"Kids, we're going to Disneyland next month!" The screams of excitement and delight cannot be exaggerated enough. The father proclaims with absolute certainty that a magical trip will take place in the near future. That's the way the children take it. It is going to happen. Period. But then a month goes by and the father has lost his job, they can't make rent and are eating their last can of beans from a now barren pantry. Disneyland is no longer their future.
So what do the kids say? "You lied to us, Dad. You said that we were going to Disneyland and would be doing all sorts of fun things but it never happened."
This response is understandable. Children understand everything in absolutes. I once had one of my kids say to me, "Dad, why do you lie to us? You say you're going to give us a spanking but then you give us two or three?" (referring to the fact that my hand went up and down two or three times as though the term "a spanking" means a single swipe of the hand). There is no nuance in their understanding, and therefore, there is little understanding that most of what is spoken has a context to it.
The context of the above scenario is that the father was really just saying that they were going to Disneyland if he didn't lose his job, if the car didn't break down, if the father didn't die, if Disneyland didn't burn down before they got there. In other words, if the contingencies that are needed in order for the promise to take place, that promise will happen. If the contingencies for the promise do not take place, then the promise will not take place.
This is especially true of when we talk about Old Testament prophecies that deal with God fulfilling His part in the Deuteronomic blessings to old covenant Israel.
The first thing to note about Old Testament prophecy is just that. Most of it does not consist of new things being promised to Israel. The prophets are God's lawyers and the Deuteronomic covenant is the law they are using to both prosecute Israel and give a defense as to why God is not bringing about the blessings but rather the cursings of that covenant.
So what was that covenant about? What were the blessings? Deuteronomy 28:1-14 presents the blessings.
“If you indeed obey the LORD your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come to you in abundance if you obey the LORD your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. Your children will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The LORD will cause your enemies who attack you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction but flee from you in seven different directions. The LORD will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do—yes, he will bless you in the land he is giving you. The LORD will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments and obey him. Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the LORD, and they will respect you. The LORD will greatly multiply your children, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he promised your ancestors he would give you. The LORD will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his commandments which I am urging you today to be careful to do. But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship them.
Notice the contingency for these blessings to occur is explicitly stated here. In other words, it should already be assumed that if blessings are promised they are promised contingent upon whether the things in the covenant are obeyed. And inclusio exists between vv. 1 and 14 in that If you indeed obey the LORD your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving you today and But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship them both convey the contingent nature of these blessings.
The curses also follow, and this is what the prophets argue are happening to an unfaithful Israel. So what are the promises in the Prophets? They are exhortations that if Israel will turn away from their sin they will receive the covenant blessings instead. That is all they are.
This is what is being assumed in the background of the Prophets. Don't read them without understanding this context or you will end up like the little children who think their father lied to them.
Now, it is important to note that the blessings are tied to the specific land of Israel and what will happen to old covenant Israel in that land. It is also extremely important to note that these are not general promises to anyone outside the land of Israel who would obey them. This covenant is for Israel in order to "exalt Israel above all of the other nations," so it is not a universal covenant being made with mankind, but only with the ancient peoples who were going to occupy the land of Israel. There is nothing here about the other nations being exalted if they do all of this covenant. There is nothing here about individual blessings or cursings being applied if these commandments are obeyed or disobeyed, and this brings us to something important that is often missed here. The blessings end with the warning to not follow after other gods. This is in parallel to obeying all of the commandments because, in Deuteronomy, obedience to the commandments has to do with those within the land of Israel having a particular relationship with God through them. Hence, the commandments are about knowing and worshiping YHWH, not just doing things that are generally and inherently good and that simply may have good consequences regardless who does them. This covenant is about knowing YHWH and worshiping Him above all other gods so that Israel could be a nation of priests to the nations and be revered as such.
Now, we know that God wants to make a picture of Israel for the world so that the world ultimately knows what YHWH will do to the world if He rules it, and we know that this is ultimately fulfilled in the new heavens and new earth to come, a world that is completely ruled by Him and is rid of chaos. However, Israel fails to become that picture and so they do not take hold of the blessings described here and are kicked out of the land. After this, the new covenant through Christ begins and so the old covenant, which is filled with these specific blessings and cursings for Israel in the land, has passed away and is no longer in effect. This means that even if a bunch of Jews were to try and fulfill the contingencies of the old covenant, it would not matter. But this also means that if the new covenant does not contain these blessings in shadow form anymore then no Christian can obtain them either since the old covenant is not in effect. And this is obvious since very few of the Christians on earth live in Israel and God is not necessarily granting to them perfect success in all things and a freedom from hostilities both foreign and domestic. They still miscarry, have financial ruin, die young, etc.
