What does it mean to rule all nations with a rod of iron (Revelation 12:5)?

The frustration of Satan's object is now related: "And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne." (v. 5.) How entirely all here concerns the earth is seen from the fact, that no mention whatever is made of the church period: the kingdom alone is specified. If Christ is born, it is to rule all nations with a rod of iron, according to Ps. 2 and Ps. 110. The cross is not even mentioned, although we know it preceded His being caught up unto God and to His throne.

Under the seventh trumpet the elders anticipated the effects of the throne being actually established over the earth. But now the temple is again seen, so that we go back here, for we have God's purposes in connection with the Lord Jesus from the very beginning — the man child who was to rule all the nation with a rod of iron being clearly, as I think, Christ Himself. It is God reverting to His purpose in Christ, born as the heir of the world — not in relation to the calling of the church, but as the man of might, destined to govern all, and with no feeble hand. It appears to me that this accounts for another remarkable feature of the vision. Christ's death and resurrection are not alluded to, but His birth and His rapture (not His death) are given in a summary manner. We have the woman in pain to be delivered; and the man child is born; and then we have Him taken away to the throne of God above. Of course this is not given as history. The Lord Jesus had been born and had died long ago: if it had been history, His all-important death would not, could not, have been passed over.

The attitude which this awful dragon takes is that of watching for Messiah's birth, and to swallow Him up, if possible. "The dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born." (ver. 4.) Now, who can have attentively read the second chapter of Matthew without seeing how literally this was accomplished! Directly the birth of Jesus was announced, "Herod and all Jerusalem were troubled," and the king, as if imbued fully with the subtilty of the great deceiver, though he professed a desire to "worship" Jesus, only had an earnest longing "to destroy Him" (Matt. 2:8, 13), and afterwards in great wrath issued a command to put to death all the young children from two years old and under, hoping in this way to include the Son of God — the man-child, who should yet have the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. As we might expect, the entrance of Jesus into this world would be connected with a mighty opposing energy of Satan; so in no period of the Divine record do we find such hosts of Satanic powers working on the earth, and especially in the land of Israel, as during the days of our Lord in His flesh. We know, too, that though Herod's murderous scheme only turned out to his utter confusion — to the complete failure of the roaring lion — yet afterwards, as the wily serpent, he tempts the blessed Lord with, "If Thou be the Son of God," etc. But, as at all other times, the great red dragon was so utterly confounded, that the "devil left Him, and angels came and ministered unto Him." From these records in the gospel it is clear that Satan was especially set upon devouring this man-child.

We are further told, "And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to His throne." This shows us that, however the hatred of Satan and man might rage, yet the God of resurrection could raise up Jesus from the dead, and seat Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies. And what child was ever born of a woman that will sway the universal sceptre, but Jesus? Who else shall rule the nations with a rod of iron, or break them to shivers as a potter's vessel, but Jesus? His death on the cross, instead of checking the onward course of this man-child, only manifested God's love and man's wickedness, and was so infinitely meritorious to God, that we are told "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow," etc. So we read, "The child was caught up to God and His throne." It is ascension, prior to His taking future government (for there is nothing said about the life or even death of this man-child), that is here brought out; and while the Church must always be included when the resurrection and ascension of Christ are brought out, nevertheless, the subject of this chapter is not the Church, but the history of those (of Israel especially) who suffer under Satan and his great minister, the Man of Sin, during the apocalyptic week. Though at present the people of Israel are virtually cut off, yet they are beloved for the fathers' sakes; and though the ten tribes are scattered to the four winds, God is able to gather them again to their own land; and, even before that, His eye will be upon a remnant, and He will bring them through the fire of unparalleled tribulation and anguish into their long promised blessing, when there shall be the days of heaven on the earth. (Deut. 11:21.)

(1.) The sign of the rod comes first. The rod is the sign of power — "the rod of Thy power" (Ps. 110:2) — here, as we know, in the shepherd's hands, who, as we have seen, is the very type of royalty according to God. Even the iron rod with which Christ will smite His enemies is still represented as in a shepherd's hands. In all passages, it reads really, "He shall shepherd them with an iron rod." (Rev. 2:27.) Severely as it may smite, love guides it. Woe indeed to those whom everlasting love has thus to smite!

"And He shall rule them with an iron rod" — "shepherd" them, to use a scarcely English expression. This is, of course, the fulfilment of the prophecy of the second psalm, and decides against the still retained "break them" of the Revised Version. It is the shepherd's rod — this rod of iron, used in behalf of the flock: as He says in Isaiah again, "The day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed is come; and I looked, and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore Mine own arm brought salvation unto Me; and My fury, it upheld Me" (Isa. 63:4-5). This is distinctly in answer to the question, "Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat?" and to which He answers, I have trodden the wine-press alone." Here, also, "He treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."

Would it be believed that commentators have referred this to the cross, and the Lord's own sufferings there? And yet it is so; though the iron rod, with which the treading of the wine-press is associated in this place, is something that is promised to the overcomer in Thyatira (Rev. 2:27) — "To him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, even as I received of My Father." We have but, with an honest mind, to put a few texts together after this manner, and all difficulty disappears.

