A kingdom is a circle of country and people who own a king as their head of government, such as Great Britain and Italy. The kingdom of Israel in David’s day was the people of Israel, who submitted themselves to David’s rule. He was their king. The kingdom of the heavens signifies a circle of people on earth who own heaven’s rule; the kingdom of God, God’s rule. The former is more objective, the latter subjective — that is, the one is rather connected with the King, who is in heaven, and the latter with the presence of God on the earth. These are the two general titles given to the kingdom in the Gospels.
When the throne of the Lord was moved away from Jerusalem, owing to the departure of Israel from Jehovah into idolatry, the government of the earth was handed over to Gentile rule, of which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was the first and best type. To him the God of heaven gave power, rule and authority, but not His presence, like He did by the Shechinah glory cloud in Jerusalem. He calls Himself the God of heaven, not the God of the earth, like He did when Joshua’s triumphant hosts were crossing the Jordan. But the Gentile rulers perverted the authority God gave them; they have often acted like the wild beasts without conscience toward God. When Christ comes again, then they will know that the heavens rule.
Three Forms of the Kingdom
We have three forms the kingdom took in Old Testament Scripture, as seen in the books of Kings and Chronicles and Daniel: first, the kingdom of the Lord in the hands of David, Solomon and their successors till the Babylonish captivity; second, the kingdom as handed over to Gentile rule and carried on by four successive empires, the Babylonish, Medo-Persian, Grecian and Roman empires; third, the God of heaven at the end setting up a kingdom that never should be destroyed, that is, the millennial kingdom, over which Christ, the Son of Man, will reign in power and glory.
Before God’s King could come to reign, He had to come as Jehovah-Saviour to suffer, as Matthew’s Gospel clearly brings out. He came in due time, according to prophecy, the true Son of David and Son of Abraham, the heir of the throne of Jerusalem and of the promises made to Israel as a nation, but He was rejected by Israel. The kingdom was, therefore, put off and took a new shape after His rejection; the keys were committed to Peter as the great administrator of it; it took a mysterious form on account of the rejected King’s being in heaven and away from it, and it was to go out to all nations. Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles, who submitted to the claims [rule] of the King in baptism, became its subjects.
The Coming Kingdom
The kingdom has grown up to what Christendom is now. But after the church is gathered out, which is going on at this same time, there will be a purging process, all wickedness will be purged out, judgment will be poured out, Israel will be restored, and the King will come again and set up the kingdom in power and reign with His bride for a thousand years. “The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:1515And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15)).
After this, when all power, authority and rule that are contrary to Christ are put down, the wicked dead will be raised and judged and put into the lake of fire, and the Son will then deliver up His kingdom to God and the Father, that God may be all in all.
A. P. Cecil