HOMILETICS
SECT. XXVI.—THE KINGDOM OF THE SON OF MAN (Chap. Daniel 7:13-14)
We come now to what is perhaps the most glorious part of the visions of Daniel, or even of the prophetic Word in general. We have here the plain and full announcement of that which constitutes the burden of the prophets from the beginning—the kingdom of God upon earth, the establishing of which in the place of the kingdom which God’s adversary had introduced into the world was the great object of the incarnation of the Son of God. In another part of his prophecies Daniel speaks of “the sufferings of Christ” (chap. 9); here it is “the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:11). It is “the mystery of God according to the good tidings which He declared to His servants the prophets,” which the trumpet of the seventh angel was to introduce (Revelation 10:7, R.V.) It is “the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,” and of “the restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the month of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began” (Acts 3:19; Acts 3:21, R.V.) It is the consummation which John heard rapturously celebrated by the great voices in heaven when the seventh angel sounded, “The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15, R.V.) We have in these and the following verses the detailed account of the kingdom of the Son of Man, in its character, extent, and duration, as succeeding to and taking the place of the kingdoms of this world, including the dominion exercised by the Little Horn or Papal power. “The coming of Christ in His kingdom and glory,” says Archdeacon Harrison, “is in truth that great and final consummation for which the whole course of God’s moral government hath been ordered from the very beginning of the world’s history; and every successive stage in the fall of earthly power is, in its degree, a fuller manifestation of the glory with which the Almighty would invest His incarnate Son, exalted in His human nature as the Son of Man to supreme dominion.” In the sublime and magnificent passage before us we have—
I. The establishment of the kingdom and the installation of the Son of Man as its King (Daniel 7:13). “One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him before Him: and there was given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom.” The kingdom is the donation of the Ancient of Days, here doubtless indicating the Father. “I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me” (Luke 22:29). Christ’s words to His Father at the close of His earthly ministry were, “Thou hast given Him power over all flesh; “and to His disciples before His ascension into heaven He said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth” (John 17:2; Matthew 28:18). God “hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,” &c. (Philippians 2:10). This donation of the kingdom is represented in Scripture as made to the Son of Man, or to the Son of God as the Son of Man, in virtue of His having become such in obedience to the will of God the Father, for the redemption of a lost world, and as the reward for the completion of that redeeming work given Him by the Father to do (John 17:4-5; John 5:27; John 6:38; John 10:17-18; Philippians 2:7-10; Psalms 40:6-8; Isaiah 53:10-12). The text exhibits the solemn installation of the Son of Man or the Messiah into His kingdom, in the presence of assembled angels who attend Him as He comes forward to receive the kingdom at the hands of His Father. The passage has its parallel in Psalms 68:17-18, “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels,” &c. The Son of Man is represented as coming to the Ancient of Days “with the clouds of heaven” [201]. This passage recalls the ascension of Jesus; angels attended Him as He went up to heaven, while a cloud received Him out of His disciples’ sight (Acts 1:9-10). To that event also the psalm just quoted appears to refer, “Thou hast ascended up on high.” The text might indeed be regarded as descriptive of the time when the Lord Jesus, having finished the work given Him to do, went up to receive His reward at the hands of His well-pleased Father, and has by some been referred to that event. Doubtless such a public, solemn donation and installation in the presence of the angels of God then took place, “Angels and authorities and powers being then made subject to Him” (1 Peter 3:22). The exaltation and the gift of the supreme name with universal dominion is also represented by the Apostle as past (Philippians 2:10). The nobleman in the parable (Christ Himself) was to go into the far country to receive for Himself a kingdom and then to return (Luke 19:12). The text, however, has been applied by Christ Himself not to His going up to heaven, but to His coming down from heaven, visibly