You will find the second psalm full of that thought. That psalm, you will remember, the apostle quotes in the beginning of the Acts as true of the Lord in that day, when the whole world was linked together, the nations and the people of Israel too, against the King whom God had anointed on the holy hill of Zion — the King of the Jews. But death cannot hold Him: He is taken up out of the sealed-up sepulchre. "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh" (Ps. 2:4) — that is where He is sitting, "in the heavens." "Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure" (Ps. 2:6). Then God's voice comes out; "Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion." And the Lord says: "I will declare the decree; the Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee;" — that is as man. "today I have begotten Thee" would not be applicable to the Lord as the Only-begotten of the Father. It is only true of Him as born upon the earth. "Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession: Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron." A very striking word we have there: that word "rule." The words in this second chapter of Revelation are evidently taken from that second psalm. That ruling, though with a rod of iron, is really shepherding. In the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew the quotation from Micah gives the same thought: "And thou, Bethlehem, … out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule My people Israel." It is the same expression, "shall shepherd My people Israel." Out of Bethlehem God's shepherd-king had come before, king David, the very type of Christ: and where He rules with a rod of iron, that is yet a shepherd's care and love. Love, if need be, can strike. It is a mistake to imagine any inconsistency in this. The "rod of iron" is for preservation no less than for destruction: nay, preservation is the end in view; it is to "destroy them that destroy the earth," and to make even the earth a place where peace will flourish as the effect of righteousness.

"Ask of Me," Jehovah says, and He has not asked; — He is still sitting in patience, and we are therefore, as the apostle John, "in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 1:9). His long-suffering is now salvation. When it is over, and delay would be, not blessing, not long-suffering, but weakness, it is with the rod of iron that He takes the ends of the earth for His possession, — not, as people imagine, with the gospel. The twenty-sixth of Isaiah shows that grace has been tried, and found ineffectual. The gospel has been going out for centuries and had no effect in converting the mass of mankind. When the Lord comes, this confederacy of the nations against Him will be showing itself in its full character, as the psalm depicts it. They will be saying more than ever, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." And "then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure." He will use, in contrast with grace, the iron rod; and here He associates His people with Himself: "And he that overcometh and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall shepherd them with a rod of iron," — the same word — "as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star" (vers. 25, 27, 28).

We may now proceed to consider the special promises with which is associated the gift of the morning star: "And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star." (Vers. 26-28.) If we turn for a moment to Psalm 2, we shall at once understand the nature of the first part of these promises. There we read: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen [nations] for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." (Vers. 8, 9.) Very clearly the Lord refers to this scripture, and this helps us to comprehend the meaning of His promise to the overcomer. It is really the bestowal of His own power as given to Him of the Father; that is, association with Himself when He comes forth to deal in judgment with the nations of the earth, and to subdue them unto Himself, in connection with the establishment of His kingdom.

Such is the prospect which the Lord holds out to His people to encourage them to hold fast until He should come, and thus to be overcomers. And how strikingly does He thereby reveal the grace and love which He has for His own in that He will share with them His own exaltation and glory, not only before the Father's face (John 17:22-23), but also (as indeed the scripture in John contemplates) in the display of His glory in His kingdom. And the words, "Even as I received of my Father," are to be much observed. It will be remembered that in His temptation in the wilderness, the devil, having shown Him all the kingdoms of the world, said, All this power will I give thee and the glory of them. … If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. But He answered, It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. (Luke 4:5-8.) He thus overcame the tempter by maintaining fidelity to Him whose will He had come to do, by refusing everything from the hand of Satan, and receiving only from the Father. The path to His exaltation lay through the cross, and there having glorified God in all that God is, victorious over death and the grave, He has for ever set aside the claim and power of Satan, and has established the rights of God, which He will vindicate in due time when He assumes His power, and asserts His sovereign sway over all the nations of the earth.

Returning now to Christ, John says: "And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." (vv. 15, 16.) In these few brief sentences the coming of Christ in judgment, the execution of God's vengeance, the establishment of His throne, the subjection of all kings and all nations to His sway, and His supreme exaltation in the earth, are all comprised. It is the complete fulfilment of the second Psalm. The sharp sword, as the reader already knows, is the word of God, according to which the nations will be judged, and with which they will be judicially smitten. "The rod of iron" expresses the absolute and inflexible character of His government, while the winepress, as the connection shows, as well as the vintage judgment of Rev. 14 speaks of the unsparing and unmitigated vengeance which will be poured out upon that awful day. It is through judgment, because of what man is, that the Lord will establish His kingdom and sovereignty over the whole earth, when He will be publicly and universally owned as "King of kings, and Lord of lords."

The authority of the saints over the nations is coextensive with that exercised by Christ, and for the lengthened period of 1000 years. The overcomer shall rule, or shepherd, the angry and rebellious nations with an iron rod. Their will shall be broken, their pride humbled, their glory laid in the dust like the crumbling to pieces of brittle vessels.

Rev. 2:27. — “As I also have received from My Father,” It is deeply interesting to notice that the grant of authority over the nations is made over to Christ alone (Ps. 2), but the same unlimited authority and dominion is assured to the conqueror who presses on till the end. The public place and portion of the Son are to be shared with the overcomers. The very words in which the Father gives the nations, the heathen, and the earth to its utmost limits to His Son are used by the Lord to endow His overcoming people with their public portion (compare v. 27 with Ps. 2:9).

Nevertheless it may be remarked, that these saints are not said to be executers of judgment as Christ is.* It is to Him that God has given all judgment, not necessarily to us. We may have a special task in it; but this is not the work for us. We are to judge the world, even angels (1 Cor. 6); but this will be in our reigning with Christ. Hence there is no sword proceeding out of our mouth; nor are the saints or heavenly hosts said to be arrayed in such a fashion as the Lord. It is simply said that the glorified are to follow the Lord in victorious power, and nothing more "clothed in fine linen, bright, pure." Angels, we know from other scriptures, will be there; yet of this we hear nothing here. But "out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron." What makes it all the more notable is that the rod of iron is promised to us, not the sword. There is the reigning dignity, but not the execution of judgment in the awful emblems attributed to the Lord Himself. For He "treadeth the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty," another character of judgment never attributed to the saints. "And he hath upon his garment and upon his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords." Supremacy of rule and lordship belongs to Him no less than to the Father, or God as God (1 Tim. 6:15).