Page 65 - TH130 Kingdom of God A4 Final

The Kingdom and Theocratic Covenants

God made this covenant with Israel to help fulfill the Abrahamic
Covenant. Israel would become God’s “treasured possession”—but not
for themselves alone. God had promised Abraham that through his seed
“all peoples on earth will be blessed.” For this reason, God called Israel to
be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (v. 6).

The function of priests is to stand between God and the people. Priests
take the burdens and needs of the people and present them to God. They
also declare God’s message to the people. As a “kingdom of priests,” Israel
was to represent God to the
rest of the nations of the world.
Israel’s duty was to proclaim the
wonders of God to the Gentile As a “kingdom of priests”
nations and to take the needs Israel was to represent
of the nations to God through
intercessory prayer. They were God to the nations.
also to live in such a way that
the pagan nations around them
would see God’s blessing on them and turn to worship Him. This was not
the work of the priestly class only but the whole nation of Israel. Together
they were to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

We, the church, are also a kingdom of priests (1 Peter 2:9). It is our
duty as the new Israel to be a light to the nations. We are to proclaim
the gospel to all nations in the power of the Holy Spirit before the return
of Jesus (Acts 1:8). This is not the work of a special “missionary class”
of people only, but the duty of whole church of God. We are to be a
“kingdom of missionaries” who will “declare [to the nations] the praises of
him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).

As a “holy nation,” Israel was to be a testimony to all nations of the
nature and character of God. In this way, they would be a “light to the
Gentiles” concerning the beauty and uniqueness of God (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6).
The Law of God, which stood at the center of the Mosaic Covenant, called
Israel to holiness. It governed the personal, religious, and social lives of
God’s people. It was given so that the people would know how to conduct
themselves until “the Seed”—Christ—came (Galatians 3:17–19). At the
heart of God’s moral Law was the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1–17).

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