After Atonement comes the Feast of Tabernacles, a seven day festival to celebrate the kingdom of God and the millennial rule of Christ and the saints on the earth. The first of the seven days is a holy day, a day of rest and assembly. Traditionally, on the other days we assembly every morning for services. The eighth day, the Last Great Day, is a day of rest and we have double services. I will cover that more in the next post.
After Christ returns and the saints are resurrected to immortality, as represented by the Day of Trumpets (1 Corinthians 15:50-57, Revelation 11:15-19), and after Satan is put away as pictured by Atonement (Revelation 20:1-3), Christ and the saints will rule the earth for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4). Our rule will bring happiness to mankind. The Feast of Tabernacles represents the happiness of both the millennium and the kingdom of God for eternity. To help us picture this, God gives us our second tithe to enjoy during the Feast, money we can spend for festival expenses, food, drink, entertainment, and recreation.
There are many scriptural passages that refer to the happiness and joy of that time. Here is a list of some of them: Amos 9:13-15, Ezekiel 39:25-29, Zechariah 8:23, Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah 11:1-16, Isaiah 12:1-6, Isaiah 2:2-4, Isaiah 25:6-8, Isaiah 35:5-10, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Psalm 98:4-9, Micah 4:1-4, Habakkuk 2:14, Isaiah 65:24-25, Psalm 22:27-31, Psalm 47:1-2, Psalm 97:1, Jeremiah 23:5-8.
After the millennium, there will be a general resurrection as pictured by the Last Great Day, a time when billions of people will be brought back to life. This will be a massive number of people that will have to be clothed, housed, and fed. Eventually, they will be able to provide for themselves from their labor, but to start off they will need help for a time.
It is during the millennium that the people on the earth will prepare to help those who come up in the general resurrection. They will not just be growing food, building houses, and making clothing for themselves but also for those who will come up in the general resurrection.
This will be an opportunity for them to learn the give way of life by practicing it. They can practice the way of loving their neighbors as themselves by sacrificing, laboring, and contributing to the massive work of preparing for the billions who will come up in a general resurrection.
During the millennium the environment will be changed. Deserts will have water (Isaiah 35:1-2, 6-7, Isaiah 41:18-20, Isaiah 43:19-20, Isaiah 51:3). The nature of animals will be changed (Isaiah 11:6-9, Isaiah 65:25). Waste areas will flourish. A great deal of work will be involved in changing the environment and ecology. It is not just a matter of making aggressive animals tame. If animals no longer kill animals for food, their diets will change. They will have to eat plants. That means other changes will be required in the digestive system, teeth, etc., as well as instincts. Also, reproductive instincts and processes will have to change so that there is not overpopulation of species that are no longer eaten. Foxes can be changed to not kill rabbits, but what happens to the rabbit population without predators to keep it in check? Too many rabbits will destroy the plant cover, then the rabbits will starve.
And whatever changes are made to the plants and animals will have to be made to their DNA so the changes are passed on from generation to generation. Everything will have to be planned in detail to produce a well-functioning, balanced, and stable ecology.
Changing the environment will be a big job. Who will do it?
Christ has been given all power and authority over the universe (Matthew 28:18), and no doubt He will do it. But we, the resurrected saints, will be His wife. Christ will rule the earth, but we will help Him in ruling the earth - we will rule with Him. Likewise, will we also assist Him in making the changes to the animals, bringing water to the deserts, and any other changes that need to be made to the earth? I think that is a possibility to consider.
Mr. Armstrong has taught, I believe in Mystery of the Ages and The Incredible Human Potential, that he believed it was man's destiny to bring life to the planets of the universe. So the resurrected saints will have to know about physical life and its complexity and how to work with DNA or other means to work with life in all its variety. We will also need to know how to change the surface of a planet to make it hospitable for life, having the right temperature and atmosphere and bodies of water for example.
Perhaps working with the environment on earth for the millennium may be a starting point for us to begin to learn about these things. Perhaps Christ will have us assist Him in making these changes just as we assist Him in ruling the earth.
This is something we can consider the next time we review the scriptures about the wolf dwelling with the lamb and the lion eating straw like the ox (Isaiah 11:6-9). Perhaps this may be an interesting topic to talk about as we discuss God's truth in the spirit of iron sharpens iron.
"As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend" (Proverbs 27:17).
"Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, And the Lord listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the Lord And who meditate on His name. 'They shall be Mine,' says the Lord of hosts, 'On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him' " (Malachi 3:16-17).
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