When?

Thy kingdom come   Matthew 6:10

Come – Yesterday we discovered that sometimes the verb tense makes a huge difference.  Do you remember “revile” and “persecute?”  Both were in the aorist tense.  That means they are about a particular, limited point in the past.  The actions do not go on and on.  Aorist actions are like a single point on a page rather than like a line across the page.

Now we can use this knowledge to unravel something startling.  The verb “come” (eltheto) in Jesus’ model prayer – a prayer which we say over and over – is also in the aorist tense.  But this is quite strange.  Does Jesus mean that God’s Kingdom has already come?  No, not quite.  The form of this verb is an imperative – a request and command that God’s Kingdom arrive.  But the perspective is that this is a fait accompli.  This prayer is the prayer of absolute and total confidence that what God has determined to be is as good as already done.  That’s power!  That’s faith.  The kingdom, which I cannot see, is guaranteed to arrive because its arrival date has already been fixed.

Is that what you thought when you last prayed the Lord’s Prayer?  Did you realize that you were endorsing the past guaranteed arrival of the kingdom?  Or did you think you were imploring God to somehow bring about all the blissful changes you thought you needed in order for His reign to being here on earth?  The difference is important.  If you thought that you were imploring God to somehow bring His Kingdom into reality, you might be tempted to think that the arrival is the slow transformation of  this world into the reign of God.  You might be tempted to think that you have a hand in bringing the Kingdom along.  You might think that the Kingdom is progressive.  But once you realize that the arrival of the Kingdom has been fixed at a certain point by the guarantee of God in the past, you see that only God brings the Kingdom.  It arrives fully formed.  You are not praying that someday in the future this world will become holy.  Your hope is not fixed on an unknown and unknowable arrival of the King.  Your hope is fixed on the unwavering character of the God of history Who has already ordered His rule in place.  You stand on conquered ground.  Celebrate!  It is finished!

The arrival has nothing to do with you.  God will overthrow all the forces that hold this world captive.  He will not convert them; He will destroy them.

Only those who do not know the character of the faithful God waver under the apparent onslaught of the enemy.  If you know Who God is, there is absolutely nothing to fear.  Yes, the enemy is raging like a hungry lion, all the more so as his time draws to an end.  But, so what?  “Thy kingdom come” is firmly anchored in the past.  Nothing and no one can change it now.  Victory is His – and ours.

Pray it with me again.  “Let come the kingdom of You.”  Hallelujah!