and in glory: “Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64). [202] The reference to the words of Daniel is obvious; and no less so the reference to His own second and glorious Advent. The text evidently so understood by the apostles. Hence the words of the Apocalypse, “Behold He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him” (Revelation 1:7). The prophecy might indeed include both. Both were connected by the two angel-messengers on the Mount of Olives: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who is taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go up into heaven” (Acts 1:11). He went up with clouds; He will come again with clouds. He went to receive the promised kingdom; He will come again to set up that kingdom in its glorious manifestation; for the time when He shall come to “judge the quick and the dead” is “at His appearing and His kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:1). It is true that in the text He is said to come not from heaven to earth, but to the Ancient of Days; but as the passage was obviously understood by the Saviour and His apostles to point to His glorious return, we have only to suppose that He comes to His Father previous and preparatory to His descent to earth. It is also to be observed that the event in the text is posterior to and in consequence of the great words of the Little Horn, and in connection with the judgment occasioned by them, and the destruction of the fourth beast which follows it. Here, as in the vision of the Great Image, the destruction of the world-kingdoms and the setting up of the kingdom of Messiah are brought together. It was when the stone smote the image, so that it was broken in pieces, and became as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, that it became a mountain and filled the whole earth; the kingdom of Messiah taking the place of the kingdoms of this world, according to Revelation 11:15. The vision might indeed seem to intimate that the destruction of the fourth beast and its little horn was effected by the Son of Man Himself, who, for the execution of this part of His work, is conducted to His Father to receive the kingdom, in order to set it up in its glorious manifestation [203]. Thus the 2d Psalm represents the Messiah, God’s anointed King over Zion, as receiving this commission and promise from the Father, “Ask of me, and I will give Thee the heathen (the nations of the world) for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalms 2:8-9). The 110th Psalm represents Him as first exalted to His Father’s right hand, and then “smiting through kings in the day of His wrath,” and wounding “the heads over many countries.” Isaiah sees Him coming from Bozrah with garments dyed in the blood of His enemies (Isaiah 63:1). In the Apocalypse it is after “the battle of the great day of God Almighty,” and the destruction of His combined adversaries in Armageddon, that the thousand years’ reign of righteousness and peace under Himself and His saints is seen to commence (Revelation 19:11-21; Revelation 20:4).
[201] “With the clouds of heaven.” Keil observes: “Literally, ‘with’ the clouds, i.e., in connection with them, in or on them, as the case may be; surrounded by clouds.” He refers to Revelation 1:7; Mark 13:26; Matthew 24:30; Matthew 26:64; and adds: “If He who appears as a Son of Man with the clouds of heaven, comes before the Ancient of Days, executing the judgment on the earth, it is manifest that He could only come from heaven to earth.… The clouds are the veil or the ‘chariot’ on which God comes from heaven to execute judgment against His enemies. Cf. Psalms 18:10; Psalms 97:2-4; Psalms 104:3; Isaiah 19:1; Nahum 1:3. This passage forms the foundation for the declaration of Christ regarding His future coming, which is described, after Daniel 7:13, as a coming of the Son of Man with, in, or on the clouds of heaven, Matthew 24:30; Revelation 1:7; Revelation 14:14.” Dr. Pusey observes: “Even before our Lord came, the description was recognised as relating to the Messiah. The passage was cited in the Book of Enoch when affirming the pre-existence of the Messiah before the creation of the world. ‘Anani,’ He of the clouds, continued to be a name of the Messiah; and the Jews, unable to distinguish beforehand His first and second coming, reconciled the accounts of His humiliation and His glory by the well-known solution: ‘It is written of King Messiah, And see, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man came; And it is written, Meek and sitting upon an ass.’ ” “Most Christian writers,” says Willet, “understand it of the second coming of Christ to judgment.” Willet himself applied it to the first coming of Christ, yet so that His kingdom should be finished at His second Advent.
