In the
previous section, we examined the allotment of the “sheep.” But what will be
the fate of the “goats” following the judgment of the nations? In Matthew
25:41-46 we read,
"Then shall He
be declaring to those also at His left, 'Go from Me, you cursed, into the fire
eonian, made ready for the Adversary and his messengers. For I hunger and you
do not give Me to eat; I thirst and you do not give Me drink; a stranger was I
and you did not take Me in; naked and you did not clothe Me; infirm and in jail
and you did not visit Me.' “Then shall they also be answering, saying, 'Lord,
when did we perceive you hungering or thirsting, or a stranger, or naked, or
infirm, or in jail, and we did not serve you?' "Then shall He be answering
them, saying, 'Verily, I am saying to you, In as much as you do it not to one
of these, the least, neither do you it to Me.' And these shall be coming away
into chastening eonian, yet the just into life eonian."
As will become more evident as we consider the fate of the nations during Christ's millennial reign, the “fire eonian” referred to in v. 41 is not going to involve a place or state of literal fire. Rather, it is simply a figurative way of
referring to the “eonian chastening” referred to in v. 46. The
word translated as “chastening” is the Greek word “kolasis,”
which means “a pruning.” It comes from the verb “kolazo,” which E.W. Bullinger
notes as meaning, “to curtail, dock, prune, but usually like Lat., ‘castigare’ to
keep within bounds, check, chastise.”[1] The verb form
of kolasis also appears in Acts 4:21 (where the “chastening” in view is likely
flogging).
In
the context of Matthew 25:31-46, the “chastening eonian” into which the “goats”
must go after being judged by Christ will most likely involve their being
excluded from the land of Israel for the duration of Christ’s reign, and being
under the dominion of the kingdom of Israel. That the eonian lot of the nations
during the millennial reign of Christ will involve chastening is clear from
Psalm 2:8-9, where we read of God prophetically declaring to his Son, “Ask of Me, and I will
give the nations as your allotment,
and as your holding, the limits of the
earth. You shall smash them with a
club of iron; like a vessel of a potter, you shall shatter them.” We also read in Rev. 19:15, “And out of His mouth a sharp blade is
issuing, that with it He should be smiting the nations. And He will be
shepherding them with an iron club” (compare with Rev. 2:26-27).
The “smashing,” “shattering” and “smiting” of the nations
referred to in these verses undoubtedly refers to some degree of chastening.
Zechariah 14:16-19 even provides us with a specific example of how Christ will
“strike” the nations during the millennial reign: “And
it shall come to be that everyone left of all the nations coming against
Jerusalem, shall also go up, a quota, year by year, to worship the King, Yahweh
of hosts, and to celebrate the celebration of booths." And it comes,
whoever will not go up from the families of the earth, to Jerusalem to worship
the King, Yahweh of hosts, then the
downpour shall not come on them." And if a family of Egypt shall not
go up, and shall not come, then it is not on them; to it shall come the stroke
with which Yahweh will strike all the nations, which will not go up to celebrate
the celebration of booths." This shall be the sin of Egypt, and
the sin of all the nations, that
will not go up to celebrate the celebration of booths."
When
reading the above passage, it must be kept in mind that the primary recipients
of God’s blessings during the eon to come will be Israel. Although the
conditions in which human beings will be living during the next eon will, in
many ways, be vastly superior to even the best conditions in which people live
today, it is still Israel – and not the rest of the world – that will be receiving
“special treatment” from God. Unlike Israel, the rest of the nations will not
be given “a new heart and a new spirit” by God, to enable them to effortlessly
keep God’s law (Ezekiel 36:26). Rather, they will be subservient to Israel and
forced to obey God’s precepts (with any disobedience bringing swift and certain
retribution). Keeping in mind the definitions of the verb form of kolasis provided by Bullinger which we
noted earlier (i.e., “to curtail,” “check” and “to keep within bounds”), the eonian
condition of those living outside of the land of Israel during the millennial
reign could aptly be described as one of “chastening.” But why is the “chastening
eonian” of the nations referred to as “fire eonian” in v. 41?
In
scripture, “fire” (and that which is connected with fire and heat) is sometimes
used as a figure for adversity, affliction and trial. In 1 Peter 1:7, the
persecution-based affliction by which the faith of the saints was being tested
is figuratively referred to as “fire.” And in 4:12, their affliction is
referred to as a “conflagration,” which we’re told had become “a trial” to
them. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Egypt is referred to as an “iron furnace” or
“iron crucible” because of the affliction that Israel suffered there (Deut. 4:20;
1 Kings 8:51; Jer. 11:4; cf. Ex. 3:7). Similarly, in Isaiah 48:10, Babylon is
referred to as “the furnace of affliction” (CLV reads, “the crucible of
humiliation”). In Ezekiel 22:18-22, Jerusalem (during the Babylonian siege) is
figuratively likened to a “furnace” in which Yahweh blew upon Israel the fire
of his indignation, and “melted” her like silver in a furnace. All such fiery
imagery refers, again, to a state or place of affliction and trial.
Christ
told his disciples that, at the conclusion of the eon (which, again, will take
place at Christ’s return), the Son of Mankind will be dispatching his
messengers, and they will be “severing the wicked from the midst of
the just. And they shall be casting them
into a furnace of fire. There shall be lamentation and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:49-50; cf. 40-42). The “furnace of fire”
referred to here is not a literal furnace with literal fire. Rather, like the
figurative uses of “furnace” and “crucible” in the above verses, the “furnace
of fire” spoken of by Christ is a figure for a place of adversity and
affliction (hence the “lamentation and gnashing of teeth” that will result from
being cast there). Christ elsewhere referred to the fate of unbelieving and
wicked Israelites at the time of his return as follows: “Now I am saying to you that many from the east and the west shall be
arriving and reclining with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the
heavens, yet the sons of the kingdom
shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be lamentation and gnashing
of teeth” (Matt. 8:11-12). The “sons of the
kingdom” here are unfaithful Israelites who will be alive on the earth at the
time of Christ’s return.
