Malachi Chapter One, Glimpsing the Davidic Kingdom

 

Malachi 1:11 For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; in every place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts.

 

When Christ was approaching Jerusalem He wept over it and said, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes…because you did not know the time of your visitation,” Luke 19:42, 44. There is much to be said about the time of Israel’s visitation taken from the writings of the prophets. Christ came first to offer Himself as Israel’s Messiah, the Anointed One, or the “Son of Fresh Oil,” that they had been waiting for since Eden, really. The first promise of the Christ was given in the Garden just after Satan deceived Eve, and through Eve corrupted Adam. God explained to Satan that the Seed of the woman, a Seed uniquely from woman without being begotten by man, would crush the serpent’s head. The serpent in turn would bruise Messiah’s heel, Genesis 3:15. The story of Achilles and his infamous weakness illustrates how fallen mankind remembered this promise, distorted though it was, centuries after the Fall and the Flood. The angel Gabriel was permitted to allow Daniel to catch a glimpse of God’s timetable regarding Messiah: “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. And after the sixty two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself,” Daniel 9:25, 26.

The command to restore Jerusalem happened in 445 BC under Artaxerxes, during the days of Nehemiah, Nehemiah 2:5. Messiah the Prince, riding triumphantly into Jerusalem, longed to gather Israel’s children to Himself, but they were unwilling, Matthew 23:37. The final piece that fell into place was the arrival of certain Greeks, possibly Jewish proselytes since they had come to worship during the Passover, John 12:20. Their inquiry passed from Philip to Andrew, and then from them to Jesus. This was apparently a sign, because His answer to their inquiry was, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified,” John 12:23. Christ’s name had begun to draw the Gentiles.

 

Backtracking a little, had Israel known the things that made for peace in her day, the Messiah’s kingdom would have begun. The messianic kingdom, the Davidic restoration kingdom, would have begun. The thousand years the prophets and John the apostle speak of, would have commenced. Despite their rejection of Christ, the thousand years will still come after the time of Jacob’s Trouble that Jeremiah spoke of, Jeremiah 30:7. The earth will finally be restored to a condition much more like the pre-Fall earth. Consider the several points listed below.

 

#1 The temple shall be rebuilt, the Dead Sea (or Salt Sea) will be healed, and trees like the Garden’s will produce fruit fit for eating and healing, Ezekiel 40:5, 47:8, 12, Zechariah 14:8.

 

#2 God will supernaturally restore a pure (or unified) language to the peoples of the earth as it was prior to Babel, from the nations gathered to God’s assembly of kingdoms, Zephaniah 3:8, 9, Zechariah 14:16, 17.

 

#3 Animals will return to being benign herbivores, Isaiah 11:6-9. Children shall not die young, and sinners 100 or older will be accursed with death resultant to their choices as Christ rules with a rod of iron, Isaiah 65:20, Psalm 2:8, 9. Like Cain was marked for God’s justice, God sets a limit to human wickedness during the Davidic kingdom, Genesis 4:15, Hebrews 10:30. Job describes several sinful lifestyles, all of which terminate with death in his day. Murderers, adulterers and thieves have their “portion cursed in the earth…so doth the grave (consume) those who have sinned,” Job 24:18, 19 KJV.

 

#4 Long life, like the days prior to the Flood, will be restored, Isaiah 65:22. The antediluvian patriarchs possessed incredibly long life. Methuselah was the longest lived of them all, reaching the age of 969 years. Isaiah certainly appears to be intimating that longevity as experienced prior to the Flood will be restored to mankind. With the healing waters flowing out of the millennial temple and the trees for healing and food growing beside the river like Eden, this seems quite plausible.

 

#5 War will be abolished globally and perpetually, Micah 4:3. As God ordained Adam and Eve to be His stewards, or viceroys, God’s intention has always been universal reconciliation. Before the Flood and God’s ordination of capitol punishment for the man-slayer (Genesis 9:4, 5) God reserved retribution for Himself, Genesis 4:15. Human government will no longer exist, and a single, global theocracy under Christ will control all the nations. It is Christ’s prerogative to administer justice with equity, as was noted in Isaiah 65:20 and Psalm 2:8, 9. All government that exists after the thousand years begins will be subservient to Israel’s King and the citizens within it, Zechariah 8:23, 14:18, 19. While the Jews that survive the time of Jacob’s Trouble serve in a missionary sense. Their purpose will be to bring the Gentiles to Christ in the days following the Tribulation’s conclusion. At last Israel will fulfill the purpose God had elected them to: to bring the fractured and forgetful nations of the world to their God.