BibleProject - The Kingdom of God Part 2: Co-Ruling with Jesus

Episode Date: November 10, 2015

In this episode, Tim and Jon discuss Jesus’ authority over heaven and earth and what it means for humans to rule with Jesus. The guys talk about what it will be like for God’s Kingdom to be fully realized. The Bible tells us that God’s Kingdom arrived in Jesus, but the fullness of that Kingdom is yet to come. What went wrong with the establishment of God’s Kingdom, and how does he plan to fix it? In the first part of the episode (01:22-13:20), Tim and Jon talk about Jesus as the one who has authority over heaven and earth. What does this mean exactly, and how are humans invited into this with Jesus? In the next part of the episode (13:40-17:29), the guys talk about the New Jerusalem that’s introduced in Revelation 22:1-5. This is a key passage in understanding how humans will serve and reign with Jesus in God’s Kingdom. In the next part of the episode (18:02-23:22), the guys look at how God responds to humans setting up their own kingdoms. In the book of Genesis, we see that humans keep getting in the way of God’s plan. God’s covenant promise with Abraham and the children of Israel was all about trying to correct what went wrong with God establishing his Kingdom on earth. In the final part of the episode (23:45-43:37), Tim and Jon talk about Israel’s many rebellions––their rejection of God’s Kingdom and the creation of their own kingdoms. They take a look at God as King and how he challenges human kingdoms throughout the Bible. Finally, the guys talk about the tension between God being a King now but also one who will bring his Kingdom later. This is the “now and not yet” theology of the Kingdom of God. Video: This episode is designed to accompany our video called, “Gospel of the Kingdom." You can view it on our youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmFPS0f-kzs Scripture References: Revelation 22 Genesis 3 Exodus 15 Deuteronomy 17 Psalm 96 Isaiah 52 Show Music: Defender Instrumental by Rosasharn Music Blue Skies by Unwritten Stories Flooded Meadows by Unwritten Stories

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode. In this episode of the Bible Project podcast,

we continue the conversation around the theme of the kingdom of God. This is part two. In the last part, we talked about how the message of the Kingdom of God was central to Jesus' teachings. If we want to understand who Jesus is and who he sees himself as, we need to learn what this term meant and how it fits into the story of the Bible. How this theme goes all the way through the story of the Bible. The Kingdom of God is one of these themes that runs from page 1 to the very last page. Literally from page 1 to the second to last paragraph of the Bible.

Finally, we looked at Genesis 1 and how the phrase, image of God, is a title given to humans related to how God reigns. So God's the King, he's reigns, but the Bible begins with God sharing that rule and asking humans to embody that rule and reign over creation. So it's tied to the human project of humans managing and ruling the world on God to be happy. In this episode, we continue the conversation. We look at what went wrong with the kingdom of God

and how God plans to fix it. So when Jesus comes on the scene, his main message is that the Kingdom of God is arriving. It's coming, it's here. If that's his message, then you'd have to assume that the image of God was lost in some way, something happened. Something went wrong. Something went wrong. Something went wrong.

The image of God somehow became distorted or ruined something and that the reign of God has also. Has a result. Yeah, the reign of God has not been fully here. Or it went somewhere else. So like if you had just read Genesis 1 and didn't read anything else, and then you went to Matthew, you'd be like, well wait a second, what happened, will it wrong? Yeah, yeah, where'd it go?

What did the king of God go somewhere that was ever not here? Because when you read Genesis 1, you're like, well, the kingdom is here through the humans in this great place. Yeah. Yeah, that's how the story begins. Full of potential, humans have this amazingly elevated, royal, sacred task of embodying God's rule. In Mark, Mark's summary of Jesus' message is,

the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has arrived repent and believed the good news. So, the kingdom of God is here in a new, surprising way that forces you to repent, which means to take stock, you need to respond in some way, because this is world-altering news. So you can't be neutral to Jesus' announcement, because the whole world is being affected

by the arrival of the kingdom. Matthew concludes with Jesus saying, go out to all nations with the good news that I have authority over heaven and earth now that Jesus is the one ruling and raining. And Luke, you know, for example, it flows into Acts where the gospel is of Jesus's Lord of heaven and earth and over all nations. So go out to the nations. Is this connected then to this whole idea of the new Adam that Paul develops? Yeah, yeah, that's closely connected. Yeah. Jesus is the new, he's the image of God,

he's the type of Adam that Jesus and the people connected to him are the new humans. I mean, we're coming right around to it. It's also why the second-to-last paragraph of the Bible in the book of Revelation, if you... I mean just go to the very end of the document of the notes. Revelation 22, 1 through 5 ends with... The New Jerusalem, his heaven has come down to earth. There's the river of the water of life flowing out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. So they're on thrones, ruling and raining, God and Jesus. In the middle of the city, you've got the tree of life, you've got the leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations. There's no more curse. It's all from Genesis. Right. The throne of God and of the Lamb there are in the city and his servants will serve him.

