Thank you for the question on the Kingdom of God, “Why is the Kingdom of God important for understanding the Bible?”
The Kingdom of God is quite often equated with the Patriarchs of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob and God’s unconditional covenant with them and their descendants (Genesis 12:1–3). As a Christian, quite often Christians focus on the Church Age and the work that God has committed to them to fulfill in this world, that is spreading the Gospel and making disciples of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:18–20). Since Christians focus on the “Rapture of the saints” or the “Second Coming of Jesus Christ” in their eschatological thinking, it is easy for Christians to forget about the Kingdom of God. .
I want to state that my understanding of the Scripture does not represent other Christians and churches. I realize that Christians and Jews have varying viewpoints on the Kingdom of God in understanding the relationship between the Jewish people and the followers of Jesus Christ (Christians). The differences are highlighted and are in sharp contrast when one refers to eschatology.
For one’s consideration,here are my reasons why it is important to understand the Kingdom of God in the Bible:
A. Understanding the Kingdom of God enables a believer to understand the broader divine plan and rule of God on earth.
With the resurrection of Jesus Christ in about 33 CE and the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the focus of believers shifted from Jewish people and the Promised Kingdom to them. The shift began to focus on the followers of Jesus Christ in their local assemblies and the organizing of believers which became the Catholic Church before the Protestant Reformation. Understanding the Kingdom of God enables Christians to see our place within the Kingdom of God. In other words, the Church is not the Kingdom of God. The Church or its believers are PART of the Kingdom of God.
B. Understanding the Kingdom of God ought to give believers a greater appreciation of the Jewish people and the plan that God has for them.
God loves the Jewish people. He is The apple of his eyes. Christians have wrongly described and ascribed Jews as haters of Jesus, forgetting that they too were once haters of God and of Jesus Christ. Instead of appreciating them, they have been hated through the centuries. God has not rejected the Jewish people nor nullified his promise to them of Kingdom whereby the Messiah will rule over them and the world.
The disciples asked Jesus this question in Acts 1, “Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority”(A searchable online Bible in over 150 versions and 50 languages). Citations are from the New International Version. There is a future for the Jewish people.
C. Understanding the Kingdom of God and its promises made in the Old Testament enables a believer to read the context and text that certains promises were given to the Jewish people, not to Christians.
For example, Christians quite often quote or claim the promise of Joshua 1:8, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (NIV). What happens when a Christian is not prosperous and successful? That person may say that the promise is false for God didn’t keep his promise. S/he may walk away from their faith or even reject it. One forgets that the context is that this promise is given to Joshua. As leader of the Jewish people, for him to succeed in conquering the Promised Land, he had to carefully obey everything written in the Book of the Law. Christians interpret or read into the text that the “Book of the Law” is the Bible and that by meditating and following the Bible, that one will be prosperous and successful in what one does in life. It is not. Joshua didn’t have the “Bible” but the Laws given by Moses to the Jewish people. The success was conquering the Promised Land and inheriting a land of abundance. Joshua obeyed the command of the Law and the Jewish people were successful in inheriting a rich and abundant land. There may be applications for Christians that obedience to God may bring blessings for Christians but that is not a guarantee. Jesus said this to his followers that in this world they will have trials, not become rich and famous. Understanding the Kingdom of God and its promises helps us to avoid claiming promises of God that does not apply to us from the Old Testament. Reading the context and text avoids asserting guarantee promises of God when it was not given to us.
D. Understanding the Kingdom of God gives a believer a heavenly perspective that one’s citizenship is in heaven with God and with his people.
Living in the world makes us think that a believer is part of the world, that one should adopt or adjust one’s lifestyle to the world. Believers know that their citizenship is in heaven, but they want to enjoy the things of this world. It’s fun and it feels good to be accepted by one’s peer at work or in the community.
Being mindful that believers are also Kingdom people who are to live by Kingdom principles enables us to avoid loving this world and the things of this world (I John 2:15–17). This does not mean that one has to live like a hermit or in a reclusive area. Reading what happened to the Jewish people when they loved the world and the things of this world should be warning for believers. Believers are here with a commission to fulfill a mission in advancing the Kingdom of God. Their distinctiveness is not so much in their appearance but their in their lifestyle and message. Christians need reminders that they are Kingdom people and not citizens of this world.
Philippians 3 says this, “Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (NIV).
It is easy for Christians to overlook or even ignored the Jewish people and focus on themselves as being the people of God. Christians ought to remember that salvation comes from the Jews, not from the Church. God will fulfill his promise to the Jewish people where God will dwell with her forever and forever and Christians will be along side with them.
The Apostle Paul says this in Romans 9, “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27 And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” 28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (NIV).
SUMMARY: Understanding the Kingdom of God reminds Christians that God has plan for the Universal Church but also a plan for the Jewish people whereby both groups are sheep under one shepherd, Jesus Christ.
For more perspectives:
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-Kingdom-of-God-important-for-understanding-the-Bible