SOTM - Seeing God’s Kingdom In All the Scriptures

Seeing God’s Kingdom In All the Scriptures:

The theme of God’s kingdom runs all the way through the Bible’s narrative.  Drawing from Graeme Goldsworthy and Adrian Holdsworth, let me try to take you briefly through the scripture tracing this theme, following the diagram below:

Kingdom Patterned (Eden):

God's kingdom can be defined as "God's PEOPLE in God's PLACE under God's RULE".  The pattern for this kingdom was the paradise where God and mankind were in direct relationship in the Garden of Eden.  It is a pattern for the fulfilled kingdom when we see the descriptions in Isaiah 65-66 and Revelation 21-22 echoing much the description of the garden - other than that all the nations reside in a city.

It is an interesting study to see how Eden is a bit like a Temple and Adam a priest - have a look if you have time!

Kingdom Polluted (The Fall and the Flood):

The kingdom was polluted by man's rebellion against God's rule.  Suddenly God's people were expelled from the garden.  The problem of sinful rebellion spread throughout the whole human race, who while advancing technologically also descended into the depths of sin.  Murder, pride about murder, violence, destruction, unnatural behaviour.  All these things resulted in God's judgement on the world in the Flood.  God still loved His people though and sought to rescue them.  He had made a promise to Adam and Eve that He would provide a saviour who would crush the kingdom of Satan in the world, and He gave a foreshadowing of Jesus by killing an animal to cover their nakedness (the sign of their fallen sinful state).

Kingdom Promised (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses):

God's work of bringing His kingdom narrowed in focus to one man: Abraham.  God made a covenant and unconditional promise to Abraham that he would have a people, who would become a nation in a certain place and bless all the world - the king of this theocratic nation would be God Himself as their God.  This promise is passed down to Abraham's sons, who were elected by God to be the people through whom the promise of the kingdom would come.

Kingdom Pictured (Moses, Judges, Saul, David, Solomon):

God used His servant Moses to rescue His people, Israel, out of captivity in Egypt.  Their deliverance is a picture of the salvation in God's grace that is made possible by Jesus (look at the Passover lamb for instance).  God gives His people the law at Sinai to constitute them as His nation before leading them into the Promised Land.

God eventually brings the people into the land.  One of the problems they faced was that they lacked a clear leader after Moses and Joshua, so a cycle of apostasy set in.  God raised up judges who would rescue the people from their enemies and restore thir worship of God.  However, they needed a king.  There was nothing wrong with having a king - what was wrong was that they wanted a king to be like the pagan nations and because they did not want God to rule.  They chose Saul, a king after their own hearts.  Saul was used to establish the people as a nation and bring the 12 tribes together - beginning to establish a picture of the kingdom.  However, Saul fell and God raised up a king after His own heart, David.  David was a picture of the promised King to come, but David was not perfect.  David's son, Solomon, built the Temple in Jerusalem where God was worshipped and brought Israel into a time of great prosperity and territorial expansion and trade.  However, this picture of God's kingdom was not to last due to the presence of sin.

Kingdom Prophesied (700 years of prophets):

Israel split in two after Solomon and there was a gradual decline in both nations as they left God.  All this time it seemed like the kingdom had failed to come.  However, God spoke through His prophets to tell the people that His plan for the kingdom to come was still going to happen.  It was going to come as a spiritual reality in the form of a new covenant with the people (written on their changed hearts) after they had experienced a new captivity (in Babylon) and a new exodus (the return from Exile).  They would be in a new Jerusalem with a new Temple, and most importantly in a New Creation on earth where God reigned with His people.

The prophets also spoke of how God's promised one was coming who would bring about this kingdom and free the people from their sins.

Kingdom Personified (The Promised Christ comes):

When Jesus came the kingdom was established initially.  At the Cross, God's people were saved from their sins and made a part of His holy kingdom.  The kingdom was within them as they became part of Christ's body and were filled with the Holy Spirit.  However, this was not the final reality of the kingdom.

Kingdom Proclaimed (The Church spreads the Gospel):

Jesus sent the church out to proclaim to the world of their need to repent in order to enter into God's kingdom as His people, by submitting to His rule and receiving the forgiveness of their sins.  Christ has ascended at this time and reigns at the right hand of the Father, so the kingdom reigns spiritually over the current age on earth - what we call "the overlap of the ages".  Many of the blessings of the kingdom have come, but it has not fully come as a physical reality in a restored creation.  There is this tension between the "now" fulfillment of the kingdom and the "not yet".

Kingdom Perfected (Christ returns):

When Jesus returns at the end of history one day soon, then He will establish His kingdom physically in a New Jerusalem in a New Creation.  We will be God's people in His place and under His rule - and we will no longer sin against Him.



This is a very brief overview of the idea of the kingdom throughout the Bible's narrative.  For more please read:
- Vaughn Roberts: God's Big Picture
- Graeme Goldsworthy: Gospel and Kingdom
I do not fully agree with either of these authors, since they have an overly spiritualised view of many of the Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel and the future kingdom ('Amillennialism'), however they are valuable to read with this caveat.