Introduction to the Second Woe (Rev. 9:13-21)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/30/2015 7:50 AM

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  Introduction to the Second Woe

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 9:13-21

            Message of the verses:  “13 Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." 15 And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. 17 And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm. 20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; 21 and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

            As we get ready to end our vacation and drive the 1400 plus miles home I do not have as much time to spend on these Spiritual Diaries as I have had or probably will have when we get home.  With that said and also because of what I read in John MacArthur’s commentary as he begins the 21^st chapter in his commentary on the book of Revelation I wanted to share what he wrote as to me when I read it I saw what is happening to our country in a nutshell.  As the Supreme Court takes up the case on “Gay Marriage” I can’t help but think of how devastating the effect will have on our country if they chose to uphold something that the majority of people in this country do not want.  I believe with all of my heart that the judges who voted in 1973 to allow unlimited abortions in our country, if they had the chance to reconsider it now, as they are all dead, that they would change their vote.  Our country has changed for the worse because of that vote as over 50 million babies have been killed in the wombs of women and also because death is no view as cheap since that decision.  As I read John MacArthur’s comments that he wrote in the early 1990’s I can’t help but think of what they mean in our country today some 20 plus years later.

            Now before I quote from his commentary I want also to quote from Ezekiel 9:4 as this passage to me also has a lot to do with what is going on in our country, especially in the church.  “4  The LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst."”  We have looked at this verse in both the Spiritual Diaries in Ezekiel and also in Revelation as it related to the mark that was given to these people.  I wonder how many people in our country sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed today in our country.

            “Mankind lies between two powerful opposing spiritual spheres, each seeking to conform people to itself.  No one is neutral in the cosmic battle; everyone is either part of the ‘domain of darkness’ or the ‘kingdom of [God’s] beloved Son’ (Col. 1:13).  As they yield to one sphere or the other, people become the companions of God, or the companions of Satan; the companions of holy angels, or the companions of demons, the companions of saints, or the companions of sinners.   

            “To doubt the reality is the gravest mistake any person can make because making the wrong choice results in eternal disaster.  God offers people the life-giving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; Satan and the forces of hell lure people to their destruction by dangling before them the ‘passing pleasures of sin’ (Heb. 11:25).  The loud voices of hell have always tried to drown out the preaching of the gospel.

            “There is coming a day when the siren call of hell will be so loud as to be all but irresistible.  The people of that time will ignore the repeated, powerful preaching of the gospel and the warning conveyed by terrifying, devastating judgments from God.  Having rejected all offers of grace and mercy, they will see death come upon mankind through the trumpet and bowl judgments, which will deliver death on a scale unprecedented in human history.  Yet even then they will not repent; in fact, they will curse God (cf. 9:20-21; 16:9, 11).  People at that time will have made the irrevocable choice to side with the forces of hell.

            While there will be divine judgments throughout the seven-year Tribulation, they will escalate during the last three and one-half years—the time Jesus called ‘the great tribulation’ (Matt. 24:21; cf. Rev. 7:14).  As has been discussed in previous chapters, those judgments will unfold sequentially in three telescoping series:  the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls.  Out of the seventh trumpet comes the seven bowl judgments.

            “Like the fifth trumpet (9:1-12), the sounding of the sixth trumpet heralds another, more severe demonic attack on sinful mankind.  The attack, unlike the previous one, brings death.  It unfolds in three stages: the release of demons, the return of death, and the reaction of defiance.”

            The first two paragraphs of this quote are the ones that are the most important ones as far as what is happening to our country.  My prayer for our country is that the Holy Spirit will send a revival, and that God will extend His great mercy on our nation.  To give us what we deserve at this time would not be good at all.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “To the church in Antioch in Syria.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God’?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/30/2015 8:26 AM

Ezekiel Postings

Due to the fact that I will be traveling for the next 3-5 days I am going to wait to continue to put posts on the book of Ezekiel until we get back home.

The Prince Unmasked (Rev. 9:11-12)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/29/2015 9:40 AM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  The Prince Unmasked  

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Revelation 9:11-12

            Message of the verses:  “11 They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. 12 The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.”

