[588]As the dead come back from the tombs, provision will be made for them by their friends who are living on the earth.  Families long broken up will be again united; and sadness will give way to joy.  The whole human race, ransomed by the Lord, will have this opportunity; and the Prophet describes it thus:  “The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away”.  (Isaiah 35:10) Gradually, throughout the thousand years of Messiah’s reign, will the human race march up over the highway of holiness, until all will have had a full and fair opportunity, the willfully wicked destroyed and the obedient ones restored to perfection of body and mind and heart.

[589]The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire.  It does not mean, however, that they went into an endless torture, as we have heretofore been led to believe.  On the contrary, the Lord plainly states that they shall be brought back to their former estate; that is, as human beings on the earth, for the purpose of being given a trial.  “When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.”  (Ezekiel 16:55) While the Lord will rule with an iron hand, compelling obedience, yet his rule will be a righteous one, and he will reprove with justice.  He is pictured by the Prophet as ruling in faithfulness and righteousness, thus:  “With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth:  and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.  And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.”—­Isaiah 11:4,5.

[590]The beneficial effect of his righteous reign is also pictured by the Prophet, in the passage which shows how that the wild beasts of the earth will become subject to man, and how a little child shall direct them.  “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.  And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.”—­Isaiah 11:6-8.

[591]All must come to a knowledge of the truth; and those obeying it will have their sins and iniquities wiped out for ever.  Thus says the Prophet:  “They shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord:  for they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them, saith the Lord:  for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34) When the Lord remembers their iniquities and sins no more, then it must be that they are restored.  When John the Baptist announced the approach of Jesus, he exclaimed:  “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”.  When the sin of the world is gone, when there is a world without sin, then it must be a world with perfect people.