The Kingdom of God
O.T. part 8 (Multiply, pp. 223-235)
DAY 1: The King of Creation
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
A king has a number of characteristics and a number of duties. Use the verses from Genesis 1 to answer the following questions.
1. Authority. How is God’s authority to act as king seen in these verses?
2. Realm. What is the realm over which God is king? (Look for specifics!)
3. Rule or dominion. How is God’s rule active, and not passive? (He is not an “absentee landlord!”)
4. Ultimate authority. What the king says, “goes.” A king may also delegate authority to his subjects. How is this seen in Genesis 1, above?
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
5. Adam and Eve’s sin was an act of rebellion against the king. They challenged the King’s authority, rule, and even His realm. This stunning reversal was so significant that Jesus said of Satan:
Jn. 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.
6. What strikes you from today’s study? About God as king? About you as a subject of the king?
DAY 2: The True King of Israel
Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
1. What kind of kingdom did God want to create with His people?
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2. God made a kingly covenant with His subjects. What was His part of the covenant?
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3. What were the people’s responsibilities in the covenant?
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Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
4. In the book of Judges, the people reject God as king. How does this verse depict the rejection of God as king? What did they do with His decrees? How did they look at His rightful authority and rule?
Israel Takes a King
5. The people assumed that if they had a human king, things would go much better. God gives them a warning about rejecting Him as king and installing a human king. Underline every warning you can find of having a human king.
1 Samuel 8:11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. 12 And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” 19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
6. What was the response of the people to these warning? ______________________
7. Do you see any parallels in their responses and yours?
DAY 3: God’s Covenant with King David
1. After Saul failed as king, God raised up David to be king. He was not a perfect man by any means. David wanted to build a temple for God. God made a covenant with him which expanded God’s covenant with Abraham and Moses. Underline the promises God makes to David.
2 Samuel 7:8 ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.'”
2. Now underline the things you find significant in David’s response to the covenant.
18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord GOD! 20 And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord GOD! 21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24 And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. 25 And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27 For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 And now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 29 Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord GOD, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.”
DAY 4: The Coming King
1. After David became king, he enjoyed military victories and a great expansion of the Israel, both in land and blessings. In spite of a boat load of blessings, David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed to cover up the pregnancy. This should not be surprising of human nature.
2. David received forgiveness, and became the human standard for ideal kings.
3. The prophets picked up on the ideal King that would come! Each of the following prophets wrote hundreds of years after David’s reign! In the passages below, underline what we learn about the coming King:
Isaiah 11:1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. (Jesse was David’s father!)
Jeremiah 23:5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
Ezekiel 34:23 And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord; I have spoken.
Amos 9:11 “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, 12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the Lord who does this.
Hosea 3:5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
Ezekiel 37:24 “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. 25 They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”
4. How does this long period of time anticipating the coming King strike you? God is setting the stage so that when His Son appears as King, the world would have no excuses not to turn to Him as their rightful and true King!
DAY 5: Searching for the Kingdom of God
1. Generations passed after King David. Israel split into two nations: Judah and Israel. All of Israel’s kings were evil About half of Judah’s kings were evil, some were “decent,” and a few were exceptional. Both nations ended up experiencing the judgment of God through a military invasion and exile. God’s kingdom among His people seemed to be in jeopardy.
2. Another generation would pass for the people in exile. Finally, some of the people were able to return to Israel. You can read about this in Ezra and Nehemiah, there was little reality of God’s kingdom.
3. The prophet Daniel spoke of a coming “Son of Man” who would rule the nations.
4. Let’s pick up on the King who did come!
Mark 1:14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
5. What did Jesus “proclaim?” _________________________________
6. “The time is fulfilled…” For what? ___________________________________
7. What is needed from the people? _________________________________________
8. Let’s look at Jesus’ birth announcement.
Luke 1:31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
9. What strikes you about this announcement and the prophecies we looked at yesterday?
10. There is a long history to “the kingdom of God.” It’s roots go all the way back to the Garden of Eden. They continued through the dark days of slavery, the times of the Judges, and even through exile.
11. What is your response to the Kingship of Jesus Christ in your life? For each of the following words, jot down a response:
a. I am a willing subject.____________________________________________________
b. I want NO king other than Him. ___________________________________________
c. I will delightfully submit to Him. __________________________________________