Revelation 2020 - Lesson 20C

• Tonight is Part 2 of our study of the Kingdom 

  • We’re taking our study of this fascinating time in sections

    • Last week we looked at the changes to Creation, the land, the animals and the government 

    • Let’s summarize what we learned in those areas

  • First, the natural world will begin to return to the state that it knew before the fall of Adam

    • The animal kingdoms will no longer experience a predator-prey relationship

    • Likewise, human beings will no longer be threatened by animals

  • And these changes represent a partial reversal of the curses God pronounced on the earth after the fall

    • One change hasn’t been reversed, however: the snake still crawls on the ground

    • This memorial to Satan’s deception remains on the earth because the enemy himself remains for a time

  • Next we learned that Israel will be back in her land, and her borders will be greatly increased over the borders of today

    • They will be closer to the borders of Solomon’s day

    • And Israel will be the chief nation on earth because Jesus Himself will live in Jerusalem 

• Among other natural changes are new features on the land in Israel, beginning with a land that will produce an abundance of crops without effort

  • That too is a reversal of the curse on the land

    • And the mountains will have streams on top, so that water is everywhere and the land is easy to work

    • The mountain holding the temple will be the chief mountain in that day

  • And from the temple, a new river will flow that will split and go into the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea

    • And when it hits the Dead Sea, it will cause the waters to turn fresh and produce new fish

    • And that temple will be the home of Christ and the government of the earth 

  • Jesus will rule the nations from this place and His government will eliminate all disobedience and sinful behavior even among those who have sin

    • The Jewish nation will be ruled by David and the twelve apostles, along with the glorified nation of Israel 

    • While the Gentile nations will be ruled by the glorified church saints in an unknown structure

    • And Isaiah said last week that when we need Jesus’ direction, we can call upon Him and He answers us instantly from anywhere

• Now as we move on to the next section, we need to consider daily life, starting with why a government exists in the Kingdom time at all 

  • Governing is fundamentally a process of dealing with lawbreakers

    • If there were no lawbreakers, there would be no need for government 

    • As Paul explains in Romans 13

Rom. 13:3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same;
Rom. 13:4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

• The purpose of government is to be an instrument of God to ensure that lawbreakers are punished and good behavior is encouraged 

  • So the need for government comes from the effect of sin

  • Take away sin and we remove the need for government of any kind, for everyone would be doing the right thing

• Therefore, the fact that government exists in the Kingdom is (another) proof that sin exists in that time

  • And we discussed earlier in this study how some will enter the Kingdom bringing sin with them

  • They are saved by their faith, yet they come with a sinful body since they had never died

• Let’s take a moment to revisit the various groups of humanity who enter into the Kingdom

  • We learned earlier that there are five different groups of believers that enter the Kingdom on Day 1 while all unbelievers die beforehand

    • Three groups enter in new, glorified, sinless bodes, and these eternal, sinless people rule with Jesus in the government 

    • They are sinless so they need no rule themselves, and because they do the will of Jesus perfectly, they can assist in ruling

    • Under Christ’s direction, they ensure that the world is ruled with a rod of iron in perfect justice

  • But two other groups enter in natural, earthly bodies that still possess sin and they will not participate in the government 

    • The condition for entry into the Kingdom was not sinlessness but rather righteousness by faith

    • So 100% of those who enter the Kingdom will be believers made righteous by faith, but not all 100% will be sinless

  • These sinful believers who come out of Tribulation, both Jew and Gentile, will continue to live in the same bodies they entered with

    • They have not died yet, so they have not been resurrected into new glorified bodies yet

    • And these natural bodies may unite in marriage and reproduce to create a new generation of humanity in the Kingdom time

    • And the new generations they produce will also possess natural bodies, which means they too will have a sinful nature

• But unlike their parents, these new generations of Kingdom citizens (the true Millennials) will not all be believing like that first generation that entered

  • Remember, we aren’t “born” believing…we all enter the world lost and in need of salvation

    • Which is why we must be born again by faith at some point in our earthly life

    • So the children of the Kingdom will enter into the world both sinful and without faith

