Chapter 2: The Right Side Up Kingdom. As we shall see shortly, the kingdom that turned the world upside down is a unique kingdom; it's a kingdom of upside-down values. In 1978, Donald Kraybill wrote a book entitled The Upside Down Kingdom, in which he explored some of these upside-down values of the kingdom of God. But to fully understand this upside-down kingdom, we must first look at a kingdom that was right side up.
The scriptures introduce us to this right side up kingdom in the book of Exodus, where God spoke to the Israelites. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. This was God's offer to the Israelites, that they could be his special kingdom of priests. And the Israelites accepted his offer. They entered into a covenant with him at Sinai.
Like most covenants, this covenant was two-sided. If the Israelites obeyed God's voice, then they would be to him a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Like any other kingdom, the nation of Israel was to have a ruler and laws. However, their king, lawgiver, and judge was to be God himself. The laws of the kingdom of Israel were the Mosaic Law, given directly by God. Despite these special features, the kingdom of Israel was still an earthly kingdom. In most aspects, it was similar to the kingdoms of the world.
It had a physical, geographic territory. Its people were a distinct ethnic nationality. They defended their kingdom with earthly soldiers, armed with swords, spears, and bows. Like all other earthly kingdoms, the Israelites expanded their territory through the use of the sword. In the eyes of the surrounding nations, the most distinctive thing about the Israelites was that their law forbade the use of idols. In fact, even God's promised blessings to the Israelites were earthly, material blessings.
If you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, and the increase of your herds. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground. The Lord will open to you his good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season.
You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. But it was not only the blessings that would be material. If the Israelites broke their covenant, their punishments would likewise be earthly, physical. The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust. From the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall carry much seed out to the field, but gather little in, for the locusts shall consume it.
You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worms shall eat them. In short, the ancient kingdom of Israel was a right side up kingdom. Its pattern was even understandable to the other nations of the world. In fact, in many aspects, ancient Israel was modeled after the same pattern on which their nations had been built. The primary difference was that the other nations imagined it was their gods who had established them as a people.
They believed it was their gods who prospered them materially when they worshipped these gods. And they believed it was their gods who punished them with droughts and famines when their gods were displeased with them. In many ways, the worldview of the Gentile nations was quite similar to the worldview of the Israelites. The primary difference was in matters of religion and morality, not in matters of state. But the ancient kingdom of Israel, which was predominantly earthly, was not intended as an end in itself.
It was meant to be a tutor, leading the Israelites to something far greater, a kingdom that would truly not be of this world.