By Shawn Lazar

The Millennial kingdom will begin after the Tribulation. What will life be like? A great deal could be said about it. For starters, here are fifteen characteristics of life in the Millennium, based on three passages from the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 2:2-4

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills (v 2a).

First, in the Millennium there will be hills and mountains. We’re talking about a physical earth, not an immaterial heaven of clouds and spirits.

Second, there will be a temple, “the Lord’s house.” It will be where it has always been, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The first and second temples were destroyed. A future temple will exist during the Tribulation. There will also be one during the Millennium.

And all nations shall flow to it.
Many people shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob” (vv 2b3a).

Third, there will be nations. The Tribulation survivors will enter the Millennium in natural bodies and will have children and grandchildren. They will form the nations. Faithful Christians from the church age will rule in different capacities over these nations.

Fourth, there will be worship. The nations go to the temple to worship God.

“He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (v 3b).

Fifth, there will be teaching and learning. You will have things to learn, especially about God and His ways. (I suspect we will be learning about everything—science, culture, and the arts will all need to be developed).

He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people (v 4 a).

Sixth, there will be judgment and rebuke. That means there will be sin. The descendants of the Tribulation survivors will need to be evangelized and discipled. They will have fallen natures and be capable of sinning. Hence, the need for judgment and rebuke.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore (v 4b).

Seventh, there will be political peace. While the Tribulation was war-torn, the Millennium will be peaceful. However, the nations, the natural descendants of Tribulation survivors, will have to learn peace. It won’t come naturally to them.

Isaiah 11:6-9

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea (vv 6-9).

Eighth, there will be animals. God loves animals. He created them before He created people. It seems their nature will be changed.

Ninth, there will be children and child-rearing. These are the children of Tribulation survivors.

Tenth, all creatures will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. Biblical truth will not be something that is hard to find. The earth will be filled with it (see #4).

Isaiah 65:20-23

“No more shall an infant from there live but a few days,
Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days;
For the child shall die one hundred years old,
But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed” (v 20).

Eleventh, there will be aging and death. Resurrected believers will not age, but Tribulation survivors and their descendants will. However, lifespans will be much longer than they are now.

Twelfth, there will be sinners (see #6). The Tribulation survivors and their children are natural people who will sin. Those are the people Jesus—and we—will judge and rebuke.

“They shall build houses and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
They shall not plant and another eat;
For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of My people,
And My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands
They shall not labor in vain,
Nor bring forth children for trouble;
For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord,
And their offspring with them” (vv 21-23).

Thirteenth, there will be construction. God loves architecture. God builds gardens and tabernacles and temples and compares us Christians to a spiritual house being built by Him. The nations will need places to live, and they will build them.

Fourteenth, there will be agriculture. People will need to eat. They will plant and grow food.

Fifteenth, there will be work. Retirement is not an option. God created you to serve, to rule, and to love. And that takes work.

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Shawn Lazar lives in Denton, TX, with his wife Abby and their three children.