  • All those who enter with sin will require ruling, and that will be especially true for the future generations of unbelievers 

    • They will make mistakes, and the government will step in to stop that mistake from going anywhere

    • No sin will have a chance to grow or produce harm in the world because it will be contained quickly and perfectly 

  • So for 1,000 years the world will be ruled by a class of humanity that does not die, cannot sin and will not marry or procreate

    • And those we rule will live in natural bodies that can die, possess sin and may reproduce more sinful natural people 

    • And over time these natural people will repopulate the earth 

• But that scenario opens some intriguing questions…questions that are hard to answer in some cases

  • First, what is life like for those believers who enter into the Kingdom?

    • How many people are born in this time? Do they die in this world?

    • And if they don’t die, how can we have a government that never grows, rule a population that increases and never dies?

  • If we assume only 10,000 people, both Jew and Gentile, survive the Tribulation and enter the world in natural bodies

    • And then assume those 10,000 are roughly equal numbers of men and women and those 10,000 marry

    • Then assume that 2% have a child each year and no one is dying 

    • Then after 1,000 years, the earth population would be 4 trillion!

    • That seems impossible to manage, so what does the Bible tells us about that time?

  • Isaiah gives us this description of the Kingdom

Is. 65:20  “No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, 
Or an old man who does not live out his days; 
For the youth will die at the age of one hundred 
And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred 
Will be thought accursed.

• Isaiah’s poetry employs couplets in this verse to describe the rules of death in the Kingdom

• The first and third lines go together while the second and fourth lines go together

• Let’s reorganize them to understand them more easily

  • (1) No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, 

  • (3) For the youth will die at the age of one hundred

  • (2) Or an old man who does not live out his days; 

  • (4) And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred will be thought accursed. 

• Isaiah reports that no longer will there be an infant who lives only a few days

  • Obviously, there will be children born in the Kingdom, but this isn’t a surprise since we know that natural people enter the Kingdom

    • But no longer will a child die in infancy, which forces us to acknowledge a fundamental truth: God controls life and death

    • God has declared that in the Kingdom children will not die young which can only be true if God controls the timing of death

  • Isaiah says the earliest a child will die is at the age of 100, and the person will be considered a youth because life can go much longer

    • The Lord has assured every person born in the Kingdom at least 100 years of life

    • Obviously, this is a dramatic departure from what we see today

    • But to die at that point will be considered an early death, Isaiah says, which means that normal lifespans return to that of Genesis

    • Even natural men and women can live much much longer than 100 years in that day

  • Next Isaiah also says that an old man will never fail to live out his days in the Kingdom, meaning he will not die of old age either

    • So people will live hundreds of years, just as was the case in the ancient world

    • We don’t know about the aging process in this day, but apparently God is capable of sustaining natural bodies as before

    • This too is a partial reversal of the curses of the Garden

    • Before Adam sinned, there was no death, but even after bodies still died very slowly, since Adam lived 969 years

  • The one who does not pass the 100th year will be understood to be accursed

    • To be accursed means to fall under divine judgment, which in this context indicates eternal judgment in Hell

    • We know that only unbelievers are under condemnation from God, so those accursed must refer to unbelievers in the Kingdom

    • These are the offspring of the Gentile believers born into the Kingdom in natural bodies

    • They will die at age 100 and enter Hell at that point

• So the 100th birthday seems to be the watershed moment for all those born in the Kingdom

  • Only those who believe in Jesus as Lord will be allowed to live longer than 100 years

    • Once a person believes, they become immune to death because Isaiah says they will live until the end of the Kingdom

    • So it’s an all-or-nothing proposition: the unbeliever will only live 100 years while believers enjoy the duration of the Kingdom

  • Clearly, this is a very different economy of life and death than the one we know today

    • And in this way God sends a very clear message that the Kingdom is meant to be enjoyed by believers

    • And the precision and severity of this judgment is in keeping with Jesus’ overall style of rule: He rules with an iron rod

  • If believers do not die in the Kingdom, then when do they receive a new, eternal body? 

