By Sidney Louis Davis Jr.

The Question

A subscriber asks: How does a Jewish community view the Kingdom of God, and how does it relate to non-Jews?

The Hebrew Bible, rabbinic writings, Jewish prayer, and the New Testament present a coherent vision of God’s Kingdom. HaShem reigns now, His rule is accepted through covenant loyalty, and His kingship will be publicly revealed on earth through the restoration of Israel, the Land, Jerusalem, and David’s throne. Israel remains God’s covenant kingdom, “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6), while the nations share in the Kingdom’s blessings without becoming or replacing Israel.

Part One: The Kingdom of God (Malkhut Shamayim)

1. The Kingdom Is Accepted Now

The first point is that a person can enter God’s Kingdom now in the present, as Yeshua told the thief, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43, KJV). In the Bible, a kingdom is not only a place; it is also the rule of a king and a relationship of fidelity and trust between the king and his people. A person accepts God’s Kingdom by recognizing Him as King and living under His covenant authority. The Mishnah (Berakhot 2:2) uses the daily recitation of the Shema to explain this idea. Deuteronomy 6:4–9, which declares loyalty to HaShem, comes before the second paragraph of the Shema, Deuteronomy 11:13–21, which calls Israel to obey His commandments. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korḥah therefore teaches that a person first accepts ol malkhut shamayim, “the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven,” and then accepts the yoke of the commandments.

A Jew expresses this allegiance twice each day in the Shema: HaShem alone is God and King. The order matters. Loyalty to the King comes first, and obedience to His commands follows from that loyalty.

The Old Testament describes this rule in several ways: “the kingdom of the LORD” (1 Chron 28:5), “Your kingdom” (Ps 145:11–13), and “an everlasting kingdom” (Dan 4:3). It also announces, “The LORD reigns” (Ps 93:1), and calls Him “King over all the earth” (Zech 14:9). These expressions all point to the same truth: HaShem is King, and His authority extends over Israel and the whole world.

The New Testament continues this same theme with terms such as “Kingdom of God,” “Kingdom of Heaven,” “Kingdom of Christ,” and “Kingdom of the Son.” These are not separate kingdoms. They describe the same divine rule from different angles. Matthew often uses “Kingdom of Heaven,” a Jewish way of speaking respectfully about God.

The phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” can be misunderstood as referring to a kingdom located in the sky, the heavens, or somewhere beyond the earth. But in Matthew, “Heaven” is a reverent way of referring to God.

The “Kingdom of Heaven” is therefore the Kingdom of God—the rule that comes from heaven and is established on earth. This is why Yeshua taught his disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10, KJV).

2. The Kingdom Is Awaited Later

The second point is that God’s Kingdom is also awaited as a future public reality. God is already King, but the world does not yet fully reflect His justice and peace. The prophets therefore look forward to a time when His rule will be openly recognized throughout the earth:

• Zechariah 14:9: “The LORD will be King over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be one and His name one.”
• Daniel 2:44; 7:14, 27: a kingdom that will never be destroyed, given to “the people of the holy ones of the Most High.”
• Obadiah 21: “And the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.”

Jewish prayer keeps this future hope alive. The Kaddish asks God to establish His Kingdom in our lifetime. The Aleinu, said at the end of every service, looks forward to the day when the world will be letakken olam be-malkhut Shaddai, “perfected under the Kingdom of the Almighty,” and when “all flesh will call upon Your name.” These prayers do not ask God to become King; they ask for His kingship to be revealed and accepted by all.

3. The Kingdom Is Earthly, Not Disembodied

The third point is that Israel is God’s covenant kingdom on earth. At Sinai, HaShem called Israel “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6). The Kingdom is therefore not simply a place in heaven to which the saints are removed. It is God’s rule expressed through His covenant people and ultimately established openly on this earth, centered on Israel, the Land, and Jerusalem. Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Melakhim 12:1–5) likewise describes the messianic age as life in this world under restored divine order. Israel is freed from rule by the nations so that it can study Torah and serve God without interference, and the earth is “filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isa 11:9).

