MORE ON GOD’S KINGDOM

In our last post on this subject we saw how Saul was made king in Israel.  Saul was chosen by disobedient Israel who wanted a king instead of God to rule over them.  He nevertheless was Israel’s first king on earth.  He did not please God, and God took the  Kingdom from him and gave it to David, a man after God’s own heart.  David wanted to build a house for God, but he, being a man of war, God would not let him.  Instead God made another covenant. This time it was with David, the king.  In it He promised him that He would bless his son, Soloman, and allow him to build Him a house.  Solomon did build the temple in Jerusalem.  Until then the house of God was a tabernacle or tent, a temporary house that could be moved from place to place and was moved as Israel moved.  The temple was to be a permanent house of God.  God promised perpetuity of his kingdom, his house, and his throne.  It seems that the word house here is more than just his immediate family, but is speaking of a dynasty.  Certainly his immediate family died off, but his dynasty lived on.  God promised that it would continue everlastingly.  Solomon was of course his direct son who succeeded him on the throne.  Upon the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam took the throne.  Up until now, from Saul through Rehoboam, the kingdom had been one kingdom including all the 12 tribes of Israel.  Under Rehoboam another crisis occurred.  A man named Jeroboam led the 10 tribes of the north in rebellion against the king,  Rehoboam, who was of the dynasty of David and was of the tribe of Judah, from whom it had been prophesied that the scepter would not depart from Judah until Shiloh would come.  The ten tribes of Israel were ruled by Jeroboam and many other wicked kings, with never a good king until they were finally captured by the Assyrians.  The kingdom of the south, called Judah, continued right on with a member of the tribe of Judah and a son of the dynasty of David until the last king of Judah was taken captive by The Babylonians.  Was Christ’s kingdom destroyed?  Is God defeated.  A thousand times no. Later we shall see how this continues to work.  God will have man rule upon the earth.  Do you agree with this?  What are your thoughts?