daniel – The Core of the Bible

Resurrection part 3: Daniel’s “end of days” resurrection prophecy

A collective resurrection in the last days of the nation of ancient Israel would culminate not just in restoration to the land, but in eternal life.

Core of the Bible podcast #123 – Resurrection part 3: Daniel’s “end of days” resurrection prophecy

We are continuing the third essay today in a four-part series on the topic of resurrection. So far in our exploration of this far-reaching topic, we have viewed instances of individual, bodily resurrections throughout the Bible. We also looked at what Yeshua taught about all the righteous throughout the history of Israel who were still considered as alive to God, since “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32). And, if you have not yet reviewed part 2 of this study, you may want to take some time do so as I laid down some foundational ideas about motifs and patterns in the Tanakh there.

Last time, we discussed the judgment/restoration motif or theme of collective resurrection, and how judgment is always mentioned in connection with collective resurrection passages. In the prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel, judgment had come to pass because of Israel’s unfaithfulness to the covenant of God, and God removed them from the land (the inheritance). We also saw how the language of resurrection was an indicator of restoration to the land and renewal of the inheritance. It wasn’t describing a literal rising of dead bodies from their graves; it was as if the nation were coming back to life from the dead condition of a wasteland after the preceding judgment. If those were the themes that were laid down as foundations prior to the writings of Daniel, then it makes sense to me those same principles should apply to what he wrote, as well.

So, let’s now look at the final description of a collective resurrection in the Tanakh which is written about in the book of Daniel. This passage is unique from the Isaiah and Ezekiel resurrection passages because the result of the collective resurrection that Daniel mentions has to do with not just restoration to the land, but eternal life.

Daniel 12:2 – Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt.

Interestingly, this description of a collective resurrection seems to parallel identically with the teaching of Messiah:

John 5:28-29 – “Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation.

I believe for us to understand Daniel better, we will need to view it together with the teachings of Yeshua. Both of these passages have a larger context which can help us gain some of these insights.

Since we are talking about the judgment/resurrection theme, let’s begin by expanding the scope of Yeshua’s statements in John 5:

John 5:24-30 – “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life. Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted to the Son to have life in himself. And he has granted him the right to pass judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation. I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”

Notice, as we saw last time with the prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel, Yeshua’s mention of a great resurrection is in conjunction with a great judgment. This judgment is identified as death and condemnation, which are both contrasted with life. Whatever this judgment is, Yeshua explains how he is authorized by the Father to facilitate this judgment as simply a matter of carrying out the Father’s will.

Now, if we turn our attention back to Daniel’s prophecy and widen the context of that passage a little, we will see that the resurrection Daniel talks about is also connected to a great judgment:

Daniel 12:1-2 – At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress such as never has occurred since there was a nation until that time. But at that time all your people who are found written in the book will be delivered. Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt.

Notice, there would be an unparalleled time of distress in the time of Daniel’s resurrection. It would be a distress to come upon a nation, the nation of Israel, since the angel mentions it would come upon “your [Daniel’s] people”. This is where some modern translations show their bias by saying something like this time would be the worst time of destruction since “any of the nations have ever existed,” or something along those lines. But the Hebrew says “nation” singular, and the context points to Daniel’s people: Israel. So, Daniel appears to be discussing a specific destruction and judgment which would be coming specifically upon his people, Israel. This will be brought out in little bit as we widen the context of Daniel’s prophecy further.

CONTEXT FOR DANIEL’S PROPHECY

Just as we did with Isaiah’s prophecy last time, we have to remember that the original text of Scripture does not have chapter divisions, so if we are to understand the judgment and resurrection of Daniel 12, we need to find out where this particular vision of Daniel begins so we can determine if there is any mention of when this “time of distress” for Daniel’s people was to take place. In the beginning of chapter 10, we read the following:

Daniel 10:1 – In the third year of King Cyrus of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar. The message was true and was about a great conflict. He understood the message and had understanding of the vision.

This same vision of a great conflict spans all of chapters 10 and 11 and then culminates in chapter 12. Throughout the prophecy, we see that the angelic messenger hints at time markers of when in Israel’s history this vision takes place:

Daniel 10:14 – “Now I have come to help you understand what will happen to your people in the last days, for the vision refers to those days.“

So here we see that this vision that Daniel has is going to be taking place to Daniel’s people “in the last days.” In chapter 11 and 12:1 and 4, we receive several more time markers:

Daniel 11:40 – “At the time of the end, the king of the South will engage him in battle, but the king of the North will storm against him with chariots, horsemen, and many ships. He will invade countries and sweep through them like a flood.”

Daniel 12:1-4 – “At that time [the time of the end mentioned at 11:40] Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up. There will be a time of distress such as never has occurred since there was a nation until that time. But at that time all your people who are found written in the book will escape. Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt. Those who have insight will shine like the bright expanse of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. But you, Daniel, keep these words secret and seal the book until the time of the end…”

As captivating as the entirety of Daniel’s vision is, in this study we are focused on the final stage of a collective resurrection and when it was to take place. Throughout the vision this resurrection is described as being at “the time of the end”, “the last days”, “at that time”. But the last days of what? Is it talking about the last days of life on earth as we know it, or possibly something else?

If we continue reading, we see that we receive some additional information that helps to identify these last days.

Daniel 12:5-7 – Then I, Daniel, looked, and two others were standing there, one on this bank of the river and one on the other. One of them said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the water of the river, “How long until the end of these wondrous things? ” Then I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the water of the river. He raised both his hands toward heaven and swore by him who lives eternally that it would be for a time, times, and half a time.When the power of the holy people is shattered, all these things will be completed.

When was the power of the holy people (Israel) shattered “for a time, times, and half a time”? Again, we must keep in mind that this vision is all about Daniel’s people, Israel, and their history and influence within the world. As the holy people of God, those whom he set apart for himself, it seems to me to make sense that it would have to be a time when their “power” was to be shattered, destroyed and spread around, which is what the word means.

I would submit for your consideration that this shattering into pieces and dispersion occurred at the destruction of the second temple in the three and a half years between 67-70 AD (the time, times, and half a time of Daniel’s prophecy) almost two thousand years ago. At that time Jerusalem was completely destroyed, the Jews that survived were permanently removed from the land, and the temple was brought to the ground with “not one stone left upon another”. The destruction of the temple would be the final indication of “when the power of the holy people is shattered”. If Daniel’s prophecy was completed at that time, then that was the conclusive “end of the days”, the last day and the end of the age of the holy people of Daniel’s time: ancient Israel.

Daniel also mentions the great resurrection was to happen “at that time”. In reading about what Yeshua taught, we see he also discussed a resurrection on something he called “the last day”. Daniel’s “last days” and “time of the end” appear to be equated with the “last day” terminology used by Yeshua and in general understanding among the people of his day. Could these two descriptions be describing the same thing?

RESURRECTION AND THE LAST DAY

John 6:39 – “This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day.

That by Yeshua’s day there was already a general conception of this collective resurrection of the dead is evidenced by Martha as she speaks to Yeshua outside the tomb of her recently deceased brother, Lazarus:

John 11:24 – Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection onthe last day.”

I believe Martha’s statement was based on her understanding of Daniel’s collective resurrection. As we saw last time, Yeshua doesn’t correct Martha’s understanding of a collective resurrection, but simply redirects her to an understanding that he himself is the agent of resurrection: “I am the resurrection and the life”. He plainly taught that those who believed in him as the Messiah would receive eternal life, which in Yeshua’s teaching was to be equated with this resurrection life.

In John 6, Yeshua had spoken at length about this resurrection and who would be qualified to participate in it. So, since this “last day rising” seems to be a very specific teaching of Yeshua which is tied to the prophecy of Daniel, let’s take a closer look at how we should be viewing this resurrection perspective which he taught.