In Luke’s account
we read the following concerning the wicked Israelites who are to be “cast into
outer darkness” at the time of Christ’s return: “There there will be lamentation and gnashing of
teeth, whenever you should be seeing
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, yet you
cast outside.” Notice
the words, “whenever you should be seeing [them] in the kingdom of God, yet you
cast outside.” When we keep in mind that the geographical territory of the “kingdom
of God” where “Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets” will be
enjoying their eonian allotment is the land of Israel, we can conclude that the
“outer darkness” and “furnace of fire” in which the unbelieving Israelites will
banished (and yet remain able to see those in the kingdom of God) will be outside the land of Israel. These
wicked “sons of the kingdom” will, in other words, be banished from the land of
Israel and exiled among the nations to be part of that category of humanity
that Christ will be “shepherding with an iron club” during the millennial
reign. Given this undesirable state of affairs, it’s no wonder there will be
“lamentation and gnashing of teeth!”
Made ready for
the Adversary and his messengers?
Having
considered the meaning of the “fire eonian” and “chastening eonian” of the
“goats,” there is one last question that needs to be answered: in what sense is
the “fire eonian” (i.e., the chastening eonian) of the nations something that
will be “made ready for the
Adversary and his messengers?” Many have assumed that these words mean that
the “fire” or “chastening” in view is something that will be undergone by the
“Adversary and his messengers.” Although the grammar is consistent with this
interpretation, I don’t think it is required. According to Martin Zender (with
whom I am in agreement on this point), these words refer to the fact that,
“after being loosed at the end of the thousand-years,” Satan (“the Adversary”)
will “visit these outlying, chastened rebels in order to incite an
insurrection, which he will have no trouble doing” (http://martinzender.com/ZWTF/ZWTF5.46.pdf).
The
passage to which Martin is referring is Rev. 20:7-9: ”And whenever the thousand years should
be finished, Satan will be loosed out of his jail. And he will be coming out to
deceive all the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and
Magog, to be mobilizing them for battle, their number being as the sand of the
sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and surround the citadel
of the saints and the beloved city. And fire descended from God out of heaven
and devoured them.”
According to this view, then, the “fire eonian” of
the “goats” that Christ had in mind (i.e., the “chastening eonian” which the
nations must endure during his millennial reign) is not what “the Adversary and
his messengers” must also suffer. Rather, it’s something that these wicked
spiritual beings will be taking advantage of when they are released from their
thousand-year imprisonment.
It may be objected that, in Revelation 20:7-9, only
Satan is referred to as going out to deceive all the nations and mobilizing
them for battle, while in Matthew 25:41 Christ referred to “the Adversary and his messengers.” There is no
contradiction here, however. As I’ve argued elsewhere (see part three of my study on Revelation 12), the “great fiery-red dragon having seven heads and ten horns”
that appears in Revelation 12-13 and 20 is referred to by John as “the ancient
serpent called Adversary and Satan, who is deceiving the whole inhabited earth” (Rev. 12:9). However, as is the case with
the seven-horned, seven-eyed Lambkin (Rev. 5:6-7) and the seven-headed,
ten-horned wild beast (Rev. 13:1-2), the fiery-red dragon should be understood
as a composite figure that symbolizes not only an individual person (i.e.,
Satan) but a particular category or group of beings. Thus, when John identified
this seven-headed dragon as Satan (and it is this same “dragon” which is
imprisoned at the start of the “thousand years”), he was probably using the
figure of speech known as metonymy (according to which an element or part of
something – usually well-known or easily recognizable - is used to refer to the
whole). Understood in this way, it is not Satan alone who is going to be
imprisoned (and later released), but his “messengers” as well.
As far as the expression “the four corners of the
earth,” this is imagery that must be understood with reference to the land of
Israel (which is the "reference point"). In Ezekiel 38:12, Israel is said to be
“at the center of the earth” (cf. Isaiah 19:24). Although it might be tempting
to understand the expression “four corners of the earth” to refer to the
furthest possible distance from Israel, this same expression was used in Isaiah
11:10-12 in reference to nations existing in relatively close proximity to the
nation of Israel:
“In
that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his
resting place shall be glorious. In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet
a second time to recover the remnant
that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
Keeping in mind that Israel is the reference point,
the expression “the four corners of the earth” simply refers to those nations
that exist to the north, south, east and west of the land of Israel. Thus, when we read of
“all the nations which are in the four corners of the earth” in Rev. 20:7, we
can understand it as referring to all the nations that will exist to the north,
south, east and west of Israel during the millennial reign of Christ. Insofar as the
“chastening eonian” of these nations can be understood as the condition that Satan will find them in when he goes out to deceive them (and which, it can be reasonably inferred, will make them more easily deceived),
this state of affairs can be said to be “made ready for the Adversary and his messengers.”
Part seven: http://thathappyexpectation.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-judgment-of-sheep-and-goats-study_18.html
Part seven: http://thathappyexpectation.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-judgment-of-sheep-and-goats-study_18.html
[1] E. W. Bullinger, A
Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek Testament, (London:
Samuel Bagster and Sons Ltd., 1957), p. 612.
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