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PART 7.3 - THE MILLENIUM RULE (REVELATION 20:1-10)
Introduction: The peculiar expression “thousand years” is only found in the Book of Revelation in six successive verses, three times with the indefinite (Revelation 20:2.4.6) and three times with the definite article (Revelation 20:3.5.7). In the Middle Eastern language area these phrase does not describe concrete numbers, but is a collective term for a large, but not further determined number such as in “Thousand and One Nights” or in the statement of a demon before he was cast out by Jesus, “My name is Legion (thousand): for we are many” (Mark 5:9.15; Luke 8:30). The indefiniteness of these number will also obvious through the statement that a thousand years is with the Lord as one day (Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8).
Only few passages of the Bible have induced so much emotional speculations, spiritual expectations and violent contradictions as these six verses (Revelation 20:2-7). In paragraph 17 of Confessio Augustana, that is a creed of the evangelic church in Germany from 1530 A.D., the doctrine of the millennium was rejected as being Jewish. However, the ducal Pietist edict from 1694 A.D., allowed the people in Württemberg “a moderate view” of the millennium.
Whoever wants to understand the biblical background of the belief in the millennium should at first read the promises about the Last Days in the scriptures of the Old Testament, where the kingdom of the Messiah on this earth is promised definitively.
If you look around in the waiting room of the airport in Tel Aviv, you will find a kiosk offering leaflets and books of orthodox Jews, where the promises about the Messiah in the Old Testament are interpreted with enthusiastic words as fulfilled in the events of the present time. The matter of the content and implementation of these Last-Days promises of the prophets of the Old Testament is primarily not a Christian issue but closely connected with Israel.
1. Promises About the Kingdom of the Messiah on This Earth as Found in the Old Testament
The mighty revelations about the coming of the Messiah as king and ruler include in the majority cases an earthly as well as a spiritual aspect of the eternity. We should not try to consider both of these revelation subjects separately but accept them in such a manner, as they are given to us in the context, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7; 2 Samuel 7:12-14a; Psalm 2:7-9; 97:1; Isaiah 11:1-5; 33:17; 60:1-3; Jeremiah 33:15-17; Daniel 7:13-14; Micah 5:1; Zechariah 2:14-15; 6:12-13; 14:9 and other verses). According to these promises the Messiah will come as political and religious king and set up the kingdom of David on this earth.
- A special feature of the Messiah according to these Old Testament promises is that he will bring back the dispersed sons of Jacob from foreign parts to their country. Orthodox Jews say in this matter that one part of them will already return to the Promised Land, before the Messiah comes, but the other part will the Lord and King himself deliver and lead back. The prophet Isaiah, however, heard the Lord in person addressing the Messiah, “It is a light thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6). Orthodox Jews do not like this particular verse much as it states that the Messiah does not restrict his work for salvation to Israel but offers it to all nations. However, they believe in similarly strong promises in a literal way (Isaiah 11:11-16; 35:8-10; 43:5-7; 49:9-12; 60:3-9; Jeremiah 30:10.16; 31:8-14; Ezekiel 37:21-27; Zechariah 8:7-8 and other verses).
- Messiah will rule in Jerusalem according to prophecies of the Old Testament and make this city the centre of the earth: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes to you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. ... And he shall speak peace to the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.” (Zechariah 9:9-12; here verses 9 and 10b; see also Isaiah 4:2-6; 11:1-5.9; 33:20-22; Jeremiah 3:16-17; 31:1-7.23; Ezekiel 40:1-43.7; Zechariah 12:8 and other verses.)
- The kingdom of the Messiah will go along with a spiritual renewing of the people of Israel. But only a “holy remnant” will live in the kingdom of the Messiah. For the other part of the people of Israel hardened themselves and were destroyed by the judgments of God. To the holy remnant, however, the following promise applies, “And 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 mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” (Zechariah 12:9-14; here verse 10; see also Isaiah 6:9-13; 10:20-21; 44:3; Jeremiah 31:31-34; 33:14-17; Ezekiel 36:26-32; 37:1-28; 39:29; Joel 2:28-32; Amos 9:11; Zechariah 4:6 and other verses) That “all who have pierced him” will look upon the Messiah had John, the patriarch, already stated in the introduction as one of the summits of the revelation of Christ given to him (Revelation 1:7).