John 6:39-40, 44, 54 – And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” … No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. … Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

These four verses in the gospel of John make references to “the last day” that involves a “raising” of some sort as opposed to a possible “losing” of it. Verse 39 states: “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” In fact, the Greek word used here for lose, apoleso, is used only in this one place in our Greek New Testaments. But it is based on the root appolumi, which can imply a type of destruction, or more accurately, a “losing of something left for destruction”. Looked at in this light, v. 39 can read in a bit more insightful way more literally rendered along these lines:

“And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing [to destruction] of all that he has given me, but [instead] raise it up on the last day.”

So this “all” that was given to Yeshua by God is the subject of the raising, as opposed to destruction. He then goes on to explain who it is who will make up the “all”:

John 6:40 – For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.“

In this passage, Yeshua is here proclaiming the centrality of faith in him as the Messiah as the qualifier for eternal life and this rising on the last day.Those who were to “look on the Son and believe in him” are the participants in the “all” who will be raised “on the last day”.

And this is where we come to what I consider to be a key teaching in the New Testament writings: Everyone who believed in Yeshua in that day were considered to be the true remnant of faithful Israel. That was the contingent with whom God maintained covenant: those who listened to and obeyed his word through his Messiah. That they would be “raised up” on the last day, using the language of national restoration that we learned from Isaiah and Ezekiel, sets the stage for a great restoration of some type for the believing remnant on the last day.

So, now we know from the passage in John who the “all” are who would be raised up in the last day (the faithful remnant of Israel), and we know how they are qualified for this resurrection (i.e., faith in Messiah). It now becomes natural to ask what is the possible destruction or judgment that they are saved from, and when is the “last day” when this rising was to occur. It then follows to understand what does this resurrection/restoration look like? If we return to the vision of Daniel and link his indicators to the teachings of Yeshua, I think we will find the answers to these very important questions.

THE DESTRUCTION/JUDGMENT

What was the destruction or judgment from which Yeshua was saving the faithful remnant?

Daniel 12:7 – When the power of the holy people is shattered, all these things will be completed.

As I have already suggested earlier, the judgment that was imminent in the day of Yeshua and his disciples was the complete annihilation of the city of Jerusalem, and the removal of the temple system, both of which had become extremely corrupt. The power of the holy people was about to be shattered, once and for all time. This theme of the coming judgment was the theme of both John the baptizer and Yeshua:

Matthew 3:7, 10, 12 – But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he [John] said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? … Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. … His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.“

Matthew 4:17 – From then on Yeshua began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

This was to be a judgment on Jerusalem and Israel, not the whole world, as can be seen in the prophecies concerning the resurrection concept. Consider the following statement as Yeshua lashed out against the self-righteous Pharisees and scribes:

Luke 11:50 – …so that the blood of all the prophets [that is, the prophets of Israel], shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation…”

As we are about to explore further, the coming destruction was to be upon Israel collectively and Jerusalem specifically, in that generation. They had rejected God’s continued efforts through his prophets to bring them back to himself, yet they persisted in pursuing the idolatry of national independence over being the light to the nations as the representative Kingdom of God on the earth. Because of this, they would face the complete destruction, not only of their capital, but of the covenantal system of worship that he had provided them. They had broken the covenant by pursuing idolatry and their priesthood had become corrupt; therefore, it would no longer be a viable means of approaching God. Even so, the covenantal priestly system had served its purpose, and its culmination in producing the Messiah was its fulfillment. However, in rejecting the Anointed One of God, his very own son, they were essentially rejecting Yahweh as their ultimate King and Father, and instead they were choosing to set up their own false and idolatrous king and priesthood.

THE TIMING OF THE LAST DAY

Now that we have established what the coming destruction was, it remains for us to find out if these passages tell us when this judgment was to be poured out. The apostles, represented by Peter’s speech on Pentecost, had picked up on this judgment as a day that was to be occurring soon, within that generation:

Acts 2:40 – And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”

Why were the disciples so focused on that generation? Well, we can see that they were simply following the lead of their Master. A simple search of the phrase “this generation” provides many provocative verses illustrating the fact that Yeshua, along with his disciples, had an urgent sense of imminency, warning the people that this judgment would soon be carried out.

Mark 13:30 – Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

Luke 21:31-32, 34 – So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. … “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.

Once again, this was to be a judgment on Israel, not the whole world, as can be seen in the teachings of the apostles:

Acts 2:14-18 – Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, “Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay attention to my words. “For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it’s only nine in the morning. “On the contrary, this [what you are seeing and hearing right now] is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: “And it will be in the last days, says God, [that is, the last days of Israel, according to Daniel] that I will pour out my Spirit on all people; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. I will even pour out my Spirit on my servants in those days, both men and women and they will prophesy.”

Hebrews 1:1-2 – Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son…

1 John 2:18 – Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour.

Peter, under the inspiration of the holy Spirit, prophesied that Joel’s prophecy of the last days was taking place at that time through the pouring out of the Spirit on that day of Pentecost, and that that generation was the one on which judgment was also about to be poured out. The writer of Hebrews says “these last days”, the days in which they were living. John goes even further and says “it is the last hour”.

The destruction of that day, that last day, was to be hanging over that generation in their day, not all generations moving forward for thousands of years. The judgment that was coming upon Jerusalem and the religious system was pointed straight at that specific generation two thousand years ago, and came to pass just as Yeshua predicted when Jerusalem fell to the Roman armies in 68-70 AD; within that generation.

So, now that we have seen what was the judgment to come (the destruction of Jerusalem/temple) and when it was to take place (that generation in the first century, when the power of the holy people was shattered), what was this resurrection and restoration supposed to be?

WHAT THE FINAL RESTORATION WOULD LOOK LIKE

After relating the parable of the vineyard owner to the unfaithful chief priests and elders, Yeshua summarized its message by stating the following:

Matthew 21:43 – Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

To their shame, Israel as a whole no longer carried the Name of God, and Yahweh was beholden to renew his faithful people (the remnant who believed in Messiah) from not only Israel, but from those scattered among the nations at that time. While Yeshua said he was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 15:24), he also knew that he would be reaching out to the scattered remnant of Israel among the diaspora. The diaspora was the dispersion of Israelites that had taken place during the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities hundreds of years earlier during the times of Isaiah and Ezekiel which we reviewed last time. Not all of the Jews had returned to Israel after those captivities; in fact there were contingents of Jewish communities all throughout the Roman empire in Yeshua’s day. Some of them, such as Alexandria and Babylon, were quite large.

John 10:16 – And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

Yeshua was teaching that he would reunite these “lost tribes” with Judah once again, as was prophesied by God through Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 34:22-23 – I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.
Ezekiel 37:19, 21-24 – say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. … then say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes.

This was the urgency with which the disciples preached the message of the Kingdom to that generation, and those spread out throughout the known world via the missionary journeys. The disciples had heard Yeshua issue the “Great Commission” and they ardently strove for the completion of that task.

Matthew 28:18-20 – Yeshua came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, “teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Acts 1:8 – “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Although these passages have spurred many great missionary efforts in the centuries since that time, we read that the apostle Paul says this mission of reaching the known world was actually accomplished within his lifetime, through his ministry and the ministry of the disciples of Messiah within that generation.

Colossians 1:23 – …This gospel has been [past tense] proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.

Additionally, in the process of rescuing the “lost sheep” of Israel, many non-Jewish God-fearers who attended the synagogues and had learned about the God of the Hebrews would also be brought in to the faithful remnant of that generation. This is how God’s Kingdom would grow beyond the nation and scattered communities of Israel into the whole world.

Yeshua had even spoken about how some non-Jews would be in a more righteous position than the wicked Jews of his day.

Matthew 12:41-42 – “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at Jonah’s preaching; and look – something greater than Jonah is here. “The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and look – something greater than Solomon is here.

This teaching implies that Yeshua’s righteous declarations from Yahweh were to be corroborated by the righteous dead from the past, and they would, in a sense, stand in agreement with his decision when judgment was to come upon Israel. Interestingly, he lists Ninevites and the Queen of the South (Sheba) as being witnesses to the righteousness of his teaching, none of whom are Israelites. It follows, then, that even those of the Gentile nations who were obedient to Yahweh and who revered his majesty would be considered righteous in God’s eyes and stand in agreement with the judgment that was about to come upon the nation of Israel.

