The Lost Kingdom and the Changed Law

"The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth fruits thereof." (Matt. 21:43).

"For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law." (Heb. 7:12).

The object of this article is to draw attention to what appears to be an important connection between the law of God and the kingdom of God.

Some of the main points have recently been gathered from a study of our Lord's parable of the vineyard in Matt. 21. This parable is also a prophecy concerning the future of the Israel nation, and contains the Lord's interpretation of Isaiah's song of the vineyard (Isa. 5).

     The householder is God. The vineyard is the kingdom of God. The husbandmen;

the house of Israel, the servants; God's prophets, and the Son is the Lord of the vineyard and heir of all things.

An important point clearly revealed in this parable is that the vineyard is the kingdom of God, and that it has been taken from its first tenants and given to others. This appears to be the great lesson that the Lord is bringing before those Jewish leaders who represented the original "husbandmen" of "the house of Israel." (Isa. 5:7).

Because of their treatment of God's servants, the prophets, and especially for the dreadful crime of killing the heir and Lord of the vineyard, "those wicked men" have lost that which they tried to "seize."

They wanted the inheritance without the heir, or the kingdom without the King, just as today the nations want peace without the Prince of Peace, and the Zionists want Palestine without Him who says, "without Me ye can do nothing".

"What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it." (Rom. 11:7). "The election" are those who are "in Christ" who is the true Vine; and the "inheritance" is now reserved for them, not in Palestine, but in Heaven (1 Peter 1:1-5).

The reason why the house of Israel failed to seize the inheritance was because the Heir whom they killed rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven. And the throne is now set in Heaven.

There appears to be three stages in God's everlasting kingdom revealed in the Scriptures which we may call past, present, and future; or natural, spiritual, and glorious. The first was on the natural plane, an earthly kingdom with a worldly sanctuary, worldly riches, blessings, etc., with king Solomon reigning upon the "throne" of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel" (1 Chron. 28:5).

That stage is past, it will not do for the present, nor for the future. That was the Lord's vineyard on this earth under the first covenant which has been taken away that He may establish the second (Heb. 10:9).

It has now developed into a spiritual kingdom, with spiritual blessings, yielding spiritual fruits. Through the resurrection of the Heir and coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink as in the days of Solomon, but "righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17). And the fruits thereof are spiritual fruits — fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, etc., and fruit of our lips, "giving thanks to His name."

And the only "nation" that can bring forth such "fruits" is the Church of God composed of all who are "born again."

 

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