The sceptre of the King

“The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!” (Psalm 110:1-2 NKJV).

Psalm 110 is a prophetic psalm that points to the Last Days. When David prophesies: “Sit at My right hand…” , he talks about Jesus. In Hebrews we read the following about Jesus: “...who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3).

Jesus sits at the right hand of the Majesty, his Father, in heaven, and He will remain there until all of his enemies are made his footstool. Jesus won the ultimate victory at the cross, and when he rose from the dead three days later he told his disciples that “...All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). God, the Father, gave him everything after the victory, as we read in Ephesians; “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:22)

Knowing that Jesus’ enemies will be put under his feet before he returns, this also means that his church, as his body, will overcome his enemies before he returns. A head does not have its own feet, its feet are located on its body; the church. Our bodies depend on our head to tell our limbs what to do. Our head has eyes that can see, ears that can hear, a mind that can distinguish between right and wrong and do what is right. It is the same with our spiritual head, Jesus. He sees, hears and understands everything that happens, and makes desicions thereafter. He gives these decisions as instructions to his body, the church, for the body to execute his will.

Now, let us look closer to Psalm 110:2 “The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!” Several other bible translations use the word “scepter” instead of “rod”. A rod, or a scepter, is an ornamented staff carried by rulers, especially monarchs. The scepter is a symbol of its owners sovereignty and authority. David’s prophecy says that the rod, or scepter, shall be sent out of Zion. The word “Zion” comes from the Hebrew word “Tziyyon”, meaning “height”. It originally described Mount Zion, a height in Jerusalem, but it also refers to the church, the body of Christ, which the scepter shall be sent from. The prophet Isaiah says: “Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.”For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:2-3)

When Christ returns, He will not return to a people who is leaving the earth with their tail between their legs, He will return to a victorious army. The church has taken the scepter into use, and executed the instructions from its head, Jesus, by divine power and authority. Our battle is not against any human, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Our enemy, the devil, has blinded humanity through false religions, false philosophy, atheism, communism, socialism, humanism and evolutionary thinking, to name a few. The church will remove the veil that is blinding the earth, using the power of the sceptre. Isaiah says of Zion: “And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations” (Isaiah 25:7). When the veil is removed “many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord..””, as we read earlier in Isaiah 2:3. The knowledge of the word of God and the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be so great across the earth, that it will fulfill Habakkuk 2:14: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

Two things will characterize the church in the last days, willingness and certainty. “Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power…” (Psalm 110:3a). The New International Version translates “Your troops will be willing on your day of battle”. Passivity does not belong in the church of God, in his army. The church is to take orders and act upon them, to hear the word of God, and act according to it. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22).

Though it may not feel like it at the time, all trials, difficulties and challenges the church has faced, has benefited those who love God; “and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). In fact, what each limb on the body of Christ has been through, has prepared and enabled every individual to obediently accomplish the instructions from the head; Jesus. A maturity has come, which displays itself in the way you think, speak and behave. “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1. Corinthians 13:11). Until now, the church has had a long period of training to customize into its position as soldiers. You would not give a dangerous weapon to an inexperienced child, but rather to someone who has undergone training, and been equipped with the skills and maturity necessary to handle it. The mobilization to “the day of Your power” (Psalm 110:3a) has started, and the people of God willingly show up.

In addition to willingness, certainty characterizes the army of God. Certainty that King Jesus has sent the sceptre out of Zion. Certainty brings joy and rejoicing. “Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to him with the timbrel and harp.” (Psalms 149:2-3). The joy of the Lord, that is regardless of any circumstance, is their strength. Instead of sighing and complaining about the condition of the earth, they “let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand…” (Psalms 149:6). With authority and anointing from the King, they use the two-edged sword, the word of God, to win.

This victory will be the greatest harvest of people to the kingdom of heaven which has ever taken place. In Matthew 13:39, Jesus says “...the harvest is the end of the age”. We live in the last days, and God has determined that the enemy of all men shall be defeated; “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen” (Romans 16:20).

Dear brother and sister! You have now read about the sceptre. Jesus has given his disciples “authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). He has also given us authority to bind and loose (Matthew 18:18), and what two of us agree on in prayer shall be done for us by our Father in heaven (Matthew 18:19). As a limb on the body of Christ you have been given a position and a responsibility that no one else can fulfill. If you have sin in your life, repent! And after repenting, tell the Lord: “Here am I! Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8).