God's Coming Kingdom

God, in the pages of the Bible, often speaks about the coming kingdom of God on earth. This page is a continuing series of articles about this coming kingdom, as shown in the Bible.

Part 35      God's Coming Kingdom

Last time we began to review the predictions of the Old Testament prophets concerning the restoration of the Kingdom of God in the end times. The apostles naturally desired that restoration to occur in their day, “Therefore, when they had come together [to personally observe his ascension to heaven], they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ ” - Acts 1:6.

The apostles had forgotten that Jesus had already informed them, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory” - Matthew 25:31. This shows that Jesus will begin his reign after his return to this earth.

We saw last time that Isaiah, predicting this event, declared, “In mercy the throne will be established; and One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness” - Isaiah 16:5. Why is it called the “tabernacle” of David?

David, although he lived in a house (see 2 Samuel 7:2) recognized that he was still a mortal man. When he declared his desire to provide a permanent temple to replace the tent or tabernacle of testimony for the worship of God, he declared,“Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes, nor slumber to my eyelids, Until I find out a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob” - Psalms 132:3-5.

The descendants of David who reigned in Jerusalem are often said to be of “the house of David”, but likely in view of David’s words in this psalm, the dynasty of David is referred to in Isaiah 16:5 as “the tabernacle of David”.

Amos, another Old Testament prophet, who lived during the time of Isaiah, predicted the restoration of the kingdom of God in similar terms.

“ ‘On that day I will raise up the tabernacle* of David, which has fallen down, and repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name,’ says the Lord who does this thing” - Amos 9:11-12.

*Isaiah’s ‘tabernacle’ is a tent, and this ‘tabernacle’ of Amos is a temporary shelter of tree branches, such as those used during the Feast of Tabernacles as shown in Leviticus 23:40-43. Whether represented by a tent or a booth of tree branches, the first phase of David’s dynasty was indeed temporary. David’s dynasty ruled for only four of the ten centuries in which Israel lived in their land, and his kingdom still awaits restoration.

David’s kingdom was not merely over the territories of the twelve tribes of Israel, but his son Solomon took the throne which then was “over all kingdoms from the [Euphrates] River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt” - 1 Kings 4:21.

The prophecy of Amos is saying that the kingdom under Jesus, the promised descendant of David, will rule not only over the same region as under David and Solomon, but over all the other Gentile (non-Israelite) nations as well. These will be the remnant among the nations which have survived the cataclysmic events which will occur at the time of the end.