Thought for Today

Genesis 10:10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar.  

Esther 10:1 King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the empire, to its distant shores. (NIV)

Mark 1:15 and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

When did the word ‘empire’ become a politically improper profanity? I must have played hooky that day and missed the lesson. Irrespective of that, however, no one speaks today about creating empires. That doesn’t mean that no person or nation is trying to do so currently, it just is not talked about in polite or impolite society. I know of no other way to categorize Russia’s invasion of Ukraine except as an attempt to begin the recreation of the Soviet Union, which was simply an empire by another name.

The idea of empire is on my mind this morning because of 2 things I saw on television yesterday. The first was a report on a political candidate for governor of a midwestern state who at one time advocated abolishing Thanksgiving because it was a celebration of colonial oppression of indigenous people. The other was a program on the National Geographic channel about the Inca Empire.

History is replete with empires. Much of our Bible takes place during the Age of Empires. The earliest books of the Old Testament are set in the context of the clash between the Egyptian Empire and various empires to its east, Assyria, Babylon, the Hittites and others. Canaan, Lebanon and Syria, much like eastern Europe in the 20th century, furnished the battleground on which those empires clashed.

During the Intertestamental period, the Greek and later Roman empires arose. Apocryphal books like Maccabees take place against the background of the rise and fall of Alexander’s conquests and empire building.

Our New Testament is set firmly in the context of the Roman Empire. Israel, Judah, the Galilee and other regions were occupied by Roman legions, occupational troops firmly exercising the power and authority of Rome. When Jesus said, “Luke 20:25 . . . ‘Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's’," the emperor to whom he referred was Caesar. The troops that arrested Jesus, scourged Jesus, nailed Jesus to the cross and guarded Jesus’ tomb were Roman soldiers.

The Greek word we variously translate as empire, kingdom or realm is βασιλεία, and it means, “(1) abstractly, the power exercised by a king kingship, royal rule, reign (AC 1.6); (2) concretely, the territory ruled by a king kingdom, realm.” (Friberg, Analytical Greek Lexicon) Is there any substantive difference between an empire, a kingdom or a realm?

How are Christians called to view empires, kingdoms and/or realms? Should we view them any differently from nations, states or countries? Paul wrote, “Romans 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 9 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus himself instructed his disciples and now us, “Matthew 6:9 "Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Christians pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God, ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ. We could just as easily pray in English for the Empire of God. There is a substantive difference between the ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ and all earthly kingdoms, realms and empires. The difference is not so much in the basic concept of royal rule, of realm or reign, of the territory ruled by a king. The difference is in the king or ruler himself.

The kingdom (empire) for which we pray is one ruled by the Creator of Creation. The empire (kingdom) for which we pray is one where God’s will is done on earth just as it is in heaven. That realm is one where all things are the things that are God's, including each and every one of us. It is the kingdom where all of God’s children live peacefully and fully, together with each other and with God and all of God’s Creation.

Pray for the coming of the kingdom of God, work for the coming of the kingdom of God, trust God,

Pastor Ray