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❖ The English Standard Version is published by Harper CollinsPublishers © 2001 by CrosswayBibles, a division of Good NewsPublishers. Used by permission.

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GladTidingso f t h e K i n g d o m o f G o d

134th Year 1604A monthly magazine published by the Christadelphians (brothers and sisters in Christ) andavailable throughout the world.

Acknowledgements

Photographs:

Cover: Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire, UK, Ken Hardy

Pg. 6: Anna Hart; pg. 10: iStock;

pg. 12: Ken Hardy; pg. 15: Terry

Cannon; All others: Clipart.com

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Built on the Rock ......................3

Connections in Acts .................5

Deborah Brings God’sBlessings...................................8

Bible Reading Planner...........10

God Does Exist........................12

Power to Change the World................................14

Living in the Kingdom of God...................17

Its objectives are – to encourage the study of the Bible as God'sinspired message to mankind; to call attention to the Divineoffer of forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ; and to warnmen and women that soon Christ will return to Earth as judgeand ruler of God’s world-wide Kingdom.

ContentsContents

134th Year 3

ent on their foundations, and thematerial on which they are built.

A Common Concept

This architectural principle is one withwhich we are familiar in other areas oflife. In science, we start with estab-lished facts which act as solid basicfoundation. When learning a language,we first establish the simplest wordsand phrases, get them right, and thenbuild more sophisticated structures. Inany sport, players begin by learning therules, developing their basic fitnessand then progress to tactics and game-play.The same applies in our everyday

lives. Whether we consider our rela-tionships, careers or other interests,we know that it is right to get the foun-dations right and to develop fromthere. If we do not, then we will eventu-ally fail in whatever we are trying to do.More importantly, building on the rightfoundation is critical to our spirituallives, to the way in which we constructour relationship with God. Jesus told the well–known parable

about two men who built houses ondifferent foundations. The first wassuccessful:

In a recent documentary about archi-tecture, I was fascinated by thedifferences between New York andLondon. Both are major world financialand trade centres, both have many mil-lions of inhabitants; but their skylinesare different. New York’s profile – par-ticularly Manhattan – is a mass ofskyscrapers, some over 400 metreshigh. London has some tall buildings,but many fewer and not to the samegrand heights as its American cousin.The highest building in London is ‘TheShard’ at just over 310 metres.The reason for this is their differing

bedrocks. Manhattan is comprised ofvery hard ‘schist’, which is close to thesurface and can be seen in the boul-ders in Central Park. This makes itcomparatively easy to build very tallbuildings which are stable, despitetheir huge weight.In London, however, softer sedimen-

tary rocks lie under the city, with clayand chalk in the rock layers. Thismeans that building upwards is chal-lenging, as the foundations have to bedug very deep indeed, and may stillrequire additional structures to makethem secure.In each case, the strength and

resilience of the buildings is depend-

Built on the RockBuilt on the Rock

4 Glad Tidings

tionship with God and be in Hiskingdom, we have to go about it in theright way. Many people today will argue that it

doesn’t matter how we live, so long aswe ‘try our best’. It is true that weshould try as hard as we can to do theright things, but we have to do so in theright way, on the basis that God hasestablished.

The Solid Foundation

Jesus told us what it means to build ona rock – it is to hear what he says, andto do what he asks. The man who builton the sand heard Jesus’ words butfailed to put them into practice.So, we have two stages – firstly, to

hear the words of Jesus. Two thousandyears after Jesus was preaching inIsrael, we are privileged to have hiswords written down for us. Not onlythis, but we have all of the Bible, whichcontains God’s message, with Jesus’teachings at its core. There is nothingstopping us reading it, ‘soaking up’ itswords and starting from the right placein building our lives. It is a good idea to use a Bible

Reading Planner to help us, such asthe one on pages 10–11. If we followthis one, we will read the Old Testa-ment once and the New Testamenttwice in a year.Then we have the stage of doing

what Jesus asks. It means acting onwhat we have learned, showing faith,being baptized and trying to follow hisexample, such as helping those inneed, being kind and thoughtful, andsharing the Bible message with otherpeople.Why not read Jesus’ words for your-

self, and start building a better future?

