The Prince of the Covenant
David Brandt Berg
1979-05-01
Nearly all Bible prophecy teachers teach that the prince of the Covenant (referred to in Daniel 11:22) is the Antichrist, because that’s what the Bible as good as says. “The prince of the covenant”—it’s obvious. The term itself implies who he is: the prince of the Covenant. Who is this prince that has so much to do with the Covenant that he is called the prince of the Covenant? He can be none other than the Antichrist.
There’s only one other screwy interpretation I ever heard of, by the historicists, who say it was all fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Himself was the prince of the Covenant. How can He be, when this prince-of-the-covenant Antichrist is against the “Prince of princes,” or King of kings, Jesus, in Daniel 8:25?
The “historicists,” usually old-line denominations, are the ones who teach that all this Bible prophecy has already been fulfilled; it is all past history and we’re now living in the Millennium. If this is the Millennium, or Christ’s kingdom of heaven on earth, God help us! It’s closer to hell on earth. They teach that Jesus’ death, the beginning of the age of grace and the end of the Law, was also the beginning of the Millennium, and we’re now in it, and Jesus will come in the Rapture after it. That’s why they’re known as “postmillennialists,” because they believe Jesus’ Second Coming is after the Millennium.
The Covenant is spoken of many times: a seven-year covenant in Daniel 9:27 and many other passages. It’s like a promise of religious freedom or religious worship, enabling the Jews to reestablish the temple and sacrificial worship in Jerusalem.
The Covenant is made by the Antichrist himself. Therefore he is called “the prince of the Covenant.” He’s the one who makes this covenant to allow religious worship and freedom in Jerusalem. This has been the general interpretation. That’s my interpretation and that of most Bible prophecy students and teachers, even Scofield’s Bible.
The Antichrist, obviously from the 9th chapter of Daniel and many others, makes the Covenant and/or confirms it, and is therefore called “the prince of the covenant.” Then he breaks it in the middle of the seven years, at the end of three and a half years. It’s generally assumed or interpreted that since he is the one who has made the Covenant, he has the power to break it.
It’s conceded by nearly all interpreters of Bible prophecy that this mastermind, this superman, the Antichrist, is the guy who’s going to solve the problem of Jerusalem by making some kind of an agreement between the Muslims and the Jews, probably by making it an international city under the U.N.
That has long been the suggestion of the U.N. as an alternative to solve the problem, to internationalize Jerusalem. That’s the only thing that will ever halfway work. But then, as the Antichrist finds out, even that doesn’t work. That still doesn’t make the religions stop fighting and quarreling with each other. They will still be fighting and arguing over every square inch of Jerusalem—who gets this, and who gets that, and who gets to place their temple here, and who gets to place their altar there. So he finally just gets fed up and abolishes the whole works and sets up his own religion.
But first in Daniel 9:27, he confirms the Covenant or this religious peace pact to allow free religious worship in Jerusalem for all religions for seven years. When he does, that will begin the last seven years of history. We know this from Daniel 9:27.
Lots of modern politicians have suggested this: “Why don’t we declare Jerusalem an open city, an international city? The sacred city, the holy city, capital of the world’s three greatest religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.” Why not declare it an international city in no one country or people’s hands, but under the U.N. or the world government? When the Antichrist takes over as the world dictator of a one-world government, he will have the power to do that, to declare Jerusalem an international city that belongs to the world—not just to the Jews, not just to the Muslims, not just to the Christians, but to all—the whole world.
It would be a compromise, a covenant telling the whole world and the world’s three greatest religions it belongs to all of us. The world government takes it over and makes it an international city. In fact, according to the Bible, the world dictator of the world government—the Antichrist—then makes that city his capital too. His political capital of his world government will be Jerusalem, the capital of the whole world (Daniel 11:45). For a while, to get the sympathy of the people and the world and the cooperation of the world’s great religions, he allows them all religious freedom, not only all over the whole world, but within Jerusalem itself.
This then finally gives the Jews their golden opportunity to rebuild their temple and restore its sacrificial worship. They work out some kind of compromise with the other religions, and this is the only way it could ever be done, because the Muslims would never allow it otherwise. It has to be done by a fourth party, a world political government, to make a compromise which is generally accepted as the covenant spoken of in the Bible prophecies of Daniel.
The Bible says the Antichrist eventually stops the sacrifices. (See Daniel 8:11, 9:27, and 11:31). Well, he can’t stop them unless somebody has started them. It’s going to take some ticklish work to figure out some way for the Jews to rebuild the temple and reinstitute sacrificial worship on their altar with the Mosque of Omar standing right over it. The Dome of the Rock, the holiest of the Muslim holy places outside of Mecca, is now standing over what was once the Jewish temple sacrificial altar, where they sacrificed their sacrifices. So what they are going to do about that, we don’t know yet.
But we do know that finally the Antichrist is going to stop it. Maybe it’s just to settle their quarrels and fights over this very thing. Who knows? He is going to put an end to the Covenant right in the middle of it. He then later sets himself up as God and his image in this holy place, and says, “Now everybody worship me and my image. Forget all these other religions, and we’ll just have one big one-world religion of the one-world government of the one-world dictator, and I will be your god!”
