Since watching the inauguration of our new president and the events surrounding it this week, many thoughts come to mind. It is a very happy time for many and also an equally sad time for many. For those who have invested their expectations in the new president, it is a time of happiness. While others merely go along sort of licking their wounds and saying there will be yet another election. Even when the best of humanity presides over a nation, there are weaknesses and flaws, and life may be improved in some areas, but it will continue to be a struggle. This is because no fallen sinful person, even the best of us, can bring absolute solutions to the trials of life. One may be superior to another in temporary matters, but pain, sickness, disappointment, suffering, and death will still occur. 

Foremost in our thinking should be the much greater inauguration to be excited about. What do I mean? I mean the inauguration of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is coming a time when He will arrive. It will not be a situation where there is reserved thankfulness in the minds of those who love Him, but instead, there will be an ecstatic sense of thanksgiving and happiness that this world has never seen. “In His presence is the fullness of joy forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). He will not be challenged or need to be sworn in, for “Every knee will bow, and tongue confess that He is Lord” (Phil. 2:10). He will not have to be sworn to uphold justice, for He is the Author of justice. He will not have to provide a promise to make things better, for He has almighty power, authority, and ability to truly bring heaven to earth, and He will. In Isaiah we read of Him, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And He will delight in the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2). This expresses Him as the perfect leader. He has no flaws and no limits. He is our Lord Jesus who will come a second time to rule and to reign. “The government will rest on His shoulders” (Isaiah 9:6). “His kingdom will come, and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). “And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one” (Zech. 14:9). Presently, we will have degrees of confidence and thankfulness in some leaders more than others, but in this One who is coming we can place all confidence and an expectation of true joy that cannot be measured.

I am sure those reading this all have a similar mindset of gratitude for being born in the USA and having opportunities and standards of living that most in the world do not possess. Yet, even at its best our world is a place of great difficulties and overwhelming challenges, troubles, sorrows, and death. We are ruined by sin, but Jesus Christ has defeated sin. The culmination of sin and its effects will be eliminated at His inauguration. I watched the expressed happiness of those who were invited to various balls following the presidential inauguration. The apocalyptic book of Revelation says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are true words of God” (Rev. 19:9). This is the joyful expression of the marriage of God’s true church to the Lord Jesus. It is an event so certain to occur the promise is reinforced under inspiration by the phrase, “these are true words of God.” This event will be the grand beginning of an unfathomable joy that will not be temporary or misplaced by degrees, but will be initiated and continue eternally.

One of my favorite verses found in Isaiah addresses the failing nature of having high expectations in this present world. It concludes that everything in this fallen life will give way to weariness. True satisfaction and complete happiness can only be found in looking to Christ. And for those looking expectantly to Him there is this promise of God. “Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” (Isaiah 40:30-31). These verses look forward to the coming kingdom. The idea of waiting on the Lord is having our ultimate confidence focused upon Him who will come and will be King eternally. There will be no reservation or lacking in the joy He will bring for those who love Him. This matches the phrase by Jude at the close of his book, “To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you faultless before His throne of glory with great joy!” (Jude 24). Brethren, no matter what our current situation is, we must keep our eyes upon the Lord as we wait for His glorious inauguration. It will be the beginning of immeasurable never-ending joy. He is coming quickly!