Two Realms

Read: Daniel 2

During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. Daniel 2:44

IN WORD

Centuries before Jesus came, Daniel prophesied that God would set up a Kingdom. After the Babylonian Empire would come the Medes and Persians, then the Greeks, and then the Romans. The new Kingdom, the one unlike any other, would come “during the reigns of those kings”—a reference to the Roman Empire, as well as a key piece of evidence for us today that the Kingdom has already come with Jesus. The God of heaven breaks into human events with something altogether different from anything the kingdoms of this world have ever offered us.

According to Daniel’s prophetic interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the Kingdom set up by God would break all other kingdoms in pieces and stand forever. It would enter simply as a rock that strikes a statue—a seemingly small beginning, yet with a dramatic result. It then would grow larger than all other Kingdoms and never end. It is indestructible, and it is permanent. Unlike every government the world has ever known, this one will not change hands. It won’t be ousted or overtaken. It will endure forever.

IN DEED

If this happened “during the reigns of those kings” two millennia ago, yet the rise and fall of empires has continued ever since, where is that Kingdom now? It’s here, fulfilling every word of the prophecy. It is already indestructible, already bigger than all others, already demonstrating every evidence of permanence. And we, therefore, are living in two realms at once, functioning in the kingdoms of earth while holding citizenship in this altogether different Kingdom. It sounds subversive, and in many ways it is. It’s a silent revolution. We have a greater allegiance to the King—and to a different agenda—than to any other president or prime minister. One realm lasts, the other doesn’t. And only one can change the direction of life and lead to fulfillment.

ADDITIONAL READING: John 18:36

The core of all that Jesus teaches about the Kingdom is the immediate apprehension and acceptance of God as King in his own life.

T. W. MANSON