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How The Kingdoms of The World Become The Kingdom’s of Our Lord and His Christ

God’s Four Sore Judgments, Part 5 -The Noisome Beast – A

Introduction

Eze 14:21  For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?

Our study this week, as we continue to answer the question, “How will the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ?”, considers God’s sore judgment of “the noisome beast” and how “the noisome beast” will be used by God to give the rule of the kingdoms of this world over into the hands of His elect:

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Before we consider what part this “sore judgment” will play in delivering the kingdoms of this world to our Lord and His Christ, we need to know exactly what this judgment is which in the King James Version is called “the noisome beast”.

When we look at what Strong’s reveals to us to be the Hebrew word translated as “noisome”, this is what we discover:

ra‛  râ‛âh
rah, raw-aw’
From H7489; bad or (as noun) evil (naturally or morally). This includes the second (feminine) form; as adjective or noun: – adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, + displease (-ure), distress, evil ([-favouredness], man, thing), + exceedingly, X great, grief (-vous), harm, heavy, hurt (-ful), ill (favoured), + mark, mischief, (-vous), misery, naught (-ty), noisome, + not please, sad (-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked (-ly, -ness, one), worse (-st) wretchedness, wrong. [Including feminine ra’ah; as adjective or noun.]

Of the 644 times this Hebrew word appears in the Old Testament, it is translated as ‘evil’ 440 times. This is the same Hebrew word translated as ‘evil’ in this verse of scripture:

Gen 2:9  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The ACV has a much more accurate translation of this verse:

Eze 14:21  For thus says lord LORD: How much more when I send my four severe judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the evil beasts, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!

Because we see both words “man and beast” in this verse, we are at first led to forget the truth of these verses of scripture:

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. 
Ecc 3:19  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. 

Since “all go unto one place: all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. [therefore] they [mankind] themselves are beasts”, God is not informing us that He intends to release upon mankind all the caged beasts in all of the zoos all around the globe. That would be so easy for mankind to deal with.  The “evil beasts” He is telling us He will use to judge mankind are far more dangerous than any physical “leopard… bear [or] lion. The “evil beast” by which God is judging all men receives his power from the great red Dragon, who is Satan himself. The “evil beasts” by whom God will judge all men is the beast of Revelation 13:

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 
Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him [as one of God’s four sore judgments] to continue forty and two months.
Rev 13:6  And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 
Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 
Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 13:9  If any man have an ear, let him hear.
Rev 13:10  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

This “evil beast” overcomes all of God’s saints! He is “given… power… over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.” “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship [this “evil beast”]. He goes so far as to ‘sit in the temple of God, proclaiming himself that he is God’. He kills by the sword, and he is killed by the sword. We are told that all of this “is the patience and the faith of the saints” who acknowledge that it is they, too, who must “keep the things written therein” (Rev 1:3 and Rev 22:7)

2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Of course, this not a literal statement. While rulers of men have indeed proclaimed themselves to be gods, such as the king of Babylon, Isa 14, and the prince of Tyre, Eze 28, most men simply place themselves ahead of God, and in that sense they “worship the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” All who have Christ in them know that Christ alone has been capable of ‘making war with the beast’ that is within us all. This is the noisome beast by whom God will judge “all flesh”, and will bring the nations to want God’s elect to take over the reins of government on this earth. (Psa 82:8; Isa 49:26 ; Isa 66:16; Jer 25:31)

Peter speaks of this very same beast, by whom God will judge all men:

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
2Pe 2:13  And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;

It is with “natural brute beasts” that God is at this very moment judging His house, and it is with “natural brute beasts” that He will outwardly judge this world and make the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord, His Christ, who we are.

Notice what Peter tells us about the function of these “natural brute beasts”, the “noisome [evil] beast” by whom He is judging His people and the kingdoms of this world:

2Pe 2:13  And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 
2Pe 2:14  Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: 
2Pe 2:15  Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 
2Pe 2:16  But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.
2Pe 2:17  These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
2Pe 2:18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
2Pe 2:19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 
2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 
2Pe 2:21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 
2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Let’s understand what we are being told. Christ Himself had a “natural brute beast [who was a] spot and a blemish sporting himself with his own deceit while feasting with” Christ and His Christ. That man “followed the way of Balaam” because he, too, loved the wages of unrighteousness. He thought he would be free when he betrayed Christ, but he very soon discovered the he was himself the servant of corruption, and was in fact in bondage to that corruption. He had escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord, but was again entangled in the pollutions of this world, and his latter end was worse than his beginning.

“…As He is so are we” (1Jo 4:17)

Just like Christ we, too, are promised “a kingdom” and “power over the nations”. We are told “the kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ”

Dan 2:44  And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

Luk 22:29  And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;

Heb 12:28  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Christ has already been given all power in heaven and in earth, and He is wielding that power at this very moment.

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

At this very moment, He is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

If we are predestined to “be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in the Christ,…[who] has been given all power in heaven and in earth”, and if it is true that “as He is, so are we in this world”, then we ought to be able to look at the life of Christ to see how the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ. The fact is that we have already done just that when we examined the life of Joseph.

Joseph’s going from Potiphar’s house to prison typified Christ passing from “a body of flesh and bone” into the grave.

Isa 24:22  And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.

On coming up out of the realm of death, Christ ascended to His Father’s throne, where He was given “all power in heaven and in earth”. But how did He get to that throne? King David tells us how God made it all happen. It is the same way He judges us, and it is the same way He will judge this world (1Co 6:2) and make the kingdoms of the world become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ:

Psa 105:16  Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.
Psa 105:17  He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: 
Psa 105:18  Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:
Psa 105:19  Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.
Psa 105:20  The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.
Psa 105:21  He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance:
Psa 105:22  To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.

The Word of the Lord tried Joseph, and it was the Word of the Lord which also tried Christ when He was tempted and tried of the Devil:

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Christ believed His Father’s Words, and that is what Joseph did. It was a true trial to spend 13 years as a slave to the powers of Egypt waiting for the words of the Lord to come to pass.

These are the words of the Lord which tried Joseph’s faith in the Words of His Lord:

Gen 37:5  And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
Gen 37:6  And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
Gen 37:7  For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Gen 37:8  And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

From the time Joseph was given the promise of becoming a ruler, his life went straight down the drain. Everything he had been promised seemed to get farther and farther away from him. First, his own brothers hated him. They put him in a pit, then they sold him into slavery. He served Potiphar as a slave for some time, but things were to get even worse when he was cast into the dungeons of Egypt, typifying the death of his flesh.

But the time came for those words of promised rulership to come to pass, and that is exactly what happened. His brother’s “sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to [Joseph’s] sheaf”:

Gen 42:5  And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came: for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
Gen 42:6  And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.

You and I are in the same place as Joseph. We have been told that we were predestined to be called to “be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in [the Words of] Christ”. Notice all the personal pronouns in these verses:

Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Does that sound like Paul doubted his election? These verses deal with all the blessings of our election. Judgment is not the subject of these verses. But it is God’s four sore judgments and all seven seals of the book of Revelation which are prerequisites of election:

Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

2Th 1:4  So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:

2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.