Our Shepherd, King, and Lord

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Tending to His Flock out of a Deep Sense of Agape.

Those of us who are in desperate needs and personal tending during this pandemic, please permit me to offer each of us these intimate promises of this world’s Great Shepherd, the Messiah!

“I have Promised my beloved, to Shepherd each of you, to Comfort you, to Seek you out, to Bind you, while Strengthening you, and very shortly, to Return for you.” Ezek.34:11,5-16

This week’s blog post is some of the most inspirational findings of my study and research of Hebrew, chapters one and two. I sincerely pray that you will be blessed with my humble offering. Grace and Peace

The Anointed Agent of the Plan of Redemption

Christ is the visible substance of the invisible Holy God upon the earth. The entirety of all creation is upheld by the Living, recreative Word in the sustaining the providence of all things on earth.

“He is before all things, and by Him, all things consist.” Colossians 1:17

By the utterance of His power [the Word of God], all living souls who willfully submit their lives to the Kingship of Lord Jesus, shall now and for all-time, abide in heavenly strength which is because of the Lord.

Christ is the anointed one sent by God as the prophetic divine appointed agent of the plan of Redemption of all things systematically distorted by sin and the inclination to sin.

Only He is the one who is far above all principality, power, might, and dominion in heaven and the earth. No other name is as superior to His name, not in this present age, nor the age to come.

Men of old, divided spiritual history on the world into “this age” [Olam hazzeh], and the “future age” [Olam habba]. The future age was the one which was to begin at the coming of the Messiah, whose days were spoken by the ancient Rabbis as “the Last Days.

That past, present, and future souls who submitted their lives to the Messiah as their Lord and Savior, and the Lamb of God, would naturally see the world differently. As noted in Galatians 4: “But the fullness of the time has come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made of the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.“

For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Hebrews 9:26

So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. Hebrews 9-28

The Messiah was brought into a “sinful world” [kosmos, which depicts the material world] as God’s first begotten Son who would initiate an inner “spiritual habitable world” [oikoumene] for all who submits to His authority.

While standing before Pilate, the Master said, “My kingship does not come from here.” The reason I have been born, the reason I have come into the world, is to bear witness of the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to Me. John 18:36-38, Complete Jewish Bible

The King as the Mediator of God’s absolute Dominant Kingdom

The Gospels clearly describe to all ages that Jesus as the Son of Man, the Last Adam, the Messiah who proclaimed His own Gospel message. His presence in the fallen world now has revolutionized the age with HIs Kingdom language as the Lord!

Mark 1:14, “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.“

What does this concept of the Kingdom of God mean within the culture and context of the 1st century Judaism? And what practical lessons can we in 2020 learn from our findings?

The below key points were gleaned from an article by Robert Lindsey, “The Kingdom of God: God’s Power Among Believers,” Jerusalem Perspective.

• The terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven are not found in the Hebrew Scriptures but apparently were developed later by the Pharisees. In the Second Temple period, the commandment against “taking the Lord’s Name in vain was strictly interpreted that people used euphemisms to avoid unintentionally misusing His Holy Name. Jesus would have followed the same practice.
• The Kingdom of Heaven is spoken by the Sages, and Heaven is a synonym for God-much as our culture uses Heaven today. The terms Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heavens are one of the same are interchangeable.
• The Sages’ use of the Kingdom of God was understood as a spiritual term that defined the “Rule of God over a person who keeps or begins to keep the written and oral commandments.” When a person confessed the Lord is our God, the Lord alone, indicating his/her intention to keep the Torah, that person came under God’s rule and authority, and thus came into the Kingdom of God. Having accepted God’s authority over him/her, the person was able to keep the Commandments.
• Those who responded to the Gospel message of the Master were to become followers or disciples and the Kingdom citizens. The 1st-century followers would have remembered Daniel 2:44, “In the time of those kings, the God of Heaven will set up a Kingdom that will never be destroyed.“
• The Kingdom of God that the Master proclaimed as the Gospel is not to be confused with God’s providential rule: “Heaven is My throne and the earth is my footstool!’ Isaiah 66:1 In general, the Lord is King of the universe. Never should it be viewed as an earthly political movement, out to rule by the cross and sword, or to ordain Christian leaders to govern a largely unconverted world.
• The Kingdom of God appears whenever individuals take upon themselves the rule of God. Matthew 7:21.
• Matthew 6:10, “Your Kingdom Come, Your will be done in heaven and on earth.” The phrase is synonymous: people come into the Kingdom when they accept God’s authority and begin to do His will throughout their lives.

Further research into the 1st century disciple of Messiah revealed the following findings for us to consider today.

The essential qualities of first-century disciples were desire and submission and assumed that emulation, biblical literacy, community, transparency and a willingness to wrestle with God’s word where a “given.”

This included a passion together with zeal to give up all of their preconceived notions of how to live one’s life and then to embrace the behavior that their rabbi deemed best to honor God. It was a radical, willing, and totally conforming submission to the interpretive authority of their rabbi. https://bible.org/article/being-first-century-disciple

Closing Sentiments

The concept of the kingdom of heaven deals more with the limited but
expanding reign of God among people. In a strict sense, the kingdom
of heaven is limited to those people who have made Jesus Lord but
grows with each new person who says “yes” to Jesus.

The coming of the kingdom deals more with a future event referred to in the Hebrew Bible as the terrible day of the Lord. In Jesus’ teachings, the terrible day of the Lord seems to be synonymous with the coming of the Son of Man or parousia.

On that day, God’s absolute sovereignty will be manifested universally. Thus, in a certain sense, the kingdom of heaven climaxes in the parousia, but this remark in no way blurs viewing the kingdom of heaven as being fully operative today among those who have made JesusLord. [Gleaned from an article written by Joseph Frankovic, “The Kingdom of Heaven.”] https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/16980/

Since John the Baptist up to this present age, The Kingdom of God has been gaining greater traction and power because Christ is our “Breaker!” He is the One who goes ahead of us to remove all life’s obstacles in our path. He is our Shepherd, King, and Lord for all eternity.

“The breaker goes up before them; they break out, pass through the gate, and go out by it. So their King goes on before them, And the Lord at their head.” Micah 2:13

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