God’s Kingdom on Earth – What will it be like? – PART II

“Where there is no vision, the people perish…”               Proverbs 29:18

What changes will there be in living in the Kingdom age?

THERE WILL BE NO MORE WARS

In Isaiah 2:1-4 we read…

“The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. ² And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. ³ And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. ⁴ And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

There shall be peace upon the earth as never before as we read in Psalm 72:1-7

Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son. ² He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. ³ The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. ⁴ He shall judge the poor of the people; he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. ⁵ They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. ⁶ He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. ⁷ In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.”

Our lives will be quite different to today, peaceful and full of real purpose without greed, hunger or famine.

RURAL COMMUNITIES WITH FAMILIES LIVING, WORKING AND LEARNING THE THINGS OF GOD TOGETHER we read of this in Isaiah 65:22

“They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”

This speaks of a rural way of life, a life of planting and eating the things we grow, of building our own home and living in it.  Major commercialism as we know it today will no longer exist, consumerism will be gone as people make and use the things they need to live.  A father teaches his children how to live and enjoy life, while giving thanks to God for all we have.

Compare this to how God ESTABLISHED Israel living in their LAND OF PROMISE.  This is what we read in Deuteronomy 6:4-9…

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: ⁵ And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. ⁶ And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: ⁷ And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. ⁸ And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. ⁹ And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. ¹⁰ And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee…”

NO MONEY, NO COMMERCIALISATION, NO SUPERMARKETS

Money as we know it today will be of no use at all, we may barter ie. Exchange goods we have ie. Grow for other goods we don’t have but someone else has grown or made etc…  This is what we read in Isaiah 2:10-21

“Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty. ¹¹ The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. ¹² For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: ¹³ And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, ¹⁴ And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, ¹⁵ And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, ¹⁶ And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. ¹⁷ And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. ¹⁸ And the idols he shall utterly abolish. ¹⁹ And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. ²⁰ In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; ²¹ To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.”

The gold and silver (monetary) system man uses today will be useless at this time as it along with all its value will have perished in the destruction of all the major cities of the world.  And if everyone grows what they need to live and builds their own home in which to live they will have no need of a monetary system. 

IDEAL CONDITIONS FOR GROWING AND PLENTY OF TIME TO PROVIDE FOR OURSELVES

Psalm 72:16 says “…an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains.”

So again changes will have taken place to the topographical nature of the earth, God will re-establish the conditions of the earth when He first created it and put man upon it.  It will be like a ‘garden of Eden’ as plants will grow plentifully even at high altitude and there will no longer be the rapid growth of thorns and thistles to choke the good plants out.

In Isaiah 25:6 we read…

“And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.”

And so God has planned for us to enjoy life to the full with a “feast of fat things, and a feast of wines on the lees”  this was the very best wine.

A STRESS FREE FAMILY ORIENTED  LIFESTYLE

Just think about it, the capitalism of this world enslaves us to its consumerism and monetary system, we have to work to get money to buy things we need to live etc… Whereas if we didn’t work we would have ample time to grow and build our own to meet our families needs.

This was not how God envisaged man’s life from the beginning.  How God settled the nation of Israel into their land is a good but not perfect by any means example of how God envisaged man living by providing for and spending time with his family.

We read this in Deuteronomy 6:1-2

“Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: ² That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.”

All people will live in an environment that is not stressed by the ‘running to and fro’ of this world, which at the end of one’s life really accounts for nothing.  Better is it for a father and mother to live with their families together and not as ships passing in the night as both parents go to work and try to juggle all the issues and responsibilities that raising a family brings.

LONG LIFE AND FULFILLMENT OF DAYS

• We read this in Isaiah 65:20-23

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. ¹⁸ But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. ¹⁹ And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. ²⁰ There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. ²¹ And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. ²² They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. ²³ They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.”

The average life span will be increased.  We might recall that prior to the flood of Genesis the average age of man was closer to 1,000 years and so again if a man dies at only 100 years old he will be thought of as but a child.  And so disease will be greatly reduced, living environments will be much improved with the complete absence of stress. 

No one will labour in vain as they will eat the fruits of their labours and enjoy long and joyful lives.

One law with justice for all people with complete harmony around the world even within the animal world

This is what we read of in Isaiah 11:1-9…

“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots (Reference to the Lord Jesus Christ): ² And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; ³ And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: ⁴ But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. ⁵ And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. ⁶ 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. ⁷ And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ⁸ And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. ⁹ 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.”

All the earth will know of the one true God in that day and all will live in harmony under God’s law for all people both great and small.

ALL NATIONS WILL BE REQUIRED TO ACKNOWLEDGE AND LEARN OF GOD

We read of this in Zechariah 14:16-

“And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. ¹⁷ And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. ¹⁸ And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. ¹⁹ This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.”

PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS WILL TEACH THEIR CHILDREN ABOUT GOD

This is how life should have been from the very beginning and this is what was instructed to Israel by God in Deuteronomy 6:1-4

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: ⁵ And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. ⁶ And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: ⁷ And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. ⁸ And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. ⁹ And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. ¹⁰ And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, ¹¹ And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; ¹² Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. ¹³ Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.”

The very basis of life shall be God-centred and not man-centred and God will provide for all we need so that people can live full and complete family orientated lives in peace and harmony with all creation.

But what will those who have now believed and served their Lord do in the Kingdom of God on earth?

Well undoubtedly they have much to look forward to, a labour of love on the greatest scale with bodies that will no longer be subjected to all the vanities (tiredness and disease) of this current body of flesh and blood.  For they will have been transformed following the judgment of all believers to the immortal saints of Christ.

In our Part III of this article series we will look at the nature of the work that the saints of Christ will be engaged in during the 1,000 year reign of Christ.

See: God’s Kingdom on Earth – What will it be like? – PART I

See: God’s Kingdom on Earth – What will it be like? – PART III