The restored Kingdom will be established in the Land of Israel, with Jerusalem as its royal center and the throne of David as the Messiah’s seat of government. From Jerusalem, HaShem’s rule and Torah will go out to the nations (Isa 2:2–4; Zech 14:9, 16–17; Luke 1:32–33).

The 144,000 are not unsaved people seeking salvation. They are already redeemed and sealed servants of God, but their role occurs before salvation history reaches its final public completion. Revelation presents them standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion as the firstfruits of restored Israel and as faithful witnesses while the Kingdom is being fully restored (Rev 7:3–8; 14:1–5). Because Zion is the biblical royal center associated with Jerusalem and the Messiah’s reign, the vision places them within the setting of Israel’s restored Kingdom.

The Lord’s Prayer confirms this earthly direction. Yeshua teaches his disciples to ask for God’s heavenly rule and will to be established here on earth, not for God’s people to abandon the earth for a kingdom located elsewhere.

Some Christians read John 14:2–3 together with Revelation 20–21 to mean that the saints will live in heaven for a thousand years and later return inside the New Jerusalem. John 14 promises that Yeshua’s disciples will be with him, but it does not say that they will spend the thousand years in heaven. Revelation 20 says that the saints reign with Messiah for a thousand years, but it does not state their location or say that they live inside the New Jerusalem during that period. Revelation’s clear movement is earthward: the New Jerusalem comes “down out of heaven from God” (Rev 21:2, 10), God dwells with humanity, and the renewed creation becomes the setting of His rule.

The New Jerusalem also bears Israel’s covenant identity. Its twelve gates carry “the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel” (Rev 21:12, KJV), and its foundations bear the names of the twelve apostles (Rev 21:14). The nations walk in the city’s light and bring their glory into it (Rev 21:24–26), but the city itself is marked by Israel. This supports the same pattern: the Kingdom belongs to Israel, while the nations are welcomed into its blessings.

This restoration is the gospel—the good news announced in Israel’s Scriptures. “Gospel” is not a word or idea that began with Christianity. Isaiah describes the one who brings “good tidings” by proclaiming, “Thy God reigneth!” (Isa 52:7, KJV). The gospel is therefore the announcement that HaShem’s kingship is being revealed, Israel’s kingdom is being restored, and the promised son of David will reign. Gabriel says that Yeshua will receive “the throne of his father David” and rule over the house of Jacob forever (Luke 1:32–33). The apostles understood the message this way when they asked, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6, KJV).

This was the gospel Yeshua preached. He came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God” and announcing, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:14–15, KJV). He said that proclaiming God’s Kingdom was the purpose for which he had been sent (Luke 4:43). His gospel was the scriptural good news of God’s reign, Israel’s restoration, and the coming rule of the Messiah.

4. Before the Resurrection, Did Yeshua and the Apostles Consider His Death, Burial, and Resurrection “the Gospel” or “Good News”?

The gospel of the Kingdom was proclaimed before the disciples understood Yeshua’s coming death, burial, and resurrection. Yeshua sent them to “preach the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:2, 6), yet when he later described his suffering, death, and resurrection, “they understood none of these things” (Luke 18:31–34, KJV). Those events therefore could not have been the message they were already proclaiming as the gospel of the Kingdom. After the resurrection, Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection became essential good news about redemption, the defeat of death, and the vindication of the Messiah (1 Cor 15:1–4), but they did not replace the Kingdom gospel. The gospel remained the scriptural announcement that Israel’s God reigns, David’s throne will be restored, Israel’s Kingdom will be established, and the nations will share in its blessings.

