SYNOPSIS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
“And David said, Blessed be thou the Lord God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine: thine is the Kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. And David said to all the congregation, Now bless the Lord your God. And they did so, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped the Lord and the King. And they made Solomon the Son of David king the second time, and anointed him unto the Lord to be the chief governor, and Zadok to be priest. Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king; and all Israel obeyed him. And the Lord magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel; and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel.”—1 Chronicles 29: 10-25. Hence the kingdom of Israel is God’s kingdom.
TERRITORY OF THE KINGDOM.
“The land from the river of Egypt (the Nile) unto the great river, the river Euphrates.”—Genesis 15: 18. The contents of the land between these two rivers promised to Abraham and Christ (Galatians 3: 16.) for the kingdom, are indicated by the names of the tribes inhabiting it at the time the promise was made. Its frontiers are given in Ezekiel 47: 13-21; Deuteronomy 1: 7-8; 11: 24. “The land is mine,” saith the Lord—Leviticus 25: 23.
THE NATION, OR SUBJECTS OF THE KINGDOM.
“And God called Jacob’s name Israel: and said unto him, nations, even a company of nations, (goyi u-kehal goyim) shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; and the Land which I gave Abraham, and Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee (zara, seed, in the singular.) will I give the land.”—Genesis 35: 11-12. This “company of nations” is the nation of the Twelve Tribes, to whom God said at Horeb, “ye shall be unto me a holy nation;” therefore he styles them in the scriptures his nation, saying “hearken and give ear to me, O my nation.”—Isaiah 51: 4. “Remember me, O Lord,” says the Psalmist, “that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation,”—106: 5.
CONSTITUTION OF THE KINGDOM.
A nation requires religion, laws, and Government for its well-being. Israel being God’s nation, he only could of right confer them sovereignly upon it. He gave the Tribes their religion, their civil institutions, and their governors, which he constituted by a Covenant, styled the Old Covenant, because he intended to supersede it by an amended Covenant, called the New. The New Covenant grows out of the promises made to Abraham concerning the everlasting possession of the land by the nation under Christ. The things of this Covenant are matters of faith and hope to Israel, and “the called,” from Abraham, till Christ shall reign over the Twelve Tribes in the land for ever, when they will become matters of fact. The things of the Abrahamic Covenant were peculiarly, and in a few years after him, exclusively the Hope of the descendants of Jacob, among whom, when in Egypt, transgressions began to prevail. They served the gods of Egypt, and did evil—Joshua 25: 14. Because of these transgressions, the Mosaic Law was added (Galatians 3: 19.) to “the Hope of the Covenant,” and sacrifice; which Covenant was of no practical force in national affairs, because the MEDIATORIAL TESTATOR had not come and had not died—Hebrews 9: 16-17. The Mosaic Law or Covenant, was designed for the instruction of the nation in the things pertaining to its hope, as well for the organization and regulation of its affairs as the kingdom of God. The law was their schoolmaster until Christ, the promised Seed of the Covenant, came—Galatians 3: 24; and contained “within it the form or representation of the knowledge and of the truth”—Romans 2: 20. When the time comes to place the nation of Israel under the New Covenant of the Kingdom, the representative things will have been removed, and “the knowledge and the truth” will alone remain.
“COVENANT” DEFINED.
A Covenant is a system of government indicative of God’s chosen, selected, and determined plan or purpose, fixed by his absolute and sovereign will, and imposed on the people without the slightest consultation between them as to its expediency, fitness, or propriety. Jehovah is the testator; the people or Tribes of Israel, are the legatees. Hence, his covenants, testaments, or wills to the nation, require the death of the testator, because they are of no force while he lives. But Jehovah is a deathless being. He never died, nor can he die—1 Timothy 6: 15. His Covenants, therefore, are “ordained in the hands of mediators subject to death”—Galatians 3: 19. A Mediator is Jehovah’s substitute, who represents Him in all his dealings with his nation. Moses was the mediator of the Old Will, which was dedicated by sacrifice consumed by fire from heaven, and only partially carried out for forty years in the wilderness; but came into full force after his death, when Joshua gave the nation a rest, representative of a future sabbatism for it in the same land under the Christ for 1000 years. Jesus is the mediator of the New Will; which was confirmed in the consuming of Abraham’s sacrifices by fire—(Genesis 15: 17; Galatians 3: 15-18.) It cannot, therefore, be disannulled. For forty generations between Abraham and Christ, this confirmed Will was of no force at all. But when Jesus, the mediatorial testator of the Will, died, it acquired force; and became partially effective to the impartation of remission of sins, and a title to eternal life in the kingdom to all who believed in the things covenanted or bequeathed, and in Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles. It has not yet come into full force. It is destined, however, to become fully developed in all its efficiency, when Jesus shall come again and save the Twelve Tribes from their enemies, and from the power of all that hate them; and to perform the mercy promised to their fathers, even the holy covenant, the oath which God sware to their father Abraham, that he would grant unto them, that being delivered out of the hand of their enemies, they might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of their life—Luke 1: 69-75.
