Wilderness Transformed

At last, the plan of God comes to its climax. After thousands of years of preparation, the people of the Kingdom are brought together. The leaders and princes are the faithful disciples from all ages, raised from the dead with the apostles to reign with their King. The subjects are the restored Israel, and the nations of the earth who share in their happiness. Now, at last, the reason why God chose that tiny land become plain, as it forms, at the hub of the continents, the headquarters of Christ’s administration. And now the promises made to Abraham about his descendants, are fulfilled-promises made so long ago but never forgotten by Abraham’s God.

As Jesus brings relief to the oppressed and teaches men all over the world to love one another, the blessings God once promised begin to fill the earth. The wilderness turns into fields and forests to feed the hungry.

“May there be abundance of grain in the land,”

sings the Psalmist,

“on the tops of the mountains may it wave” (72:16).

Yes, even on the hills, barren from neglect and the exploitation of greedy man, great harvest crops will be provided by a bountiful God.

“Like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands” (Isaiah 65:22).

What a glorious picture this is to look forward to, something in which all can share! To see the earth set free from endless war and violence, from disease and tears and suffering.

“Your eyes will see the king in his beauty,”

promises Isaiah,

” Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation” (Isaiah 33:17,20).

“The ransomed of the LORD shall return,”

he concludes,

“and come to Zion with singing . . . they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (35:10).

“They shall be priests of God and of Christ,”

wrote John in the Book of Revelation,

“and they shall reign with him a thousand years” (Revelation 20:6).

For all that time Jesus and his immortal princes will reign over the earth.

“He must reign,”

writes the apostle,

“until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:25,26).

Although during the kingdom disease and famine will have been restrained and life lengthened, death will not finally be taken away until all sin, the cause of death in the beginning, has at last been rooted out from the hearts of men. And those who see that glorious end, and live on eternally into the time beyond, will be one with God and His Son for ever.

This Kingdom of which the Bible speaks, lies just round the corner in time, but the invitations to belong to it have already gone out. For the last 2,000 years, people of all nations have been called out, as we have seen, to prepare for its coming. Our share in its benefits is independent of race. We do not have to be Jews to be there. All we need is the faith that Abraham had, and the will to obey.

In one of his parables, Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God as a wedding banquet, to which people were summoned, even from the highways and hedges, to sit down at the feast. What an honour it would be, if we received through the post an invitation to dine with our earthly Sovereign or President. The fact is, we have been invited to something much greater. Through the Bible, we have received an invitation to sit down at table with Jesus, the King of the Kingdom of God! Usually when we are invited to a wedding, we feel we have to go out and buy a new suit or dress. But in this case, the wedding garments are provided by the host himself, free of charge. Jesus’ own blood is the covering for our sin, and we have only to “put him on”, in the ceremony of baptism, to be made clean and fit to stand before God.