Re-establishment of David's Throne and Kingdom
By Elder A. T. Robinson
GOD'S KINGDOM IN THIS WORLD.—NO. 5. Re-establishment of David's Throne and Kingdom.
ELDER A. T. ROBINSON.
(Dunedin, New Zealand.) “In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old. . . . And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.” Amos 9:11–15. The re-establishment of the throne and kingdom of Israel upon this earth was a cherished idea of the disciples in the time of our Saviour. Notwithstanding His repeated assurances that it was not His mission to set up a kingdom on the earth at that time, and their hopes in that direction had been completely blasted by seeing Christ hang upon the cross, they so far misunderstood and misapplied certain prophecies and promises that after the resurrection of Christ, during those forty days when He was “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God,” they asked Him, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” A more delusive and fatal error in our own day is the result of a similar misapplication of certain promises, forfeited by the natural Israel, and hence to be fulfilled to spiritual Israel. Although God's plan to establish His kingdom in this world, first through Adam, then through Noah, and then through Abraham and the chosen nation, has to all human appearance failed, He has not abandoned His purpose concerning this world. The throne of the Lord will one day be established on this earth, and the nation of Israel will occupy and fill the whole earth. This was all foreshadowed in the message of the angel to Mary, before the birth of Christ: “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God 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.” Inspiration states that “Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father.” 1 Chron. 29:23. Zedekiah was the last king to sit upon that throne. Concerning that wicked king the Lord said, “And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: . . . I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it [the throne of the Lord]: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him.” Eze. 21:25–27. These three overturnings were accomplished by the successive downfall of the three great world empires following Babylon. And the throne of the Lord is not to be again occupied until that day when the announcement is made that “the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever.” Rev. 11:15. The Lord bore long with that rebellious and stiff-necked people, and finally He fixed the limit of their probation as a nation. To Daniel the angel Gabriel announced, “Seventy weeks are determined [cut off] upon thy people and upon thy holy city.” Daniel was informed that this seventy weeks (490 literal years) was to date from “the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem,” which was in the year B. C. 457. Beginning in B. C. 457, this 490 years must terminate in the year A. D. 34. By turning to the record found in the eighth chapter of Acts, it will be seen by the date in the margin of the Oxford Bible, that it was in the year A. D. 34 when the gospel first went to the nations outside the Jewish people. Israel, as a nation, had then sinned away their day of grace. The sun had forever set upon that people. Their city, which the Lord had told them would “remain forever” if they would be obedient to Him, was overthrown. Henceforth the gospel must go to the Gentiles, and the number of the subjects of the kingdom of God be completed by His taking out from the Gentiles a people for His name. The reader is asked carefully to note the argument of the apostle James, recorded in Acts 15:13–16. After stating clearly that this taking out of the Gentiles a people for His name, agrees with what the prophets have spoken on this subject, he quotes (Amos 9:11–15) the passage given at the head of this article, as a specimen of all that has been predicted on this subject. “And so [by this last ingathering from among the Gentiles] all Israel [a perfect and complete number] shall be saved.” Rom. 11:26.