Editor

Therefore whoever hears thesesayings of mine, and does them, I willliken him to a wise man who built hishouse on the rock: and the raindescended, the floods came, and thewinds blew and beat on that house;and it did not fall, for it was founded onthe rock (Matthew 7:24–25).

The second, however, was a failureonce put to the test:

But everyone who hears these sayingsof mine, and does not do them, will belike a foolish man who built his houseon the sand: and the rain descended,the floods came, and the winds blewand beat on that house; and it fell. Andgreat was its fall (v26–27).

Spot the Difference

Let’s think about these two houses.There is no suggestion that the firstwas better built, or looked better.Jesus did not suggest that the inten-tions of the first builder were different– both were building houses which weassume they wanted to be stable andsurvive the weather. The differencewas the base on which they were built.This teaches us something valuable

about the basis for our lives. Our inten-tions may be good, we may put in lotsof effort and we may live ‘good’ lives;but if we start from the wrong point, wewill still fail. If we want to have a rela-

134th Year 5

The ‘things of the kingdom and Jesusthe Christ’ are preached throughoutActs: from the third verse to the lastverse of the book. This series of arti-cles on Acts explores these ‘things’.

The Bible is the only way by which wecan learn about God’s offer of salva-tion. It was penned thousands of yearsago, mostly in ancient Hebrew andGreek. Many learned scholars, whohad great respect for the sanctity ofthe original texts, have worked hard totranslate the ancient texts intoEnglish. Nowadays there are many English

versions of the Bible. These vary from‘word–for–word’ versions to ‘thought–for–thought’ versions. Word–for–wordversions are very faithful to the origi-nal words but may not read likemodern English. Thought–for–thoughtversions are easier to read becausethey are more like paraphrases. Butthese are heavily influenced by thereligious beliefs of the translators, andso can differ significantly from theoriginal and can be misleading.The Bible consists of 66 books

penned by various writers, using differ-ent styles. Critics often make theunfair criticism that we can prove any-thing we like from the Bible. If we takeverses out of context this is indeedpossible, as it would be of other lite-rary works.

Real Words, Real Meanings

However, the original words of theBible were inspired by God (2 Timothy3:16) and do have a specific meaning.

Therefore, we need always to try tounderstand this actual meaning, whatGod really meant by the words. Thebest way we can do this is to let theBible interpret itself, by comparingsimilar verses in accurate translations. Even so, the culture, habits and

customs described in it belong largelyto the Middle East as it was centuriesago. Consequently, the ideasexpressed, although familiar to theoriginal readers, can be unusual to us.We cannot hope to properly under-stand the messages without trying toget some familiarity with the overallcontext. Moreover, there are some pas-sages that even experts find difficult totranslate faithfully into English. To helpus understand the Bible, we canaddress these problems by using reli-able study tools.

Expert Help

A valuable resource is given in manyword–for–word versions where thetranslators have provided margins withnotes and cross–references. Theserepresent the views of the translatorsand so are not inspired, and can alsovary from version to version. However,they have been created through a lotof effort by experts in the original lan-guages.

Margins can include:❖ Notes about translation, such as

the literal meaning or alternativetranslation of a word or phrase

❖ Other verses where specific wordsor phrases (especially lesscommon ones) occur

Things of the Kingdom and of Jesus the Christ - 4Things of the Kingdom and of Jesus the Christ - 4

Connections in Acts Connections in Acts

6 Glad Tidings

❖ Other verses explaining an idea ordescribing a similar event ortheme

❖ Verses that are alluded to ordirectly quoted in the text, such asfulfilled prophecies.