Acts 10:34-35 – Peter began to speak: “Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, “but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

Paul hints at this as well:

Romans 9:30 – What should we say then? [those among] the nations who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness – namely the righteousness that comes from faith.

Romans 10:19-21 – But I ask, “Did Israel not understand? ” First, Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding. And Isaiah says boldly, I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me. But to Israel he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.

So those Ninevites who actually repented at Jonah’s preaching, and the Queen of Sheba who glorified Yahweh at the wisdom and majesty of Solomon would be in a position to condemn the Jewish leaders in Yeshua’s day because the Jewish leaders did not accept their own Messiah. These non-Hebrew God-fearers would, in a sense, “stand up” in condemnation upon all in that wicked generation who rejected Messiah. The resurrection of condemnation was upon those who rejected Messiah (those who did wicked things). However, the righteous who had obeyed and glorified Yahweh (those who have done good things) would receive eternal life because of their righteous actions.

This type of language seems to me to imply it was not a literal resurrection that is being talked about in any of these passages, but the language of resurrection is being used to illustrate an historical witness to the truth of Messiah and his teachings which would be demonstrated as judgment came to pass upon the nation of Israel in that generation.

As we have seen, the theme of resurrection is restoration to the inheritance. However, now that eternal life has entered the picture through Daniel and Yeshua’s prophecies, Israel (the righteous remnant inclusive of Messiah-believing God-fearers) is not just being restored to the land, but is being created into something new: the eternal spiritual city of Zion, their true inheritance.

ETERNAL LIFE IN DANIEL

Let’s return to Daniel again, as we need to be reminded of the main thrust of the resurrection Daniel discusses: eternal life. As mentioned earlier, this element of eternal life is what separates Daniel’s prophecy from those of Isaiah and Ezekiel that we reviewed last time. This fact, along with its specific timing and corroboration with Yeshua’s teaching places the representative resurrection/restoration of believers into the sphere of the eternal, and not just a worldly kingdom. The corrupted fleshly city of Jerusalem was about to be transformed into the spiritual city on a hill, the “true light of the world which could not be hidden,” (Matthew 5:14).

Indications given by Yeshua suggest that he is talking beyond just a national restoration to a spiritual one. He connects this resurrection on the last day with eternal life within the Kingdom of God.

John 6:40 – For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.“

That this was to be a spiritual kingdom and not a fleshly one is evidenced by the additional element of eternal life in both Daniel’s prophecy and the teaching of Yeshua on resurrection. Eternal life and principles can only be obtained in a spiritual reality, not a physical kingdom. Everything within this natural world is temporary and subject to decay.

2 Corinthians 4:18 – So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Ezekiel had said the people of Israel would be gathered as “one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel”.

Ezekiel 37:21-22 – “tell them, ‘This is what the Lord Yahweh says: I am going to take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land. “I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. They will no longer be two nations and will no longer be divided into two kingdoms.

The truest mountain of Israel is Mount Zion, the prophetic new Jerusalem. The writer of Hebrews illustrated this contrast between Mount Sinai (fleshly Israel) with Mount Zion (spiritual Israel):

Hebrews 12:18, 22-24 – For you have not come to what could be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm, … Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, and to Yeshua, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.”

Verse 23 says it is on this mountain, Mount Zion, where the “spirits of righteous people” are made perfect. I believe this is a description of the resurrection of the righteous, something which the writer to the Hebrews was saying was accomplished in that day. This could only have come to pass in a spiritual sense, and not a literal, earthly sense.

To carry this idea further, let’s look at the apostle Paul’s writings about resurrection. Yeshua had taught that his Kingdom was a spiritual Kingdom, not an earthly one. When conversing with Pilate before his crucifixion he said the following:

John 18:36 – “My kingdom is not of this world,” said Yeshua. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

In a similar sense, the apostle Paul taught that flesh and blood could not inherit the true Kingdom.

1 Corinthians 15:50 – What I am saying, brothers, is this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption.

This shows how fleshly Israel could never become the true Kingdom of God; a transformation had to take place. He then goes on to explain the “mystery” of that transformation which was about to take place within that generation.

1 Corinthians 15:51-54 – Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible [judgment will be complete], and we will be changed. For this which is perishable [national Israel] must be clothed with imperishability [the eternal Kingdom], and this which is subject to death must be clothed with immortality. When this perishable is clothed with imperishability, and this which is subject to death is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory.

We have been taught for so long that Paul is talking about individual resurrection bodies here that we have missed the “mystery” of what he is actually describing in this passage. I believe this famous passage of Paul is not describing individual resurrection, but the resurrection of the body of Israel into the body of Messiah; from old man (Adam, of the earth) to Messiah (the man of heaven); from a fleshly, corrupt nation into a spiritual, immortal entity; from old Jerusalem (earthly) to New Jerusalem (heavenly). This is what all of the prophetic pictures were pointing to and was to become the majestic culmination of the work of God in restoring his people to their true inheritance.

1 Corinthians 15:36-37 – …What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow – you are not sowing the body that will be, but only a seed, perhaps of wheat or another grain.

Again, I believe he is not talking about individual bodies, but the seed of national Israel was planted (destroyed) only to become something much more than a seed can be. In order for the seed to sprout, it must die. However, it then nourishes and supports the growth of whatever type of plant will grow out of it.

1 Corinthians 15:22-23, 28 – For just as in Adam [the seed of Israel] all die, so also in Messiah [that which grows out of the seed] all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Messiah, the firstfruits [fruit that comes from a seed]; afterward, at his coming, those who belong to Messiah [the faithful remnant]. … When everything is subject to Messiah, then the Son himself will also be subject to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.

Messiah had said he would pass judgment on that generation, which was accomplished through the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Roman armies. In the process of destroying his enemies, the righteous dead were considered to have received their inheritance (the eternal Kingdom) jointly with the remaining living believers (i.e., the faithful remnant) who were delivered, just as he had said.

This entire process was the outworking of the the resurrection to life and the resurrection to condemnation that both Daniel and Yeshua prophesied. The resurrection of the wicked (that is, the wicked receiving their sentence) was evidenced by the destruction once and for all of the idolatrous nation, where the fruition of all past wickedness was judged in totality. This judgment is where God and his Messiah were vindicated against unfaithful Israel forever.

By contrast, the great resurrection of the righteous was the “mystery” transformation of earthly Israel into the eternal Israel, where all of the righteous from all ages would be united. The New Jerusalem, the great Zion of prophecy, would stand as an eternal habitation of those who would welcome believers in Messiah throughout all ages from that point forward.

In that generation, justice upon the enemies of God and his Messiah (the unfaithful Jews) had been completed and the eternal Kingdom was firmly established. The last days of ancient Israel was when this great judgment and resurrection took place.

SUMMARY

With the wide-ranging scope of all that we have covered in this series so far, let me see if I can somehow begin to pull some of the pieces together to summarize it.

Judgment: The prophecies of collective resurrection always occur with a theme of judgment. When Israel was unfaithful, they were destroyed and removed from the land. In the first century, this culminated in the non-believing Jews who were condemned and destroyed in the fires of Jerusalem’s destruction in 68-70 AD. The wicked dead were considered included in the judgment of that generation.

Restoration: Restoration to the inheritance is the theme of collective resurrection. There was always a faithful remnant who would become reestablished to their inheritance. In the first century, the faithful remnant of Israel (those who believed in Messiah) were collected from among the nations. The two sticks became one; the lost sheep were found. But their inheritance was no longer the physical land, but a spiritual inheritance. All of the righteous share in this inheritance.

Eternal life: The prophecy of Daniel and the teachings of Yeshua agree that a collective resurrection in the last days of the nation of ancient Israel would culminate not just in restoration to the land, but in eternal life. This life was granted to all who believed, and extended into the age to come beyond death, what Yeshua also calls the resurrection.

The resurrection written by Paul: the body (fleshly Israel) died and was resurrected into spiritual Israel as prophetic Zion. The resurrection body (of believers) grew from the seed of Israel into the eternal city on the hill, the new Jerusalem.

