Jw – Foreigners Will Rebuild Your Walls, and Their Kings Will Serve You 60: 10-14

Foreigners Will Rebuild Your Walls,
and Their Kings Will Serve You
60: 10-14

Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you DIG: What is the difference between the sheep Gentiles and the goat Gentiles? What will the Gentiles bring to Jerusalem? Why? Since a city’s gates were normally closed at night as a defense against enemies, why are Yerushalayim’s gates always open? What will Messiah’s reign be like during the Millennium?

REFLECT: Are you merely going through the motions of faith in Jesus Christ today, or is He your Lord and Savior? Have you ever sought honor for yourself, only to get dishonor? How did you react? When was the last time you sought the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, only to find out that later you had been honored? Did you give God the glory? Why or why not? What did it teach you?

This section shows the relationship between Isra’el, the sheep Gentiles, and the goat Gentiles (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Fc – The Sheep and the Goats). The sheep Gentiles will come to Isra’el to worship the LORD, but the goat Gentiles will come to bring the wealth of the world to her feet. Israel, who had grown accustomed to being abused or trampled underfoot by the Gentile nations, will find the situation reversed. As we have seen earlier, there is no doubt for the reason why this will take place. The Gentiles will come to worship the LORD their God, the Holy One of Isra’el either voluntarily or involuntarily.

It is interesting that the Gentile nations still have a choice of sorts. The sheep Gentiles of Matthew 25:31-46 who survive the judgment for their favorable treatment of Isra’el will enter and populate the nations during the Messianic Kingdom. In addition, millions of goat Gentiles who managed to survive the Great Tribulation will go directly into the Millennium in their earthly bodies after the Second Coming. These two groups will reproduce and repopulate the earth. After Christ’s Second Coming when He comes to annihilate His enemies and then sets up his Millennial Kingdom, there will be millions of children from these believing sheep Gentiles whose children do not choose to believe.

In the Millennium, every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). Many will want to bow and confess Yeshua as their Lord and Savior. But in their hearts there will be those who do not want to bow the knee or confess. They will merely go through the motions. Those who do not accept Christ by the age of one hundred will die (65:20). Therefore, sin and death will be present in the Messianic Kingdom, and it will be Jesus and His righteous ones that keep sin in check. At the Second Coming, we know that out of the mouth of Christ comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations (Revelation 19:15a). This stern swift judgment that marks the onset of Christ’s Kingdom will be the pattern of His rule throughout the Millennium, where He will rule the nations with a rod of iron (Rev 12:5 and 19:15b). And Jesus promised that believers would rule under Him. To him who overcomes and does My will to the end, I will give authority over the nations; he will rule them with a rod of iron (Rev 2:26-27; Psalm 2:8-9). Jesus will swiftly judge all sin and instantly put down any rebellion. All people will be required to conform to His commands or face immediate judgment. It’s like the Dennis the Menace cartoon where his mom has sat him down on a stool in the corner. And he thinks to himself, “I may be sitting down, but on the inside, I’m standing up!” That’s how it will be. Some will want to sin outwardly, but they will not be able to act on it.²⁴¹

Those living at the end of the thousand years, however, will rebel (Revelation 20:1-6). When Satan is released, those with rebellious hearts will naturally gravitate toward him, which will lead to one final rebellion that will be crushed (Revelation 20:7-10). This will set off a chain reaction of final events: the second resurrection of the wicked (Revelation 20:13), the great white throne judgment (Revelation 20:11-12), the eternal punishment of the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15), then the Eternal State will be introduced (see the commentary on Revelation Fq – The Eternal State).

But getting back to the Messianic Kingdom, how will the wealth of the nations be used? Jerusalem, as symbolized by its walls, will be rebuilt in the Kingdom by the means of Gentile assistance. Foreigners, literally sons of your opposition (see 60:14a) will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you (60:10a). The Gentiles will aid in the rebuilding of the ruined city represented by its walls. Those who helped to destroy them would now build them back up again. Everything will once again be restored to balance. The reason that God will do this is clear, speaking to Isra’el, He says: Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion (60:10b). Since it was God’s rule of history that brought the walls down, it will be in His rule of history that they will be rebuilt again. They are two sides of the same coin.

Then, Isaiah’s attention shifts from the walls of Jerusalem to the gates within. Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that the people may bring you the wealth of the Gentile nations – their kings will lead (see the commentary on Revelation Fi – The Government of the Messianic Kingdom) as Zion’s willing subjects in triumphal procession (60:11). Later, in 61:6b, we are told that Isra’el will feed on the wealth of the Gentile nations, and in their riches you will boast. Foreign nations and their kings will be Isra’el’s servants and the wealth of the nations will flow through those walls. So the Gentile nations will make pilgrimages to the City to give their offerings. Isra’el will finally be the head of the world, instead of its tail.

For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined (60:12). The opening word for, shows that the Ruach Ha’Kodesh intends a connection between this verse and the proceeding one. Why will the wealth of the Gentile nations come to Zion with their kings leading the way? Will this be a result of Israelite chauvinism, which looks forward to the day when downtrodden Jews can put their feet on the necks of their oppressors? No, it will not. These Gentiles will be obeying the Lord Jesus Christ; gladly on the part of some, forcibly on the part of others, especially during the yearly celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. This will be mandatory for all Gentile nations and any that refuse to do so will be severely punished. In Zechariah 14:16-19 we learn that punishment also includes the withholding of rain or a plague.

The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the pine, the fir and the cypress together, to adorn the place of My sanctuary. ADONAI will call the Temple His sanctuary and the place of His feet (60:13). As a result of the Temple being rebuilt, the Lord Himself will rule and reign from it (see Db – The Nine Missing Articles in Messiah’s Coming Temple). The Gentiles nations will not only aid in the regathering, but also in the rebuilding of the Temple. It will be rebuilt with Gentile wealth. Like the first and second Temple, the fourth Temple, the millennial Temple, will be built with cedars of Lebanon. The trees that made Lebanon famous shall be brought to beautify the Temple, by being used either as building materials for its structure or as ornamental groves in its surrounding courts. The phrase the glory of Lebanon is an idiomatic expression for the Jewish Temple (Isaiah 35:2; Zechariah 11:1-3).

People from the Gentile nations that formerly despised Isra’el will recognize that Jerusalem, or Zion, is the LORD’s chosen city, the place where He will dwell. The sons of your oppressors will come bowing down before you; all who despise you will bow down at your feet (60:14a). Isaiah had told Hezekiah that some of his sons would be carried off to Babylon to serve them (39:6-7), but now Isaiah says that some of their distant relatives, or sons, will come in a worshipful attitude to Jerusalem. Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I Am the LORD; those who hope in Me will not be disappointed (49:23). Only a triumph of grace could achieve this, for it will not be Zion that produces this submissiveness, but the recognition that Yeshua Messiah is in His City as the Holy One of Isra’el.

This is the grace and trustworthiness of our God. When we have brought destruction on ourselves through our own foolishness, He is not content to leave us there. If we are willing, He can turn the situation completely around and make our enemies come to us in repentance. This is the spiritual principle: if we seek honor for ourselves, we will get dishonor; but if we seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), then God can see to it that even our enemies will honor us. But notice the nature of the honor: it is reflected. And your oppressors will call you the City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Isra’el (60:14b). The honor is God’s alone and the wonder is that He delights in sharing it with us.