STAND FIRM: Millenial Kingdom - Promises Left on Table

I have fallen in love with talking about the Millennial Kingdom and sharing all the details the Bible provides. The details of that 1,000-year period of Jesus ruling on earth are fascinating and provide a real, tangible perspective of Heaven,or more accurately “the age to come,” for believers. I laid the groundwork for the Millennial Kingdom by discussing the “phases” of Heaven in the previous article and was ready to dive deep into the details of the kingdom and share how Heaven is far better than we can imagine, but I remembered how helpful it was for me in understanding the Millennial Kingdom by working through the why there is such a kingdom.

The reason ultimately comes down to the master playwright and author — the Lord. As we wonder why there are “phases” of the age to come and why things even happen today, it always comes back to God having a plan and the plan comes from His infinite wisdom. Though we certainly don’t know the full reason why, we are given some insight in Scripture.

From our limited perspective, the Millennial Kingdom is essential because, through it, the existing promises of God to the nation of Israel are fulfilled. Promises aren’t strong enough words for some of what still remains on the table between God and Israel. There are binding covenants still pending. God’s character and reputation ride on His keeping the terms within those covenants. In Deuteronomy 18, the Lord says a prophet is proved by the prophecy coming to pass.

“You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed (Deut. 18:21-22 NIV).

If a true prophet of God needs to be held to every word being true, we would assume the same for God. God promises to bring everything to pass that He has promised. “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does” (Psalm 145:13).

When it comes to God still having promises through His covenants left on the table for Israel, there are a couple of hurdles to our understanding. First, I believe there is debate as to whether or not ethnic Israel matters in the unfolding biblical story today and in the future. Until recently, I’m not sure how much I did. I’ve heard many Christian leaders, and even Baptist pastors, preach that Israel doesn’t matter anymore. It’s interesting that this was a debate even among early believers, the apostle Paul addressed it to the believers in Rome. For me, Paul seals the deal on how we should understand our relationship as believers to Israel and how they are viewed in God’s continuing plan. Beyond Paul’s direct address of the matter, the fact that God has not brought His covenants to pass should give us pause as to whether God is done with Israel or not.

In Romans 11, Paul addressed a controversy with the Roman believers. I can imagine for the Gentile believers there in Rome, it had to be confusing that they had recognized Jesus as the promised Messiah of the Jews and submitted their lives to Him. Through the Holy Spirit, they had experienced the reality of this belief, but this One they were now following had been rejected by the Jews. This had to be perplexing. Paul addresses their confusion and gives a summary of the situation between Jews and the Gentile church: “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in” (Rom. 11:25). He explains that the Gentile church shouldn’t be conceited as if they have replaced the Jews in God’s plan, but that at the moment, Israel’s hearts were hardened, and it is so that Gentiles (us) might receive the gospel. Paul expresses a continued plan for Israel.

Later he writes, regarding the promises to Israel, “God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29). Paul was telling these perplexed Gentiles that His promises to Israel were still on the table. And before the clear summary of verse 25, Paul writes in Rom. 11:1, that God did not reject His people. In Romans 11:11, he writes that Israel has not gone beyond recovery. God still has promises on the table for Israel.

Those verses and their context explain Israel’s part in the continuing plan of God, but what about the church? Paul addressed this earlier in Romans 11. He stated that we receive the promises of God in Christ through the Jewish people. In verse 17, Paul explains that we have been grafted into the tree of Israel. Therefore, it’s not that the church has replaced Israel, but we have been brought into those promises. We also see this in the adoption language Paul uses in Galatians. We are adopted into God’s family at salvation and His family happens to be Jewish. We definitely know this receiving of the promises comes down to belief. Gentiles and Jews both receive salvation through faith and faith only.

This is true, but there are more promises on the table for Israel than just salvation — reconciliation with God and eternal life (these seem to be the most important). We often talk about this promise of salvation we inherit as being the New Covenant, which it is. The tricky part, and why I believe there’s confusion on the subject, is that there were multiple covenants at play in Israel. There is a New Covenant, and it does replace an Old Covenant, but there were at least three covenants centered on Israel — the Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic Covenants. Two of these were unconditional and one was conditional, and we’ll look at them in the next article.

— Jake is the newest state missionary and would love to share about the work in Northwest Arkansas and encourage your church to stand firm. (standfirmministries.com)