There
are at least two conclusions that we can make from the prophetic words of
Isaiah quoted in verse 15-16. First is the truth that God plans well in
advance. Five hundred years before Christ came to the scene, God already had in
mind for Him to come to the lands of Zebulun and Naphtali. The Lord coming to
this region merely fulfilled God’s plan. Secondly, these verses reveal the
largeness of God’s heart. He had the salvation of the Gentiles in mind. These
verses reveal God’s desire to bring light to those people in darkness. Verse 16
tells how He wants those people living under the shadow of death to be
introduced to the Kingdom of His marvellous Light. Isaiah inferred that the
population in Galilee was more Gentiles. So Jesus came and settled in Capernaum
by the Sea of Galilee to reach out to them.
Here
we are told that the circumstance that led the Lord’s move to Capernaum was
John’s custody by the Roman authority. What seems like an unpleasant incident
was God’s signal that it was the season for His Son to begin His public
ministry. So the Lord began to proclaim the message saying, “Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Notice that “the Kingdom of heaven” is used instead
of “the Kingdom of God.” This is because the Jews would not casually mention
the word “God.” So this tells us that the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of
heaven are being used synonymously to refer to the realm of God’s reign.
Christ
Jesus came to call believers into the realm of His reign. This realm is also known
as the Kingdom of Light. The use of the word Kingdom is significant, for the
people in the New Testament understood perfectly that this has to do in the change
of rule. Israel was a subjugated nation. They were dominated by the Romans for 60
over years. The Romans even installed Herod and his sons to rule over them. As
a Jew, they had always believed that God is their real King. It is a Kingdom
that God is ruling! It’s a Kingdom many Jews had hoped and longed for, and
still many more had prayed and would gladly die for, and were prepared for a
revolt to overthrow the rule of the Romans. What they didn’t know was that what
Christ came to proclaim was about a realm that’s invisible and that the naked eye
cannot see. We need to know, though the realm in which the Lord reigns cannot
be seen by naked eyes, its effect, however, could be felt in the physical
realm.
While
the call to the Kingdom of heaven is welcome, the call to repent is often not. Yet this is precisely where the rubber meets
the road. The act of repentance is so critical to entrance into this Kingdom. Why?
It’s because the revolution we are called into is not against any earthly domain,
but against the empire set up by the forces of darkness. To enter the kingdom
of God calls for a radical change of heart and perception. Are we prepared for
the change so that we can be Kingdom movers for God? Repent, for the Kingdom of
heaven is at hand!
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