THE TRANSITION FROM THE LITERAL KINGDOM TO THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM Part 1 – the S piritual Kingdom Succeeds the Literal Kingdom Introduction In the Old Testa ment era God buil t His church on twe lve tribe s. He chose them becaus e they “were the fewest of all peop le” (Deut. 7:7). God cho se the weakest of the weak so that His power would be even more evident and obvio us. In God’s ki ngdo m the weak are mad e strong an d the stron g are humbl ed. God d oes this, so that man ca nnot claim the g lory fo r himself, and so that the instruments of God’s choosing would learn to rely on God fortheir strength - “for when I am weak, then am I strong” (1 Cor.12:10). After God chose the Israelites, He placed them in the center of the world (see Eze.5 :5). The strate gic impo rtance of Can aan was in the fact that ifpeople wanted to travel from Africa to Asia, or Europe to Africa, they had to go through Ca naan. Therefore, if God’s people occupi ed Canaan, the rest ofthe world would either physically meet them or at least hear about them. This kingdom was a literal kingdom with literal borders. God intended the borders to be from “river unto river” (see Gen. 15:18; Deut. 11:24) - from the Nile to the Eup hrate s. The kingd om was set up as a theocracy [ru le by God]. God’s orig inal inte ntio n was to be the litera l [literal in the sense ofHis literal presence in the san ctuary] King of His own people. This was laterame nde d to inc lud e a lit era l ki ng cho sen from among the peopl e, who reig ned in a lit era l cap ital cit y - Jer usa lem. Oth er essen tia l ele ments to comple te the literal Jewish nation were a lite ral temple, a liter al pries thood with literal ritu als, ceremonies and festivals. All of these literal institutions ha d spir it ua l si gn if ic ance an d meanin g atta ched to them. But fe w recognized them then, and few recognize them now. Having placed His people strategically, God wished to use them as His cho sen inst rument to evangeli ze the world. God int end ed to ble ss His people and magnify them and exalt them so much, that the rest of the world would seek out His people and would wish to unite with them, so that they too could sha re in the blessing s. God’ s chosen metho d of evangel ism was