The one bright spot to be seen in the judgments is, that God by them will not only punish the nations for their sins, but will have in His mind the bringing of His earthly people, the Jewish nation, to repentance, and their entering into all the blessings promised to Abraham, for we read, "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Rom. 1:29).
That means whenever God calls, or gives gifts, He will never change His mind, His promises are without repentance on His part. How certain then are His promises!
So we read of the happy results on the Jewish nation of all the purifying judgments, they will be called upon to pass through in God's governmental chastisement. We read with gladness of the mighty change that is to come upon God's earthly people, " I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn... In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness." (Zech. 12:10 and 13: 1).
What a, glorious day that will be! In that day, " They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isa. 2:4).
In that wonderful day, "They shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jer. 31:34).
What a day of peace for all creation in that day! "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." (Isa. 2:9). "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." (Isa. 33:24).
Repentant Israel with joy shall reach the glorious terminus, that God promised to Abraham, and through him to all His chosen people.
The government shall be in the right hands at last. "Behold the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." (Jer. 23:5, 6).
What a glorious time that will be! Even Satan, the great instigator of sin and rebellion against God in the world, will have been shut up and confined in the bottomless pit for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3). Even with the absence of Satan's sinister influence from the millennial earth, things will not be perfect. God tested man. in grace when He first came to this earth, and they CRUCIFIED Him and cast Him out. There will be a second testing when our Lord shall come to earth to reign in majesty and power and glory. Still it will be a testing of man. Scripture tells us of that time, "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that bath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed." (Isa. 65:20).
Evil will be summarily dealt with. It will not be, that all the nations will desire to serve the Lord reigning over them, for we read, "As soon as they hear of Me, they shall obey Me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto Me." (Psalm 18:44).
This refers to the millennium age, for the preceding verse speaks of the Lord as "Head of the heathen." But the margin in our bibles throws a fuller light of the passage. The margin reads, they shall "Yield feigned obedience, Heb. lie."
Moreover there will be a rapid increase in the population in that time, and not all the increase will be loyal to the Lord. Whilst multitudes will rejoice in the reign of their Messiah, there will be hidden rebellion in the hearts of many. Such is man, whether tested in grace, or in government.
The thousand years' reign of our Lord upon earth will come to a close. Once His strong hand is removed, the test for man will come for the last time. What will be the response?
You will notice on the diagram a short period is marked between the end of the millennial age and the beginning of eternity, when time shall be no more. Alas! we read of man's rising in revolt, the greatest in all his sad history. We read, " And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 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. 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. And the devil that deceived them was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." (Rev. 20:7-10).
Thus graphically we read of Satan's last and greatest revolt, and how it will be utterly and forever crushed, never to rise again.
John continues his vision of the last days of this earth. We read, " And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and 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 (literally, Hades) 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." (Rev. 20:11-15).
With the passing away of heaven and earth, time will have ceased to be, and the judgment of the dead will take place on the very threshold of eternity.
Then at last there rises before us the blissful vision of a new heaven and a new earth, new Jerusalem, likened to a holy city, coming down as a Bride adorned for her husband. It is reserved for the Eternal State to announce the Church as the Bride of Christ, using a simile setting forth the closest deepest affection, that we know on earth. Never shall we be allowed to forget how we are indebted for this favored place of nearness to our beloved Lord, when the Church is described as the Lamb's wife. We shall ever be reminded at what a cost our Lord secured His ransomed Bride, even to the shedding of His precious atoning blood.
The Tabernacle of God will be with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and He will be their God. All tears will have been wiped away. Death shall never intrude on heaven's bliss. Sorrow and pain will be unknown. The former things will have passed away, and the One who sits on the throne will announce, "Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. 21:5), never to grow old, but retaining their first freshness forever and ever.
There in effulgence bright,
Savior and Guide with Thee;
I'll walk, and in Thy heavenly light
Whiter my robe shall be.
God and the Lamb shall there
The light and temple be,
And radiant hosts forever share
The unveiled mystery."