Introduction
Biblical Hebrew and ancient Jewish Aramaic had a small vocabulary compared to modern languages, and so one word often had to cover several meanings, when in English, for example, we would use different words in each case. Such a word is the Aramaic malkhuta (normally translated as ‘kingdom’). Because we are stuck with our modern, western view of what a ‘kingdom’ is, we don’t quite get the full range of ideas that Yeshua was trying to put across. There are actually four main ideas conveyed in the phrase, malkhuteyh delaha (‘kingdom of God’). Each and every one of Yeshua‘s parables on the Kingdom of God fits neatly into one of the following meanings:
- Kingship (the coming actions of God as Judge and King)
- The type of society that is created by living the ways of God (the kingdom all around us, which the rich have trouble entering or participating in)
- The kingdom that lives within us – the mindset that is created within us by living God‘s ethical ideals, values and principles
- The transformed world that will be created at some point in the distant future, which our righteous actions will help God to bring about
Usage no. 1: Yeshua often used the phrase, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand’. The use of the words ‘at hand’ would here be similar to its use in the phrase, ‘Help is close at hand.’ The Koine Greek ἤγγικεν (engiken) implies ‘drawing near’, or ‘approaching’.
In this particular instance, this should therefore more properly be translated as, ‘the kingship of God is fast approaching’; you see, ‘kingdom’ and ‘kingship’ are both translated by the Aramaic malkhuta, hence the confusion in other languages. In this sentence, Yeshua was referring to God’s ROYAL AUTHORITY to act in human affairs as Judge and King – in effect, he was referring to what biblical prophets called the ‘Day of Adonai’ (the Day of YHVH). This particular ‘Day of Adonai’, which Yeshua called ‘the coming of God’s Kingship’, was the destruction of Judea and Jerusalem, and the Roman Exile. This was the imminent, impending event that Yeshua’s first Jewish followers were fearfully awaiting and preparing for, as the age (era/epoch) in which they were living was drawing to its close. The ‘coming’ that the first Jewish Followers of Yeshua were waiting for, was therefore the coming of Adonai as Judge and the Liberator of the poor.
As an aside: for anyone who argues that no one could have spoken about this Day of YHVH before it happened, consider modern political pundits and experts who are able to predict political events before they happen, such as wars and economic hardship. This is what Yeshua meant when he spoke of ‘the Signs of the Times’ (Mt 16:3, Lk 12:54-56). It was obvious to him that a period of terrible upheaval was soon coming, sinply by looking at wht was going on around him. So if one ever doubts that no one could have predicted a tribulation, then consider how modern experts predict political events in our own time.
With this meaning in mind (Kingship, and therefore Judgeship), Yeshua told a couple of parables that described God’s imminent intervention under God’s authority as Judge and King, in order to deal with the problems afflicting society at the time (such as the parable of the Ten Young Women, Mt 25:1-13, and the Parable of the Large Dragnet, Mt 13:47-50). God had seen how certain chief priests were corrupt, and were thereby defaming the holiness of the Temple ministry; God had seen how rich people were ignoring their responsibility to the poor, thereby defaming God’s Name as Provider; and how the Zealots were defaming God’s Name by using God’s authority to justify acts of violence. Yeshua was saying that God’s very Own Self would intervene and act very soon, using God’s authority as King and Judge to bring about justice, chastise wrongdoing, reward the righteous and punish the guilty – even in this life. Therefore, the only appropriate response by the unjust to such news would be to repent (Mt 3:2, 4:17). On the other hand, such a declaration – that God would soon intervene in God’s capacity as King to right wrongs – was indeed ‘good news’ for the long-suffering poor and innocent of the Land.
The rest of the ‘good news’ was that, by living the ways of God’s Kingdom, and by returning to God’s first principles, the time of tribulation could be shortened, and that the majority of the Jewish people would be spared the worst of the tribulation and so survive. This is in stark contrast with what the Christian meaning of ’gospel’ is (that ‘Jesus’ died to save us from our sins).
Usage no 2: This is the type of society that is created by living the ways of God (the kingdom all around us). Yeshua spoke about how difficult it was for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Here he was talking about being able to change heart and repent, and enter into a way of life that would be typical of God’s Reign; in such instances, ‘kingdom of God’ is more properly, ‘the Reign of God’. The rich were so centred on the accumulation of money, wealth and profit, that they ignored God’s laws to forgive the debts of fellow Israelites every seven years (and thereby relieve the burden on the very poor). They were so enthralled by the lure of wealth, that they could not see that they were rich only because God gave them that wealth. If it was not used for good, then that wealth would one day be taken away from them (which it indeed was when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and exiled many of the Jewish population of Judea).
When any monarch reigns, there are certain ideals that are put into practice during their reign, that mark out and distinguish the period of their reign. So basically, the second usage was the type of flourishing, peaceful and prosperous society that would be created by living out the just and fair ways of God in society – a nation that functioned in the way that God designed and ordained it to function. It would produce a wise and discerning people who would be admired and respected by the world (Dt 4:6).
Usage no 3: The third meaning of ‘the kingdom of God’ is the most vital to understand. It plays an enormous part in Yeshua’s personal theology. To him, this aspect of the kingdom (or ‘Rule’) of God was not a physical place, or necessarily a time in the future, or even heaven, but rather a present state of being, a mindset, that had to live within us (Lk 17:21). God’s Rule was a way of justice and inclusion; Yeshua saw it as a duty to be just and fair to one another in one’s daily affairs, and to bring back into the fold those whom religious moralisers had cast aside as being permanently beyond redemption, thereby taking away their right to hope for anything better.
Usage no 4: The last aspect of the kingdom, was what it could become in the far distant future. It was not a time that would come about through war or conflict, but slowly, like yeast leavening a huge batch of flour (Mt 13.33), or a tiny mustard seed that grows into a large bush (Mk 4:30-32). In such instances, Yeshua was speaking of the eventual fulfilment of the Kingdom of God – what it had the potential to become in the far future, once God’s full sovereignty was established over both heaven and earth.
To summarise, the term, ‘the kingdom of God’ doesn’t have just one meaning; failure to understand this over the past two thousand years has blurred God’s Message that Yeshua taught, and obscured God’s plans. Every mention of ‘the kingdom of God’ in Yeshua’s parables and sayings can be perfectly categorised into one of these four aspects:
- God’s imminent intervention as King and Judge (the coming ‘KINGSHIP of God’, the Tribulation);
- God’s set of external laws, under which a just and stable society functions (the present ‘REIGN of God’);
- God’s Message of ethical ideals and values that live within us (the internal and eternal ‘RULE of God’);
- and the future age of peace and light which has the potential to come about and be fulfilled in the future (the end-time ‘FULL SOVEREIGNTY of God’).