Isaiah 61:4-6 “And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations. (5) Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner shall be your ploughmen and your vinedressers. (6) But you shall be named the priests of the Lord; they shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory you shall boast.”
By the time our Lord Jesus returns to the earth, the earth’s infrastructure as we know it today will have been completely destroyed. It would have been destroyed in the three year period when God pours out His wrath on the earth. And so we see that during our Lord’s millennial reign, the earth will revert back to an agricultural society similar to that which existed when our Lord Jesus first came to the earth. In confirmation of that truth the above quoted passage of scripture paints a picture of shepherds looking after flocks of sheep, of ploughmen working in the fields and of vinedressers working in vineyards. The context of this passage is dealing with the period of the millennial reign of Christ. This passage is a clear description of an agricultural society operating in a similar manner to the society that existed when our Lord Jesus was first on the earth. As an aside, it is important to note that even though it will be an agricultural society, it will not be the saints that will do the farm work but rather their servants; for this passage declares that the saints will serve the Lord as His priests.
Psalms 144:12-15 “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; That our daughters may be as pillars, Sculptured in palace style; (13) That our barns may be full, Supplying all kinds of produce; That our sheep may bring forth thousands And ten thousands in our fields; (14) That our oxen may be well laden; That there be no breaking in or going out; That there be no outcry in our streets. (15) Happy are the people who are in such a state; Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit records for us a discourse between the Lord Jesus and God the Father about the conditions in the earth during His millennial reign; more specifically the conditions that will exist in the Middle East where the saints will be located. In this passage the Lord Jesus speaks of the saint’s barns being full of all kinds of produce and of their abundance of sheep and oxen. Very clearly the society that the Lord describes in this passage is that of an extremely prosperous agricultural society. Something else of interest in this passage is the fact that there will be an abundance of livestock, thus indicating that meat and dairy products will be a part of the saint’s diet during the millennium.
Psalms 72:15-16 “And He shall live; and the gold of Sheba will be given to Him; Prayer also will be made for Him continually, and daily He shall be praised. (16) There will be an abundance of grain in the earth, On the top of the mountains; its fruit shall wave like Lebanon; and those of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.”
In the previous passage we saw that during the millennium there will be an abundance of livestock in the earth and that the saint’s barns will be full. The Holy Spirit reinforces that truth in the above quoted passage of scripture, by describing farmlands in the millennium that produce an abundance of grain, fruit and vegetables, etc. It is interesting to note that this passage mentions “the city” and not “a city”, indicating to us that there will only be one city in the region where the saints will dwell, i.e. the city of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 38:11-12 “You will say, 'I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates'-- (12) to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.”
The context of the above quoted passage of scripture is speaking about Gog and Magog’s rebellion at the end of the Lord’s millennial reign; a topic which we will discuss in more detail in a later section. The point that I wanted to highlight from this passage however, is the description of the Lord’s saints as a people who have acquired livestock and goods, again confirming that agriculture will be the main industry among the saints. It is also interesting to note from this passage, that the saints dwelling outside of the city of Jerusalem will be dwelling in villages surrounded by farmlands.
Michael E.B. Maher
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