I WILL BE YOUR KING AND YOU WILL BE MY KINGDOM!!!!

Exodus Chapter 20




Today we are walking in: I Will Be Your King And You Will Be My Kingdom!!!!




Today we look to the word- KING- H4427- Malak- to reign; inceptively, to ascend the throne; causatively, to induct into royalty; hence (by implication) to take counsel:—consult, indeed, be (make, set a, set up) king, be (make) queen, (begin to, make to) reigning, rule, surely.










The Torah Testifies……………………




Genesis 14:18

And Melchizedek king H4427 of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.











The Prophets Proclaim……………………




Isaiah 44:6

Thus saith the LORD the King H4427 of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.










The Writings Bear Witness…………………..




Psalm 10:16

The LORD is King H4427 for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.










THE LONG WAIT—4,000 YEARS




According to biblical chronology, despite the possibility that the earth may have been in existence much longer, the creative act of The Most High Yah’s making man is determined to be at least six thousand years ago. If we were to use this measure to calculate the length of The Most High Yah’s redemptive drama for mankind, then the promise of the coming Messiah King would have occurred 4,000 years before the birth of John the Baptist. This means The Most High Yah waited for 4,000 years before He sent His Messiah King to earth. The question is why?




WAITING FOR A KINGDOM MODEL




The Most High Yah is a great communicator. He knew that He could not fully reveal the good news of His Kingdom until an environment existed in which people could understand the message.




Only when the time was right could Hamachiach come. Yahusha could not come until a Kingdom model existed as a visual illustration to help people understand His teachings on the Kingdom. Only in the “fullness of time” could the Kingdom be revealed.




The same chapter of Genesis that describes the fall of man also announces The Most High Yah’s promised solution, but many millennia would pass before its fulfillment. Because of the serpent’s (HaSatan’s) role in tempting the first human couple to sin, The Most High Yah pronounced a curse on him, which also foretold his future doom: “So the Lord The Most High Yah said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel’” (Gen. 3:14- 15). The Most High Yah promised that one of Eve’s offspring (“seed” in the KJV) would crush the serpent’s head, inflicting a fatal wound. That “seed” would be Yahusha Hamachiach.




When Yahusha appeared preaching the Kingdom of heaven, He was the culmination of thousands of years of preparation in The Most High Yah’s plan. What was The Most High Yah waiting for? Throughout history The Most High Yah was setting the stage and preparing an environment for His Son’s appearance.





PREPARING FOR THE KING




Adam and Eve sinned by disobeying The Most High Yah and by this action they cut off themselves (as well as all future generations of human beings) from His Kingdom. The first significant biblical figure after Adam and Eve was Noah, a righteous man who believed in and followed The Most High Yah. He and his family survived the great flood by riding it out in an ark.




Afterwards, however, Noah planted a vineyard and got drunk. Eventually his sons went their own ways and forgot The Most High Yah. Their descendants fell into idol worship and other kinds of evil. The time was not yet right for the Kingdom.

Ten generations after Noah, The Most High Yah spoke to Abram, a descendant of Noah’s son Shem. The Most High Yah revealed Himself to Abraham and made a covenant with him that would make of him a great nation. From Abraham came Isaac, the son born to him in his old age. Still, The Most High Yah had no model of the Kingdom.




Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob. The Most High Yah appeared to Jacob and said, “I will make of you a great nation. Your name will now be Israel.” Israel had 12 sons, who were the fathers of the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. The Most High Yah was working toward His model.




Through Moses, He delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, brought them into the desert, and told them, “You will be My people and I will be your The Most High Yah. I will lead you into the land I promised your forefathers.” In other words, He was saying, “I will be your King and you will be My Kingdom.”




After awhile, however, the people of Israel got tired of a The Most High Yah they could not see and longed for a king they could see. The Most High Yah never desired for them to have an earthly king. This was not the appropriate model that He was seeking. Nevertheless, The Most High Yah gave in to their wishes and instructed the prophet Samuel to anoint Saul as king of Israel. Because the nation of Israel rejected The Most High Yah in favor of an earthly king, the time still was not right for the Kingdom of heaven to be revealed.




