“The Lord will be king over the whole earth.“

Recently two unrelated events heightened my understanding of the fact that the Lord “will be” king over the whole earth.  Of course, reading this makes it sound like he’s not the king of the whole earth now.  We’ll get to “will be” shortly.

The first event was my second daughter’s graduation from the local community college, which is, we are told, one of the best in the country.  On top of that, she was in the honor’s program and has won a number of scholarships.  If you knew her, you’d know why.  At her commencement exercise we heard the main speaker say something I don’t remember hearing before: “It’s not what you want that counts, but how bad you want it.”  Lots of people want lots of things.  No doubt about that.  But some will go to great lengths to get what they want.  Of course, out-of-control greed or runaway selfishness bent on stopping at nothing until the pursued object is obtained does not demonstrate godly character.  However, the point is still valid, especially as it pertains to spiritual pursuits: most people aren’t further along spiritually because they quit too soon or lose interest in the pursuit of God’s best.

The second event today gave me the renewed insight of just how badly God wants to wrap up history.  That will happen, according to Matthew 24:14, after “this gospel of the kingdom [is] preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”.  I was teaching a lesson of new material I wrote to our high school class at our church from Romans 8.22-27.  There it speaks of the whole creation groaning (v. 22), believers groaning (23) and the Holy Spirit groaning (26).  Whence cometh all this groaning?  From an eager anticipation “for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (v. 23).  In other words, the world, the believers and the Spirit are all in unison wanting the coming world of righteousness, sinlessness and perfection to replace the old world of sin, decay and wickedness, which is what God never wanted in the first place.  I impressed upon the class that God has given us a hand in the timing of this.  2 Peter tells us that by our living “holy and godly lives” we can “look forward to the day of God and speed its coming” (3:12).  Prolonged disobedience obviously slows its arrival.  Again, it gets down to how badly do believers want this and how much they’re willing to count the cost to achieve it.

So when we come to Zechariah 14, we find the Lord described as “king over the whole earth” (v. 9).  This will happen in the day that “living water will flow out from Jerusalem,” something that clearly is not happening now, not literally or figuratively.  Jesus analogously described himself as “living water” to the woman at the well (John 4:10) and the Holy Spirit as “living water”, which would come after his glorification (John 7:37-39).  Thus Zechariah speaks of a future time, still future even to us.

When Jesus rules as king over the whole earth, things will be very different.  This is a king who knows e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g about you!  Not just your name, ID number, address, blood type, passwords, etc.  But your thoughts, your whereabouts, your personal sins.  There is no hiding, no faking anything, no chance to fully get away or break free.  If people don’t “go up to Jerusalem to worship the King…they will have no rain” (v. 18).  Living in serious South Florida droughts, we locals can appreciate the significance.

They’ll be different in other ways too.  “HOLY TO THE LORD” will be engraved on the bells of the horses, the cooking pots in the Lord’s house, and even on “every pot in Jerusalem” (vs. 20-21).  Yes, God’s holiness will so infuse the earth that even the simplest things will serve as reminders of its glory.  That holiness God calls us to (Leviticus 11:34, Ephesians 1:4) will at long last become a genuine reality.  And from his holiness will emanate his other attributes: wisdom, love, mercy, kindness, patience, goodness, etc.  So extensive will his character qualities define his kingdom that “there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty” (v. 21).  Canaanite became a byword for a morally depraved person stubbornly unrepentant in his defiance and rejection of the Lord, to their own demise.  So immoral were they that God gave all their land to Abram’s descendants (Genesis 15:18-21), requiring the Israelites later to completely remove them, either by force or by death.  Many chose the latter rather than leave.

How much of the King of the whole earth’s qualities are visible in you and your little things?