Rulers With Iron Rods

Revelation 2:26-27 “And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations-- (27) 'he shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels'-- as I also have received from My Father.”

In our Lord’s letters to the churches in the book of Revelation there is one reward that He mentions which has an additional condition attached. In other words unlike the rewards that are freely given to all the Lord’s saints, this reward is only given to those who meet the additional condition, i.e. it has to be earned. This reward is mentioned in the passage of scripture quoted above, which is the power to rule over the nations. And so we see that only the saints who meet the specific condition attached to this reward will be given power to rule over the nations. So what is the additional condition that the Lord Jesus has attached to this particular reward? Our Lord said that the saints that receive this reward must overcome and must also keep His works until the end. So what does the Lord mean when He says that we must keep His works to the end? The simple answer to that question is that the saints are required to keep the commandments of God (John 14:15). And so the saint that faithfully keeps the Lord’s commandments throughout their lives will meet this particular condition, and can therefore expect to receive this reward from the Lord Jesus on that day. Someone will say but surely all the Lord’s saints keep His commandments in this life. Sadly, as we will see in the next section, that is not the case and there are many of the Lord’s saints that prove to be negligent in this area. Nevertheless for the saints that overcome and prove to be faithful in keeping the Lord’s works to the end, they can expect to receive the reward to rule over the nations. The nations that the saints will rule over will be the unbelieving nations that are left on the earth when the church returns with the Lord Jesus at His second coming. This event will occur after the first resurrection has taken place and the wrath of God has been poured out on the earth. Scripture reveals to us that at the end of the age there will be four dominant kingdoms in the earth, and that the anti-Christ will reign over the fourth kingdom (Daniel 7). When our Lord Jesus returns to the earth He will destroy the anti-Christ along with all his followers as part of the fourth kingdom. But scripture reveals to us that the three remaining kingdoms will continue on the earth when our Lord returns (Daniel 7:11-12). It will be at that time that our Lord will also lock up Satan and his angels in the bottomless pit for one thousand years as He begins His millennial reign on the earth. And so we see that the nations that will be residing on the earth during our Lord’s reign will be unbelievers, just as the majority of the earth’s population is today, and it is these nations which the Lord’s saints will receive power to reign over.

Revelation 20:4 “And 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 thousand years.”

As revealed in the above quoted passage of scripture it is during the thousand-year reign of Christ that the saints, as His kings and representatives, will rule over the nations on the earth. It is estimated that there will be approximately six billion people living on the earth when the church returns with the Lord Jesus. I want you to notice from the previous scripture that the church will rule over the nations of the earth with a rod of iron. So why will it be necessary for the saints to rule with a rod of iron during our Lord’s millennial reign? The reason is because although the unbelieving nations will be in awe of the Lord Jesus and His saints, they will not always willingly submit to His rule, for they will still be spiritually dead people and thus be carnal in their thinking which is enmity against God (Romans 8:7). To illustrate this truth to us the Holy Spirit reveals to us that all nations will be required to observe the feast of Tabernacles during our Lord’s millennial reign. However not all nations will always obey that commandment of the Lord, and so when those nations rebel then they will pay the price by incurring the Lord’s punishment, thus experiencing the very real rod of iron that will be used during that time (Zechariah 14).

Revelation 3:21 “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

In the above quoted passage of scripture our Lord reinforces the truth that those who will be granted the power to reign will be required to fulfil an added condition. In addressing the reward of reigning in this passage, our Lord speaks about the saint being granted to sit with Him on His throne. And the condition that our Lord attaches to the reward is that the believer must overcome as the Lord Jesus Himself overcame. So what does the Lord mean when He tells us that this reward is available to the saint who overcomes as He overcame? The scriptures teach us that God our Father exalted our Lord Jesus to His own right hand because Jesus learned to be obedient through suffering, even ultimately suffering the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8-11). In other words the Lord Jesus kept the commandments of God the Father to the end.

Romans 8:16-17 “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (17) and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

In a similar manner to our Lord’s suffering, the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us in the above quoted passage of scripture that if we want to reign with Christ then the requirement is that we are going to have to suffer with Him. The suffering that Paul is referring to in this passage is the suffering that the saints incur when they keep the commandments of God in the midst of a perverse and wicked generation. Not all saints are willing to endure this type of suffering however, nevertheless for those who are willing; they can be assured that they will receive the reward of being seated together with the Lord Jesus on His throne because they would have overcome just as He overcame. To be seated with Christ on His throne is the highest honour that God can bestow upon His children, and that is what the scripture means when it declares that we are joint heirs with Christ. God the Father has placed all things under the feet of Christ (Hebrews 2:8). And so as we sit together with Christ on His throne all things will be placed under our feet and we will reign with Him for all eternity. In this present age we reign with Christ in a very limited manner and we do so by faith, but in the age to come we will experience the full reality of being seated together with Christ on His throne and reigning together with Him.

Michael E.B. Maher

Eternal Judgement

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