Finding Satisfaction
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Key Verse: “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” Selected Scripture: |
SINCE THE FALL OF ADAM, almost everyone has yearned to return to perfection, at-one-ment with God, to covenant relationship with him and everlasting life. Those things which will ultimately satisfy all yearning are likened to refreshing food and drink freely offered to mankind by God. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” (Isa. 55:1,2) The prophet declares a forthcoming season wherein all who so desire will have their hunger satisfied in full and their thirst quenched. The season referred to in these two verses is the forthcoming Millennial Age. During that age mankind will increasingly receive that which is good through the Mediator between God and man—Christ Jesus and his church.
Preceding the Millennial Age, Christ and his church are to be completed and glorified in the present Gospel Age. It is to this age that those who would be members of the church are invited to come to God, not through a mediator, but directly through Christ. We read, “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”—vss. 3-7
It was the Apostle Paul who reminded the Israelites that the phrase ‘the sure mercies of David’ alludes to Christ. “God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.” (Acts 13:33,34) King David was a type of Christ Jesus as king—leader and commander of the people. He will, in turn, share his royal authority with his church. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” (Rev 3:21) It will then be through Christ and his church that God will abundantly pardon the remainder of mankind. Thus, those who will have found satisfaction during this Gospel Age will assist the remainder of mankind in finding satisfaction in the Millennial Age. The truth of the following will then be understood by all: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. … So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”—Isa. 55:8,11