            Just a little review as we begin this very short SD on verses 11-12 or Revelation chapter nine.  We are studying the trumpet judgments which have followed the seal judgments, and as we have learned the judgments continue in severity.  What we are studying now is actually the fifth trumpet judgment but because the last three trumpet judgments are so harsh they were name “woe” judgments.  In our lesson today according to verse twelve we end our study on the first woe, but behold there are two more coming.

            It has been my practice since I began this study of Revelation in January that I read two chapters of Revelation each day, and in today’s reading I actually listened to chapters 13-14 and as I was listening to these chapters I came to realize that it is very difficult to actually show the time frame as to when all of the things written will take place.  Now I have thought of this before, but today it seemed to make more sense to me.  For instance the thirteenth chapter speaks of the Antichrist and the false prophet, but we know that according to Daniel that the Tribulation begins with the Antichrist signing a peace treaty with the nation of Israel to assure them of peace for seven years.  We also know that this person who signs this peace treaty to begin the Tribulation Period will not show his true self until the middle of the Tribulation Period when he will go into the rebuilt temple and declare himself as God so what we have in this book of Revelation is a lot of information about how things will happen during the Tribulation Period in chapters 6-19 but I don’t believe that they are in chronological order, but they surely will all happen.  As we go through our study I will do my best to share when all of these things will happen, but may not be able to perfectly know when they happen.

            Let us begin by looking at Proverbs 30:27 “The locusts have no king, Yet all of them go out in ranks.”  Unlike the bees who have a queen to rule over them the locusts do not and yet as we read in verse eleven we see that these “locusts” have a king over them and his name is given in verse eleven, actually in two different languages.  The title of this king is “the angel of the abyss.”  Now there is a bit of controversy over who exactly this angel is as some believe that this king or angel over the abyss is Satan.  Now we have determined that Satan was the one given the key to unlock the pit, but that does not mean that he is the one who is the angel of the abyss.  Ephesians 6:12 says “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”  Now we look at Ephesians 2:2 “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”  John MacArthur believes that this “angel over the abyss” is not Satan and sites these two verses in Ephesians to show that Satan’s realm is in the air and not the abyss.  I can honestly say that I had not thought of it like this before, but it does make sense to me now.  MacArthur writes “The angel is better viewed as a high-ranking demon in Satan’s hierarchy.  John notes that his name in the Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek his has the name Apollyon.”  Why do you suppose that John uses both languages to show his name?  MacArthur writes “John uses both names to emphasize his impact on both ungodly Jews and Gentiles.”  In both languages the name means destroyer and this is exactly what these demons who are called locusts do as we have seen in our previous studies. 

            Let us look at a number of places in the OT where the word Abaddon is used:

 “Job 26:6 “Naked is Sheol before Him, And Abaddon has no covering.

Job 28:22 “Abaddon and Death say, ’With our ears we have heard a report of it.’

Job 31:12 “For it would be fire that consumes to Abaddon, And would uproot all my increase.

Ps 88:11 Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave, Your faithfulness in Abaddon?

Pr 15:11 Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD, How much more the hearts of men!

Pr 27:20 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, Nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied.”  Now we can see from these verses that this word is associated with a place of eternal punishment and this further connects this angel with the abyss and hell.  MacArthur writes “Apollyon comes from the Greek word apollumi, which means ‘I destroy.’  These terms identify this leader as the king of the demonic death squal.”

            As mentioned verse 12 shows us that there will be two more woes directed on those “suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18b).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Just as God has a purpose and plan for earth and the people who live on it as far as these endtimes we are looking at, He personally has a purpose and plan for my life and I do not want sin to interfere with that plan He has for me.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue to love the Lord, with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the wonderful love that Christ has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Andrew” (John 1:40).

