That the kingdom which he will establish will be the kingdom of Israel restored in the territory formerly occupied, viz, the land bequeathed to Abraham and his seed (the Christ) by covenant.” Article XXI
Conclusion
Though neither Abraham or his descendants inherited the land under the terms of the covenant, God fully intends to keep His promise. In the closing verse of the book of Micah (7:20) the Lord gives absolute assurance that He will some day bring to pass the everlasting covenant made with the fathers of Israel: “Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.” The word, “truth” emphasizes the unveiled clearness of God’s promise as well as the certainty of its fulfillment. The “mercy to Abraham” serves to accent the complete sovereign nature of God’s gift, it being solely a matter of grace. When some few hundred years later Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist was restored his speech, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and voiced a prophecy, so certain of fulfillment, it was worded in the past tense. Though the prophecy was given on the occasion of the circumcision of John (the eighth day) it foretold the work of the Lord Jesus (not yet born) in the performance of God’s mercy: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant.’ the oath which he snare to our father Abraham.” (Luke 1:68-73)
The Land Of Israel
The Kingdom of God will be centered in the land of Israel. It will be here to which the Lord shall return to begin His reign of peace. Zechariah speaks of the appearance of the Messiah in the land and the subsequent peace and serenity which will prevail: “Thus saith the LORI) of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury. Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; there shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.” (Zech. 8:2-5)
Like The Garden Of The Lord
The land of Israel, much of which even today is desert is to be tilled, cultivated and, under the blessing of heaven above shall yield her full increase. Like the garden which at creation God had placed eastward in Eden it shall flourish abundantly. In what glowing terms do the prophets of Israel speak of the changed land ! “For the LORD shall comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden. and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.” (Isa. 51:3) Ezekiel, likewise compares Israel to Eden as he foretells the blessings which await that troubled land: ‘Thus saith the LORD GOD; In the clay that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all who passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.” (36:33-36)
The nucleus of the Kingdom will be situated in the very land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Micah refers to this territory as the “first dominion”; the first to enjoy the presence of the Messiah and to realize the effects of His sovereign rule: “In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted; And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast off a strong nation: and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even forever. And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” (Micah 4:6-8)
The City Of The Great King
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus warned against the taking of oaths. In the course of His teachings, the Lord mentioned the city of Jerusalem; “But I say unto you, Swear not at all; . . . neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.” (Matt. 5:34, 35) The city at that time could not be called the city of the great King, for she had rejected the Lord. On His entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Jesus paused to weep over the city and voiced a pitiful lamentation for a city which was now too late to save. The Lord’s reference to Jerusalem being His city related to a future time, subsequent to His second advent. When Jesus becomes king in fact, the city will then be His own, from whence he will rule the world.
Jerusalem, as already intimated will constitute the capital of the Kingdom of God. It will be the center of a world wide government from whence the word of the Lord will go forth into all regions of the earth. The following texts declare these facts in terms which leave
room for no other interpretation. “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.” (Jer. 3:17) “The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” (Isa. 60:14) “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.” (Psa. 48:1, 2) “. . . for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” (Isa. 2:3) “Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.” (Isa. 24:25)
Thus, the Kingdom of God shall indeed be established in the very land which was the subject of the Abrahamic covenant. As we have seen in the actual giving of the covenant in Genesis, one of the terms of the covenant was that it would only be to Abraham and his seed. This seed, though sometimes used in the plural sense, here is used in the singular sense. Paul speaks of the promise made to the father of Israel and identifies the seed referred to: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” (Gal. 3:16) This means that Abraham could not inherit the promises apart from the seed (Christ), nor could his seed inherit them apart from him. Those who have believed the gospel and have been baptized into Jesus Christ, become Christ’s and are therefore “heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 3:27-29)
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One