The Kingdom of God (2)

We’ve been talking about the kingdom of God for the past several weeks. Last Sunday, we started to discuss what it means to live as people of the kingdom of God through the example of how the people of Israel lived in the wilderness.
 
Abrahamic Covenant and the Kingdom of God
God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt was based on the covenant He made with their ancestor, Abraham. When God first called Abraham, God promised that He would give him the land that He would show him, make him a great nation, and bless him.
 
God was faithful to His covenant, but Abraham wasn’t. When Abaraham faced famine in the land of Canaan, he went down to Egypt. A few years later, when Abraham found that he still had no children, he complained to God saying, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir” (Gn 15:3)
 
Abraham didn’t trust God's covenant and followed his own will, but God was still faithful to His covenant. So, rather than rebuking Abraham or punishing him for his unfaithfulness, God reminded him of the covenant He had made with him and reaffirmed it.
 
Regarding the promise of making him a nation, God took Abraham outside and told him, “Look up at the sky and count the stars - if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.” (Gn 15:5)
 
And this is how Abraham responded to the promise. Gen 15:6 says, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Gn 15:6)
 
This verse is really important because it tells us the kind of blessing Abraham received from God, which we also have as his spiritual descendants by faith. The blessing that God wanted to give to Abraham and his descendants, and through them to all the people of the world, was the blessing of becoming righteous people of God by faith.
 
Paul said in Galatians 3,
“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness… Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you. So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” (Gal 3:6, 8-9)
 
He also said in Romans 4, “The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness - for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.” (Rm 4:23-24)
 
This is the blessing God gave Abraham. He was blessed to be credited as righteous by faith. That’s the greatest blessing we can ever have. The biggest blessing given to us is to become justified people of God. In order to make it possible, Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for us, died on the cross, and was resurrected from the dead.
 
And, as I said before, this blessing is also important in understanding the kingdom of God. The most important concept in the kingdom of God is God’s sovereignty. To become people who live in His kingdom means to live under His sovereignty by obeying His will.
 
So what God wanted to achieve through Abraham and his descendants by blessing them was to make them His righteous and holy people who follow His will and build His kingdom on earth. That’s the very reason Jesus was crucified and resurrected from the dead.
 
He didn't lay down His life on the cross just to forgive us of our sins. The forgiveness of our sins was necessary for a greater purpose: to make us true people of God, people who are in the world but don’t follow the ways of the world. The reason Jesus died was to establish the kingdom of God here on earth through His people.
 
That’s why I said that the gospel of Jesus Christ exists to serve the gospel of the kingdom of God, whose central message is that God reigns.
 
So, if we are grateful for the wonderful salvation He has given us but ignore the purpose for which He died for us, we make His sacrifice cheap and meaningless. That’s the reason we should always try to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. I believe that’s God’s will for us.
 
Back to the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 15, God also reaffirmed to him the promise of the land by saying to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you… to give you this land to take possession of it.” (Gn 15:7)
 
Then, Abraham asked God, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” (Gn 15:8)
 
This is what God did to assure Abraham that He would keep His promise. God told him to bring some animals, cut them in half, and arrange the halves opposite each other. Then, as the sun was setting, God made him fall asleep. Only “a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.” (Gn 15:17)
 
So, what’s happening here? As you may know, cutting animals in half and passing between the halves was one of the ways of making a covenant in those days. By passing between the halves, the covenant makers expressed their strong will not to break the covenant. The act implied that if they did break the covenant, they deserved to become like the halved animals.
 
But in Genesis 15, God made Abraham fall asleep and walked alone between the two halves of the animals in the form of a burning torch. By doing so, God showed that He would never break His covenant with Abraham, even though Abraham might not be faithful to that covenant.
 
This covenant is called the Covenant of the Torch, and it demonstrates that the sovereignty of salvation belongs to God. God will never stop until He fulfills every promise He made in the Scriptures.
 
Nothing and no one can stop Him. Even our unfaithfulness can’t stop Him because He is the one who said He would fulfill His promises, He knows everything and has the power to do what He wants.
 
The prophet Isaiah said, “He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Is 9:7)
 
God's will is to establish His kingdom of righteousness and justice through His Son Jesus Christ and all His people who believe in Him as their Lord and Savior. It will certainly happen because the One who said it would happen is God. God, who is almighty, has the zeal to accomplish His plan. Will it not then be fulfilled? 
 
So the fact that God alone passed between the animals cut in half gives us assurance that we’ll be saved and that the kingdom of God will be perfectly established on earth because  even though we may stumble and fall in our weaknesses and unfaithfulness, God will remain faithful to His covenant and will fulfill it with His almighty power and zeal.
 
Hebrews 6:17-18 says, “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged” (Heb 6:17-18)
 
While making the Covenant of the Torch with Abraham, God told him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions… To your descendants I give this land.” (Gn 15:13-14, 18)
 
So, in Genesis 15, we find every important concept of the kingdom of God from God’s covenant with Abraham. The kingdom of God consists of God’s people, the territory where they are, and the blessing of having a proper relationship with Him under His sovereignty. The kingdom of God is what He builds through His people according to His covenant.
 
Then, the question is, why didn’t God give Abraham the promised land right then? Why did his descendants have to wait more than 400 years in Egypt before they entered the promised land?
 
We find the answer in Genesis 15:16, in which God says, “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” (Gn 15:16)
 
This was the reason God didn’t let Abraham conquer the land. Abraham had the power to do so. In Genesis 14, we read the story of Abraham defeating 4 powerful kings with his 318 trained men. Abraham was rich and powerful.
 