Today’s Bible question:  “To whom was the book of Jude written?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/29/2015 10:24 AM

The Compassion of the Lord (Ezek. 39:21-29)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2015 11:15 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  The Compassion of the Lord

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ezekiel 39:21-29

            Message of the verses:  “21 "And I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. 22 “And the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God from that day onward.  23 "The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword. 24 “According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them, and I hid My face from them."’" 25 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name. 26 “They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid. 27 “When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified through them in the sight of the many nations. 28 “Then they will know that I am the LORD their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer. 29 “I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel," declares the Lord GOD.”

            What we need to see in these last two chapters we have been studying for a few days is that God will destroy Gog and the nations that will come down to attack them and the result of that destruction will be three fold.  The Jewish people will know that it was the Lord who has done this, and the Gentile nations will also know that the Lord did this, and one more point we need to see is that through all of this that God will be glorified.  Again I see some similar things that will happen during the time when this judgment is carried out by the Lord with the time that the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt as seen back in the book of Exodus.  God was surely glorified through that and the nations around Egypt knew that it was the Lord who did that, and therefore this was a part of the process of having the Lord glorified through these judgments on Egypt.

            I would suppose that it was possible that the exiles who were listening to this message from Ezekiel would be thinking that when the Lord would take them back to the Promised Land that this would be all fulfilled, but that was not the case as all of these prophecies will happen during the end times.  When the Jewish people came out of Babylon as God promised them that they would they did go back and by faith rebuilt their temple and began again to practice their religion, but by the time that Jesus came their religion was really not what would bring glory to the Lord and therefore it was actually because of this that they would end up crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ.  However we do read that in the end times the Lord will put His Spirit into the people of Israel and God will take His people and begin His Kingdom with them along with the saved Gentiles who make it through the Tribulation Period.  Dr. Wiersbe adds to this in the last paragraph of his commentary for these verses:  “The Gentile nations and people of Israel will experience great suffering during the seven years of Tribulation.  But the Lord in His mercy will seal 144,000 Jews to the nucleus of the promised kingdom, and will also save a great multitude of Gentiles to share that kingdom with them (Rev. 7).  The last temple the Jews ever build will be defiled by Antichrist and ultimately destroyed.  But God has promised His people a new land and a new temple, and Ezekiel will describe these to us in the closing chapters of his book.” 

            We are nearing the end of the book of Ezekiel as the last eight chapters speak of what will happen in the Millennial Kingdom and they will go fairly fast.  These last eight chapters give us the best understand of how things will go during the Millennial Kingdom and so in our next SD from Ezekiel we will begin to look at them.

4/28/2015 11:40 PM

The Appearance of the Demon Locusts (Rev. 9:7-10)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2015 8:52 AM

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  The Appearance Unveiled

Bible Reading & Meditation                                               Reference:  Revelation 9:7-10

            Message of the verses:  “7 The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. 8 They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle. 10 They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months.”

            When we began our study of Revelation I mentioned that the words “like” and “as” were used by John many times and in verses seven through ten we see “like”  We see the word “like” used eight times in this passage and the word “appearance” and “appeared” two more times.  John first described these demons as locusts because of all of the destruction that they will rapidly inflict on their prey.  Now as John describes them in more detail in these verses we see that they were not like the appearance of a locust at all and so he goes on to give us his description of them in greater detail. 

