Return of the King 2
By Ivan Ho 25 Feb 2024
There is a general perception amongst a lot of Christians that goes something like this:
“The earth is just our temporary abode, our eternal home is in heaven. When we die, we will leave all our troubles and struggles on earth behind and be with the Lord in a better place forever“.
It is true that for those who are in Christ, when we die, our spirits will depart to be with the Lord in heaven. However, it does not mean that the earth will come to an end after we die and go to heaven, but will continue to exist until Christ comes back to reign on earth for one thousand years.
And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king’s winepresses. And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
Imagine this: For one thousand years after the return of Jesus, there will still be people on earth, live in their homes, worship God and observe sabbaths, do things that God assigns them to do, walk dogs, play tennis, spend time with their friends and family members and so on just like today. The difference is: people in the world will no longer struggle with satan who will be bound during the Millennial kingdom for 1000 years, and Christ will reign and govern on earth together with the saints.
We won’t be floating around as disembodied spirits but will be given glorified physical bodies that won’t age and decay, and stay on earth to carry out our God given jobs. People won’t be doing whatever they feel is right, but instead be governed by Christ and follow the way of life as God intends. Christ will govern and rule together with the saints over those who formerly oppose Christ with the hope that they too will turn to God and worship Jesus as their King.
The above scenario is how I would see the following scripture in Zechariah:
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
People around the world will be mandated to travel to Jerusalem annually to worship Jesus and observe the feast of tabernacles which is a seven days festival to celebrate the presence of our Lord. The saints will do so joyfully but those families who disobey will be deprived of God’s blessings (even rain will not fall upon them).
The feast of tabernacles is highlighted which means certain festivals given to the Israelites will be retained and observed by “all the families of the earth”.
We won’t be required to offer burnt offerings and animal sacrifices as these practices have been fulfilled in Christ who became the sacrificial Lamb of God. Nevertheless, we will still observe sabbaths and celebrate certain Christ centered festivals during the Millennium, just like the way we commemorate Jesus by taking the holy communion today.
That’s the reality when we understand the above scriptures in Zechariah 14 literally. Modern man who follow liberal humanistic religions, however, won’t be able to understand and accept it as the truth. They would say: “How would it be feasible to travel to Jerusalem annually to worship Jesus?”. The same people, however, have no issues to plan for their annual vacations in the Bahamas or wherever.
That’s why the word of God says:
“And it shall be, that whosoever will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain“.
Others may ask: “How could it be possible for everyone in the world to travel to Jerusalem city to worship Jesus all together at the same time?” That’s a fair question which I also ask myself to which I don’t have an answer, as it is something that will happen in the future.
There are different views on this, one of them suggests that Jerusalem is not confined to Jerusalem city but wherever people gather around the world to worship Jesus: In the last days, will everyone need to go to Jerusalem to worship God (Micah 4:2)?
Who knows, people around the world may be worshipping Jesus in their own places with livestreams of Jerusalem ?
Whatever the case may be, I do believe the whole world will set aside at least seven days annually to worship Jesus during the feast of tabernacles. I would personally like to be where the physical presence of Jesus is.