“When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you and will multiply you exceedingly.’” [1]
Notice that God initiated the covenant with Abram. And what did Abram have to offer God at age 99? The Lord wanted a man who would aim to walk blamelessly before Him. He wanted a man through whom He could bring forth children who would not defile others. God wanted a nation of people who would honor His Word. They would help people to be holy as God is holy rather than defile people.
“I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” [2]
“For I [the Lord] have known him [Abraham], in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” [3]
Abraham is God’s example for us to follow. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah are God’s example for us not to follow. They were defiled by sin, and they delighted in defiling others.
“The Lord said, ‘The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great… Their sin is very grave.’” [4]
The Lord is patient, He doesn’t want anyone to perish but that all should reach repentance. In fact, when Pharisees saw Jesus sitting at a meal table with tax collectors and sinners, they questioned His disciples about this unbecoming behavior for a holy man. Jesus told them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” [5]
The Lord Jesus gave Himself as a living sacrifice for our sins on the cross. He really wants everyone to experience paradise with Him forever. To be able to say with King David, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” [6]
In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, the Lord speaks of giving to His followers authority to rule the nations. “ The one who conquers and who keeps My works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I Myself have received authority from My Father.” [7]
Can you imagine a world where Christ-like people enforce the rules of God on the earth?
“You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” [8]
Yes, those who have sacrificed themselves for the sake of being witnesses for Jesus and the Word of God shall reign with Christ for 1,000 years.
“I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a 1,000 years.” “They shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a 1,000 years.” [9]
God gave His prophet Isaiah promises about this future millennium…
“It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and 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 anymore.” [10]
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” [11]
“No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.” “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord.” [12]
The Lord spoke of Messiah through His Prophet Zechariah, saying, “On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.” [13] Jesus shall once again stand on the Mount of Olives. This time as a victorious King!
The disciples of Jesus wanted Him to bring about this day immediately. “They asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’” Jesus said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” [14]
So, our commission from the Lord is to believe that the day of His return shall come, and unimaginable blessings will flow when He does, but until then, we must rely on the Holy Spirit to help us be His witnesses. To keep covenant with our God! To help people to become holy by leading them to Christ. In Christ, sins are forgiven and the Holy Spirit is imparted.
[1] Genesis 17:1-2
[2] Genesis 17:7-8
[3] Genesis 18:19
[4] Genesis 19:20
[5] 2 Peter 3:9; Matthew 9:10-13
[6] Psalm 23:6
[7] Revelation 2:26-27
[8] Revelation 5:10
[9] Revelation 20:4, 6
[10] Isaiah 2:2-4
[11] Isaiah 11:6, 9
[12] Isaiah 65:20, 25
[13] Zechariah 14:4
[14] Acts 1:6-8
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