Dear Brethren and Friends,
We live in this physical world with our physical activities and necessities. Things like working, eating, socializing, etc. Yes, these are necessary in order to survive, but what is most important to God, our Creator? When we read the commonly called “LORD’s Prayer”, Matthew 6:9-13, after praising God’s name, we read the following requests, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.” And continuing this theme in Matthew 6:33, we read, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” All our other activities may well be necessary to live, but God wants us to desire His kingdom as our top priority.
How often do we make a comparison between today’s world and the world tomorrow under the rule of God the Father and Jesus Christ, His Son? We could say it is like the difference between night and day, or as is mentioned in the Bible many times, the difference between darkness and light.
In this world, leaders such as presidents and prime ministers are elected, often making promises that sound good, but frequently, after they are elected, they do not or cannot carry them out. Or they enact other unexpected decrees that the voters knew nothing about when they elected the candidate. And there is often a doubt as to whether the next leader will be better or worse than the previous one.
However, when Jesus Christ returns to set up the Kingdom of God, there will be total security of government as we are informed in Isaiah 9:7, “Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgement and justice From that time forward, even forever.” We will not have any concern forever that someone else, who is not righteous, will take over the Kingdom of God.
When we read God’s promises after His government has been established, it is totally different from this world’s governments. They are summarized in Isaiah 11:1-5. “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 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. His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist.”
Wisdom and understanding are great assets for a leader. And we read in Psalm 147:5, “Great is our LORD, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.” Unlike we humans, in whom understanding has limitations, God does not have physical limitations. He understands everything there is to understand. Nothing can be hidden from Him.
Where it is stated that He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, I am reminded of a speech given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on August 28, 1963. In it he stated, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” This event will not occur in this present world, but it will under God’s rule.
Where we read that He will not judge by the hearing of His ears, He does not need anyone to tell Him how to judge. Neither can He be bribed as many human leaders sometimes are.
Where Christ will decide with equity for the meek of the earth, this is in the sense of making right decisions with a fair and just outcome for the person involved, not to correct historical injustices or societal disparities as so often happens today.
God judging in righteousness is also revealed in Psalm 19:9, “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever. Thejudgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.” The Benson Commentary explains this as, “Without the smallest exception; not like those of men, often wrong and unrighteous, but perfectly and constantly equitable, just, and holy.”
There are many areas where we could compare this current world’s governments with God’s future government. Just for one example, the military expenditure of the United States is over three percent of gross domestic product. In other words, three percent of all expenditure is for training military personnel to fight and kill, or to provide weapons to destroy. In the Kingdom of God, nations will not fight each other and their people will not learn war anymore. (Refer to Isaiah 2:4.)
Another example concerns health care. In the United States, the cost of health care is over sixteen percent of gross domestic product. This is higher than almost every other country in the world. In fact, many bankruptcies are caused because of the unaffordable cost of healthcare to many. In the Kingdom of God, He can heal directly or as we read in Ezekiel 47:12, there will be trees beside the river flowing from the temple whose fruit is for food and leaves are for medicine. So if medicine is needed, God will probably provide it from these trees. It is interesting that in the description of the future city of Jerusalem, when the Kingdom of God is established, the inhabitants of it will not say, “I am sick.” (See Isaiah 33:24.)
So we read in Ephesians 6:12 that we live in an age of darkness. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
But while the world is in darkness, we have the blessing of being children of light. 1 Thessalonians 5:5 states, “You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.” And while Jesus was on the earth, He was the light of the world. John 9:5 says, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When He returns and rules the earth from Jerusalem and the Kingdom of God is established, which we are to seek first, He will be the light of the world once again.
So, then there will be no more darkness as we read in 1 Corinthians 4:5, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the LORD comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from God.” Therefore we ought to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.”
In Christ’s Service.
Paul Niehoff