- The renewed remnant of Israel will fulfill in the kingdom of the Messiah a priestly function among the nations of the earth, “Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6; see also Deuteronomy 7:6; Isaiah 4:3; 6:1-13; 61:6-7; Zechariah 8:13; and etc.) We may see how this promise is already fulfilled to some extent with the apostles of Jesus Christ who all belonged to the Jewish people and became kingly priests in an extended sense of this expression.
- When the Messiah will return, a new step of the mission of the world will begin, “But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” (Micah 4:1-2; see also Isaiah 11:10; 42:6-7; 49:6.23; 55:5; 60:3; 66:19; Jeremiah 16:19-21; Zechariah 2:15; 8:20-23; 14:16-19; and other verses.) However, some Jews think of this promised impact of God's word on the whole world in terms of a propagation of the Law of Moses with its 613 commandments and prohibitions.
- The dominion of peace of the Messiah will bring to an end all wars between the nations, “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:4; see also Isaiah 9:4; 11:13; and other verses).
- Cosmic developments and climatic changes in the Holy Land will promote an increased fertility on the earth, “I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.” (Isaiah 41:18-20; see also Isaiah 4:2; 30:25; 32:15; 35:1-2.6-7; Ezekiel 47:7-12; Hosea 2:23-24; Amos 9:13; Zechariah 8:12; and other verses.) Some kibbutz members, however, do not “see and know and consider and understand” the hand of the Lord, but argue that the partially fulfillment of these promises is due to their own commitment and sacrifice of time and energy!
- In the messianic times the inhabitants of His land will recover and live for a long time, “There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.” (Isaiah 65:20; see also Genesis 15:5; Isaiah 29:18-19; 33:24; 35:4-6; Jeremiah 30:17; 33:6.22; Zechariah 8:4-6; 12:8; and other verses.)
- In the messianic times also animals will be caught from the spirit of peace and live together peacefully without the struggle for existence. '“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.” (Isaiah 11:6-8; 65:25.)
In view of these existence changing promises relating to the coming of the Messiah it stands to reason that these texts are interpreted controversially:
Arabian Christians declare that all promises concerning the fact that the displaced Jews will be brought back had been already fulfilled when the Jews came back from the Babylonian exile.
Kibbutz members declare that the desert does not flourish without their pain and sweat.
The catholic bishop (the church father) Augustine is supposed to have stated that these promises of the Old Testament should be understood in a spiritual manner as the kingdom of God has already begun in the church with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
In contrast to this, some dreamers dream in messianic times about wheat spears with seven ears as high as a house or about huge grapes on vines and conditions as in a land or plenty.
The patriarch John, when he was exiled to the waste isle of Patmos and wrote there the Book of Revelation, did not even acknowledge all these promises and speculations relating to the millennium with a single word! He took it for granted that Jewish readers of his book will know these more than hundred passages of the Old Testament. Additionally, he may not have affronted the church members form Greek Hellenistic background as most of these promises apply to the people of the Old Covenant.
It is daring and almost speculative to try to press these promises of the prophets relating to the messianic kingdom on the earth into the verses of the Book of Revelation. Therefore we want to confine to the text of the Book of Revelation and only make use of the promises of the Old Testament when the text suggests it.
PRAYER: Father in heaven, we give thanks for the wonderful promises of Christ's coming to our corrupt earth. We believe that the holy remnant will experience how Your beloved Son establishes lasting peace on earth with renewal of morals, fertility of soil, healing of the sick, and general preaching. We ask that all the children of Abraham will return to their Lord and Savior that they may partake of this great renewal. Amen.
QUESTION:
- What is the significance of the promises about the kingdom of peace through Christ in the Old Testament?