The spiritual and eternal nature of this Kingdom will be emphasized further in our next installment in this resurrection series as we look at the implications of the most famous resurrection in all of history: the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah.

Well, with everything we’ve covered today, I’m hoping there’s at least a couple of concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Resurrection part 1: What Yeshua taught

According to Yeshua, the resurrection is eternal life. This is both the present state and the living hope of every believer.

Core of the Bible podcast #121 – Resurrection part 1: What Yeshua taught

Today we are starting a new, four-part series on the topic of resurrection. When believers today consider the topic of resurrection, they will typically be focusing on the resurrection of Messiah, and they would be right to do so. The resurrection of Messiah has immense significance, and because of this, we will be concluding this series with a whole episode on its ramifications.

However, if most Bible believers today are discussing personal or general resurrection, they will usually point to the lengthy passage on resurrection penned by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. In fact, the apostle Paul explains how the concept of resurrection is an essential doctrine for those who believe in Messiah.

1 Corinthians 15:12-14 – Now if Messiah is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say, “There is no resurrection of the dead”? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Messiah has been raised; and if Messiah has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith.

Paul’s logic is simple and bold: if there is no such thing as resurrection, then Messiah has not been raised, and therefore the faith stemming from Messiah’s teachings is pointless and of no value. This is because one of the key things Messiah taught was that not only was resurrection was a reality, it was that he himself was the embodiment of resurrection and life. Therefore, personal resurrection is an integral hope of every believer in Messiah.

Like every other grand doctrine in the Bible, the topic of resurrection is not without its own complexity. I have found that resurrection is a wide-ranging topic in the Bible. Within its pages there are mentions of many individual resurrections, but there are also indications of collective types of resurrection, as well. Additionally, in a prophetic sense, resurrection is tied together with aspects of judgment which helps to illustrate the national arc of ancient Israel. All of this is combined with the use of ancient metaphorical and literary word pictures which can further distance us from the culture in which these concepts are presented.

The complexity of this concept is evident even among the Jews in the time of Yeshua, as there was sharp disagreement between the Pharisees and Sadducees on the nature and reality of resurrection, a topic we will touch on in today’s episode as we explore Yeshua’s teachings on this subject.

Because of this complexity, I am going to be spending the next several episodes reviewing resurrection from several different perspectives, grouped into four broad categories:

Instances of individual resurrections, and also how Yeshua taught about resurrection
Prophetic indications of collective resurrection and judgment
The resurrection at the last day
The implications of the resurrection of Messiah

So, to begin with, let’s start our journey by looking at some of the original language definitions of what resurrection actually means. In the Hebrew of the Tanakh several different words describe resurrection: chaya meaning to live or be revived, quts meaning to awaken (as from sleep or death), and qum meaning to arise or stand up. As we move into the Greek of the New Testament writings, the terms which include resurrection, or being raised, combine to form one of the most pervasive topics in the New Testament as a whole, occurring in all four gospels and over one hundred times total in the Greek. In the Greek, resurrection is based primarily on the Greek word anistemi which means to arise or stand up, very closely aligned with the Hebrew qum. It is used in the sense of arising as from a seated or lying position to standing, to raise up (either from the dead, or as an instance of causing to be born), or to rise up against an enemy.

Now that we have some basic definitions in place, we can begin reviewing a biblical record of resurrections in the Bible. Did you know that there were at least 8 different individuals listed in the Bible as being resurrected from the dead besides Messiah? In each of these instances, based on the original language definitions we have just reviewed, the individual was described as being revived, awakened, and then they rose up.

Resurrection of the widow’s son in Zarephath through the prophet Elijah (1 Kgs 17:17–22)
Resurrection of the Shunammite’s son through the prophet Elisha (2 Kgs 4:18–37)
Resurrection of the man thrown into Elisha’s grave (2 Kgs 13:20)
Resurrection of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:41)
Resurrection of the young man at Nain (Luke 7:14)
Resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:38–44)
Resurrection of Tabitha/Dorcas (Acts 9:36–42)
Resurrection of Eutychus (Acts 20:7–12)

So, what is it that we can discern from reviewing all of these instances of physical, individual resurrections throughout the Bible?

First of all, I think it’s worth noting that there are quite a few; eight individuals who were raised from the dead! Interestingly, if you have listened to the previous study on the biblical holiday of Yom HaShemini, the Eighth Day, you may recall how the number eight is typically used throughout the biblical narrative in the context of new beginnings and new life, and here we see eight individual raised to life!

Additionally, if you take the time to read each of these accounts, you may find some striking similarities between these events.

An individual has died but then is brought back to physical life through the actions or the presence of a prophet or man of God.
God is glorified
The ministry of the prophet is validated

And while we don’t have scriptural records to indicate this, there is no reason to think that any of these individuals were raised to physical eternal existence; it is assumed that they once again died ordinary deaths at some point after having been raised.

For now, we can see how resurrection is simply an accepted reality throughout the entire Bible to demonstrate the power of God and to validate the teachings of his prophets. God repeatedly used these individual resurrection events to encourage his people that his power extends beyond death, and how this physical life is only one part of our conscious existence. What these accounts do for us is to set a baseline understanding that something is going on with the conscious existence of those whom God loves: they appear to continue to exist as individuals beyond their physical life, and are somehow “brought back” to live out the remainder of their physical lives.

For each of these individuals, their bodies were dormant and cold, and yet through the process of resurrection, their life returned, their bodies grew warm, and they opened their eyes and began to move again, as if simply being awakened from sleep. So, one of the primary metaphors used for death is this idea of sleep. Yeshua used this term in speaking of his friend Lazarus.

John 11:11-13 – He said this, and then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.” Then the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” Yeshua, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep.

The apostle Paul also used this metaphor of sleep for death.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 – We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, in the same way, through Yeshua, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

So, here’s something a little off the beaten path to consider: because of this symbolic relationship of death with sleep, what if the natural process of sleep and awaking from sleep is simply a daily illustration that God has given us of the very real hope of life after death? Just as we all sleep, we all are subject to death. But as we all awake, we are all subject to the power of God in maintaining our essence, our spiritual existence, beyond this physical life.

While this may be an interesting rabbit hole to go down, for now, we must keep the biblical passages in their context and what these events accomplished. Through each of the individual resurrections, God was glorified through his servant, and the authority of his prophets and disciples in conveying the truth of God was confirmed. This is a powerful testimony to the work of God in establishing the principles of his Kingdom in this world, and providing hope to his people that some form of conscious existence continues beyond this physical lifetime.

Now, let’s turn to the teaching of Messiah on this subject. As I have said many times before, Yeshua did not arrive on the scene in first century Israel and just invent a bunch of new ideas, including the idea of resurrection. What he taught about it builds on examples and representations, sparse as they may be, that come from the Tanakh, or Old Testament. These expectations would have been the ones he was building on as he explained the true meaning of resurrection as it is intended for those in the Kingdom. Besides the references to individual resurrections in the Tanakh that we just reviewed, there are really only three main passages which discuss a larger, corporate resurrection of some kind:

Isaiah 26:19 – Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.
Ezekiel 37:12 – “Therefore, prophesy and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Yahweh says: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them, my people, and lead you into the land of Israel.
Daniel 12:2 – Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt.

So, while I mentioned resurrection is only briefly described in these few passages of the Tanakh (each of which we will review in more detail next time), there is an understanding that of the two ruling religious groups in Israel at the time of Yeshua, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, only the Pharisees believed in a collective resurrection. The Sadducees were not fully accepting of the prophetic writings outside the core books of Moses, and therefore would not typically give much credence these passages we just reviewed. So, in order to justify their own position and to possibly discredit Yeshua, they planned to confront him and test him to see what his doctrine was on the topic of resurrection. To do so, we can see how the Sadducees posed a “thought experiment” that was designed to force Yeshua to choose sides on the resurrection question, and potentially disqualify him as the Messiah.

Matthew 22:23-28 – That same day some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came up to him and questioned him: “Teacher, Moses said, if a man dies, having no children, his brother is to marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first got married and died. Having no offspring, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second also, and the third, and so on to all seven. Last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had married her.”

