Families in the World Tomorrow
Fifty years ago, several “experts” warned that the world would soon be destroyed by overpopulation.
So governments around the world tried to persuade families to have fewer children. China went so far as to limit women to one child and force millions of women to be sterilized and have abortions.
Today, many young people are choosing not to marry, or to marry but to not have children, and experts are beginning to warn that countries will soon collapse because they don’t have enough children!
In the past, children were often seen as a blessing. In our self-centered culture today, children are seen as an unwanted burden.
Soon this will change.
In the beginning, the first command God gave to humans was “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).
Why?
Because God is growing His family through us. Our children are His children. He created marriage and human families to prepare us to live forever in His eternal family. We’ll learn more about this plan on day 8, but today let’s look at what families will be like during the first 1000 years of God’s Kingdom on earth.
Many prophecies about the Kingdom of God describe what life will be like in the land of Israel. But what God will do in Israel is just an example of what He will do everywhere in the world, “for there is no partiality with God” (Romans 1:9-11).
So here is a prophecy about what Jesus Christ will do in Jerusalem:
“Thus says the Lord:
‘I will return to Zion,
And dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth,
The Mountain of the Lord of hosts,
The Holy Mountain.’“Thus says the Lord of hosts:
‘Old men and old women shall again sitIn the streets of Jerusalem,
Each one with his staff in his handBecause of great age.
The streets of the city
Shall be full of boys and girls
Playing in its streets.’”
(Zechariah 8:3-5)
If you live in Africa, you might still see boys and girls playing in the streets today. But in countries like the United States of America, the streets are empty, because most children today have phones and spend most of their time watching endless videos, playing video games, or chatting with AI “friends.”
Jesus Christ won’t allow such madness in His Kingdom. The prophecies of the future describe healthy children, healthy families, healthy communities, healthy cities.
In fact, Jerusalem, the capital city of the world, will be a very small city by today’s standards—about 2 kilometers from one side to the other, with common farmland on either side (Ezekiel 48:15-17). The cities will be small, because most people will live in family lands, close to their relatives.
Today people move to cities and become servants of employers because they lack land and opportunities where they grew up. But in God’s Kingdom, every family will be given land (Ezekiel 47:22), and this land will remain in the family continually, because it cannot be sold permanently (Leviticus 25:8-17). This will make it possible for families to stay together from generation to generation.
Notice this description of the future:
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.
I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
I will plant them in their land,
And no longer shall they be pulled up
From the land I have given them,”
Says the Lord your God.
(Amos 9:13-15)
The prophecies about the future describe most people involved in very productive agriculture. In fact, God will transform unproductive lands into fertile farms:
The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them,
And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose…
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
(Isaiah 35:1, 6)
Instead of relying on an employer, most people will rely directly on God to bless them with good crops. And children and parents will work together on family farms and in family businesses.
As God blesses people with many children and good health, the population will explode like never before:
For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
Will even now be too small for the inhabitants…
The children you will have…
Will say again in your ears,
‘The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell’
(Isaiah 49:19-20).
And so, the Israelites and other nations will spread out and fill the earth, including many places that are uninhabitable now that will be transformed into farms and forests.
These are just a few of the prophecies about life during the 1000-year-reign of Christ on earth, but I trust they will give you a taste of the future.
This vision of the future should also guide how we live today. We should not adopt the pleasure-focused, self-centered way of life that is promoted by advertisers and influencers today. Instead, we should build our lives around relationships: God first, then our spouse, children, extended families, and spiritual family.
Phones, social media, videos, online shopping, AI—these are mostly distractions that steal time from what is truly important. “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17)
I hope your vision of the Kingdom is growing clearer every day.
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