The Rule of the Iron Scepter

"Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery." (Psalms 2:8,9-NIV)

God the Father invited God the Son to pray. The Son was to pray for the nations and the ends of the earth. The Son is to govern the nations with a scepter of iron, dashing all resistance as one would smash a clay pot with an iron bar.

This is total rule, allowing no resistance of any kind.

We see therefore that Christ will return and rule the nations of the earth, although first He had to be offered for the sins of the world.

But Christ will not rule alone. There are coheirs of the nations and the ends of the earth.

To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations- He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery -just as I have received authority from my Father. (Revelation 2:26,27-NIV)

The rule of Christ and His saints will be righteous, bringing justice to all people on the earth. This does not mean every person will be saved. There will be "goat nations" who refused to aid Christ's brothers during their sufferings on the earth. These will be led away into the fire.

It can be seen that the Christian salvation has a lot to do with rulership. If Christ were to rule alone He would have set up His Kingdom two thousand years ago. He certainly had the power to do this. But He has chosen to divide the spoil with the strong, to have many associates governing with Him and inheriting the wealth of the nations.

See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. (Isaiah 32:1-NIV)

We may not appreciate in the present hour the desirability of inheriting the nations, but we shall some day.

As we used to say, the cross goes with the crown. So it is that if we are to govern with Christ we must suffer with Him first.

If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; (II Timothy 2:12-NIV)

We have to suffer because we are made perfect through suffering, just as Christ was made perfect through suffering. We have to learn obedience through suffering just as Christ learned obedience through suffering.

When we suffer in the flesh we stop our sinning, as Peter tells us. It is only through suffering that we are enabled to live by the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. As long as we are strong in our own strength we cannot be trusted with the degree of power and wisdom that is to be allocated to the brothers of Jesus Christ. We must be brought down to weakness and helplessness so the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

The peoples of the nations want to see Jesus. They want God. They do not want well meaning religious people going through their fleshly antics. It is only as Jesus lives in us that we are bread for people.

The Book of Second Corinthians in several passages tells of the extraordinary sufferings of the Apostle Paul. Yet from this ever-dying man came the Epistles that have changed the course of the history of the world. Tremendous fruitfulness requires tremendous pruning.

We may start out wanting to be a great apostle or great leader of some kind. But when God begins to reveal to us what such elevation would require we may decide the wisest course is to settle for what God wants us to be, for we will just be able to manage to cope with those requirements.

We may desire to be at the right hand of Jesus when He appears. But can we drink the cup? Can we be baptized with the baptism? We can if this is the place appointed for us.