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OLD COVENANT OF THE KINGDOM.
The Mosaic code was the covenant of God for 1617 years, exclusive of the 70 years in Babylon. The Twelve Tribes received it under the Levitical Priesthood, (Hebrews 7: 11.) which was imperfect, and therefore destined to be changed at some future period. Hence this change would necessitate also a change of the Covenant—verse 12.
THE LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD.
This was constituted after the law of a carnal commandment. Aaron was called of God to be the first High Priest of the nation; and the office was perpetuated in his family so long as the Mosaic covenant should continue the constitution of the kingdom. The office was held for life; but the service of the ordinary priests only for a term of years. The Levitical Priesthood was changeable, being left of one to another. Hence, it is said to be, with father, with mother, and with pedigree, having beginning of days and end of life.
THE SERVICE.
The High Priest was at the head of all religious affairs, and was the ordinary judge of all difficulties thereto belonging, and even of the general justice and judgment of the nation. He only had the privilege of entering the Most Holy apartment of the Temple once a year, on the day of solemn expiation, to make atonement for the sins of the whole nation.
The priests of the House of Aaron served immediately at the altar, killed, skinned, and offered the sacrifices. They kept up a perpetual fire on the altar of burnt sacrifices, and in the lamps of the golden candlestick in the holy apartment of the Temple. They kneaded the loaves of show-bread, baked them, offered them on the golden table, and changed them every Sabbath day. Every day, night and morning, a priest appointed by casting of lots at the beginning of the week, brought into the holy place a smoking censer of incense, and set it on the golden altar, called the altar of incense.
A principle employment of the priests next to attending the sacrifices, and the temple service, was the instruction of the people, and the deciding of controversies. “For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts”—Malachi 2: 7. In time of war their duty was to carry the ark of the covenant, to consult the Lord, to sound the holy trumpets, and to encourage the army.
The priests who officiated at the altar, and in the Holy, and Most Holy, were Aaron and his sons, or their descendants. The rest of the Levites were employed in the lower services in the temple by which they were distinguished from the priests. They obeyed the Aaronites or higher officials in the ministrations of the temple, and sung and played on instruments in the daily service. They studied the law, and were the ordinary judges of the country; but subordinate to the priests. It was contrary to the law, and punishable with death, for the priests to officiate without washing their hands and their feet in the laver of brass between the altar and temple. These washings were imposed “till the time of emendation.”
SACRIFICES.
Sacrifices are properly victims whose blood has been poured out unto death. The Hebrews strictly speaking had but three kinds of sacrifices:
1. The burnt offering, or holocaust;
2. The sacrifice for sin, or sacrifice for expiation;
3. The pacific sacrifice, or sacrifice of thanks giving.
Besides these were several kinds of offerings, of corn, of meal, of cakes, of wine, of fruits; and one manner of sacrificing, which has no relation to any now mentioned, that is, the setting at liberty one of the two sparrows offered for the purification of leprous persons; also the scape-goat, which was taken to a distant and steep place whence it was thrown. These animals thus left to themselves, were esteemed victims of expiation, loaded with the sins of those who offered them.
In the sacrifices that were offered annually, there was a remembrance of the nation’s sins every year. On this occasion the High Priest went into the Most Holy with blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people. This was transacted on the tenth day of the seventh month every year, which was the great day of national atonement. The burnt offerings and sacrifice were for the nation, and for individuals, to make reconciliation or atonement for them: yet the reconciliation was as imperfect as the priesthood and the sacrifices, the former being changeable, and the latter inefficient to the taking away of sins.
THE ROYAL HOUSE OF THE KINGDOM.
Though the kingdom belonged to Jehovah, “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords: who only hath deathlessness, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see,”—1 Timothy 6: 15—though He is Israel’s eternal, incorruptible, and invisible King, —1 Timothy 1: 17—yet he had predetermined that his kingdom should be ruled by a visible representative of his majesty. He resolved, however, that the occasion developing his purpose of choosing a Vicegerent, should be a manifestation of their disaffection to himself—1 Samuel 8: 7. He provided for the exigency in the Mosaic Law, saying to Israel, “When thou art come into the possession of the land, and shalt say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are about me;’ thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, who is not thy brother”—Deuteronomy 17: 14. Hence, the law contemplated the establishment of the kingly office, which was at some future period to be inherited by the Seed of Abraham, who is to possess the gate of his enemies; and in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed—Genesis 22: 17-18. But neither the covenant confirmed to Abraham, nor the covenant promulgated through Moses, defined the tribe and family whence the person should be manifested as the progenitor or father of the Seed; though it was understood in Israel from the prophecy of Jacob, that He should come of the tribe of Judah, and that there should be “unto him the obedience of the peoples,” or tribes—ve-lo yiquhath amim.