Now, what does this have to do with whether the Bible teaches that there will be a Millennial Kingdom? It has everything to do with it because if the Bible isn't teaching that all of the old covenant prophecies and promises to Israel must be fulfilled if they fulfill the old covenant then the Bible isn't teaching that any of these prophecies that are contigent upon the Deuteronomic covenant have to ever be fulfilled. And if they never have to be fulfilled then there is not a time when God must fulfill them. And if there is not a time when God has to fulfill them then all of these prophecies in the Old Testament that surround the Deuteronomic covenant are about Israel in the old covenant, not about some Millennial Kingdom in the future. That's why they talk about Israel have slightly larger borders. That's why they talk about Israel as a physical nation ruling the other nations. That's why they talk about sacrificing animals still. That's why they surround the temple and its cultus. That's why they promise a continuous Levitical priesthood and a continual succession of kings upon the Davidic throne. They are bound to the time and place and circumstances of the old covenant, and so should not be applied universally or to some future kingdom that follows the advent of Christ and the new covenant in His suffering and blood, in His lack of success in the physical world.
In fact, new covenant believers are not promised any of these things before the new world begins. Instead, they are promised suffering as their Master suffered. They are not promised a reverence from and exaltation over the nations. Rather, they are promised rejection by the world. Paul says he is now considered as the dregs of the world. Jesus was called the devil and His followers will be considered evil all the more so. We are promised the breaking up of our families with the sword of Christ's gospel, dishonor, even death. Quite the contrast between living a really long time and having absolute success in the land/world.
The promises of the old covenant are a shadow, a picture, for everyone who might long for God and His Messiah to rule over all things and rid us of chaos and death, but they are not promises for anyone, Jew or Gentile, after the inauguration of the new covenant. They remain only relics of what could have been had Israel remembered its God. They are a hope to those who seek the new world and a warning to those who would treat God's covenant, old or new, with a presumption of entitlement without obedience to that covenant's stipulations. But they don't ever need to be fulfilled.
A good example of this is Jeremiah 33:17-18:
For thus says the LORD: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.
Do you know when David lacked a man on the throne? Immediately after this was said. In fact, no one ever sat on the throne of David again until Jesus sat upon it in His resurrection, and even then, He hasn't physically taken that seat over the land of Israel which is to what this promise refers.
Do you know when the Levitical priests lacked a man to burn offerings and grain offerings and make sacrifices continually? Right after this was said. Because the temple was destroyed and even when rebuilt for a short time, was destroyed again and no levitical priests remain making sacrifices to this very day.
Now, notice, this never happens nor could it even happen if you plug Christ into it because it says that there will never be a lack, meaning there is a lack before Christ comes for about 500 years. There is a lack of a priest who can give sacrifices in a temple for about 100 years and then after Christ for 2000 years. So this will never be fulfilled, nor does it need to be because it is contingent upon whether Israel turns and obeys YHWH as their God. It is contingent upon the stipulations of the old covenant blessings and promises being upheld. They were not, so it did not happen. It does not need to ever happen and so there is no need to find some time in the future before the new world to make sure they happen.
I've often brought up Jonah as an example of the absolute nature of language when it comes to contingent promises or warnings. Jonah does not say that Nineveh will be overthrown within 40 days if they don't repent. He just makes the absolute statement, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown!" Notice that there is no contingency applied. That's because those in the ancient world understand that the warning itself has a contingency. If it were just going to happen then there would be no warning. And, of course, we know there is a contingency to the absolute language because the people do repent and the city is not overthrown in forty days.
The promises are the same. There would be no exhortation to repent so that the promises could happen unless it was possible that the promises could never happen.
So all of this said, if all of the passages of the Old Testament that are used to argue for some Millennial Kingdom, and there are many, don't actually teach anything about a Millennial Kingdom, then where in the Bible is there any teaching about a Millennial Kingdom needing to occur? We've already spoken about the fact that Revelation 20 doesn't necessarily teach that there will be one, and now we've talked about the fact that the common assumption that one must exist in order for old covenant prophecies to be fulfilled is false. So where now is the biblical basis for the idea that there absolutely will be one and you must pick which version of it you're going to shove into ever biblical text you come across?
Sorry to burn your Disneyland down but we must look for the world come that has been given to Christ (Heb 2:5-18) and not some magic kingdom that God will cut out for His people in this world (whether He will end up doing that or not).
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