The notes help us with the difficul-ties of translation into English. Theverses listed in the margin are calledcross-references, and can help us tocompare associated passages in theBible (as perceived by the translators).For example, the picture shows Acts

13:47 and part of the margin in a NewKing James Bible. There is a super-script letter ‘a’ against the word ‘I’. Thecorresponding letter ‘a’ in the marginlists Isaiah 42:6 and Isaiah 49:6 ascross–references. Isaiah 49:6 is theverse actually being quoted and Isaiah42:6 is another verse with the sameprophecy about Gentiles and thegospel, which actually includes thephrase ‘light to the Gentiles’. So,although the Jews were shocked at thehope of the gospel being extended tonon–Jews, this had been stated asGod’s purpose many years before intheir Old Testament scriptures.

Connecting Thoughts

In fact, many aspects of the gospel arecited in the Old Testament. Table Aopposite shows cross–references fromActs to the Old Testament, where anaspect of the gospel message isdescribed. This was taken from theNew King James version published byThomas Nelson. Verses shown in blueare passages quoted word–for–word,and the others are clearly referred to.This proves that the hope of salva-

tion was always to be through thedeath and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

and was always intended for Jews andnon–Jews. The gospel therefore has its founda-

tions in the Old Testament and simplycannot be properly understood justfrom the New Testament. In fact, weneed to study the Old Testament refer-ences in the New Testament if we wantto understand the New Testament.Table B gives examples of other

cross-references in Acts to the Old Tes-tament, with comments. In fact in thisversion of the Bible there are morethan 30 cross-references to similarevents and more than 70 cross-refer-ences to similar ideas or concepts.God’s message is precious and notopen to individual interpretation (seeGalatians 1:8–9 and 2 Peter 1:20). We should take each word in the

whole Bible seriously and study itsmessages very carefully and precisely.Using cross-references can help usgreatly in our quest for salvation whichis so clearly offered in the gospelmessage.

Anna HartConcluded

134th Year 7

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4:8–10 Isaiah 35:6 Crippled man healed

Prophecy that the ‘lame shall leap as a deer’

7:55 Exodus 24:17 ‘glory of God’ seen The glory of God is shown to the Hebrews

12:3 Exodus 12:15 Exodus 23:15

‘days of unleavened bread’

Explains Passover and why Herod wanted to keep Peter in prison (verse 4)

17:25 Genesis 2:7 Isaiah 42:5 Daniel 5:23

God is supreme and in control Same ideas

26:6 16 references across 8 different books

‘promise made by God to our fathers’

Examples of these promises

God promised Israel many blessings ifthey were faithful to Him, and we canread these in Leviticus 26:3–12 andDeuteronomy 28:1–14. In stark con-trast, the nation would be subject tosevere punishments if they wereunfaithful; these can be found in Leviti-cus 26:14–39 and Deuteronomy28:15–68. One such curse was thatGod said:

I will set My face against you, and youshall be defeated by your enemies(Leviticus 26:17).

The people of Israel were in thissorry state before the prophetessDeborah inspired them to spiritualrenewal. They were being oppressedby the Canaanites whose military com-mander was called Sisera. Thanks toher leadership, Israel enjoyed the‘blessings of obedience’, as God freedthem from Canaanite rule and the landhad rest for forty years.

Female Authority

Deborah is introduced to us in theBible as a ‘prophetess’. This is a raredescription and it is even rarer for thename of a godly prophetess to be pro-vided as well (Miriam, Huldah andAnna are the others). Although neverexplicitly described as such, Deborahwas clearly also a ‘judge’, or governor:

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wifeof Lapidoth, was judging Israel at thattime. And she would sit under thepalm tree of Deborah between Ramah

and Bethel in the mountains ofEphraim. And the children of Israelcame up to her for judgment (Judges4:4–5).

