The Gospel of the Kingdom
|
Spreading the Gospel ("glad news") is unarguably the task Yahshua the Messiah left for his followers to complete. But is the Gospel as He saw it the same Gospel that the church is spreading today?
If an airplane gets even half a degree off course and does not make the necessary correction, it will not arrive at the right destination. So we need to look closely to see if we're still on track.
Almost every time He mentioned the Gospel, He associated it with the Kingdom. Some say the Kingdom simply means "Yahweh's rule in the hearts and minds of men." While it is certainly that, there is much more to it than that.
Others have gone to the opposite extreme and said that since the New Testament calls it "the Kingdom of Heaven", it must relate chiefly to the afterlife. But Yahshua gives us another clue:
The Father's will is already being carried out in Heaven. The Kingdom already exists there; our job is to bring it into our realm, for “the heavens are Yahweh’s, but the earth He has given to the sons of men.” (Psalm 115:16)
So mankind’s assigned dwelling-place is earth. How does this square with the way the Gospel is presented today as "how to go to Heaven when you die"? Though Scripture says our incorruptible inheritance is stored up for us in Heaven (1 Peter 1:4), that need not mean we have to go there to get it; it is just kept in a place where no earthly ills can affect it, like a bank account in a politically neutral country. Nothing in Scripture says any human being will be in Heaven forever--only that we can be with Yahweh forever.
In Revelation we see holy people from every tribe and tongue present around Yahweh's throne. But then they come back with Yahshua to conquer the rebellious nations when He returns to set up His Kingdom Just before Yahshua came, proclaiming, "The Kingdom is at hand!" John the Immerser was to "prepare the way”--make a suitable place for Him who is Holy to walk on an earth that is now defiled. (Compare Deut. 23:14)
Heaven is Yahweh's "habitation" (Deut. 26:15). When we try to make a "habitat" for animals, we try to imitate as closely as possible the environment they came from. When Yahweh told Moses to build the Tabernacle, which means, "place of dwelling", He told him to make sure he built everything exactly like like the pattern He had been shown on Mt. Sinai. (Exodus 25:9, 40) They had to be just right, for they were replicas of Yahweh's dwelling place in Heaven. (Heb. 8:5; 9:23)
Later He said He would choose one place in the Land of Israel to establish such a "habitation". (Deut. 12:5) When King Solomon built the Temple, which was a glorified version of the same pattern as the Tabernacle, He recognized that this is what Yahweh had promised. (2 Chron. 6:2) Solomon's reign was a foretaste of the Kingdom!
But Solomon allowed his foreign wives to bring idolatry into Israel. Yahweh split Israel into two kingdoms. David's throne remained with Judah, but the name "Israel" stayed with the ten tribes given to Jeroboam, who had tried to persuade Solomon's son Rehoboam to lighten their burdens. He would not, so Judah was really the one who broke the unity. (1 Kings 12:13) Jeroboam was from the tribe of Ephraim, so "Ephraim" became a nickname for the whole Northern Kingdom.
Ephraim's namesake was Joseph's son, but Jacob adopted him and gave him the right of being in the position of his own firstborn. (Genesis 48) So while Judah prevailed in that the stayed with his lineage, the birthright belonged to Joseph. (1 Chron. 5:1-2) Jacob specifically said, “Let my name be upon [Ephrayim and his brother Menashe]." (48:16) So the name Israel (as in v. 15) would first and foremost refer to these two tribes. Ephraim is even called Yahweh’s firstborn, not just Jacob’s! (Jeremiah 31:9) So the Kingdom that was still called Israel was now synonymous with Ephraim.
But Jeroboam took the liberty of setting up alternatives to the dwelling place Yahweh had selected. The Northern Kingdom also kept mixing religions, even dedicating altars “to Yahweh and His Ashtoreth”! Israel walked more and more "in the laws of the Gentiles" (2 Kings 17:8). "Ephraim mixed himself among the nations" (Hosea 7:8; 8:8). They wanted to be just like the others, so they were taken from the Land and BECAME Gentiles! Only Judah was left. (17:18) They, too, disobeyed and were punished, but repented and returned to the Land, and in general they preserved for us most of the original ways—the Torah, the festivals, and the Sabbath.
Yahweh said He would not call Ephraim (a.k.a. the House of Israel) His people anymore. (Hosea 1:9) He scattered them and they ceased to be a nation, even forgetting they had once been Israelites.
This turn of events, though far from ideal, was from Yahweh (12:15). “All things work together for good to those ...called according to His purposes.” (Romans 8:28; Gen. 50:20) Despite a long estrangement, Israel's calling was still irrevocable. (Rom. 11:29) Yahweh had an amazing plan that affects you and me, and gives a whole new perspective on what the Gospel really is.
