Deeper Understandings of the Message of the Kingdom

[George]

Shalom everyone,

I'm actually surprised that I've never done a topic on the Kingdom of God.  I always preach on it, so I'm going to start a discussion.  I'd appreciate it, if when discussing we could stay on topic.   So many threads get started, and go into left field, right field, and every field except the discussion.

To really dive into the message of the Kingdom, you have to understand that it was the ENTIRE message preached by Yeshua (Jesus).  While many focus on "salvation" and while this is the ENTRANCE into the Kingdom -- the salvation message, is just the beginning of the bigger message that Yeshua was preaching!   When you realize that Acts begins and ends with the Kingdom Message, perhaps we should dive deeper into the understandings.

Acts 1:6  When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 

Acts 28:31  Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

So this is what this discussion is going to talk about -- the message of the Kingdom.

Your brother in the Lord with much agape love,

George

[George]

When God created everything, it was perfect.  It was set up to be a Kingdom of God, however man fell at the garden.

The very first time we see the word KINGDOM in the Bible it's actually referring to Man's Kingdom.

Gen 10:8  And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. 
Gen 10:9  He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. 
Gen 10:10  And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 

So here we have Mankind for the first time trying to establish his own kingdom -- WITHOUT GOD.

Soon thereafter, we have the dispersion of the nations, and we have our FIRST clue about the coming Kingdom of God.

What's interesting begins in Genesis 10:21.

Gen 10:21  Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.

What's interesting that Genesis 10:21 bypasses quite a few people.  

Genesis 11:10  These are the generations of Shem: Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: 
Genesis 11:11  And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 
Genesis 11:12  And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah: 
Genesis 11:13  And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 
Genesis 11:14  And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: 
Genesis 11:15  And Salah lived after he begat Eber four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters.

So if we have the genealogy in Genesis 11 -- and in Genesis 10 it actually bypasses a few people so God wants us to PAY ATTENTION to Genesis 10:21 in detail.

Continuing... 

[George]

Now the name Eber -- עֵבֶר in Hebrew is the root of the word HEBREW.  

יג  וַיָּבֹא, הַפָּלִיט, וַיַּגֵּד, לְאַבְרָם הָעִבְרִי; וְהוּא שֹׁכֵן בְּאֵלֹנֵי מַמְרֵא הָאֱמֹרִי, אֲחִי אֶשְׁכֹּל וַאֲחִי עָנֵר, וְהֵם, בַּעֲלֵי בְרִית-אַבְרָם.

13 And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew--now he dwelt by the terebinths of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were confederate with Abram.

So now we begin to see the significance of the name -- Eber -- it's the beginning of the ones that CROSSED over.  The first one that "crossed over" and became a HEBREW was Abraham, or the Father of FAITH!

Rom 4:16  That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 
Rom 4:17  as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 

....continuing the study...

[George]

Just a little recap, we begin to see the stream of faith, branching off the FALSE KINGDOM of man (Nimrod aka Babel or Babylon) and the TRUE KINGDOM based on FAITH.

1Ch 1:24  Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah; 
1Ch 1:25  Eber, Peleg, Reu; 
1Ch 1:26  Serug, Nahor, Terah; 
1Ch 1:27  Abram, that is, Abraham. 

So we see the stream of crossing over -- the HEBREW which is connected to EBER, and EVERIT (Hebrew) which is connected to Abraham.

As we continue the genealogy and how faith is connected to the KINGDOM ... we come to JACOB.

Gen 32:25  When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 
Gen 32:26  Then he said, "Let me go, for the day has broken." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 
Gen 32:27  And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." 
Gen 32:28  Then he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed." 
Gen 32:29  Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. 
Gen 32:30  So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered." 

So here we HAVE A NAME CHANGE.  We see this is a pre incarnate wrestling with Yeshua (Jesus) and this is when JACOB's name is changed to ISRAEL. 

כט  וַיֹּאמֶר, לֹא יַעֲקֹב יֵאָמֵר עוֹד שִׁמְךָ--כִּי, אִם-יִשְׂרָאֵל:  כִּי-שָׂרִיתָ עִם-אֱלֹהִים וְעִם-אֲנָשִׁים, וַתּוּכָל.

29 And he said: 'Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed.'

 

Now the word ISRAEL is יִשְׂרָאֵל.  So let's break down the word to understand it's deeper meaning.

שְׂרָ -- SAR -- which means RULER (sometimes translated Prince)
אֵל -- EL -- which means GOD
יִשְׂרָאֵל -- which literally means GOD WILL RULE.  We come to understand it as one who strove with God and prevailed when you realize that the same root -- שְׂרָ (ruler) is in the word STRIVEN.

So ISRAEL -- and its connection with the Kingdom is that God will RULE!  For 400 years, Israel lived without a KING!  God was ruling and it was changed with Saul, then David.  But as with all things, how ISRAEL began, so ISRAEL will end with GOD WILL RULE!

Continuing...

[George]

The problem with the WORD ISRAEL is that it has so many meanings depending on which reference of the Bible, or which time you are referring to.  So to clarify, 

You have when Jacob had his named changed to ISRAEL, which then encompassed the ENTIRE 12 tribes of Israel.
Then you have ISRAEL which encompassed 10 tribes which broke away from the Southern Kingdom of Judah and Benjamin -- which later went into idolatry.  However, we read throughout Scriptures the remnant of the northern tribes reunited with the Southern Kingdom so later the Southern Kingdom of Judah and Benjamin had a remnant of all 12 tribes.
Then you have the MODERN state of Israel, which is largely a regathering of the Jewish people in our day.

