6. The Millennium in relation to Creation.
The blessings which will be brought to the
world upon the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom will not be confined to
the human family but will be extended to all creation. As we have shown in
earlier chapters, the Curse which was pronounced by God upon the ground in the
day of Adam's fall, and which resulted in a creation that has groaned and
travailed ever since, is yet to be revoked. Creation is not to remain in
bondage for ever. God has set a hope before it, a hope, which like ours,
centers in the personal return of Christ. "For the earnest expectation of the
creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was
subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him who subjected it
in hope; that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God" (Rom. 8:19-21
R.V.). A passage closely connected with the one just quoted is found in the
ninety-sixth Psalm - "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let
the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that
is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice. Before the Lord:
for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge the
world with righteousness, and the people with His truth" (vss. 11-13). These
verses picture the joy of all Nature consequent upon the advent of its Creator
to the earth.
One striking effect of Creation's deliverance
from its present bondage is described in Is. 30:26 - "Moreover the light of the
moon shall be (in the Millennium) as the light of the sun, and the light of the
sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord
bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound."
An illustration of the Curse being removed from the "ground" is found in Is.
35:1. When the Times of Refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord
then shall "the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose." This is
further amplified in Isaiah 41:17-20 - "When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear
them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high
places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant
in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the
oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the
box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand
together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel
hath created it."
Not the least of the beneficent changes
introduced during the Millennium will be the restoration of the animal
kingdom to its Edenic state. The present ferocity of the wild beast is
abnormal and due to the fall of man. It is very clear from Genesis 2 that,
originally, man had full dominion over all the animal kingdom, but this was
forfeited when he rebelled against his Maker. In the kingdom age - the Times
of the Restitution of all things spoken of by the prophets - the fierce nature
of the beasts will be subdued, for in that day, "The wolf also shall dwell with
the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the
young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And
the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and
the lion shall eat straw as the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the
hole of an asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice'
den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Is.
11:6-9).
By comparing Scripture with Scripture it would
appear that, during the Millennium, there will be no earthquakes, no tornadoes,
no storms at sea, but all Nature will be at rest and share in the general
blessing which the personal presence of Christ shall bring. And yet, there
will be droughts and plagues upon the rebellious and disobedient (see Zech.
14:18,19), which leads us to consider,