            John gives a general “appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle.”  The use of horses for battle was familiar with John and he probably could see the horses straining at the bit ready to go into the battle to inflict the pain that they had with them.  Next we see that on their heads there appeared to be crowns like gold.  John MacArthur writes “The crowns they wore are called stephanoi, the victors’ crowns, indicating that the demon host will be invincible, unstoppable, and all-conquering.  Men will have no weapon that can harm them and no cure for the terrible torment they inflict.”  Next we see that they had the faces of men and this can show us that they were intelligent and rational beings, something that is unlike an insect.  Their hair which is like a woman could speak of the seductiveness that they have.  MacArthur writes “The glory of beauty of a woman is her hair, which she may decorate to become more alluring.  Like the Sirens of Greek mythology, these locustlike demons will lure people to their doom.”  Next we see their fearsome teeth like a lion showing their powerfulness as lions rip and tear at their victims.  Next is the breastplates of iron which show that they are protected from their enemies.  Paul describes the use of breastplates as a part of the believers armor and calls it the “breastplate of righteousness,” indicating that protection believers have as being declared righteous because of the blood of Christ who protects believers.  Now I mentioned the sound of their wings in our last SD and I actually wrote about it in my earlier SD dated June 27, 2005 “As I have studied these verses before I have seen a number of ideas as to what these verses were trying to describe, and one of them was helicopters that would have some kind of gas in them to inflict the pain that is spoken about in this section.  Others have described them as some kind of creature that was very small like a locust that came and stung its victim.”  What we have here as far as the sound is the noise of a moving army coming to attack its victims.  Now in verse ten we see the word “scorpions” and then it tells us that their desire was to “hurt men.”  As we read through the Bible we see that demons torture men, and these demons have the ability to torture men for five months.  I have been reading a book written by a lady who had a disabling mental disorder and near the end of the book she describes a situation that as far as I am concerned was a demon bothering her to great degree, so much so that she mentioned that just like the pigs that are described in the gospel of both Matthew and Mark ran down the hill and drowned themselves, this is what she wanted to do.  She does state that she did cry out to Jesus and eventually this all went away.  The point is that demons desire to hurt and harm people as we see in the New Testament as Jesus healed and cast out the demons that were hurting people He dealt with. 

            I believe that I did mention that the life of a locust is five months the exact length that these demons caused pain on their victims.  MacArthur writes “The reiteration that the demons will be permitted to torment people for a limited time stresses God’s sovereign power over the duration of their assault.  Eventually, He will return them to the abyss with their evil master (20:1-3) and then send them to the lake of fire (20:10).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  One may wonder why God allows people to go through such torture as seen in the verses we have been studying.  Jesus Christ went through the greatest torture of any man ever born during the six hours of darkness while He hung on the cross and He did it for me and for every person who had accepted Him as Savior and Lord.  No other man has or will ever go through the torture and pain that He went through and it was all done in order to save people from their sins.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength and to better understand and live in the love that Christ has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Canaan” (Numbers 13:17).”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was Peter’s brother?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/28/2015 9:40 AM  

           

           

 

The Birds Receive a Sacrifice (Ezek. 39:17-20)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2015 7:41 PM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:    The Call to the Feast

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ezekiel 39:17-20

            Message of the verses:  “17 “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, ’Speak to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field, "Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. 18 "You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. 19 “So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. 20 “You will be glutted at My table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all the men of war," declares the Lord GOD.”

            This is not the most pleasant thing to talk or write about, but it is a part of God’s Word so we have to look at it and learn from it.  God is speaking through Ezekiel to tell the birds that are the carrion-eating type of birds that they are going to a feast and He even goes so far to tell them that He is the one making this sacrifice for them.  We know from our past studies that many people will die and it will take the Jews seven months to cleanse the land of the corpses, but these birds will come and eat those corpses and leave the bones for them to be buried so that the land will be cleansed.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “The invitation to a feast is a frequent biblical image for the judgment of God and His victory over His enemies.  Isaiah uses it for God’s victory over Edom (Isa. 34:6), Jeremiah for God’s victory over Egypt (Jer. 46:10), and Zephaniah for the Lord’s dealing with Judah (Zeph. 1:7-8).”  I knew that there was another one that I have recently read and it is from Revelation 19:17-21 “17  Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, "Come, assemble for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great." 19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.”  These verses sound very similar to the ones in Ezekiel, and perhaps that is why some Bible commentators place this judgment at the end of the tribulation period.  Dr. Wiersbe concludes “So humiliating is this defeat of God and his allies that the Lord refers to their officers as rams, lambs, goats, and bullocks!  They arrogantly entered Israel as proud soldiers but would be buried like slaughtered animals.  Such is the fleeting greatness of man.”

