Revelations 20:1-3

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

I heard it said once, ‘When you kick sin out, don’t leave a forwarding address!’

At the time of His coming, Yeshua, the Messiah-King will rule on earth. The Adversary will be under control and therefore, the evil inclination that causes us so much trouble will be greatly diminished. Living by God’s commandments and avoiding sin will be easier then. But at the end of these 1,000 years of relief from the Adversary’s work, Satan will be released. At that time, he will again be allowed to tempt us as he is today.

We must ask ourselves, The Messiah may rule the earth then, but does He rule my heart now? Is He my King today? During the High Holidays, we go through deep introspection, we confess our sins and we deny ourselves on the Day of Atonement. But what happens after that? Is it life as usual? He may have done the atoning work, he may ‘cover’ for our ‘credit card’ debt to the Father, but there is a chilly warning for going back into the works of darkness after Messiah did the hard work of cleaning us up. The writer of the book of Hebrew puts it in these following words, For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries (Hebrews 10:26-27).

As we prepare for the next Festival on our calendar we are told to look back at the time of our sojourn in the desert, at the time when we lived in sukkhas, in temporary flimsy shelters totally vulnerable and dependent on the Father’s mercy. This Festival should also speak to us about our temporal situation on this earth, looking forward to the time when we will enter what John called New Jerusalem, the Tabernacle of God with men. (Revelations 21-22). In that place nothing shall hurt nor destroy; sin death and corruption will not be allowed.

In preparation for that day, we need to learn today to stay away from sin. Like Joseph of old, flee temptation when it comes, even leaving our coat behind when temptation tries to hold onto us. That is our work to do and the idea behind the apostles words to, ‘work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12).’