[202] “Passages,” says Auberlen, “like Matthew 24:27-31; Acts 1:11; Revelation 1:7, leave scarcely a doubt that this appearance of the Lord will be visible. Moreover, the great and visible changes, of which there can be no doubt, which are thereby produced in the whole form of the world, render it probable; while the fundamental importance of this coming of the Lord consists, according to the declaration of St. Paul (Colossians 3:3-4), in this, that Christ and His Church shall become manifest and visible, even as before they are invisible in God. The Advent of Christ has a twofold object—to judge the world-power, and to bring to the Church redemption, transfiguration, and power over the world.” Junius understood the passage of Christ’s ascension to the Father, and His coming into the world in His deity to finish the work of redemption; His “coming in the clouds” being the figure of His divine majesty. Dr. Cox says: “His ‘coming in the clouds’ implies the dignity and splendour of the manifestation, but can no more be deemed literal than the garment and the hair and the wheels of the Ancient of Days.” Professor Bush, who refers the passage to the ascension, understands by clouds “a multitude of heavenly attendants.” But why depart from the natural and literal meaning without any necessity, when it yields a sufficiently good sense? New-come remarks that any signal interposition on behalf of His Church or in the destruction of His enemies may be metaphorically called a “coming” or a parousia of Christ; which may be quite true, without setting aside the literal meaning of the texts, which speak of His second appearing. Dr. Pusey remarks that among the “later ideas” alleged by opponents as an argument against the Book of Daniel, is the doctrine of the Messiah, which, it is said, appears already much more developed than in Ezekiel; Messiah here appearing as a superhuman being, while no traces of His divine nature occur elsewhere in the prophets. This is simply untrue. See Psalms 110:1, applied by our Lord to show His divinity. So also Hebrews 1:8. Nothing strange had it been otherwise. Daniel, living nearly to the close of the former revelation, might receive doctrine, especially as to the Messiah, not revealed before.
[203] “There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom” (Daniel 7:14). “The kingdom of God,” says Auberlen, “has different periods; it is come in Christ (Matthew 12:28); it spreads in the world by internal, spiritual, hidden processes (Matthew 13:33); but, as a kingdom, in the strict sense of the word, in royal glory, it shall only come with the parousia (coming or presence) of Christ (Luke 9:11-12; Luke 9:15); even as we are, according to Christ’s command, to pray even now day after day, Thy kingdom come.” Keil regards the commencement of the kingdom as at the first coming of Christ, and its continuance in the form of the Christian Church, terminating with His second visible appearing in the clouds of heaven to final judgment.
II. The reality of the kingdom. It is something given to Him by the Father. That something is called “dominion, and glory, and a kingdom.” As the result of it, “peoples and nations and languages” were to “serve Him.” The gift was as truly a kingdom as any of those that preceded it; as that, for example, which God “gave” to Nebuchadnezzar. It is represented as properly a fifth universal monarchy, abolishing and taking the place of the fourth, as that did in regard to its predecessor. As a kingdom or monarchy, it has, like the rest, its Ruler, its subjects, its laws, its administration. It is a kingdom or monarchy rather than a republic; for it has one Head or Ruler, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords; and yet it is also true that the kingdom is given to “the people of the saints of the Most High,” who shall reign along with Him (Daniel 7:18; Daniel 7:22; Daniel 7:27). The difference between this kingdom and those that preceded it is in its origin, its character, its blessings, its objects, its extent, and its duration.
III. The Head of the kingdom. This distinctly said to be the Son of Man. No question as to who this is. The title constantly appropriated by the Lord Jesus, though not given to Him by His disciples. The title given also to the Messiah in Psalms 80:17. His title in virtue of His incarnation, marking Him truly man while He is as truly God. The Son of Man and Son of God in one person. The Son of Man par excellence. Pre-eminently the Man. The new Head and representative of humanity. The second Adam, taking the place of the first root and father of the race, by whom it fell. The sovereignty over creation given to man lost in the first Adam and regained in the second (Psalms 8; Hebrews 2:8-9). Sin and death our inheritance through the first man, righteousness and life through the second, called the Son of Man (Romans 5:12; Romans 5:17; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22). As Jesus declared Himself before the high priest to be the Son of Man of whom Daniel spoke in the text, so before Pilate He declared Himself to be a King, and the King of the Jews, though His kingdom was not then of this world (John 18:36-37). The world’s blessedness is in this, that at length it shall be under the rule of the Son of Man as its King, the King of righteousness and Prince of peace, the Son of Man and yet the Mighty God, the Ruler for whom it has sighed for nearly six thousand years.
