Isaiah 11:8
8 And the sucking child [yanaq] shall play [sha`a`] on the
hole [chuwr] of the asp, [pethen] and the weaned child [gamal]
shall put [hadah] his hand [yad] on the cockatrice [tsepha`]'
den. [mauwrah] KJV-Interlinear
8 And the
nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put
his hand on the viper's den. NASB
The term, asp, refers to various
types of venomous snakes.
The term cockatrice
generally refers to a viper or a tongued serpent such as would be found in
mythical folklore, like the medusa whose look can turn the person to stone if
they looked it in the eye.
In either case, both
terms refers to extremely deadly animals, both of which no one in their right
mind would ever go near, let alone a mother with a nursing infant, or a parent with
a young child.
However, when Christ
takes the reigns of power in the Millennium, then the changes are going to be
so dramatic and so far reaching that it would take the normal person some time
to get used to them.
However, these changes will
be so dramatic, and complete and thorough, that even young mothers will think
nothing of the risks imposed by nature, for there will be none.
The deadly poisons of
snakes and all such creatures, will be non-existent.
No more bites. No more dangers. No more threatening risks from nature toward
the very innocent and helpless of children.
The hole of an asp is not
a place that an infant can place themselves near. A mother has to do that.
The den of other
dangerous animals is not a place that a toddler would be allowed to go and
play. A parent would have to allow
that.
And yet these
restrictions, that we would impose on our own children today, will not be restrictions
or even second thoughts or concerns of parents who will live during the
Millennium.
And remember this, that
these verses are referring to animals, not to the bad behavior of people that
might be changing. These as nature changes and they will happen dramatically
and virtually instantly beginning at the start of the rule of Christ in the
Millennium.
As for people, we have studied
in other passages that even the rule of Christ will be insufficient to get
everyone to believe in Him. His
presence, the dramatic changes in nature, the dramatic changes in the human
lifespan, the phenomenal prosperity that will exist, the perfect weather for
one-thousand years, will not cause everyone to believe in Christ.
At the end of the
Millennium, Satan will be released and he will find a huge population of
unbelievers living on planet earth. And
they will rally quickly to him and rebel against Christ, in Satan’s last effort
to overthrow Christ from the throne.
That last revolt will end
quickly and the Millennium will end immediately after, followed by the last
resurrection of living and dead millennial believers, and their reward
evaluation before the last Judgment Seat of Christ.
Then all unbelievers will
be resurrected in a very different resurrection to face Christ at the Great
White Throne, to receive their final sentence and condemnation. The Lake of Fire follows for them/
After this the universe
is destroyed and the new universe is created and eternity begins for all
believers.
Often times it takes
something extremely dramatic to obtain changes in people.
Often times, even extreme
changes are not enough to change people.
Prior to the flood,
angels infiltrated humanity in order to destroy the human race. Humanity flocked to that change, and to their
own self-destruction.
The flood in Noah’s day
was dramatic enough and yet no one turned to the Ark, for their deliverance.
The world saw the ten
plagues against Egypt, and turned away.
They saw the many miracles of Jesus and turned away. The world has seen many diseases and plagues,
and world wars, and economic disasters and many weather related and natural
disasters that have been beyond extreme, and still humanity has remained
negative toward Christ for the most part.
Even in our current day,
there is an intense indifference toward the very basics of the spiritual life,
in favor of more convenient approaches to God and what people believe is their
right or their better way to serve either themselves or God or whatever deity or
goal they have defined for themselves.
We will likely see many
more disasters in our future. We already
know that the end of our dispensation has been described as the period of the
Great Apostasy. This is simply a turning
away from truth, for whatever else people will turn to, whether secular or
religious.
Then the next great
historical event, the Rapture, may not even get noticed, except perhaps by
some, what with such a huge negative interest in God, Christ, doctrine and so
forth.
And that leaves the last
seven years of human rule, called the Tribulation, in which well over ninety-nine
percent of the entire worlds population will die.
Most folks would call
that, dramatic and extreme.
The people, mature
believers, who only seven years earlier were unbelievers, and now will become
the first and only survivors to enter into the Millennium, will do so with the
dramatic visions of an entire world that died, with the visions of entire
islands and continents that have totally changed their geography, with a nature
that is nothing like the nature from before, with life that is so dramatically
different and better under the rule of Christ, that one would think, that that would
be more than enough to convince people to look to Christ.
But as we have already
studied, the world and its changes whatever they might be, are never
enough. People have to believe in Christ
and pursue their spiritual lives as God has designed that growth process, in
order to effect those same changes in themselves.
But who will listen? Who will read the words? Who will figure it out?
And so will you be numbered
among the vast, vast, vast majority that will fail?
Or are you going to be
numbered among the very, very few that will succeed by pursuing your daily
bible study, every day, without exception?
