During the Jewish Age, God organized Israel as his “typical” kingdom under Moses and the Judges. Israel was called “the Kingdom of the LORD” (2 Chronicles 13:8), and “Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD” (1 Chronicles 29:23). Israel had a sort of Republic which, later, under the kings, became generally more repressive. However, the reigns of David and Solomon were used by God to represent, in measure, the coming Kingdom when Messiah should reign. When the people transgressed against the LORD, he chastised them repeatedly until finally in the days of Zedekiah, the last king of the line of David, the royal power was removed. The typical kingdom of God was overthrown.
God through Ezekiel prophesied regarding Zedekiah, “Take off the crown…I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until he comes whose right it is; and I will give it him” (Ezekiel 21:25-27). Removing the crown was fulfilled when the King of Babylon removed Judah's king and took the people captive. The prophecy decreed that it should remain overturned until Christ came to claim it. Cyrus the Persian later restored their national existence, but they were thereafter tributary, successively to Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Then, in A.D. 70, Israel was destroyed as a nation and the people scattered among the nations.
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This World's Kingdom
SpiritualAlthough history reveals previous empires of Earth, only four universal dominions have ruled over the Holy Land.