IV. The time of the kingdom. This appears to be plainly indicated as immediately succeeding the destruction of the fourth beast or Roman Empire with its ten kingdoms and little horn. The kingdom of the Son of Man, although set up in its commencement in the days of the fourth or last empire (chap. Daniel 2:44), yet is obviously intended to be the successor, and to take the place of, the four great monarchies. That Christ began to exercise His regal office immediately after His ascension, and has been doing so ever since, there can be no doubt. The foundation of His visible kingdom in the world seems to have been laid on the day of Pentecost, when, after the descent of the Spirit, the apostles declared, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:33). The kingdom, however, was perhaps then, and still is, rather in its preparation than in its manifestation and glory. The nobleman is receiving the kingdom in the far country. Thus Paul connects the kingdom that is in its full development and glory with His appearing when He shall judge both quick and dead (2 Timothy 4:1). It is “in the regeneration,” or renewed state of the world, that “the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory,” and the apostles shall “sit also on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28, R.V.) During this time of preparation, the dispensation of the Gospel, those were to be gathered out who, after overcoming in the fight of faith, shall sit with Christ on His throne, and receive from Him authority over the nations to rule them, as He also has received of His Father (Revelation 2:26-27; Revelation 3:21). The times of the Gentiles are to be fulfilled, and Israel is to be brought to receive in penitence their rejected king, before the times of refreshing can come from the presence of the Lord, and God can send again Jesus, whom till then the heavens were to receive (Acts 3:19-21, R.V.) Then, according to the prophet, shall the Lord of hosts “reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously” (Isaiah 24:21-23). In this sense believers still have to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” or, in the words that have for centuries been uttered at the open grave, that the Lord would “shortly accomplish the number of His elect and hasten His kingdom.”
V. The place of the kingdom. This is obviously the earth, the place of the preceding monarchies. The kingdom is said to be not in heaven, but “under the whole heaven” (Daniel 7:27). It is peoples, nations, languages, and dominions (marg., rulers) that are to serve and obey Him (Daniel 7:14; Daniel 7:27). But these only have their place and existence as such on earth. The expectation of the saints now in glory is that they shall reign with Christ on the earth (Revelation 5:10; Revelation 20:4). It is the kingdoms of the world that are to become “the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ” (Revelation 11:15). The stone, when become a great mountain, was to fill the whole earth. The earth, made to be inhabited by man, but seized and held by the great usurper, to be rescued and restored by the second Adam as the special seat and sphere of His kingdom. The earth not to be annihilated at His coming, but purified and delivered “from the bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21). “We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). God’s sending back Jesus connected with “times of refreshing” to the earth (Acts 3:19, R.V.)
VI. The administration of the kingdom. While the Son of Man is the sole Head of the kingdom, it is said at the same time, more than once; to be “given to the people of the saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7:14; Daniel 7:22; Daniel 7:27). These intended to be associated with Christ, and to administer the kingdom under Him Christ’s renewed people, as made one with Him, are, as kings and priests, to reign with Him in His manifested kingdom and glory. “If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him” (1 Timothy 2:12). “He that overcometh, to him will I give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them, even as I received of my Father.” “To him will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne” (Revelation 2:26-27; Revelation 3:21). The saints shall judge the world and even angels (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). Of the execution of future judgment the Psalmist says, “This honour have all the saints” (Psalms 49:9). The words addressed to the faithful servant in the parable in accordance with the general teaching of the Scripture, “Have thou authority over ten cities” (Luke 19:17) [204].
[204] For further consideration of the administration of the kingdom by the saints, see next section. “Of the saints’ participation in the glory and reign of Christ,” says Auberlen, “the New Testament throughout speaks often and fully. See Romans 8:17; 2 Timothy 2:12; 1 Corinthians 4:8; Romans 5:17; Luke 12:32; Luke 22:29.… After having gathered His Church, and after having taken His Bride to Himself, Christ returns with her to heaven. Earth is not as yet transfigured, and can consequently not be the locality meet for the transfigured Church. But from heaven the saints now rule the earth; whence we may conclude that one of the glories of the millennium shall consist in the much freer and more vivid communion of the heavenly and earthly Churches in particular, and the lower and higher world in general. There now commences a manifestation of God through the perfected Church; a manifestation of God to humanity then on earth, through the instrumentality of the perfected Church. By which manifestation the social life of humanity is influenced into obedience to the divine power, which is shown and realised in the perfect Church, by which the God-opposed element is prevented from exerting its power in the way of forming communions or combinations.” Hofmann, quoted by Auberlen, says: “Thus not only does the evil spiritual influence which the prince of this world exerted in humanity cease, but in place of it the transfigured (glorified) Church of God obtains a most blessed dominion over the world; and they know no higher joy than to lead their brethren to the same salvation and glory in which they themselves partake.”