Her husband is only mentioned byname on this one occasion, whichserves to emphasize that it wasDeborah: female prophet, femalejudge and wife who was to play acentral role in the deliverance of Israel– not a male prophet, male judge andhusband as we might expect given thatIsrael’s society was highly patriarchal.Such was Deborah’s standing in the

nation, that when she called the armycommander Barak to take his men andfight against Sisera, he would only go ifshe accompanied him. Here Barak’sfear and anxiety is contrasted withDeborah’s faith and courage. Perhapsthis explains why Barak was told:

There will be no glory for you in thejourney you are taking, for the LORD willsell Sisera into the hand of a woman(Judges 4:9).

We may be forgiven for thinking (asBarak surely did) that Deborah herselfwas the woman being spoken of.However, it was a different woman,Jael, who was given the honour ofkilling Sisera (4:17, 21).

Inspiring Leadership

Deborah’s faith and spiritual under-standing combined beautifully in herinspiring words of encouragement toBarak:

8 Glad Tidings

Deborah Brings God’sDeborah Brings God’sBlessingsBlessings

134th Year 9

Up! For this is the day in which theLord has delivered Sisera into yourhand. Has not the LORD gone outbefore you? (4:14).

This faithful prophetess knew that itwas the LORD God of Israel who foughttheir battles and brought about theirdeliverance. Neither she nor Barak nora rejuvenated army of ten thousandmen could bring about salvationthrough human means alone. As theProverb states:

The horse is prepared for the day ofbattle, but deliverance is of the LORD(Proverbs 21:31).

Barak was clearly energized byDeborah’s confident words – no longerwas he reluctant to fulfil the commandto go into battle against Sisera’s army:

Barak went down from Mount Taborwith ten thousand men following him(Judges 4:14).

This powerful transformation into avaliant leader surely helps to explainwhy Barak is listed as a man of faith inthat great list of the faithful in Hebrewschapter 11 (verse 32). It seems thatthis is part of what Deborah wanted todo all along, to contribute to the spiri-tual renewal of men such as Barak.This is seen later, when they sang withjoy:

When leaders lead in Israel, when thepeople willingly offer themselves,bless the LORD!... My heart is with therulers of Israel who offered them-selves willingly with the people. Blessthe LORD! (Judges 5:2, 9).

It was not Deborah’s objective tobecome a permanent leader or a com-

mander of the army; rather to inspirethe leaders and commanders with herwise words, her spiritual understand-ing and ultimately, her faith.

Blessings from God

Israel’s spiritual revival resulted innumerous blessings for them, just asGod had promised. The account inJudges of God bringing about thevictory for Israel refers to the bles-sings, and they are especially strikingwhen the passages in question areplaced side by side. These compari-sons provide a fitting way to concludethis brief consideration of Deborah,who was clearly an exceptionalprophetess and judge:

The Lord routed Sisera and all his•chariots and all his army... beforeBarak (Judges 4:15).I will... make all your enemies turn•their backs to you (Exodus 23:27).

Sisera alighted from his chariot•and fled away on foot (Judges4:15).The LORD will cause your•enemies... to be defeated... theyshall come out against you oneway and flee before you sevenways (Deuteronomy 28:7).

God subdued Jabin king of•Canaan in the presence of thechildren of Israel (Judges 4:23).The LORD your God is He who goes•over before you as a consumingfire. He will destroy them andbring them down before you(Deuteronomy 9:3).

Stephen Blake

Bible Readi Bible Readi

ing Planner ng Planner

By courtesy of The Christadelphian

12 Glad Tidings

This series will explore what the Bibletells us about God, what He is like, andwhat He plans to do with the world Hecreated. Let’s start by thinking about whether

there is a God or not. We can’t see orhear Him, but that does not mean thatHe does not exist. But where is theproof that He does? Here are threepieces of evidence which you mightlike to consider.

1. Nature

Look around you at the world in whichwe live. Is it reasonable to supposethat it all came about by chance?Surely it is more realistic to believethat this wonderfully complex andbeautiful world could not have just‘happened’. Nature itself is witness tothe work of a Divine Designer. As theBible says:

He did not leave Himself withoutwitness, in that He did good, gave usrain from heaven and fruitful seasons,filling our hearts with food and glad-ness (Acts 14:17).

