“I will show compassion to Jerusalem, to all who live in her ruins. Though her land is a desert, I will make it a garden, like the garden I planted in Eden. Joy and gladness will be there, and songs of praise and thanks to Me.” (Isaiah 51:3)
This is the beginning of Isaiah’s prophecy of the reign of the Messiah. There isn’t too much understanding of this time. But it’s one thing in the New Testament that Jews and Christians can agree on. Yes! We both agree that the Messiah will come and there will be supernatural peace world-wide. There is only one difference. They didn’t recognize His first coming, when Jesus, the Messiah, came to establish first a spiritual kingdom here on earth in the hearts of believers. But He is returning. He will reign here on earth. Jesus will fulfill all the promises God made to Israel, to His people and to all of His creation. To study every Scripture about this time would take too much time, but let’s explore some key Scriptures.
“Listen to Me, My people, listen to what I say: I give my teaching to the nations; My laws will bring them light. I will come quickly and save them; the time of My victory is near. I Myself will rule over the nations. Distant lands wait for Me to come; they wait with hope for Me to save them.” (Isaiah 51:4-5) We learn from these Scriptures that nations will believe in Jesus. He will save and rule over all the nations. Jesus will be the light of the nations.
“In days to come the mountain where the Temple stands will be the highest one of all, towering above all the hills. Many nations will come streaming to it, and their people will say, "Let us go up the hill of the LORD, to the Temple of Israel's God. He will teach us what He wants us to do; we will walk in the paths He has chosen. For the LORD's teaching comes from Jerusalem; from Zion He speaks to His people." He will settle disputes among great nations. They will hammer their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will never again go to war, never prepare for battle again.” (Isaiah 2:2-4 & Micah 4:1-3) There will not be war. Jesus reigns and rules overall. And every nation comes to learn from Him.
Isaiah again prophecies about Jesus as the Messiah. “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, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. 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. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. 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 11:1-9) In this prophecy we learn more about those days. There will be peace among nations, peoples and all of God’s creation. This will be for a thousand years. A thousand years is a long time. It’s ten centuries of time. To put it in perspective it’s like the span of the Middle Ages to now. We see God’s time span is like nothing we know. And although we “see” that the end time is near, I don’t think it’s as near as some of us think. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2Peter 3:8)
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” (Revelation 20:1-3) The devil will not roam the earth. He’s the troublemaker, the deceiver and destroyer. But he is loosened after the thousand years to again wreak havoc on earth again until the new heaven and the new earth are revealed. The old earth is destroyed, but not before the Great White Throne Judgement. “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:10-15) Notice in this Scripture that God calls out those already in hell to be judged. So that supports the Scripture that once we die, we immediately go to heaven or hell. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” (Hebrews 9:27) So we are judged immediately and go to our appointed destiny until the reign of Christ.
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” (Revelation 20:6) That first resurrection is the rapture of the saints Paul wrote about.
So, the raptured saints will reign with Christ along with those who were martyred for Christ. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” (Revelation 20:4-5) The last sentence of verse 5 is continued in verse 6. We have a part in the first resurrection. “Our friends, we want you to know the truth about those who have died, so that you will not be sad, as are those who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in Him. What we are teaching you now is the Lord's teaching: we who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died. There will be the shout of command, the archangel's voice, the sound of God's trumpet, and the Lord Himself will come down from heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first; then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we will always be with the Lord.” (1Thessalonians 4:13-17) These events are glorious. We must remember that the Lord God established it before creation. His Word is Truth and all He said will come to pass.
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