The Kingdom-teaching of the New Testament is rooted in the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament. The first verse of the New Testament sends us back to the Old for fundamental information. The opening word of the first gospel, the gospel of Matthew, reveals the fact that the new message is based upon the old, and grows out of the old. The gospel of Matthew, which especially deals with the King and the Kingdom, rests upon the historic and prophetic foundation of the Old Testament. Its first words are these: "The book of the generation"--that is, the genealogy--"of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham." The significance of this statement lies in the fact that both David and Abraham were "covenant-heads;" and that through each of them, by virtue of His descent, the Lord Jesus Christ inherited certain exclusive rights and prerogatives, granted to these fathers by ancient oath-bound covenant. What these rights and prerogatives were we must determine from the Old Testament record. Let us take up first

      The limits of this study forbid the quoting in full and discussion in detail of the Divine promises given to Abraham. The reader will find it very [35] helpful to read in this connection the following passages: Genesis 12:1-3, 7; Chapter 13:14-17; Chapter 15 entire; Chapter 17:1-19; and 22:15-18. Certain important features in these promises must here be pointed out.

      1. The Land-Promise. Note how very particularly and carefully God designates the boundaries of the land, even enumerating ten nations which were then occupying it; and deeding the same to Abraham and his seed by everlasting covenant, for an everlasting possession. (Genesis 13:14-17; 15:18-21; 17:8.)

      2. The Promise of a Universal Blessing: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 22:18.)

      3. The Promise of Supreme Power: "Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies." (Genesis 22:17.) This feature, included in the oath of God, manifestly involves supreme sway, and power, all enemies being in absolute subjection.

      It must now be remembered that the promise to Abraham really involved the supremacy and possession of all the world. He and his seed "should be heir of the world" (Romans 4:13.) It is also generally understood that (without denying the collective significance of the term "seed," as comprising many individuals) God had one particular person in view, who, coming in His due time, should fulfill every requirement; who would indeed "walk before" God and "be perfect"; who alone of all Abraham's posterity would perfectly "Keep the way of Jehovah to do [36] righteousness and justice;" upon whom God could and would confer all He had promised to Abraham. (Genesis 18:19; 17:1.) This particular Person in whom Abraham's characteristic faith came to its fullest issue and expression, who was indeed and pre-eminently THE Seed of Abraham is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. "Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one and to thy seed, which is Christ." (Galatians 3:16.)

      If Abraham thought that Isaac, though a child of promise, was the promised seed, God's word corrected the impression; for He said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." (Genesis 21:12.) To Isaac himself God repeated the substance of the promise made to his father: the land-promise, the oath, and the universal blessing; to be fulfilled to his posterity--a sure and unchangeable promise: for it was based upon the fact that Abraham had obeyed God's voice; which fact was in the past and could never more be undone. (Genesis 26:2-5.) The promise of universal supremacy and dominion comes into peculiar prominence when the blessing was given to Jacob. "Let peoples serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee." (Genesis 27:29.) Upon Jacob was bestowed, through Isaac his father, and also from God direct, the full and entire promise of Abraham. (Genesis 28:3, 4, 13-15; 35:11, 12.)

      We will not in this present article follow the [37] promise as it passed on to the nation which descended from Jacob--the nation of Israel. But we do note that Jacob himself also recognized that to One out of his posterity, to One who should arise out of Judah the fullness of the promise should in due time be given: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh come: and unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be." (Genesis 49:10.)

      So much for the blessing and promise of Abraham, which that great Son of Abraham was to inherit. We will next see what God bestowed upon David, and what, therefore, the great Son of David was to fall heir to.

      On the occasion when David uttered his desire to build God a house--a desire that pleased God greatly, although He did not allow David to carry it out--the following answer (in part) was sent to David through Nathan the prophet:

      "I will make thee a great name, like unto the name of the great ones that are in the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as at the first, and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel; and I will cause thee to rest from all thine enemies. Moreover Jehovah telleth thee that Jehovah will make thee a house. When thy [38] days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, that shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son: if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but my lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be made sure for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever." (II Samuel 7:9-16.)

      The simplest import of these words involves:

      (1) A promise of a permanent national home for the people of Israel, and their freedom from oppression and affliction at the hands of their enemies.

      (2) To David a perpetual house (dynasty).

      Upon his decease God would set up his seed--his own, natural descendant--after him; and God would establish His kingdom, and the throne of his kingdom for ever; God would be to this seed of David as a father, and would hold him as a son: if he transgressed, his Divine Father would chasten him, but would never cast him off as He did Saul. All this was for assurance that under no circumstances could this promise to David be rendered void. David's house and David's kingdom should be made sure for ever, and his throne was to be established [39] forevermore.