VII. The character of the kingdom. This gathered, first, from the fact that Christ is its King and Head, and that the saints of the Most High are associated with Him in the administration of it; and, secondly, from the fact that all peoples and nations, with their rulers, shall serve and obey Him (Daniel 7:14; Daniel 7:27). The King is at once King of righteousness and King of peace, holy, harmless, and undefiled, meek and lowly in heart. Those who reign or administer with and under Him are saints—saints of the Most High; holy, as He is holy; persons who were once sinners, but by almighty grace have been transformed into the image of the King. Such a kingdom must render earth a paradise restored, a kingdom in which love reigns instead of selfishness and hate, righteousness instead of injustice and wrong, truth instead of falsehood and deceit, humility instead of pride and vainglory, purity instead of licentiousness and lust. “Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of His times, and the strength of salvation” (Isaiah 33:6). The Canaanite no more in the house of the Lord. God’s house no more made a place of merchandise or a den of thieves. The profession of religion no more, or with rare exceptions, dissociated from its possession. “Holiness to the Lord” inscribed on the horse-bridles. Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah holiness to the Lord of hosts. Superstition and formality gone, the incense of loving praise and the pure offering of renewed hearts everywhere presented. Social life entirely changed and purified. Christian governments such in reality, instead of being only so in name. Kings the nursing fathers and their queens the nursing mothers of the Church, instead of being, as frequently before, its persecutors and oppressors. Nations will live in peace and loving brotherhood with each other. Weapons of war will be turned into implements of husbandry, and the art of it forgotten [205]. Converted Israel will not be grudged his place as the head of the nations, [206] while Jesus still retains His title, “The King of the Jews.” Adequate means for the accomplishment of so great and glorious a change in the world provided in the Spirit that, according to the promise, shall be poured out, not only on Israel, but upon all flesh (Zechariah 12:10; Joel 2:28, &c.), of which the blessed effusion at Pentecost, with its mighty results, was but the first-fruits (Acts 2; Romans 8:23; James 1:18). All things that offend or cause to stumble gathered out of the kingdom, and Satan, the deceiver of the nations, bound for a thousand years (Matthew 13:41; Revelation 20:2). The work of conversion apparently to be aided by the judgments that shall have preceded it (Psalms 46:8-10) [207].
[205] Dr. Rule remarks that the Zendavesta, written, as is believed, by Zoroaster in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, the same reign in which the Temple was rebuilt, contains a prediction that in the last days a Man would appear and adorn the world with religion and justice; that He would revive justice among the inhabitants of the world, suppress wrongs, and restore ancient customs which had fallen into decay. He foretold, or pretended to foretell, that kings would follow and serve Him; that he would establish true religion, and that in his time peace and tranquillity would prevail, dissensions be forgotten, and trouble pass away. An expectation of the advent of such a deliverer might well have been raised by the prophecies of Daniel, and have brought the Persian Magi from the East to worship the new-born King of the Jews.