For since the creation of the worldHis invisible attributes are clearlyseen, being understood by the thingsthat are made, even His eternal powerand Godhead, so that they are withoutexcuse (Romans 1:20).

The seasons are just one example ofthe things which God has made. Yearin and year out, spring, summer,autumn and winter come and gowithout fail. And we have a saying, “As

night follows day”. Where does thatregularity in nature come from, if thereis not a God who has designed it thatway?

Think of the wonder of a rose’spetals, a beautiful face, snowflakesand icicles in winter. If we were each tocompose a list of the things that wefind beautiful, each list would be differ-ent. Put them all together and wewould run out of paper. This suggeststhere is a God who has made them;there is no other sensible explanation. Complexity is another feature of

nature that we take for granted, butthat too is part of the evidence thatGod has given us of His existence andpower. Take the workings of thehuman body, for example. Then thinkof how the brain works, or the eye. It’stoo awe–inspiring for words. Different things impress different

people. One Bible writer had this list:

There are three things which are toowonderful for me, yes, four which I donot understand: The way of an eagle inthe air, the way of a serpent on a rock,

The God of the Bible - 1The God of the Bible - 1

God Does Exist God Does Exist

134th Year 13

the way of a ship in the midst of thesea, and the way of a man with amaiden (Proverbs 30:18–19).

Imagine you received a 5000–piecejigsaw puzzle as a present. Inside thebox is a complete jumble of pieces.After struggling to finish it, you nowsee a picture. Could you have donethat by tipping the pieces onto thetable and waiting for them to sortthemselves out? Of course not. Now go back a step to its manufac-

ture. Could the jigsaw puzzle – and youknow how complex it is – have beenmade by accident? Could the 5000pieces have suddenly appeared out ofnothing? Of course not: an artist or aphotographer produced the pictureand a factory turned it into a puzzle.Likewise, it is unreasonable to

suppose that our world is an accident,the result of chance.

2. The Bible

The internet and the broadcastingmedia inform us about many peoplewe have never met or even seen.People can communicate with us by e–mail and talk to us in internetchatrooms. We don’t doubt that thesepeople exist in the real world.In the same way God speaks to us

through His written word – the Bible –and shows us not only that He existsbut what He is like, what He has doneand what He intends to do. In it He pre-dicted events, because He plannedthem, and those predictions cametrue. It is an amazing book that criesout to be taken seriously as written evi-dence for a living active God.

Surely the LORD God does nothing,unless He reveals His secret to His ser-vants the prophets (Amos 3:7).

God, who at various times and invarious ways spoke in time past to thefathers by the prophets, has in theselast days spoken to us by His Son(Hebrews 1:1–2).

We shall return to this subject.

3. The Jews

There is a group of people who areliving, breathing proof of how God con-trols events to advance His purposewith our world. It’s the Jewish people.Their remarkable survival as a people,and their re–emergence as a nation inthe last century, show us that God is incontrol. He said to them:

“You are My witnesses,” says the LORD,“that I am God” (Isaiah 43:12).

That witness has not ended, asfuture events will show, and we willconsider those events in this series. If there is no God and we are just the

products of chance, we must assumethat this is all there is in life. But thereIS a God and the Bible reveals that Hehas a plan that can give our lives adeeper meaning and give us hope forthe future. So finding out about God ismuch more than just curiosity. It reallymatters!

Rod Hale

14 Glad Tidings

Do you ever feel annoyed as you pickup your post, only to find that it con-sists entirely of holiday adverts,invitations to make use of this or thatpizza delivery service and similar infor-mation that you don’t want? Almostdaily I feel irritated by this sort of thing.However, my attention was caught theother day by one leaflet that camethrough my door with these words onit: “The power to change the world”.There is a great deal that needs

changing in this world. Our news is fullof wars in various parts of the earth,refugees fleeing and taking enormousrisks to find a safe haven, globalwarming, the harmful side effects ofvarious kinds of spraying on our crops,our failure to deal with plastic wasteproperly. How much damage are westoring up for ourselves in failing toface up to these things? They are largeproblems and becoming ever moreserious in a world that is growing inpopulation. What, if anything, can bedone about it? Some efforts are being made.

