Lord's Prayer 3 Kingdom Come!

Kingdom come

Notes and references to Kingdom 1, 2, 3 teaching on line

 

The word "king" occurs over 2400 times in just under 1800 verses. The first references to a king is found in a battle account in Genesis14 where the kings of Shinar, Ellasar, Elam, Gorim make war on the kings of Sodom, Gomorah, Admah, Zeborim and Bela (which is Zoram). Abraham gets mixed up in the conflict, and in the process meets a tenth king, Melchizedek (meaning King of Righteousness), the King of Salem (means Peace, probably the site of Jerusalem) who offers bread and wine as a sacrifice. Hebrews picks up on this symbolism in reference to Jesus.

Kings could be tribal chieftains, or rulers of vast Empires, but their power and authority are noteworthy. It was the way government worked. After about one hundred references to human kings in the Torah, Joshua and Judges, 1 Samuel 7 makes a major shift. At the end of Judges we read that there was no king in Israel, each one did what was right in his own eyes (yet another reference to seeing). So the people of Israel desire to be like  the other nations--without fully realizing what this will mean--and have a king. Samuel is angry that the elders of Israel said, "Give us a King to govern us." God tells Samuel to do it, but then He says, "they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them." 

There are many hundreds more references to human kings, but in psalms, the Kingship of God is front and center.

Ps 5:2 Hearken to the sound of my cry, my King and my God...

10:6 The Lord is King forever and ever, the nations (Gentiles) shall perish from His land.

Psalm 24 calls the gates to make room for the King of Glory, the  Lord, strong and mighty in battle (a reference to defeating Ba'al)

Psalm 29:10 The Lord sits enthroned forever

Psalm 47:7 God is the king of the earth

Psalm 74:12 God my king is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

97:1The Lord is King; let the earth rejoice... Clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and justice are the foundation  of His throne. A fire goes before Him and burns up His enemies on every side. [9. For you are the Lord, most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods]

99:1, 4 The Lord is king... Mighty King, lover of justice, you have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.

Psalm 103 (especially:19-22) The Lord has set His throne inheaven and His kingship has dominion over all....bless the Lord...in all places of His dominion." This King-God is proclaimed as te one who forgives, heals, saves from death, covers with love and compassion, fills with good things, is kind, merciful and patient and does not deal with us according to our sin.

Isaiah 33:22 The prophet ends a promise of Jerusalem's future glory with these words, "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler, the Lord is our ruler, the Lord is our King, He will save us."

Isaiah 44:6 is part of another prophecy of hope and salvation. "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and the last, besides me there is no god." (Rev 1:16 Jesus uses the same words)

KINGDOM mamlakah. Refers to foreigners and Kingdom of Israel/Judah. God's people are called to Justice--which is right relationship with the covenant God, the covenant people, the alien, and the poor. The "right" behavior is illustrated in the various commandments and instructions found in the Torah and prophets.

Exodus 19 begins the encounter with God on the Mountain in the Wilderness of Sinai. The Lord YHWH declares that He bore the people out of Egypt on eagle's wings and brought them to Himself. He says if they faithfully obey and keep covenant that they shall be His treasured possession among all the people of the world. Out of all the earth, God tells Israel "you shall be to Me a KINGDOM of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the children of Israel."

The Jewish Bible never speaks of the Kingdom of God, but it occurs 65 times in the NT, with additional uses of "Kingdom of Heaven" and simply "the Kingdom."

Daniel 6:13-14 (written in Aramaic) provides a prophecy which is transitional to the King/Messiah Jesus.

"I saw one like a son of man coming with the  clouds of heaven. And He came to the Ancient One and was presented before Him. To Him was given dominion and glory and Kingship, and all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion shall not pass away and His Kingship is one that shall not be destroyed."  The Hebrew for son of man (human) is "ben adam" is used by Jesus in self-reference on numerous occassions. The imagery of Daniel, including the use of animals to symbolize empires, is also duplicated in the Book of Revelation. The connection of God's reign and the dominion of a divine/human figure echo the creation account where the 'adam' was given dominion over all the  animals of the earth. Earlier Daniel 2:44 had similarly declared "the God of Heaven will set up  kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall this kingdom be left to another people." 