We know they didn’t really believe in the resurrection, so they just took the concept and mockingly strung together a logical conclusion based on the Mosaic rules of Levirate marriage, or the familial responsibility for close relatives to maintain the family name. However, rather than take the bait of their straw man argument, Yeshua decides to take a different tack, and in so doing, he reveals for us an aspect of resurrection that many to this day may not have seen.

—

So, after hearing the carefully staged question of the Sadducees regarding how the rules of marriage could possibly apply in the resurrection, Yeshua provides a direct response:

Matthew 22:29 – Yeshua answered them, “You are mistaken, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

Right to the point, Yeshua immediately recognizes their attempt at creating conflict with an absurdly speculative scenario on a point of Mosaic law. He simply shrugs it off by saying, “You’re wrong.” He then implies their non-acceptance of the prophetic writings is also incorrect by saying, “you don’t know the Scriptures.” And finally, he states their ignorance of the truth demonstrates they don’t really understand “the power of God.”

Then he directly answered their thought experiment: “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven,” (Matthew 22:30). Yeshua states there is no marriage in the resurrection state, therefore the Levirate rules of marriage would no longer apply. But he decided to take this opportunity to push their thinking on the topic a little further and in the process provides insight on what true resurrection looks like:

Matthew 22:31-32 – “Now concerning the resurrection of the dead [that is, since you brought it up], haven’t you read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

By redirecting their focus to the story of the burning bush in Exodus, he now confronts them squarely on their own turf, as they would be forced to agree with a concept directly taught from one of the books of Moses. He basically pulled a checkmate on their little thought experiment, and then redirected them to a passage they would have to agree was Scripture, and he confounded them in the process.

So what exactly was Yeshua driving at by bringing up this statement of Yahweh at the burning bush? This same passage is related by Matthew, Mark and Luke, so it obviously carried some heavy weight with the early believers. By saying that “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” Yeshua appears to be teaching that at least the righteous dead (exemplified by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) were to be considered alive to God, and therefore, already in a resurrection state. While the Sadducees were talking of a general resurrection in a future tense (who’s wife will she be?), Yeshua speaks about it in the present tense (they do not marry and are like angels in heaven). This implied that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all of whom had lived physical lives fifteen hundred to two thousand years prior to the time of Yeshua, by the power of God had been retaining their identities and were to be considered already living in the resurrection state.

Luke’s account adds even a few additional snippets of information in Yeshua’s response to the Sadducees.

Luke 20:34-36 – Yeshua told them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage. “But those who are counted worthy to take part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. For they can no longer die, because they are like angels and are children of God, since they are sons of the resurrection.”

In this telling, Luke emphasizes a new facet of this confrontation: that Yeshua contrasts what he calls “this age” (marrying and giving in marriage) with “the resurrection from the dead” (where no marriage takes place). But he distinguishes a conditional participation in this resurrection (those who have been deemed deserving).

Just like the other passages, he also focuses on the (then) present nature of that resurrection age by saying that the dead are raised, and God is not the God of the dead, and that all (who are worthy) live to (or in) him. All of these points would have been revolutionary considerations for the Sadducees who were confronting him. This is why the passage concludes:

Matthew 22:33 – And when the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

Yeshua would have made his point clearly that the Sadducees not only did not understand the true nature of Scripture but also the power of God to provide life after physical death for the faithful. In these passages Yeshua seems to me to be implying that the righteous dead are already living in a resurrected state of some sort. For us, this broadens the meaning of the resurrection to become illustrative of the reality of life after physical death for believers.

To illustrate this further, in other instances Yeshua also teaches that those who could kill the body are unable to kill the true living essence of the individual; however, God has the ability to do so.

Matthew 10:28-31 – “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in [Gehenna]. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”
Luke 12:4-7 – “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into [Gehenna]; yes, I tell you, fear Him! Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”

In these passages, Yeshua appears to be making a distinction between the body and the soul (life). One (the body) is able to be killed by men, but the other (soul/life) is not. However, God has the ability to destroy both body and soul/life of those who do not fear him, represented by the fires of the Gehenna trash dump. This is also brought out in another famous passage:

Matthew 25:41, 46 – “Then he will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels! … “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Now, to be fair, none of these statements made by Yeshua were provided in the context of a teaching on the reality of some sort of conscious existence beyond this life, but instead these ideas are intermixed with teachings of the coming judgment upon that generation. However, this aspect of God as the life-giver and life-taker is a corroboration with the rest of Scripture that all life is in God’s hands; he provides life, and he can also cause those who remain rebellious to perish.

Job 33:4 – The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Even in one of the most famous passages of the Bible, Yeshua is quoted as speaking of belief in him as the Messiah is an indication of an eternal life that will never perish.

John 3:14-16 – “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Now, to also carry the idea of “sons of the resurrection” forward that Luke had mentioned previously, I am reminded of Yeshua’s discussion with Nicodemus earlier on in this same passage.

John 3:3-7 – Yeshua replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “How can anyone be born when he is old? ” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born? ” Yeshua answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again.”

Yeshua seems to be teaching that being born again or born from above is a spiritual reality that doesn’t have to wait for some future resurrection, but is something that can begin to be experienced in this life. This is also what he appears to have been discussing with Martha at the tomb of Lazarus before Lazarus was raised from the dead.

John 11:23-26 – “Your brother will rise again,” Yeshua told her. Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Yeshua said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

This seems to indicate to me that this resurrection life, exhibited by faith in Messiah, overlaps and is contemporaneous with this physical life. Here is another indication within John’s gospel:

John 5:21, 24 – “For just as the Father raises [present tense] the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives [present tense] life to whom He wishes…Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”

Again, Yeshua seems to be teaching that eternal life was something that was being bestowed within the physical lifetime of the believer, where a future judgment was already bypassed due to the possession of this life by being faithful to God’s word in believing in his Messiah. However, he was also clear that this was not to forego the coming judgment upon those who refused to believe.

John 5:25-29 – Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth;those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

In this passage Yeshua appears to be teaching of a (then) present reality of passing from death to life, but also an event which was yet to happen in which the prior dead would come forth to a resurrection of judgment, both good and bad. In reality, he is drawing on the prophetic imagery of a collective resurrection and judgment which we encountered earlier from Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. This theme of collective resurrection and judgment in the prophets has a unique and significant meaning. Because it is so critical to our understanding of resurrection, these passages will be the subject of our next couple of visits to the resurrection topic.

From our brief introduction to the concept of resurrection today, we can summarize some of the main ideas of what we have examined in the following statements:

Individual resurrections hinted that conscious existence for the faithful is maintained beyond this lifetime.
The individual resurrections glorified the power of God, and validated the ministries of those who participated in them.
In the New Testament writings, Yeshua seems to be redefining resurrection with the Sadducees to mean something more than just a future, collective event. It was instead a present and active activity of the Father with the righteous dead who still consciously lived, since “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Resurrection as defined by Yeshua also seems to have been connected as a continuance of conscious existence for the righteous who have been “born again” and who believed in him as Messiah, since “he who believes in me will never die.”

Yeshua had modeled in prayer for his disciples what eternal life was.

John 17:3 – And this is [present tense] eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Yeshua Messiah whom you have sent.

The disciples would then carry this message forward to the scattered Israelites among the nations.

1 Thessalonians 5:8-10: “But let us, since we belong to the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Yeshua Messiah, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.“

According to Yeshua, the Old Testament saints experienced a resurrection state since he taught that they “all are alive to God.” In his view, it seems eternal life was a by-product of a life lived by simple faith in Yahweh. It was not necessarily an end to be sought in and of itself, but it was a consequence or result of being a faithful believer in Yahweh, just as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were. And, in New Testament times, if one truly believed in Yahweh, then it follows they would believe in the testimony he provided about his son, Messiah Yeshua.

According to Yeshua, the resurrection is eternal life. This is both the present state and the living hope of every believer. I believe it is in this sense that Yeshua truly conquered death and provided life eternal in the Kingdom for those who were to believe in him.

Next time, in the second installment of this study, we will explore the prophetic teachings of a collective future resurrection and how that concept squares with these ideas of eternal life.

