I'm a bit sad that, looking at stats, that the views on the first part of this series are so low. I mean, I understand why- the assassination of Charlie Kirk happened the day it came out, and I posted "Tell It To Them" right on top of it. But at a time like this, when evil has won a "great victory" and all the hounds of hell are celebrating his death, it's exactly WHEN we need the good news that the Millenium brings. Perhaps before reading this, you could go back and look at that, because it holds the groundwork for the story, and you need that. In any event, strap in, because we are off!
Last time, I mentioned the THREE groups of humans who will be on this new Earth. First, there will be the survivors of Armageddon. Survivors? Yes, there will be survivors. As Jesus said in Matthew's Gospel:
Mat 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.
Mat 24:22 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
Understand, there are three great waves of evangelism between the Rapture of the Church and the coming of Christ's kingdom. The first is that of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, 12,000 from each tribe. The second is the two prophets who withhold the rain, and are killed by the Antichrist and are resurrected after three days, and the third is the mighty angel who circles the earth carrying the Gospel one last time. They will be both Jews- those who heeded Christ's warning and escaped Jerusalem when the Mount of Olives is split- and gentiles (because we will have an Egypt and an Assyria in the Kingdom, and how else could that be without gentiles?)
The second group will be the Raptured and the restored to life. Many of them will be teachers in the New Earth, as well as rulers. Remember the parable of the Talents:
Luk 19:16 The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’
Luk 19:17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’
We will be rewarded with governorship over places around the world according to our faithfulness. The greatest example of this- and proof that it extends to all generations of man- is that David will sit on a throne in the new world:
Jer 30:8 “And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him.
Jer 30:9 But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
The third will be those who died as martyrs during the Tribulation. They are the ones John saw in Heaven:
Rev 6:9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.
Rev 6:10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
Rev 6:11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
And, they receive this promise:
Rev 3:12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.
So the martyrs- like Charlie Kirk, among many others- will have this special station in the new order.
In this new order, there will be a lot of familiar things. People will still be taught about God, but this time, the ones who failed to do it before will get a second chance at it:
Zec 8:23 Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”
The Jews will keep four feasts in the Millenium:
Zec 8:18 And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,
Zec 8:19 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.
Note the difference between "fast" and "feast". These were four occasions of great grief for the Jews in the past. John Gill's Commentary explains them like this: The fourth month was June, when Nebuchadnezzar's army finally broke the walls of Jerusalem for the final time. The fifth month, July, is when both the first and second Temples were destroyed. The seventh month, our September, was not only the traditional Day Of Atonement (Yom Kippur) but was also for the murder of Gedaliah. He was the governor of what was left of Judah appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, and was slain for trying to get the people to listen to Jeremiah's prophecy to stay in Judah and not flee to Egypt. And the tenth month was December, when the final siege of Jerusalem had begun. So each was a bitter day to the people of old Israel; they would now become joyous feasts, now that the final Babylon was destroyed.
The Gentiles, too, will have a feast of obligation:
Zec 14:16 Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths.
Zec 14:17 And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them.
Zec 14:18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.
I mentioned this last time in connection with that Egypt gets special mention- they will apparently test the Lord in this and learn not to do it twice. The Feast of Booths is the late summer ingathering of the harvest, but also- in the original- dwelt for the seven days of the feast in "booths" or tents, as they did in the desert aftrer God freed them from Egypt. So, why do the Gentiles have to celebrate it? There is a swirl of meaning here. For one, as originally, a feast of thanksgiving to the Lord for the harvest. Second, the "flimsy booths" remind us of how this new Kingdom has cast away the flimsy structures of evil we formerly dwelt in. And third, it was at the feast of Booths where Jesus publically declared He was Messiah:
Joh 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Joh 7:38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
Next time, what the life on New Earth will be like.
No comments:
Post a Comment