A LONG SUCCESSION OF KINGS




After a promising start, Saul disobeyed The Most High Yah to the point at which The Most High Yah rejected him as king. The Most High Yah then chose David, a man after His own heart, to be king in Saul’s place. David was a good king and a mighty warrior who loved The Most High Yah. He was also a poet and worshiper whose songs comprise the bulk of the longest book in the Bible: the Psalms. David was the first to informally combine the functions of priest and king. He worshiped and wrote worship songs, but he also administered government wisely and ably. A model of The Most High Yah’s Kingdom was beginning to emerge.




Then David disappointed The Most High Yah by committing adultery with Bathsheba and compounding his sin by trying to cover it up. He arranged to have her husband, Uriah, killed. From then until the end of his life, trouble dogged David’s steps. After the death of Solomon, David’s wise and capable son and successor, the kingdom they had built split in two as ten tribes rebelled against the house of David. The time still was not right for the Kingdom of heaven to be revealed.




Following a long succession of kings, most of whom rejected The Most High Yah and served idols, first the northern kingdom of Israel and then the southern kingdom of Judah fell to outside conquerors. The northern kingdom was assimilated into the Assyrian empire and ceased to exist. The kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians, and the brightest and best of her people were carried into exile for 70 years.




Daniel, one of the exiles and an official in the Babylonian government, received a powerful vision from The Most High Yah that showed him that the Kingdom was not dead and forgotten. The Most High Yah was still working toward His model, preparing for the “fullness of time” when His Son would come and reveal the Kingdom. Daniel spoke of a “son of man” who would do great things. Several hundred years later, Yahusha would refer to Himself as the Son of man, His favorite self-designation.




BABYLONIANS, GREEKS, AND ROMANS




The Babylonians fell to the Persians, who allowed the Hebrews to return to their homeland and rebuild their Temple and the city of Jerusalem. The Persians fell to the Greeks, whose great tradition of philosophy influenced the entire Mediterranean world. In time, the Greek Empire fell to the Romans, with their genius for military campaigns, law, and government administration. At last, the time for which The Most High Yah had been preparing drew near. The Roman Empire was the first in history with a structure and administration that resembled the Kingdom of The Most High Yah. Finally, The Most High Yah had His model.




Unlike the empires that preceded it, when Rome invaded and conquered a country, it set up its own administration with its own governor appointed by the emperor, but left the indigenous people in the land. Rome governed its conquered territory through appointed representatives who ruled with the authority of the emperor himself. The job of a Roman governor was to govern his province in such a way as to make it a reflection of Rome.




Rome became the greatest empire in history because it had a system of government that worked better than any that had gone before. It was a simple system, really: take over territory, leave the people in the land, but appoint a governor and establish an administration that will turn them into Romans.




Everything was now set. The Roman Empire provided the perfect model for the message of the Kingdom of The Most High Yah because it contained the concepts of the Kingdom that would make the message of Yahusha easily understood. The Most High Yah’s Kingdom model was in place. The time had come for The Most High Yah to send His Son. The time had come for the Kingdom of heaven to be revealed.




JUST AT THE RIGHT TIME




The Bible says that when the fullness of time came, The Most High Yah sent His Son, Yahusha Hamachiach, into the world (see Gal. 4:4). This means that The Most High Yah waited to send Yahusha until the situation was ripe. Yahusha came at just the right moment and place in history. What made this particular time 2,000 years ago right? Among other things, the time was right because there was a great earthly kingdom in place that could provide tangible, visible illustrations for Yahusha’ teachings about the Kingdom. The Roman Empire served as a model.




Under Caesar, the Roman Empire was a kingdom, not a democracy. Caesar was a king, not a president. During Yahusha’ day Rome ruled most of the known world. Its government, laws, institutions, and culture were everywhere. Every word that Yahusha spoke about the Kingdom of The Most High Yah had a physical equivalent in Rome, making His message easier to understand for the people who listened to Him.