Well, it’s my sincere hope that this introduction to the topic of resurrection has brought you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

The eternal kingdom of faithfulness

Believers are challenged to demonstrate their true allegiance as citizens of an everlasting kingdom.

If one thing is abundantly clear from the Bible, it is that the fate and longevity of the kingdom of Israel depended on the integrity and righteousness of the king. While there are numerous examples of this, Jeroboam son of Nebat , the first king over the ten tribes of the northern kingdom, set an awful precedent of idolatry which was followed by many kings after him. He created idols of golden calves in the north and south so people would not have to go to Jerusalem to worship. He created his own made-up holiday in the eighth month encouraging the Israelites to have a festival and make sacrifices. In short, he corrupted the northern kingdom with extreme idolatry. Other northern kings followed in his footsteps:

2 Kings 15:8-9 – In the thirty-eighth year of Judah’s King Azariah, Zechariah son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria for six months. He did what was evil in Yahweh’s sight as his fathers had done. He did not turn away from the sins Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

2 Kings 15:17-18 – In the thirty-ninth year of Judah’s King Azariah, Menahem son of Gadi became king over Israel, and he reigned ten years in Samaria. He did what was evil in Yahweh’s sight. Throughout his reign, he did not turn away from the sins Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

2 Kings 15:23-24 – In the fiftieth year of Judah’s King Azariah, Pekahiah son of Menahem became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned two years. He did what was evil in Yahweh’s sight and did not turn away from the sins Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

The two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin also had their own bad representative in the person of Ahaz.

2 Chronicles 28:1-4 – Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in Yahweh’s sight like his ancestor David, for he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and made cast images of the Baals. He burned incense in Ben Hinnom Valley and burned his children in the fire, imitating the detestable practices of the nations Yahweh had dispossessed before the Israelites. He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

The account in Chronicles relates that the result of this wickedness and rampant idolatry of Ahaz led to the humbling of the kingdom of Judah:

2 Chronicles 28:19 – For Yahweh humbled Judah because of King Ahaz of Judah, who threw off restraint in Judah and was unfaithful to Yahweh.

I could equally list a group of good kings who did what was right and good in God’s eyes, such as Joash or Hezekiah, who accomplished great reforms and sought to remove all idolatry and wrongdoing from the land.

But the point remains that the conditions in the kingdom were dependent on the attitude and actions of the king. If they obeyed, they were blessed; if they disobeyed, they suffered from foreign oppression, poor harvests, and war.

The good news is that the eternal kingdom of God has a righteous king! When Yeshua arrived to announce the kingdom of God, he represented it as a kingdom of repentance, holiness, integrity, peace, and faithful obedience to God.

Matthew 5:3-10 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”

The writer of Hebrews tells us that the kingdom of Messiah is patterned after the example of Melchizedek, whose very name means “king of righteousness.”

Hebrews 6:19-20 – We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. Yeshua has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 7:1-2 – For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, met Abraham and blessed him as he returned from defeating the kings, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means king of righteousness, then also, king of Salem, meaning king of peace.

However, Yeshua instructed Pilate that his kingdom was not one that was to be set up in this world. It was not to be a physical kingdom that would be established at that time to overthrow the Roman oppression that Israel was facing .

John 18:36 – “My kingdom is not of this world,” said Yeshua. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”

The apostle Paul continued this teaching that the kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom, and not one that is on this earth.

1 Corinthians 15:50 – What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption.

The kingdom that was established at that time was a spiritual kingdom, because only a spiritual kingdom can last for eternity. And the king of this kingdom must be immortal, as Yeshua demonstrated by his resurrection. Anything that is physically of this world is temporary, even if it were a kingdom to last a thousand years or more. According to Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the kingdom that God set up through his Messiah was to be an everlasting kingdom.

Daniel 2:44 – “In the days of those kings [i.e., the Romans], the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever.

True to form, every kingdom of Daniel’s prophecy, including the rebellious kingdom of ancient Israel, had to be brought to an end. In the death of the national kingdom was the birth of the spiritual and everlasting kingdom. The physical kingdom by its very nature could not and would not last forever.

Daniel 12:6-7 – One of them said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the water of the river, “How long until the end of these wondrous things? ” Then I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the water of the river. He raised both his hands toward heaven and swore by him who lives eternally that it would be for a time, times, and half a time. When the power of the holy people is shattered, all these things will be completed.

The power of the holy people, national Israel, was shattered after three and a half years of fighting with the Romans, and the city and temple fell in 70 AD. That was the time of the end spoken of by the angel to Daniel.

Daniel 12:8-9 – I heard but did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these things? ” He said, “Go on your way, Daniel, for the words are secret and sealed until the time of the end.

Paul said that at the time of the end the kingdom of Messiah would be placed under the authority of God the Father for all eternity

1 Corinthians 15:24, 28 – Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he abolishes all rule and all authority and power. … When everything is subject to Messiah, then the Son himself will also be subject to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.

This is the kingdom that exists today. All rightful rule and authority belongs Messiah under the auspices of God the Father, not to the temporary nations and kingdoms of this world. Believers may be living in various kingdoms and nations today, but they are first and foremost citizens of the eternal spiritual kingdom that continues to grow throughout the earth. This is the high calling of those who have been drawn to God through faith in his Messiah. The kingdom of Messiah is a kingdom of repentance, holiness, integrity, peace, and faithful obedience to Yahweh. Nations of this earth may come and go, but it is the kingdom of God which will last throughout all eternity, and the eternal open invitation will continually remain for all who will hear:

Revelation 22:17 – Both the Spirit and the bride say, “Come! ” Let anyone who hears, say, “Come! ” Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life freely.

If you enjoy these daily articles, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.comdcrex

The kingdom growing until it fills all

Believers in Messiah are part of a chain that is thousands of years old.

Believers in Messiah are part of a chain that is thousands of years old, and one that will continue until it fills the earth.

Luke 13:18-21 – He said, therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like, and what can I compare it to? It’s like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky nested in its branches.
Again he said, “What can I compare the kingdom of God to? It’s like leaven that a woman took and mixed into fifty pounds of flour until all of it was leavened.”

If we want to know what the Kingdom of God looks like, we need only to review the parables of Yeshua, since this is where he laid out definitions of the Kingdom for those who were willing to hear. Now, we know that we can’t necessarily just take a surface reading of the parables, because the parables were designed to allow those who wanted to hear the teaching to understand it, and those who were not willing to listen to not understand it.

Luke 8:9-10 – Then his disciples asked him, “What does this parable mean? ” So he said, “The secrets of the kingdom of God have been given for you to know, but to the rest it is in parables, so that ‘Looking they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'”

The parable of the mustard seed illustrates how the Kingdom would be something that starts extremely small and would grow until it was large enough to support a wildlife habitat. This would be a contrary understanding of the Kingdom to the Jewish ear of Yeshua’s day, because they had the understanding the Kingdom would come in triumphantly and God’s Messiah would rule over all kingdoms immediately, similar to many Christians’ expectation of Messiah’s return in our day.

However, we find Yeshua’s illustration perfectly described the actual working out of God’s Kingdom on the earth: it would start small (Yeshua and the twelve disciples), grow into a larger group (the first-century remnant of Israel), and then spread to become a tree large enough to support its own habitat (illustrated by all believers in Messiah up through our day).

The secondary parable of the leaven carries the same message: the kingdom would start small like the small bit of leaven, but once mixed in with the rest of the dough would end up working its way throughout the entire batch until all of the dough had been affected by the leaven.

Both of these parable explain the same dynamic: the Kingdom starts small, but comes to grow throughout the entirety of the world. While not what the Jews of the day were expecting, it was, however, prophesied in the book of Daniel to do this very thing.

When Daniel was interpreting King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of an image made of gold, silver, bronze, and clay mixed with iron, Daniel explained that God had granted Nebuchadnezzar a vision of the future, and that each of these metals represented a kingdom, ending in what was to become the Roman Empire; the iron mixed with clay.

