{"content":[{"text":"197 Chapter 33","bbox":{"left":0.071429,"top":0.035069,"width":0.14541699999999996,"height":0.019083000000000003}},{"text":"THE KINGDOM STRIKES BACK","bbox":{"left":0.317103,"top":0.035069,"width":0.29444499999999996,"height":0.019083000000000003}},{"text":"Don’t ever think that the whole remainder One stirs up hate, distorts even DNA se- \n of the Bible is simply a bundle of divergent, quences, perhaps authors suffering and all \n unrelated stories as taught in Sunday School. destruction of God’s good creation. Satan’s \n Rather, the Bible consists of a single drama: devices may very well include devising viru- \n the entrance of the Kingdom, the power and lent germs in order to tear down confidence \n the glory of the living God in this enemy-oc- in God’s loving character. \n cupied territory. From Genesis 12 to the end Therefore this “blessing” is a key concept. \n of the Bible, and indeed until the end of time, The English word blessing is not an ideal \n there unfolds the single, coherent drama of translation. We see the word in use where \n “the Kingdom strikes back.” This would Isaac confers his “blessing” on Jacob and not \n make a good title for the Bible itself were it to on Esau. It was not “blessings” but “a bless- \n be printed in modern dress (with Gen 1-11 as ing,” the conferral of a family name, respon- \n the introduction to the whole Bible). In this sibility, obligation, as well as privilege. It is \n unfolding drama we see the gradual but irre- not something you can receive or get like a \n sistible power of God reconquering and re- box of chocolates you can run off with and \n deeming His fallen creation through the giv- eat by yourself in a cave, or a new personal \n ing of His own Son at the very center of the power you can show off like rippling \n 4000-year period ending in 2000 BC. This is muscles. It is something you become in a per- \n tersely summed up: “The Son of God ap- manent relationship and fellowship with your \n peared for this purpose, that He might de- Father in Heaven. It returns “families,” that \n stroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:6). is, nations to His household, to the Kingdom \n of God, so that the nations \n “will declare His glory.” \n The Bible consists of a single drama: the entrance Preventing the nations \n of the Kingdom, the power and the glory of the from declaring His glory \n are any evidences of \n living God in this enemy-occupied territory. God’s inability to cope \n with evil. If the Son of \n This counterattack against the Evil One God appeared to destroy the works of the \n clearly does not await the appearance of the Devil, then what are the Son of God’s follow- \n good Person in the center of the story. In- ers and “joint heirs” supposed to do to bring \n deed, there would seem to be five identifi- honor to His Name? \n able epochs of advance prior to the appear- This “blessing” of God is in effect condi- \n ance of Christ as well as five after that event. tioned upon its being shared with other na- \n The purpose of this chapter is mainly to de- tions, since those who yield to and receive \n scribe the five epochs after Christ. However, God’s blessing are, like Abraham, those of \n in order for those later epochs to be seen as faith who subject themselves to God’s will, \n part of a single ten-epoch 4,000-year unfold- become part of His Kingdom, and represent \n ing story, we will note a few clues about the the extension of His rule, His power, His au- \n first five epochs. thority within all other peoples. \n The theme that links all ten epochs is the \n grace of God intervening in a “world which The First Half \n lies in the power of the Evil One” (1 Jn 5:19), of the 4,000-Year Story \n contesting an enemy who temporarily is “the The story of the “strike back” as we see it in \n god of this world” (2 Cor 4:4) so that the na- Genesis 12 begins in about 2000 BC. During \n tions will praise God’s name. His plan for do- roughly the next 400 years, Abraham was \n ing this is to reach all peoples by conferring chosen, and moved to the geographic center \n an unusual “blessing” on Abraham and of the Afro-Asian land mass. The time of \n Abraham’s seed (Abraham’s children-by- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph (often \n faith), even as we pray “Thy Kingdom called the Period of the Patriarchs) displays \n come.” By contrast, the Evil One’s plan is to relatively small breakthroughs of witness to \n bring reproach on the Name of God. The Evil the surrounding nations even though the","bbox":{"left":0.071428,"top":0.06944,"width":0.784994,"height":0.8676249999999999}}],"images_bbox":[{"left":0.071429,"top":0.955556,"width":0.02381,"height":0.016667}],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[{"left":0.071429,"top":0.955556,"width":0.02381,"height":0.016667}]}