The Antichrist, as a smart politician, realizes that in order to stop all this bickering and arguing and infighting among the world’s three great religions within his one-world government, he’s got to abolish all religions and insist that there must just be one religion—his religion—the worship of him and his image.
Obviously, the Covenant doesn’t work. He tries, but there’s probably still so much fighting between them that he cannot get the world really united as long as these religions are still fighting each other. So his idea, of course, with the seeming sensible reasoning of man and the Devil, is to abolish all other religions and unite the world in one religion, the worship of himself, the Antichrist, which means the worship of the Devil, for he is the Devil in the flesh.
Finally the Devil has what he always wanted: the worship of the whole world with him as its god—“the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Then comes the attempted abolition of the worship of the one true God and of Jesus Christ His Son and all other religions.
It says, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week” (seven years). First of all, it says in Daniel 9:26 that “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary (Jerusalem and the temple), and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”
The literal fulfillment of this particular prophecy is usually considered the desolation of Jerusalem under the Romans in 70 A.D., because it was “after Messiah was cut off” (Daniel 9:26), after Jesus was crucified, that the city was destroyed and made desolate.
But maybe it also applies to the future destruction under the Antichrist, because obviously he is also going to invade and take over Jerusalem. It could apply to both—one a foreshadowing and the other a final fulfillment. Many Bible prophecies are like that. It says in verse 27—and this obviously can refer only to the Antichrist, because it has to do with the Covenant:
“And he (the Antichrist) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week”—or seven years. This prince that shall come shall confirm the Covenant. This is why he is called the prince of the Covenant, the Antichrist, as it is he who confirms the Covenant. He makes a seven-year covenant for the reinstitution of sacrificial worship and freedom of religion in Jerusalem, or an ingenious compromise between the Jews and Muslims.
But then he breaks it. “In the midst of the week” or the seven years, or therefore at the end of three and a half years, “he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” There is reference after reference about this event: Daniel 7:25; 8:9–14; 9:27; 11:31; 12:7–11; Matthew 24:15 and 21; Luke 21:20–24; Revelation 11:2–3, and many others.
“He shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease (break the Covenant), and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate (the abomination of desolation), even unto the consummation (the end), and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
All through the book of Daniel it speaks about the prince of the Covenant, the Antichrist, who turns around and breaks it in the middle, at the end of only three and a half years. He is talked about in Matthew 24:15 by Jesus, and in Revelation 11 and 13 by John. He finally turns against the Jews and the daily temple sacrifices of the Jews, and stops them, and sets up the “transgression of desolation,” his own image (Revelation 13:14–15), the “abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet,” quoted by Jesus in Matthew 24:15–21:
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation (the image) spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place … then shall be (the) great tribulation.” What worse abomination could stand in the holy place of the world’s three greatest religions than the Image of the Beast, the image of the Antichrist? He finally sets up his own image in the holy place, a talking, seemingly living idol!
Scofield has Jesus coming before this and taking the church out at this time so they won’t have to go through the Tribulation. But you can’t find any foundation for that in fact or scripture anywhere in the Bible. The Bible plainly says, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days … then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven” (Matthew 24:29–30).
So there is the order of events. Despite all these wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and pestilences and famines for 2,000 years, from that time until the Antichrist, He says, “But the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6).
“But when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand(ing) in the holy place, then” shall the end be near, for, “then shall be (the) great tribulation” which is ended by His Coming, as He says then in verses 29 and 30: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven” and He will come to rescue His own in the Rapture (verse 31; Acts 1:11; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4; Revelation 14).
In many passages it tells us exactly how long the Tribulation’s going to be—three and a half years. All of these passages throughout the Bible teach the same thing, and give the length of the Tribulation in many ways: It will begin in the middle of the seven-year Covenant (Daniel 9:27), which leaves three and a half years.—Or a time (one year) and times (two years) and half a time (half a year) (Daniel 7:25 and 12:7)—or three and a half years. Or it says 42 months (Revelation 13:5), which is three and a half years. Or it says 1,260 days (Revelation 12:6), which is three and a half years. All say the same.
The Great Tribulation or persecution of the religions by the Antichrist shall last three and a half years exactly—the last half of the broken Covenant. God made it so specific and counted it in so many different ways that nobody could possibly misinterpret it, misunderstand it, or misfigure it like some Bible interpreters try to.
Then comes the 11th chapter of Daniel, that very mysterious chapter in which so many Bible students and teachers go astray. Trying to interpret it all and identify everybody here, you’re going to get in trouble. However, it comes to a point around the 21st verse when it begins to speak very clearly and obviously of a certain person who continues to dominate the world scene right on through the rest of the passage.
From Daniel 11:21 on, nearly all Bible students and teachers agree, is a description of the Antichrist, after many other descriptions in Daniel previous to this (Daniel 7:8, 20–25; 8:9–12, 23–25; 9:26–27, etc.). So this detailed description of the Antichrist begins here in the 21st verse: “A vile (evil) person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.”
The antichrist system conquers countries and their people by propaganda, “peaceably,” “by flatteries,” powerful “peace” propaganda.