However welcome, these are onlyscratching the surface of the problem.We can see many examples of menand women who are struggling to

improve conditions of life in differentparts of the world. Unfortunately,although their efforts may be valiant,well intentioned, and even self-sacrific-ing, they are counterbalanced by thehate, greed and corruption that hurtsso much of the world.All through history it has been the

same. Some people work hard to makethe world a better place. Many thingshave been invented to make life mucheasier, but they haven’t made theworld a better place.

What is the basic problem? Mankindis imperfect and fragmented. It isimpossible to get total agreementbetween all nations. There is no onething that humankind can do to makethe world perfect, and we do not havethe collective will to take such steps.

The One Person Who Can

However, there are good grounds forexpecting this can be achieved. Of themillions of people in the whole historyof mankind, there has been one manwho offers us real hope. He wasbrought up as an ordinary craftsman,until he left home and family and liveda wandering, often uncomfortable life

Power to Change the WorldPower to Change the World

134th Year 15

with a small band of faithful followers.Amazingly, within three and a halfyears he made such an impressionthat it remains to this day. He was theone man who never did or said any-thing wrong. That man is the LordJesus Christ. He knew exactly what was wrong

with men and women. He understoodus. He knew what it was to be uncom-fortable, to be without a home, to behungry and in need of food. He knewwhat it was like to be tempted, as weare sometimes, to do something meanor wrong. However, Jesus never for amoment gave in to temptation.In the three and a half years he

spent preaching, he did more than anyother person to influence the world.With ordinary people, he was popularbecause he healed their sicknessesand gave them good advice. He washated by the authorities because hespoke out against their corruption anddeceit. The rulers sought and schemed to

bring about his downfall. By manipula-tion of the crowd they managed tosway public opinion. Their opportunitycame after Jesus rode into Jerusalemlike a king. The crowd expected Jesusto use his power there and then torelease them from Roman dominationand set up the Kingdom of Israel.When he didn’t do that, the disappoint-ment made it relatively easy for his

opponents to sway the crowd so that inthree days they were shouting for himto be crucified. The authorities gaveway to the crowd and Jesus was put todeath. But his story didn’t end there:miraculously, after three days, Godraised him from the dead.

The Day He Will Change it

For 40 days after that, Jesus spenttime with his closest disciples, tellingthem that from then on, they were togo into all the world and share histeaching with all who would listen.When he finally left them, there wereangels present who spoke to his disci-ples saying:

Men of Galilee, why do you standgazing up into heaven? This sameJesus, who was taken up from you intoheaven, will so come in like manner asyou saw him go into heaven (Acts1:11).

There are many things that wereforetold in the Bible years before theyactually happened. For example, thebirth of the Saviour and prophet wasrecorded by Moses some 1400 yearsbefore it happened:

The LORD your God will raise up for youa Prophet like me from your midst,from your brethren. Him you shall hear(Deuteronomy18:15).

The Old Testament also foretold theplace and circumstances of Jesus’birth, as well as his life, death and res-urrection. There is every reason to believe

Jesus will return. We have been clearlytold to expect it, and there will be atime of great change. For Jesus willhave the power to change the world.

16 Glad Tidings

This may sound diffi-cult but the NewTestament is full ofgood advice to help uslive like the Lord Jesus.The choice is ours. The Bible gives a very

clear picture of whatwill happen when Jesusreturns to the earth.The world will be ruledover by Jesus himself,the only perfect manwho ever lived. Thosewho have made himtheir role model will begiven a place in helping

him. The work will be to establish aworld where God will be honoured andHis laws obeyed. It will be a worldwhere there will be peace instead ofwar, and justice instead of lawless-ness. Before that can come about there

must be a dramatic change; all opposi-tion to God will have to be eradicated.The world will be populated by peoplewho want to please God, who respectHim and His laws. We can be there.We cannot change the world, but we

can change ourselves.