            This section has always remedied me of Pharaoh and how proud that he was before that Lord used ten plagues to defeat Egypt in order for His name to be made great because of the victory and that is what will happen in this judgment too as the Lord’s name will be lifted up because of the defeat of Gog and all the nations that came with him to go into Israel, which they thought would be easy, but were in the end like Pharaoh were humbled.  Pride was the first sin ever committed and pride is something that needs to be avoided at all costs.  4/27/2015 8:01 PM

 

The Power Unleashed (Rev. 9:3-6)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2015 9:33 AM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  The Power Unleashed

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Revelation 9:3-6

            Message of the verses:  “3 Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions. 4 They were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were told not to kill them but to torture them for five months with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting. 6 In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them!”

            I remember studying this passage a very long time ago as I listened to some tapes by Hal Lindsey, and as I mentioned he thought that all of the judgments found in the book of Revelation could be done by man.  He said that a man who had been in Vietnam said that he knew what this judgment was all about.  He said that helicopters were described here and that the sting was some kind of nerve gas that did it damage to the people and that the wings of a helicopter made the same kind of noise that we see in this section.  Well to be honest I don’t think that this passage is speaking of helicopters but actually speaks of demons who come up out of the smoke that comes from the pit and take the form of locusts as they begin to swarm near the earth looking for prey to sting, prey in the form of unbelievers. 

            We first of all want to look at the destructive power of locusts as found in the Old Testament.  I believe that locusts are first mentioned in the book of Exodus as part of the ten plagues that God brought upon Egypt.  For whatever reason when I think of OT descriptions of locusts doing damage I think of the book of Joel where he writes “Joel 1:4  What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten. Joel 2:25  "Then I will make up to you for the years That the swarming locust has eaten, The creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you.”  Other OT passages on locusts are found in Deut. 28:38; 2 Chron. 713; Psalm 105:34; Nah. 3:15).  Remember that the 28^th chapter of Deuteronomy is a conditional covenant that God gave to the children of Israel so if they would do the things in the covenant God would bless them, but if they did not curses would come from God and this is exactly what happened to them. “"You shall bring out much seed to the field but you will gather in little, for the locust will consume it (Deut. 28:38).” 

            John MacArthur quotes John Phillips on the destruction of locusts:  “The worst locust plague in modern times struck, the Middle East in 1952-52 when in Iran, Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia every green and growing thing was devoured across hundreds of thousands of square miles.  Locusts eat grain, leaf, and stalk, right down to the bare ground.  When a swarm arises and flies on its way, the green field is left a desert; barrenness and desolation stretches as far as eye can see.” 

            The locusts in this passage are not your ordinary kind of locusts, but these are demons and they too will cause great destruction as we will see.  Perhaps they look like locusts but these locusts have a sting like a scorpion.  When we were living in Hawaii centipedes were said to have a sting that was worse than a scorpion and since we are spending the month in Key Largo Florida I woke up to a long centipede hurrying across the floor.  I actually dropped a large book on it from about three feet but to my amazement it just crawled out and made its way out of the house.  I spoke to a lady who works at the condo development about it and she said that their sting is worse than a scorpion as her husband got stung by one.  Well these locusts that John speaks of have a sting like no other thing ever as they do not kill a person but make them wish they were dead, but they cannot die.  It is interesting that that the life of a locusts if five months from April to September. 

            A real locust as we have learned eats the grass and other green thing on the earth, but these were given limitations as they were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree.  As we see the reference of grass we know that there must have been some time that has passed since the first trumpet judgment for in that judgment the grass was scorched, but has had time to recover.  We see that their business was not to harm vegetation but men, and only men who did not have the seal of God on them.  While reading the “Left Behind” series the authors dealt with this sealing of believers by having each believer have a cross on their forehead that could only be seen by other believers.  I don’t know if that will be the case, but we do know that believers are sealed with the Holy Spirit of God, and we have already discussed about the 144,000 Jewish Evangelists who were sealed by God on their foreheads and verse four states “but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.”  Let us look at Revelation 22:4 “they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.”  Believers are purchased by God out of the slave market of sin and therefore we belong to God Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, "The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness’ (2 Tim. 2:19).”  We earlier looked at a passage in the book of Ezekiel which illustrates the truth that God protects His people in the midst of judgment:  “case. 4  The LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst." 5 But to the others He said in my hearing, "Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare. 6  "Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary." So they started with the elders who were before the temple (Ezekiel 9:4-6).”