It then says in verse 22: “And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.” “Yea, also the prince of the covenant.” Don’t stop here and don’t link it too closely with what has just been read, because originally the Bible was not divided into chapters and verses, neither was it punctuated.
The Old Testament in the Hebrew doesn’t have any punctuation, so you can make a mistake and divide things where they shouldn’t be divided, and run them together where they shouldn’t be run together. There is kind of a pause here, and it looks almost like the translator has linked it together: “Yea, also the prince of the covenant.” If you interpret it as some people have, and you punctuate it and run it together the way the translator did who put these verses together, it sounds like, “The prince of the Covenant got run over too! He too got broken, right?”
But what it is saying here is, “Yea, (he’s) also the prince of the covenant.” This is literally what this passage means. It does not mean, “Yea, also the prince of the covenant” is broken. I’ll grant you, that’s what it might look like and sound like, if you don’t really know your Bible and all the rest of the passages.
If you find a whole bunch of scriptures that say one thing, but then you find one little passage that seems to say the opposite, then what are you going to accept? The preponderance of the scriptures. Otherwise you’d have to say, “Because this one passage says so-and-so, all the rest of the scriptures are wrong!” But we’ve already seen how all through God’s Word, especially Daniel, 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, Matthew, and all the other prophetic passages, it speaks of this Antichrist, this prince as the prince of the Covenant, the one who makes it and breaks it. It speaks of him time and time again.
The Antichrist is really the prince of the Covenant, this vile person who becomes the Antichrist, according to the passage here. “To whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.” He talks them out of it. He’s a usurper! “And with the arms of a flood (of atom bombs?) shall they be overflown from before him and shall be broken.
“Yea, (he’s) also the prince of the covenant.” What the writer here is trying to bring out is that he is not only doing all these things, but this is also the guy we have been talking about in all these other scriptures.
As the prince of the Covenant, the Antichrist is the one who makes the Covenant, and therefore he has the authority to break it. He makes the promise, but he also breaks the promise. He’s the one who gives these nations and religions their freedom and authority to practice and worship in Jerusalem and set up their official temples there, and tries to bring about a compromise between them.
After trying with the seven-year Covenant to get the religions to compromise and work and worship together and leave Jerusalem an open, internationalized city with freedom of worship for all, which doesn’t work, this prince of the Covenant apparently gets fed up and stops the whole works, breaks the Covenant, stops the worship, and places the image of himself, the Beast, right in the holy place, at the temple.
Facts about the Antichrist
- Power by the Devil: Revelation 13:2, 4; Daniel 8:24.
- Deadly wound healed: Revelation 13:3, 12, 14.
- Big mouth: Revelation 13:5–6; Daniel 7:8, 20.
- War against saints: Revelation 13:7; Daniel 7:21.
- Power over all nations: Revelation 13:2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 15.
- One-man world government: Revelation 13:3, 8.
- Blaspheme temple: Revelation 13:6; Daniel 8:11; 11:31; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
- 42 Months: Revelation 13:5; 11:2–3; 12:6, 14; Daniel 7:25; 9:27; 12:7.
Copyright © May 1979 by The Family International
24: Thy Kingdom Come
A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 22
A Study of Revelation
David Brandt Berg
1981-05-01
Revelation chapter 22: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” We’re in the Holy City now, the new Jerusalem, come down from God out of heaven to a new earth, the capital city of the world to come, kingdom come. “And in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
There is a river which flows through this city of God, this beautiful new Jerusalem, the place that Jesus has gone to prepare for you and me, where there are many mansions in His Father’s house for us (John 14:2). On each side of the river are these beautiful trees called the trees of life, and they bear fruit.—Twelve kinds of fruit on one tree. A different kind of fruit every month.
“And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Outside the Holy City is the surface of the renewed earth, whose surface and atmosphere had been destroyed in the last great war of Gog and Magog. The wicked of that time had been killed and then judged in the Great White Throne Judgment of God. Now we’re on the renewed surface of the earth at the beautiful new Heavenly City, a new heaven and new earth. And through it flows this beautiful river of life flanked by the trees of life, which have 12 fruits, a different one every month, and leaves that are able to heal the nations outside of the city.
There will still be nations outside of the city. We will have leaves from the tree of life for their healing. Apparently they’re still going to need help and still need healing and salvation, and we will have the answer to their problems.
They will not be allowed inside the Holy City, the beautiful new Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom of God to come, but they will be allowed upon the surface of the earth in a beautiful new earth where there will be no more sea. No more Pacific, no more Atlantic, no more Indian Ocean, no more Arctic Ocean, no more sea. It will all be land and these nations will still be there, but they’ll need healing, and we will have the answer to their problems, in the leaves of the tree of life for the healing of the nations.
“And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him. And they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun” (Revelation 22:3–5). That is in the city; this isn’t talking about outside on the surface of the earth.