Michael Buckler

Power to Change Now

We have the opportunity now tochange – not to change the world, butto change ourselves. We all have thefree will to make choices about how welive and what we believe. We canrefuse to believe the Bible and turninstead to the philosophy of the world.We can take the short–term opportuni-ties which the world has to offer,spending our time trying to have agood time now, but ignoring the future. On the other hand, we can spend our

time preparing ourselves for the returnof the Lord Jesus, making sure we areready for him. The way to do that is tobelieve his message and live accordingto the example he left us. It wassummed up in this discussion:

Then one of them, a lawyer, asked hima question, testing him, and saying,“Teacher, which is the great command-ment in the law?” Jesus said to him,“‘You shall love the Lord your God withall your heart, with all your soul, andwith all your mind.’ This is the first andgreat commandment. And the secondis like it: ‘You shall love your neighbouras yourself’” (Matthew 22:35–39).

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134th Year 17

When Jesus returns, he will set up theworldwide government of the Kingdomof God, a new world order. Not thedespotic regime of a cruel tyrant, northe indecision caused by politicalweakness. Jesus will be the good,caring king over a united earth, rulingby the principles of God. Perfect government will create a

world of wonderful conditions for thoseprivileged to live in it, wherever theyare. Let’s consider this coming worldorder in a little more detail.

Good Government

A common theme in political electioncampaigns is ‘good government’, orthe ability of rulers to apply sound prin-ciples for the good of all. It seems thatmany people have lost faith in humangovernments to achieve this, andturnouts in elections are often verylow. In popular surveys, politiciansseem to be less recognised and lesstrusted than celebrities! Many families and individuals

throughout the world are strugglingwith life and want support from theirgovernment in the basics: paying thebills, educating their children, beinglooked after if they are ill. If thatsupport seems absent, they willinevitably become cynical. The great news is that good govern-

ment is at the heart of God’s kingdom.And not just ‘good’; the rulership willbe God–given, following His principles.

When the Son of Man comes in hisglory, and all the holy angels with him,then he will sit on the throne of his

glory. All the nations will be gatheredbefore him, and he will separate themone from another, as a shepherddivides his sheep from the goats(Matthew 25:31–32).

We are given a picture of the qualityof the government:

The spirit of the LORD shall rest uponhim, the spirit of wisdom and under-standing, the spirit of counsel andmight, the spirit of knowledge and ofthe fear of the LORD (Isaiah 11:2).

This is not like today’s leaders,however well–intentioned they may be.

Justice

As we continue to read Isaiah chapter11 (see verses 3–4), we see that thisleads to justice – for everyone. Jesuswill not be fooled by clever lawyers orinfluenced by the wealthy and power-ful, but will judge with true fairness toeveryone, providing support for all whoneed it. He will not be weak though,and he will not tolerate wickedness oropposition to his benign rule. Theimpact of this is amazing:

They shall not hurt nor destroy in allMy holy mountain, for the earth shallbe full of the knowledge of the LORD asthe waters cover the sea (v9).

Education

Education is really important. Havingeducation provided is a great benefit,and the quality and content of that pro-

Living in the Kingdom of GodLiving in the Kingdom of God

18 Glad Tidings

vision is a big talking point for thosewho have children or are just interes-ted in the development of youngpeople. So in the coming kingdom,what will people be learning about?We are presented with a picture of thenations of the world coming toJerusalem, to learn from God’s appoin-ted king. The ‘syllabus’ is as follows:

“Come, and let us go up to the moun-tain of the LORD, to the house of theGod of Jacob; He will teach us Hisways, and we shall walk in His paths.”For out of Zion shall go forth the law,and the word of the LORD fromJerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3).

