Sukkoth and the Last Days Resurrection
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Theme: When the end comes, when Jesus returns, all will be resurrected to life who are in Christ, all will be subject to Him, and His rule. He will deliever the Kingdom to the Father after destroying and putting all enemies - powers, authoritites, and rulers, under Him.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward, at His coming, those who belong to Christ.
Then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when He abolishes all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He puts all His enemies under His feet.
The last enemy to be abolished is death. For God has put everything under His feet. But when it says “everything” is put under Him, it is obvious that He who puts everything under Him is the exception.
And when everything is subject to Christ, then the Son Himself will also be subject to the One who subjected everything to Him, so that God may be all in all. Otherwise what will they do who are being baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, then why are people baptized for them?
All evidence of Holy Scripture points to the fact that at Jesus’ return those who belong to Christ will be resurrected. 1 Thess 4:16 points to this reality.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord.
The Apostle Paul was speaking to fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord who were concerned about those brothers and sisters who had died before the return of the Lord. Scriptrue tells us that there will be a resurrection of all people, both dead and alive, some unto resurrection life, and some unto resurrection damnation. Jesus spoke such words in John 5:27-28
And He has granted Him the right to pass judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice
and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of judgment.
In order for Jesus to do so, Jesus has to have the authority, power, and command to do so. As Jesus, Himself, points out, He has been given all power and authority, including the right to pass judgment on all of humanity, both the good and bad because He passed God the Father’s judgment as the perfect sacrifice of a man, for man’s sin, on the cross and was accepted, because He was resurrected from the dead, the first fruits of the dead. In the Great Commission Jesus speaks of His authority clearly,
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Therefore, as the first fruits of resurrection, Jesus has proven His worth and worthiness before God the Father. As a result, He is has been given all power and authority and command to subject all powers, authority, and rulers to His command, and pass judgment on all humanity, in their acknowledgment and worship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
To be subject or in subjection [5293] ὑποτάσσω hupotássō;means to bring under the power or absolute control of another in order. There is an order to the resurrection, as there is an order to the ways of God, how one comes to God, and to God himself. God is holy, righteous, and just, their is no evil in Him, and all His ways are good, holy, pure, and just. He will not, and does not, change. He does not make exceptions to His rule or His commands. He is a God of order, and love is He.
1 Corinthians 14:33 (NRSV)
for God is a God not of disorder but of peace.
God is not a God of confusion [181] ἀκαταστασία akatastasía; being unstable in His ways or in His character or person. He is a God of order, peace [1515]εἰρήνη eirḗnē; meaning tranquility, health, welfare, prosperity, every kind of good, harmony. He is the God of shalom [7965] שָׁלוֹם šālôm: meaning wholeness, soundness, health, well-being, properity, and of peace as opposed to war. He is a God who dispenses peace, not as one who needs peace, because He is peace. He expects His people to have peace, be at peace, meaning to be absent of confusion (Rom 14:17; Heb 12:14; Ps 34:14).
Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
God alone is the author of peace, the blessing of God (Ps. 147:14; Isaiah 45:7).
I form light and create darkness, I make success and create disaster; I, Yahweh, do all these things.
He grants peace within your borders; he fills you with the finest of wheat.
God alone is the One who bestows peace upon the righteous, upon those who love the God, His ways, and His laws and command, which He desires to bestow upon all His people (Ps. 119:165; Ps. 37:37; James 3:18; Isaiah 32:17; Jer 29:11). Often God is not able to grant us His peace because of our sins, wickedness, and continuence in sinning (Isaiah 48:18; 48:22; Jer 8:15).
Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.
And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;
In order to have peace, God must have order. The word for order is [5001] τάγμα tágma which means sequence, or turn. Paul says, that man will only have peace after Jesus returns, and puts all things under His feet, being all power, authorities, and rulers, including death itself! Once that is accomplished, then Jesus will hand over the Kingdom to God the Father, and become once again subject to Him because God will be all in all. Being “all in all” [3956] πάς pás is the reality of God being one in all, with all, in totality, being whole with man and creation. This is the day that Zechariah prophecies about in Zechariah 14:9.
