God created human beings to exercise dominion over all the earth (Gen. 1.26-28). He placed Adam and Eve in a garden which stood out among all the places of the earth as a place of beauty and abundance. He gave them the task of caring for and developing that garden (Gen. 2.15), with the obvious intent that the goodness of the garden should be maintained and expanded – as Adam and Eve had children, and their children had children – until the earth itself became a garden of the Lord’s goodness.

The fall into sin changed all that; nevertheless, God’s design to bring His rule to bear over all the earth remained unchanged, as we see in Jacob’s prophecy concerning Judah. A day would come in which a Kingdom would be established, centered on Israel and administered through Judah, which would command the obedience of all the peoples of the earth.

In the Law God makes it clear that this Kingdom is not to be like any earthly Kingdom, whether a great empire like Egypt or a pagan monarchy such as those Israel would dispossess. God’s Kingdom, centered in Israel and administered by Judah, would be a Kingdom of love, where all would be bound by the Law of God to seek the Lord in order to love Him and their neighbors, following the example and lead of their King (Deut. 17.18-20).

This Kingdom would overflow with the promised blessings of the Lord because the Lord Himself would be in the midst of it, as symbolized by the tabernacle and, later, the temple, and expedited by the work of the priests. So, at the very least, Israel must have considered that, in some way, what God was planning to do in the land of promise, with the generation that survived through the wilderness, was but the first stage – or the next stage – of a larger, universal design to recover God’s original plan for seeing His rule unto goodness extend over all the earth.

Subsequent revelation – from the prophets who followed Moses, and particularly the great Prophet, our Lord Jesus Christ – would make it clear that this Kingdom was a work of God Himself, focused on a particular place and time as to its beginning (Dan. 2.44, 45), but growing and increasing without end (Is. 9.6, 7) as a power from heaven for righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit to the ends of the earth and the end of time (Rom. 14.17, 18; Acts 1.8; Matt. 28.18-20).

The “footprint” of that Kingdom is laid down in the Law and in Israel’s experience in Canaan throughout the period of the Old Testament, especially during the reign of Solomon. The full realization of that Kingdom awaits the return of its proper King, Who will lead His faithful people into the new Canaan of the new heavens and the new earth where, at last, the original purpose of God for His own glory will be achieved.

T. M. Moore

The book of Ecclesiastes is a crucial resource for understanding the Biblical worldview against the backdrop of our secular age. T. M.’s studies in Ecclesiastes have been prepared for personal or group use. They are available at no charge in our Scriptorium Resources page at The Fellowship of Ailbe. Click hereto download all 13 studies in this series..

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.