The King Who Left His Kingdom
The imagery of Yom Kippur is the end time judgment, when God will separate the sheep from the goats. Also it is the imagery of a righteous Judge who will open the books of each of our lives. The question will be is your name written in the Book of Life? The Fall Feasts are all about Yeshua’s second coming. We want to look at His first coming and then end with His second coming.
2 Chronicles 18:28 says, “So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up against Ramoth-gilead. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you put on your robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself, and they went into battle.”
This Scripture reminded me of another king who disguised himself, and he too, went into the battle. Who was this king? Psalm 24:8-10 asks the same question, “Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is He, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— He is the King of glory.”
The King is Yeshua!
Philippians 2: 5-7 says this, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Messiah Yeshua, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men.”
Yeshua came and disguised Himself as a mere man, as a poor lowly servant. Our Messiah not only left His glory to come down to be a mere man, but He also emptied Himself of all that made Him God, the Creator of all things seen and unseen, and He took off His deity, and robed Himself in humanity. And so,we have a Messiah who can relate to our needs and our sufferings.
Hebrews 4:14-16 says, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Yeshua the Son of God, let’s hold firmly to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need.”
When we look at our disguised King we see that He came as a humble human being, born in a manger, among barn animals, laying in a manger of hay, certainly not fit for a king of glory. He was not a beautiful child, for all to gaze upon, No! The Scriptures tell us about this King in Isaiah 53:1-3, “ Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem.”
Yes, our King truly was disguised, and because of this He was despised. He was a common servant to the people. Matthew 8:20 records our King saying this, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
The Child who was born in a barn, still had no place He called home.
This King was crucified because when He tried to tell the people that He was a king they became angry and put Him to death.
Mark 14: 65 says, “And some began to spit on Him, and to blindfold Him, and to beat Him with their fists and say to Him, “Prophesy!” Then the officers took custody of Him and slapped Him in the face.”
Yes, they mocked Him and laughed at Him and on the top of His cross they placed a sign that read, “Yeshua THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS,” John 19:19.
But what was not known was that the King’s mission was to win a great battle over His enemy. He came to pay a debt that we owed. This King of Glory who could have bought the whole world for us, came not to purchase our freedom with money , but with His own shed blood. You see when they crucified Him for saying He was a King, they did not know that through this, He would win the greatest victory ever. He would redeem us from the power of the evil one. He would deliver us from the kingdom of darkness and bring us into His kingdom of light, Colossian 1:13.
Let’s look at some of Yeshua’s parables in which He tells us a great story about Himself. Matthew 25 speaks of these different parables. Take note that the parable begins with a shepherd, sheep, and goats and then for some reason it goes to a king, his servants, and a kingdom. It is believed that the rest of this parable has been lost from Matthew’s gospel, but you can surmise that these two parables were closely related.
Let’s begin by looking at Matthew 25:31-33, “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.
Matthew 25:34-40 says, “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’”
But the parable goes on to say in Matthew 25:41-46, “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me, either.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
What a profound message. Yeshua who came, and was forsaken, is actually in every person that we meet. This parable was not just for the people of His day, but for all of us, throughout the ages. When God breathed into man, He breathed into Him life. You see God is the God of life, and we get our life from Him, and so, a little part of God is in each of us, to live for Him or to live without Him, is our choice, but we have the ability to live eternally if we choose to live in His life. This is what Yeshua conquered when He shed His blood. Sin separates us from God, but Yeshua made the way for us to be able to return to Him.
This gives new meaning to the following.
John 13:34-35 says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
And this in Matthew 5:44-48, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 25:14-30, also speaks about the parable of the Talents. It is about a man who goes on a long journey and he trusts his servants with his possessions. When he comes back he asks them what they did with his possessions. We will begin in verse 21, “Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have earned five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter the joy of your master.’ “Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have earned two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter the joy of your master.’ “Now the one who had received the one talent also came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed. And I was afraid, so I went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you still have what is yours.’ “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You worthless, lazy slave! Did you know that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter seed? Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore: take the talent away from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. And throw the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Today, we are to carry on our King’s mission, the work of His kingdom. We are to love one another, even our enemies. Our king has given each of us His possessions, called love, truth , kindness, gentleness, goodness, peace, patience, self-control, just to name a few, and we are to take these, and invest them in others, because one day our King is coming back again, and He will no longer be disguised. And He will ask us what we did with what He gave us. Will we say, “When were you hungry or sick, or in need of food?” “When did we not love you?” Or “I was afraid of you so I buried my talent.”
No! We want to hear, well done good and faithful servants, enter into My Kingdom.
One day we will see God as He is, there will be no more disguise,
and 1 John 3: 2 tells us all about it.
“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
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