Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. The king answered and said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.” Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court. | Daniel 2:46-49
On Sunday, we talked about the power of God vs. the power of this world. At the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, we have a stone cut from no human hand, which crushes the kingdoms of this world and establishes a kingdom that will last forever. We said that this was Jesus coming to declare His authority over His world and to establish the New Heavens and the New Earth, where the people of God will live in the presence of their King. This future, eternal kingdom is the hope of every Christian.
I ended by pointing out that the establishment of this Kingdom has two aspects: Spiritual and Physical. While Jesus has already come to prove His authority and to rescue His people spiritually, we still wait for Him to return to establish His kingdom physically on earth. This waiting is not accident. We do not wait because Jesus is trying to gain the strength to overcome the power of this world; we wait because there are still things that He plans to accomplish in this world before He returns. The reality of this ‘Already, but not Yet Kingdom’ helps us to not fall into two unhelpful ditches that have plagued many Christians.
The first thing that it does is keeps us from trying to establish Heaven on earth. The fulfillment of God’s plan, and its crushing of all power along the way, should make us wary of placing too much hope in human strength. We have a tendency to want it all now, and this can sometimes lead us to believing that heaven is achievable through human means. We begin to think that the best we have experienced is God’s definition of good. We settle for glimpses of His glory and counterfeit gods that promise us more than they could ever deliver. Recognizing that Jesus will return to usher in His Kingdom allows us to wait patiently, not placing our hope in earthly power and wisdom along the way.
The second thing it does is gives us a reason to keep going. Every moment that Jesus does not come back is time where there is work to be done on this earth. Many have used the coming Kingdom to fully dismiss everything that happens until then, calling this life merely a: speed bump to eternity. God does not reveal this future to us for us to sit on our hands. The reality of the eternity should give us a peace in this world that allows us to act for the good of creation. We do good out of a response to God’s power.
We see this in Daniel 2. After telling the king that his kingdom would be replaced by another, Daniel is promoted in Babylon and goes to work in the king’s court. Here is Daniel, who was kidnapped from his homeland and exiled to Babylon, working hard to bring good to a nation that he knows will pass away. Like Daniel, we can work hard to bring God’s good to bear on His creation; we can do it as an act of worship to Him. The weight of needing to rescue this world, or usher in perfection, is taken off of our shoulders. We can simply be faithful, knowing that God works through our faithfulness to accomplish his plan. In this story, that includes the leader of a foreign nation who has just been told that his kingdom will end declaring:
Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.
You and I don’t know exactly what God intends or how He may use us. What we know is that there is a reason that He keeps this world going and that we have an opportunity to play a role in that purpose while we are here. This may be a speed bump to eternity, but it is an important speed bump.