Principles of living a set apart, godly life [27] – Divine Law, Priesthood and the Millennium Reign [3]

 There are a number of different perspectives that propose what Israel will be like in the Millennium Reign. This is not surprising because Scripture only presents glimpses here and there as to what this age will be like, and different scholars have drawn out and speculated on different facets of this coming age. 

One of the most comprehensive descriptions is to be found in chapters 40 – 48 of Ezekiel. There we find an account of how Israel will be governed in this new season of the reconciliation and restoration of the household of Israel. We see the division of the Promised Land between Israel’s tribes, and the building of a new Temple. We also see the establishment of a neo-Levitical priesthood, the consecration of the altar and the establishment of daily sacrifices on earth as part of the New Jerusalem. 

Now this creates a problem for many Protestant Christians. Because the Protestant Reformers and their successors divide Sinai Covenant Law into ‘Moral Law’ and ‘Ceremonial Law’. I consider this to be a mistake, a false division. Instead, I consider that Sinai Covenant Law is an integrated whole. But many Protestant Christians then go further. They then propose that the ‘Ceremonial Law’, such as sacrifices, has already been done away with because its purpose is to constitute an outline shadow of the person and work of the Messiah. So they then propose that because the Messiah has come and been made clear, these ‘outline shadows’ have now been done away with. But this means that they have difficulties with these chapters in Ezekiel and often feel obliged to interpret them in metaphorical or allegorical ways.

I also propose that perspectives that Jesus will return in such a way as to enter into and sit within this new Millennium Age Temple are mistaken. So also are perspectives that suggest that all Jews will come recognise or perceive Jesus and in effect become Christians. 

Principles of living a set apart, godly life [26] – Divine Law, Priesthood, Citizenship and the Millennium Reign [2]

God has declared that in the future He will fully complete His promises and purposes for the household of Israel. But this will not be based on the old Sinai Covenant and its written Laws because the household of Israel and its delegated leaders and priests of the Levitical priesthood proved to be persistently wayward and rebellious with regard to this Covenant. So God is going to accomplish this ‘with a fresh new Covenant on the basis of household of Judah’, (Hebrews 8 v 9). 

The effective and successful work of Jesus - God’s anointed deliverer - means that Jesus, from the house of Judah, is now high priest, of the order of Melchizedek, in the heavenly realm. When Jesus comes to take up the mantle of King of kings at the advent of the Millennium Reign, this will be a royal priesthood and the time when God introduces this new Covenant with the household of Israel. 

The author of the letter to the Hebrews gives us a brief description of this new Covenant. ‘Because this is the Covenant that I will appoint with the household of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. Putting My laws within their mind and understanding on the basis that I will write them on their hearts, towards the purpose that I will be their God and they will be a people towards me. 11 They will absolutely not each continue teaching their fellow citizens and brothers saying, “Know the Lord”, because all will see and know Me, away from the least of them to the greatest. 12 Because I will be propitious and merciful, I will not recall their unrighteousness, injustice and no-share any more’. 13 In saying ‘new’ He makes the first old, and that becoming old and becoming aged, near disappearance’, (Hebrews 8 v 10 – 13). There it is – the promise of future restoration and reconciliation and God’s faithfulness in bringing to completion His purposes with regard to His chosen ethnic group. 

What is relevant to our present theme concerning divine law are verses 10 and 13. In verse 13 we are told that with the establishment of this new Covenant, the old Sinai Covenant with its written codes is made old, such that it almost completely disappears. But divine Law is not dissolved or abolished. The household of Israel will not enter into lawlessness or anarchy in the Millennium Reign. Rather, the principles of God’s laws will be transferred into the hearts and minds of those of the household of Israel and they will perceive, understand and comprehend them. God will write these laws ‘on their hearts’ – in their deepest inner core at the foundation and emergence of their thoughts, emotions and desires. Once again, this new Covenant exists alongside God’s Law.