End Times - Week 23

Class Outline:

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Thursday Evening Bible Study

Series:  the End Times - Bible prophecy about future events and periods

Teaching Summary for Week 23

The Kingdom and the Covenants

 

Part 6.  The future Messianic Kingdom in Old Testament prophecy

The Old Testament prophets wrote extensively about the future Messianic Kingdom.  In fact,  the future Kingdom is referred to by nearly every Old Testament prophet.

Just about everything we know about the Millennial Kingdom itself we learn from the Old Testament, and especially the writings of the Old Testament prophets.

The prophetic material in the New Testament deals primarily with the events leading up to the Millennial Kingdom and what comes after the Kingdom (ie, the eternal state).

We now turn our attention to the facts about the Kingdom that the Old Testament prophets describe.

I am relying on the following resources for this material:

Resources:

1.  Alva McClain, The Greatness of the Kingdom: An Inductive Study of the Kingdom of God. BMH Books, 2012. (originally published in 1959).
2. J. Dwight Pentecost, Thy Kingdom Come: Tracing God’s Kingdom Program and Covenant Promises throughout History. Kregel Publications, 1995. 
3. J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come:  A Study in Biblical Eschatology.  Zondervan, 1964.
4. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, The Footsteps of the Messiah: A Study of the Sequence of Prophetic Events, Ariel Ministries, 2002.

 

The Government in the future prophesied Kingdom

This is a subject that receives extensive treatment in the writings of the prophets. 

 

The Form and Nature of the government:

1.  The form of government will be a monarchy.  Its ruler will be a King, who will sit upon His throne, and the government will rest upon His shoulders (ISA 9:6-7; JER 23:5-6;  MIC 5:2).
2. The government will be a theocracy = directly governed by God. The King will be Emmanuel, God with us. (ISA 7:14).   He will also be human, by birth the rightful heir of David.   And He is God’s King, established on His throne by the supernatural power of the God in heaven (DAN 2:44; DAN 7:13-14)
3. All  functions of government will reside with this Mediatorial King.  He will rule as judge, lawgiver, and king.  (ISA 33:17-22).
4. The government will be virtuous.  The prophets use four great words to indicate these principles:  truth, holiness, righteousness, and justice.  (ISA 11:1-5; JER 33:6; JER 33:14-17; ZEC 8:3).
5. The judgments of God will be immediate and tangible to all men.  The government will deal swiftly with any outbreak of sin.  This applies in particular to the Gentile nations.  (PSA 2:9; PSA 72:1-4; ISA 29:20-21; ZEC 14:17-19).
6. The King’s throne will also be a throne of grace and mercy. ( ISA 16:5; ISA 40:9-11).
7. The city of Jerusalem will be the capital of the Messiah’s worldwide kingdom (ISA 2:1-4; JER 3:17).

 

The Organization of the Millennial Kingdom

This subject demands close attention and careful treatment.  Certain details will be filled in when we get to the New Testament.

The Messianic Kingdom will be administered through an absolute monarchy with a definite chain of command and lines of authority. 

The absolute monarch will be the Person of Jesus the Messiah.    He will delegate authority through His chain of command.

1.  The Messiah-King will be the head of the government. (ISA 32:1; ZEC 14:9).
2. Second in rank under the King will be the resurrected David, who is given the  titles of king and prince.  He will be a king because he will govern in the land of Israel, but he will be a prince in that he will be under the authority of the Messiah King. 

ISA 55:3-4

3 " Incline your ear and come to Me.

Listen, that you may live;

And I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

According to the faithful mercies shown to David.

4 "Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples,

A leader and commander for the peoples.

 

JER 30:8-9

8 'It shall come about on that day,' declares the Lord of hosts, 'that I will break his yoke from off their neck and will tear off their bonds; and strangers will no longer make them their slaves. 9 'But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.

 

EZE 34:23-24

23 "Then I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. 24 "And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.

 

EZE 37:24-28
24 "My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. 25 "They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons' sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever. 26 "I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. 27 "My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. 28 "And the nations will know that I am the Lord  who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever."'"

 

EZE 45:21-22

21 "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. 22 "On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a bull for a sin offering.

 

EZE 46:1-3

1'Thus says the Lord God, "The gate of the inner court facing east shall be shut the six working days; but it shall be opened on the sabbath day and opened on the day of the new moon. 2 "The prince shall enter by way of the porch of the gate from outside and stand by the post of the gate. Then the priests shall provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate and then go out; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.

