Wolves eating with lambs and lions eating straw like oxen are hallmarks of the land of Israel during the Millennial Kingdom of Christ.[1] The Bible describes this age as full of wonders. A river will flow from the threshold of the temple all the way to the Dead Sea and heal it. Today’s resort of buoyant water salty enough to kill all life will spawn fish in the multitudes.[2] The Mount of Olives will be North Mount and South Mount with a great valley in between.[3] Plowman will chase reapers out of the field. Grape stompers will overtake seed sowers.[4] And people will die.

Isaiah 65:20
Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. NIV

Death, the result of man’s sin,[5] is still present in the Millennial Kingdom. Though Satan is locked up, death still lives. It remains the last enemy of God’s eternal love. Its presence on a devil-free planet is a sure sign that we have not come to the end, we have not fully arrived to the Father’s final plan.

Revelation 20:7-8
7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. KJV

Satan is an agent provocateur. Recall that sinless man chose rebellion against the Father[6] convinced that Love had withheld full divine nature from him.[7] In the Millennial Kingdom, mankind will live for generations under absolute righteous reign. The depravities caused in war will be but a distant bad memory. Food, the planet’s real wealth, will be in superabundant supply. And yet, the Deceiver will be able to tempt many to believe that the King of Righteousness is an evil dictator that needs to be overthrown.

Revelation 20:9-10
9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
10 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. KJV

“Fire came down from God out of heaven.” In Revelation 19, we see Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords and King of kings, ride out ahead of Heaven’s armies to tread the winepress of God’s wrathful fury. As the King enthroned in Jerusalem, He rules the planet He conquered. His dominion is unlike any other world ruler before Him. In our history, when vassal states fail to pay proper homage to their overlords, the overlords have gone to war to punish the rebellious. Jesus will not need to do this because as King over all the Earth, He controls the weather. Those who do not pay homage receive no rain.[8]

Saints, I know we see our God as Sovereign. That He controls the weather might as well be an article of faith. But please take a moment to meditate on the wonder of Jesus of Nazareth ruling in bodily form with His feet on terra firma. Before the crucifixion, before the resurrection, a weak-fleshed and weary Jesus tried to catch a combat nap as his disciples sailed across the lake. His sleep was so deep that the storm didn’t roust him. They had to wake him up. “Teacher,” they pleaded, “don’t you care that we are about to die?”

Rabbit trail alert! We are working our way to see the end days when the dimensional rift between Heaven and Earth no longer exists and heavenly Jerusalem supplants the restored earthly city. But let us pause in the middle of our meditation pause and consider the disciples’ question. Their doubt wasn’t in the Lord’s power and ability but in His love for them. “Master, don’t you care that we are dying?” Love is the foundation of God’s relationship with us. It is the starting place of our faith and the point at which it is most assaulted.

Mark 4:39-41
39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?” ESV

As terrifying as the storm was, Jesus of Nazareth calming it with a word was more terrifying still. This was a group of fishermen who believed in him, were eyewitnesses of his miracles and firsthand recipients of his instruction. Imagine the terror of entire nation states when drought comes and no doubt remains as to the cause. Their real recourse is submission. But under the Deceiver’s whispers, they choose rebellion instead.

In this last battle, it is the Father Himself who intervenes. Make no mistake; Jesus is fully up to the challenge. The attackers stood no chance against the King of Glory. But the heavenly Father pours out His fire upon them. Why? Because He is the God of Promise Who cannot lie.

Psalm 110:1
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. KJV

He promised His Son that He Himself would subdue Jesus’ enemies. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church of the Godhead’s share of power through time.

1 Corinthians 15:24-28
24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.
28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. ESV [Emphasis added.]

Once death as an enemy is destroyed, God will sit on the Great White Throne for the greatest judgment in the history of man. By His grace, that will be our topic in the next post.

[1] Isa. 65:25.
[2] Ezek. 47:8-9.
[3] Zech. 14:4.
[4] Amos 9:13.
[5] Gen. 2:17; Rom. 5:12.
[6] In Luke 3:38, Adam is called “the son of God.”
[7][7] Of course, He had not. And we New Testament saints are inheritors of His divine nature through the precious promises of the One who loves us and cannot lie. See 2 Pet. 1:3-4.
[8] Zech. 14:16-19.