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December 9 (Zechariah 14)
God’s word tells right after the 7 years and 45 days we call The Tribulation, Jesus will return to the earth and establish His throne in Jerusalem. Revelation 20 tells us He will throw the false prophet and the beast (aka anti-Christ) alive into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20). Satan will be bound and thrown into the abyss (Rev. 20:1-3). He will be locked up there for one thousand years. All church age saints will take part in the first part of the first resurrection (Rev. 20:1-4). Jesus and those saints will rule the earth with a rod of iron. In other words, there will be no democracies or oligarchies anywhere (Ps. 2:9; Rev. 2:27; 12:5; 19:15). The entire earth will be one big theocracy. It will be the one world government under Christ's rule the anti-Christ is now trying to establish under his authority.


Zechariah 14 gives us a lot of detail about the kinds of things that will be going on during that reign. We are told in that section of God word the feasts will be restored. The glaring difference between these feast and the ones the Jews were observing in ancient times is that during the millennium all nations will be required to go to Jerusalem to celebrate those feasts. And, we’re told any nation or group of people who refuse to go up for those feasts will experience immediate withholding of rain. All the technological systems we currently have to do things like irrigation will be gone, so when the rain ceases during the millennium, the people involved will experience immediate crop loss and thirst for water. Without water, no nation can survive long. My best guess is those conditions will result in much unrest among those nations. Those who have their rain witheld will likely declare war on adjoining nations to get their water. Voila! the reason for ruling with a rod of iron.

I think the reason for this period where Jesus will actually visibly rule from Jerusalem is to show those who use the old line, “The devil made me do it,” he didn’t. When he is locked up and so many continue to rebel against the authority of our Creator it will be obvious man's propensity to sin wasn't entirely Satan's fault. Of course, many conservative theologians completely ignore the massive amounts of information contained in scripture about that millennial period; and some teach an a-millennial view (a misnomer). A-millennialists interpret all verses dealing with that period as imagery and is currently being fulfilled in the church age. Many a-millennialist have excellent theology until they get to that one issue. Most conservative theologians try to ignore the topic altogether because then they have to deal with those humans left on the earth after God’s final bowl judgments. There will obviously be people around the globe who will not be present at the battle of all battles, Armegeddon. Of course, it’s simple to determine their fate. They will be the people who refused to receive the mark of the beast. Revelation 19 makes it abundantly clear any who receive the mark will receive God's wrath. There will be people who don’t get converted during the seven years of tribulation. Many of them will actually help the saints escape the murderous rampage of the beast as he sets out to exterminate them. Jesus makes several interesting comments about that group in Matthew 10:41, 42,

“He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward."

Zechariah 14 makes it clear there will be unsaved people living during the millennium. The feasts will be reinstated, as already indicated, thus animals will be sacrificed as a reminder of man's sinful state, not as having any ability to redeem anything anymore than they ever did. Prior to the church age, the sacrifices typified the coming sacrifice of the Lamb of God. During the millennium, they will point back to Calvary, reminding everyone of Christ’s payment for sin.

In closing today’s lesson, I confess my own misunderstanding about the importance of interpreting the sacrifices more thoroughly. I intend to begin an intense study of them soon. It seems a very elite group (meaning a very small contingency) of Christians will have the incredible opportunity to minister directly in the presence of the Lord Jesus during the millennium. They will not go out of His presence in the sense that they will actually be living in the Holy City and ministering with the Levites before His throne (Rev. 7:15, 16; 22:3-5). It seems logical one of the requirements for those in that group will be that they know the whys and wherefores of the feasts and the sacrifices. Of course, God could supernaturally imbed that knowledge into the minds of every one, but it seems to me, since He has already given that information in His written word, He is expecting us to know it before we come into His presence. If that’s true, I, of all people, have been terribly remiss as a child of God and teacher of His word. I intend to spend the next few months correcting that. I will what I learn daily in this blog to any interesting in know what I am learning. I challenge each of you to spend time each day reviewing the things I learn. I'm quite excited about the prospects of learning more thoroughly about the significance of those feasts. And I think the information I gather will be the material for my next book. May God bless you and keep you; may He make His face shine upon you, and grant you peace.