It has often been asked how the earth will support the huge increase of population that will take place during the thousand-year reign of Christ, when the birth rate will be high and the death rate practically nil.
A variety of circumstances will enable us to give a satisfactory answer. First, no standing armies and huge navies will be tolerated during the reign of peace and righteousness; prisons, reformatories, lunatic asylums, poor-houses, will practically not be wanted. Doctors, lawyers, and the multitude of professions and trades that are called into prominence through man's sin will not be needed at that time.
Thus every man and woman will be free to follow the avocations of peace. Disease, mental affliction, the feebleness of old age, will not impair the productive power of the population.
Moreover, the curse on nature will be greatly minimized. The ground will be prolific. Blight, canker, pest, bad seasons, will not hinder full fertility.
Added to all this, the verse we have just quoted throws a flood of light upon the changed condition of things. Through seismic alterations the desert shall have water again, and there is no fertilizer like that precious fluid. How poetically the Scriptures present this to us: “The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water” (Isa. 35:77And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. (Isaiah 35:7)).
Think what will happen when the mighty stretch of the Sahara is thus changed. Think of all the Arabian and Syrian Deserts, and all the desolate parts of the earth thus altered.
How glorious will be the time when—
“He'll bid the whole creation smile,
And hush its groan.”