One of my favorite praise and worship songs is “Child of the King,” and no one leads it better then Mrs. Beeler and the worship team at my home church. I get fired up every time I hear the music and lyrics performed. While reading Paul the Apostle’s letter to the Colossians the other day I immediately thought of that song when I read the following verse:
Colossians 3:3
“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
Colossians 3:3 taken alone would not make me or anyone think about being a “Child of The King,” however within the context of the rest of Colossians and the entirety of the Gospel message, I could think of nothing else.
God’s message of redemption, while trumpeted loudly for all the world to hear, is hidden from those that will not accept it. Furthermore, thieves which represent Satan and his false prophets come to steal, kill and destroy seed not sown in good ground.
These false prophets, typified by the Pharisees and Sadducees, followed the Apostles around trying to change the Gospel by adding to or taking away from the Word Jesus Christ has fulfilled.
Jude, Peter, plus other true servants tell us of certain ungodly men, which had crept into the early church to subvert the Gospel. Colossians is Paul’s warning to that particular Church, all churches and by extension us, to “beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men.” (Colossians 2:8).
Digging further into the Gospel, we find in John 12 one of Jesus’s many encounters with such corrupt men. As John relates King Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem to his first century readers, he sheds light on the things Jesus said and did.
He illuminates what Jesus was doing by giving his readers quotes from certain Old Testament Prophecies, which Jesus was about to bring to completion.
For example, in verse 12:38 John references Isaiah 53:1 “Lord who hath believed our report.” In the previous verse John tells us Jesus did these things in order to fulfill that specific prophecy. In verse 12:40 John tells us that even though they had eyes and hearts they could not see nor understand, which is a direct reference to Isaiah 44:18, in which Isaiah says the same thing.
A brief summary of the historical context of Isaiah is that he called a kingdom divided due to past and current sins to repentance, because he had a vision of the Holiness of God (Isaiah 6).
He prophesied on the authority of God’s Law (Leviticus 26, etc.…) that first the Northern Kingdom of Israel, due to being too proud to repent, would fall into internal conflict—brother against brother, tribe against tribe. Additionally, because of their pride they would make alliances with other kingdoms as their forefathers did, and be destroyed because of these sins.
All this came to pass within his generation, verifying that Isaiah was a true prophet. He also predicted a future fall of the Southern Kingdom of Judah even though King Hezekiah repented (lots more to this story).
His predictions about the fall of Judah contained such specific detail that he even predicted how long Judah would be held captive for sin (70-years). He also predicted by name a king that would allow Judah to return to Jerusalem 150 years before this man named Cyrus became king. You can find these referenced prophesies chronicled in 2 Chronicles 36, Ezra and Daniel, among other places,
Just as Isaiah preached repentance and built upon the blessings and curses contained within God’s Law, so did those that followed him. Jeremiah built upon the same foundation, then Daniel who lived through Judah’s captivity in Babylon saw Isaiah’s prediction of a king named Cyrus allowing the Jew’s return to Jerusalem come to pass.
This same Daniel made the following prophesy to King Nebuchadnezzar nearly 500 years before it would be fulfilled:
Daniel 2:44
“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”
These New Testament verses, plus their Old Testament counterparts viewed alone, do not tell the whole story; but with eyes wide open and hearts receptive we can begin to see that the Old Testament events are a foreshadowing of a greater reality fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Earthly kingdoms rise and fall and mortal kings fade away, with most of their promises never fulfilled.
Jesus has set up a kingdom which can never be destroyed because God’s Kingdom is built upon better promises. IF born again, we are dead to sin and our life is hidden with Christ in God.
1 Corinthians 2:7-9
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
“Praise God, Praise God, I’m a child of the King.” Are you a child of the King?