(Continued-The Redemptive Career of the Messiah According to Isaiah 65)

There will be no death during the Millennial Age except in the case of the man who lives to be one hundred years old and yet refuses to accept Christ as his personal Saviour, for we are told that "the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed." Those people born in the Millennial Age will be allowed to live a hundred years, even though they may not accept Christ; but that birthday will be the deadline. If they have not accepted Him by then, the judgment of God will sweep them out of the land of the living. There will be no excuse for anyone's not accepting Christ, because the evidence will be overwhelming and Satan will be bound.

The people who are placed on the right hand of Christ when He comes and judges the nations that survive the Tribulation (Matt. 25:31-46) are the ones who enter the Millennial Age and who repeople the earth.

Longevity will be restored to the human family. This is seen in verse 22, for "as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands." Hence people will live long under those favorable conditions--their years shall be as the days of a tree. Some of the trees in Sequoia Forest are thousands of years old. It seems that people will live through the Millennial Age and pass on, without dying, into the eternal order as is described in Revelation 21 and 22.

Since men who accept Christ will not be smitten nor will die during the Millennial Age, they will build their houses and inhabit them; plant vineyards, and enjoy the fruits thereof (verse 21). There will be no calamities such as floods, earthquakes, hail, pestilences, and the like, the reason being that the one who is hostile to the human family will be incarcerated and cannot bring these disasters upon man.

Throughout the Millennium, the Lord will anticipate the cry of His people and will have the answer on the way before they ask. Let us not take verse 24 out of its context and expect God to do that today, for He has not promised to do so. It is true that He may do it on special occasions now. But the promise of this verse will be the order of the Millennium.

The curse will be lifted, not only from the earth and from man, but also from the animal creation. There will be peace and harmony among the animals, for the wolf and the lamb shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox (verse 25). This is an echo of the prediction found in the eleventh chapter of Isaiah and the second chapter of Hosea.

GREAT things are in store for the people of God. The Lord has been very gracious to reveal to us in this chapter a blueprint of the Christian Dispensation, of the Tribulation, and of the Millennial Age. May we in appreciation of His friendship, which He has manifested by making this revelation, yield ourselves to Him and allow Him to work in and through us according to His own good pleasure!

17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. 18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
Isa. 65:17,18.