`How often would I ... but ye would not'. Here we have the problem of divine sovereignty combined with human

responsibility which is insoluble to us limited humans. But both are true and not antagonistic to each other. There

are many creeds that express one at the expense of the other and thereby only get half the truth, and unbalanced at

that.

Whether we can understand it or not, both are true, and if we are wise, we shall always keep this in mind. We

must never think God was play-acting in these last great scenes of Israel's history in the Lord's earthly life. Chafer

points out:

`This first offer of the kingdom had been typified by the events at Kadesh-Barnea. There, this same nation,

which had already tasted the discomforts of the desert, were given an opportunity to immediately enter their

promised land. Thus left to choose, they failed to enter (through their unbelief, Heb. 3:19), and returned to forty

more years of wilderness wandering and added judgments. They might have entered the land in blessing. God

knew they would not; still it was through their own choice that the blessing was postponed. Later they were

brought again to the land after their judgments and afflictions in the wilderness. This time, however, it was

without reference to their own choice' (The Kingdom in History and Prophecy p. 56).

So in the same way, their unbelief and rejection of Christ resulted in postponement of God's earthly kingdom

purposes. Although the Lord Jesus broke His heart over His hardened people and their city, He made it clear that

this rejection would not and could not be for ever:

`For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of

the Lord' (Matt. 23:39).

And God's prophetic Word makes it clear that at the Lord's Second Advent, Israel will look on Him Whom they

pierced and will mourn and at last be convicted of their sin and turn to Him Who is their Saviour, Messiah and King.

Then the millennial kingdom will become a reality!

CHAPTER SIX

We now pass on to consider the kingdom of God as it is presented in the Acts of the Apostles and here, we are

on ground so important, that wrong interpretation and misunderstanding will cloud the whole issue. A correct

appreciation of this book is absolutely vital if we are to have a sound Scriptural understanding of the working out of

God's kingdom purposes after the crucifixion. There are eight references to the kingdom in the Acts (1:3,6; 8:12;

14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23,31).

It is important to note that the end of Luke's Gospel overlaps his record of the Acts of the Apostles chapter 1. In

both these contexts we find the Lord instructing His disciples in the Old Testament Scriptures (Luke 24:25-27,

44-47; Acts 1:1-4). The subject was `the kingdom of God' (verse 3). What favoured people these disciples were to

hear the Living Word expound the written Word and that for six weeks! In spite of this it might have been possible

for some of them to have misunderstood what the Lord said, but this is ruled out by the definite statement in Luke

24:45 `Then opened He their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures'. We mention this because

some do not hesitate to point out what they consider to be mistakes on the part of the Apostles in the early chapters

of the Acts. Although they live nearly 2000 years later and have not this personal instruction from the Lord Jesus,

they know better than these favoured disciples!

Arising from what the Lord had taught them for forty days and the divine understanding He had given them, they

put a question to Him:

`When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again

the kingdom to Israel?' (Acts 1:6).

The word `therefore' indicates that their query was the natural outcome of the teaching He had given them and is not

to be regarded as inferior intelligence on their part, still less incompetence on the part of their divine Teacher. It

should be obvious that the earthly kingdom purpose and Israel's central place therein are still dominant in the

revealed will of God. The Greek word translated `restore' means to restore something to its former place or state. It