My Enemies (part 4)

Not only was Jesus the Son of God, Son of Man, Son of David, and King of Israel (all of these being understood firstly as royal titles, and only secondly as having divine implications), He is also presented as the One in whom Israel’s God Himself had entered into history in order to vindicate His people, inaugurate His kingdom on earth, and begin to set to rights His world that had been marred by sin (the failures of divine image-bearers, be it Adam or Israel, to keep covenant with the Creator God) and death’s corruption, doing so by the power of the Resurrection, which was the power of the age to come now breaking in upon creation (the kingdom of heaven coming to earth).  This breaking in of the Creator God’s power and plans for His creation had been foreshadowed by Jesus’ life and His miracles, but was now going to be made manifest because of His death and what it implied and accomplished, along with the miracle of His Resurrection.   

Having been rescued from hostile armies on both sides of the cross and raised up with all power as a clear demonstration that He was indeed the Messiah for whom His people had been waiting, the remainder of the eighteenth Psalm becomes even more striking and dynamic for both Jesus and later observers.  Jesus, while exploring the possible paths upon which His vocation could take Him, could continue to read Himself into this Psalm, speaking to the one He would have called Father (like all members of the covenant people) and saying, “You make Me a leader of nations; people over whom I had no authority are now My subjects” (18:43b).  Throughout the New Testament, this exaltation of Jesus as a leader of nations is a regular theme, as has already been seen in the previous reference to Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. 

Naturally, the theme of Israel’s messiah as a ruler is only a recurring theme in the New Testament because it is so prevalent in the Hebrew Scriptures.  The repeated insistence of the prophets and the Psalmist is that the messiah will be a ruler not just for Israel, but for all peoples.  Though this was routinely misapplied both before and after Jesus’ day to mean that national Israel, through the rule of its messiah, would also rule all nations.  This would lead to an unfortunate exclusiveness by Israel, as the covenant God’s people isolated themselves and set up prohibitive boundaries around their God’s covenant and its associated blessings. 

This, as can be readily gathered from Scripture, was never their God’s intention.  From the outset, and especially as recorded in the Creator God’s dealings with Abraham, all peoples were always in view.  This is made explicit in and through Jesus and the Christ-event, the instruction that were reported to have been given to His disciples in regards to all the world, and the ready application of its meaning (both the instructions and the Christ-event) as recorded in the New Testament. 

Yes, Jesus Himself makes it quite clear that He was a King for all peoples, and the Apostle Paul seizes on the implications of Jesus’ life and actions, along with the “all nations” presentation from the Hebrew Scriptures, to show forth that the Creator God’s kingdom on earth (the kingdom of heaven---heaven as the realm of the Creator God and earth as the realm of those made in His image over-lapping) was inclusive of all peoples, in accordance with the covenant that God had made with Abraham.