| The Berean Expositor Volume 39 - Page 150 of 234 Index | Zoom | |
2nd.
While the earth is called to rejoice.
3rd.
A fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies round about Him.
So that there will be such enemies in the Millennium which will be set
up at His coming.
4th.
The hills will melt like wax at His Presence.
5th.
This fiery judgment is related to the worship of graven images.
6th.
The words of 97: 7 "worship Him, all ye gods" are cited in Heb. 1: 6.
"And when He again bringeth (margin) in the firstborn into the world He saith, And
let all the angels of God worship Him."
It should be noted here that the "world" here is the Greek oikoumene and this leads us
to Heb. 2: 5:
"For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world (oikoumene) to come,
whereof we speak."
Here once more we reach the crucial point. The rebellion at the end of the Millennium
which is cut short by fire from heaven is of the same character as those that have
preceded it, a definite, idolatrous rejection of the supremacy of "The Lamb". The first
example (Lev. 10: 2) and the last (Rev. 20: 10) are much alike in their wording:
Rev. 20: 10 Pur apo tou theou . . . . . kai kataphegen autous.
Lev. 10: 2
Pur para kuriou, kai katephagen autous.
The words "the camp of the saints" are followed by "and the beloved city" but these
two descriptions may refer to the same thing, the conjunction kai being sometimes
translated "even". "Even he is the eighth" (Rev. 17: 11); "even as she rewarded"
(Rev. 18: 6); "even so come" (Rev. 22: 20). The "camp" or "army" of the saints
would have defended the beloved city, even as the camp of Israel in the wilderness
defended the Tabernacle and its holy vessels. Again we ask, if these things are so, then
the Millennium is a period of blessing for Israel, but is by no means a period of universal
peace. That comes in the succeeding "Day of God".