            As mentioned the demons were restricted as to what they can do to the people that they sting for they cannot kill them, and we know that Satan according to Hebrews 2:14 has the power of death “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,”  As we have said that even thought they cannot kill those they sting they are tormented for five months and wish that they could die.  People have been through much in these judgments that we have studied and yet these people will go through even more.  We don’t know how many people will be affected, but those who are will be tormented for five months.  I have read this passage many times over and to think that a person cannot die after they have been stung by these demons is mindboggling to me.  I have to remember that it is God who is in control of when a person dies as seen in this passage.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The passage in the book of Ezekiel nine caused me to think when I studied that section and now this is the second time that we have looked at it while studying the book of Revelation:  “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.  I have to ask myself do I sigh and groan over the evil things that are going on in our country?

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I want to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love of the Lord.  To hate what the Lord hates and love what the Lord loves.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Peter” (Acts 10:14).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did Moses send ten men to spy?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/27/2015 10:31 AM
           

The Pit Unlocked PT-2 (Rev. 9:1-2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2015 9:47 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  The Pit Unlocked PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Revelation 9:1-2

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. 2 He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit.”

            We mentioned what Jude wrote about these demons that are incarcerated in this pit, but to remind us as we get started this morning I want to quote this again:  “angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode,” and then he goes on to say that God “has kept [them] in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment on the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire,” (Jude 6-7).  Now I have mentioned in an earlier SD that it is the belief of John MacArthur and others that the reason that God had to destroy the earth with a flood was because angels were cohabiting with women on the earth and this would raise a race of people that Christ would be unable to die for.  Now I know that this is hard to believe, and as for me I am not sure that this is what happened, but I am willing to look at the evidence that is available, and a part of it is in these two verses that Jude wrote that we just looked at as he speaks of strange flesh.  Now the strange flesh that was happening at Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality for we actually read that when the angels went down to Sodom that the men of Sodom wanted Lot to give them to the men to have sexual relations with them.  I am not saying that they did now they were angels, but perhaps they did and as far depraved as they were I doubt that that would have made any difference.  Jude equates the strange flesh at Sodom with why these demons were in this pit.  Let us look at the verses from Genesis 19:1, 4-5 “1 Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 4 Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; 5  and they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them."”

            John MacArthur writes “Peter reveals when this angelic sin occurred:”

            1 Peter 3:18-20 “18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20  who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.”

            It is best to quote MacArthur for this section to help understand why he teaches what he teaches here:  “The ‘spirits now in prison’ in the abyss re those ‘who once were disobedient…in the days of Noah.’  They are the demons who cohabited with the human women in Satan’s failed attempt to corrupt the human race and make it unredeemable (Gen. 6:1-4).  The demons still fear being sent to the abyss is evident from the fact that some pled with Jesus not to send them there (Luke 8:31).  That suggests that other demons have been incarcerated there since the events of Genesis 6.  The demons released by Satan at the fifth trumpet may not include those who sinned in Noah’s day (cf. Jude 6), since they are said to be in ‘eternal bonds’ (Jude 6) until the final day when they are sent to the eternal lake of fire (Rev. 20:10; Jude 7).  Other demons imprisoned in the abyss may be the ones released.  So the pit is the preliminary place of incarceration for demons from which some are to be released under this judgment.

