As we reflect on these Fall Holy Days, one event more than any other signals the change between the world in which we live today and the world to come, and that event is the return of our Lord and King, Jesus Christ. But how often do we stop to consider what that return means? What does it mean for us, and what does it mean for the world around us? Today I would like to examine three ways the world is going to drastically change when Jesus Christ returns.

Regime Change

The first way the world will drastically change when Jesus Christ returns is that the world will have new rulers instead of the rulers that have mostly bungled the difficult and important task of government throughout human history. Since mankind has generally failed to obey God’s laws or enforce them to any great degree in history, Jesus Christ will take over direct rule of the earth. Let us therefore briefly examine some of these verses.

First, let us look at Revelation 11:15-19. This passage shows that in the future, Jesus Christ will return to reign on this earth. Revelation 11:15-19 reads as follows: “Then the seventh angel sounded: and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the One who was and is and who is to come, because You have taken Your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.” Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.”

What is this passage saying? For one, it says that when there will come a time when Jesus Christ’s kingdom is proclaimed in heaven for all the world to see and recognize. The kings of this world will be angry and rebellious against their rightful ruler, but Jesus Christ will come in His wrath to destroy the wicked who have ruined this earth and exploited its people. Not only that, Jesus Christ will raise the righteous dead, both great and small, and reward them with power and glory as members of God’s family and as rulers in His kingdom. For that, the twenty-four elders, presumably angels, who sat before God bowed down in worship.

How will believers be rewarded by Jesus Christ upon His return? Matthew 24 and 25 give several tests for believers that I will briefly summarize. Matthew 24:45-51 gives one test as being obedient to our Master’s will as opposed to oppressing others and behaving in a drunken fashion. Matthew 25:1-13 talks of some believers keeping the oil of the Holy Spirit strong in them and others letting it dwindle. Matthew 25:14-30 talks about some servants using and developing their God-given talents for God’s glory while other lazy servants bury their talent in the ground. Matthew 25:31-46 talks of some believers showing love and concern for the poor and sick and imprisoned while others treat them harshly and ignore their needs and concerns. In all of these cases those servants who do well are rewarded with power and eternal life, get to enjoy the wedding supper of the King and rule over many things, but those who do wickedly will be punished with eternal judgment. We ought to take Jesus Christ at His word, so that we may rule with Him over the world when He returns. Typically we see this way the world will change when Jesus Christ returns as one of the meanings of the Feast of Trumpets.

Enemy Removed

The second way that the world will drastically change when Jesus Christ returns is that Satan (and his malign influence over the world) is going to be removed from this earth for a thousand years. Instead of the constant pull towards sin there will be spiritual encouragement to behave righteously. Let us point out these truths now, to show what will change about the world when Satan and his influence are removed.

First, let us look at Revelation 20:1-3 to see how Satan and his influence will be removed from the world for a thousand years in the future, after Jesus’ return. Revelation 20:1-3 reads as follows: “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.”

Here we see that when Jesus Christ returns to rule this earth that the deceiver of the nations, who has ruled this earth as a rebel against God’s authority through his fellow demons and corrupt human servants for thousands of years will be imprisoned for a thousand years. He will be sent to the abyss, to the remote depths of the bottomless pit, and there restrained from corrupting the world during the thousand years that Jesus Christ rules the earth before the final judgment.

The ancient Israelites had a shadow of this future event that they followed every year on the Day of Atonement. Let us turn to Leviticus 16:20-22. Leviticus 16:20-22 reads as follows: “And when he [that is, the high priest] has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat into the wilderness.”

Just as Satan will be put into outer darkness, restrained in the abyss for a thousand years until the time of his final deception and his final judgment, so the live goat was put into the wilderness far from man, to take the sins of Israel, the results of the deceptions of the evil one, far away from the congregation of Israel. This Azazel goat symbolized the malign influence of Satan on humanity, and on the Day of Atonement the removal of Satan and his influence on the world was pictured through this ceremony.

