Isaiah 2:4 “He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people; 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 anymore.”
We have seen earlier that the Lord and His saints will enforce God’s laws in the millennium by governing the nations with a rod of iron. The above quoted passage of scripture declares that one of the laws that will be enforced during the millennium is that nations will no longer be permitted to go to war with one another, and neither will they be allowed to learn the art of war anymore. And so in obedience to the Lord’s command, this passage declares that the millennial nations will convert their weapons of war into implements for farming.
Isaiah 14:5-8 “The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the ruler; (6) He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke, He who ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted and no one hinders. (7) The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing. (8) Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, Saying, 'Since you were cut down, No woodsman has come up against us.'”
There is another reason why war will be absent from the earth during the Lord’s millennial reign, which is revealed to us in the above quoted passage of scripture. The context of this passage is dealing with Satan’s removal from the earth and being locked up in the bottomless pit during the millennium. This passage declares that because of Satan’s removal from the earth, the whole earth will be quiet and at rest i.e. there will be no more wars. The cypress trees and cedars of Lebanon in this passage represent the various nations of the earth, and their comment to the devil is that since he was removed from the earth that no woodsman has come up against them, signifying that wars were no longer being declared against them. One of the reasons why Satan’s removal from the earth will bring wars to an end is because the angel of war falls under Satan’s authority, and obviously that angel will also be removed from the earth during the millennium (Revelation 6:1-2). And so we see that once the angel of war’s influence is removed from the earth, even the unbelieving nations will no longer be desirous of entering into conflicts with each other. All of this will change at the end of the millennium when Satan and his angels are released into the earth once again, but we will discuss that in a later section.
Isaiah 11:4 “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.”
We have already seen that the nations of the earth will still have their own governments in place during the millennium, and those governments would be accountable to the Lord’s saints for the way they govern. Nevertheless there is something that will change dramatically in the earth during our Lord’s millennial reign, which is the inequality that exists in the earth today between the rich and the poor. The above quoted passage of scripture reveals to us that the Lord will introduce equity into the earth during His reign. That simply means that the resources of the earth will be distributed equally between the inhabitants of the earth. In other words no longer will there be those who have excessive wealth and those who have little or nothing, for all will have sufficient for their own needs to be met. We have already mentioned that the earth will transition to an agricultural society during the Lord’s millennial reign. And so we see that each person on the earth will be given their own land and each one’s land will be more than sufficient to supply all of their needs.
Isaiah 2:17 “The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; The Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”
The above quoted passage of scripture confirms the truth to us that the concept of pride and the accumulation of wealth and power will not be tolerated during the Lord’s millennial reign. This particular aspect of our Lord’s reign will be a bitter pill to swallow for those who are rich and powerful in this current age, because the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is something that they are addicted to. Nevertheless, it is only the Lord Jesus that the saints will allow to be exalted in that day, and any deviation from that will be dealt with quickly and harshly.
Michael E.B. Maher
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