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Transcript 139A — Will There Be An Earthly Reign of Christ?
HC: Now if our callers would be very, very patient, I would like to spend a little bit of time right now speaking about the thoughts that I alluded to on our last broadcast. We spent a little bit of time looking at the promises that were made to Abraham, concerning the fact that his seed would be a multitudinous progeny, that is, they would be a multitude of nations, and the fact that his seed would inherit the land of Canaan forever.
Abraham was told to look to the north, the south, the east, and the west. And all of this land would be given to his seed forever. Now we saw that while this promise had a literal fulfillment in relationship to the nation of Israel, and it was a complete, literal fulfillment, insofar as they were concerned, during the days of Solomon, yet there was a far more glorious fulfillment. And actually, the major focus of these promises was on the everlasting fulfillment, and that was through the Lord Jesus Christ, as He became the seed of Abraham, and became the head of all who are the true seed of Abraham. It is men of faith who are the seed of Abraham, we saw in Galatians 3:7. Those who believe in Christ are the true seed of Abraham.
And these are the promises that Abraham understood as he looked for a Heavenly City.
But now tonight I'd like to spend a few minutes with the question of the promise made to King David that one of his seed would sit on his throne. This is a very contemporary question, because there are many today who are convinced that this promise to David has never been fulfilled, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come any time now, and He's going to establish a literal throne in Jerusalem, and He's going to reign not only over Israel, but over the whole world for a certain duration of time, and then, after that, the end of the world will come.
Now is this really possible? And I thought it would be very fruitful to look at quite a number of verses that relate to this question. And if you have a pencil, and would like to write down these verses, then in your spare time you can check them out, to make sure that what I am saying is trustworthy.
Now in I Kings 8:25 we find Solomon speaking. You'll recall that Solomon was the son of David, who actually sat on the throne of David. And there we read, "Now therefore, oh Lord God of Israel, keep with Thy servant David, my father, what Thou hast promised him, saying, There shall never fail you a man before Me to sit upon the throne of David, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me as you have walked before Me.''
Now let me put into this context what he said in verse 20 of I Kings 8. And again, this is Solomon speaking: "Now the Lord has fulfilled His promise which He made. For I have risen in the place of David my father and sit on the throne of Israel as the Lord promised. And I have built the house for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel."
Now even as there was a literal fulfillment, a complete fulfillment, in a literal, physical fashion, of the promises that were made to Abraham, in this statement of I Kings 8:20 we find a literal fulfillment, physical fulfillment, of the promise made to David that one of his sons would sit on his throne, because Solomon sat on the throne of David, and he ruled over Israel. Let me read this again: "For I have risen in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised."
But there was another aspect of that promise, that was a conditional aspect. And that's what we looked at in verse 25. It says that, beyond the feet that someone would sit on the throne of David, his seed would sit on the throne forever, if only they walked righteously before God. "There shall never fail you a man before Me to sit upon the throne of Israel, if only your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me as you have walked before Me."
Now while Solomon was the fulfillment of that promise, this second aspect was not fulfilled in Solomon, because Solomon was not faithful to God. In his old age, he began to worship other gods. We read in Kings 11:11, "The Lord said to Solomon, Since this has been your mind, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your day. But I will tear it out of the hand of your son."
And so already God was taking the kingdom away from the line of Solomon. It began in a grievous fashion already with Solomon's son, Rehoboam, who was allowed to reign only over two tribes, whereas Jeroboam, someone totally unrelated to the line of David, was given the reign over ten tribes. This started in 931 BC. But worse than that, when we go through the line of Solomon all the way down to the third king to the last king over Judah, King Jeconiah, or Coniah, as he is called, he was cursed by God and told by God that none of his seed would ever sit on the throne of David.
And so the line of kings through Solomon came to a total end. We read in Jeremiah 22:30, "Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days. For none of his seed shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah." That was the end of Solomon's reign, insofar as his line was concerned. It began very brightly with Solomon.
But there's more to say about that. We look at Psalm 132. Or let me turn back to II Samuel 7, when God gave the original promise to David. Then he was told in verse 8, "Therefore thus [this is Nathan speaking to David] says the Lord of Hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel [in the Bible prince and king are used interchangeably in speaking of David's throne] that you should be prince over My people Israel."
And then it goes on in verse 12, "When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring unto you, who shall come forth from your body. And I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." Now because we know that Solomon's line did not continue to reign forever, we know that God did not have in mind Solomon here. God had somebody else in mind. God was thinking of some other descendent of David who would sit on the throne. It would be a descendant who would sit on the throne and whose line of reign would go on forever.
