The expression “kingdom of heaven” is derived from the Old Testament and appears in Matthew only, the gospel of the King. Our evangelist writes with a view to Israel and, therefore, lays hold of a phrase which is taken from the prophecy of Daniel, who speaks of the days coming when the heavens should rule. Before that (Dan. 2), we hear that the God of heaven is to set up a kingdom that should never be destroyed — the kingdom of heaven. There is a glorious Man to whom the rule of heaven will be entrusted. The Son of Man will not simply destroy what opposes God, but He will introduce a universal kingdom. The rejection of Jesus by the Jews led to the twofold form taken by the kingdom of heaven. While the old view of a kingdom established by power and glory, as a visible sovereignty over the earth, is postponed, the rejection of Jesus on earth and His ascension to God's right hand lead to the introduction of the kingdom of heaven in a mysterious form—which is, in point of fact, going on now. Thus it has two sides. When Christ went up to heaven and took His place as the rejected but glorified One there, the kingdom of heaven began. The Lord contrasted the kingdom of heaven, in a publicly manifest form, with that kingdom as opened to faith only — more blessed as known to faith than to sight. There has been no time in the ways of God so blessed for a soul as the ways of God now.
W. Kelly (adapted)