As we have seen, Adam was supposed to rule over creation as God’s image-bearing priest-king. Adam should have been protecting the garden from enemies seeking to undermine God’s will. However, Adam neglected to protect the garden and Eve, failing to carry out God’s command by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil when tempted by the intruding serpent.

The second pivotal moment in the history of God’s Kingdom, then, is the Kingdom in crisis.

This act of rebellion by the Lord’s image-bearing son put the Kingdom in crisis, at least from a human standpoint, because of a seemingly uncertain outcome. Yet we find out God’s Kingdom plan was not thwarted by the serpent (Genesis 3:15). The picture from this verse is a powerful illustration of kingdoms in combat. God promises that the ruler of this world would be defeated by the woman’s seed, who would come to reclaim His realm, redeem His bride, and rule forever.

How would this result come to pass, though? The story of the Kingdom of God is an epic story for the ages. It would span centuries and millennia, taking unexpected twists and turns. We’re still in that story, as the end has not yet come. So, how can we be sure the Lord will establish His Kingdom and rule over all creation as He promised (Revelation 22)?

That question takes us to our third point, which is the Kingdom through covenants.

The rest of the Old Testament tells how God will bring about His ultimate victory, and how He determined to fulfill His Kingdom plan through covenants to give us strong assurance of faith (Hebrews 6:17-18). Because it often looks like the Kingdom promise is in jeopardy, God interposed with an oath so we would never lose hope that Revelation 22 is coming – even in our darkest hours.

There are within the Old Testament, five major covenants from God, through which His Kingdom purpose will be fulfilled.

The first covenant is the Noahic Covenant (Genesis 9:8-17). God established this covenant to ensure the continuation of human history until His purpose is fulfilled. The Lord promised by covenant never to destroy the entire world as He did in Noah’s time, ensuring stability in nature to achieve His Kingdom purpose. Thus, the only threat to our existence on this planet is the end, when everything in the old creation will be consumed by fire (2 Peter 3). Until then, the Noahic Covenant ensures this world will not end, allowing the Kingdom program to succeed.

The second covenant is the Abrahamic Covenant. The initial promise promises blessings to all families of the earth in Abraham, making it a promise that encompasses the entire world (Genesis 12:1-3). The Lord later promises that kings would come forth from Abraham (Genesis 17:6). This pivotal chapter in the story of the Kingdom of God shows how His Kingdom purpose and plan will progress.

The Abrahamic covenant, then, becomes a crucial milestone in God’s covenant plan that will consummate His Kingdom’s victory over the domain of darkness. Interestingly, though when we come to Exodus, we find that God’s people, far from reigning over the world and bringing blessing to all the families of the earth, are in subjugation to a godless Egyptian king.

This dilemma takes us to the Mosaic Covenant, which begins with the incredible deliverance of Israel. There in Egypt, we have an incredible battle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. The Lord wages war as the rightful King of Israel against Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, triumphing personally as well as nationally. Through this conflict, God demonstrates His power by destroying Pharaoh and the land of Egypt, which was devastated by the plagues.

Now, we might think that seeing all that happened in Egypt, the Israelites would submit to God and serve Him as their rightful King. They would enter into covenant with God, agreeing that they will obey all He commanded them to do and follow through with their commitment (Exodus 19-20). Yet soon after this covenant was made, they created for themselves a golden calf, rejecting God and seeking to establish themselves as rivals to the Kingdom of the Lord.

Things didn’t get much better as time went on, and the Mosaic Covenant turned out to be a covenant Israel could not keep. If there’s one thing we feel by the end of Israel’s kingdom at the exile, it’s that we need someone to come who will not fail as both Adam and Israel did. The Kingdom of God cannot arrive unless the Lord’s rightful King comes to execute His will.

That is precisely what God promises to do in the fourth covenant of the Old Testament storyline – the Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7, 1 Chronicles 17). The most relevant point of this covenant is that God’s anointed King will come through David’s line, that this King will be the Son of God who also functions as a priest, and that His Kingdom will rule visibly over all the earth.

The Davidic Covenant takes place before the decline and eventual fall of Israel, serving as a certain hope that God’s Kingdom will succeed, that the Lord’s Kingdom will be victorious over His enemies, and that His anointed Priest-King will come to bring about this glorious Kingdom promised to Abraham and David. Though Israel as a nation would fall, God’s promise would not fail because the Lord will send His anointed King to rule the nations.

Finally, we see all God’s promises will be fulfilled, not by way of the old covenant, but by the New Covenant. The New Covenant will bring forgiveness of sins, the cleansing and indwelling of the Spirit, the Anointed Messiah King, and an intimate relationship with God. A new temple will be built in a new creation over which the Messiah will reign forever and ever. God’s Kingdom promise will come to pass and be fulfilled through the establishment of a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

As the Old Testament closes and the intertestamental period begins, darkness falls while the people of God await the rising of the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings. Their waiting for the Kingdom promise to be fulfilled, and for God’s Son to defeat the dragon and rescue His bride from the domain of darkness, was to be with hope and confidence, because the Lord had promised these things through covenants; and it is impossible for God to lie.

This point brings us back to where we started. How can we know that, regardless of what is happening in the world around us and in our personal lives, and no matter how loudly the devil roars, our Lord will be victorious? The answer is that God promised to bring this Kingdom about through His covenant promises, and this is the critical anchor for our souls. The Lord, from the moment Adam fell into sin, promised to slay the dragon and establish His Kingdom in all creation.

That is why the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 are so dreadful to the unbeliever: the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who live in rebellion against God can be certain that if they persist in rebellion, like Pharaoh, they and their kingdoms will be destroyed.

However, the gospel offers hope to rebels that they can flee the domain of darkness through the power of Jesus Christ.  Those who have never repented of their sins and put their faith in Christ are offered hope today – they can be saved, inherit the Kingdom of God, and have eternal life in the gospel.