Now remember when we talked about Abraham the moment we find the word "forever," we know immediately that God is not talking about this sin-cursed earth. He is talking about eternity. And the only kingdom that goes on everlastingly is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Psalm 132:11: "The Lord swore to David a sure oath, from which He will not turn back: One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne." Now notice the condition: "If your sons keep My covenant and My testimonies which I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit upon your throne."
Now Solomon did not keep the promise, and the kings that followed Solomon. And so their rulership was cut off, insofar as the throne of David was concerned. But Christ came, as we shall presently see, to sit on the throne of David. And His kingship lasts forever. We are the sons of Christ. We are adopted into the family of God. We become the children of God, and we reign with Christ, And it's an everlasting reign, because we have everlasting life.
This verse 12 of Psalm 132 is also emphasizing this term "forever." And so it has to be talking about the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm just beginning to build with one verse after another. And you'll see, as we go from one verse to another, how this picture develops, and how it all focuses on Christ. Now many of us are very familiar with Isaiah 9:6, where God declares, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." And immediately we know, that's talking about Christ coming as the Messiah. "And His Name will be called wonderful, counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
We know that almost by heart, many of us. But what we don't very often read is the phrase that is in the middle of this statement and the phrase that follows this statement which I have just read. Let me read it again, verse 6 of Isaiah 9: "For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And His Name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
You see, God is saying that this Messiah, this Child who would be born, would be a ruler. The government would be upon His shoulders. And then it goes on and says right in the next verse, "Of the increase of His government and of peace, there will be no end." In other words, it's an everlasting kingship that this Messiah would establish.
Remember, the context is, "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given." It's talking about the Messiah coming as a King. And it will be an everlasting kingdom. Now notice the next phrase, right in order. It says here, "His Name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it, with justice and with righteousness, from this time forth and forever more. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this."
In other words, this eternal kingdom that Christ the Messiah was going to establish would be an everlasting kingdom, and it would be built on the throne of David. That's the biblical language. It would be built upon the throne of David. And so we immediately see that God, in very direct fashion, in very plain language, is focusing our attention upon Christ as the one who came to fulfill the promise that someone from the line of David would sit on his throne and reign forever.
Now interestingly enough, there were no kings between David and Christ. The line to Solomon petered out during the days of Jeconiah, around 595 BC, or thereabouts. But Christ's line goes from David through Nathan and through a whole lot of other people, none of whom were kings. And finally we come to Jesus Christ. And His is an eternal kingdom. Incidentally, you know, throughout the New Testament we find that He is spoken of as the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Lord means that He is to be worshipped. He is to be regarded as the one who rules. So He came as a King. He is called the Christ, which means the Anointed One. Christ came as a King. And He established His Kingdom, of course, by going to the cross.
We go to Jeremiah 23, where we read in verse 5, "Behold, the days are coming, says 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. 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." That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the branch, as we read in Isaiah 11. He is the one who is raised up for David. He is seated on the throne of David.
Now a couple of other Old Testament passages quickly, and then we'll look at the New Testament, to see there how all these things were fulfilled. Now in Ezekiel 34 we read about the coming of the Messiah, in verse 11: "Behold, I, I Myself, will search for My sheep and will seek them out, like a shepherd seeks out his flock when some of his sheep have been scattered abroad." That's talking about Christ coming as the Good Shepherd. We can't get away from that.
In verse 15 God said, "I Myself will be the Shepherd of My sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled." He is the one who is the Good Shepherd, who came to seek and to save that which was lost, as we read in the New Testament. And this is Christ Himself, who is God.
Now in verse 23 we find that Christ here is called "My servant David," because it says, in verse 23 of Ezekiel 34, "And I will set over them [that is, over these sheep] one Shepherd." Now remember in verse 15, He said, "I Myself will be the Shepherd." So there's one Shepherd. And then He says, "My servant David, and He shall feed them."
Now if God says that He is the Shepherd, and there's only one Shepherd, and "My servant David" will be the Shepherd, then God is saying, "I am My servant David." In other words, Christ was typified by David. David was a type of Christ. And He is called "My servant David." It isn't suggesting that David would be reincarnated. It's only saying that Christ came in the spirit and power of David, or better put, Christ was typified by David. He was a shepherd and a king.
And then it goes on in verse 24 of Ezekiel 34: "And I the Lord will be their God, and My servant David shall be Prince among them." That's Christ. Christ shall be Prince among them. "I the Lord have spoken." He is our King, of course.
Now let's go to the New Testament. And in the Gospel of Luke we find the angel talking to Mary. And she is told in verse 31 of Luke 1: "Ant behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. And you shall call His Name Jesus. 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." You see how plain that language is? It relates right back to all these Old Testament statements.
And then it goes on: "And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there will be no end." That's the language of Isaiah 9, that the government will increase and will never have an end. Remember we read that.
