The Millennial Economy

"Slaves, obey your masters in the Lord" is sometimes used to teach Christians to be good employees who do their work to and for the Lord. This Scripture is not telling Christians to give up their freedom of serving the Lord with a clear conscience. We are never instructed to become a slave to a system that exchanges the truth for a lie. We are never to deny what God says to do. If we do reject His will, we will suffer for not submitting to the Lordship of Christ. Rather than being conformed to the world, we are to be transformed by what God says to us. 

Scripture tells God’s people to arise. Paul reminds the Ephesians of the Lord’s words, `Arouse thyself, thou who art sleeping, and arise out of the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee.’ Why does Paul say this? He had just said that people who live covetous, idolatrous lives cannot experience the inheritance God has for them. It’s clear. Arise, sleeper, awake from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Zechariah in the Old Testament could only see the two olive trees and the seven lamps because the angel had first shaken him awake. John in Revelation 1 only stood on his feet because Jesus touched his shoulder with His right hand, the same that held the seven stars (the seven angels). If we awake, we will shine like the stars. 

Jews believe that descending is part of ascending, and we can relate that to waking up and rising up. Abraham, after receiving the promise of God to be blessed as the stars in heaven, went down to Egypt, where he began adapting to his surroundings, but God said He called His people out of Egypt. Jacob rose up and went down to Egypt because of Joseph. God promised to make Jacob a great nation within a contrasting environment. 

The question arises as to why God would lead His people to Egypt. It was to form their character in a crucible so they could become pure and ascend Mt. Zion. They had gotten to an extremely low spiritual condition before God went down to them and carried them out and up. Israel experienced 42 journeys of leaving Egypt—all to get Egypt out of them. Every step of obedience to the voice of Jesus brings us closer to the sun shining at noon day. God continues to raise up a people after His own heart today through Jesus, the Son of King David.

Jesus equated the sleeping with the disobedient at His second coming. Since their hearts were far from Him, they could not see the promise of His coming. They said, where is His promise? So, we perceive that seeing His promise accompanies a heart of obedience, which we receive as our inheritance from Christ Himself. When Jesus came to Bethany to raise Lazarus, Martha went out to meet Jesus, and it was through Martha’s word to Mary (that Jesus was there) that Mary arose (John 11).

All this to say that we are granted grace to walk in obedience through the resurrection power of Christ. Our hope is always on His word to us as a light to our path. We participate in His economy of blessing when we walk in obedience to Christ’s word in relationship with us.