            The following is what I wrote about verse two from a former SD:  “When the star opened this bit smoke came out of it and John describes it like smoke from a great furnace and this smoke made a lot of pollution, so much that it added to the darkness that was already on the earth at this time.  It could be said that these judgments will certainly not make the environments very happy with all of the pollution that they cause.”  (June 20, 2005)

            4/26/2015 10:14 AM  4/26/2015 11:40 AM

John Philips comments on this verse:  “Picture what the world would be like if we were to open the doors of all the penitentiaries of earth and set free the worlds most vicious and violent criminals, giving them full reign to practice their infamies upon mankind.  Something worse than that lies in store for the world.  Satan, cast out of heaven, is now permitted to summon to his aid the most diabolical fiends in the abyss to act as his agents in bringing mankind to the footstool of the Beast.” 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The more that I read about all of these judgment to come the more thankful to God I am that He saved me before all of these things will happen and will one day take me to be with Him in glory before all of these things take place.  “13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thess. 4:13-18).”  “’Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth (Rev. 3:10).”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to better understand the love that Christ has for me and live in that love so that I can obey the Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Luke” (Luke 24:13-31).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said, ‘Not so, Lord: for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.’?”

Answer in our next SD.    4/26/2015 11:53 AM

 

 

The Pit Unlocked PT-1 (Rev. 9:1-2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2015 10:02 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                    Focus:  The Pit Unlocked

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Revelation 9:1-2

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. 2 He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit.”

            In our last SD we mentioned that the “star” which fell from heaven was none other than Satan and we looked at Isaiah 14:12-15 to show that Satan is also called a star in those verses and that they also show that this “star” had fallen.  Perhaps it would be best to look at those verses again:  “12 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 13 “But you said in your heart, ’I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14 ’I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit.”  Notice the five “I wills” in these verses as they represent the first sin that ever was committed, and it was done by the highest angel that God had created.  I think it best to look at the other passage that speaks of Satan, which is found in Ezekiel 28:12-16 “12  "Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 “You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared. 14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 “You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you. 16 “By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire.”  This passage speaks more of how Satan fell and what he was before he fell. 

            As the fifth angel sounded his trumpet John saw this “star” which had fallen to the earth.  He has already seen heavenly bodies fall to the earth in other visions, but this star was different as it was not an inanimate piece of celestial matter, but this star was a being.  Let us look at Job 38:7 “When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?”  This verse does not speak of stars that we see in the sky but beings.  “There can be little doubt that angelic beings are intended here” is what commentator Barns says which I got from my online Bible program.  Now as we saw in the verses from Isaiah and also Ezekiel Lucifer fell and became Satan.  As I was looking at these two sections from the Old Testament I was wondering what God’s feelings were when this most beautiful, most powerful, most perfect angel that He created decided to go against Him.  I can’t help but think that at that time it was heartbreaking to God to see him fall, and yet because of God’s attributes of wrath and justice God had to act to bring him to justice and we are seeing this unfold as we study the book of Revelation as God takes back planet earth from evil men and from Satan and all the angels that followed him in his fall.

            We know that Satan in the past and actually at this time has access to heaven.  We know that from Job as Satan and God have a conversation in heaven.  I might interject here that this is probably one of the reasons that a new heaven and a new earth are created at the end of the book of Revelation as the others have been contaminated with sin.  Now we also know this because our Lord Jesus Christ intercedes for us as our High Priest in heaven when Satan accuses us before God in heaven.  Satan’s angels also have access to heaven and in an earlier SD I mentioned about how one of Satan’s angels was allowed by God to tell the false prophets of Ahab to go to war where he would be killed.  Remember Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”  

            Now in Revelation 12:7-9 we read the following “7 And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”  This is a battle scene which takes place when Satan and his angels are completely thrown out of heaven and they will never return again.  Now what we have after this is all of the demons and also Satan are now on planet earth and they all realize that their time is short before they all go into the lake of fire so it will be the people on planet earth who will have more trouble because of this.  I might mention that Satan has worship here on earth as people meet to worship him and it is their thoughts that he will be the winner of the battles that will take place on earth, especially the battle of Armageddon. 

            John MacArthur writes “With this theater of operation now restricted to earth, and his time running out (cf. 12:12), Satan will seek to marshal all of his demonic hosts—those already on earth, those cast to earth with him, and those incarcerated in the ‘bottomless pit’ (literally ‘the pit of the abyss’).  Abussos (‘bottomless’) appears seven times in Revelation, always in reference to the abode of incarcerated demons (cf. 9:2, 11; 11:7; 17:8).  Satan himself will be held prisoner there during the Millennium, chained and locked up with the other demonic prisoners (20:1, 3).

