Second, as these and many other passages teach, God’s peace, righteousness, and justice will prevail in this new Kingdom. “Justice” and “righteousness” include the teachings of the Torah that Kingdom’s citizens will care for the widows, orphans, and sojourners, all of whom will be provided just laws and just courts by the King.
Third, the nations will be invited into the Kingdom.
Fourth, the King will be a descendant of David who will rule with justice and righteousness, who will be humble and yet will protect the Kingdom from all invaders.
Fifth, as we learn from the Servant’s Song in Isaiah, the King will suffer for the sins of the people. The Servant, as representative of Israel, will suffer that fate that Israel deserves, for Israel, and thereby bring redemption and salvation.
Sixth, God’s wrath will be a consuming fire for the enemies of God. Those outside the Kingdom will be set ablaze and destroyed by the fire of God. But those who are in the Kingdom will live in the new heavens and new earth, a land centered on Jerusalem but encompassing the entirety of a re-built, transformed Creation.
Seventh, there will be a resurrection of the righteous dead, who will be raised to become a part of the Kingdom.
There’s more, of course — much more. Ultimately, the kingdom — God’s shalom, justice and righteousness — is how God intends to set things right and make the world and God’s people what they were always meant to be: created in the image of God. This is the goal of the Spirit, the work of Jesus, and the coming of the Kingdom.
D. A. Carson points out that the word translated “kingdom” in the New Testament has an active sense. A better translation might be “reign.” The Kingdom of God is wherever God reigns. Submission to God is therefore not about placating a vengeful deity but submitting to instruction about how to be restored to God’s original plans for us — to walk with God in the Garden, in the cool of the morning.
The last several posts only hint at the depth and richness of these prophecies. I urge the readers to spend some time in the prophets with these ideas in mind. They make for remarkable reading!
Now, contemporary evangelical theology generally misses much of this, as does much of the theology of the Churches of Christ. The Churches of Christ, of course, worked hard to ignore the passages about the Spirit. Even many evangelical churches often see little consequences to the working of the Spirit beyond the theoretical.
The call to justice that permeates the Law and the prophets is generally ignored. Most evangelicals see the world as something to be escaped rather than something to be redeemed. Therefore, the injustice of society is to be dealt with by converting people to the church so they can go to heaven when they die. .
But the prophets cry out against unjust laws and wickedness and plead for relief to be given the orphans and the poor. They demand that something be done to help — treating a failure to help those in need as just as bad as the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah.
(Eze 16:49-50 ESV) 49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.
Thus, it’s not uncommon to find church buildings worth tens of millions of dollars filled with gyms and coffee shops and next to no money for the poor. The church can sometimes be filled with pride, excess food, and prosperous ease and yet refuse to aid the poor and needy. We call homosexuality an abomination but fail to see that we are an abomination, too.
Notice that we misread much of the New Testament because we don’t bother to study the Old Testament.
(2Ti 3:16-1 ESV) 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
When Paul wrote this, he was referring to the Old Testament. He was, in fact, referring to many of the very passages and concepts we’ve been covering in this series. What does that tell you about the nature of “every good work”?
Finally, notice what’s important to Moses and the prophets: right relationship with God, right relationships among God’s people, right relationship with God’s creation, right relationship with the Creation. The emphasis is simply not on rite and ceremony. It’s about fleeing idolatry and being conformed to the character of God — with the help of God’s Spirit —
(Deu 10:16-19 ESV) 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
