KINGDOM - OLOGY 26

The climax of contingency in relation to the Mediatorial Kingdom

            With the end of the Mediatorial Kingdom in history, there was a transfer of political supremacy to Gentile power. The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king (Hos. 3:4). But even with this tragic end to the theocracy, this does not mean that God had reversed His plans in relation to the nation of Israel. To this scattered people God will be "a little sanctuary" among the nations (Ezek. 11:16). Their bondage in Babylon and Persia will last for only seventy years (Jer. 25:11; Dan. 9:2). They will return and rebuild the temple (Hag. 2:5) with a prospect at some time in the future of even a more glorious temple (Hab. 2:6-9). And the Shekinah glory which Ezekiel had seen departs by way of the east gate will return by the same route (Ezek. 43:1-4).

            God appointed Ezekiel a prophet to the exiles in Babylon. But he was to learn that the Babylonian captivity had not softened their hearts. God warned Ezekiel that: "The house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted . . . these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face" (Ezek. 3:7; 14:3). There were a few among the exiles like Ezekiel and Daniel, but they were the very few. The rank and file from the leadership to the laity were unrepentant. That explains the wide range of Daniel's confession: "O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. . . .Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice" (Dan. 5:8, 11).

            But there was a remnant who responded to this chastisement of the Lord, and they were the ones who would return after the exile (Ezek. 6:8-10; 14:22-23).

            The Babylonian captivity did not bring the Jews to national repentance, nor was the return to the land in any sense a national restoration. Except for a brief period under the Hasmonean dynasty, the Jews never again regained their political independence. There was no reestablishment of the theocratic relation, and Jehovah was no longer their king. The interest in Judaism lapsed into a mere empty formalism. It took the powerful ministry of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to arouse the people for the rebuilding of the temple. The lack of concern for the law of God and its performance brought the final prophet, Malachi, on the scene. Through intermarriage with foreigners the people were in danger of being paganized. So he denounced the practice. He warned them of bringing sick and diseased animals for sacrifice. They were robbing God of His tithes. They departed so far from the law of God that they were confusing good and evil. In a final word of warning to the wicked and hope for the righteous, the voice of Malachi is stilled, and for more than four hundred years there was a famine of the hearing of the words of the Lord.

            Then one day there came a voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight . . . Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:3, 2). The mightiest prophet of the Old Testament economy has appeared on the scene (Luke 7:28). Malachi foretold the coming of John the Baptist (Mal. 3:1), and the Lord Jesus confirmed his prophecy (Matt. 11:10; Luke 7:27). The silence of heaven has been broken, and with "the spirit and power of Elijah" of old, this prophet aroused the people and the leadership in Israel by the authority with which he spoke (Luke 1:17; John 1:19; Luke 3:10, 12, 14). He went before the Lord as His herald to introduce Him to Israel (John 1:29-34) and to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:17). Once this ministry was completed then John gradually withdrew from public attention (John 3:28-30).

            It is the Lord Jesus Christ, the longed for and promised Messiah, who now moves into the forefront of the attention of the people. His message was like that of John the Baptist: "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 4:17), or expressed by Mark, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15). The expression "at hand" quite literally means "has drawn near." In a sense far above that of the theocratic kingdom in history, the kingdom has drawn near in the person of the King Himself. This called for a response on the part of Israel. They must change their minds, and they must be persuaded of will that this is the One who should come. This meant that they must ultimately bow the knee to the King.

            But the response did not follow this pattern. There were a few, a faithful remnant in Israel, who committed themselves to Him. Among these were the apostles (John 6:67-69), but the vast number of His disciples departed (John 6:66). Very few among the leadership in Israel joined themselves to Him (John 12:42-43), unless it would be Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:38-39), and perhaps the rich young ruler (Mark 10:21). It was a very small group who remained loyal to Him, and who provided the nucleus for the formation of the Church on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:15; 1 Cor. 15:6).

            Two things stand out clearly by which the rejection of Christ on the part of the nation is to be explained. Their ignorance of the prophetic Scriptures, and their unwillingness to submit to the King. In those final hours leading up to the crisis, Christ made reference to both. As He reached the brow of the hill that overlooks the city on the day of His triumphal entry, from a breast heaving with sobs, He said: “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:41-44). Why did they not know; were not the prophecies of the Old Testament perfectly clear? While the answer to this question is perfectly clear to us as we view the situation after the passing of the centuries, was it possible that it was not nearly so clear to people of that day. In spite of explanations that are clear to us, there were some, on the day before his triumphal entry, who thought that proximity to Jerusalem and the significance of His words meant that He was going to establish the kingdom right on the spot (Luke 19:11). Even after death and resurrection there were many disciples who "trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel" (Luke 24:21). It was the reality of the resurrection that made them realize they had not believed all that the prophets had spoken (Luke 24:25).

            They did not understand that Christ must indeed suffer these things and then enter into His glory (Luke 24:26). This is not surprising for even the prophets who wrote of the suffering and glory were unable to understand the time element of these two things (1 Pet. 1:10). Eight times as much space is given to the coming of Messiah in regal splendor to sit upon a throne of glory as to a Messiah who would be rejected by His people and subjected by His people and subjected to the indignity of death like a criminal. Someday when He comes in His glory, the nation of Israel will confess this tragic oversight. "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him" (Isa. 53:2).

            But there is a second reason for this response, and this one underlies the first. It is the moral indisposition of this people to bow the knee to the King. They could not understand the meaning of the Scriptures because they did not want to see the truth.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her thickens under her wings, and ye would not” (Matt. 23:37). I would, but ye would not. These words were spoken to the spiritual leadership in Israel a few days later. They were responsible for molding the thinking of the people. That same desperate disposition and set of the will that developed in Adam, and has prevailed through the centuries, was now manifested in this final hour. The events of the next several days will culminate in the greatest tragedy of history, the rejection and crucifixion of the King of Israel, the Son of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

            It is this contingent response on the part of the nation of Israel that led Christ to declare, "Therefore I say unto you, the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43). Since the citizens hated Him and said, "We will not have this man to reign over us" (Luke 19:14), then the King took His journey into a far country and the establishment of the kingdom was delayed. And, in addition, the house of Israel was left desolate. For as long as this obdurate, stubborn, intransigent disposition continued, they would not see Him. This has now lengthened out into two millenniums of time. But there is hope. Someday soon, the skies will break forth into blinding light, and the King will return, and they (Israel) shall say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matt. 23:39). Then that Kingdom in the eternal counsels of God will be established in the earth, and the King shall sit upon the throne of His glory (Matt. 25:31).