As far as the disciples were concerned during Yeshua’s ministry, the prospect of his arrest, death, burial, and resurrection was not “good news” and was not a gospel they welcomed, comprehended, or publicly announced. Peter rebuked Yeshua when he foretold his suffering (Matt 16:21–22); the disciples were grieved, confused, afraid to ask questions, and unable to grasp his meaning (Matt 17:22–23; Mark 9:31–32; Luke 9:44–45; 18:31–34). They disputed over rank rather than preparing to preach a crucified Messiah (Mark 9:33–34), and when the arrest came, they fled (Mark 14:50). After the crucifixion, they hid in fear, mourned the collapse of their hopes, and initially dismissed the women’s resurrection report as nonsense (Luke 24:11, 21; John 20:19). In the narrative world of the Gospels, then, Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection were not, before his resurrection, a message the disciples regarded as “gospel” in the ordinary sense of glad tidings to be heralded aloud. They regarded those events as an intolerable, baffling, and apparently catastrophic prospect whose saving meaning they did not yet understand.

The Gospels sharpen this contrast between two proclamations. During Yeshua’s ministry, the disciples were commissioned to preach the Kingdom of God, not his death, burial, and resurrection. When those events were foretold, they did not understand them, and after the Transfiguration they were told to keep what they had seen silent until after the Son of Man had risen. The silence commands do not all concern the passion directly: some concern Yeshua’s messianic identity, while others postpone testimony about the Transfiguration until the resurrection. Taken together with the disciples’ lack of understanding, however, they show that the cross and resurrection were not yet the public gospel entrusted to them. Their authorized proclamation was the Kingdom; the public proclamation of the Messiah’s death and resurrection came only after those events had occurred and their meaning had been revealed.

• Matthew 16:20; Mark 8:30; Luke 9:21: After Peter confesses Yeshua as the Messiah, Yeshua commands the disciples not to announce his messianic identity. These texts do not directly forbid preaching his death and resurrection, but they show that even his identity was not yet to be proclaimed without restraint.
• Matthew 17:9; Mark 9:9: After the Transfiguration, Yeshua commands Peter, James, and John to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Here the silence is explicitly tied to the resurrection: the vision could not be publicly interpreted or proclaimed before that event.

Luke’s Transfiguration account says that the disciples “kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen” (Luke 9:36, KJV). Mark adds that they kept the matter to themselves while questioning what rising from the dead meant (Mark 9:10). Before the resurrection, therefore, they neither understood nor publicly proclaimed a gospel centered on the death, burial, and resurrection. They proclaimed the Kingdom of God. Only after the resurrection were they commissioned to announce openly the Messiah’s death, resurrection, and saving meaning. The later apostolic proclamation of the cross did not erase the earlier Kingdom gospel; it explained how the crucified and risen Messiah brings that promised Kingdom to fulfillment.

5. The Kingdom Is Already, Now, and Not Yet

The phrase “already, now, and not yet” is modern theological language, but the pattern reflects a Jewish scriptural approach to prophecy. Already, the promised event has begun. Now, its reality is present and may be experienced through covenant loyalty and God’s activity in history. Not yet, the prophecy still awaits its complete public fulfillment. Israel’s return from exile, for example, began in history, yet the full prophetic restoration of Israel, the Land, Jerusalem, David’s throne, and the nations under HaShem’s rule remained future. In the same way, the Kingdom began with the coming of Yeshua, is present now under the authority of the King, and will be fully revealed in Israel’s national restoration. The beginning does not spiritualize, cancel, or replace the promised completion.

Together, these points form one biblical vision of the Kingdom. HaShem is the King, Israel is His covenant kingdom, and the nations are invited to share in its blessings. This Kingdom is not an abstract spiritual idea or a disembodied realm separated from the earth. It is the real, literal, and tangible Kingdom on earth promised throughout the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings—the national restoration of Israel in the actual Land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jerusalem will be its royal center, and the Messiah will reign from David’s restored throne. The Kingdom cannot be separated from the Land, spiritualized away, or transferred to another people. Israel accepts HaShem’s rule now through covenant loyalty and awaits the day when His kingship will be openly revealed from Jerusalem to the whole earth.

