“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” (Rev. 20:4)
Unless my memory fails me in this verse and the context therein, only those who are martyred during the days of Jacob’s Troubles are going to be kings and priests during our Lord’s one-thousand-year reign on this earth.
Not you and me, if you truly are born again.
To be a king means one must have subjects under them, and any king of any age of man will tell you, not everyone is happy being subjugated. The Lord Jesus Christ will reign, David will be His viceroy, His planetary prime minister if you will, and those kings, unless there is something that we have not been informed of, will be under him.
What we, and all that have gone on to glory will be, is not fully revealed, not everyone will be a king, not everyone will be a priest.
“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;” (Heb. 3:1)
Apparently, at least as far as I can tell, there will be churches still, for what other reason would there be to have all those perhaps thousands of priests? Pastors and ministers is what we call them today. But I still wonder, what will be our responsibility, our job, so to speak?
Those ministering angels today, and I mean this in no offensive way, but just out of curiosity, what will their position be throughout eternity? We will not need them to minister to us any longer, as far as I can tell, we will have been glorified for a long time ago. All of those things that we have been commanded to do, all of the things we do willingly today, out of a love for Him who first loved us, will be, at least in part, completely unnecessary.
All of us will be free from all the hindrances that our old nature has upon us, none of us will carry any burdens, our cross that we bear today will be a distant memory. Yes, there will be, as it was once called, a convocation day, a day each week, if I can use that analogy, where we will all come together to praise and worship the Living God.
“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16:11)
We will be in the presence of unspeakable joy at that time. But what about the rest of the week?
It will take all of eternity to go out and see the wonders of His creation, untold years to meet everyone in heaven, and even longer to really get to know them. But life is more than just exploring and experiencing, life requires a purpose, and I see no reason that eternal life would be any different.
A job, a responsibility, a purpose and goals to meet.
“And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.” (Luke 19:17)
Even in that set of verses, there must exist those that are to be ruled over.
I do not have the answers to anything written about in this short letter; no one does. But what it does, at least for me and the way I think, is bring this verse to the forefront, as well as the one following it.
“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Col. 3:2)
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1st Cor. 2:9)
I need a reason to exist, and I know some of you will probably say, “Jesus is and always will be my reason.” Well and good, if you want to sit at His feet and stare into His face for a few thousand years, you do that, I will not call it being slothful.
But I need a purpose, a goal to be reached and accomplished, and in eternity, I will need many of them.
It may sound foolish to you, but servant or son, if I am not called to perform a task for Him in some way, I will feel useless.
