The subject of the whole teaching of Jesus was _the Kingdom of God_. He held that God had been working from the very beginning for the winning of man to Himself, and that especially among His own people Israel He had shown His hand. They had not only come to know Him as the God of righteousness whose law was holiness; they had enjoyed His love; they had experienced His mercy and His power to redeem. But with the coming of Jesus Himself a new era of the world had opened:[212] God was now drawing near to all men, in a new relationship of love and mercy, with the purpose of saving them.[213] This was the coming of the Kingdom of God.[214] The history of Israel had been a long discipline in preparation for this.[215] On the ground cleared in Israel, and on the basis of the revelation already made to them, God would now reveal Himself to all men. The destiny of Israel—“I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles”[216]—would now be fulfilled.[217] God, then, was about to enter into a new relationship with the whole human race. That new relationship would be, like the old one with Israel, characterized not only by His righteousness, but by His redeeming love. His eternal purpose, which had been in contemplation all through the centuries of Israel’s training, would now be unfolded. The childhood of the world was over: its first simple lessons had been learned; the real business of Time could now be begun. The partial unveiling of God’s face which it had been Israel’s privilege to behold would now become a full revelation in the sight of the nations. The King of Israel would be seen to be the Father of men. Further, as Israel had learned her lessons through Jehovah’s redemptive acts at the Red Sea, on Zion, and in Babylon, so mankind would learn the Father’s love through the great redemptive acts involved in the coming of the Kingdom.