Daniel 2:34-35 – “As you were watching, a stone broke off without a hand touching it, struck the statue on its feet of iron and fired clay, and crushed them. Then the iron, the fired clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were shattered and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”

Daniel described that a stone struck the statue in its feet (which ended up occurring during the Roman empire through the message and teaching of Yeshua) and it became a mountain that filled the whole earth. This growth language is very similar to Yeshua’s parables of the mustard seed and the leaven. Daniel then provides a further explanation by saying to the king:

Daniel 2:43-45 – “You saw the iron mixed with clay – the peoples will mix with one another but will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with fired clay. In the days of those kings, the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever. You saw a stone break off from the mountain without a hand touching it, and it crushed the iron, bronze, fired clay, silver, and gold. The great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is certain, and its interpretation reliable.”

The kingdom that God was to set up “in the days of those kings” was indeed the Kingdom of God, ushered in by Messiah, that would be eternal and bring all other kingdoms to an end. Even to this day, the branches continue to extend and the leaven continues to cause the dough to rise. It will not stop until it “fills the earth,” as Daniel predicted.

This is the kingdom we are privileged to be a part of, and one in which we can have a part in its continued expansion. As we live out its principles, we begin to influence those around us with its righteous standards and others can be drawn to Yahweh and his Messiah through our faithfulness. Our obedience to the principles of God’s Word, his Torah, is the catalyst, the leaven, that can cause hearts to forsake the kingdoms of this world and surrender to the Lordship of Messiah.

If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

The eternal hegemony of the kingdom of God

Political world domination takes a back seat to the real Authority over the world.

Hegemony is not a word that is often used today, and if it is, it is typically conveyed with a negative connotation. The Oxford Dictionary describes hegemony as: “leadership or dominance, especially by one country or social group over others.” The Merriam-Webster definition is similar: “the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group.”

The Merriam-Webster definition provides some added background of the word:

“Hegemony was first used in English in the mid-16th century in reference to the control once wielded by the ancient Greek states, and it was reapplied in later centuries as other nations subsequently rose to power. By the 19th century, it had acquired a second sense referring to the social or cultural influence wielded by a dominant member over others of its kind, such as the domination within an industry by a business conglomerate over smaller businesses.”

Synonyms include words like: leadership, dominance, dominion, supremacy, ascendancy, predominance, primacy, authority, mastery, control, power, sway, rule, sovereignty.

Now, in the sense of geopolitical strategies and governmental power over regions of the world, historically there have always been dominant civilizations. The Bible mentions ancient world-stage players such as Babylon, Assyria, Greece, Rome. More modern examples might include the 18-19th century British Empire, or the Nazi expansionism in the early 20th century which sparked the last World War.

Yet, viewed from the lofty perch of our current perspective in time looking back over the millennia, one constant theme emerges: they all pass away. This does not imply that they were or are without significance, but history has shown how one civilization or empire is always succeeded by another.

As believers in the God of the Bible, whether we recognize the specificity of the term or not, we are believers of an eternal hegemony: the kingdom of God. This is easily demonstrated by the terms used to describe his kingdom. In Hebrew, the term for his kingdom is the mamlakah, meaning kingdom, sovereignty, dominion, reign. In Greek the word is basileia, meaning kingdom, sovereignty, royal power.

We read about this eternal dominion of God in our Bibles, and even sing about it in our hymns and psalms. Here is just a small representative sampling:

Psalm 33:8 – Let all the earth fear Yahweh; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
Psalm 47:2, 7 – For Yahweh, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. … For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!
Psalm 57:11 – Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!

Psalm 83 even goes so far as to urge the overthrow of the surrounding nations to Israel in defence of God’s own glory and protection of his people.

Psalm 83:1-2, 17-18 – O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. … Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, that they may know that you alone, whose name is Yahweh, are the Most High over all the earth.

This is the kingdom that Yeshua ushered in to the reality of this world two thousand years ago.

Matthew 4:17 – From that time Yeshua began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew 24:14 – And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

The world’s most famous prayer, the Lord’s prayer, even contains the revolutionary concept of God’s kingdom coming to earth with His will, not the will of the nations, being accomplished in its fulfillment.

Matthew 6:10 – Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

But this is not a kingdom we fight flesh and blood to establish. Our warfare is not defined by the weapons of this world, but it is just as difficult a struggle, if not more so, than the occupation of a foreign army in a land not their own. Paul conveyed some of the struggles the apostles fought in their establishment of various congregations, and revealed their weapons were not those of hardened steel, but of righteous actions and overpowering wisdom of God.

2 Corinthians 6:4, 7 – but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, … by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left…
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 – For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Messiah…

Yeshua himself conveyed how the kingdom of God was not something that would be fought for on the battlefields of this earth, but it was a real and enduring kingdom nonetheless.

John 18:36 – Yeshua answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

While the kingdom may not be physically originating from this world, it is no less encompassing than any world-dominating empire of the past. However, this kingdom will not pass away like the civilizations of the past. The prophet Yeshua said it was like the mustard seed that would grow “larger than all the other garden plants.”

Matthew 13:31-32 – “He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

Daniel was so bold to pronounce that this kingdom would grow to fill the earth and not only last forever but put to rest all other kingdoms of this world; that is the very definition of hegemony.

Daniel 2:44 – “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever…”

Hegemony may have a negative connotation today, but remember that we serve a world-dominating King and look forward with anticipation to his dominion and rule over the hearts of men of all nations, where swords are beat into plowshares, and his peace reigns supreme over all.

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An invisible, present kingdom and a future certainty

The good news of the kingdom is that it will reach its fulfillment when every heart is in alignment with the principles of the God of the universe.

Core of the Bible podcast #44 – An invisible, present kingdom and a future certainty

Today we will be exploring the topic of the Kingdom of God, and how it was established in the days of Yeshua, is present today, and how it will come to certain fulfillment over all the earth at some point in the future.

To understand this further, we can begin by looking at how Yeshua taught about the kingdom.

Luke 17:20-21 – When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Yeshua replied, “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs. Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

All throughout his ministry, Yeshua spoke of the nearness of the kingdom. This nearness was to be demonstrated through healings and as a witness against those who would not believe.

Luke 10:9 – “Heal the sick who are there, and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near you.’

Luke 10:11 – “‘We are wiping off even the dust of your town that clings to our feet as a witness against you. Know this for certain: The kingdom of God has come near.’

The nearness of the kingdom was also to be the motivation for repentance for his immediate audience.

Matthew 4:17 – From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Therefore, in Yeshua’s teaching, the advent of the kingdom was to be evidenced through miraculous events that would be a witness to those seeing them, and a prompting of repentance for those who wished to be included within it.

In Luke 17, Yeshua is asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom would be established, and Yeshua has to doctrinally reset their expectations. He mentions it would not be something dramatic with an observable political program and a specific location, but was a present reality already changing hearts, minds, and bodies.

This mention of the nearness of the kingdom presents similar challenges even today. Most believers in our day have the same expectation as the Pharisees: that the Messiah of God will come to rule and reign over a physical kingdom, and all nations will be a witness to the power and majesty of God.

However, to hold this view misses the essence of what Yeshua was teaching: the kingdom is not the coming visible manifestation of a political entity, but is an invisible, living community made up of those with changed hearts of obedience toward God.

Commentators have split over the interpretation of the words expressing that the kingdom of God is “in your midst,” or “within/inside you” in verse 21. Even in English, we can sense the similarity of these meanings, and both present different shades of the reality of the kingdom as Yeshua describes it.

Some commentators have chosen to interpret the meaning as “within you,” pointing to the internal nature of being born from above, and how God desired to rule their hearts.

For example, Charles Ellicott had the following opinion:

“The marginal reading, “among you.” has been adopted, somewhat hastily, by most commentators. So taken. the words emphatically assert the actual presence of the Kingdom. It was already in the midst of them at the very time when they were asking when it would appear. The use of the Greek preposition is, however, all but decisive against this interpretation. It is employed for that which is “within,” as contrasted with that which is “without,” as in Matthew 23:26, and in the LXX. version for the “inward parts,” or spiritual nature of man, as contrasted with the outward, as in Psalm 103:1; Psalm 109:22; Isaiah 16:11.