So there you have a people who are serving and worshiping God and Jesus the King. They'll see his face, his name's on their foreheads, they'll be no more night. They won't need light of a lamp or the light of the sun. The Lord will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever. They referring to the servants. The servants will reign. Yeah. So you're like, wait, God's on the throne, and the servants are serving, but then the last thing is of, and they will reign forever and ever. So it's as if this story, it's not even that we've gone back to the Garden, it's that we're the story of the Garden went wrong.

We're picking up from that point onward and moving forward into new uncharted territory. Where humans again are ruling and reigning over God's creation. But it took a new human... It took God joining, binding himself to humanity to be the image of God on our behalf. That's how the incarnation fits into this. Yeah, so the task of being image bear was too difficult for us

Fair way to say or yeah, you know There were to Genesis 3, you know, so what went wrong? Yeah, there was a breakdown in the relationship There was a distrust and Humans embrace a narrative that says God's holding out on us and brace a narrative that says God's holding out on us, that he doesn't have our best in mind. It will be better for us if we define good and evil for ourselves. And so that breakdown in the relationship creates this rift between God and the bears of God's image.

Yeah, so the narrative of the Bible then is God so closely binds himself to humans in the incarnation of Jesus that he becomes the human that we're made to be, and then through him we become the humans that we are made to be. And then we can get the story back on track again. So let me just really, let me try to summarize what I'm hearing. So God creates humans as image bears to rule over creation. So creation is the servants to humans in this kind of metaphor. Or the... Yeah, and there you have to get in the version.

And destroy more. Yeah, birds and so on. But even there, what does that mean to rule and to reign? Chapter two flashes that out in terms of agriculture or animal has been created. Not like make them slaves and have them pay taxes and build yourself an empire. No, it's be gardeners. Yeah. Gardeners. I mean, that's humans are gardeners. They're made to garden in chapter two.

But if you're going to be a ruler, you need to be ruling over something. In this case, that something is creation. The created order, the created order. Which, left of its own devices will flourish and be quite happy on its own. But there's even more potential, creative potential within, if we cultivate it. If it's cultivated. So to rule as humans, over creation is to be cultivators, to be gardeners. To be cultivators.

And that's what I think the word subdue there. Rule and subdue in Genesis 1 is about harnessing the potential and then harnessing it and guiding it towards new front new things that would never have just grown. It's the same thing like if you let patch of forest grow you will never grow a garden with tomatoes for the world. So the humans can do that. Yeah bring it order out of chaos. Order out of chaos.

So yeah, ruling is not about abusing. Yes. That's not the vision. Sure. Some people have said that's what they think. Genesis 1 is unleashed on Western cultures. This objective, objectified view of nature and so on. But that's not the vision. But I think what I was kind of getting at was, yeah, we're supposed to rule and that rule over creation, albeit not in a destructive way. Yes. But not rule because we're the end all be all,

but because we are bearing the image of rule from something this divine being that's more transcendent than us, who's created all of this. And then so what went wrong, you were saying there was this mistrust, because it's an interesting relationship to be in where you're supposed to be ruling. Hey, I'm the ruler, but then really I'm not completely. I'm actually just reflecting that rain through myself. I'm actually like just a conduit of that and The problem becomes wanting to define good and evil ourselves saying I don't want to be that conduit. I just want a rule Yeah, and define the terms of rule the way I define it how it makes sense for me to define it Yeah, yeah, I mean it's the story of middle management in America.

Right? It's sort of like I have real responsibility as a manager over a franchise, over a subway or something. But I'm not the end of all this. But I don't get to determine the core values or the vision of this company. That's already been decided for me. And so as a manager, I have this responsibility to really make things happen here in the... Or managers not shareholders. Yeah, I think that's...

