Never Consisted of Some Distinct Race—Is Composed of Those Who Prevail with God—The Dominion of Earth Given to Man Before He Sinned—Will Be Restored to the Redeemed for an Eternal Home
By Allen Moon
In the beginning, God gave to man “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” He reserved to Himself dominion over man. The proof of this is found in the fact that He made man subject to moral law, and man is now suffering the penalty for the violation of that law.
THE ORIGINAL PLAN UNCHANGED
By his act of transgression, man transferred his allegiance to another than his Creator. The one to whom he rendered obedience was himself a created being, and not able to retain dominion when once the almighty Creator should will otherwise. The seizure of dominion by the enemy was without the consent of the Creator; therefore the usurpation of dominion did not change the fact that the earth is the Lord’s, and all that is therein.
The declaration of the Creator that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the one who had usurped dominion over man, was a warning to Satan that he would be deprived of all dominion, and even of life itself. The gospel is a declaration of the right of the Creator to enter the dominion of Satan, and deliver every soul who will return to Him.
A PERFECT LIFE SURROUNDED BY SIN
We read that “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Enoch lived at a time when “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Yet Enoch was a servant of God, and it pleased God to take him from the earth to His own undisputed dominion.
There also lived another, “a just man and perfect in his generations.” His name was Noah, “and Noah walked with God.” This is equivalent to saying that Enoch and Noah forsook the dominion of the adversary, and passed to the dominion of the Creator; and walking with Him, they became subjects of His kingdom on earth.
THE DOMINION RESTORED TO NOAH
Noah’s loyalty to his God was rewarded by the salvation of himself and his family from the flood of waters that God sent to destroy that evil generation. To Noah man’s original dominion over the animal creation was restored for more than a year, while they were in the ark. So the antediluvian world came to an end, with God’s dominion complete over all that remained of the human race, and with man in possession of his
original dominion. But the adversary still lived, and a further history was to be enacted.
GOD HAS EVER HAD FOLLOWERS
Men again multiplied upon the earth, and it was filled with violence; but God was not without a realm on earth in which He reigned. Yet there was a time when the adversary was wont to appear in the presence of God claiming to represent the dominion of earth in the councils of heaven. We read: “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. . . . And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man?” Job belonged to a realm entirely outside that of Satan. He had been delivered from Satan’s dominion, to do service for his divine Creator. He represented the kingdom of heaven.
Also Abraham was the friend of God, and God talked with him, and called him to go to a land that He would afterward give to him and his seed. God took an oversight of Abraham’s seed after his death, and fulfilled His promise concerning them. He gave to Abraham a son in his old age, and from him sprang the millions that peopled the land of Palestine in after-years.
Jacob, the son of Isaac, cunningly and wickedly obtained the birthright from his brother Esau, and afterward the blessing of his father. Because of this, he had to flee from the presence of his brother. After he had served his uncle Laban for many years, and was returning to his own country with a changed heart, he learned that Esau was coming to meet him with an army of four hundred men, to destroy him.
This was the supreme moment. God had evidently chosen Jacob as the son of Isaac through whom the promise to Abraham was to be fulfilled. The Lord had told Rebekah, before their birth, that Esau and Jacob would be “two manner of people.” Jacob loved and honored God, and was accepted of Him; but Esau, like Cain, was possessed of another spirit. He belonged to another realm.
PREVAILING WITH GOD, HE PREVAILED WITH MAN
But how was Jacob to escape destruction now, seeing his brother was so much the stronger, and the fire of hatred was burning in his heart? Jacob went alone to commune with his God. Instead of satisfying Jacob at once with an assuring answer, the Lord sent His angel to test His servant for a time. When this was over, and Jacob had prevailed with God, it was seen that he had likewise prevailed with man; for Esau was subdued in spirit, and met his brother in peace.
At that time, Jacob received from God a name indicative of his having prevailed—a name that is applicable to all, among every people and in every generation, who likewise prevail. “Israel” is not a term to be applied to the Jewish race as such, but it is a name that belongs to God’s children of every nation and tribe. It is the name that designates the subjects of Christ’s kingdom on earth.
