As we think about the role and the reality of the Kingdom of God, it is difficult for us to reconcile current tragedies or oppressive circumstances with the notion that we are a part of a Kingdom that is supreme and will never fade, nor will it ever be shaken.
The Book of Daniel in the Old Testament is a fascinating study in this. It has the clearest revelation of the Kingdom of God, but the context is of a subjected, punished people – the Jews – under an evil and oppressive regime.
A part of this is that God states that he uses these regimes and gives them power, for a time, for his uses. First, to punish a rebellious Jewish population for their continued sin and disobedience and immorality despite numerous warnings from numerous prophets and leaders. Second, to prepare those same people for a second deliverance, of a sort.
So we can see that even though these are an oppressed people, the Kingdom is still supreme and God is in control. He has not abdicated his power because tragedy has struck. He has allowed it or used it as punishment (an extremely unpopular idea in today’s culture, but stated clearly in the OT) with the ultimate goal of redemption. Some were not deserving of punishment, and yet we see they do not lose faith. Instead, it strengthens their faith. So whether innocent or guilty, God’s love and power is used to redeem or prepare a people for his deliverance.
It is important to note that the idea of the Kingdom of God goes all the way back to the time of the Judges, if not before. The Israelites did not adopt the idea of a kingdom from other cultures. In fact, the whole struggle in the beginning was against the idea of an earthly king “like other cultures” since God was their king. They had leaders and deliverers but not kings. We see this argument with Samuel and then eventually, Saul. God is sovereign, so he used even their sinful desire for a king to prophetically speak of a God-prophet-deliverer-priest-king to come.
All this is useful context as we will begin to look at Daniel and his three friends as they are taken as slaves and brought to the Babylonian empire.
It is also interesting that Babylon is seen as the model empire. We will go into more depth with this later, but secular and scriptural history points to Babylon as the initial empire of the ancient world. There had been great civilizations and kingdoms, but Babylon is symbolic of the imperial nature of large and central governments of the world from then on. Everyone basically copied them. Daniel is intentional about contrasting the notion of empire with the Kingdom of God.
This is a blog about the Kingdom. And so as we explore the book and relate it to us today, it will have a lot to say about how we act and behave and have faith in a transcendent Kingdom while living under an earthly one, even one that oppresses us. In fact, the scripture assumes that any earthly one will oppress, sooner or later. The only one immune to such corruption is the Kingdom of God.
The revelation and story of Daniel was preeminent in the minds of the Jews when Jesus arrives and begins his ministry. When we study the ideas of the Kingdom in Daniel, it gives greater and deeper context and understanding of Jesus’ gospel – Repent, for the Kingdom of God is here. And he preached that under another Empire, Rome, that was as oppressive and violent as any other, as did the apostles afterwards, in their own way.
On a personal note, while many of us in America are disheartened by the choices for president and the overall bad leadership in our country and immoral direction, this is an important reminder that, absolutely, we should want good leaders with integrity that understand the principles of good government; however, we already exist and operate within the Perfect Government of Christ in the Kingdom of God. That is more central to our peace and righteousness than the filling of an earthly office.
Next week – Part 1 – The Interpreter of Dreams.
Peace.
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