 

EZE 46:16-18
16 'Thus says the Lord God, "If the prince gives a gift out of his inheritance to any of his sons, it shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance. 17 "But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of liberty; then it shall return to the prince. His inheritance shall be only his sons'; it shall belong to them. 18 "The prince shall not take from the people's inheritance, thrusting them out of their possession; he shall give his sons inheritance from his own possession so that My people will not be scattered, anyone from his possession."

 

HOS 3:4-5
4 For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred  pillar and without ephod or household idols. 5 Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.

 

The debate centers on whether the “prince” and  “David” in these passages refer in type to our Lord Jesus Christ, or literally to the historical David.

Dwight Pentecost, in his book Things to Come (page 499), gives four reasons why it is best to conclude that these passages point to the historical David resurrected from the dead.

 

1. Christ is never called David in the Scriptures. Rather, He is called the Branch unto David (JER 23:5), Son of David (15 times, including MAT 21:9), Seed of David (John 7:42), the Root of David (REV 5:5) , and Root and Offspring of David (REV 22:16).
2. The Lord calls the historic David “my servant, David” many times.
3. In Hosea 3:5; Ezekiel 37:21-25; 34:24; Jeremiah 30:9, and Isaiah 55:4, Jehovah is clearly distinguished from David.  If “David” were referring to Christ, no distinction would have been warranted.
4. There are statements concerning the prince in Ezekiel that preclude this title from referring to Christ. 
   1. The prince is said to offer a sin offering for himself (EZE 45:22). Christ could not do this because He is sinless. 
   2. The prince is engaged in acts of worship (EZE 46:2). Christ receives worship in the Millennium. 
   3. Finally, the prince has sons and divides an inheritance with them (EZE 46:16).  Christ is never said to have sons.

 

3. Third in rank will be a group of nobles,  princes, and judges.  They will govern the nation of Israel under the authority of David.   This nobility will consist of resurrected Jewish saints. 

We begin with the prophet Daniel:

DAN 7:17-18

17 'These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth. 18 'But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.'

DAN 7:21-22
21 "I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them 22 until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.

DAN 7:27
Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.'

 

Daniel foresees that these Jewish saints will be resurrected in the end times, and there will be a noble group that will receive great honor and glory (“shine brightly”) . 

DAN 12:1-3

1 "Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. 2 " Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. 3 " Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. 4

 

Isaiah speaks of a group of princes who will rule during the Millennial Reign:

ISA 32:1-2

1 Behold, a king will reign righteously

And princes will rule justly.

2 Each will be like a refuge from the wind

And a shelter from the storm,

Like streams of water in a dry country,

Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land.

 

Ezekiel also makes reference to princes who are in positions of authority in the Millennium:

EZE 45:7-8

7 "The prince shall have land on either side of the holy allotment and the property of the city, adjacent to the holy allotment and the property of the city, on the west side toward the west and on the east side toward the east, and in length comparable to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border.

 8 "This shall be his land for a possession in Israel; so My princes shall no longer oppress My people, but they shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes."

 

It is quite likely that Zerubbabel will be one of these princes:

HAG 2:20-23
20 Then the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, 21 "Speak to Zerubbabel governor of Judah, saying, 'I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. 22 'I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, everyone by the sword of another.' 23 'On that day,' declares the Lord of hosts, 'I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant,' declares the Lord, 'and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,'" declares the Lord of hosts.

 

The signet ring represented delegated authority.

It should be pointed out that Zerubbabel was also of the House of David.

And in the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ identifies other Jewish nobles - the twelve apostles - who will rule over the twelve tribes of Israel in the Messianic Kingdom (MAT 19:28).  More on that later.

There will be additional allocations of authority in the administration of the government as well.

For example, the parable in Luke 19:12-28 indicates that authority will be appointed to individuals over 10 cities and 5 cities in the kingdom.

It follows that these would be under the authority of the head of the tribe, who in turn will be responsible to David, who is responsible to the King Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Finally, Isaiah documents that another group of rulers in the Kingdom will be the judges and counselors:

ISA 1:26-27

26 "Then I will restore your judges as at the first,

And your counselors as at the beginning;

After that you will be called the city of righteousness,

A faithful city."

27 Zion will be redeemed with justice

And her repentant ones with righteousness.