Part Two: The Nations under God’s Kingdom

1. Non-Jews Do Not Have to Become Jews

This point is central to the place of the nations. Judaism does not teach that non-Jews must convert in order to be righteous before God. The rabbis identified seven basic duties for all humanity, known as the Noahide laws (Tosefta Avodah Zarah 8:4; b. Sanhedrin 56a):

1. Do not practice idolatry.
2. Do not blaspheme God.
3. Do not murder.
4. Do not commit sexual immorality.
5. Do not steal.
6. Do not eat flesh torn from a living animal.
7. Establish courts of justice.

The Tosefta (Sanhedrin 13:2) records Rabbi Yehoshua’s teaching that “the righteous of the nations have a share in the World to Come.” Maimonides later included this teaching in his legal code (Hilkhot Melakhim 8:11). He described a righteous Gentile as one who keeps these commands because they come from God.

These duties show that a person does not need to become a Jew in order to be righteous before HaShem. Conversion is possible and honored, as the story of Ruth shows, but a righteous person from the nations may remain a non-Jew. When Yeshua says, “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22, KJV), he does not mean that only Jews will be saved or that a person must become Jewish to be saved. He means that salvation comes to the nations through Israel: through Israel’s covenant, Scriptures, promises, Messiah, and restored Kingdom. If Israel and its promises are removed from the biblical story, the basis of salvation for anyone is removed with them.

The covenant promises of Israel’s national restoration, the Land, Jerusalem, and David’s throne will be fulfilled to Israel—the same covenant people to whom they were originally given. The passage of time does not transfer those promises to another people, and Israel’s failures do not turn the nations or the church into Israel, as it says, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Mal 3:6, KJV).

2. The Nations Have a Place in the Kingdom

The prophets do not picture the nations being erased or absorbed into Israel. They picture the nations coming to Israel’s God while still remaining nations:

• Isaiah 2:2–4: the nations stream to the mountain of the LORD’s house to learn His ways.         
• Isaiah 56:6–7: foreigners who join themselves to the LORD are brought to His holy mountain, for “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
• Zechariah 8:23: ten men from every language take hold of the garment of a Jew and say, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”

Yeshua describes the Kingdom as the fulfillment of Israel’s hope. The excluded will “see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God,” while people come from every direction to sit down in it (Luke 13:28–29, KJV). The Kingdom belongs to the story and promises of Israel, yet people from the nations are invited to share its blessings. Those who reject God’s rule will witness its reality but remain outside, as illustrated by the five foolish virgins who found the door shut (Matt 25:10–12).

Israel remains Israel, and the nations remain the nations. Both serve one King, but they do not receive identical covenant roles. God promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him (Gen 12:3), and He also promised the Land of Canaan to Abraham’s literal descendants through Isaac and Jacob as an everlasting possession (Gen 15:18; 17:7–8; 26:3–4; 28:13–14). Israel therefore receives both the literal restoration of its covenant inheritance and the spiritual blessings of God’s Kingdom. The nations share in the spiritual blessing through Israel and Israel’s Messiah, but they do not disinherit Israel from her prophecies, replace Israel, or inherit the Land in Israel’s place. To disinherit Israel from her prophecies is to remove the Jewish people from promises made directly to them and to erase their continuing place in the biblical story.

Paul makes the same point when he quotes the Torah: “Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people” (Rom 15:10; Deut 32:43, KJV). “His people” remains Israel, while the Gentiles are invited to rejoice with Israel in the blessings of God’s Kingdom. The nations do not replace Israel or become Israel; they join Israel in celebrating the reign of Israel’s God and Messiah.

3. Everyday Relations: The “Ways of Peace”

In daily life, rabbinic law calls Jews to treat non-Jews ethically for the sake of darkhei shalom, “the ways of peace” (Mishnah Gittin 5:8). The Talmud (b. Gittin 61a) teaches Jews to support non-Jewish poor people along with Jewish poor people, visit their sick, and bury their dead. Everyone is owed honesty in business, justice in court, and basic human decency.

