THE KINGDOM OF GOD IN THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH

No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever

made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Pet 1:19f). This article elaborates the importance of Jesus’ atoning blood in admitting “those who believe in Him into His kingdom. And how God continuously emancipates His people from sins, based upon the premise of His blood covenant. It does not attempt to interpret the prophecies, to make them dogmatic.

The second part of Zechariah contains a sub­stantial amount of predictive elements, one of which is the future Kingdom of God. To talk about it, we may need to know what the neces­sary conditions for the Kingdom of God are. At the least, the Lord should be recognized as the most important figure reigning in His Kingdom (Fs 22:28), within which He takes control over those whom He has chosen (Deut 7:6; Exod 19:6).

Since we know that God is of the Spirit and human beings of the physical realm, the Kingdom of God thus cannot be delimited in our cos­mic dimension. God Himself decides where His Kingdom is - where the King is, there is the Kingdom of God (Lk 17:21). In other words, if God dwells in us we are the Kingdom of God.

Having established the conditions, we realize that the Kingdom of God in the book of Zechariah is His protection of, and presence with, His people (9:8). This part of the prophecy can have twofold meanings. It may refer to the protection given to Israel in the near or distant future. Despite God’s love and promise, they sinned repeatedly against Him. But, the rebellion of His people would not render His covenant void. Amidst the punish­ment He inflicted upon them, He continued in His promise of deliverance (cf. 10:8-12; 11:10-11). He had to either beckon them to return or raise a leader to save them, the major reason being that He initiated His covenant with blood (9:11). This first started at the slaughter of the Egyptian firstborns. God deliv­ered His people who marked their door-posts with blood (Exod 12:13; 24).

From this perspective, the covenant of His blood becomes an important theme in explaining the Kingdom of God both in terms of the prophetic books. In particular Zechariah, foretelling that many nations shall attack Israel (Ch.13-14), but God shall save a remnant of the Jews, despite the sin of reject­ing the gospel, and of the vehement crucifixion of their Savior Jesus.