The surface of the earth outside will still have sun, moon, stars, day and night, seasons, etc. But in the city there’ll be no need of sun or moon or stars or candle. There’ll be no night there because it’ll be eternally lighted, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
The inhabitants of the earth will be able to look up and view that beautiful city and know that God is there, that God now lives here with man. He’s come down out of heaven to make His dwelling place with man, and that’s His beautiful city, His capital city. Even if you’re not one of the denizens or one of the citizens of the city living inside the city, you’ll be able to look up from the surface of the earth and be thankful that you’re even there at all.—Even outside the city, the unsaved, one of those on probation, still learning to love the Lord.
You can look up at night and see that beautiful city. “And they shall reign forever and ever!” Who shall reign? The saints of God; all the Christians who love Jesus. They are all saints sanctified by His blood, purified, and set apart to serve the Lord.
“And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show unto His servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book” (Revelation 22:6–7). Quickly? John received Revelation 2000 years ago, and Jesus isn’t here yet. Jesus didn’t say He was coming soon. He said He was going to come quickly when He came. But He didn’t say “I’m coming soon” because it’s been 2000 years since then and He hasn’t come yet.
“And I John saw these things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: Worship God” (Revelation 22:8–9). He said, “Don’t worship me. I’m just another prophet like you. I’m one of your fellowservants. So don’t worship me; only worship the Lord!”
“And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand” (Revelation 22:10). The book of Revelation began in John’s time. The sayings of this book, the predictions and prophecies of this book began right then in John’s day. That’s why he says “the time is at hand.” This book reviews the whole history of the world, prophetically, from the days of John till the very end. In fact, right on into heaven.
He says, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:11–12). He’s going to come very suddenly when He comes. He’s just warning them, even 2000 years in advance, that when He finally comes, He’s going to come very quickly. He says that about three times in this passage.—Not that He’s coming soon, but that He’s going to come very quickly. He does tell John that the events talked about in this book are at hand, starting right then, and this book covers the whole period from John to the end, even to heaven.
The saved will be rewarded at the judgment of Jesus Christ, the throne of Christ. Every saved Christian will be rewarded according to his works then. The judgment of the unsaved does not come until a thousand years later, when all the unsaved are raised to meet God at the Great White Throne Judgment described in chapter 20.
We who are resurrected and raised and raptured to be with the Lord at the end of the Tribulation, we get our rewards right away up in heaven at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, where there’s a great feast and a great ceremony, and God passes out the wedding gifts. He passes out the rewards to all of those who love the Lord. Isn’t that wonderful?
Verse 13: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” Jesus is speaking again. Alpha and Omega are the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet, meaning the beginning and the end. “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” All those who do the commandments of Jesus Christ can eat of that tree of life that grows on both sides of the river of life that flows through the city.
The leaves of those trees will be able to heal the people outside the city that are still sin-sick, and sick from their disobediences and their rebellion against God. We’re still going to be witnesses for the Lord and we’ll be able to take those leaves outside the city to heal the nations outside. But we who live in the city are saved and have a right to the tree of life, to drink of those beautiful waters that keep us living forever so we can help those people outside.
We won’t just be sitting around floating on clouds, fiddling with harps—that’s some worldly cartoonist’s idea. We’re going to be very busy going in and picking leaves off of the tree of life. There are still going to be lots of unsaved people outside on the surface of the earth. They’ve been resurrected, they’ve been to the Great White Throne Judgment of God and each one’s judgment was decided upon, where they should go, some to the flames of hell itself and the Lake of Fire where the Devil and the Antichrist and the False Prophet are, those three beasts—the Dragon, and the Beast and the False Lamb. Those three animals are going to be in hellfire. But out on the surface of the earth after the Great White Throne Judgment of the unsaved, God’s going to let some of those people live outside the city to learn their lessons and to be healed.
“And I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” Jesus is the morning star. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:16–17).
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18–19). You mustn’t add anything to this book and you mustn’t take anything away from it.
Some people say that means the whole Bible. But he’s just talking about this particular book, the book of Revelation. You shouldn’t add anything to it and you shouldn’t take anything from it. Some Christian fundamentalists seem to think that this is the last time God ever spoke, to John on the Isle of Patmos, and these are the last words that Jesus ever said, and He hasn’t spoken since then. Isn’t that ridiculous? We have a dead God who’s been dead and quiet and silent for 2000 years now, according to these fundamentalists who accept just the Bible alone and don’t believe that Jesus has ever said anything since then.
God has spoken since then. And down through the ages, after this book was written, God still had many prophets and prophetesses who continued to prophesy and speak with tongues and interpretation and prophecies throughout the whole 2000 years of church history, since the days of John and since this book was finished. God’s prophets and prophetesses have been continuing to prophesy in these last days according to the Word of God, throughout the church of Jesus Christ, throughout all Christendom, to Christians everywhere, millions of them.
And “He which testifieth of these things saith, Surely I come quickly.” Again, Jesus didn’t say He was coming soon, He said He was coming quickly! There have been 2000 years since then. But He said when He comes He’s going to come very suddenly, by surprise to the whole world.
But we won’t be surprised; we’ll be ready for Jesus when He comes. “Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus,” the prophet says. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen” (Revelation 22:20–21).
Copyright © 1981 The Family International.
