Learning Our Place in the Family Business
In our last post, we discussed basic elements of the kingdom from a Biblical perspective. We saw how Jesus attempted to bring the kingdom to his own people and was rejected, culminating in his own brutal death. Remarkably, this was the Father’s plan all along, allowing the gospel message to be spread to gentile nations. For now, the vision and many prophecies of the coming kingdom will be delayed but not canceled. This delay in kingdom fulfillment is the church age and the gap between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy (see Jacob’s Trouble).
In this final segment, I will address two significant themes that will serve as a capstone to where we’ve been and provide a jumping-off point for a study of the “last days.” To begin, let us consider the triumphal entry, which could have marked the establishment of the kingdom had the Jews “understood the time of their visitation” (Luke 19:44). The triumphal entry marked the end of Daniel’s 69th week. There is only one week left, the 70th week of Daniel, commonly known as the tribulation period.
Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Mathew 21:1-11
The triumphal entry occurred on the exact day that marked the end of the 69th week of Daniel. In earlier posts, I have referred to this important prophetic passage: it details for Israel the scope of redemption, the timing of events, the church age as a time gap, and the 7-year tribulation period. A wealth of information is available online, but here is a nice summary of Daniel’s 70 weeks from Chuck Missler at Koinonia House.
In the last segment, we provided a brief introduction to the kingdom, covering the king, geography, and the capital city. But the word “kingdom,” for many Christians, seems like one of those corporate buzzwords that everyone uses but no one really knows what it means. “Kingdom” seems to be context sensitive, depending on the speaker and audience. Are we “building the kingdom”, “bringing the kingdom,” or maybe we’ve “inherited the kingdom.” With all the available definitions, maybe something is missing from our mental lexicon.
The Jewish understanding of the kingdom embodies an ideal far larger than we Christians have imagined. It comes with deep historical roots and a rich tapestry of meaning and nuance – all captured in a word, “Zion.” So, when the “daughter of Zion” saw the miracle worker and teacher riding a foal of a donkey into Jerusalem and shouted, “Hosanna to the son of David,” what might they have understood?
Dilemma for the Church
Because of our challenges with the word kingdom, it might behoove us to unlearn a few things before we look at the word Zion. First and most obvious, a kingdom must have a king. Following closely behind a king, the king must have a geography over which he is sovereign. And finally, that geography will have a capital city where the king and his family reside. So far, so good, you say, but wait! We have just introduced a dilemma for the church.
The dilemma goes something like this. When was Jesus Christ given to the church as a king? What geography has God given to us by an everlasting covenant? And better yet, where is our capital city? Some may be tempted to allegorize these themes, but to the Biblical writers, these ideas were real, tangible, and the accepted expectation of a first-century Jew. Below, we will explore these three dilemmas facing believers living in the church age.
King
Jesus is not explicitly defined as king during the church age. This makes sense, as currently, there is no city or geography that God has promised to the church. It is not until the end of the Revelation (see Rev. 15:3, 17:14, 19:6) that we see him referred to as king.
Before this, kingly references look forward to the coming kingdom or refer to a limited down payment of the kingdom in believers’ lives. In the gospels, especially Mathew, Jesus was demonstrating, announcing, and calling people into the kingdom; but the coming kingdom (as defined above) was cut short at the cross. Even the disciples in Acts 1:6 asked:
So, when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
Today we see him as our Savior and Lord, he has been given the “key of David”, he is “of the root of David”, he has ransomed people for God out of all nations and made them a kingdom and priests. These are all activities the “coming king” engages in, but we don’t see the official title “King” and the presence of his kingdom on earth until the final chapters of Revelation.
And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
Revelation 15:3-4
The complete Song of Moses is found in Exodus 15, and I would strongly encourage you to review it. It is a wonderful song of celebration for the coming kingdom when the fullness of Zion will be realized.
Geography
The second dilemma for the church regards geography. Certainly, as believers, we should vote, be engaged in the marketplace, be salt and light, and pray for our cities and towns. But these activities, as important as they are, are not the fulfillment of a Zionist kingdom. And no land mass or territory has been promised to the church. One may wish to allegorize the concept of “taking back territory,” but as important as that may be, it is Biblically inconsistent with the meaning of Zion.
Capital City
This dilemma is pretty easy to see. I cannot think of a single city given to the church from which Christ will rule on David’s throne other than Jerusalem, and that hasn’t happened yet.
As Christians, we do experience aspects of the kingdom, such as salvation, peace with God, righteousness, forgiveness, and the works of the Spirit, but, as wonderful as these are, they are not the fullness of Christ ruling from David’s throne in Zion within the greater land of Israel.
Whose Kingdom? – Now We Know
We can now answer the question, “Whose Kingdom is it, and how will it come into existence. Obviously, the church does not meet the criteria for establishing God’s kingdom on earth, as shown above. If I can restate a few points: the church does not have a king to sit on David’s throne, we don’t have geography or a capital city. All the promises about the kingdom in the Old Testament were given to Israel, not the church. And the 70th and final week of Daniel is for “Daniel’s people and Daniel’s holy city,” not the church.
Someone might argue, “God changed his mind about Israel, and the church has taken her place.” If that’s true, we then have character issues with God; he does not keep his word, and he’s a God who changes. Bottom line: he cannot be trusted. How do you know he won’t change his mind about you?
Another might respond, “All those prophecies in the Old Testament are poetic references, or they should be understood allegorically.” Ok, let’s think about this. His first coming prophecies were detailed and literal, and they were fulfilled exactly as they were: sold for 30 pieces of silver, born in Bethlehem, etc., etc. So, the reasoning goes something like this: the prophecies surrounding his first advent were literal and fulfilled exactly, but the prophecies surrounding his second advent are allegorical. Can you see the foolishness inherent in this position?
I am suggesting the Kingdom of God will come through the nation of Israel, during a time of intense suffering and persecution detailed in Revelation chapters 6–19. In our final installment, we turn to the stone of stumbling and rock of offense. How do we keep from being offended by the Lord in these final days?
…”Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Romans 9:33