Psalm 103:1 – My soul, bless the LORD, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Psalm 109:22 – For I am suffering and needy; my heart is wounded within me.

Isaiah 16:11 – Therefore I moan like the sound of a lyre for Moab, as does my innermost being for Kir-heres.

It was in that [inner] region, in the life which must be born again (John 3:3), that men were to look for the kingdom; and there, whether they accepted it or rejected it, they would find sufficient tokens of its power.”

Other modern commentators have sided with the “in your midst” interpretation citing the fact that the kingdom was already being manifested in that day as Yeshua ministered to the people of Israel.

Here is an example from the Pulpit Commentary:

“That kingdom will be marked out on no map, for, lo, it is even now in your midst. It may be asked – How “in your midst”? Scarcely not as Godet and Olshausen, following Chrysostom, think, “in your hearts.” The kingdom of God could not be said to be in the hearts of those Pharisees to whom the Master was especially directing his words of reply here. It should be rather understood “in the midst of your ranks;” so Meyer and Farrar and others interpret it, Luke 17:21″

With these differing opinions, Albert Barnes states what I believe is a reasonable balance between both positions.

“When an earthly prince visits different parts of his territories, he does it with pomp. His movements attract observation, and become the common topic of conversation. The inquiry is, Where is he? which way will he go? and it is a matter of important “news” to be able to say where he is. Jesus says that the Messiah would not come in that manner. It would not be with such pomp and public attention. It would be silent, obscure, and attracting comparatively little notice. Or the passage may have reference to the custom of the “pretended” Messiahs, who appeared in this manner. They said that in this place or in that, in this mountain or that desert, they would show signs that would convince the people that they were the Messiah. Compare the notes at Acts 5:36-37.

Acts 5:36-37 – “Some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed and came to nothing. “After this man, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and attracted a following. He also perished, and all his followers were scattered.

“Is within you – This is capable of two interpretations.

1. The reign of God is “in the heart.” It does not come with pomp and splendor, like the reign of temporal kings, merely to control the external “actions” and strike the senses of people with awe, but it reigns in the heart by the law of God; it sets up its dominion over the passions, and brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

2. It may mean the new dispensation is “even now among you.” The Messiah has come. John has ushered in the kingdom of God, and you are not to expect the appearance of the Messiah with great pomp and splendor, for he is now among you. Most critics at present incline to this latter interpretation. The ancient versions chiefly follow the former.”

To my way of thinking, there exists a difference of meaning because both interpretations have merit. Both present the obvious truth that Yeshua was making with the Pharisees: whether internal to each individual or already present in their midst, either way, the coming of the kingdom has nothing to do with the setting up of a visible organization or entity ruling over the entire earth, and this is what they were hoping for a messiah to come and do.

—-

How like the Pharisaical expectation is the modern expectation of a returning Messiah to defeat all of the enemies of God and to physically rule and reign from a physical throne in the physical city of Jerusalem. To hold to this view is to disregard passages speaking of the spiritual nature of the New Jerusalem to to which we are called, not the physical location.

For example, after recounting the dramatic appearance of the revelation of God at Mt. Sinai, the writer to the Hebrews says this:

Hebrews 12:22-24 – Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, and to Yeshua, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.

This is the “city” that we have been called to!

The apostle Paul, contrasting fleshly Israel with God’s true spiritual people, writes:

Galatians 4:26 – But the Jerusalem above [that is, the heavenly or spiritual Jerusalem] is free, and she is our mother.

Unfortunately, it appears that Christians today have fallen into the same false hope of the religious elite of Yeshua’s day, and misunderstand his purpose and goal for God’s people. The kingdom of God was established by Yeshua and continues to grow to this day.

That the kingdom of God has already been established during the lifetime of Yeshua and the disciples is a fact that is borne out by several historical factors that are brought out within the Word of God.

One of the most foundational aspects is the fulfilled prophecy of Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

In Daniel 2, the king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a dream that he did not understand, in which he saw an image made of various metals: gold, silver, bronze, and iron mixed with clay. Daniel interprets each of those metals to be representative of various empires that would be established from his days forward into their future.

Almost all commentators agree the final kingdom of iron mixed with clay was the Roman empire. Daniel predicts that the kingdom of God, an eternal kingdom, would be set up or established “in the days of those kings.”

Daniel 2:44 – “In the days of those kings, the God of the heavens will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself endure forever.

Whatever eternal kingdom God was establishing would therefore have to be established prior to the demise of the final earthly empire of the vision: the Roman empire.

If Yeshua was successful in establishing the kingdom of God “in the days” of the Roman empire, then this prophetic vision has been fulfilled, at least to its establishment in time. The fullness of its fulfilment, the crushing and ending of all other kingdoms, is still in process.

Other indications that the kingdom was established in that first century timeframe was that Yeshua provides some timing markers within various teachings.

For example,

Matthew 11:12 – “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been suffering violence, and the violent have been seizing it by force.

Yeshua is here indicating that the kingdom of God had been in the process of being established since the preaching of John the baptizer which preceded even his own ministry.

In another place, Yeshua says to his detractors:

Matthew 12:28 – “If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Essentially, Yeshua is saying that if miraculous healings are taking place by God’s Spirit working through me, these things are outward evidence that the kingdom of God is being established.

Matthew 16:28 – “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Most clearly, Yeshua made reference to the fact that the kingdom would be firmly established within the physical lifetime of some of his disciples.

Based on these various indicators, I believe that the kingdom was being established internally within the hearts of God’s people during the life and ministry of John the baptizer and Yeshua. This invisible kingdom of God ruling hearts was being evidenced by the outward workings of extraordinary miracles of conversions and healings.

After the death and resurrection of Yeshua, the disciples carried the gospel message of this kingdom to the scattered tribes of Israel among the nations. The culmination of the establishment of the eternal kingdom was finalized at the destruction of Jerusalem, when the old system of Judaic sacrifice, symbolized by the temple, was destroyed and eradicated forever, never to be rebuilt.

Because the eternal kingdom was to be established “in the days of those kings,” there would be no end to it. It would continue to grow until it filled the earth.

This is where I believe we are now in the biblical timeline of events. God’s kingdom has been firmly established two millennia ago, and has been growing and spreading, ebbing and flowing like a rising tide throughout the world during each successive generation.

Yeshua told a parable of the kingdom expressing how the kingdom would grow over time, not be established in an instant.

Matthew 13:31-32 – “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. “It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it’s taller than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches.”

This parable is a metaphor for how the kingdom would grow over time, like any other living thing God has created. But even as it grows, the kingdom is being manifested every day in the lives of believers through their changed hearts, minds, and bodies. As we learn and place God’s commands within our hearts by faith, we then begin to express outward actions in accordance with his will by that same faith. Those outward actions then influence the individuals around us as an outward demonstration of the inward reality of the invisible kingdom, and the outward reality of the kingdom adds another branch, another area for animals to metaphorically enjoy its shade and perch within its protective covering.

The good news of the kingdom is that it will reach its fulfillment when every heart is in alignment with the principles of the God of the universe. The prophetic certainty is that it will take place, we just don’t know when. Since it has already been going on for over two thousand years, we need to understand the full growth and maturity of the tree in Yeshua’s parable may still not happen for hundreds or possibly even thousands of years. This may sound foreign to modern evangelical ears, but this is the pattern and projection of God’s Word and sure prophecy regarding his kingdom on this earth. Two thousand years in light of an eternal kingdom is only the beginning.

This should not be a cause for dismay, but one of energizing hope for the future of all people, and for our participation in being co-laborers with God in bringing this to pass! Our role is to faithfully pass that baton to each successive generation, and it will all be fulfilled in God’s perfect timing and within his purpose. Each heart won with the gospel or good news of the eternal, invisible kingdom is another place where God’s kingdom is established. It is promised to continue to grow until God is “all in all,” (1 Cor. 15:28). In that day, there will be no need for a physical representative kingdom, because God will be ruling every heart as he intended from the beginning, and all the world will culminate in manifesting his glory and majesty.

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