The King Comes

The King Comes

We first see the Kingdom of God in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived in willing obedience to God’s word and rule. But the Kingdom was destroyed by their sin, and the rest of the Bible is the story of God restoring a people to be the willing subjects of his perfect rule.

When God promised Abraham that his descendants would possess the Promised Land and be the people of God under his authority, he was describing his Kingdom. When he rescued Israel out of captivity in Egypt, it was so that he could bring them into the place where the Kingdom would be established. Then, while Israel’s kings revealed many aspects of the nature of the Kingdom of God, these human kings—Saul, David, Solomon, and those who followed—inevitably failed to measure up. Human kings and kingdoms always fall short of the glory of God’s true Kingdom. So in the face of the judgment on Israel’s sin, the prophets restated the promise of the Kingdom as something that would be fulfilled in the future, and the Israelites, living in exile, longed for that day.

But return from exile failed to produce the Kingdom foretold by prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, prophesying after the Exile, continued to direct the eyes of Israel to a great future day when the perfect and everlasting Kingdom of God would be revealed. The Old Testament ends on that note of promise and expectation: “And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one LORD—his name alone will be worshiped” (Zechariah 14:9). But there was no fulfillment in sight as the Jews endured nearly four hundred years of prophetic silence.

Then, into this silence, Jesus appeared, saying, “The time promised by God has come at last! . . . The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” (Mark 1:15).

The Kingdom was “near” because Jesus had come. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises, but still, the fact that God’s Kingdom will triumph could only be received by faith. The consummation of the Kingdom is still to come. “When Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory” (Colossians 3:4).

My King, you have come! You have plunged your flag into this earth by your Cross, and the consummation of your Kingdom is sure. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and take your throne. We long to be your glad subjects.