I mean... I mean, we do have an inheritance. Yeah, I think... But not because we own it. There may be ways that the analogy doesn't work. I don't think of them right now, but I think right now, for this point, it's a good, it's a good moment. Yeah, and then this idea of, okay,

so if that's the problem, it's just a really unique solution in some ways for God to say, oh, well, then let me fuse with humanity in order to show no, this is how you do it. Yeah, right? Yeah, and not just to show but to be it to be it to be that want the the thing that He created us to be right and then the nature of the incarnation of Jesus as Messiah and of us as His people is that the image of God becomes restored in us as we attach ourselves more closely. So I think what's interesting is you would think, okay, so what God's going to do is the

King, he'll come as the King. Ah, I see. And he'll say, hey guys, I'm the King. Yeah. And kind of like flex some muscles sure and say get back to work yeah but what happened with Jesus is he came as a human and said hey guys let me show you and actually do for you what what hasn't been done which is just a really surprising way to go about this. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, the form of the biblical story is very counterintuitive. It's surprising. It's news. It really is when you get your head around it, you're like, wow, that's really remarkable. How this story works. And so when you say good news good news gospel the content for me is More sacrifice atonement. Oh, right right right. So here you're kind of saying part of the news is The reign of God was somehow fractured and Jesus is actually

reinstating it By being the true image bearer on our behalf. And that's good news. And the reason I'm saying that's the news is because the only times that Jesus used the good news was connected to the arrival of the kingdom. So I just put it at the top of the notes here. But in Mark's summary of Jesus' core message, Mark 1, 15.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God, saying the times fulfilled the rain or the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe the good news. So the good news is that the kingdom of God has arrived in Jesus, which means that he is the truly human one who's going to address the core problem. Now that's the drama of the gospel. Is Jesus trying to unpack what he means uniquely when he says the kingdom of the reign of God is here, versus everyone else's expectations for what they hear when they hear him. Because we've been focusing on Genesis 1, but there's a whole bunch of kingdom language. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So yeah, we're getting ahead of ourselves, really. Which is the second great trivia question, which is, where's the first time that God is said to reign or be a king in the Bible? Yeah, I don't know. I would have to guess. I want to guess that it's late. It's in for Samuel. That's good. Yes. Oh, sorry. That's not wrong. You're wrong, but you are right in that an important statement about God being King is in for Samuel, where they say we want a King like all the other nations, people of Israel, and then God says, okay, let them have their King, they've rejected me as their King.

The first time it appears is at the climax of the Exodus story. So here's how the story works. So humans, we've already talked about Genesis 3 to 11, right? The humans, Rebell, they don't trust. They want, like, you know, middle managers who want to much power, they want to define the values, and vision, and direction of the company for themselves, and forget the board of, the board of shareholders. So they set up an alternate kingdom, which in Genesis 3 to 11 takes the form of, you know, Adam and Eve, then they rebel and they're banished from the garden, then there's the murder of Cain and Abel, and then Cain goes and builds the first city and then that city results in the

city of Leimeck who sings his poem about violence and so on. Then that line runs all the way through the kingdom of Babylon and it's great tower and so on. So it's human, the tower of Babylon is the culmination of the fall story and it's a human setting up an alternate kingdom where we will you know build a city with the tower that reaches up to the gods so in the Bible this Kingdoms called the world

Paul calls it the kingdom of this world This age the age of sin and death But it's this alternate kingdom the Reigning where our will is done. And that theme begins with Cain. It begins with, yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, Adam and Eve, it's about distressed, but it's the Cain story that begins the human project of ruling and reigning, making a city and organizing efforts and so on on and it ends up in Babylon which is this huge eff you to God right in the storyline so I think in

the video in terms of the plot tension I want it to begin with here's what humans made to rule and to reign the relationship breaks down and humans still go and rule and reign but they do it on their own terms and they make an alternate kingdom because we can't help but they do it on their own terms and they make an alternate kingdom. Because we can't help but to do that. Right, it's hard to remember. It's hard to remember. Yeah, it's hard to remember. That's right.

We multiply like rabbits. Then we make neighborhoods and communities and organize ourselves. Yeah. So we make a kingdom, but it's the kingdom. And we use our imagination and we're creative. To all these things that were part of the image bearing. Yeah, task, task. Yeah.

