"Your kingdom come." (Matthew 6:10)
In this brief petition is contained one of the most comprehensive requests ever made by mortal man. Thousands have repeated the simple phrase thoughtlessly, and thousands who have pronounced the words with all the reverence possible for them, have had very limited ideas of what they were asking for. Someone has well written:
"Your kingdom come;" thus day by day
We lift our hands to God, and pray;
But who has ever duly weighed
The meaning of those words he said?
--Unknown, circa 1840.
Let us try to weigh the meaning of the words, that we may utter them more intelligently. It is certain that if we know the full meaning of the petition, we shall not lightly make use of it.
A Future Kingdom
First, we will notice that the Lord's prayer shows the kingdom to be still future. That prayer is for all Christians; it is a model for us, just as much as it was for the personal followers of Christ. We are to pray for the kingdom of God to come; but that would be out of place if the kingdom were already set up.
That it was not set up in the days of Christ's first advent, is shown by the question which His disciples asked as they stood upon the Mount of Olives, just before he was taken out of their sight. Said they, "Lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6)
Christ did not say, "It has already been restored," but: "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in His own power." (Acts 1:6)
That is, it is not for the disciples to know when the kingdom will come; but they are to pray for it; if they knew that the time for the kingdom were fixed, it would be useless to pray for it. That God has not made known the time of the coming kingdom, is shown by the statement that he has put it "in His own power." He is not under obligations to set up the kingdom at any specified time, for He has not appointed any; it is all within His own power.
Many people have the idea that: "The kingdom of Christ and of God," (Ephesians 5:5) is a spiritual kingdom, that it is simply the reign of the Spirit in the hearts of believers. It is true that the gospel plan is termed a kingdom, as in: "Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son." (Colossians 1:13) "I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." (Revelation 1:9)
But that kingdom,--the kingdom of grace,--began as soon as man fell, as soon as he had need of: "The grace of God which brings salvation." (Titus 2:11)
But the kingdom referred to in the Lord's prayer is, as we have seen, still future; consequently that kingdom cannot be the gospel. Moreover, the apostle James says: "Hearken, my beloved brethren, Has not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to them that love Him?" (James 2:5)
Here he speaks of a kingdom that is promised to those who love the Lord,--a kingdom of which they are heirs through faith. It is this kingdom for whose coming we are to pray.
What the Kingdom Is
When Adam was created, he was made king of the earth, as is shown by these words: "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." (Genesis 1:27-28)
This dominion was forfeited by the fall, and the world passed into the hands of the one who had conquered Adam--Satan,--who is now "god of this world." (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Not that God has no control over the earth; for even when He gave the dominion to Adam, He did not relinquish any part of His own universal dominion; but Satan took as much of the dominion as was given to Adam. He is not able, however, to go beyond the bounds which God sets for him: "And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself put not forth your hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord." (Job 1:12) "And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in your hand; but save his life." (Job 2:6)
When David was king over Israel, God promised him that: "Your throne shall be established forever." (2 Samuel 7:16)
This promise was often repeated, and God said, "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven." (Psalm 89:34-37)
Yet notwithstanding this promise, it was not long before the whole kingdom of Israel was overthrown, and the people were taken into captivity; and although many of the people were afterward allowed to return to their own land, the kingdom was never restored. The kings who afterward reigned in Jerusalem were simply the creatures of the Roman power, which controlled Judea and all the rest of the civilized world.
But David himself, it seems, never expected that his throne should be established forever with earthly monarchs upon it. He understood that Christ was the one referred to, who should rule over the kingdom. So Peter, after quoting David's words in Psalm 16:8-10, said: "Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell [the grave], neither His flesh did see corruption." (Acts 2:29-31)
Christ, then, is the one who is to "restore again the kingdom to Israel." (Acts 1:6)
It is to be a literal kingdom for He is to sit upon the throne of David. When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she should be the mother of Jesus, he said: "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, And He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." (Luke 1:32-33)
The coming kingdom must, therefore be as literal a kingdom as was that of David. The kingdom is, however, to be different, in that it will be perfect and sinless. Said the prophet, addressing Christ by inspiration: "And you, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto you shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem." (Micah 4:8)
And the Lord himself, in His promise to David, said: "Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more." (2 Samuel 7:10)
These two texts teach us that the dominion of Christ is to be the same as that given to Adam: "The first dominion," (Micah 4:8) that it will be the earth in its Eden beauty and freedom from the oppression of sin. And so we read the words of Peter, who, after speaking of the fire which shall melt the earth, and shall destroy sin and sinners out of it, says, "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13)
This promise is recorded in: "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an oldman that has not filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord." (Isaiah 65:17-25)
Now read the parallel passage in: "Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the Lord thy God." (Amos 9:13-14)
Then read: "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all theheathen, which are called by my name, says the Lord that does this." (Amos 9:11-12)
You can see that this new heavens and new earth is in the time when the Lord has restored the kingdom to Israel. So we learn that when we pray, "Your kingdom come," we are simply praying for God to set up His own reign of righteousness in the earth made new.
Setting Up of the Kingdom
But let not the subject be dismissed with this simple statement of the truth. Around the fulfillment of this promise cluster the grandest and most tremendously important events. That kingdom is ushered in by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul indicates in his charge to Timothy: "I charge you therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; Preach the word." (2 Timothy 4:1-2)
This kingdom Christ receives before He returns to earth; for He himself compared himself and kingdom to a certain nobleman that "went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return." (Luke 19:12)
See the account of His receiving this kingdom, in: "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." (Daniel 7:13-14)
So it is, that when Christ comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, He will be sitting upon the throne of His glory, and to the righteous He will say: "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matthew 25:34)
This again shows that the kingdom which the saints are to inherit is the dominion of the earth. In this kingdom righteousness, and that alone shall dwell. "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13)
The prophet says of that time: "Your people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified." (Isaiah 60:21)
Read the verses preceding this one, and then read the 21st chapter of Revelation, the last verse of which says: "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defiles, neither whatsoever works abomination, or makes a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." (Revelation 21:27)
This state of righteousness will not be brought about by the conversion of all men, for we read that as the end approaches, "Iniquity shall abound," (Matthew 25:12) and that: "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse." (2 Timothy 3:13)
And that in the days when the Son of man shall be revealed, it shall be as it was in the days of Noah and of Lot: "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:37-39) "And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." (Luke 17:26-30)
So when God gives to Christ the heathen for this inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth, for a possession, the first thing He does is to rule them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. "Ask of me, and I shall give You the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." (Psalm 2:8-9)
Says the prophet: "Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." (Isaiah 13:9)
And we also read that when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, it will be "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." (2 Thessalonians 1:8-10)
Thus we learn that to pray, "Your kingdom come," is to pray for the coming of the Lord to destroy the wicked, and to cleanse the earth of everything that defiles, and to give immortality to His people. God is no respecter of persons. Whosoever shall not be found written in the book of life shall be cast into the lake of fire: "And whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:15)
It will avail nothing that men have said, "Lord, Lord,"-that they have prayed earnestly, even praying for the kingdom of God to come, if in that day any defilement is found in them, they will be cast into the lake of fire.
Who is there, then, that realizing what the kingdom of God is, who alone can inherit it, and what will be the fate of those who are unfit,--can pray, "Your kingdom come," and still cherish sin in his heart?
How carefully and unblamably we must live if we are able to unite, in saying, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Revelation 22:20)--Signs of the Times, March 10, 1887--Matthew 6:10.