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made to favour a period of universal peace and righteousness. To accept the rendering
"to yield feigned obedience" shatters the unscriptural dream of The Millennium. That
thousand year reign is not the perfect kingdom on earth.
Psa. 18: 44, 45 places in correspondence these features:
"The strangers shall submit themselves (margin, yield feigned obedience) unto me.
The
strangers shall fade away, and be afraid out of their close places (and come trembling)."
Their submission is false.
Psa. 66: 3, 5-7. The immediate context refers to the exodus from Egypt.
"How terrible art Thou in Thy works!
Through the greatness of Thy power shall thine
enemies submit themselves unto Thee.
(whether willingly or unwillingly is not revealed here)
He is terrible in His doing toward the children of men.
He turned the sea into dry land . . . . .
Let not the rebellious exalt themselves."
Pharaoh is an example of such forced submission.
We learn from Zech. 14: 16-19 that some of the nations will rebel against the
command to go up to Jerusalem to keep the feast of tabernacles, yet at the selfsame time
and period Israel will be so soundly converted and blessed, that the sacred words,
originally limited to the Mitre of the High Priest, namely "Holiness unto the Lord", shall
be on the bells of the horses and on the very pots in the kitchen of this blessed kingdom
of Priests, yet their holy presence does not prevent disobedience rearing its head among
the surrounding nation.
The Rule of the Rod of Iron
Another revealing feature is the use of the rod of IRON. It is beside the point to dwell
on the meaning of the Greek word rhabdos or its Hebrew equivalent, the word that
clamours for consideration is the word IRON. No tender shepherd uses a rod of IRON
for the shepherding of his flock, he uses that as a weapon of defence against their
enemies, the robber, the lion and the wolf.
Psa. 2: 9; Rev. 2: 27; 12: 5 and 19: 15 speak of "breaking" or "ruling" with a rod
of IRON, and it is this quality of IRON that demands attention, and if ignored leads to
untruth and bondage (II Tim. 2: 25, 26). When the prophet would impress us with the
terrible nature of the fourth beast of Dan. 7:, he speaks of its "great IRON teeth"
(Dan. 7: 7). In the same way, when the image that symbolizes Gentile dominion is
described, it deteriorates from gold to iron, with this comment:
"Forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that
breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise" (Dan. 2: 40).