[206] “The Jews were to be distinguished by their covenant as the first in the kingdom and the organs for divine communications to mankind. From the earlier to the later parables of our Lord we see the ideality of the kingdom undergo a remarkable change. At first the kingdom of heaven was to embrace all men; was to last from that time forth; was to be successful. Afterwards men refused to receive it; it was shut up; to be delayed till the Bridegroom came, or the Nobleman returned from the distant country, or the Son of Man appeared in glory.… These considerations leave us no room to doubt that the original idea in Christ’s preaching was that the kingdom was a theocratic one; the Jews were still to be the covenant people, receptacles of the successive communications of Deity; and through their means the other idea of the kingdom, namely, its spiritual one, was to come forth.… We are now living in the frustrated state of Christianity. We do not see the bright visions of the prophets because of the infidelity of the Jews. Nor will these visions ever be fulfilled until they turn to the Lord, and become again a theocratic community.… The last words of our Lord in public were a lamentation over Jerusalem for having refused to receive Him, and a warning that in consequence their house should be left to them desolate, accompanied by a prediction that He would not come again till they (the Jews) should say, ‘Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord;’ that is, He announces two events: first, the destruction of Jerusalem, because the Jews had rejected Him; and, secondly, His coming again when they should be ready to acknowledge Him.”—Johnstone’s Israel after the flesh. “The Israelitish priest-kings are upon earth in the millennium what the transfigured (glorified) priest-kings are in heaven. Then there shall be a blessed chain of giving and receiving,—God, Christ, the transfigured Bride or the Church, Israel, the world of nations.… Israel, brought back to his own land, will now be the people of God in a much higher and more internal sense than he was before; for now the power of sin is checked, the knowledge of the Lord fills the whole land, and the Lord dwells again among His people at Jerusalem. Then a new time of revelation will begin; the Spirit of God will be poured out abundantly, and a fulness of the gifts of grace (charismata) be bestowed, even as the Apostolic Church possessed it typically.… And with this sacred and glorious character of divine service shall be combined a corresponding government of the world,—a fulness of blessings and undisturbed festal joy. When Israel glorifies God and is again glorified by his God, a deep and powerful impression cannot fail to be made upon the Gentiles. Now it is no longer necessary to go after and seek the Gentiles laboriously; on the contrary, they come willingly of themselves, attracted by the rich gifts of God’s mercy and the fulness of divine manifestation which they behold. It is their delight now to serve their God and to offer to Him their noblest and best offerings. Now, in the millennium, Jews and Gentiles are united, and all humanity, united under the First-born Brother, walks in the light of God; and then the true and just life of humanity is at last realised (Romans 11:30-32).”—Auberlen.
[207] Dr. Rule remarks that the establishment of the eternal kingdom lies in remote futurity, and that it is not promised until the Antichristian apostasy should be annihilated, and Antichristian kingdoms too. This, however, may not require so remote a futurity. “A short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” Dr. Rule thinks that “between that extinction of the Papacy and the universal prevalence of Christianity there is an interval marked, yet not measured; and then there will probably be some signal methods ordained for bringing round the glorious consummation.”
VIII. The extent of the kingdom. Repeatedly declared to be universal. More truly so than any of its predecessors. The earth to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. Men everywhere to be blessed in Christ, and all nations to call Him blessed. Each individual not necessarily regenerated. Religion universally professed, and generally, though not universally, experienced. As the kingdom advances and spreads, the unregenerate man made an exception. “The sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed” (Isaiah 45:20). Service everywhere rendered to Christ externally, though not in all cases sincerely. A forced subjection rendered where there is not a willing one. The former, however, the exception (Psalms 18:44-45). Cases of disobedience marked and suitably visited (Zechariah 14:16-19). Converted Israel apparently the principal human instrumentality employed in extending the kingdom of Christ among the nations (Isaiah 66:19) [208]. The sphere of their activity apparently those nations who had been left unevangelised or living at a distance from Palestine: “The isles that are afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory;” probably much of Asia, Africa, and America. Israel to be the third with Egypt and with Assyria: “Even a blessing in the midst of the earth” (Isaiah 19:23-25).