The words kingdom, of and God are found together 317x in 84 verses, and the exact phrase in 35 of those verses. Four of those are in Matthew, who has and additional thirty uses of "kingdom of heaven" (heaven being a circumlocution for "God"). Scholars assume these are times when Matthew failed to change his source document.

The references to the Kingdom--God's reign--illustrate the centrality of the Kingdom to His mission. It also gives us angles and insights into Jesus's understanding. (from Matthew's perspective)

Matthew12:28 If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.

19:24 it is easier for a camel (Aramaic "rope") to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich  man to enter the Kingdom...

21:31 tax collectors and harlots enter the Kingdom ahead of you

21:43 Kingdom will  be taken from you and given to a nation that produces fruit

Kingdom of Heaven

3:2; 4:17 "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near" 10:17 (apostles preach without 'repent')

5:3, 10 (Beatitudes) Kingdom belongs to poor in spirit and those persecuted for righteousness.

5:19-20 those who relax the commandments are least in the Kingdom, those who keep and teach them are greatest; unless your holiness exceeds scribes and Pharisees you  will not enter the kingdom.

7:21 you do not enter the Kingdom by crying "Lord, Lord," you must do the will of God. [next verse in Lord's prayer]

8:11 Many Gentiles will eat with  Patriarchs in the Kingdom

11:11, 12 Least in Kingdom is greater than John the Baptist, the Kingdom has suffered violence.

13:11 apostles are told the secrets of the Kingdom (mysterion is something revealed to the inner circle which is hidden from others; hence it is the same as apocalypse-revelation, or unveiling)

After this numeral parable reveal/hide the mystery of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is "like" (the same term used constantly in the Book of the Revelation to John)

Matthew 13. The Kingdom is like a man throwing seeds, like a mustard seed, a treasure in a field, a man looking for pearls, a net in the sea, a householder with old and new things.

Mt 16 the  apostles have the keys to the kingdom of heaven

Mt 18 Jesus talks about the greatest in the Kingdom, those who accept it as a child.

18: 23 Kingdom is like a king settling accounts.

19 some become eunuchs for the Kingdom, the  kingdom belongs to children, and its hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven (second verse has God)

20 like a householder hiring laborers for fields (all day)

22 like a king having a wedding feast

25 like ten maidens (wise and foolish about oil)

What power is at work in he world against God?

The world is fallen and under the 'dominion' (in some real sense) of sinful Human and 'the gods.' The key is differentiating between God's power in theory and how God's power is contained in actuality by the divine decision to create a world and be in relationship with it. Simplistic statements (God can do anything) are no simple because the reality is more complex. God can't commit suicide. God cannot make a round square (he can make a square into a circle, but it ceases to be a square). He cannot make a rock that is too heavy for Him to pick up (I remember that one from a high school agnostic).

The key question is not what God "could do" but what He in fact has done and the resultant constraints of that choice. There is a reason why incarnation and the death on the cross took place, after all, and a reason why Jesus made a church to do His work. God has willed to allow the world to exist in its current state. The Bible indicates there are powers at work which "rule" in opposition to Him. There are 246 references to "the gods" which are called 'foreign.' 'household,' 'their,' "gold or wood, or molten,' so YHWH is "the  Lord of Lords, God of Gods (Dtn 10:17), King above all gods (Ps 95:7). Ps 97 other gods bow before Him for He is high above the gods. I Corinthians 8:5 (there are many gods and many lords)

John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out." 

John 14:30 "for the ruler/prince of this world is coming. He  has no power over Me, but I do as the Father has commanded Me..."

John 16:11The Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong--"about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned."

2 Corinthians 4:4 "In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (+)

1 Corinthians 2:6-8 "we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish...none of the rulers of this age under this; for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." 

Ephesians 2:1-2 "you were once dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the I of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.

This culminates in the grand apocalyptic writings (an almost theatrical production) about God's victory. In Revelation 11:15-19 The seventh angel blows his trumpet and loud voices in heaven say, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah and He will reign forever and ever." This leads the 24 elders to toss down their crowns and worship God saying, "We give you thanks , Lord God Almighty, who are and who were, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged but  your wrath has come and the time for judging the dead."

In the next chapter a vison of a woman and a red dragon, the great serpent (the  Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world) is thrown down. A loud voice proclaims in heaven, "Now  have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Messiah." We learn the  serpent  is defeated by the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony--but the devil has come to earth in great wrath for his time is short."