    • And this is one of the great silences of the Bible…because to my knowledge there is no Scripture that addresses this question

    • Clearly, they must be resurrected into a new, eternal sinless body at some point because we know all sin is gone after the Kingdom

    • But the Bible never tells us when this happens, so we’re left to guess

    • It could happen when they turn 100, or it could happen any point after that or at the end of the Kingdom 

• Meanwhile, let’s move to the next question: how does anyone live 100 years on the earth with Jesus ruling in Jerusalem and not believe in Him?

  • Students of the Bible naturally wonder how it could be that a world ruled by Christ could include unbelievers 

    • Most assume that Jesus will be visible in the world

    • And we assume that supernatural displays will be common

    • And even the fact that we live among the world in our glorified bodies should be proof enough to bring faith

  • But if you think a moment longer, you come to realize these things can’t be true in the Kingdom

    • First, remember this has happened before, when Jesus walked the earth and showed His power and authority

    • People didn’t believe in Him then, so clearly it’s possible to see God in your midst and not be convinced to believe

  • Secondly, the unbelievers in the Kingdom were born during the time of the Kingdom, so they have no experience other than the Kingdom 

    • They know nothing of the age that preceded theirs and there will be no evidence of that prior age

    • Just as this world refuses to believe in the stories of Adam and Noah, etc. because physical evidence is lacking

    • So it will be then that people lack evidence of the life that existed before the Tribulation and the renewing of the earth 

  • Thirdly, they will never see Jesus during the entire 1,000 years of the Kingdom

    • We will study the details of the Kingdom temple in next week’s lesson, but one detail we need tonight is Jesus’ dwelling place

    • Ezekiel 43 tells us that the Lord dwells in the Holy of Holies in the Temple for the entire 1,000 years

Ezek. 43:4 And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east.
Ezek. 43:5 And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house.
Ezek. 43:6  Then I heard one speaking to me from the house, while a man was standing beside me.
Ezek. 43:7 He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever…

• The Lord returns to His usual appearance of glory as we saw John describe in Chapter 1, and He dwells in the temple without interruption

  • And Ezekiel goes on to tell us that the glory of the Lord is only visible to visitors on Sabbaths, Feast days and new moons

  • And unbelievers are never allowed to enter the temple or see the glory of the Lord…we will study this more next week

• So in other words, the one born in this age can see that a temple exists on a high mountain in Jerusalem 

  • And that person also sees a government of people ruling the world, but the unbeliever never sees the king on His throne in the temple

    • Therefore, the only way an unbeliever will recognize Jesus as King is by faith in the testimony of the word of God

    • The requirement for faith in the Kingdom is just as it is today (and has always been)

  • Salvation can never be a matter of sight…it must always come from faith in god’s word

Heb. 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Rom. 8:24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?

• The Bible teaches that faith is an expression of hope because it accepts something as true before it can be “seen” 

• Once something can be seen, accepting the truth of it no longer requires faith…it’s become self-evident

• Nor should such a concession gain us anything, because God Himself gains no glory when we acknowledge the obvious

• So God’s plan of salvation depends on faith, trusting in the promises of God found in His word concerning things yet to come

  • We place our faith in things that cannot be seen, Christ’s atoning death, our future resurrection and judgment 

  • God’s word has made promises to us concerning these matters, and faith is required to accept them

• Now imagine if Jesus were visible in His glorified form to the unbelieving world?

  • They would certainly acknowledge Jesus, but that acknowledgement wouldn’t be based on faith in God’s word

    • It would merely be a self-evident truth, and acknowledging Jesus under those circumstances wouldn’t result in salvation 

    • No more than at the final judgment when Paul says:

Phil. 2:9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
Phil. 2:10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
Phil. 2:11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

• At the final judgment, all humanity from all history will come to understand the truth that Jesus is Lord

  • In that moment, Paul says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that truth

  • Notice the various places where humanity will exist when they make this confession

  • Some are above the earth, others on the earth, but importantly some are still below the earth

• And Paul says that even those below the earth will acknowledge Jesus, referring to souls enduring eternal judgment 

