Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Chapter 19 –The Story of the Kingdom Revisited
The Call: One man chosen from many
[Bible references: Genesis 12:1-3; 15:6; 17:1, 5; 25:26; 32:22-32; 35:22-27; Exodus 1:8, 11]
From one nation in Mesopotamia, God called one man, Abram, to leave his country and go to a “land I will show you.” In that new land, God would use Abraham to create a “great nation.” It would then be through Abram that God would bless those who blessed Abram and curse those who cursed Abram and through Abram blessing all the families in the world.
By faith, Abram listened to God and did as he was told. Even though Abram was not able to do anything to restore his relationship with God, God had a plan in place that would be able to restore that relationship, and in that knowledge, God credited Abram’s faith as righteousness. The nation that God promised would come through Abram would indeed test Abram’s faith. Along the way, God gave Abram a new name, Abraham, meaning “father of many nations.” However, the son that God promised Abraham, did not happen until Abraham was 100 years old. That son, Isaac, only had twins and that did not happen until Isaac was 60. And then it was revealed that only one of those sons, Jacob, was the one that God would create his nation from. Jacob eventually had 12 sons and a daughter.
Abraham and Isaac did not perfectly follow God. Jacob was no exception as he was constantly conniving and trying to get things done his own way. However, despite Jacob’s resistance, God continued to work with Jacob and eventually gave Jacob the name, Israel (meaning wrestles with God). Israel would become the name that Jacob’s descendants would eventually be known by.
Although this slowly growing family was living in the land that God had promised Abram, and the nation-building future now seemed to be coming in sight, God had one more twist to his plans that would seem to throw the plans awry. The family, not yet a nation, would end up in Egypt for many generations, first as guests during a time of famine, then eventually becoming slaves but all the while strongly growing into a nation.
The Call: One Nation chosen out of many
[Bible references: Exodus 11:4-7; 12]
After Israel endured slavery for many years, God raised a man, Moses, to bring the enslaved nation, Israel, out of Egypt, back to the Promised Land, the land that God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. This escape from Egypt was resisted by the king of Egypt and required God to cause many plagues on the Egyptians. The last plague, the one that caused the death of all the first-born Egyptians eventually caused the king to relent. But for the Israelites to protect themselves from that last plague, God told the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and sprinkle its’ blood on the doorposts and then they were to bake some bread without leavening, because it wouldn’t have time to rise. These actions would become part of Israel’s legacy, Passover, to mark them as God’s people.
The Law
[Bible references: Exodus 19:5-6; Galatians 3:16-18, 24]
After God led the people out of Egypt, with Moses as their leader, God gave this chosen people a set of laws that would also mark them as his own. These laws, which included the Ten Commandments, would prove impossible to keep. It was not God’s intentions to simply be harsh with his chosen people, but to make their sinful condition clear to them and to encourage them to lean on him by faith, as God had done with Abraham, for the covenant of faith was not revoked.
The Tabernacle
[Bible references: Exodus 25:8-9]
Another prophetic device that God provided was the construction of a Tabernacle, where rituals and sacrifices would be carried out. The Tabernacle would be the place where God would manifest His presence in the midst of His people. At a later point, the Tabernacle would be replaced by a permanent structure, the Temple. The details of the Tabernacle/Temple were meant to provide symbols of how God’s people could relate to him in a similar way to how God met with his people in the Garden of Eden[1].
The Sabbath
[Bible references: Exodus 16:29]
One of the more significant liturgies that God established with Israel was the liturgy of the Sabbath. The Sabbath would point back to the 7th day of creation when God had ceased the ordering of the universe and was now resting, settling into His creation. On the Sabbath, the people of Israel were to cease from their labors as God did from His. It would be a time for them to remember that they do not live for their labors and there is a time to rest – to live in the world in which they labored.
Shadows
[Bible references: Exodus 16:22-23; Hebrews 8; 10]
All these devices, the Laws, the Tabernacle, the Sabbath were also shadows of the future, meant to point to not only what God had done in the past but to what He will do in the future. The Laws would point to the method by which God could resolve the problem of sin. The Tabernacle would point to the way in which God would meet with His people. The Sabbath would point to the ultimate rest that God would provide for His people[2]. But that would be for a promised for future; meanwhile, God’s people, Israel, would live in those shadows.
