These two verses speak of a kingdom given. We will investigate the nature of this kingdom. We will examine the extended kingdom to know if it is the same as the original or different. These are the verses from the King James version of the Bible:
“And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
In the first place, God has a kingdom and sits on a throne. We ask, what kind of king are we talking about, and what type of kingdom does this kind of king have? Jesus gave us the answer to the first half of this question. In John 4:24, Jesus informs us that, “God is a spirit.” It stands to reason that a spiritual God has a spiritual kingdom. That kingdom includes the very solid and corporeal reality we all know so well.
It has always been difficult to reconcile the spiritual and corporeal realities. Jesus said this about the two realities in John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” On the surface of things, that leads reason to assume that the two realities are separate. We inquire here if anything or anyone can be spiritual and corporeal at the same time.
There is a dawning awareness of truth. It stands as such: a spiritual God has an only begotten son, but that son is a man. Here, we study the nature of that corporeal being. We find an answer to our seeking in Matthew 1:20, “But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”
See the above quote from Jesus in John 3:6, “ . . . that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Now, the developing awareness of truth stands as such: a spiritual God had an only begotten son who was both spiritual and corporeal. He was born of the flesh, therefore he was flesh. He was born of the Spirit, therefore he was spirit. It was to this hybrid spirit/flesh son that the Father appointed a kingdom. Now we have to ask, what was the nature of the appointed kingdom?
Was it a hybrid Kingdom? Well, of course, it was. The Father's spiritual kingdom included the world and everything in it. Why should not the Son's kingdom be the same? It appears that the spiritual and corporeal realities are joined at the hip, or they are joined in an eternal dance in which the Spirit leads. The worldly concept of Yin and Yang is that of opposites bound eternally in the union wholeness – in other words, the opposites are not two, but one.
So Jesus was appointed a kingdom. Are there similarities to the kingdom he appoints his disciples? Jesus said, “I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;” There is an apparent similarity. The kingdom is an extension, and it was appointed the disciples by Jesus just as it was appointed Jesus by God, “that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom . . .”
The kingdom of Christ is in and is a part of, the kingdom of God. Please refer to the following Biblical verses: Matthew 26:64, Mark 16:19, Hebrews 10:12, and 1Peter 3:22. Christ is on the right hand of God in God's kingdom; the disciples are on the right hand of Christ in Christ's kingdom.
The kingdoms are not separate kingdoms. The disciples do not travel from a separate kingdom to the kingdom of Christ to eat and drink at his table in his kingdom. The kingdoms are all joined. The kingdoms are one kingdom, and while they are spiritual and spiritually governed, they include our corporeal world with its diminutive worldly kingdoms of man.
From their appointed kingdom, which is part of the kingdom appointed to Christ, which in turn is part of the bigger picture of the kingdom of God, these spiritual/fleshly disciples, (after the manner of Christ, who was both of the Spirit and of the flesh) will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. There are questions we must ask at this point.
First and foremost is this: are the tribes of Israel both spiritual and worldly? Do the disciples each represent one of the tribes, either literally or spiritually? Have the tribes evolved into something greater than tribes – such as nations or nationalities? Are all of them even still around; weren't ten of the tribes altogether lost – or did they, rather, merge with, and ultimately become one with other ethnicities? Finally, could the twelve tribes be twelve types of spiritually evolved humans? So much to think about.
In closing, let me just answer the fourth question with a verse from the book of Acts. Paul said to king Agrippa in Acts 26:6-7, “And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.”
And again, from James 1:1, “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”
Obviously, to the those in the know back in the day, all twelve tribes still existed. Ten tribes did not disappear from the face of the earth, neither must they be reinvented. In a hybrid kingdom that is part of the bigger kingdom of God, which must always include the corporeal with the spiritual, twelve men born of the Spirit, will be responsible for the twelve tribes of Israel. These twelve tribes, or nations, may be both corporeal and spiritual. How will they be judged? I looked up the meaning to the word judge and found that, among the ordinary synonyms, the word judge has one interesting and telling synonym that I wish the reader to consider – that synonym for the word judge is the word 'gather'.
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