23: The New Heaven and New Earth (part 2)
A Study of Revelation: Revelation Chapter 21
A Study of Revelation
David Brandt Berg
1981-05-01
But there’ll be plenty of room on earth then, because right now only around a third of the earth’s surface is land. Whereas then there will be no more sea; it’ll all be land. The seas are the world’s great septic tanks, its great cesspools where all the waste of the world drains off into. That’s why it has to be salty, or it would stink like a toilet! Some places it does, where they dump their sewage and garbage into the sea, polluting the earth. The Lord says He’s going to destroy those that pollute and destroy the earth (Revelation 11:18).
There will be much more land area then, lots of room for the great Heavenly City to sit down where once was the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean or the Arctic or Antarctic Oceans. Maybe it’ll move around, so it can minister to different parts of the world. If it can float down from outer space from God out of heaven to the earth, then it probably can still float around the earth and hover or set down here or there.
Science fiction’s got nothing on the Bible or the future as foretold by the Lord! I have never seen anything in sci-fi movies to compare with this, have you? Nothing so enormous and magnificent as that beautiful city, full of precious stones and jewels, and best of all, full of precious souls. Immortal saved souls that love Jesus. Billions of people will be there because there were millions of faithful witnesses down through man’s history, from the time of Adam and Eve until the Millennium.
Verse 23: “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” It doesn’t say there’ll be no moon and no sun, but it says in the city they won’t need the moon and the sun. It has its own light, the light of God and His Son Jesus. But the sun and moon will still continue on the world outside the city on the planet earth, which still exists with a new Garden of Eden-like surface with the people who are unsaved out there, whom God is giving another chance to learn what they need to learn to be restored, to be reconciled.
I believe in the eternal universal reconciliation of man because Jesus said He died that all might be saved (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9), that the whole world might be saved, and I believe that’s going to happen someday! But only the saved, only those of us who have voluntarily chosen to love Jesus, to receive Him as our Savior now in this life on this earth, are going to walk the streets of that golden city and be able to enter through those gigantic pearly gates.—Unless some are also saved in the Millennium and the world hereafter.
You won’t have to ask Saint Peter for his permission either. Peter doesn’t have the keys; Jesus has the keys. If you have Jesus, you have your own key and you can go in and out whenever you want. Peter is just another one of the saved, just another saint of God just like you, a lost sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.
We each have our own key that God gives us through salvation. Every one of you who are saved will be able to go in and out and enjoy the splendors of heaven. You’ll be able to look down on the surface of the earth and see it as if you were in a satellite. It’ll look like a map below, with people who God in His mercy will permit to live outside the city on the surface of the earth. Even that will be like heaven on earth. It will be even better than the Millennium.
How good is God! How kind, how loving, how merciful. The Bible says there’s no end to His mercy, His mercy is from everlasting unto everlasting (Psalm 103:17). He is forgiving, kind, gracious, and loving, and He’s not going to lose one of His sheep—not one soul! He’s going to save them all in the long run, even those outside the city who will never be able to enter the city. But we will go out into the world to help other people who are still learning how to believe and receive God and to love Him and serve Him.
It’s thrilling to think we’re not just going to be sitting around on clouds playing harps and doing nothing. We are still engaged in the marvelous, soul-satisfying process of the redemption of man, of all men everywhere, the whole world for whom Jesus died. God’s Word says so, that He died for all men. “That all men might be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4), even those who don’t receive Him now but who will believe and receive Him later.
It may be too late for them to enter the Holy City, but not too late to enjoy the mercy and love of God and His forgiveness upon the surface of the earth, healed by the leaves of His tree of life (Revelation 22:2). The sun and moon will still continue. Day and night and seasons will still continue. The very first chapter of the Bible says that as long as the sun and the moon endure, there shall be seasons, summer and winter, spring and fall throughout the world (Genesis 1:14).
Outside the Holy City will live people who were not saved and who are only then learning to love the Lord and appreciate Him and respect and honor Him and worship Him with our help, who live under similar conditions, like it was in the Garden of Eden. It’ll be a pleasure just to live outside on that new heavenly earth that God is going to make for all mankind and all His creatures.
Not one shall be lost, not one of all God’s wonderful creations, immortal souls of man, not one. They’ll all be there either in the city or on the surface of the earth.
“And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it”—in the city—“and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it”—or literally unto it (Revelation 21:24). There will still be nations and kings on the surface of the earth outside the city. Of course, nations ordained by God—righteous kings teaching the people to love and serve the Lord, and they’ll be bringing honor to the city.
“And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there” (Revelation 21:25). The gates will be open night and day, 24 hours a day. What a city! Man thinks some of his cities today are pretty wonderful; they stay open till two, three, or four o’clock in the morning.
But that city’s going to be open day and night, 24 hours a day. Can you imagine what that place is going to look like at night from the earth outside all lit up? The most beautiful city in this whole world! Man has never seen anything like it. This gorgeous pyramid, 1500 miles high and 1500 miles wide, shining with a golden light all night long, glowing almost like the sun. It will no doubt light up the countryside, the surface of the earth for hundreds of miles around.