God permitted Jacob to occupy a place of distinction, in that he had twelve sons who became the heads of twelve tribes, to whom the land of Canaan was finally allotted. Soon after the Israelites left Egypt, the Lord gave command to reorganize the people into twelve757tribes, after the names of the twelve sons of Jacob. When this was done, the glorified kingdom of God, at least in miniature, was represented.
TRIED TO CURSE ISRAEL
Balaam, the son of Beor, tried to curse Israel, and the Lord put a parable in his mouth. The old prophet said: “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel: the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.” Num. 23: 21.
God had sent Moses to Pharaoh to say, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” God had delivered His people, and renewed His law to them, and at least to the true Israel, God was King. He therefore caused the prophet to declare, “The shout of a King is among them,” thus indicating that, notwithstanding God had said Israel should dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations, yet the true Israel should not be without a king.
For a long period after they came into the land of promise, the Jews had no visible king. The God of heaven was their Ruler. The time came, in the days of Samuel, when they had departed from God, and then they demanded a king. Samuel chided them, saying: “When ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the Lord your God was your King.” 1 Sam. 12: 12.
PERMANENT AS THE SUN
Moreover, the Lord caused the prophet to say of the ordinances of the sun, moon, and stars, which rule the day and the night, “If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever.” Jer. 31: 36. This is a very strong form of expression. In this text, we have the assertion practically made that until the sun, the moon, and the stars cease to exist, Israel shall never cease to be a nation. And again of Israel God said, “His seed shall be in many waters, and his King shall be higher than Agag, and His kingdom shall be exalted.” Num. 24: 7. Agag represented the highest earthly power. Therefore this statement means that Israel’s King shall be higher than any earthly king, and His kingdom is a higher, or spiritual kingdom.
NOT RECKONED AMONG THE NATIONS
Israel is never reckoned among the nations. Num. 23: 9. This indicates its spiritual character, and agrees with the language of the Saviour when He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Israel has never identified itself with the kingdoms of this world except as individual citizens. That which forms a union with the kingdoms of earth is not Israel, even though it may clothe itself with the name. The true people, worthy the name, are delivered from the powers of darkness, and are translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Col. 1: 13.
The character of the kingdom into which the children of God are translated is set forth in the language of Jehovah to His people in the wilderness. He said, “Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” Ex. 19: 6. In God’s reckoning, Israel is always a nation and a kingdom—a kingdom of priests, because of the peculiar position they occupy between the King and those who
are in rebellion. They are commissioned to persuade men—to stand between the offended and the offenders. By obedience, Israel obtains this commission from God. Verse 5.
THE DOMINION HELD BY CHRIST
The earth, as well as man, was the dominion of the Son of God by right of creation. This dominion went into the hands of a usurper. The gospel plan contemplates the redemption of both man and his lost possession. The Redeemer, having accomplished His mission to earth, has received from the Father the lost dominion, to be recovered and restored, as God promised through His prophet. He says: “And Thou, O Tower of the flock, the Stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto Thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Micah 4: 8. The dominion of earth is first restored to the Son by right of redemption, and through Him it is restored to Israel, the daughter of Jerusalem, the church.
Photograph by International News Service
The Saviour makes clear the manner of procedure, in His explanation of the parable of the wheat and the tares. He said: “The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one.” “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.” The enemy that sowed the tares is the devil. “The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” See Matt. 13: 37-43.
THE EARTH NOT ABANDONED
The earth is the Lord’s; and He has not abandoned it to Satan, who sowed the tares. The Son of God has always had loyal subjects, as represented by the good seed. Therefore Christ has a kingdom on earth, and He has designed a glorious future for this part of His universe. To these subjects the earth will be restored in His own good time. The good seed are the rightful heirs. The tares have no valid right, and will be dispossessed.
After His resurrection, Jesus came to His disciples and said, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” Jesus defers the exercise of His power over the earth only till the commission, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel,” is fully carried into effect; for He said again, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come”—the end of sin, the end of wicked dominion and the curse, but not the end of Christ’s reign, for “then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” The reign of Christ will then be glorious, and the earth will be as Eden.