Yeah. So then the story of the Bible becomes the story of the clash of kingdoms, of God constantly trying to invade our kingdom and save us from ourselves and us constantly wanting to push God out of the equation. What's God's response to human setting up their own rebellious kingdom? Well, he's gonna choose a family of Abraham and liberate them from the world, the age of sin and death, from the kingdom, from the alternate kingdom, which in the story takes the form of the Exodus. So Israel is enslaved to the Big Bad Pharaoh who becomes this icon of humanity's alternate kingdom and rebellion against God. And so it got me thinking, but it's true in the prophets, Egypt and Babylon

become these icons of the nations and rebellion against God. And it's why in the book of Revelation, God's judge the seven plagues, the seven bulls, the seven trumpets are all the ten plagues and a blender. So it's the Egyptian ten plagues and a blender. And then the culmination of Revelation is the downfall of Babylon. So Revelation is the defeat of Egypt's last Babylon as these icons of the human kingdom and rebellion against God. Anyway, so it's interesting the way they.

So the Pharaoh, you know, was the, you know, Ramzi's the third or the topmost, there's all these debates about. And the story itself is totally, and it doesn't care. It cares that the events are rooted in history, but it removes any personal historical identification of who Faro is, I think, because it wants to typify Faro as this iconic image of humans in rebellion, which is what we did in our

Exotic videos. We did in the Exos video. Yeah, so I mean, the whole thing is, and it's a typical human kingdom. It's about national security. It's about economy. And those two things justify the enslavement of a whole people group killing their babies to make store cities that just store our storehouses for the kingdom. So it's all of a sudden, the first human superpower we see Abraham interacts with like kings who are kings over cities or something but Egypt is the first superpower we see in the Bible and where is it not empire it's not at this point it becomes that in the story in terms of expanding. But it's the first human full-scale kingdom

and it thrives on injustice. So Babylon was a foreshadow of that, but it didn't work. Yeah, Babylon is the first, it's the culmination of the human city. It's Cain City leads to Babylon as the human city. But Egypt is the first developed portrait of a full-scale human kingdom. And it's, you know, Pharaoh is the worst character in the Bible up to that point, and it's a whole

system, a whole social system that thrives on enslaving and killing another minority group in this immense. So it's a depiction. So here's the basic structure of the Exodus story. You have this human kingdom in rebellion against God. And so what does God do? God challenges that kingdom. Pharaoh says, I don't care. And the gloves are off. Super intense conflict. And God defeats evil. God defeats evil like defeats evil pounds into the ground You know 10 plagues and then Pharaoh and his army destroyed in the waters. He opens up the can The Israelites are saved. They're liberated from Pharaoh's kingdom and it's the first worship song in the Bible Exodus 15 it begins. I'll sing to the Lord. He's highly exalted horse horse and rider. He's hurled into the sea, referring to Pharaoh.

The Lord's my strength, my defense, he is my salvation. Again, that's first term salvation is used in the Bible. He's my God. I'll praise him. My father's God. I will exalt him. The poem goes on, the last line of the poem is the Lord, the God of Israel, reigns as King forever and ever. It's the first time that God is described as a King. So in terms of the picture then, how, what does it look like when God's kingdom arrives for Israel? The oppressors are free. It's a confrontation? Well, yeah, you tell me. Yeah, yeah, those who are being oppressed are freed. But you were just about to say, well, first, there's got to be a confrontation with that power. Yeah, I was just kind of thinking through that you have God. God's kingdom arrives when he comes to defeat evil. When he

liberates his people out of that oppressive evil into a new freedom. And then he invites them to live under his reign. Right. Coming to Mount Sinai entering the covenant and living under the reign, God's reign through the Torah, through the laws of the Torah. So the next phase of the kingdom story then has the shape of God as king, confronting evil, liberating a

people and inviting them to live under his alternate reign as a contrast community to the world and its kingdoms. So, I think you can condense the story of Israel really quickly here then. Right. So they do really poorly. Which the Old Testament doesn't do. Yeah, the Old Testament takes a long time to tell the story of Israel failing to live under the reign of God They come to have kings of their own But even the origins of that comes out of this strange rejection of God

