Looking For Divine Government

“Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.” (Re 11:17 AV)

 

This is what every child of God is looking forward to!  We look forward to the day Christ returns, removing satanic influence from the earth, and reigns unabated for the glory of Himself and the benefit of mankind.  This portion of scripture is a bit more detailed than what I have just written.  The event spoken above is the declaration of certain judgment upon Satan and mankind.  This judgment takes a bit before the return of Christ, but this event is the start of the process by which the Savior claims full influence on His creation.  He controls all things.  But He also permits some things that seem to run contrary to His own glory.  I say they seem to because we are short-sighted.  Nothing is allowed that will not eventually glorify the Savior.  At any rate, we pray for and look for the time when the LORD will begin to finish the redemption of His creation from the wickedness of sin.  This reign of righteousness cannot come too soon!

Years ago, in my fifth-grade class, a real-life example of the classic book Lord of the Flies unfolded in our classroom.  Our teacher, whose name I cannot remember, was called out to the office.  This meant our class was left without any adult supervision.  That was back in the day when kids could be left to themselves for a very short period of time without great concern.  However, our teacher took far too long.  Whatever the issue, we were left to our own devices for about fifteen or twenty minutes.  That is a long time for a class of twelve-year-olds to police themselves.  As these things go, there was trouble.  This time it involved yours truly.  I had a nemesis.  Actually, I had more than one.  However, the one to whom I am referring was named Marty.  Marty was not a well-liked kid.  Neither was I.  However, he was disliked for a different reason.  I was a quiet nerd.  Marty was an obnoxious twit.  Marty was always trying to get on the good side of the popular kids.  One of his methods was to give me a hard time.  Anyway, during the teacher’s absence, Marty started in on me.  I had a Ralphie Parker / Skut Farkus moment.  For those who know the movie A Christmas Story, you know exactly to that which I am referring.  Ralphie is a good kid who is super frustrated at many toils of like.  One of them was the bully Scut Farkus.  One day, after a big disappointing day of school, Scut Farkas starts in on Ralphie.  Ralphie losses it.  Even though he is a third small than Farkus, he tackles him and whales on him.  That was me.  Completely frustrated at the bullying, poor Marty got the brunt of it.  The teacher was not there and the class quickly descended into lawlessness.  The class desperately wanted our teacher to return.

This is exactly how the saint feels.  We have had enough of the devil and the world wreaking havoc.   We are tired at wickedness, strife, and lawlessness.  We are especially tired that the way the world treats our precious Savior.  We are sick and tired of hearing His name used as a curse word.  We are deeply offended at the mockery God and His word receive.  We are fed up with having to always play defense.  We want the return of the LORD so that He might reign.  Even more importantly, that He might be worshipped in the manner He deserves.  We look forward to the day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the LORD to the glory of God the Father.  We want Him to come back.  We want Him to set up His kingdom.  So, as we see the events of our world unfold in front of us, we see the band warming up.  The stadium is set.  We are all in our places.  We are merely awaiting the arrival of the Champion of Champions, the King of kings, and the LORD of lords.  He is coming back and this is for what we earnestly pray.