So when we're discussing Israel as its relation to the KINGDOM, we must address what semantic term of Israel we are referring to -- and in its proper light it's referring to when GOD WILL RULE again.

Now we know that the Jewish people WILL BE REUNITED once again to the KINGDOM of God through their MESSIAH.

Romans 11:1  I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 

Rom 11:11  So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 
Rom 11:12  Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! 

So the question is why did Paul say, their full inclusion ... if there wasn't a full inclusion of the Jewish people!  Later ...

Rom 11:15  For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 

Rom 11:23  And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 
Rom 11:24  For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree. 

The Jewish people will be REGRAFTED INTO the OLIVE TREE AGAIN!

Rom 11:25  Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 
Rom 11:26  And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob"; 
Rom 11:27  "and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins." 

Rom 11:28  As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 
Rom 11:29  For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 
Rom 11:30  For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 
Rom 11:31  so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. 
Rom 11:32  For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. 
Rom 11:33  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 
Rom 11:34  "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" 
Rom 11:35  "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" 
Rom 11:36  For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. 

Continuing....

[George]

... so we come to this passage in Acts 3.

Act 3:12  And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: "Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 
Peter is directly addressing the JEWISH people in the Temple.

Act 3:13  The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 
Act 3:14  But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 
Act 3:15  and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 
Act 3:16  And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. 
Act 3:17  "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 
Act 3:18  But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 
Act 3:19  Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 
Act 3:20  that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 
Act 3:21  whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. 
Act 3:22  Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 
Act 3:23  And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.' 
Act 3:24  And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. 
Act 3:25  You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.' 
Act 3:26  God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness." 

So now we have a deeper understanding given by Peter.  In connection to the "Men of Israel" or the Jewish people, repentance, we have the TIMES OF REFRESHING!

It literally means -- times of FRESH BREATH!  So what is this connected to?  ... I'll go to it and come back in the next post.
Then it says UNTIL THE RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS -- what does this include?  First, in our study we know that the Jewish people will RETURN to their MESSIAH, and secondly we know that the KINGDOM is when GOD WILL RULE once again!

...continuing
 

[George]

So now we want to sidetrack just for a moment, and connect the issue with FRESH BREATH and its connection to the Jewish people.

We come to the passage in Ezekiel 37 discussing the restoration of Israel after thousands of years being as it appeared ... dead!

Ezekiel 37:1  The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 
Eze 37:2  And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 
Eze 37:3  And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." 
Eze 37:4  Then he said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 
Eze 37:5  Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 
Eze 37:6  And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD."

Where we are in the prophetic timeline is verse ... 7-8

Eze 37:7  So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 
Eze 37:8  And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. 

So we have a situation ... a PHYSICAL RESTORATION ... bone to bone ... flesh .. but no BREATH.  Which incidentally is translated RUACH -- or connected to the Spirit of God.  This is what's happening in the WORLD RIGHT NOW!  The physical restoration of Israel, however we're anticipating the Spiritual Restoration of the Jewish people.

So what's connected to their BREATH that we've learned so far ... that it's the RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS!

[George]

Ezekiel 37:16  "Son of man, take a stick and write on it, 'For Judah, and the people of Israel associated with him'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.' 

So now we have a future RESTORATION of the KINGDOM of JUDAH / BENJAMIN and the 10 TRIBES that formed the Kingdom of ISRAEL.   Remember ... it's the RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS!  This is connected to the KINGDOM!

Eze 37:17  And join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. 
Eze 37:18  And when your people say to you, 'Will you not tell us what you mean by these?' 
Eze 37:19  say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. 
Eze 37:20  When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, 
Eze 37:21  then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. 
Eze 37:22  And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. 

Once again, we have the TERM ISRAEL --which we already saw in a previous study is connected to GOD WILL RULE!  It's the restoration of ALL THINGS!
 

[George]

Eze 37:23  They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 

Eze 37:24  "My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. 

What's interesting here is a divergence of TERMINOLOGY ... we have DAVID the KING!  Later we have DAVID the PRINCE!  But let's focus on the KING aspect of David.

Revelation 5:5  And one of the elders said to me, "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals." 

Rev 5:6  And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 
Rev 5:7  And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 
Rev 5:8  And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 

Rev 5:9  And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 
Rev 5:10  and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."

So now we have EVERY TRIBE, LANGUAGE, PEOPLE and NATION ... but what about the TERM ISRAEL.  

Let's look further ...

[George]

Eph 2:11  Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—
Eph 2:12  remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 

So here we see the RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS ... as the GENTILES are joined to the commonwealth of ISRAEL.  

Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 
Eph 2:14  For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 
Eph 2:15  by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 

Now we have the creation of ONE NEW MAN ... in other words ... once again the restoration of all things ... coming perfectly in the future.

Eph 2:16  and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 
Eph 2:17  And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 
Eph 2:18  For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 
Eph 2:19  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 
Eph 2:20  built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 
Eph 2:21  in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 
Eph 2:22  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. 

... so we have a situation where the dwelling place for God -- is in us -- where GOD WILL RULE (Israel!).