Hi all,
I’ve been talking about how Jesus is an Oriental King, and the Bible is an Oriental book. Today: What happens when He takes His throne.
One of the characteristics of Oriental rulers that can be traced back centuries, is that the ruler is also considered divine, and worshipped. As such they had absolute rule.
For instance, the Emperor of China was considered to be the son of heaven, and absolute ruler of what was called All Under Heaven. Egyptian Pharaohs were considered to be incarnations of the god Horus. Romulus, the founder of Rome, was considered to be Quirinus the undefeated god, and by the time of the gospels and epistles Emperor worship was part of the Roman culture, among just a few examples.
When in Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar saw the image with the head of gold, and the rest of the body made of lesser materials, he was told by Daniel that he was that head of gold – superior in government to the ones that followed. Nebuchadnezzar had absolute rule. His kingship had not submitted itself to the rule of law – what he willed was law.
The one in the image immediately following Nebuchadnezzar was the chest and arms of silver, the 2 arms describing the Medo-Persia rule. You will recall the ruler of the Medes and Persians, Darius (chapter 6) made a law saying that for 30 days no one may pray to anyone but him, the god-king Darius.
Daniel of course did not obey the law, which resulted in his conviction (6: 7-16). When Darius wanted to change his mind about the law because he had not intended to trap Daniel, he could not, for unlike Nebuchadnezzar, he had submitted himself to the rule of law, so he had to throw Daniel in the lion’s den.
777 – Jesus is THE head of gold
Six has been seen as the number of man ever since it was observed he was created in the sixth day. Ever since Nimrod in Genesis 10 absolute rulers have tried to combine political, religious, and economics under them, in what is known as 666. The triune rule of man, for combining those 3 elements is controlling the people 100%.
For instance, Hitler was able to combine political and economic rule, but he could not get everyone to worship him, resulting in the holocaust which cost 6 million Jews their lives, and another 6 million Christians and political opponents theirs, in the camps.
The rule of man politically, religiously, and economically, will end with the Lord Jesus taking absolute control of the earth, in what will be the 777 so to speak. He will be the first ruler ever who will successfully combine politics, economics, and religion under one King.
We are now in a time when the great harvest of the earth is happening. This is why harvest terms are used to describe Jesus and us as the ‘firstfruits of the earth’, in James 1: 18, Romans 8: 23, 11: 16; I Corinthians 15: 23.
King over the whole earth
Zechariah 14: 9 tells us ‘…in that day the Lord will be King over all the earth…’ Furthermore, THIS oriental King will demand worship, for Zechariah 14: 16-19 says this: ‘Every year the nations will come to Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles (which celebrates God living with man) to worship the King, and if for instance, Egypt refuses to come, then ‘upon them will be no rain…’
Revelation 2: 27, 12: 5, 19:15 all say He will rule the nations with a rod of iron. Jesus will be the true and absolute, Oriental King. Jesus, King of kings, Lord of lords. The rod of iron is the Word – He is the Person of the Living Word, and from Him proceeds our written Word. That means He will be enforcing love, forgiveness, right dealings and honesty in every aspect of human life.
Administrators with gifts – Paul tells us in I Corinthians 6: 2 that we will ‘judge’ the world and angels, the word ‘judge’ is being an administrator of the world (not court judge like we think of in 21st century culture). We will administer the age when Jesus is King over the whole earth, Hebrews 6:5 calling the gifts of the Spirit ‘the powers of the age to come’. We will have the gifts of the Spirit as we administer a forced righteousness on the earth, having words of knowledge and wisdom for situations and requiring people to be honest and transparent in their dealings.
Remember that people will be born during these 1,000 years, and we will have probably billions who survive the last years of this age to see the return of Jesus, and many of them will not like enforced righteousness. That is why Zechariah mentions what will happen to nations who refuse to come to Jerusalem to worship the King – they will dig in their heels and refuse to celebrate God living with man. Amazing.
Ezekiel 40-47 tells us of a temple that will be built, presumably a place for Jesus to call ‘home’. The flow of water that starts there will flow into the Dead Sea, turning it into a fresh water lake! Can you imagine how huge that lake will have to become to dilute all that salt? Ezekiel 47: 6-12 tells us men will cast nets for the fish living there, and only the marshy places will be left briny.
The royal children…
One other trait of Oriental kings is their children are royalty, and they want their children to rule and reign. We are not only a kingdom of priests to the Lord, but also the children of God. We are royalty, and as such have a place in the kingdom to come that others do not.
Others in the kingdom? That will be related but different subject for next week…I’ll pick it up there, until then blessings!
John Fenn