  • Paul says they too will confess Christ as Lord, yet they will remain in judgment despite their confession

  • Why? Because at that point their confession is simply an acknowledgement of self-evident truth…no faith required

  • And so it does not bring salvation

• Therefore, since unbelief remains part of life during the Kingdom, then faith must still be the means to salvation

  • And if faith is required, then the truth of Christ will not be self-evident, at least not in the sense that it nullifies the need for faith

    • That’s one reason Jesus is not roaming the earth in His glorified form but rather He remains in the Holy of Holies

    • The testimony of that day will be that our Lord is resident in the temple, reigning and ruling

    • But accepting that testimony will require faith, since unbelievers will not  see Jesus nor will they be permitted to enter the temple

  • And then there’s the issue of our appearance, and for the same reason, we should assume that our glorified appearance won’t vary dramatically

    • We should expect that our physical construction will mirror the one we have now albeit without sin or disease or weaknesses

    • Perhaps our appearance will remain essentially the same (just fewer wrinkles and maybe a little thinner) 

    • And if so, that may be the way we’ll recognize each other 

  • And perhaps most amazing, our sinless nature won’t make us radically different from the sinner

    • Remember, Jesus lived a sinless life, and yet none of his earthly brothers were moved by what they saw to believe in His claims

    • So if sinless Jesus could live side by side with unbelievers without them noticing, we should expect to do the same 

  • We will live side-by-side with the natural man or woman and yet our sinlessness won’t challenge their lack of faith in Jesus as God

    • They won’t look at us so as to be amazed and persuaded to believe in Jesus 

    • They may see us as kind or good, or on the other hand, they may think we’re impossibly good and feel convicted by it

    • That’s the situation I find myself in all the time 

    • But one thing we can know for sure, our sinless nature won’t serve to nullify faith for those who remain unbelieving

• So the unbelievers on that day will live with those who rule over them without appreciating a difference exists

  • Meanwhile, we who are glorified will enjoy endless days of joy serving Jesus and presumably we will have many relationships 

    • We will re-establish relationships with those we knew here

    • We will establish new relationships with believers from all ages of time, including people famous and unknown to history

  • Elsewhere in the Gospels Jesus tells us we will be surprised by those who make it into the Kingdom and those who don’t

    • There will be those in the Kingdom who lived terrible lives but came to faith in the end

    • And there will be those missing who lived pious lives and even had well-known ministries but never knew the Lord personally

  • We will have 1,000 years to make it around the world and meet as many saints as we can and learn their stories

    • I suspect that tourism in that day will be less about seeing places and more about meeting people

    • You can read the story of Jonah on one day and decide to seek him out for a conversation on the next day

  • Ever wondered what it felt like to be in a boat with animals for over a year? Have coffee with Noah

    • Curious what the Red Sea parting looked like? Talk to Moses or Miriam

    • Want to ask Aaron what he was thinking with that calf? What Abraham was thinking with Hagar? Get in line…

• The more we consider these issues, the more reasons we have to look forward to the Kingdom life

  • It’s going to be everything we like about life today and nothing we don’t

    • It’s going to be a life with fulfillment in place of disappointment 

    • It will be a life with meaning instead of one that sometimes seems senseless

    • It’s a life with a rhythm and stability that eliminates fear or worry

  • A life where the prospect of growing old and dying are gone, where the consequences of sin are no more

    • Our days will be filled with work we enjoy, pastimes that don’t hurt us or others and possessions that never fade away 

    • And for the unbeliever, the same will be true so long as they do not sin and if they come to faith during their first 100 years 

  • And in the midst of that near-perfect world, the unbeliever will be told they must believe in Jesus if they want to continue in that bliss

    • Though we may assume that such a great world would make faith easier to come by, the reality will be the exact opposite 

    • When the world is experiencing such bliss, faith will be harder

    • Just as today when people are comfortable in their circumstances, they find little reason to consider a change

    • Especially not a change as significant as repenting of their present way of life to embrace a new one in Jesus

• What else can we know about life in that day? Let’s take a closer look at the Jewish life in the Kingdom 

Is. 4:2 In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel.
Is. 4:3 It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy — everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem.
Is. 4:4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning,
Is. 4:5 then the LORD will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy.
Is. 4:6 There will be a shelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and protection from the storm and the rain.