Well in the story that you thought of where even you know We want a king like all the other nations as opposed to saying we want to be more faithful to the god of Israel and move under his reign, so a king can help us do that. They say, no, we want to be like Egypt and Babylon, we want a king who will have absolute power. So, it's kind of a sign of the end of, is God's ideal for Israel wasn't to have kings? Well, that's a really interesting question. And that narrative in Samuel for Samuel 8 through 15. Because the people ask for a king, Samuel gets ticked. He goes to God and God says, hey listen, they don't want me as their king. So they give them what they want. But God anticipated the Israel would have kings. One of the whole sections in Deuteronomy is called

a lot of the king. And when you appoint a king for yourselves, he should be one of the whole all the prophecy around Judah. Yeah, yeah, that the royal kings would come from the line of Judah. So I think it's, you know, maybe it was an inevitability, you know, but the idea at least and this, but he seemed to be seem to pose to a little bit or not, but he just seemed kind of like, no, that's not the best thing. Yeah. And so if Israel was going to have a king, it would be a fundamentally different kind of king

than the other nations. And so that's Deuteronomy 17, the law of the king is he doesn't amass an army. He doesn't amass a lot of gold. He doesn't import horses from Egypt. It's kind of a dumb king. And really, he's to be a Bible scholar. He's have his own copy of the Torah

that he hand-rights out himself. Yeah, this guy sounds like he could get beat pretty easily. Yeah. So even the ideal depiction of Israelite king is like a priest. A priest. And a Bible guy. So again, it's an alternate. It's a contrast. Israel was to be a contrast kingdom that embodied the reign of a different kind of divine king. So Saul is definitely not that. Even David,

the man of a God's own heart, only, very imperfectly, realizes God's reign. Same with Solomon, and then that all goes down hill. What are we talking about this? There was another conversation that just when when in kings when they go through the kings it's like some of them are oh good, but even those it's kind of like yeah I guess they're good. Yeah. Yeah, even the best kings in the book of kings get just a B-rating. And overwhelmingly the kings are not. Yeah, there's 40 kings mentioned between the two northern and southern kingdoms and only 8 get a B-rating.

So the point was that the king, Israelite kings were to be subordinate to God's kingship. It was to be an image of the Genesis 1 story. And what's interesting is that the Genesis 1 story is much flatter than that. So it puts its wrinkle in it. So it would make sense that God's like, you don't need a king, you don't get it. Because... Oh, well the humans are the kings and queens in Genesis 1. Yes, so the kings and queens are saying, why don't we actually make another king above us below God?

They're creating like a... Yes, they're complicating the higher. Totally, and that's the brilliance of Samuel's speech to the people who's warning to them and for Samuel 12, is such a great speech. It sounds like a tea partyer. I'm not joking. It's really. Like a libertarian, you mean? Or like a...

Ah, yes, I suppose. Did I say for Samuel 13? 12? I meant eight. For Samuel eight. When they first come and say, give us a king like all the other nations. And it goes, this will be the way of the king who reigns over you. He'll take your children,

appoint them to run alongside his chariots. He'll appoint for himself commanders, some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, which is a play because the land was to belong equally to all the tribes. But a king's going to come and annex all that land for the royal vineyards and so on. So it'll be his harvest now and he'll use your children to make his implements of war. He'll take your daughters to make perfume and to be cooks and bakers, he'll take the best of your field. The Samuel knows that like the vision of the tribes unified under the kingship of Yahweh, their God, is this ideal vision, and that a centralized kingdom is going to compromise that. But they wanted a centralized kingdom because the other nations had one...

The other nations have one. It seemed safer, it seemed like a good strategy. And the Philistines are breathing down their necks. I mean, they just got whipped by the Philistines in chapters four to seven. So they have an external threat, and they have a desire to be like the other nations. So it's hard, it's hard to be a contrast community.

It's hard to be a... That's the thing, it's hard to be a minority. All this kingdom of God stuff, it's really ridiculously dumb. Like love your enemies. Yes, yeah, remember? Don't worry. Yeah, yeah. Like pray for those who persecute you.

Don't centralize your army. Yes. Don't. It's like really? Yeah. Don't you know we're just gonna get destroyed? Whoop done. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, Jesus is the upside down nature of the kingdom that Jesus announces is in sync with the kind of kingdom Israel was called to be, but never actually became. Interesting. So after the Exodus story, God invites Israel to live under his reign. So there's a triad developing, if you can see here, a king forming a people who will live under his reign. So there's a triad developing, if you can see here, a king forming a people who will live under his reign.

