Ephesians 4:3-6; One Lord – The Mediatorial King, part 3.

Thursday March 18, 2021

1. The Nature of the Coming Ruler.

Certain names and titles applied to this future Ruler indicate that He will be both human and divine in nature.

The prophets saw the Ruler clearly as a Man. The prophets also clearly revealed that the King was divine.

They revealed Him as coming to His people in a supernatural manner and establishing His kingdom with the redeemed, fulfilling all the promises that God had made to Abraham and David as well as the New Covenant revealed through Ezekiel and Jeremiah.

In that glad day the nation of Israel is called upon to shout and sing because their King, the Lord, is in their midst.

Zechariah gives us a magnificent description of the Mediatorial Kingdom as it concerns the nations of the earth, affirms that these nations will come up to Jerusalem to “worship the King whose name is Yavah.” Chap 14 is the return of the King.

Zec 14:9

And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one.

I think the translators make the error of trying to help the language too much.

“And the Lord will be King over all the earth; in that day there shall be one Lord, and His name one.”

Eph 4:4-6

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.”

Zec 14:16-17

Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. 17 And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.

And, since we are in Zec, we find here the final return of the Glory of the Lord to Israel, which Ezekiel saw removed.

Eze 11:23

And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood over the mountain which is east of the city.

Zec 14:4

And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.

Zec 14:9

And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one.

Ezekiel was in Babylon during the captivity when he was given a vision of Jerusalem.

First, the prophet saw the Glory of God still in the city of David in its proper place in the Temple.

Eze 8:1-4

And it came about in the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell on me there. 2 Then I looked, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of a man; from His loins and downward there was the appearance of fire, and from His loins and upward the appearance of brightness, like the appearance of glowing metal. 3 And He stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the idol of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy, was located. 4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the appearance which I saw in the plain.

A little later in the vision he notes that the glory had gone up.

Eze 9:3-4

Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case. 4 And the Lord said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst."

The ones without the mark were to be slain.

Then the prophet writes that the glory of the Lord stood over the threshold, as if resisting His own departure.

Eze 10:4-5

Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. 5 Moreover, the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks.

Finally, the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the prophet records the tragic end:

Eze 11:22-23

Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. 23 And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood over the mountain which is east of the city.

Thus, the glory of God left the city of Jerusalem. It would not return for over 500 years until the Person of Christ, and since He was rejected, it will not return until His second coming.

Some think that this is the end of the kingdom of God in the history of the OT. Some think it still existed as coming with the return of the exiles, but though they rebuilt the walls, the city, and the temple, we do not read of the glory of the Lord filling that second temple as He did the Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple. It would seem that this was the end of them, for they never again would have a king, but not the final end. Christ will return and fulfill the promises made to Abraham and David and Israel.

Zec 14:4

Eze 43:1-5

Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing toward the east; 2 and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east. And His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. 3 And it was like the appearance of the vision which I saw, like the vision which I saw when He came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face. 4 And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. 5 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.

As to His own self-identification there can be no question – the King is God.

Isa 44:6

“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel

And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:

'I am the first and I am the last,

And there is no God besides Me.’”

The fact that the King has come, and due to His rejection has left, does not mean that He withheld the blessing of His life from men until He returns.

Paul was brought before King Agrippa to answer the charge of apostasy from Old Testament revelation – and he replied:

Act 26:22-23

"And so, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; 23 that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He should be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles."

Col 1:9-14

For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

2. The Origin of the Coming Ruler.

1Co 15:47

The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.

As might be expected, the paradox of a Ruler who is both human and divine will inevitably present a further paradox in the description of His origin, where we find elements which are both natural and supernatural.

On the one side, He is out of the womb of a human mother and born as a child. He is born in Bethlehem. He grows up before the Lord as a tender plant. From these, He might be any child. But in the case of this particular child the so-called natural phenomena are produced by supernatural means: a sign is given to the house of David, which was then standing under the threat of historical destruction, the conception of this child would take place in the womb of a virgin, Isa 7:14.

Above and beyond all the human context of His divinely caused origin on earth, the prophets picture the King as coming gloriously from above.

Mic 5:2

"But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

Too little to be among the clans of Judah,

From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.

His goings forth are from long ago,

From the days of eternity."

Dan 7:13-14

"I kept looking in the night visions,

And behold, with the clouds of heaven

One like a Son of Man was coming,

And He came up to the Ancient of Days

And was presented before Him.

14 "And to Him was given dominion,

Glory and a kingdom,

That all the peoples, nations, and men of every language

Might serve Him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion

Which will not pass away;

And His kingdom is one

Which will not be destroyed.

Again and again in the prophetic picture, the King is presented on the stage of human history with no mention whatever of any humanly conditioned origin on earth: Psa 2, 45, 72, 110; Joe 3; Mic 4; Zec 14; Mal 3-4.

No theological account of the Messianic King, as He is presented in the OT prophets, can be true which fails to give due place to both the human and divine elements of His nature, and also to both the earthly and heavenly aspects of His origin. He cannot be remade to fit into any form of human reason, which was the trend in Israel through the three centuries prior to His birth and has been in fairly modern liberal theology.

The apostle Paul, no superficial scholar in matters of OT prophecy, summarizes the doctrine of the Messianic King in a single sentence:

1Co 15:45-47

So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.

3. The Character of the Coming Ruler

Isa 42:1

“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold;

My chosen one in whom My soul delights.”

At the center of the failure of the kingdom of Israel highlighted in the OT is the imperfect character of its rulers. These many evil kings were mediators between the people and God. Yet, even the good kings were not qualified as mediators of a perfect and eternal kingdom, which is the only kind God can possess. Still, their failure as mediators is why we read so much about them and their actions and not so much of the general populace. It seems that as goes the king so goes the people, and in some sense that is true, although not absolute.

Over against the dismal background of Israel’s kings, the prophets picture the coming King in sharp contrast.

Isa 11:1-5

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,

And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

2 And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,

The spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The spirit of counsel and strength,

The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

3 And He will delight in the fear of the Lord,

And He will not judge by what His eyes see,

Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;

4 But with righteousness He will judge the poor,

And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;

And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,

And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

5 Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins,

And faithfulness the belt about His waist.