• The passage opens with a familiar statement, that Israel, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and the earth will produce bountifully for Israel in that day 

  • And all who are left (after Tribulation) will be holy, everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem

    • As we studied earlier, there will be no unbelievers in Israel

    • So there will be natural un-glorified Jews in the Kingdom (just like the Gentiles)

  • But unlike the Gentiles, the children of Jews will always come to faith in the Kingdom or so it seems

    • But we also studied earlier in Ezekiel that there would be death among the families of the priests in the temple

    • So we still have a bit of mystery on the question of Jewish life

  • Isaiah also says that Jerusalem will be covered by the Shechinah glory of God like the assembly of Israel in the desert exodus

    • The temple itself is part of a great mountain that also includes Jerusalem and covers that plain we described earlier

    • The flat plain on the top of this mountain is 50 miles square

    • The city of Jerusalem will be up there too, 10 miles square

    • And then the temple itself which is nearly 1 square mile 

  • Over this whole area will be a cloud at day time to provide persistent shade keeping the area cool

    • And at night there will be flaming fire in the sky to provide constant illumination over the temple

    • And the effect of both will be to prevent a storm or rain from falling on this area like a canopy 

    • The glory of the Lord will be honored in these things

• What about Gentile life in the Kingdom? We know only a few things specifically

Is. 56:6  “Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, 
To minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD, 
To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath 
And holds fast My covenant;
Is. 56:7  Even those I will bring to My holy mountain 
And make them joyful in My house of prayer. 
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; 
For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

• In the Kingdom strangers, referring to Gentiles, will join themselves to the Lord to minister to Him in love of Him

  • They will live as servants and observe the Millennial law, which we will talk about next week

  • These Gentiles will be brought to the holy mountain and become a joyful part of the house of prayer

  • We know that “house of prayer” is an Old Testament term referring to the temple itself

• So these Gentiles will become workers and likely priests in the Temple and will offer sacrifices before the altar as priests 

  • In that way the temple will be called a house of prayer for all peoples 

  • In the time of the earlier temple, only Jews were able to sacrifice and certainly only Jews could serve as priests

  • But in the Kingdom, the temple will be known as a house of prayer for all the peoples, because Gentiles will serve there too

• And there are other places of service for Gentiles in Israel during this time

Is. 66:18  “For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory.
Is. 66:19 “I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations: Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have neither heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations.
Is. 66:20 “Then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as a grain offering to the LORD, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the LORD, “just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD.
Is. 66:21 “I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites,” says the LORD.

• In the Kingdom the Lord will populate nations around the globe with the believing Gentiles who enter the Kingdom on the first day

  • The Lord says they will know His works and see His glory, because as we said earlier Gentile believers will have access to the temple 

    • On certain days of the year, they can enter and witness the glory of the Lord in the temple

    • And in the lands where they live, the Lord says He will also set a sign among the nations

  • That sign will be the survivors God sends to live there, the Church saints who go to rule there

    • We are a sign to the nation by our witness of righteousness and faith that we possess

    • And Isaiah says in v.19 we will declare the glory of the Lord to those distant nations

  • In v.20 the prophet says that these will bring Israel’s brethren back to Jerusalem on horses, chariots and the like

    • This seems to describe the initial days of the Kingdom when Israel is reestablished in her land

    • The Gentile believers will carry Jews to their land as a statement of honor and reversal of previous scatterings

    • Where before Gentile nations pushed Israel out of her land, now we carry them back like making a grain offering to the Lord

  • Finally, Isaiah confirms that some of these Gentile believers will be honored to become priests serving in the temple 

    • So the Gentile believers will have a place in government in distant lands where the Lord gives us an inheritance

    • But some of us may be called up to the majors to serve Jesus in the temple

    • And some Gentiles will be assigned to serve in Israel directly

Is. 14:1  When the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
Is. 14:2 The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the LORD as male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.

