d
inaugurate suddenly and completely an era of peace and prosperity the
like of which had never been known before, a true kingdom of God. One
extension of this idea was that Israel should replace the Roman empire
as the suzerain of all the other nations of the earth. "Arise, shine;
for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
people: but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen
upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising.... And the sons of strangers shall build up
thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I
smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy
gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night;
that men may bring unto thee forces of the Gentiles, and that their
kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve
thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.... The
sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and
all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of
thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of
the Holy One of Israel." This fine passage shows pretty clearly what
was the general idea as to the nature of the anticipated kingdom of
God. It meant that the Jewish Messiah was to take the place of Caesar
and reign with undisputed sway from his capital of Jerusalem.

But we should do an injustice to the subject if we failed to allow for
the fact that according to the prophetic ideal this kingdom was to be a
blessing to the world, and to abolish all violence and oppression; the
kingdom of God was to be a kingdom of universal peace and joy, a
kingdom of righteousness based on social justice. It was because of
this widespread expectation that the austere preacher, John the
Baptist, obtained his hearing in the wilderness of Judea. All John had
to preach about was the kingdom of God, which he declared to be near at
hand. He believed that he had been sent to herald the coming of the
Messiah, and from his words we can gather what people thought about the
Messiah: "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his
floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire." According to the Baptist, the Messiah
would spare no