If you what to hear many different “opinions”, ask people when they think Yeshua (Jesus) will return to the world. The details of the timing are hard to figure out. That would seem by design from the Creator, for the sake of the enemy.
If you want to know “details” about what we will be doing once Yeshua comes back you can find many Scriptures which outline the future kingdom to a very detailed description: This is why the devil wants us to focus on the “time of the return” rather than the details of how we will all be living once that moment arrives. If the people would focus on the details of how we who believe will live once He comes back it would bring unity and “vision” rather than “division”.
Many people today are lost in a sea of men’s opinions regarding when He will return; pre-trib; mid-trib; post-trib; no-trib; but have you ever considered that that is exactly where Satan wants the battle to be? If he can have brethren fight over the much debated timing of His return, they will not go further in the study to look at what the Bible outlines regarding what we can expect to be doing once our Bridegroom sets us the new house for us. Remember, He said He was going to prepare a place and would return so that we could be with Him forever more.
So what is the vision the adversary doesn’t want us to see? The best passage of Scripture I have found giving a detailed look at the “Kingdom Coming” can be found in Ezekiel chapters 40 - 48. Remember that in the “Lord’s Prayer” He taught us to pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done”. Did you ever consider what you are asking for? What kind of kingdom are we asking for? Do we realize we are asking for His will and His ways, not our own? If we are going to live according to His ways and will, doesn’t is make sense to study what those ways will look like? Since He could come back at any time, is there wisdom in not only studying those ways; but also wouldn’t is be wise to start living in His future ways today so that when He returns doesn’t have to correct us?
Hopefully we can all agree that there is wisdom in studying the way we will live in the kingdom coming, and to even start living the way we will be in the future. If you agree then let us proceed to examine the aspects of the way we shall live, compare them to the way we live today, and consider what changes we might make today, while it is still today.
In Ezekiel 40 we get a detailed discription of the future Temple of God which immediately challenges some widely held doctrine. Just the fact that there will be Temple is news to some. When we get to Ezk 40:39-42 we find the new Temple will have tables for slaying sacrifices and preparing burnt offerings! Yes, in His future kingdom the Levitical system of sacrifices by Levites is fully restored with Yeshua as the High Priest. By Ezk 42:12 we find that the LORD himself shall again be eating the most holy things and offerings.
Chapter 43 begins the vision of the glory of God entering the Temple again. Note what He says about the Temple in Ezk 43:7 “And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever...” I can only imagine how incredible that will be, can you? By verse 11 of that chapter He describes that His people will be ashamed as they see how their ways have differed from His. “ And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the Torah thereof, and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.” Note these are not just to show them, but so they also know they are to do them. He then hammers home the house rules in verse 12.
“This is the Torah of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be kodesh, kodesh. Behold the Torah of the house.” Ezk 43:9. We will again be living out the Torah of God as His people and He as our God.
What will the Torah include?
Only those circumcised of both heart and flesh will be allowed in His sanctuary (44:7-9).
The Levites will again minister to the people with a specific group (Sons of Zadok) ministering directly to the Lord (44:10-25). Please note the specific duties of the Zadok Priests in verse 23 “And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and clean. And in controversy they shall stand in judgment and they shall judge it according to my judgments; and they shall keep my Torah and my statutes in all mine assemblies (moedim); and they shall hallow my Sabbaths.” Note that we will again have to be taught the difference between the holy Shabbat and rest of the week. We will be again taught that there is a difference between clean and unclean things, such as what we eat. We find here that there are statutes for His assemblies, the word in Hebrew for His appointed times is moedim, outlined originally in Lev. 23. Finally, His Sabbaths will be hallowed again.
We will be coming together on His holy Sabbaths again, and new moons. In fact verse 45:17 tells us that Prince himself will offer sacrifices in the feast, new moons and Sabbaths. The Feasts of God will be our ways again as Yeshua did them and as He gave them originally to Moses. In 45:18-25 we find all the feasts that our Messiah did, which most have left off doing, are for all the world again. We will worship the Lord Yeshua at the door of His gate on His Sabbaths and new moons (verse 46:3), just as Isaiah also confirmed in 66:22-23.
The Torah then will be the same as He gave it to Moses. Also, water will flow from the alter healing the seas and watering healing trees (chapter 47). And we will all be given a portion of land, whether natural born of grafted in (47:22-23).
So with this vision of the coming kingdom, how then shall we live today?
If we do not know where we are going, any road will get us there; however, if we know where we are going and how we will live once we are there, then we can establish a “vision”: a common goal, that will bring unity among the brethren, not division. People argue what is good doctrine to follow. It has, in fact, divided His people into thousands of denominations around the world. His arrival will end all the debates forever. He will quickly show that He was serious when He stated “I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my Torah” Proverbs 4:2, as He brings back the very thing He gave to Moses, kept Himself, and taught to his disciples. We will quickly find the we had inherited the lies of our fathers (Jer. 16:19)
But seeing what is coming back at any moment, why wouldn’t we start to study His Torah and begin to conform to His image and His ways? Our Bridegroom has left us a blueprint of what to start doing so we can be found already doing them when He arrives.
Yes, we are saved by grace through faith, but that does not mean we shouldn’t live today as we will once He returns. Paul is hard to understand in many verses, but Romans 3:31 is not when he states with emphasis “By faith do we make void the Torah? God forbid, by faith we establish it.” You see, we are to pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” and Paul knew what Ezk.40–48 described about that kingdom.
We need to develop a love for not only our Messiah, but also for His coming ways and Torah. A Bride should love her Bridegroom enough to change to her ways, be conformed to His image, not thinking to change Him; even if the Bride is comfortable in her ways. Do you worship today on His appointed times? Are you living according to His Torah which will be the Law of the land, the rules of the house?
As I write this I am in the second day of the Feast of Dedication. What better time to dedicate the “temples of our living bodies” to be conformed to all His coming ways, and be cleaned up from any ways which are not His? Won’t you ask Him today to help you come to love His ways and change you into His image of a good Bride? May the Lord bless you for your decision to die to yourself and your own ways and turn to His ways which we will be forever living in, as we pray: Come Quickly!
