1964 Awake! - Theocratic Collector.com

to rule on the spiritual Mount Zion and
that his people have been set free from
Babylon the Great because of her fall.
In this regard an analogy might be made
between Jehovah's ruling as king and his
people getting to know his name. Although
the Scriptures show that earthly creatures
from the time of Adam and Eve were familiar
with the name Jehovah, yet God
told Moses: "I used to appear to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty, but as
respects my name Jehovah I did not make
myself known to them." They had heard
the name Jehovah but did not know it in
the sense that Israel learned to know it
when Jehovah delivered them from Egypt
by means of many mighty works.-Ex. 6: 3.
Since the Scriptures in more than one
sense speak of Jehovah's ruling as king,
it should not surprise us to find that the
same is true of his Son, Jesus Christ. Thus
at Daniel 7: 14 we read: "His rulership is
an indefinitely lasting rulership that will
not pass away, and his kingdom one that
will not be brought to ruin." From this it
appears that Christ will rule as king forever.
However, at 1 Corinthians 15:24-26 we
read: "Next, the end, when he hands over
the kingdom to his God and Father, when
he has brought to nothing all government
and all authority and power. For he must
rule as king until God has put all enemies
WIder his feet. As the last enemy, death
is to be brought to nothing." Here clearly
is indicated a limit to his rule. How long
will his rule be? According to the prophecy
at Revelation 20:4, 6, 7, it will be one
thousand years in length.
Certainly a rule of a thousand years is
not "an indefinitely lasting rulership that
will not pass away." Then how are we to
reconcile these seeming contradictions?
By recognizing that Christ will rule in
more than one sense. He will rule as king
28
in a special sense or in a special capacity
during his thousand-year reign, but that
does not mean he will not rule in another
sense after those thousand years are completed.
The fact is that the Scriptures show
Christ to begin ruling even before the
thousand-year rule begins. Thus Psalm
110:2 tells of God's command to his Son:
"Go subduing in the midst of your enemies,"
and Psalm 2:6-9 tells of the Son's
being installed as king and then breaking
the nations with his iron scepter. Christ's
thousand-year rule begins only after he
has subdued his foes.
So Jesus Christ will rule in a special
sense during his thousand-year reign. He
will be not only a king but a priest, a
priest after the order of Melchizedek. As
a Priest he takes the lead in right worship,
but he also offers up sacrifice on behalf of
the people. It is during his thousand-year
reign that Jesus will be applying the merits
of his ransom sacrifice to earth's inhabitants,
bringing them up to mental, moral
and physical perfection. After that Jehovah
will doubtless have other assignments
for him and his royal family of 144,000
members.
Helping us to appreciate the foregoing
are the prophetic words: "When all things
will have been subjected to him, then the
Son himself will also subject himself to the
One who subjected all things to him, that
God may be all things to everyone." The
fact that Jesus is here said to subject himself
at a certain time to his Father does not
at all mean that he has not at all times
been in subjection to God. Rather, after he
has completed his rule of a thousand years,
he will turn the reins of government, so to
say, over to his Father.-l Cor. 15:27, 28.
So we see that both with Jehovah God
and with Jesus Christ the words "king"
and "rule" are used in varying senses.
AWAKEI