The people of the world – young andold – will be learning about God, Hislaws and purpose. Putting these intopractice will be part of the perfectworld in which they will live.

Defence

Defence tends to be a huge preoccu-pation for most governments. Foreignpolicy is fundamental to their ruler-ship, and the ability to fight and makewar is a major spending area. Thisclearly will be different in the kingdomof God. With no competing rulers orcountries, the need for foreign policyand weaponry will be eliminated.Staying in Isaiah chapter 2, we seeexactly this:

He shall judge between the nations,and rebuke many people; they shallbeat their swords into plowshares, andtheir spears into pruning hooks; nationshall not lift up sword against nation,neither shall they learn war anymore(v4).

With Jesus in charge, the weapons ofthe world will be made harmless,turned into agricultural tools. In fact,the people of the world will no longerlearn the so–called ‘art’ of warfare.This will be a world at real peace.

Environment

We are right to worry about the envi-ronment, whether it is changingweather patterns, global warming orthe pollution of our air, rivers and seas.There are a variety of views on thecauses, but all agree that our environ-ment is less clean, less safe and lessstable than it used to be. The Biblegives us insight into what the earth willbe like in the Kingdom of God:

The wilderness and the wastelandshall be glad for them, and the desertshall rejoice and blossom as the rose;it shall blossom abundantly andrejoice, even with joy and singing(Isaiah 35:1–2).

And all of this we read, because theglory of God is present. The world willthrive, be clean, healthy and produc-tive, as we see throughout thischapter. Verses 6–7 contain a graphicpicture of springs in the desert andpools of water in the driest of places.

Health

With the power of God in play, we alsosee in Isaiah 35 (especially in the

134th Year 19

verses 3–6) that illnesses and disabil-ities of all sorts will be healed. There will be no need for a health

service or for medical insurance;doctors and nurses will not be neededto care for the sick; “and sorrow andsighing shall flee away” (v10). This willbe accompanied by a great long life(Isaiah 65:20) where someone dyingat 100 years old would be considered‘a child’. Ultimately, death will beremoved altogether.

Security

An important part of any governmentor social order is whether people feelsafe. This could apply to going out atnight, to the threat of crime or oppres-sion of some other sort. Without thistype of security, it would be hard toenjoy the benefits of the coming age. Please read Isaiah 65:17–25, which

includes the verse we looked at last.The existence described here is verydifferent from today. The mood is oneof rejoicing and peace. The inhabitantsof the kingdom will be able to live incomplete security, occupying theirhouses and enjoying the fruits of theirlabours. They will live with a special relation-

ship to their God, where peace reignsthroughout the animal and humankingdom, a truly blessed existence, asIsaiah describes it.

A World at Peace

The descriptions we have looked atshow the effects of the good govern-ment of Jesus: a world at peace, withplenty for all, and the citizens enjoyinga special relationship with the Godwho created everything. Most of the Bible verses we have

used here come from the book of

Isaiah. This is unsurprising as hespends large parts of his prophecydescribing the kingdom of God inremarkable detail. However, the samepicture emerges from across the Bible,in both Old and New Testaments. So the kingdom of God is a wonder-

ful new world order, where men,women and children can live in peaceand safety. Eventually, it will culminatein an even more awe–inspiring situa-tion. God will ultimately live with Hispeople, who will never suffer and willnever die. The kingdom is going to beestablished on our world, as we read inRevelation:

The kingdoms of this world havebecome the kingdoms of our Lord andof His Christ, and He shall reignforever and ever! (Revelation 11:15).

We have the opportunity to live inthat kingdom, to enjoy its conditionsand look forward to the splendour ofits final state. To be a part of it, Godasks that we believe Him, are baptisedto show that we do, and live God–centred lives of purpose, preparing forthat kingdom. Now that’s not much toask is it?

Andrew Hale

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