• Isaiah says that when the nations bring the Jews into the land at the start of the Kingdom, some of those Gentiles will stay in the land

  • They will become a possession of Israel as part of Israel’s inheritance 

  • And those Gentiles will become servants of Israel though in a position of honor

• Moving on, I said earlier that sin will not have a chance to gain momentum in the Kingdom, and so life will remain peaceful in this time

  • But there is an interesting exception to that rule: worship in the temple

    • The requirement for Gentile nations to visit the temple periodically may be disobeyed 

    • And when a nation refuses to obey the requirement to come to the temple, the Lord will bring a devastating response

Zech. 14:16 Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths.
Zech. 14:17 And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them.
Zech. 14:18 If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the plague with which the LORD smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

• Nations will be required to come to the temple for an annual feast called the feast of Booths, which is the final feast on the Jewish calendar

  • We study this feast and the other worship events of the Kingdom next week

  • But for now notice what happens when a nation decides to skip church that week, so to speak

• A drought will be the one and only response the Lord sends to nations that refuse to conduct worship at the temple

  • Remember, that the earth produces without effort because water is plentiful 

  • So no irrigation systems will be necessary or built we presume

  • So a drought will have an immediate and devastating effect on agriculture and life making it an effective deterrent 

• Finally, for both Jew and Gentile living in that time, life will be satisfying

Is. 65:21  “They will build houses and inhabit them; 
They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Is. 65:22  “They will not build and another inhabit, 
They will not plant and another eat; 
For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, 
And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands.
Is. 65:23  “They will not labor in vain, 
Or bear children for calamity; 
For they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, 
And their descendants with them.

• First, we will build houses for ourselves in the Kingdom Isaiah says

  • If you’ve ever wanted to design and build that perfect house for yourself, you will get that chance

    • And you will live in the house you decide to build, and I suspect it will be a house that far surpasses the one you have now

    • In fact, it’s a general rule of Scripture that this life is a pale comparison of the one we get next 

    • Which is why the Bible warns us against investing too much of ourselves in this world rather than waiting for our reward 

  • And as we already know we will plant crops and eat the fruit of it

    • This is more than a simple statement of farming…the point is the certainty of a return on our effort

    • The plants will not die, the crop will not fail to materialize 

    • No one will raid the land, no one will take our house from us

  • Notice in v.22 Isaiah says we won’t build what we desire only to see someone else gain it later for some reason

    • It will be ours to keep without any fear of losing it, because the Lord has given it to us as our inheritance

    • Likewise, no one else will take our produce from the fields 

  • And the days of our lives in this time will be like that of a tree, Isaiah says

    • There are trees that have lives 2,000+ years, and so we will know that kind of lifespan

    • In fact, our lifespan will never end, so every day will be a continuation of our joy

    • And we will wear out the work of our hands

  • And for those who can marry and reproduce, they will not labor in vain, because there will no infant mortality as we discussed earlier 

    • The offspring of those blessed of the Lord will live 

    • And every parent will gain the joy of raising children without fear for their young lives

• Having covered what we can from Scripture, there is still a lot left unaddressed of course

  • We don’t know the level of technology present in the Kingdom

    • Will we enjoy the conveniences we have today or perhaps we will be rescued from the hectic nature of our connected life 

    • Will there be entertainment, sports? Can we move to new places? Is there money and an economy? 

  • I think the Lord has intentionally left many things unanswered so that the Kingdom life is a never-ending series of surprises

    • And I remind myself of how much life here can astonish and please us despite the terrible condition of the world and people

    • So imagine how much better it will be when sin is under control and we have none of our own

    • And curses are gone and the world is peaceful…I’m sure we won’t be missing this age at all

  • Next week we look at the temple operations, including why sacrifices return

    • And we look at worship in the Kingdom and take a brief tour of the temple building itself 

    • And then the following and final week of the Kingdom, we look at the events that bring the 1,000 years to an end