Why Is That

Introduction

According to the book, Gods nation should be understood to be there today also in the future that is to say that God’s kingdom is everlasting one. The kingdom that Jesus brought was not exclusive for Israel alone, but it belonged to everyone, and this is the reason why some of the Israelites will be thrown away. Those people across the world who embrace the teachings of messiah will belong to the kingdom of God (Luke: 13:28-27, Matthew 8:8-12). This kingdom will fulfill the promises made to all patriarchs, David in specific and will come in stages until it includes everyone across the world.

Discussion

The messianic kingdom is also portrait to be unique as supported by the gospel of Luke. In this kingdom, the Holy Spirit will lead the ministry of Jesus. This can be supported by circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus; born by the Virgin Mary and it was through the power of the Holy Spirit that the conception materialized. In addition, John the baptism did say that Jesus was going to baptize people by use of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit will baptize people just as Jesus was baptized. In addition, people will do their ministry by the help of the Holy Spirit that is similar to how Christ did his ministry.

There was fall out between the kingdom that Jesus was talking about, and the kingdom that the disciples were expecting. Jesus did teach his disciples on the kingdom that God sent him to restore. Palmer (130, 2000) argues that the perception of the disciples about restoration of the kingdom was limited to the context of the nation; they thought that Jesus was going to be their ruler who will make their kingdom powerful compared to that of their enemies. This was rather Jews perception and not what God was intending to do. The teaching of Jesus provides some light on the kingdom that God promise to restore. God was planning to restore His own reign in the Jews. However, the disciples misunderstood the kingdom that God wanted to restore; this was shown by the kind of questions that they were asking Jesus.

Jesus response to the questions raised by disciples helped to answer some of the issues that were of importance. Jesus explained the restoration of the kingdom that God wanted. He told the disciples that God would give them the power of the Holy Spirit to give them direction of the way they should conduct themselves. This Holy Spirit will fulfill the promise that was made a long time ago, and this indicated the beginning of the kingdom (Palmer 129, 2000).

In the restoration of the kingdom, the disciples will be lead by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel across the world. This makes the kingdom to be unique. The kingdom was not bound by political boundaries and thus it was universal. The apostles will preach the gospel to all corners of the world regardless of the tribe, race, and nationality among other things through the power of the Holy Spirit. According to Palmer (131, 2000), this response clarified that, Israel was going to be a starting point of the growth of God’s kingdom, and thus the disciples were expected to start their preaching in Jerusalem, Judea and other parts of Israel. They witnessed the power of God and spread this Gospel to the rest of the world. The kingdom of God was to grow in stages. The restoration of Israel was the first stage of the realization of the kingdom of God. Israel exerted its rule to other nations. However, this rule was not a political one but a messianic rule, which was to be passed to other nations through teaching of the word of God and emphasizing to people to be faithful before God. All this activities were to be done according to the power of the Holy Spirit.

There were difficulties by disciples understanding the universal character of the kingdom of God. The disciples could not understand the rationale behind the adoption of the gospels by the Gentiles. There are problems to date; people do not understand how the gentiles are equal to the Jews in the Messianic kingdom. According to them, they do not understand why they should be equal to the Gentiles. The notion of Jews on the kingdom of God is to have more favor compared to that of Gentiles. However, this is not the case because God’s kingdom is universal (Palmer 130, 2000).

The kingdom of God is captured to be universal and thus it is not restricted to a certain nation. This is also emphasized by the inclusion of the gentiles in the gospel. Furthermore, Jesus did instruct the disciples to preach and make it to the rest of the world be witness of his resurrection. From this premise, it will not be biblical correct to identify the modern state of Israel with people of God. This is because the Kingdom of God is not constraint to a particular geographical location, but is universal and thus it is only possible for Israel to be Gods people if they are not in violation of Gods rule. The Holy Spirit was guiding people in their deeds and, therefore, only people who acknowledged the Messiah as their ruler through the help of the Holy Spirit were People of God (Palmer 129, 2000).

Conclusion

In conclusion, it suffices to say that looking at the current state of affairs in Israel, the nation still appears to thrive under God’s favor. The people of today’s Israel continually live under God’s favor.