Kingdom of God – Part 1

On occasion, a great friend of mine puts pen to paper and allows me to read it.  This past week he wrote a great piece on the Kingdom of God, comparing the stories of Saul and David in 1 Samuel to that of the New Testament Spirit-filled life.  Because he has no desire for such writing to be distributed, I pleaded if I could post it on this site.  Wanting to remain anonymous, I have dubbed him “Unknown Christian 2″ after one of my favorite Christian authors (Unknown Christian).   Today’s post looks at 1 Samuel and tomorrow will conclude with the comparison to the Spirit-filled life.  May we ever draw deeper into Jesus!

 

The Kingdom of God – Part One
Guest Blogger: Unknown Christian 2

A kingdom by definition is anywhere a king reigns. The kingdom of God is anywhere that God has complete reign over. The kingdom of God is not a piece of land or territory as the Jews were expecting. They thought God’s kingdom would come upon the earth as an external kingdom but that was never God’s intention. The Kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom, not a temporal or external kingdom.

Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21).

God is not interested in ruling over physical land; He is interested in reigning in men. The hearts of believers become the kingdom for the great King of kings, as Jesus Christ comes to rule and reign within them as Lord of their lives.

This is what Paul calls the “word of God in its fullness.” This is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ comes to dwell within men and women and is anointed king of their lives and hearts. This is Christianity. This is the Gospel. Christ did not come to this earth and die only to forgive our sins so that we could go to heaven. That is only the beginning of the good news. The fullness of this good news is that through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ comes to dwell within man and is made King over his life.

This is the Kingdom of God that sets itself up within the hearts of men wholly given over to the King’s purposes. Unfortunately, few of us have tasted of this kingdom in our own lives. We deeply desire for God to be Lord of our lives but the more we seek it the more we realize we are in the midst of a war. There is a war waging for the throne of each of our lives.

 

External, Physical Israel

God Alone As King

There is a beautiful picture of this truth found in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel. Up until this book, God’s people have not had a human king. They have been ruled by God alone. God cared for their needs and established them as a nation. God was their King and as long as they followed and worshiped Him things went well with them. Israel was never in a better place than when God was their King.

 

God Rejected (Dethroned) As King

But Israel began to envy the surrounding nations for they all had men as kings. They said, “We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:19-20). God warned them that this would bring much trouble to them and that an earthly king would do nothing but come in and overpower them and make them slaves. But they would not listen. They had made up their minds that an earthly king is what they must have. So they rejected their rightful King who is the King above all kings. And God gave them what they wanted.

This story from thousands of years ago has much to say to us today about the present state of our hearts. We must now turn our eyes to the internal Israel of our hearts.

 

Saul is Enthroned

This is where we find ourselves in the narrative of 1 Samuel. Man takes the throne over a nation that was intended to be ruled by God alone. A man named Saul was anointed and enthroned as king over Israel. Saul was a man great in appearance, and in the beginning of his reign, Saul seemed to be their victorious king as he won the peoples’ hearts.

 

Saul is Rejected by God but Still Enthroned

But Saul was not all he was cracked up to be. He did not keep the Lord’s commands and “acted foolishly.” He was disobedient to multiple commands of the Lord and the Lord rejected him as king. The prophet Samuel said to Saul, “You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel” (1 Samuel 15:26). But although Saul had been rejected as king of Israel, he was still upon the throne reigning as king. He was not willing to give up the throne that was no longer rightfully his.

 

David Anointed by God but Not Enthroned

In the following chapter, after rejecting Saul, God calls Samuel to anoint the most unlikely of characters to be king, a little shepherd boy named David. So Samuel goes undercover and anoints David as king over Israel and David becomes the rightful king of Israel. But Saul is still on the throne claiming to be king. The Lord has rejected him and anointed a new king but Saul is not going to give up his throne that easily. And he most definitely is not going to let some little shepherd boy take his throne. So David, the anointed and rightful king of Israel patiently waits to take the throne that is rightfully his.

 

The Battle for the Throne

Saul laughed at the thought of David being anything. But as time went on, Saul began to fear this man David. He realized that David was a valiant warrior who had a special anointing upon his life. Saul began to fear that he would lose his place on the throne of Israel to David. So he sought to do away with him. There are 21 recorded assassination attempts against David in the book of 1 Samuel. Saul was set upon spilling David’s blood to protect what he thought was his throne.

But David was God’s anointed and no matter how greatly Saul tried to kill him, he could not. David had God as his shield and was untouchable. During this season, David spent much time hiding in caves and fleeing from Saul. It seemed that he would never gain his rightful place upon the throne.

 

Saul is Killed

In the last chapter of 1 Samuel, Saul and all of his sons are killed in battle and the throne is finally cleared off for the taking by the rightful king David.

 

David is Enthroned

Finally David who all this time has been the anointed and rightful king, takes his place upon the throne of Israel to rule and reign over the nation.

 

Read Part Two
Read Unknown Christian 2′s study of Hebrews 1