Nevertheless, God did not allow him to conquer the land of Canaan because the sins of the people who lived there had not yet reached their full extent. That was one of the reasons the people of Israel had to live in Egypt for four hundred years before they entered the promised land.
 
Two Purposes of the Exodus
There were two reasons God delivered the people of Israel from Egypt. First, He heard their cry and wanted to save them from their suffering. Second, He wanted to drive out evil in the land of Canaan and build His kingdom there through the Israelites.
 
The first reason can be categorized as ‘salvation.’ God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt serves as a model for our salvation because we are also saved from our spiritual slavery to sin and death.
 
But the story of Exodus doesn’t end with God delivering the people of Israel from Egypt. Actually, it serves only as the beginning of the next story, where God drives out evil nations in the land of Canaan through them and establishes His kingdom there. This is the second and more ultimate reason God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt.
 
This principle is also applied in our salvation. The salvation we experienced in Jesus by believing in Him wasn’t the end in itself but only the beginning of God’s greater purpose for each of us. It’s important to know that we’re freely forgiven and accepted by the redemption that came from Jesus Christ, but what’s also important to know is that that’s not the whole story.
 
Again, the reason God saved us by sacrificing His one and only Son is to make us His holy and righteous people who will fight against evil in the world and build His kingdom where His will is done as it is in heaven. That’s what we need to keep in mind as Christians.
 
God didn’t guide the Israelites directly to the land of Canaan right after they left Egypt. Instead, He made them live in the wilderness so that they could discover their true identity in God and as people of God's kingdom. That’s what happened on Mount Sinai.
 
When the Israelites arrived in the Desert of Sinai, God spoke to them through Moses.
 
 “‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ (Ex 19:4-6)
 
These are the identities that God wanted them to have as His people. God wanted them to know that they were His treasured possession, chosen and set apart to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation in the eyes of other nations around them.
 
And in order to let them have these identities, God did some important things. First, He gave them His laws. Second, He made a covenant with them based on their response to the commands through the blood of the covenant. Third, He had them make the tabernacle through which He would be with them and speak to them.
 
They can be summarized as God’s word, God’s promise, and God’s presence, which are also necessary for us to live as people of the kingdom of God. We’ll talk about each element in more depth next time.
 
Today, we focused on how the Abrahamic covenant is closely related to the kingdom of God, the reason the Israelites were in Egypt for 400 years before they entered the promised land, and why God had them live in the wilderness.
 
Every important element found in the covenant God made with Abraham is related to the kingdom of God. The reason God gave Abraham numerous descendants, the land of Canaan, and the blessing to become His righteous people by faith is to build His kingdom in the land.
 
The reason the people of Israel had to wait about 400 years before they entered the promised land was because the sin of the people living there hadn’t yet reached its full measure, which also implies that God’s purpose in delivering the Israelites from Egypt wasn’t only to save them from their suffering but also to build His kingdom of justice and righteousness.
 
For this reason, God had the Israelites stay in the wilderness before they conquered the land of Canaan. He wanted them to have a strong identity as His holy people so that they would serve as a kingdom of priests among all the nations.
 
Everything I mentioned is closely related to our journey of salvation because the story of the Israelites in Exodus reflects our salvation, its purpose, and how we can achieve it.
 
As God’s people, freely justified by His grace through the redemption of Chris, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, we must know that we’re called to build and extend the kingdom of God in every place we are by proclaiming the gospel, fighting against evil, and seeking God’s righteousness. That’s the identity we must have. We’re chosen and set apart as God’s holy people to serve in the world as His royal priests.
 
And we can’t live out this calling on our own. We don’t even have the power to resist our own sinful nature. How can we fight against the evil things happening in the world? If we’re tainted by sin, how can we show God’s holiness to those around us? If we’re still following the ways of the world, how can we show that Jesus is ‘the Way’? If we still love things in the world and are consumed by them, how can we fight for the kingdom of God, sacrificing what we have?
 
That’s the reason we should spend our time in the wilderness where we find God’s word, His covenant, and His presence. Our identity as Christians comes from how we find ourselves in God’s sight, which means that the more we read the Bible and meditate on it, the more we remember His great promises. The more we go to Him in prayer, the more we’ll become people of the kingdom of God.
 
All right. We’ll continue to talk about the kingdom of God next time. Let’s wrap up with prayer.
 
[Prayer]
Dear Lord, we thank You for giving us this great opportunity to think about who You are and who we are in You through the exodus of the Israelites. We thank You for saving us from our sins by sacrificing Your only Son to make us people of Your kingdom. 
 
Oh Lord, we want to live for Your kingdom. Teach us Your word, allow us to remember Your promises, and let us experience Your presence at all times so that our minds, hearts, thoughts, values, and perspectives can be set on Your word of truth.
 
We confess our weaknesses. We can’t fight against our sinful nature alone. So help us to overcome our weaknesses and sinful nature through the Holy Spirit so that we can truly live lives worthy of the calling we received from You to build Your kingdom in every place You put us.
 
We pray that Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven and Your kingdom come in every area of our lives. Please empower us and use us as Your vessels.
 
We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1) What aspects of the kingdom of God did you find in the Abrahamic covenant? What did they teach you about how you live in the world as a person of the kingdom of God?
 
2) We talked about the two reasons God delivered the Israelites from Egypt. Why do you think God saved you from sin through Jesus Christ? What do you think you can do to achieve this purpose?