I have about decided to begin writing Lessons only five days a week. Monday through Friday, the Lord willing.

Currently dong the “Evening Meditations” on both Facebook and YouTube has required more time from my daily schedule, and right now those outlets are reaching twice as many people as the Website.

I am a bit sad at this announcement, having sat here every Saturday morning since the middle of 2003, but I sense God’s approval of this decision.

Meanwhile, Monday morning … another Bible Study Lesson on the Millennium, again I say Lord willing.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Just a single verse today, Isaiah 66:14.

“And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb: and the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies.”

See what?

The Lord’s literal Return to earth, the battle Armageddon over and Jesus’ Kingdom Rule having begun.

Then will be answered the age old question … “Why does God allow so much suffering in the lives of good people?” This question too … “Why do wicked people so often prosper?”

And here’s how those questions will be answered … they will dissolve into nothingness! Into oblivion! Into history, ancient history!

Because then … good people will no longer suffer. And bad people will no longer be (seemingly) rewarded!

Hallelujah!

The very purpose of the Old Testament Book of Job, one of them anyway, is to deal with those two thorny issues. Chapter after chapter deals with those “deep” existential situations.

Preacher, what do you mean “dissolve?”

Our verse again, look at it carefully!

“And when ye see this (Jesus on the throne in Jerusalem, the Millennium), your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb.”

Sounds exciting!

Not only the Knowledge of the Lord and the Glory of the Lord, but now the JOY of the Lord will flood the whole earth!

Now, the rest of the verse: “And the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies.”

God’s Hand on His servants, for good. For blessing. For reward. Godly people … blessed immeasurably!

And God’s Wrath on His enemies, the wicked! Bad people no longer prospering! The “Fortune 500” lists will change, that’s for sure!

I hope Job (now in Heaven) knows this verse!

God is righteous!

Ultimately … including His (complex at times) judgments!

Psalm 36:6 … “Thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD.”

Yet too … “The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.” Psalm 19:9

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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God, in our Text today, pictures Himself as a “Mother!” Unless I have misunderstood the whole Paragraph. Let me at least attempt to show you what I mean …

“As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.” Isaiah 66:13, with the Lord speaking through the Prophet.

Jesus did this too, at least once. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Matthew 23:37, where a “hen” is a mother chicken.

Paul did it as well, particularly when writing to his beloved Thessalonians: “But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children, being affectionately desirous of you.” 1 Thessalonians 2:8-9, where the Greek noun “nurse” is feminine gender.

Wow!

But in our Jerusalem Text above (Isaiah 66) … there’s even more such imagery! Jerusalem herself (note the gender again) is discussed by the Holy Spirit of God. In a feminine sense, I believe. See if you agree …

“Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her. That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.” Isaiah 66:10-12 now, the three verses immediately prior to verse 13, where God is specifically seen as a comforting and loving mother!

Look at the feminine terms (used of the world’s “Capital City” during the Millennium) describing Jerusalem …

Nine times (I just counted) the feminine pronoun “her“ is used in our King James Text! That’s a persuasive number!

Also … Jerusalem is presented as nourishing (under the figure of a mother’s breasts) her neighbors, her fellow citizens of planet earth! (They being others who love the Jews, all anti-Semites having been earlier banished. At Armageddon!)

Then our Text presents people being “borne upon her sides,” teaching us that this grand City during those days will “carry” many a people to and fro. Will uplift them and aid them and support them! (Jerusalem as the new “United States,” back when there was a United States … back in her glory days!)

But what about the clause “dandled upon her knees?” Like a Mom lovingly bounces that little child on her leg, on her knees, in her lap! Except here the Hebrew verb also means “delighted in” or even “played with!” A pretty scene!

Jerusalem, the “Power House” Entity of the world … under the Reign or Administration of King Jesus! But gently so!

Yes, back to the Lesson’s title … “what an interesting analogy!”

Isaiah could really paint some gorgeous “word pictures,” for sure. Of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Finding these “Millennium” Verses … is a thrilling search! But now I am beginning to wonder, “Is it also an endless search?”

Isaiah alone is a Pioneer in this area. And though we have nearly compassed his literary Corpus, we find ourselves in his penultimate chapter again this morning.

“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 65:24-25

One verse deals with prayer, the other with peace!

Both, contextually, millennial in nature.

“I WILL ANSWER,” Who can that be but the Lord God Almighty? So here is an incitement to pray! (As are dozens of other Bible verses.) But I know of none other like this one! “Before they call, I will answer.” Astounding! Then, nearly as delightful, “While they are yet speaking (praying), I will hear.” Miraculous, instantaneous answers to prayer!

Whereas elsewhere in Scripture, Daniel once had to pray 21 days before his answer came! (Daniel 10:13) And Jeremiah, 10 days on one occasion, Jeremiah 42:7.

But in the Millennium … “before they call!”

Wow!

Then something about “peace.” Isaiah has it: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together.” Two presently warring natures … now eating side by side! And the addendum: “The lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat.” No more vicious, bloody attacks on innocent little creatures! Lions eating grass!

And that little fact about the serpent may be a “slur” on the devil, on Satan! Recall Genesis 3:14 please: “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.”

Wow!

Our Text this morning has given us (again) ample evidence that the Millennium will be a (gloriously) different time on this earth. (I almost wonder if creation reverts to its “pre-Flood” state. I know it enjoys the Presence of its Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ!)

Lots of little, short Bible “snippets” about the coming Kingdom Rule of Christ here on earth. But when we merge them, synthesize them … a good summary statement might be: “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.” Numbers 14:21, spoken by the Prophet Moses.

Grant it, dear Lord, we pray.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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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

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