To determine the things, then, which were undefined in the covenant with Abraham, and the superadded covenant of Moses, Jehovah availed himself of the rejection of himself by the nation, to choose for it a king from whom Shiloh should descend to rule the tribes when established under the New Constitution of the kingdom. He gave them a king in his anger, and took him away in his wrath—Hosea 13: 11. He gave them Saul, son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin; but as he did not do all his will upon the idolatrous tribes around Israel, Jehovah set him aside, and chose a better man. This was David, son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah. He was born in the 29th year of Eli’s judgeship, and was 11 years and 5 months old at the capture of the ark by the Philistines at the battle of Ebenezer. In the 18 years and 7 months, which succeeded, he killed the lion and the bear, smote Goliath, was anointed Jehovah’s king elect to rule his people Israel, and passed through much tribulation that he might inherit the kingdom, if approved. Saul was killed in battle; and David succeeded him, first as king of Judah, and two years afterwards as sole king in Israel. He had long wars with the surrounding nations, which at length ended in their conquest and an enduring peace. In his career as a king raised up to execute Jehovah’s vengeance upon the heathen, he acquitted himself as “a man after God’s own heart;” and with all his faults as one “of whom the world was not worthy;” because he honoured God by devout and earnest faith in “his word, which he has magnified above all his name”—Hebrews 11: 32, 38; Psalm 138: 2; Acts 13: 22.
David being approved as a suitable progenitor of “the seed,” Jehovah made an everlasting covenant with him, which he confirmed with an oath. By this he established the sovereignty of his family over Israel for ever. Henceforth, the House of David was the royal house of the kingdom of God; and to rebel against David, or a descendant of his, lawfully occupying his throne, was to rebel against Jehovah himself to whom the throne and kingdom as certainly belonged as if he had no visible representative in Jerusalem. Hear what the Strength of Israel proclaims—“I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, saying, Thy seed (zarecha, singular,) will I establish for ever (ad olam) and build up thy throne for all generations (le-dor-vahdor) * * * I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people. I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him: with whom my hand (power) shall be established: mine arm shall also strengthen him. * * * In my Name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his power (who bears Jehovah’s name) also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my First-born, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His Seed also (zaro, David’s Seed, singular,) will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. * * * My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His Seed (zaro) shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven”—Psalm 89. Hear again the word Jehovah sent to David by Nathan concerning his Seed who was to bear Jehovah’s name—“It shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy Seed after thee, who shall be of thy sons: and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me a temple, and I will establish his throne for ever. I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son. I will settle him in my house (temple) and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore”—1 Chronicles 17: 11-14. From this covenant, it is clear as a sunbeam, that David was to have a Seed who should be both Son of David and Son of God; that this Seed should be a king, and heir to all David’s prerogatives; that the throne and kingdom of Israel should be everlasting in David’s family; that his Seed should be raised up from the dead to sit upon his throne; that he should then build a temple; and that he should be settled in that temple forever, that is, should be a priest continually there.
Paul makes it absolutely certain, that “the Seed after David of his Sons” is the Lord Jesus, and not Solomon, by applying the saying in the covenant, “I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son,” to Christ—Hebrews 1: 5. And that David himself so understood it, is obvious from innumerable passages in his writings. David believed the Son here spoken of was to be raised from the dead to sit upon his throne; and that when he sat upon it, he was to be an immortal king, and an undying priest after the order of Melchizedek. Peter declares this; for in reasoning upon what David wrote in the sixteenth psalm, he said, “David being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne: he foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his dead body was not left in the tomb, neither did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up”—Acts 2: 30. Being raised from the dead, and therefore, Son of God according to a holy spiritual nature which he should possess in common with the angels, than whom he was then no longer “lower,” he saw him in possession of his dominion as Jehovah’s king on Zion, the hill of his holiness, with the nations for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession—Psalm 2: 6-8. He discerned also what would be his own character and that of his government; for, says he, concerning him, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a righteous sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness; therefore, O God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness (the Holy Spirit) above thy fellows”—Psalm 45: 6. And when thus sitting upon his throne in Zion, he beheld him with the eye of faith, as one who had subdued his enemies, and become the royal high priest of the kingdom. Speaking of his Son and Lord, he says, “Jehovah shall send the rod of thy strength from Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Jehovah hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek”—Psalm 110. Jehovah swore this, when he swore to David, that he would settle him in his house and in his kingdom for ever.
Thus by “the Word of the Oath” was David’s family constituted the Royal House of the kingdom under both constitutions, or covenants, old and new; and the transfer of the priesthood declared from Aaron and his sons, to David’s Son for ever. Hence the carrying out of this purpose necessitated the future abolition of the Covenant of Sinai, and the introduction of a constitution better suited to the case.
