Today is my birthday. I was born Sunday morning, May 26 of 1946. And so I have decided, even though we’re not yet in the Millennium, to take the day “off” and rest this morning.

Pray for us please.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Jesus loved that name for the temple, having used it three times in as many Gospels, “the house of prayer.”

Matthew’s Account is typical: “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Matthew 21:13

But finally, in God’s good time, the desire will become a reality. The promise a fulfillment!

During the … Millennium!

Isaiah 56:7, today’s Lesson Text, begins: “Even them will I (the Lord) bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in MY HOUSE OF PRAYER.” With the pronoun “them” indicating some of the most unlikely of all people … vile (but now repenting) gentiles. For example. “sons of strangers” and “eunuchs,” folks previously barred from the temple! One could classify them the “whosoever wills” of that coming glorious Kingdom Age!

The Temple, the “house of prayer” … we are just here learning … will also become a “house of joy!” (Because the Bridegroom has returned! Jesus in Mark 2:19 … “And He said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.”)

Amazing!

Back to Isaiah 56:7, its middle clause … “Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar.” Now we’ve seen that these people (new converts one might call them) are worshipping! “Burnt Offerings,” picturing Jesus dying on the Cross to glorify His Father … and “sacrifices,” blood atonement symbolizing Jesus as our sin Payment! These gifts of adoration being “accepted“ by our Lord … translating “ratzson” which means “bringing delight, pleasure” to God!

Then finally … “For mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people,” where the emphasis now may be on the descriptive term “all people” as much as “prayer!”

“Red and yellow and black and white … they’re all precious in His Sight,” remember the song?

The Text today also equates “burnt offerings” and “sacrifices” with “prayer” I think.

And this specific Hebrew noun for “prayer” is one which emphasizes “intercession!” (Intervention, entreaty, supplication.) Still … “needs” being met by the One we will all love by then, during the Millennium!

Filthy, Jew-hating enemies and other ultra-wicked people … gone! With even Satan being imprisoned!

And the earth miraculously having become “paradise” once again. A place where the whole planet has been changed … “filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14

Yes, Glory to God!

Dear Lord … “Hasten the Day” we pray.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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It sounds symbolic, merely symbolic! But then again these things are said to happen when Jesus comes again to earth!

“For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Isaiah 55:12-13

The verb “brought forth” evokes pictures of a shepherd leading his sheep! Jesus is that Millennial Shepherd, too. (It is also the Bible verb used several times for man being “brought forth” from life to death. Sort of parallel to: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. FOR THOU ART WITH ME.” Psalm 23:4, Hallelujah!)

But mountains and hills and trees … rejoicing?

Well, rocks can “cry out,” Jesus believed. (Luke 19:14)

And if nature is now “groaning” under the weight of sin … as Paul taught us in Romans 8:22 … why can she not “rejoice” when Jesus removes all the curse?

Try this Passage: “Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the LORD, because he cometh to judge the earth.” 1st Chronicles 16:32-33, now they’re singing!

Who is to say there is not some type of “praise” music embedded in the wood of trees, hitherto undiscovered?

Remember any of the Bible Passages that liken men to trees? Several do exist. Then surely this is possible … “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.” Psalm 47:1, now we have trees and people engaged in the same activity!

I believe that creation so happily glorifying the Lord (during the Millennium) will probably be a literal occurrence! Note: the “Spring of the year,” with all those “hints” of resurrection … is literal as well! (Though now with some scientific principle being the “reason” for each glorious phenomenon. Robbing us of the Power of God’s Hand in it all, I fear.) There is such a thing as “science falsely so called.”

But there’s even more in today’s Bible Text … “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree.” Good growth instead of not-as-good growth! “Thorns” often imply the “curse” or “sin” in the Bible. And often “briars” are to be burned! But now … much more useful forests!

Here read Ezekiel 28:24 … “And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.” Wow, why am I not more familiar with this verse? (Again, trees and men!)

Vegetation patterns reversed, forestry revised, revived! (Maybe a little like zoology’s: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb.” Isaiah 11:6!)