It’ll be a blessing just to live anywhere within sight of that city, to be able to see it at night and thrill to its splendor, resplendent with golden supernatural light of God. It will vie with the moon and even the sun for beauty and splendor. God’s word says that when He shall build up Zion, even the sun and the moon shall be ashamed in comparison with the glory and the beauty and the light of that Holy City here on the surface of the earth (Isaiah 24:23). It will outshine the sun, outshine the moon. This reminds me of an old song we used to sing:
When we go to be with Jesus
We shall outshine the sun.
When we shall be with Jesus
We will outshine the sun
And walk those streets of gold.
—Adapted from “We Shall Outshine the Sun” by C.F.W.
The saved will enjoy both worlds—the inside world of the beautiful Holy City of the saved, and be able to go out and minister to the poor folks who are lost but being rehabilitated and reconciled.
“And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27). Nothing unclean there: no dirty city streets, no vile vice, no filthy crime, no sin. Not Sin City as today, but the sacred City of God. The Holy City, the pure city, the beautiful city. Everything absolutely clean and perfect and pure and sinless!
The Lord has a city prepared for you and me whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). It comes down like a bride out of heaven adorned for the husband, out of heaven from God to the earth (Revelation 21:2). He says that the tabernacle of God or the dwelling place of God is now going to be with men (Revelation 21:3).
Are you running the race for Jesus? Or are you in the rat race of the system for the world? If you’re running the race for Jesus, it’ll be worth it all. If you’re running the rat race of this world, you will regret over there that you didn’t run for Jesus and work for Jesus and live for Jesus.
One of the most beautiful verses in the Bible is also one of these last verses of the Bible, when He says: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.
Life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ.
One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow will erase.
So bravely run the race till we see Christ.
—From “When We See Christ,” by Esther Kerr Rusthoi
Copyright © 1981 The Family International.
22: The Millennium—Old Testament Millennial Scriptures (part 3)
A Study of Revelation
David Brandt Berg
1981-05-01
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains”—these mountains symbolizing governments, God’s government over all—“and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
“And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks.” Final disarmament. That will be the real genuine disarmament, beating their weapons into instruments of peace. “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:2–4). That’s a beautiful inscription also written on the wall of the garden of the United Nations in New York City. Yet all around it rages controversy and evil and war and crime.
“Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty.” God’s speaking of the unregenerate, when Jesus comes. “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan.
“And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish. And upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols He shall utterly abolish.”—Including the Image of the Beast.
“And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth” (Isaiah 2:10–21).
God’s kingdom has already begun upon earth today in Christians who love Jesus—in you if you have Christ in your heart. He said, “For the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). You’re a member of His kingdom that’s already begun upon earth.
“In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning” (Isaiah 4: 2–4). God is going to burn it out if it takes His judgments to drive the iniquity out.
“And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud of smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defense. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain” (Isaiah 4:5–6). The Lord Himself is going to be your tabernacle and protect you.
The eleventh chapter of Isaiah: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of His roots: and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears.
“But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth.” That’s going to be the rod of iron, the truth of God that’s going to rule the world then. “And with the breath of His lips shall he slay the wicked.” There is nothing that curbs the Devil and His crowd like the truth, the Word of God. Jesus is going to be here then. “And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:1–6). You have never heard of a wolf lying down with a lamb nowadays, have you?—Unless the lamb was inside of the wolf! Or a leopard lying down with a kid, a little baby goat. They usually lie down with the kid inside too. Neither have you heard about a little child leading them all nowadays.
There was a day before the Flood when men and the animals were at peace with each other. They didn’t fight and they didn’t kill and they didn’t eat each other as they do today. That day is coming again when there will be peace between man and the animals. Even your little child will be able to play with them.
“And the cow and the bear shall feed.” Feed together, think of that, cows and bears! “Their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox” (Isaiah 11:7). “Now you’ve gone too far, telling me lions are going to eat hay! I don’t believe that.”
I have such confidence in the Word of God and every chapter and every book—I have proven so many of them to be true and none of them to ever fail or be false—that I believe every word in it, and I believe it means exactly what it says and that’s what’s going to happen. If they’re not going to eat each other or eat us anymore, they’re going to have to graze like the ox and the calf. So the lion will eat straw like the ox.
“And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp.” A little baby that’s not even weaned yet can play right on top of the hole of this poisonous little serpent called an asp, and yet not get stung or bitten. “And the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den” (Isaiah 11:8). Children will be able to put their hand into a nest of scorpions and what are today poisonous insects. Or in another place it says adders’ den, meaning a poisonous snake. The child can put his hand right into a nest of adders and play with the snakes then, like toys.
What a wonderful place to be! All the curse removed, the viciousness gone, all the killing and hurting each other gone. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). We won’t have to be worried about witnessing anymore. We won’t have to say, “Know the Lord,” for He says “all men everywhere shall know Me” (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:11). But I do believe we’ll still be teaching people the ways of the Lord.
“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people”—Jesus—“to it shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:10). This is a wonderful picture of the final glorious days of this earth.
The earth will blossom as a rose, curse removed, enmity between man and the animals and the insects and the vipers removed, so that all God’s creation is in perfect peace and harmony, and man at peace with man. No longer will there be man’s cruelty toward man, no longer man’s inhumanity to man, but all will be peace and beauty—heaven on earth once again as it was in the beginning, because we’ll have Jesus.