Yeah. Genesis 1. Yeah. And God does that through. And God is through Exodus, King. People living under his reign. Yeah. So there's two movements here that will follow,

and maybe feel predictable to you to hire the theme videos, is that the kingdom crumbles, the kingdom of Israel crumbles, and the biblical poets still believe that God was king of the whole world. But, just like in Egypt and the Exodus, there are still pharaohs of this world that don't recognize the rule and the reign of God. And so you get this dual nature of God's kingdom, where God is king, but we're still waiting for the kingdom to come.

So one of the, there's a section of Psalms that explore this tension, poetically, there's Psalms 93 to 99 that are all about the kingship of God. It's really, really interesting. So in the notes here, there's a line from Psalm 96, 10, 13, and you can see it here. So verse 10, say among the nations, the Lord reigns as king.

It's the same line as from the Exodus song. The Lord reigns as king. The world is firmly established. It cannot be moved. He judges the people with equity. So God's king. The world's firm, it's his good world, he made it, he's king over it. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad, let the sea resound,

and all that's in it, let the field be jubilant, everything in them, let the trees of the forest sing for joy, let all creation rejoice before the Lord. For he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the earth in righteousness and the people's in his faithfulness. So there's recognition that God is King, but there's also some need for his kingdom to come here in a way that it brings righteousness and justice and truth that's not fully here in the present. It's the now and the not yet. God's king, but he rules in heaven, where his will is done, but here we live among the pharaohs that don't acknowledge the reign of God. Is that what we're waiting for?

Is that a phrase that probably to use? We live amongst pharaohs or is that just kind of your No, that's kind of my paraphrase. Yeah, for I think that the Well, you know, that's why Solomon Solomon's depicted his pharaoh Yes, he's the first king of institutes slave labor. He institutes horses from Egypt called specifically and he masses more wealth and And he begins to enslave people to build his palace. So Israel becomes Egypt in the story, just like Israel becomes Canaan in the Book of Judges, Israel becomes Egypt. So the

Pharaohs, the Solomon's, the, and then the moment Solomon dies, the kingdom fractures, because people hated him so much. That's not the depiction of Solomon I'm used to. I know, yeah, I can't wait for our video on kings. So yeah, the pharaohs of the world is a signolgement of our way of making kingdoms, which inevitably become oppressive. Yeah, just inevitably. And when you're the smartest guy in earth that becomes extra oppressive. Yeah, right. He had his bright moments.

He's not only bad. Sure. But it's a realistic depiction of human kingdoms, even the best human kingdoms. Right. Our instruments of evil. So, the prophets. So, Psalm 96 has this tension. God is still king, but we're waiting for him to become king fully here on earth.

And it's going to involve... We're just connected to judgment. We're just connected to him bringing justice. He's coming to judge the earth, which we hear judged as negatively in Bible. It's positive because you come to establish equity and justice, and in the Bible, justice means specifically that the powers that be are kept accountable and the poor and the vulnerable.

Rang's are right, too. Rang's are righted, and specifically the poor are cared for. Weongs are right. Rongs are righted. And specifically, the poor are cared for. We don't have time to go there, but the depiction of the Messianic King in Psalm 72, the two things are that create the fields and the field's agricultural flourishes and the poor taken care of. That's the sign of the Messianic Kingdom in Psalm 72. It's very interesting. So that justice is a good thing. It's something that the

trees rejoice about. So Isaiah's way of retaining that hope was the same. And it's the famous passage that connects, I think it's exact, it is this is the passage that Jesus saw himself bringing into reality. So Isaiah 52 or 7, how beautiful on the mountains are those, are the feet of those who bring goodness, it's the word gospel. What, why does Isaiah time on mountains and feet here? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, got it It's all looked down at the beginning of verse eight listen your watchman lift up their voices It's a little poetic movie scene he's painting okay of the what of night watchman on the walls of a city above the gates and

there's They're waiting crucial news of a messenger. Coming from the hills. So, crucial news, there's been a great defeat, right? Yeah. Exile defeat. It's been a horrific time for Israel. You have watchmen on the walls. We're waiting to hear a message.

Messidially and at this point. Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Jerusalem. So, all of a sudden, you see this messenger appearing over the hills. How beautiful on the hills are the feet of those and what are they bringing? They're bringing good news. Why did he call out his feet?

