Psalm 119.
‘Messiah’ and ‘Christ’ both mean ‘anointed one’, and are obviously used to describe Jesus in the New Testament. This category stretches back to the Kings, who were ‘anointed’ to rule (eg 1 Samuel 9 and 16) signifying God’s sovereign choice and blessing over that person. The title of Messiah is often used in Psalms and prophecy to talk about the true and righteous King, the one ‘anointed’ or chosen by God. How does this help us read the Gospels?
‘LORD’/'Jehovah’/'Yahweh’ in the OT and ‘Lord’ in the NT are different ways of expressing the ‘name of God’ (one name put through the mill of Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English language differences), and specifically denote the personal, covenant relationship between God, the King and His people. This name has a lot of background, but maybe it could help us understand the Kingdom in some way?
Questions to look at
How does the Kingdom come about? How does the Kingdom come through from the OT to the NT to today? What does it look like today? Where does the phrase ‘now and not yet’ come from? Is it helpful? What does it tell us about the future? How does the Atonement relate to the Kingdom? What are the characteristics of the Kingdom? What are the social dynamics? What are the common misunderstandings?
This is getting quite long, so I’ll stop. Please get stuck in and respond!
Matthew Weston said,
May 26, 2010 at 16:23
Why “earthly kingdom”? Jesus is King, but not just of Earth.
The kingdom of God is where people submit to the kingship of Jesus. How is that different from the church? Well, there are people in the church not in the kingdom (and perhaps people not in the church still in the kingdom – those who have died?).
I’ll be interested to follow your thoughts – I’m doing some not entirely unrelated thinking at the moment; musing on what it means for us to pray “your kingdom come, your will be done”. In fact, read Richard Coekin’s book on the Lord’s Prayer for some good stuff on this topic.