Those shadows did provide hope for those whose hearts were open. The Laws were a sign of God’s special covenant relationship with Israel. The rituals of the Tabernacle were a reminder of God’s provision for sin. The weekly Sabbath was a continual gift of rest, a sign of the Israel’s special status as God’s chosen people[3], and a reminder of God’s provision for their daily needs.
The Rebellion Continues
[Bible references: Judges 2:12-19; 21:25; 1 Samuel 8:1-9; 1 Kings 12; Jeremiah 1:15-16; Ezra; Nehemiah]
However, despite the provisions God made for the people of Israel, they had continual trouble holding on to God’s promises. After entering the Promised Land, God’s people would continually put God to the side and follow after the idols of their neighbors, causing God to allow them to be overrun by their neighbors. After spending time in subjection, they would repent and God would rescue them, but they would repeat this same cycle over and over again.
After many cycles of rebellion, repentance, and rescue, instead of thinking about where they fell short of God’s laws, they instead insisted that their problem was the lack of having an earthly king like everybody else. When God finally did provide kings, they discovered that having an earthly king did not resolve their problems. After only three kings, the sins of the kings would cause the kingdom to get split into two parts. Then, despite God’s continuous pleadings through many prophets, the sins of the kings would persist, causing God to discipline His people with temporary exile from the Promised Land. It was then, with the discipline of the exile, that Israel would finally turn from their polytheism[4].
The exile ended when a remnant of the people of Israel, now called Jews, returned to the Promised Land. This time, however, the people of Israel had no independent kingdom, they were only one of many provinces in a vast empire. Despite rebuilding the temple, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, and renewing their focus on the Law, they were still as helpless as before – living in the shadows as they had before. Yet, they still had hope for a Messiah, an anointed one, who would rescue them, throw off their oppressors and restore the kingdom of Israel.
Promised Messiah
[Bible references: Isaiah: 32:1; 53; Jeremiah 23:5-6]
There were some hints about the coming of the Messiah: some referring to a king establishing a kingdom but other hints mysteriously referring to a lowly Messiah, a suffering Messiah. It was not easy trying to figure out how that would all go together.
Israel was living in the crossroads of empires:
- the northern kingdom had been scattered through the Assyrian empire.
- the southern kingdom had been pulled into exile by the Babylonian empire.
- the Persian empire had allowed the exilees to return to Jerusalem.
- the Greek empire overtook the Persian empire, imposed their language and culture on all their conquered peoples and then desecrated the temple which caused a revolt.
- the Hasmoneans overcame the Greeks and re-established of the kingdom of Israel.
- but then the Roman empire overtook the Greek empire and turned the kingdom of Israel into a province of the Roman empire[5].
The coming and going of kingdoms and empires created a longing in the Jews for a Messiah to come in and throw out the Roman empire. That solution, however, would not resolve the problem of the rebellious spirit of the Jews, nor of the Gentiles which God had promised would be blessed through the descendants of Abraham. Both Jews and Gentiles needed a solution to their rebellious hearts.
[1] Ragusa, Daniel. “Summarizing the Biblical Theological Case for Eden Being a Temple” 30 July 2016 reformedforum.org/summarizing-biblical-theological-case-eden-temple-garden/ accessed 2/16/2019
[2] Walton, John H. “Proposition 4, In Genesis 1, God Orders the Cosmos as Sacred Space” Intervarsity Press, Kindle 2015
[3] Rubenstein, Richard L. “The Covenant: A Relationship With Consequences” My Jewish Learning www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-covenant-a-relationship-with-consequences/ accessed 2/16/2019
[4] Johnson, Paul. History of the Jews, Harper Perennial 1987 (p.76)
[5] Ekstrand, Dr. D.W. “The Intertestamental Period and Its Significance upon Christianity” The Transformed Soul, www.thetransformedsoul.com/additional-studies/spiritual-life-studies/the-intertestamental-period-and-its-significance-upon-christianity accessed 2/16/2019
Dancing In The Kingdom 