Because he's running. The messenger he's running. Those are beautiful feet. They're beautiful feet who bring good news. Sort of like saying, that's the best news I've heard all day. Something like that. Now, here's something else interesting. King, Kingdom is that the phrase, good news is used specifically of royal activity too.

If you do a word study on good news, it's used to describe the reign of a new king. So Solomon's rival, when David dies, Solomon's brother tries to pull a coup and become king before Solomon does, no, it's right before David dies, excuse me. And they send out messengers of good news saying, Adonajir reigns as king. Adonajir reigns, and it's called good news. So it occurs a handful of times in the Hebrew Bible and it's always connected to the reign of the new king or of a battle won by a king.

Okay. So even the phrase gospel, like image of God, it's a royal, it's a term that Jewish hears would hear. So it's not just like any news. It's not like, oh hey, your sister had a baby. Yeah. Good news. You know, the cubs won

So it was like the battle was one yeah good news is a royal term so like went if In our setting it would be like we just the wars over like wars over or even more like a new president Has been sworn into office right so we have good news every 48 years. Every 48 years we have that good news. Yeah. So look at how Isaiah 52 works here. So you have watchmen on a city wall. There's been a great defeat.

It's dark. We're waiting for good news. How beautiful are the feet of the messengers. They're bringing good news about what? About peace. They're bringing good news about what? About peace? They're bringing good news. It's about salvation. They're saying to Zion, your God reigns as king.

It's the same line as Exodus from Exodus song. So it's some guy coming back, coming back from war, telling Jerusalem. God, God of Israel is still King. So think to an attitude of exiles, people who are in Babylon or have just come back from Babylon, the temples in Romans, Jerusalem's defeated, the kings of from the line of David were taken captive and executed, and were waiting for the news. Is the covenant still on? Is the God of Israel still going to redeem us or redeem the world?

Good news, peace, salvation. Yahweh, the God of Israel is still king. Yeah. Just, when no matter what Babylon is done, no matter the exile. Yeah. There's going to be peace. God still is king. God is still king. So listen, the Watchmen, they've seen the messenger and heard the good news. So now they're going to turn down from the walls and shout out into the city. They're going to shout for joy. When Yahweh, the God of Israel, when the Lord returns to Zion, they're going to see

it with their own eyes. Not only is their God still king, but he's on a victory procession back. Then the prophet addresses Jerusalem burst into songs of joy, you ruins of Jerusalem. The Lord's comforted his people, he's redeemed. Mm-hmm. Jerusalem. The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, all the ends of the earth. We'll see the ends of the earth will see the salvation of the Lord. What's that phrase? So Leibar, his holy arm, is a word phrase from the Exodus story. We're with an outstretched arm. God redeemed his people. So Isaiah builds up the exiles, not the end of the story.

There's another greater exiled. It's not a guy flexing his muscles. Leibar is holy arm. Ah, no. But it is something of like He's going to act in a new way. God's arm is his power to act but to bring the people with him So yeah, he's roll it's like we might say rolling up our sleeves to get to work. Yeah And it's not look he's going to comfort his people and redeem Jerusalem.

But what he does for his people, Israel, is directly connected to the mission of the blessing of Abraham, or for his salvation to go to all the ends of the earth. Now, this is also fascinating because Isaiah, this is near the end of Isaiah 52, which is the chapter right before Isaiah 53. 53 begins whose believed our message, whose believed our report, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. Isaiah 53 then says, Yahweh's salvation came. Not only did no one believe it, but people rejected the very king

who came to bring message for it. And then it's the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. So these chapters, I think, were crucial for Jesus' self-understanding and understanding his vocation and what it meant for him to bring the kingdom. Yeah. Because how would Jesus be exalted as King? And what kind of kingdom did he see himself bringing?

So, all of this, God's going to come personally return to His people as King. He's going to form a new people, liberate them, confront evil, and then invite them to live under his reign. That was part two in our three-part series on the Kingdom of God. Up next is Tim and I talking about how Jesus saw Himself as fulfilling that mission of bringing the kingdom. Tim and I are talking about how Jesus saw himself as fulfilling that mission of bringing the kingdom. Tim and I make videos with all this content. You can find those videos there free on youtube.com slash the bible project. You can follow us on facebook, facebook.com slash join the bible project.

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