For example, the Roman senate was called the ecclesia, a Greek word that means “assembly,” or “called-out ones.” Greek and Latin were both widely spoken throughout the Empire. Yahusha spoke Aramaic, the common language of the Jews of Palestine, but the Gospels were originally written in Greek. The Gospel writers use the word ecclesia in passages where Yahusha talks about building His “Church.”




Just as Caesar had an assembly of called-out ones—the Senate—so also did Yahusha Hamachiach, the Son of the living The Most High Yah and King of kings have His assembly of called- out ones—His Church.




IMAGE OF A KING




Caesar issued coins stamped with his image and inscription. People understood that whatever bore Caesar’s image belonged to Caesar and he had every right to claim it. Likewise, they could understand that whatever bore The Most High Yah’s image and stamp of ownership belonged to The Most High Yah and was His for the claiming. When we come to Yahusha and give Him our lives, the first thing He does is change our name. He gives us His name and calls us His sons and daughters. John tells us that to those who believe in His name He gives the right to become children of The Most High Yah (see John 1:12). As children of The Most High Yah, we are joined together with Hamachiach and seated with Him on His throne in heaven next to our Father.




The Bible says that as believers we are citizens of heaven. That remains true no matter where we go. We do not have to be in heaven to be citizens there. Right now, we live on earth, but are citizens and ambassadors of the heavenly Kingdom.




YOU ARE A KING!




When Yahusha stood before Pontius Pilate mere hours before His crucifixion, the Roman governor was surprised at His silence in the face of the accusations that had been brought against Him. At one point Pilate asked:




“Do You refuse to speak to me?...Don’t You realize I have power either to free You or to crucify You?” Yahusha answered, “You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin” (John 19:10-11).




As the Roman governor of Judea, Pilate represented the full power and authority of the Emperor himself. The full force of the mightiest empire in history backed Pilate’s words, yet Yahusha said that all that power had come from above, meaning, from His Father. This was Kingdom talk, and Yahusha was saying that His Kingdom was greater than Rome’s because it was from His Kingdom that Rome received its power.




At another point, Pilate questioned Yahusha about His Kingdom:

“Are You the king of the Jews?” “Is that your own idea,” Yahusha asked, “or did others talk to you about Me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was Your people and Your chief priests who handed You over to me. What is it You have done?” Yahusha said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is from another place.” “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Yahusha answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to Me.” “What is truth?” Pilate asked (John 18:33b-38a).





Yahusha answered Pilate plainly, acknowledging that He was both a King and that His Kingdom was “from another place,” that is, not from the earth. His Kingdom is a kingdom of truth, for He came “to testify to the truth.” All who desire the truth listen to Him. Therefore, Hamachiach’s Kingdom of truth is made up of citizens who are not only truth seekers but also truth followers. This alone makes His Kingdom unique, completely different from the kingdoms of the world.




As believers, we live on earth but our citizenship is in the Kingdom of heaven, and all the resources, authority, and power of that Kingdom are available to us as we seek to live as faithful and responsible ambassadors of our King. When someone asks us, “Where are you from?” we should give careful thought to our answer. The more we learn to think like Kingdom citizens, the more we will act like Kingdom citizens. The more we act like Kingdom citizens, the more we will proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom to a lost world, because that is our primary dominion mandate. It is important that we learn to live distinct Kingdom lives so that others can tell the difference between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of The Most High Yah.




Every human being who has ever lived, has faced the same tension: being designed for one kingdom, yet forced to live in another. Most people are never able to clearly define the problem. For them, life always seems somewhat out of kilter, purposeless, and full of misery, as if something just doesn’t quite fit. They are generally dissatisfied and discontented with life, but don’t really know why.




Nothing works accurately when it is removed from the environment for which it was designed. A fish out of water will quickly suffocate; a human being under water without special breathing apparatus will soon drown.