When Daniel found himself in Babylon serving King Nebuchadnezzar, he interpreted the King's disturbing dream through revelation from God. This dream had to do with earthly kingdoms who have come and gone and had no power of endurance. By the time Christ was born, Egyptians had been conquered by Assyrians, Assyrians by Babylonians, Babylonians by Persians, Persians by Greeks and Macedons and Greeks and Macedons by Romans. In Nebuchadnezzar's dream the kingdoms were portrayed by an image of a man signifying man made kingdoms of this earth. Each part of the image represented a different kingdom, the last being feet and toes that stood for 10 modern governments born from the Roman Empire. We know these kingdoms today as the 'crowned heads of Europe'. In his dream, Nebuchadnezzar saw the image of the kingdoms broken into pieces by a stone cut out without hands (Daniel 2:34) meaning not a man made stone but divinely crafted by God representing a kingdom that the God of heaven shall set up, that shall never be destroyed, that would consume all other kingdoms and that shall stand forever (Daniel 2:44). This dream and prophecy was fulfilled in 1820 through the restoration of the Gospel.
The enduring nature of the kingdom begun in 1820 is intended to cover the whole earth and prepare it for the Millennial reign when Jesus will return and be at last crowned King of Kings bringing with Him peace and prosperity to his loyal subjects. Why the title King of Kings? Because no other kingdom that has ever existed will equal His in scope and perfection. Christ's kingdom will end political mayhem and oppression doing away with human foibles and man's wisdom. It will end crime, poverty, sickness, sorrow, death, killing, calamities, natural disasters and all evil. No other king has ever had the power to affect change of such proportion. We live in a troubled world: politically, religiously and morally. Governments are failing to safeguard our economies, law and order and the moral fibre of our society. Our judicial system, comprised of imperfect men who are exercising earthly wisdom are failing to protect the innocent in our society. We have witnessed this truth only this week as a madman was allowed to walk our streets free and inflict terror on the citizens of our city. The world is deep in sin and ripening for destruction. We are guilty of gross moral and ethic transgressions: human trafficking, sexual exploitation, abuse of children, thieving, murder, rape, greed, abuse of power, bondage and many atrocities that I couldn't even name. It always fascinates me when I sit in Church lessons where the coming of the Saviour is portrayed as something we should dread. Why are we anticipating the Saviour's return with trapidation? How long have we waited for Him? Long enough to warrant scorn from non-believers. Should we not look forward to His return with eagerness and joy? Instead of discussing in class how Daniel saved the day by interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream should we not focus on the hope of the Millennial day, what that dream was really about? I feel that if we familiarised ourselves with the condition of the Millennial reign we would desperately await His coming with eagerness and joy.
It is true that when He comes, the Saviour will exercise judgment on the wicked but for the loyal subjects of His Kingdom, He will bring love, mercy, peace and joy because that's who He is. He will be eager to see us and press us to his bosom. Should we not be longing for this? Recently I sat in the Gospel Doctrine class where a question was asked: "If you knew that the Saviour was coming tomorrow what would you change in your life?" Of course, there were many answers indicating much needed personal change. The answer to this question should be: nothing! There is nothing you could do in one day to change your life in a drastic way. One of the answers was - doing more missionary work. How much missionary work could you do in one day that would make up for years of not doing it??? If the Saviour was coming tomorrow, there is nothing you could change, it would be too late. Should we not instead put on a party to welcome Him back, to let Him know that He is wanted and needed to fix this sad telestial world we find ourselves in, to take away our sorrows and dry our tears, to fix the broken hearted, to give us much needed peace?
Who is this King of Kings that will come to reign in righteousness for a thousand years? He is known by many names because He is a God of many perfect attributes but mostly He is a God of love and mercy and justice. He will come to claim His own and when He does every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is the Christ. And when He comes we will hail Him as our God and our King, the King of Kings, known by majestic names such as these:
Jehovah
Jesus Christ
The Lord
The Son of God
The Son of the Eternal Father
The Lamb
The Shepherd
Redeemer
Almighty God
The God of Israel
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
The Lord of Hosts
The Holy one of Israel
The Redeemer of Israel
King Immanuel
The Eternal God
The Redeemer of the World
Holy One
The Saviour
The Mighty One of Jacob
The Mighty One of Israel
Messiah
The Lord God
The God of Hosts
The Prince of Life
The Lord of Glory
Eternal King
Lord God Almighty
The Son of Righteousness
The Lord of Hosts
Alpha and Omega
The Great I Am
The Stone of Israel
Holy Messiah
I Am
The Great Mediator
Son Ahman
Firstborn
King of Glory
The Lord God of Hosts
The Father of Heaven and Earth
The Creator of All Things
Wonderful
Counselor
The Mighty God
The Everlasting Father
The Prince of Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment