Ezekiel 45:9: “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Enough, O princes of Israel! Remove violence and plundering, execute justice and righteousness, and stop dispossessing My people,’ says the Lord God.”

October 8th, 2021 by Pastor Ed in devotional

God was showing Ezekiel a vision of a future temple, and in this chapter He turned to the civil leaders that would be in the land during that time. Some believe this is a vision of the Millennial Reign of Christ. If so, then the fact that these leaders are commanded to be honest, logically implies that there is still personal sin during this time. The believing Jews who enter the 1,000-year reign of Christ will still be capable of sin. As strange as it sounds, it also seems logical that their children will have the possibility of not believing in the atonement of Jesus Christ. The last New Testament book, Revelation, describes the end of the Millennial Reign of Jesus, as the time of a final great rebellion against the Messiah:

When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. (Rev. 20:7–9, NIV)

The Millennium is a time of testing humanity under ideal conditions. At the end of it, many people born during the Millennium will sadly choose to follow Satan in this last rebellion against God. It seems that even though they will have lived on earth during the reign of a perfect King, they will still rebel against the righteousness that will characterize His reign. And Satan will again deceive humans into thinking that rebellion against God, without consequences, is possible.

As Puritan pastor Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) wrote so long ago:

Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honor and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure and pays with pain; he promises profit and pays with loss; he promises life and pays with death.

“LORD, we chose a life submitted to You and know that You alone have the words of eternal life.”