I think Adam and Eve had Jesus then too. Who else could walk with them in the Garden in the cool of the day like a man but Jesus, the Son of God (Genesis 3:8).
“Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously” (Isaiah 24:23). “And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things.” Here is that wonderful Marriage Supper of the Lamb. “A feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.” The vineyards and wineries aren’t going to go out of business.
“And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.”—The vail of misunderstanding, the vail of unbelief, the vail of non-comprehension of spiritual things. “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.
“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest” (Isaiah 25:6–10).
Copyright © 1981 The Family International.
22: The Millennium—Old Testament Millennial Scriptures (part 1)
A Study of Revelation
David Brandt Berg
1981-05-01
I’m going to read some verses which are my favorite passages in the Bible, some of the most beautiful scriptures in God’s holy Word.
The reason I am particularly fond of them is that they’re about the “happy ending” of the story. In much of the past chapters of this particular study of Bible prophecy in the book of Revelation, it seems as if it’s been a lot of bad news about the horrors about to come upon this world. The Bible admonishes us to be prepared for these days, and to be forewarned is to be forearmed. (See Matthew 24:33, 44.)
We’re just strangers passing through; this is not our home. We’re strangers and pilgrims, and this is why God says He’s proud to be our God. He’s not ashamed to be our God, for we confess that we are only strangers and pilgrims here. We seek a city whose builder and maker is God, which someday will come down out of heaven from God to this earth (Hebrews 11:13–16).
At the end of that mighty Battle of Armageddon, of the forces of God against the forces of Satan on earth, we, the saints of God, along with our King Jesus Christ, will take over this world as it is now—this present world—and we will organize it and rule it and run it the way it should have been run if man had yielded to God. But this time, yield or no, God’s going to run it with a rod of iron (Revelation 2:27).
Whether man likes it or not, God is going to be supreme and Jesus shall reign from shore to shore, and we shall rule and reign with Him with that rod of iron. Then the unsaved who remain will be forced to do what’s right and to obey for a thousand years. They will have the amazing blessing of being able to live at all during this millennial period in which the earth, though it is this same earth upon which we live today—not the new heaven and the new earth, but the present earth—it will be relieved from the curses that have beset it. The thorns and the thistles and the briar and all kinds of beasts and critters and creatures that are poisonous, even poisonous flowers and grasses, will be sanitized and made harmless.
Even the unsaved who have survived the Tribulation and the wrath of God and the Battle of Armageddon—and it’s quite a survival to manage to survive all three of those—will be allowed to live during this beautiful paradise-on-earth, millennial period.
The Devil will be bound in the heart of the earth in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, and we will rule and reign with Jesus on this present earth for one thousand years to try to teach the survivors righteousness, to try to show them where they failed, to try to point out what the mistakes were, to try to show them how much better it would have been if they had yielded to Jesus and let Him rule and reign in their hearts as we do today.
We already have the Garden of Eden in our hearts. We already have paradise restored in our hearts, those of us who have received Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Lover and our King and our God, who has forgiven us our sins and brought us peace and love and happiness such as we have never known before. We already have the Garden of Eden in our hearts, but then we will have the Garden of Eden worldwide—the curse removed, even a measure of death removed. People will live for a thousand years as they did before, and if you die at a hundred years of age, they’ll consider you just a child (Isaiah 65:20). Think of that.
This is a part of the beautiful happy ending. The Bible is full of descriptions of that beautiful millennial period. It says more about the second coming of Christ and His rule and reign on the earth as its King, its Messiah, than it does about the first coming.
This is the purpose of it all, the marvelous happy ending of it all! This is our reward for loving Him, receiving Him, believing in Him, and preaching Him, telling others about Him, spreading the Good News of His love everywhere.
Jesus was the one responsible for it all, who loved us enough to give His own life for us and take our punishment, the punishment of our sins on Himself on that cross, on that tree, so that we could be forgiven and restored and become citizens of His kingdom, the kingdom of God on earth of the King of kings in the heavenly kingdom.—First of all, the Millennium, and later the new heaven and new earth.
What are the two books that are the most messianic books in the Bible?—The ones that talk more about the Messiah and His kingdom, that marvelous millennial kingdom on earth and the kingdom that goes on forever after, than any other books? We have to go back to the Old Testament to find them: Psalms and Isaiah, by two great prophets. “Prophets?” you say, “I thought David was just a king.” David was a king, but he was also a priest of his people. Foremost and above all, he was a prophet of God who wrote the beautiful Psalms of David. In the Psalms, he describes time and again the marvelous coming kingdom of Jesus Christ.
First, he starts with the Antichrist kingdom and the Battle of Armageddon, the forces of good against evil. (This could also apply to the Battle of Gog and Magog at the end of the Millennium.)
Psalm 2: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” That’s what they will say during the Great Tribulation. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” God gets the last laugh! “Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.”
