A Brief Glimpse of His Reign-Part 2

      To get the full picture of Christ’s reign over the earth, we have to go back to Rev. 12. It confirms that the Male Child, the completed Church that is Christ’s Body, is caught up to Heaven (raptured). Just as the Church has overcome by the blood of the Lamb, the Jews who have finally recognized Jesus as God’s Anointed One (the Messiah), likewise overcome through His finished work. They escape through the mountain pass that resulted when Jesus returned and stood on Mt. Zion.  Rev. 12:17 confirms why the war continues. “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring [the Jews who survived the initial invasion], who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
        The situation was foreshadowed in the story of the prophet Elijah and his protégé, Elisha. When Elijah's earthly ministry was complete, he was taken to Heaven in a whirlwind and a chariot. But just before he was caught up, Elisha asked to have a double portion of Elijah’s mantle/ministry (2 Kings 2). Elijah consented, but only if his protégé saw him being taken up. So it is no wonder that when the Jews finally accept Jesus as the Messiah after having seen Him coming again at the rapture, they believe.
        They not only believe, they take over the Church’s earthly ministry of preaching the Gospel to all the nations.  They do so through the latter rain outpouring and equipping of the Holy Spirit, and through the delegated authority of the heavenly court reigning from above as joint-heirs with Christ.
        This is when God fulfills His promise that David’s kingdom would be restored through Christ. Israel becomes God’s light on the earth, providing a just government over the world. Unlike our time now, justice will be quick. Many Old Testament prophesies concerning the Day of the Lord confirm this. Remember, too, that the Jewish saints have taken over the earthly mantle to preach the  Gospel.        
         Zech. 14:16-17 is one such example. “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.  And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain.”
         Ezek. 39:21-24 summarizes the result of this momentous 7th Day. “I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them.”
     Ezek. 39:25-29 summarizes the victory Israel has in Jesus. “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name— after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid. When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer. And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God.”