“I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give [thee] the heathen [for] thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth [for] thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Ps 2:7-9 AV)
It is easy to forget the eminent return of Jesus Christ. And it is especially easy to forget the manner in which He will rule. Before we get to the phrase that is our meditation, let us consider first that Jesus will return to fulfill the promises made to Abraham and David. These covenants, although temporarily suspended for the church age, will be realized at the conclusion of the tribulation. Jesus will return and set up His kingdom. Second, the manner in which He will set up His kingdom. The breaking with a rod of iron is not to be confused with ruling with a rod of iron. Often, most equate the two as one and the same. The rod of iron is the same. But what He does with it is different. There are only three times the idea of ruling with a rod of iron is used. All three occur in Revelation. In that context, ruling with a rod of iron is ruling by a standard that does not break. Above, it is not ruling for which our LORD wields the rod of iron. Above, He will break them and dash them in pieces. When Christ returns, all those who have not trusted in Him, repenting of their sins, and refusing the mark of the beast, will be destroyed from off the face of the earth.
It astounds me how people lack the ability to reason beyond the immediate future. There is no concern for eternity. Mankind does not stop and think what the future might hold if God is real. Which He is. Anyone who refused to confess the reality of a Creator does so as a matter of deliberate choice. Evidence abounds of His existence. To say there is no intelligent Creator is to deny our own existence. Because there is an intelligent Creator, all which He creates must conform to His design. If He designed a fish to swim or a bird to fly, this is what they will do. A beaver who damns a stream to flood a field for a farmer does so because he that is his nature and he chooses to do so. Just the other day, I saw something remarkable. A black sterling was giving flying lessons to her two chicks. Mama and one baby hit my picture window. I went outside to check on them and the baby was not doing well. Mama was picking it up in her beak and gently dropping it to revive it. When she saw me, she picked up her chick and flew to the neighbor’s yard to continue resuscitating her baby. She could have left her chick to itself and went on with life. Yet she chose to help her baby live. The Creator design for a purpose. That purpose will be realized regardless of the wishes of that which He has Created.
God created mankind that we might know Him and love Him. We are to do this by obedience and faith. If we fail to meet the purpose for which He has designed, like any creator, He will dispense with us. The first and most important of these purposes is to repent of our sin and call out in humility and dependency to Jesus, seeking for salvation, believing that we receive it because His word has said so. I don’t want to get lost in all the doctrine involved here. We might miss the simply application. Jesus will return. Sooner than later. Every day will live we get one more day closer to His return. When He returns, all those who have risen up in rebellion will be destroyed. They will be cast into the hell to be reserved unto the day of judgment. At the Great White Throne judgment, all those who have rejected the grace of God in Christ while living on earth will be cast into the lake of fire forever. This torment will be an eternal one. Why do the heathen rage and imagine a great thing? It is the very definition of insanity. Jesus is coming back. He will reserve judgment for that day. May the heathen repent and trust Christ before the divine rod of iron dashes them to pieces.
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