On that day Yahweh will become King over all the earth —Yahweh alone, and His name alone.
It is the time when all peoples will go up to King Jesus and worship Him and celebrate the Festival of Booths, Tabernacles, or Sukkoth, during the thousand year reign of Jesus.
Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the Festival of Booths. Should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, rain will not fall on them.
And if the people of Egypt will not go up and enter, then rain will not fall on them; this will be the plague the Lord inflicts on the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths. This will be the punishment of Egypt and all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths.
On that day, the words HOLY TO THE LORD will be on the bells of the horses. The pots in the house of the Lord will be like the sprinkling basins before the altar.
Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of Hosts. Everyone who sacrifices will come and take some of the pots to cook in. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of Hosts.
Before this day comes though, their is an order, and all powers, rulers, and authrities will be destroyed by Christ and come under subjection to Him (v.24-27). It is at this battle, of which we read in Revelation 19:11-21, where Jesus is revealed from Heaven as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords on His white horse. Accompanied by the armies and angels of Heaven, with a blood dipped robe, identifying Him as the Lamb slain, Jesus will subdue, slay, and subject the powers, authorities, and rulers of men, those dececived and bear the mark of the Beast, and worshiped his image. It is the battle where the Beast and False prophet, will be imprisoned in the lake of fire, along with Satan for a thousand years, unable to deceive the nations while bound and sealed (Rev 19:20-20:3).
It is after this battle, that the dead in Christ will rise to reign with Christ for a thousand years (Rev 20:4). This is, and will be, the first resurrection!
Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.
First resurrection cannot happen until all powers, rulers, and authorities have been placed under, came to be subject, under the power, authority, and rule of Christ Jesus on earth. Man and creation will no longer be subject to vaniety, to uselessness, or meaninglessness, purposelessness, but will now be subject to their true purpose and object of Truth, worship, and meaning.
Did you know that God subjected all creation to vaniety? That is God placed all creation under the power and absolute control of futility, aimlessness, or worthlessness [3153] ματαιότης mataiótēs. Paul says in Romans 8:20-21 this,
For the creation was subjected to futility —not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it —in the hope
that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children.
God did this with purpose that man would realize the emptiness of their choice to abandon and forsake God, going their on way, as god, creating what they believe is heaven on earth, but then realizing, when confronted with the truth of God, the love of the Son, and the Kingdom to Come, of how truly lost we are and have become. How the treasures of the earth, the pursuit of idols and worship of anyone or anything other than God, is a wasted, hopeless pursuit of meaninglessness and uselessness.
Have we come to be focused on the worthless and pointless instead of the priceless? We have been subject to futility, we have come under it’s power and sway and it’s prince of lies. Have we come to chase after wind? A striving after, and for nothing, as King Solomon stated in Ecclesiates 1:2; 14? Or have we asked as the Psalmist,
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
Worthless [7723] שָׁוְא šāwʾ in the Hebrew means empty, vaniety, evil, ruin, uselessness, deception, without result, fraud and deceit. Primary meaning is deceit, lie, or falsehood. The Psalmist uses the word to state that all activities of a human being are useless without the assistance of God (Ps. 127:1-2).
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
If we have forsaken or abandoned God, we do all things and plan all things in vain, for God will ultimately bring all humanity, all kingdoms, all rulers and authority, under His rule. We will all go to the Feast of Sukkot, to worship the Lord Jesus and give Him His glory and His due. We will have a choice to do so, we will have time to ponder, a time to know what is in our hearts. Satan will no longer be loose to influence man to be deceived, he will be imprisoned. We will experience wholeness with Christ, but will we embrace that wholeness with Him. That’s what the thousand year reign with Christ will be about. Will those resurrected in joy acknowledge the glory and greatness of their King? Absolutely! But will those, who survive the great battle before the Lord Jesus, acknowledge and worship His Kingship? Will they bow the knee before Him willingly, of their own choice. Will they humble themselves and acknowledge that He is Lord and worhsip Jesus the Great King? Will we? Will you?
Will we live subject to Jesus the Great and only King?