[208] “The majority of humanity then living and remaining after the Parousia (or coming of Christ) belong neither to the one class nor to the other (neither to apostate Christendom nor to the faithful congregation caught up with Christ to heaven). They consist of Jews and heathens.… Besides the Harlot and the Beast, their exist on earth Judaism and heathenism in their old shape, without reference to Christianity; and in this form they are comparatively innocent, because they have not yet come into close contact with the Gospel of mercy, and are therefore not guilty of rejecting and stamping it under foot.… Hence Judaism and heathenism, in the strict sense, that is, Israel and the heathen, living at the time of the Parousia, are the comparatively healthy elements which form the new soil of a new development. And this is part of the humiliation of the modern civilised nations, that nations which they despise most, Jews and uncivilised barbarians (perhaps chiefly the negroes of Africa, the Hamites, who, on account of the curse of Noah, have been so backward and neglected, Cush, Seba, &c.— Psalms 68:31; Psalms 72:10), shall succeed them, and surpass them as centres of the world’s history.… At the beginning of the millennial kingdom humanity will be in a condition similar to that in which it was at the commencement of the Church-historical time, after the ascension of the Saviour. Again, Israel and the heathen shall be the representatives of history; and distinguished from them, we see the Christian congregation wishing to christianise them. But everything now is on a higher degree of development. Not only has the preaching of the Gospel of the kingdom among Jews and heathens before the second Advent of the Lord prepared the dawn of light (Matthew 24:14), so that the nations can understand something of the wonderful events attending the coming of the Lord; but the events themselves, the coming of Christ in glory, the destruction of the Autichristian power, the transfiguration of the Church of believers, the binding of Satan, and the ceasing of Satanic influences, must necessarily produce an unspeakably deep impression on the nations. Now the veil of Moses is taken from Israel, and the face of the covering, which was cast upon all people, is broken (2 Corinthians 3:14-16; Isaiah 25:7).”—Auberlen.
IX. The duration of it. This repeatedly said to be perpetual, “for ever and ever.” This kingdom never, like its predecessors, to pass away and be succeeded by another. Sin not again to turn the earth into a wilderness. The final outbreak under Satan, released for a little at the expiry of a thousand years, [209] speedily terminated by fire from heaven (Revelation 20:7-9). The subsequent state of things not clearly revealed [210]. Apparently the general judgment, with the resurrection of those who had not previously been raised. Perhaps the kingdom then delivered up to the Father, “that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). Uncertain whether the last two Chapter s of the Revelations describe the state of things before or after the general judgment—in the millennial kingdom or after it, though generally understood to be the latter. Certain that no kingdom shall ever succeed that of Jesus Christ on this earth. The kingdom will only cease on earth if earth itself is to do so.
[209] Some think no definite period is intended by the thousand years. Strange to say, some, as Willet, make it to begin after the ten heathen persecutions and with the time of Constantine, and to end with that of Wickliffe and John Huss; the resurrection being the re newing of the soul and its rising from dead works by the preaching of the Gospel. Some again, as the translators of the Geneva Bible, make it to commence with the nativity of Christ and terminate with the time of Pope Sylvester; while others, as Junius, place its commencement thirty-six years after Christ, and its termination in the time of Hildebrand or Gregory VII. One may wonder how at such a time Satan could be said to be bound so as not to deceive the nations any more.
[210] “After the millennial kingdom,” says Auberlen, “after the universal judgment, when heaven and earth are renewed, and the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, then all limitation shall disappear and cease.… Not even the millennial kingdom is the final end of the development of God’s kingdom. For even during the millennium there is a separation between heaven and earth,—between humanity transfigured and humanity still living in the flesh. Hence it is possible that the apostasy should take place at the end of the millennium. The kingdom is more glorious than the Church, but it is not yet the new world. It is a time of refreshing after the times of warfare, but not yet the time of perfection in the strict sense of the word.… As the life of the God-man, so likewise the first period of the existence of divine life is one of inward, spiritual, hidden humility during the Church-historic time, in which nature and history pursue essentially their wonted unspiritual course. After this period the life of Christ becomes manifest and visible (Colossians 3:3-4); it penetrates powerfully the whole world of history in all its fundamental elements—state, art, civilisation, &c.; this is the millennial kingdom. And, finally, this life becomes also the power which transfigures the world universally,—in the time of the new heavens and the new earth.”
