The nations will go up to Jerusalem voluntarily because Satan and his angels will no longer be present on the earth and the demons will have been driven from the earth by Christ and His saints. The spiritual atmosphere of the earth will be governed by the saints who will be ruling from the thrones in the air.

God through the Church will teach the nations of His righteous ways. They will cheerfully walk in those paths. The moral law of God will issue from Zion and the guiding words of the Lord from Jerusalem.

This is the moral light that will proceed from the new Jerusalem.

In response, the kings of the earth will bring their glory to Jerusalem.

Here is the design of the new world of righteousness that is to come.

In order for this new world of wonders to come into being, every one of God's elect must be brought to the unity of the faith, to the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity as measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ.

We must be totally delivered from the poison of trust in the world.

We must be totally delivered from the unclean passions of our flesh.

We must be totally delivered from the poison of self-will and self-centeredness.

Christ must be formed in each member of the Church, which is His Body.

Each member of the Church must enter untroubled rest in the Person of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Only then will it be possible for God to dwell among the nations He has created.

Notice the following:

That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so the world may believe you have sent me. (John 17:21—NIV)

"That the world may believe."

I think every Christian desires that the world believe God has sent Jesus Christ to be the Savior and Lord of men. What is not always clear to us is that the world will not believe until all the elect are one in Christ in God. This being the case, our first obligation to God and the world is to pursue growth in Christ that will bring us to the desired Oneness. Can you see the sense of this?

God's need and desire is that a house be built for Him in which He can find rest and from which He can live among His creatures.

The Tabernacle of the Congregation, which was constructed while the Jews were in the wilderness, consisted of a large barn-shaped tent surrounded by a white linen fence. The tent is a portrayal of the Church, the Kingdom of God. The courtyard, the area enclosed by the linen fence, represents the saved nations of the earth, as I understand the symbolism. Outside the fence is the outer darkness.

Now, why did God command the construction of the Tabernacle, its seven furnishings, and its courtyard?

Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8—NIV)

To be continued.