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 29      God's Coming Kingdom

We earlier noted how God had awarded Israel with top seniority over the nations, although chronologically they were not so - Exodus 4:22; also, as Moses declared to Israel, “...the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth” - Deuteronomy 7:6. God later promised king David that his dynasty would always rule God’s kingdom over Israel. David acknowledged that he was in fact administering the law of God over God’s kingdom.

“...Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all” - 1 Chronicles 29:11. But even David’s immediate heir, his son Solomon, turned to idolatry in his old age, and the people only too readily followed his bad example. The last king, Zedekiah, failed to provide the necessary spiritual leadership to his subjects.

And so God sent the prophet Ezekiel to declare that the kingdom of God under David’s dynasty was coming to an end.

“Now to you, O profane, wicked prince of Israel (Zedekiah), whose day has come...thus says the Lord God: ‘Remove the turban, and take off the crown (in other words, Zedekiah would cease to be king); nothing shall remain the same...Overthrown, overthrown, I will make it overthrown! It shall be no longer, until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him’.”

The multiple invasions of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon resulted in his destruction of the temple, deposing Zedekiah and incorporating the land of Israel into the Babylonian Empire in 586 BC. The king, with many other Israelites were taken captive to Babylonia - 2 Kings 25.

But God did not forget His promise to send another descendant of David to rule over His Kingdom - “ until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him,” declaring through the last Old Testament prophet,

“Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant [Jesus Christ], in whom you delight. behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts” - Malachi 3:1.

Seventy years after the overthrow and captivity by the Babylonians, the Medes and Persians (now Iran) conquered Babylonia (now Iraq), and the new emperor issued a decree.

“...the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, ‘Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord God of heaven has given me. And He has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem (the temple) which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His people? May the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up!’ ” - 2 Chronicles 36:22.

Then in 457 BC, to fulfill the prophecy of Daniel 9:24, (the temple having been already rebuilt), the Persian emperor Artaxerxes issued a decree to restore Jerusalem as a separate Jewish polity under the law of Moses. And so Jesus could come to his people and God's temple.

In AD 27, to fulfill the prophecy of Daniel 9:25, Jesus was baptized by John who proclaimed, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” - John 1:29.