X. The certainty of the kingdom. This is as great as the word of the living God can make it. Its establishment and blessings the constant subject of the teaching both of Jesus Christ and His apostles. The keynote of the Apocalypse. The predictions regarding the previous four monarchies exactly fulfilled; those pertaining to the fifth will not be less so. Uncertainty may exist in regard to some things connected with the kingdom, none in regard to the kingdom itself. How Christ may come to set it up in its glorious manifestation and power, and at what time He may do so, and what shall be the concomitants of its establishment; how He will exercise His kingly rule, and how long it shall continue, whether a thousand years literally or otherwise, and what state of things shall follow; these and many other things connected with the kingdom may be uncertain, but the kingdom itself, in its more glorious manifestation and universal extension, is among the certainties of the word of Him who cannot lie. It has been already and still is in the world, and has for more than eighteen centuries blessed men with its precious fruits wherever it has been made known, and unbelief has not rejected it. It has indeed been but as the grain of mustard-seed, and the enemy has sadly mixed the tares with the wheat. But the mustard-seed shall become a tree, and the tares shall be rooted up, and the mystery of iniquity, that has so disfigured and changed the appearance of the kingdom, shall be destroyed; and the kingdom, which had been only a hidden one, and without observation, with perhaps only now and then a prelusive flash bursting forth from behind the cloud, shall be manifested in glory, and embrace all nations. The Gospel, or glad tidings of this kingdom, must first be preached for a witness to all nations, and then shall the long-desired end come. Even so come, Lord Jesus!
1. It is for believers to rejoice in the prospect revealed in the text. In the anticipation of a universal and endless reign of righteousness and peace to bless this poor, sin-stricken, and curse-laden earth, we may well rejoice. The prospect of a kingdom that shall bring glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and goodwill among men, instead of the wretchedness, and crime, and tears, and blood with which sin has stained and burdened it for six thousand years, may well make glad the heart of every lover of God and of his kind. In the midst of the groans and miseries of a world that yet lies under the power of the Evil One, who is a murderer from the beginning, infallible truth calls us to rejoice in the assurance that the day is hastening on when He who has been constituted Lord of all, because He has redeemed them by His precious blood, shall “make all things new,” and establish a state of things far exceeding the anticipations of the most sanguine philanthropists. In the prospect of what it promises in connection with the kingdom of the Son of Man, inspiration calls upon us greatly to rejoice in sympathy with a renovated and rejoicing world: “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar and the fulness thereof. Let the fields be joyful, and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord. For He cometh, for He Cometh to judge [to deliver and govern] the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth” (Psalms 96:11-13; see also Psalms 97:1; Psalms 98:4-9). In the midst of prevailing darkness and confusion, and scepticism and sin, it belongs to believers to rejoice that, not merely for themselves, but for the world, it is “better on before.”
2. It is for us to make sure our place in that kingdom now. It is our privilege to be among the subjects of the Son of Man now, by accepting Him cordially as our King and our Saviour from sin. He has His kingdom now, into which He brings every penitent believing soul, or rather which He brings into such a soul. He has His kingdom of grace now, preparatory to the kingdom of glory hereafter. To be His loyal and loving subject now, secures that we shall be among His glorified subjects in the day of His appearing. It is ours to make this sure, through His Spirit’s grace, by accepting Him as our King and Saviour, and giving ourselves up entirely to Him to save and rule us. “To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12).
3. It is our privilege and duty to speed that kingdom by our prayers, and to prepare others as well as ourselves for a place in it. It is the King Himself who has taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come!” Offered with the heart, and not merely, as too often, with the lips, it will not be in vain. In answer to the prayer of His elect, who cry day and night to Him continually, He will hasten His kingdom. He will appear in His glory and build again Zion, “because He shall regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer” (Psalms 102:13-16). A prayer to the same effect left us in the last words of the Bible, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” The Spirit exhorts us by Peter, not merely to “hasten unto,” but to “hasten” the coming of the day of God (2 Peter 3:12, margin). But it is ours also to seek to gather others into the kingdom, that so the number of His elect may be accomplished, and the kingdom in its glory be hastened. Peter urged the Jews to repent and be converted in order that the times of refreshing might come, and God might send again Jesus (Acts 3:19, R.V.) The Bride, whom He is to receive and bring with Him, is to be gathered out and prepared for His coming. For this the Gospel is to be preached to all nations, and the Bride, already gathered out, is to say to all others, “Come.” This loving and loved work of Jesus when on earth He has left for His saved people to do in His name and stead: “Ye shall be witnesses unto me unto the uttermost ends of the earth” (Acts 1:6-8). The kingdom of grace, or rather Jesus Himself, like Noah’s Ark, stands open as the only place of safety for sinners, and His people are with loving persuasion to “compel them to come in.”