“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; And the government will be upon his shoulder … Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.” ~Isaiah 9:6, 7
From the earliest days of history, God declared his intention for his kingdom to be established on the earth and ruled by man. The original dominion mandate in Genesis 1:28 tied dominion–the establishment and maturation of the kingdom–to seed, children, being fruitful and multiplying. Men would develop and rule over God’s kingdom on earth. “The heaven of heavens are Yahweh’s, but the earth he has given to the sons of men” (Ps 115:16).
When sin entered the world, the establishment of the kingdom would have to come through the defeat of the serpent and his seed. God promised in Genesis 3:15 that he would raise up the seed of the woman to accomplish this mission. Over the next several thousand years, the story of the seed and the kingdom unfold.
The seed-mission is taken up by Adam’s son Seth and passed down through Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Up to the time of Jacob, the seed was a singular man. But Jacob becomes Israel after wrestling with God and prevailing, and his twelve sons take on the mission. Israel is the seed.
Before Jacob’s death, he gathered his sons and blessed them. When speaking to Judah, he promised a king would come from his family (Gen 49:10). However, because of Judah’s sin with his daughter-in-law, this would happen only after ten generations. (This is why the genealogy is recorded at the end of Ruth.) They would have to wait until the fullness of time.
Moses anticipated the rise of the king when he gave prescriptions for the future king in Deuteronomy 17:14-17. When the fullness of time came, God raised up a man from the tribe of Judah whose name was David. Yahweh made a covenant with David, declaring that David’s son would be his (Yahweh’s) son. Israel’s seed-mission would be taken up in him. He would defeat the serpent and sit on the throne of the kingdom. This happens after David’s death when Solomon accedes the throne. First Chronicles 29:28 says, “Then Solomon sat on the throne of Yahweh as king in place of David his father.” David’s throne is Yahweh’s throne. David’s kingdom is the kingdom of God on earth. God grants David’s son the throne and gives him peace, having conquered all his enemies.
The peace was relatively short-lived. Solomon multiplied wives, riches, and chariots in disobedience to the law in Deuteronomy 17. His seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines turned his heart from serving Yahweh (1 Kg 11:1-3). Under Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, God ripped the kingdom in two, with ten tribes to the north ruled by Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and two tribes in the south ruled by Rehoboam.
The northern kingdom, Israel, was steeped in idolatry, and eventually, God sent Assyria to conquer it (722 BC). Judah, the southern kingdom, deserved to be conquered, but God gave them a reprieve. During this reprieve, Babylon became the world power, replacing Assyria. Because of Judah’s continued disobedience, God sent Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to conquer Judah. He took some captives in his first invasion in 605 BC, but Judah’s kings continued to rebel, not heeding the directives of Jeremiah to go to Babylon, establish houses, and seek the peace of their cities (Jer 29:1-7). In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar invaded the land a third time and destroyed the Temple, finally bringing the old Davidic world to its complete death.
However, God’s plan for a king and kingdom was not dead. His purpose continued. God promised through Ezekiel that he would reunite the kingdoms of Israel, and he did so while in captivity. The northern tribes come under Babylonian rule along with the southern tribes. When they eventually returned to the land, they returned as a united Israel under the name “Judahites” or “Jews” for short. (There is no such thing as “the ten lost tribes of Israel.” Anna, who is in the Temple around the time of Jesus’ birth, is from the tribe of Asher, a northern tribe (Lk 2:36)). Furthermore, they return under the rule of Zerubbabel, who is of the line of David.
God makes a new world after David and before Christ. He makes a new covenant. This world involves an empire. This empire world is revealed to Nebuchadnezzar in a dream of a statue with a head of gold, arms and chest of silver, thighs of bronze, and feet of iron (and iron mixed with clay). Daniel interprets the dream and tells Nebuchadnezzar that each section of the statue is an empire beginning with Babylon (the head of gold) and moving to Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
Interestingly, the materials of this statue are the materials of the Temple, moving from the Holy of Holies out to the gate. This empire world would be a house in which Israel could live. They will be scattered among the nations, establishing colonies (synagogues) in order to disciple the nations. The Gentile kings of this kingdom, such as Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus, are given titles that would normally only be given to a son of David at this point. Nebuchadnezzar is “my servant” (Jer 25:9; 27:6). He is a new Adam and king of kings (Ezek 26:7; Dan 2:7) who has dominion over the beasts. Cyrus, king of Persia, is God’s “messiah” (Isa 45:1), God’s appointed shepherd (Isa 44:28) who rebuilds the Temple, a task reserved for Israel’s king.
God has not forgotten his promise to David’s son (Jer 23:7-8), but he is revealing how the coming son of David will also be king of the Gentiles. He will be a Melchizedekian king (Ps 110:4) who will unite Jews and Gentiles under his rule, fulfilling God’s original intention of a kingdom ruled by his son–the seed–that covers the entirety of the earth.
This world of Restoration will die like the other worlds have in the past, but God’s promise will not. The death of this old world will be embodied in a son of David who will rise and create a new world that will never die.
