Understanding Revelation 5
Ask A Bible Teacher: by Jack Kelley
Q. Re: Revelation Chapter 5. Below is a copy of your sentence:
You have made them (us) to be a kingdom (kings) and priests to serve our God, and they (we) will reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:10)
Since this chapter is before the opening of the scroll I am questioning the meaning. Is this the 1,000 year reign when He will return with his saints? Is it "all" the redeemed who will reign? (I somehow cannot visualize that sense). Who are the people on earth at the time?
A. I believe those singing in Revelation 5:9-10 can only be the raptured Church, having been purchased from every tribe and language and people and nation to be made kings and priests who will rule with the Lord. We will have arrived in Heaven in Revelation 4, where we received our crowns and then laid them before the Throne. The fact that we'll be singing, "We will reign on the Earth" points to a time still in the future at that point, in other words the Millennium.
I think the way the Church will govern is similar to the way the Levitical priesthood governed Israel. David divided them into 24 divisions who rotated on and off duty in the Temple. I think the 24 Elders first seen in Revelation 4 are representatives of this government, since the way John presented them is uniquely descriptive of the Church.
The people on Earth during the Millennium will be the redeemed of Israel, the Resurrected Tribulation martyrs, the believing survivors of the Great Tribulation, and their eventual children.