Now remember when Jesus stood before Pilate? He said, "My Kingdom is not of this world." His Kingdom as a Heavenly Kingdom. It was an everlasting Kingdom. When Jesus came, He said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." And that Kingdom is the Kingdom that we enter into when we are saved. In Colossians 1:13 we read that we have been transferred from the dominion of darkness into the Kingdom of His dear Son.
Now if you're going to have a kingdom, you need a king. And that King is the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is the fulfillment of these glorious promises that there would be a son of David, someone coming from David, who would sit on the throne of David. And he would reign, and his children after him would reign forever. We are the children, and we are those who reign.
Now in Acts 2 we find another New Testament statement that emphasizes this truth in a very direct fashion. It's talking in verse 29 about David, that he is in the tomb. And speaking of David, it says, "Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him, that he would set one of his seed upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of Christ."
David realized that when the Messiah came, He would be the fulfillment of the promise that one of his seed would sit on his throne, the throne of David, forever. And of course Christ came as a King. In Ephesians 2:20 & 21 it says that when He rose from the grave, "He sat down at the right hand of God and rules over everything, not only in this age but in the age to come."
And in Hebrews 1:8 we read that of the Son, God says, "Thy throne, oh God, is forever and ever." Now the Jews in Jesus' day made a colossal mistake. They read the Scriptures which they had, just as we have the Scriptures. And they couldn't get their mind off of an earthly kingdom, off of a political kingdom. They didn't read the Scriptures carefully and see all the "forevers." They weren't at all careful in what they were reading.
And so they got the idea that a progeny of David, a descendant of David, would arise as the Messiah, and he would establish a physical kingdom centered in Jerusalem, and he would free them from Roman rule. Now when Jesus, the true Messiah, came, He did not fit that description of what they were looking for. And so they rejected Him and crucified Him. Now this of course worked into God's plan. This was required in order that Christ would come as the true Messiah, to actually sit on the throne of David, to establish an everlasting Kingdom, to fulfill all of these Old Testament promises.
Unbeknownst to these Jews, the very thing that they were denying was actually happening. But the sad fact is that these Jews remained in their unbelief, because they were looking for the wrong kind of a king.
Now today we have a tremendous amount of activity by those who are speaking again of an earthly kingdom, a kingdom that cannot be a forever kingdom. No political kingdom on this sin-cursed earth could be a forever kingdom. That's an impossibility. Only a kingdom that is Heaven-related can be eternal.
And so to raise the idea that Christ is going to come and sit on a physical throne in physical Jerusalem, on this sin-cursed earth, is totally foreign to the Bible. Christ is not king over two kinds of kingdoms. He has already established a glorious Kingdom, an everlasting Kingdom, that fulfills all of the promises that relate to the throne of David, and the fact that a king would sit who would reign forever, and whose children would reign forever. All of these requirements have been completely fulfilled in this glorious Kingdom that Christ has already established when He went to the cross.
And now to say there is going to be in the future some kind of a physical kingdom, with Christ ruling over, how can that make sense? How can that hold a candle to, how can that be related to this glorious Kingdom that is infinitely more wonderful and majestic than any physical kingdom? You see, if you really go through the Bible, and compare Scripture with Scripture, pretty soon it all begins to fall into place.
Let me read one more passage from Ezekiel. Remember we saw in Ezekiel 34 that the coming Messiah was called "My servant David," and that He would be the Shepherd and He would be the Prince over the sheep, or over Israel. Now in Ezekiel 37, we see in verse 23 that God is talking about the time when He would heal, "I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they shall be My people and I will be their God." And of course verse 23 was fulfilled in the Messiah. He came, and He provided cleansing. And those who believed on Him, the 11 disciples, Mary and Martha, and Mary Magdalene, and Simeon and Anna, and the 120, and so on, they did become the people of God and God became their God.
And then it goes on and says in verse 24, "My servant David shall be King over them [and remember, that's Christ], and they shall all have one Shepherd [that's Christ – He is the Good Shepherd]. They shall follow My ordinances and be careful to observe My statutes. They shall dwell in the land where your fathers dwelt that I gave to My servant Jacob. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever."
Now remember when we saw the promise to Jacob and Abraham and Isaac, about the land, that their seed would dwell there? And a lot of people focus on the land of Canaan? Well, here it says that when Christ would come, they would dwell in this land forever, forever! And so, again, it can't be referring to the land of Canaan, because nobody can dwell in the land of Canaan forever. This earth is going to end. Absolutely it's going to end. And the only way that this can be understood is that the land where the fathers dwelt, that "I gave to my servant Jacob," where "your children will dwell forever," has got to be referring to Heaven, or to its final fruition, the New Heaven and the New Earth.
The patriarchs were dwellers in Heaven, because they were born again. The moment we become born again we are citizens of Heaven, as Philippians 3 puts it: "Our commonwealth is in Heaven."