Jacob had said Ephraim's seed would become “the fullness of the Gentiles”. (Gen. 48:19) Paul took up this theme, saying a partial insensibility would remain over Israel “until the fullness of the Gentiles [Ephraim] comes in”. (Rom. 11:25) THEN all Israel would be saved—not until the firstborn returns! The "King of the Jews" (Judah) has no kingdom in this age. (John 18:36) He is a King without a kingdom until both Ephraim and Judah are back together.
The patriarchs had gone or sent emissaries to another land to find their brides. But still they were from the same family. Unlike Solomon, Yahshua's “foreign” bride turns out to be from the seed of Ephraim, and thus not totally foreign after all! Many, probably most, of those responsive to the Gospel are “Gentiles” only in this secondary sense.
The Apostles understood this. After He had taught them for 40 days after His resurrection, the logical question they had for Yahshua when He led them up the Mount of Olives (where Zechariah says the Kingdom will begin) was,
This is what they saw as their mission. They knew the Messiah had to accomplish this, and their expectation must have been heightening as His feet were already ascending that very mountain. The "Great Commission" was a direct response to this query. He did not deny that this was what he came to do, but only said the timing was not their concern, but the Father's. Their job was again to prepare the way--to make sure the Kingdom would have citizens when it came: to make disciples and teach people from all nations. (Matt. 24:14; 28:18-20) Teach them what? "To observe all that I have commanded you". His commands were none other than those Yahweh had given centuries beforehand through Moses. "If you love me, keep my commandments" ; He had not come to abolish the Torah, but to give it its fullest meaning. (Mat. 5:17)
So the apostles did just that. Their concern, when many had begun "returning to Yahweh from among the Gentiles", was how observant newcomers had to be before they could be accepted into fellowship. not whether they would be observant. They did not want to repeat Rehoboam's error---laying too heavy a burden on the other tribes--so they laid down only the minimum essentials so both Judah and Ephraim could share the same table. But they said the rest of Moses' writings should be learned week by week in the synagogues. (Acts 15)
Both Isaiah (52:7) and Nahum (1:15) tell us,
What is that "peace"? In Hebrew it is not just peace with Yahweh. It also includes the idea of national unity--again, the reunification of the two houses of Israel. Nahum adds, "O Judah, preserve the feasts!" Only thus could the Gospel retain its proper focus. So it is tied closely to Yahweh's appointed times (Lev. 23), for they teach us a multitude of details about what Yahshua came--and will come--to accomplish.
Yes, it was "too small a thing" for Yahshua to "resurrect the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved ones of Israel" (Isaiah 49:6), but that makes it clear that this was His primary mission. He would also be given the nations as an inheritance, but this "afterthought" or exception to the rule somehow ousted the main focus, and our "airplane" got off track. We ended up in the "way of the Gentiles"--the very place Yahshua told us not to go! He said, "go only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel". (Matt. 10:5-6) Gentile lands would seem to be the only place Ephraim could be found, so "ways of the Gentiles" must mean, "Gentile methods" or customs. (Jeremiah 10:2 had already said they were useless.)
Why did Paul, who was sent to the Gentiles, always begin his search for responsive Gentiles in the local synagogue? Because the "seed of Jacob" in them was now germinating and drawing them back to their roots! They had taken the first step to return and also to reunite with their brother, Judah. Yahweh said not one kernel of Ephraim's seed would be missed, so if a certain part of the world has been unresponsive after being read their rights, we don't have to wait for them to change. Shake the dust off our feet and move on. They probably have very few Ephraimites among them.
It was not a haphazard, shotgun approach aiming at all Gentiles anywhere. Ephraim was in higher concentrations in certain areas than in others. At one point some of the Northern tribes, escaping Assyria, had settled in Bithynia, so Paul expected to find them still there. (Acts 16) But by this time they had moved across the Bosporus Strait--”right where Macedonia is. So that's where he was called.
Some of those "Gentiles" were waiting for His Torah." (Isaiah 42:4) So Yahweh said to declare to these "far-off coastlands" that He who scattered Israel would regather it like a shepherd. (Jer. 31:10) They would eventually be the ones to bring Israel's sons back home. (Isa. 60:9)
Unlike Rehoboam, this King from Judah would NOT to lay too heavy a burden on the other tribes. (Matt. 11:30). He would instead serve His people--so this time Ephraim (still in exile) would accept him as King, and the heir to David’s throne would be reunited with His Kingdom! THAT is glad news!
|