      This promise was confirmed to David by an oath of God.

      Now on the face of it, the terms of this promise apply to Solomon and, after him, to any son of David in the royal line. But again God had in mind One who was to come of David's line and blood, who would not himself need to be chastened (though He took the chastisement of others upon Himself) who would in perfect degree measure up to the full standard of all that a son of David should be in God's sight; in the perfection of all the faith and grace that made David acceptable before God--the representative Son of David. David himself knew and understood this. In his swan-song he spoke of One who was to come--"One who ruleth over men righteously, that ruleth in the fear of God. He shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springeth out of the [40] earth, through clear shining after rain." That such a One could not naturally spring forth from his house, David was also aware. Like Abraham, however, he looked not at the natural impossibility but at the sure promise of God. "Verily my house is not so with God," he said: "yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure: for it is all my desire, although he maketh it not to grow." (II Samuel 23:3-5.)

      Moreover it was fully understood that this great son of David would rule, not only in his specific realm, over the nation of Israel, but over all the world.

      The glorious world-wide reign of this wonderful Son of David is glowingly foretold in the seventy-second Psalm. The weary world shall revive under his blessed hand as when gentle showers water the earth. "In his days shall the righteous flourish and abundance of peace, till the moon be no more. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the River unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; And his enemies shall lick the dust . . . His name shall endure for ever; His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him; all nations shall call him happy." (Psalm 72:6-17.) Such should be the God-given greatness and power of this great Son of David--who though a man (being the seed of David) was predicted to live and reign throughout the eternal years.

      With us it is no question who this great Son of David is. His Name is written across all the message of the New Testament--Jesus, our Lord. He is the Heir of all the glorious promises God made and swore to His father David. To His virgin mother it was announced that He should be great, and should be called the Son of the Most High: "And the Lord shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." (Luke 1:32, 33.) Old Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, broke forth in ecstatic praise and cried, [42]

      Here the argument might end. But we deem it important to note how the first disciples and apostles of our Lord recognized in Him just that promised King of David's line. Their expectations and conceptions of the King and the Kingdom had their origin in these Old Testament prophecies. There was just this significance in Andrew's report to Simon his brother: "We have found the Messiah, (which is, being interpreted, the Christ)"--or interpreted once more, the Anointed One. (John 1:41.) For by this they, and indeed all the Jews, understood simply the great promised Son of David. (Matthew 22:41, 42.) And so again when Nathanael exclaimed, "Rabbi, [43] you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." (John 1:49.) And when Peter confessed Him as "the Christ, the son of the living God," (Matthew 16:16) he meant nothing else than this. In one Old Testament passage only, these two terms, Christ (Anointed) and Son of God are brought into conjunction--to wit, in the second Psalm, where the kings and rulers of the earth are seen risen in vain rebellion "against Jehovah and against his anointed"; whereupon Jehovah says in derision, "I will tell of the decree: Jehovah said unto me, Thou art my son, This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession: thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."--a passage that reminds us forcibly of the crash and demolition of the great Image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream when the little stone smote upon its feet and which also is inseparably connected with the promise of the Lord Jesus to His faithful church, to be realized at His Second Coming. "He that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of my Father." (Revelation 2:26, 27.) Such ideas as those set forth in the Old Testament prophecies above quoted, were in the minds of the apostles [44] when they confessed Jesus as Christ and Son of God.

      They saw in Him that promised Coming One of David's line who would free His nation from the Gentile's yoke and reign over the house of Jacob, and through it over all the nations of the earth. For so it was promised. There were also some things they had not understood. As yet they had not realized that it behooved the Christ to suffer and through suffering to enter into His glory. They had probably failed (though not like the Jews in general) to understand the searching spiritual demand of the Kingdom. Nor was their conception of the Christ what in the greater light of New Testament revelation it afterward was seen to be. But so far as it went and was based upon the Old Testament promise, their belief was not false. It was rudimentary, but not mistaken. It was not complete but it was fundamentally right and true. The fulfillment never negatives the prophecy, however it may transcend it and the realization cannot belie the promise. All the Old Testament says of Him is simple truth, and not to be cast aside as outworn, nor to be spiritualized into nonentity.

      If then Jesus Christ is the Son of David, the Son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1) He inherits all that God by promise, covenant, and oath granted to these His covenant-fathers: the universal blessing; the Land-promise; the promise of supremacy in the earth; the promise of sovereignty over the house of Jacob and rule over all the nations to the ends of the earth, an everlasting throne. The fulfillment cannot negative [45] the promise however it may transcend it, and the realization cannot belie the oath of a God who cannot lie. Such is the kingdom of promise of the Old Testament, and inseparably bound up with the coming and presence of the promised King. [46]

[KOG3 35-46]