Isaiah 65:18-19, a Text that has never (yet) been literally fulfilled, applies to the Millennium. Let me show you …
“But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.”
Two remarkable things arrest my attention here.
“For ever,” a temporal marker if one can possibly exist! A time when God plans to “create” rejoicing! (Using the verb “bara,” to make something out of nothing!) Three parallels to such rejoicing are: “good will” and “acceptance” and “delight!” Setting the inhabitants of Jerusalem in “excellent standing” with the communities of the world, all very pro-Jewish by then! By the way, “for ever” goes longer (far longer, perpetually so) than just the Millennium! Into eternity future, seems like!
Then second, God says “I will rejoice in Jerusalem.” That can (and does) mean that the Lord Himself will live among His people! We believe Jesus will actually (in Person) rule in that City, in the name of King David His (human) predecessor! (Jesus being born out of the Tribe of Judah!) Zechariah 14:9 promises this: “And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.” That’s immediately after we have been told: “And his (the Lord’s) feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east …” Pretty plain!
Joy, praise “for ever!”
And Jesus living “in the midst!”
No other city on earth has those specific promises!
Little wonder then that Jerusalem is so hated by the devil and his crowd!
“Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.” Psalm 48:2, amazing! It almost sounds like a “Chamber of Commerce” advertisement … but instead is an inspired Line from the Word of God!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
I just thought you might want to know these few facts today! Yes. the Lord is the Self-Appointed Promoter of Jerusalem! “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Psalm 122:6
.