Chapter II.
THE KINGDOM
COVENANTED
18
THE Bible teaches that God will ultimately triumph over all sin and
rebellion in the earth. This is stated in many passages; notably 1 Cor.
xv. 24-28:
"Then cometh
the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even
the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and authority and
power.
For he
must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
The last
enemy that shall he destroyed is death.
For he
hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are
put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all
things under him.
And when
all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself
be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be
all in all."
Thus does
the divine record predict the restoration of this universe to its primal
blessedness under the unchallenged authority of God, when the Son shall
have put down all authority and banished every foe. This purpose, as
recorded in the Bible, appears in various stages, or aspects, all leading
with the certainty of the Infinite to the glorious consummation.
19
The reestablishment of the authority of God is first mentioned in Gen.
iii. 15, where it is stated that the Seed of the woman should bruise
the head of Satan, the file leader of all the permitted present confusion
in the government of God. In this mighty undertaking, too, Satan must
bruise his heel. There are successive methods and various degrees of
divine government in the earth following this first reference in Genesis
and leading up to the eternal kingdom covenant made with David. In the
Davidic Covenant the final consummation is again foreseen in that this
covenant is unlimited in respect to time. It is the detail and duration
of this covenant that gives it preeminent value as the logical starting-point
for all kingdom study in the Scriptures.
The portion
of the Davidic Covenant which has to do with eternal rule and government
is as follows:
"Also the
LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.
And when
thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will
set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels,
and I will establish his kingdom.
He shall
build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his
kingdom for ever.
I will
be his father, and he shall he my son. If he commit iniquity, I will
chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children
of men:
But my
mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom
I put away before thee.
And thine
house and thy kingdom shall be
20
established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established
for ever."
2 Sam. vii.
11-17.
This covenant,
as herein stated, secures an established kingly order which will continue
for ever. The element of perpetuity in this kingly rule was not conditioned
in Jehovah's oath by sin in the Davidic house. Chastisement was provided
in case of disobedience, - chastisement which fell upon the nation in
the captivities and the dispersion, - but the eternal purpose of the
covenant is not abrogated: "Thy throne shall be established for ever."
Of this
eternal covenant and the one condition of chastisement it is written
in Ps. lxxxix. 20-37:
"I have
found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:
With whom
my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him.
The enemy
shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
And I will
beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him.
But my
faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall
his horn be exalted.
I will
set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.
He shall
cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
Also I
will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.
My mercy
will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast
with him.
His seed
also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of
heaven.
If his
children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
If they
break my
21
statutes, and keep not my commandments;
Then will
I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with
stripes.
Nevertheless
my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my
faithfulness to fail.
My covenant
will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
Once have
I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
His seed
shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
It shall
be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in
heaven. Selah."
The certainty
of this covenant is again stated in Jer. xxxiii. 20, 21:
"Thus
saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant
of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their
season;
Then may
also my covenant he broken with David my servant, that he should not
have a son to reign upon his throne..."
Peter, by
the Spirit, in his pentecostal sermon reveals also that it was the eternal
element in this covenant, to which Jehovah had sworn with an oath, that
led David to foresee the Lord always before his face and to demand in
his faith, even the resurrection of Christ, that the oath of his God
should not fail. Thus Peter spoke of David:
"For David
speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
Therefore
did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh
shall rest in hope:
Because
thou wilt not leave my soul in hades, neither wilt thou suffer
22
thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou hast
made known to me the ways of life: thou shalt make me full of joy
with thy countenance.
Men and
brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that
he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this
day.
Therefore
being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him,
that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise
up Christ to sit on his throne;\
He seeing
this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hades, neither his flesh did see corruption"
Acts ii.
25-31.
So, yet
again, when the reign of peace through David's Greater Son is pictured
to the House of Jacob, over whom he is to rule, the same eternal covenant
is mentioned with a chastisement:
"In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment," which moment, however,
has already extended at least twenty-four centuries; but what is this
compared with that which follows: "But with everlasting kindness will
I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer" (Isa. liv. 8)?
The history
of the kings from David on, with the sin of the nation, is too familiar
to need description. Their complete apostasy ended in chastisement in
which they were taken off from the land and scattered among the nations
and there was a cessation of the line of kings. These exact events Moses
had prophesied a full thousand years before. This prophecy forms a part
of the farewell
23
address of Moses to the nation for whom he had wrought, and with whom,
because of the judgments of Jehovah, he could not enter the land. Moses
foresaw the national apostasy, the chastisement by exile, and on beyond
a period already extended 3,500 years, to that nation's blessings which
are yet future, when their chastisement shall have ended and they are
regathered into their own land under the unchanging covenant of Jehovah.
These prophecies are recorded in Deut. xxvi. 1 to xxx. 20. Only a portion
is here given:
"And it
shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good,
and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy
you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off
the land whither thou goest to possess it.
And the
LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the
earth even to the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which
neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.
And among
these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy
foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart,
and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
And thy
life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and
night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:
In the
morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt
say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith
thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt
see.
24
And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the
way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and
there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen,
and no man shall buy you."
Deut. xxviii.
63-68.
"And it
shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the
blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt
call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God
hath driven thee,
And shalt
return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to
all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all
thine heart, and with all thy soul;
That then
the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon
thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither
the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
If any
of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence
will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
And the
LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed,
and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply
thee above thy fathers.
And the
LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed,
to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul,
that thou mayest live.
And the
LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on
them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
And thou
shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and
25
do all his commandments which I command thee this day.
And the
LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every good work of thine
hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and
in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice
over thee for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers:
If thou
shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments
and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if
thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all
thy soul."
Deut. xxx.
1-10.
There is
no more important Scripture relating to Israel than this, and every
word of this prophecy covering the time to the present hour has been
literally fulfilled. Shall it not be so to the end? Shall they not be
regathered as actually as they have been scattered? And that in relation
to, and by virtue of, a "return," or second coming (xxx. 3) of the divine
Person to the earth? Is there any other explanation of the miraculous
preservation of that nation than that Jehovah's oath cannot be broken?
*
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The Kingdom in History and Prophecy was originally published
by the
Sunday School Times Company, 1021 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA.
Copyright 1915. 4th Edition, 1919. Public domain.
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