In the medieval period, Rabbi Menachem HaMeiri taught that the Talmud’s harsher laws about idolaters did not apply to the people of his time who were “bound by the ways of religion.” His approach gives Jewish law an important basis for distinguishing Christians and Muslims from the idolaters described in those rulings.

4. Boundaries Are About Identity, Not Contempt

Jewish communities keep clear boundaries in food, Sabbath practice, marriage, and community life. These boundaries express Israel’s covenant calling to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6). They do not mean that non-Jews have less worth. A priest is set apart in order to serve others. In the same way, Israel is set apart for the blessing of the world.

5. The Shared Messianic Hope

Jewish views differ on whether the messianic hope centers on a personal Messiah, a messianic age, or both. Even with these differences, the main hope remains: God will establish justice, preserve Israel’s covenant calling, and bring blessing to the nations.

A Note for Readers of the New Testament

This Jewish framework helps explain the decision in Acts 15. James quotes Amos 9:11–12: God will rebuild “the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down,” so that the nations may seek Him (Acts 15:16–17, KJV). The “tabernacle of David” refers to David’s fallen royal house or dynasty. James therefore connects the nations’ entrance into the community of faith with the restoration of David’s throne through the Messiah. For the apostles, the Kingdom was not an abstract idea or a heavenly substitute for Israel. It was the real Kingdom promised by the prophets: Israel restored under Davidic rule, with the nations invited to seek Israel’s God while remaining nations. The Jerusalem council did not require Gentile believers to become Jews through circumcision or to take on Israel’s covenant duties as Jews. Instead, it gave them “necessary things” (Acts 15:28–29). James also says that “Moses has been proclaimed in every city… being read in the synagogues every Sabbath” (Acts 15:21). Gentile believers would continue to hear Israel’s Torah and serve Israel’s God within the blessings of the restored Kingdom, not as a replacement for Israel.

The council’s “necessary things” closely resemble the universal duties later organized in Jewish tradition as the Noahide laws. Idolatrous pollution corresponds to the prohibition of idolatry, sexual immorality to forbidden sexual relations, “blood” to bloodshed or murder, and what is strangled to the prohibition against improperly taking or consuming animal life (Acts 15:20, 29). The first three also match Judaism’s gravest prohibitions: idolatry, forbidden sexual relations, and bloodshed. Jewish law later grouped these under yehareg ve’al ya’avor—the three sins a Jew must die rather than commit (b. Sanhedrin 74a). What is strangled remains a separate rule concerning animal life and improper slaughter. On this reading, “blood” need not repeat the rule about strangled meat; it carries the broader biblical sense of shedding human blood. The lists are not identical, and Acts does not call its ruling “Noahide law” or explicitly invoke the later legal category. Still, both reflect the same Jewish principle: Gentiles may turn to Israel’s God and live righteously without becoming Jews or assuming Israel’s covenant obligations as Jews.

The apostles were not creating a new religion or giving “gospel” a new Christian meaning. They proclaimed the scriptural good news that Israel’s God reigns, that the throne of David will be restored through the Messiah, and that people from the nations may enter the blessings of that Kingdom without becoming Jews.

Summary

The Kingdom of God is not merely a place in heaven or extraterrestrial space. HaShem is the King, and Israel is His covenant kingdom on earth, “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6). Israel accepts His rule now through covenant loyalty and awaits the restoration of the Land, Jerusalem, and David’s throne under the Messiah. The New Jerusalem comes down from heaven; the biblical hope is the restoration of creation under God’s justice, not the removal of Israel from the earth or from her promises. The nations share in the spiritual blessings of this Kingdom without becoming Israel, replacing Israel, or inheriting the Land in Israel’s place. Israel remains a priestly people, and the nations remain the nations. Together they serve the one King, through whom Abraham’s promised blessing reaches every family of the earth.

© Sidney Louis Davis Jr. | AskTheTeacher.blog