Weekly Devotional 6-15-20 Two Kingdoms
To the born-again Christian of today it is quite evident that there exist two separate kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. Actually, they have existed since before Adam’s fall. Sometime in eternity past, Satan led a third part of the angelic realm in rebellion against God and in allegiance with them brought spiritual darkness into being (Revelation 12:3-4; Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:12-15). The Isaiah and Ezekiel passages address the rule of human rulers but look beyond them to Satan. Satan, like the human ruler of Isaiah 14 (Sennacherib) and the human ruler of Ezekiel 28 (Ethbaal the 3rd), thought to rise above all other authority including the authority of heaven and rule as a god over their perspective kingdoms. Both Sennacherib and Ethbaal the 3rd met their just ends, but Satan still rules over the kingdom of darkness. However, he too will come to his just end as John the revelator informs us in the book of Revelation.
Revelation 20:1-3 “1Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.”
20:7-10 “7Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. 9They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. 10The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
Satan is now deceiving the nations of the world as he will do during that period of time mentioned in the passages above. Natural man (the man who is not of the kingdom of heaven) is becoming increasingly fearful searching for answers to things that are out of his control. He has thought mankind is able to solve whatever comes their way but is now beginning to realize that man really does not have the answers. Now their dilemma is clear, they do not know where to turn for answers.
Thanks to God, we who are of the kingdom of heaven have been given the knowledge that all things consist in God, that He is the sovereign ruler of all that is, and He has divested this authority in Jesus Christ, God the Son.
Paul writes concerning Him, “15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:15-20).
We Christians do not know exactly how everything is going to unfold, but we know the One who will bring about His kingdom on the earth as He overcomes the kingdom of darkness and its ruler. Some day (perhaps soon), “every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever” (Revelation 5:14).
In time God will pour out His wrath upon the kingdom of darkness, all its subjects will be judged guilty and sentenced to a death unimaginable. Jesus said, “29If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:29-30). Of this kingdom Jesus said there would be “weeping and gnashing teeth” (Matthew 8:12) and continued by adding that this would be an eternal state (Matthew 25:46; Mark 9:42-48).
So yes, there are two kingdoms, but the kingdom of heaven is for those who have trusted God for their salvation, found only in Jesus Christ. The kingdom of darkness and its subjects will be overthrown and cast for eternity into everlasting judgment.
To which kingdom do you belong? This is probably the most important question that One can ask you or me, and it requires an answer.
Steve
stevelampman.com
Transforming Power; The Work of God on Behalf of Man
Ascribed to by Oscar Leske
F/B- Signs of Our Times
www.Understandingthesignsofourtimes