“The Kingdom of God has Come Near”

First century Jews were expecting something big to happen. We see this in Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth:

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. (Lk 2:25 NIV)

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old . . . She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. (Lk 2:36-38)

Different phrases are used—”waiting for the consolation of Israel” or “looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem”—but the point is the same: there was a buzz in the air.

Mark says this of one prominent Jew:

Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. (15:43)

This Jewish leader and scholar expected the arrival of God’s kingdom in his lifetime.

What fueled these expectations?

The book of Daniel.

A King’s Dream 

In Daniel 2 King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that troubles him. He demands that his wise men tell him the dream and interpret it, but none could do so. Daniel and his friends then ask God to reveal the mystery to them. “During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision” (v. 19) so the next day Daniel addresses the king:

Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. (vv. 31-35)

Daniel then gives the interpretation, which identifies the different metals with successive kingdoms. After stating that King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is the head of gold, Daniel says,

After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. . .

In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. (vv. 39-45)

Four Kingdoms

Since Daniel only explicitly identifies the first kingdom—the head of gold is Babylon—to identify the remaining three we must have a basic understanding of history. Consequently, some dispute the identify of the final three kingdoms. Despite differing views, however, the most ancient Jewish interpretation, going back to the first century, is clear:

1. Babylon (6th cent. BC) – gold head
2. Medo-Persia (5th cent. BC) – silver chest and arms
3. Greece (4th cent. BC) – bronze belly and thighs
4. Rome (1st cent. BC.) – iron and clay feet

There’s one more type of material that Daniel mentions: “a rock was cut out, but not by human hands.” The rock strikes the feet or the Roman Empire. Then the whole statue symbolizing human kingdoms is crushed to pieces and blown away by the wind. The rock, however, has a mysterious ability—it grows: “But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.” The superiority of the rock is evident: 

• It is not human in origin; in other words it comes from God.
• It completely destroys all other kingdoms.
• It grows and fills the whole earth.
• It will endure forever. 

But don’t miss the temporal reference in Daniel’s explanation of the rock: “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people” (v. 44).

In the time of which kings?

These must be the kings of the fourth kingdom so they must be Roman emperors.

When did the Roman empire begin?

27 BC

Hence, the fourth kingdom had recently been established when Jesus was born.

Can you see how this prophecy fueled first-century expectations? Since the fourth kingdom had recently begun the divine rock could appear at any moment.  

Based on the ancient Jewish understanding of Daniel 2, first-century Jews were expecting God to set up his everlasting kingdom sometime during the Roman Empire.

Did that happen?

Were all other kingdoms obliterated in the first century?

Keep reading.

Jesus and the Kingdom of God

In this setting imagine Jesus coming on the scene with his message of God’s kingdom:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mk 1:14-15)

Think of the excitement this announcement would stir. The arrival of God’s kingdom was expected; now it is announced. The king of God’s kingdom had arrived.

But hold on.

Listen to Jesus’s parables of the kingdom:

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” (Mk 4:26-29)

Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.” (Mk 4:30-32)

He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Matt 13:33)

What’s the meaning of these parables? God’s kingdom will not appear in its final form instantly. It is intended to grow gradually but relentlessly. It is like a rock that “became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth” or like a seed that grows into a large plant. Its growth is inevitable, inexorable, unstoppable. God’s kingdom will take over the world, but it will do so incrementally or in stages. If we are looking for God’s kingdom, then, in the first century, we must not look for it in its final expression.

Conclusion

When we hear about a kingdom being set up we may imagine a king in a royal palace or soldiers with weapons riding on horses. We probably don’t think of a small group of ordinary men walking around Israel with a rabbi. And we certainly wouldn’t expect the execution of that rabbi to lead to anything like a kingdom.

But that is exactly how God set up his kingdom “in the time of those kings.” With the arrival of the King in the first century and his expressions of power over demons, disease, and death, he crushed every other claim to authority. Since then his kingdom has been growing and filling the earth.

*For more information on Daniel and God’s kingdom, see Brant Pitre’s insightful book, The Case for Jesus, chapter 8. Pitre does an excellent job of explaining the ancient Jewish interpretation of the prophecies in Daniel 2, 7, and 9.