Despite all they can do, He has set His king upon the hill of Zion. Jesus will someday return to this earth and He shall stand first upon Mount Zion. God’s Word says it will cleave in two when He stands there, like a great earthquake, and cause a very great rift or very great valley (Zechariah 14:4). That great hill that the Jews and the Muslims are fighting over, guess who’s going to get it?—Jesus. And when He does land on it, it’s going to split wide open.
“I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me”—speaking now to Jesus—“Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” He’s going to give us the entire earth, all of it. “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
“Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.”—If you don’t want to be broken. “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.” Do you put your trust in Jesus? Then you’re going to be safe. Don’t worry, everything’s going to be all right with you.
“The Lord is king for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of His land” (Psalm 10:16). That’s what’s going to happen then. “Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad” (Psalm 14:7). The true Israel of God, those who have received Jesus the Messiah, the Christians.
“I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.” There’s going to be a resurrection. “For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:8–10). There are many prophecies regarding the first coming of Jesus, but these are the ones about His second coming.
“I will declare Thy name unto my brethren: and in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee.” Before this, they were worshipping the Antichrist; now they’re going to have to worship Jesus, whether they like it or not. “They shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He hath done this” (Psalm 22:22,27,31).
The good news! We had to tell you the bad news first, all about the Antichrist and his reign of terror and the Tribulation and the judgment and Babylon and the horrors, and then Armageddon. But now comes the victory, the heaven on earth.
“Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O ye gates: even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah” (Psalm 24:7–10).
The Muslims have a prophecy that when Jesus returns, He will come through the gate called “Beautiful” and take over the city of Jerusalem and reign as the Messiah and King of kings. Therefore one Arab ruler many years ago didn’t want Jesus to come and take the kingdom away from him; he was afraid He might come during his day. So he walled up the gate “Beautiful” there in Jerusalem.
To this day it is still sealed, because God prophesied that no man should go through that gate again. A prophet prophesied this centuries ago when at that time it was one of the most popular gates of Jerusalem on a well-traveled highway that ran through that gate into the city. But God prophesied by His prophet Ezekiel many centuries earlier that it would be closed and never opened again until the Lord of hosts Himself, the King of kings, Jesus, would come and pass through that gate (Ezekiel 44:2; 43:1–4).
Praise God, the day is coming when “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:9–10).
“O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. For the Lord most high is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth.”—In the Millennium. “He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness” (Psalm 47:1–3,7–8). All of these marvelous predictions of the coming kingdom of Christ upon earth.
“I will make Thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise Thee for ever and ever” (Psalm 45:17). For “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the scepter of Thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows” (Psalm 45:6–7). What wonderful prophecies of the coming kingdom of Jesus! I turn the pages here in the Psalms and on almost every page I find another prophecy about this marvelous millennial kingdom of Christ.
“Our God shall come and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness: for God is Judge Himself” (Psalm 50:3–6). That’s the way it’ll be when Jesus comes.
“Through the greatness of Thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto Thee. All the earth shall worship Thee, and shall sing unto Thee; they shall sing to Thy name” (Psalm 66:3–4). “O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for Thou shalt judge the people righteously”—not all judges today judge righteously—“and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. Let the people praise Thee, O God; let all the people praise Thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase: and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him” (Psalm 67:4–7).
For “Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men”—the greatest being salvation—“yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them” (Psalm 68:18). God is even going to be good to the wicked who will—some of them—survive all the horrors of hell of the Antichrist and the Tribulation and the plagues of the wrath of God and the Battle of Armageddon to finally come into this millennial period through which we will rule and reign over them with Christ with a rod of iron for a thousand years.
“Give the king Thy judgments, O God.” This is Psalm 72, and almost the whole psalm is a prediction of the Millennium—“and Thy righteousness unto the king’s son.” Who is the king’s son? Jesus. “He shall judge Thy people with righteousness”—that means Jesus—“and Thy poor with judgment.” The world is going to see a righteous judge, a righteous king, a righteous ruler at last, who will have a righteous government. No corruption, no vice or crime or payola or bribery or crooked judges and crooked politicians, but a righteous government and righteous justice.
“The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations” (Psalm 72:1–5).
Don’t think that something’s going to happen to destroy the sun or the moon or the earth! God didn’t make this creation to be destroyed. He’s going to have to destroy the surface of the earth and burn it up because of the pollution of mankind and its wickedness, but He’s not going to destroy the ball, the planet earth, or the sun or moon. They’re going to continue to shine upon the earth.
We won’t need them in the holy city that comes down from God to the earth. There’ll be no need of sun or moon or stars there. Jesus will be our sun. But outside on the earth where others are still learning and still being healed, they’ll still need sunlight and moonlight and the stars, and God will be merciful to them. But that is the new earth and new heaven, which comes after the Millennium.
“He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. In His days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” Here it’s speaking of the kingdom of Christ on earth, how it’s going to be over the whole world.
“They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him and His enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents.” The British. “The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.” The Saudi Arabians are going to become Christians.
“Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him.” There won’t be any religion then but Christianity; there won’t be any kingdom except that of Jesus Christ. “For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and the needy and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in His sight.
“And He shall live, and to Him shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Prayer also shall be made for Him continually; and daily shall He be praised. There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon. And they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.” That is, of the great city of God. ( To be continued)