The million dollar question becomes: “How does this third view of the kingdom changes things?”
It changes everything because “now” God wants full control over every area of your life. No longer can we justify spiting our lives into “secular” and “sacred” bubbles – either we under his reign and rule or we are not.
As I was pondering this question over the weekend, the judges of Israel came to mind.
To briefly recap, after Moses died, the leadership of the Jews fell to Joshua (Moses’ right hand man). Joshua was a military leader who led the people through a series of military campaigns to conquer the land promised to Abraham. When Joshua died, the Lord choose not to set up one individual as the main leader of the Israelites, but allowed each of the 12 tribes to rule themselves – thus ending the centralized government of the time.
Enter the judges.[@more@]
These guys and gals were raised up by God at different times and places as the need arose. Otherwise, God was happy being the Lord and King of all the people Israel. It is noteworthy to me that when the Israelites reconstructed a centralized government, God was unhappy with the people. For some reason, God was happier ruling His people through a lose network of judges, prophets, and priests then He was in ruling through a “royal” individual.
Or to put in another way, God’s original plan for the nation of Israel was to rule each person and tribe Himself. Yet the people of the land wanted to set up a political kingdom where morality was guarded through the kingly family.
In hindsight, we see that this didn't work out too well as the royal family had some crooked branches. (pun intended) 
Continued tomorrow…
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