Jesus as Emancipator, Liberator, Redeemer!

The whole earth made right again (as in the days prior to Adam’s sin) … by the Last Adam’s (Jesus) Presence!

Thus Isaiah 55 ends: “And it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Just another way of saying … “All these things will happen to the Glory of God!”

The Millennium, what a time it will be!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

No wonder we so often discuss “the Blessed Hope!”

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I’ve profitably used today’s Verse (the Bible “Text” of our Lesson this Friday morning) again and again, drawing comfort from it each time it crossed my lips. And I do believe it is applicable today, in the very hour in which we live.

But I am learning (through the Biblical and Hermeneutical law of “Context”) that the greatest fulfillment of Isaiah 55:11 will be yet future. During the Millennium, I suspect.

Look, the Lord is talking … “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

Is this insinuating Jesus, as a Preacher, during the Millennium? A Propagator of God’s Word? I’d say YES, in fact, THE Preacher of God’s Word during that coming golden age.

The modifier “void” simply means “empty” (twelve times), also “without cause” (two times) in the King James Version. (There can be a big difference between “empty” and “without cause.”)

“Shall accomplish” translates “asah,” indicating the verbs “work, perform, deal, prepare, maintain!” (When a word has that vast a range of meaning … it is said to possess a “wide semantic domain.”)

Our Lord’s “Pleasure” means the things that delight Him! (“It shall accomplish that which I please.”)

And God’s Word “prospering” (what glorious thought) utilizes the Hebrew verb “tzsalach,” meaning “to break out,” as if exploding!

Wow!

Yes, the Millennium will be a time of world-wide Bible-saturated Revival!

As Isaiah 11:9 has already told us … “The earth shall be full of the KNOWLEDGE of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” And that ubiquitous knowledge is derived from the Scripture!

God’s Word … everywhere!

I suspect it can even be taught in schools again!

And posted on courthouse walls!

When sanity is restored to planet earth.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

“Even so, come Lord Jesus!”

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I will not be surprised if the Millennium presents one of the greatest periods of evangelism the Cause of Christ has ever seen!

Multitudes being born, the devil being restrained, Jesus ruling the whole world from Jerusalem, and this glorious invitation being extended … “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:6-7

We already know that everyone born during the Millennium will NOT wholeheartedly submit to Jesus’ Reign, to His Standard of Righteousness. Because … by Millennium’s end, when Satan is released from confinement, an uprising will occur. Here’s John’s view of the event, written from the Isle of Patmos two thousand years ago … “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city (Jerusalem): and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Revelation 20:7-10

Wow!

Thus conversely … we can believe that while multitudes clearly resist Jesus (Who has never FORCED anyone to believe on His Name) … many others will believe on His Name!

His purpose for coming to earth the first time will not vary greatly from His purpose for coming the second time! Which was/is … “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10

Hence our Text today, this global invitation … “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:6-7, certainly a valid, general truth for our age, but a specific truth during the Millennium. If a Passage’s “context” matters any! (Isaiah 55 is Millennial to the Core!)

Joel 3:14 … “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.” Not directly applicable to the Millennium, I think, but representative of the world-wide offer of salvation (what a glorious appeal) Jesus extends when He returns to earth.

If at the Second Coming … a whole Nation (Israel) will be born (born-again) in a day … no telling what might happen to the Gentiles as well!

“Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Isaiah 66:8

Isaiah 49:22 encourages me along this line … “Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.”

Wow!

Evangelism during the Millennium?

To this extent … “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:9

We Bible literalists see a bright (because of Jesus) future for planet earth! Ultimately will come, based on dozens and dozens of Bible prophecies … the thousand-year Kingdom Rule of Christ.

Where Jesus goes … souls will be saved!

After all, He has been certainly lifted up (the Cross of Calvary) … so the rest of John 12:32 will be fulfilled too. “And I (Jesus speaking), if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”

Yes, “drawing all men,” a magnetism culminated during the Millennium. That’s where I theologically stand anyway …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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