However, it is not merely enough to remove the influence of Satan on the world, but rather that influence must be replaced with a godly one. And that is exactly what we find if we look at Isaiah 30:18-21. Isaiah 30:18-21 reads: “Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.”

This is a profound and familiar passage, but how often have we reflected on its meaning? The Day of Atonement is a day of justice—for on that day the Jubilee was and is to be declared, freeing slaves from their chains and returning the land to its families once again. It is a day of fasting, without food and water, where we eat of the spiritual food of reflection and humble prayer rather than a physical feast. And when Satan’s influence is removed, it will be replaced by omnipresent spiritual teachers guiding people along the path of righteousness, so that they neither depart from it to the right hand, into what is popularly called conservatism, or to the left hand of what is popularly called liberalism or socialism. Instead they will walk the straight and narrow middle path of obedience to God’s law. The second way the world will drastically change when Jesus Christ returns is that the evil influence of Satan will be replaced by the influence of God.

The Enforcement of God’s Law

The third way that the world is going to drastically change when Jesus Christ returns is that the corrupt and biased laws of mankind are going to be replaced with God’s laws, which will be enforced over the whole earth by his resurrected saints. It is a rather sobering thought that we will be enforcing God’s law as kings and priests, given the lack of familiarity most self-described believers have with God’s laws. In what ways does the Feast of Tabernacles connect with God’s laws? Let us answer this question, at least in part, now.

First, let us look at the most direct connection within the law, in Deuteronomy 31:9-13. Deuteronomy 31:9-13 gives a little known connection between the law and the Feast of Tabernacles, and it reads as follows: “So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”

This is serious business. Just as the requirement to forgive debts at the year of release, and let the land rest remains applicable for Christians today, and will be enforced by believers on the earth during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ, so also it is necessary for God’s laws to be taught to everyone, male and female, adult and child, citizen and foreigner, so that all knew the standard by which they were to obey at a time that symbolized freedom from debt and servitude, and that even let the land rest from exploitation by landowners. Before we enforce God’s laws on others, we must obey it and apply it for ourselves. God will not let people rule over others who have not lived in obedience to Him and who do not understand and know how to properly apply His laws.

Let us now turn to our final scripture of the day to see how just one of the biblical laws will be enforced when Jesus Christ returns. Let us turn to our final scripture of this message to see this law in Zechariah 14:16-21. In Zechariah 14:16-21 we see that when Jesus Christ returns there will be a requirement for all nations to keep the Feast of Tabernacles enforced by God Himself through the weather. This passage reads as follows: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. In that day “Holiness to the Lord” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come in and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a Canaanite [or merchant] in the house of the Lord of hosts.”

God will demand strict obedience of the Holy Days throughout the entire world. If a nation does not come to the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, they will have no rain for their crops. Nations will learn very quickly that if they want to receive dew from heaven they must obey God’s laws. Second, just as the priests of the house of Aaron in Exodus 39:30 wore a crown that said “Holiness to the Lord,” so every single pot in the entire area of Judah will be holy to God, sanctified by our High Priest above. Additionally, there will be no more merchants in God’s house, profaning God’s temple and God’s church with their profiteering, as was done in Christ’s time. God’s house will once again be a house of prayer and will never again be a den of thieves. And so the strictness of God’s enforcement of His laws and statutes and commandments is shown by the test case of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Conclusion

There are at least three major ways the world is going to drastically change when Jesus Christ returns. First, the kings and presidents and prime ministers and dictators of this world will be removed by our Lord and King Jesus Christ, who is sovereign over all the universe. Christ’s return means a new regime to rule over the world with one government sovereign over all—His government. This is symbolized in the Feast of Trumpets. Second, the deceiver of the nations and arch-rebel Satan will be removed from influence for a thousand years. This is symbolized in the Day of Atonement. Third, God’s government will be ruled by unfamiliar laws, namely the laws of God as described in His Word. This is symbolized by the Feast of Tabernacles. Let us all do that we can to ensure that we are found worthy to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as priests and kings in that kingdom.