            I remember my wife telling me about a sermon that she heard by Dr. David Jeremiah as he was teaching about the bottomless pit and his comment was that perhaps it was at the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean.  As I was going over my SD on Job 38 I came across the following:  “God asks Job about the depths of the sea if he knew how deep the sea is and many other questions that Job could not answer.  We know today that the deepest part of the sea is found in the Pacific Ocean and it is 35,810 feet or 6.78 miles down.”  Whether or not this is where this “pit” is located we don’t know but we do know it is someplace.

            Let us look at a couple of different Scripture references to show us that God has chosen to incarcerate certain demons in this “pit.”  “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment (2 Peter 2:4).”  John MacArthur writes the following “The phrase ‘cast them into hell’ is a participle derived from the Greek noun Tartarus.  Just as Jesus used the term for hell derived from the Jewish vernacular (Gehenna; cf. Matt. 5:22), so Peter chose a term from Greek mythology with which his readers would be familiar.  Tartarus was the name used in Greek literature for the place where the worst sinners, those who had offended the gods personally, went after death and were punished.  The place where God keeps demons imprisoned is actually different from the imaginary place of Greek mythology.  Yet the use of the term Tartarus does seem to convey the idea that because of the heinousness of their sin, God has imprisoned certain fallen angels in such a place of severest torment and isolation.  They remain in that place, awaiting their sentencing to final punishment in the eternal lake of fire (Rev. 20:10, 13-14).”

            I think that this is a good place to stop and then pick up more of this section in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  What I see in this passage is the justice of God, the sinfulness of both men and angels, and also the plan of God in which He takes back planet earth for His glory and for His Son who will reign for 1000 years as promised to the nation of Israel.  For all of these things I am thankful.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in and better understand the love that Christ has for me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Three days” (Acts 9:8-9).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where is the record of the resurrected Christ appearing to ‘two on the Emmaus Road’?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/25/2015 11:23 AM

The Cleansing of the Land (Ezek. 39:9-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/24/2015 8:42 PM

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  The Cleansing of the Land

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ezekiel 39:9-16

            Spiritual meaning of the verses:  Now here in this section we see something that makes it hard to understand exactly when this battle will take place.  As we begin to look at this main section which Dr. Wiersbe entitles “After the Invasion,” we will see that after this great battle which caused sudden destruction such a multitude of corpses as we will see in this section of scriptures along with some military material which is also a topic of this section.

            “9 "Then those who inhabit the cities of Israel will go out and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears, and for seven years they will make fires of them. 10 “They will not take wood from the field or gather firewood from the forests, for they will make fires with the weapons; and they will take the spoil of those who despoiled them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them," declares the Lord GOD. 11 “On that day I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block off those who would pass by. So they will bury Gog there with all his horde, and they will call it the valley of Hamon-gog. 12 “For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. 13 “Even all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be to their renown on the day that I glorify Myself," declares the Lord GOD. 14 "They will set apart men who will constantly pass through the land, burying those who were passing through, even those left on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. 15  "As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a man’s bone, then he will set up a marker by it until the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog. 16 “And even the name of the city will be Hamonah. So they will cleanse the land."’”

            Like I said that this section causes some difficulty as to when this war will take place.  Let me explain by saying that we know that the tribulation will last for seven years and that is why some commentators believe that this war will happen sometime close to the tribulation period, but not in it.  In the series that Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins wrote called the “Left Behind” series they actually used Lahaye’s commentary on Revelation to get the theme of the books and Jenkins wrote the plot of the people in it, but they said in the story line that this battle came before the Rapture of the church.  Now Warren Wiersbe believes it will happen right after the tribulation period begins while John MacArthur believes it is part of the last battle, the battle of Armageddon.  Warren Wiersbe believes that the weapons of war fare that Ezekiel speaks of here will not be the weapons of war fare that will be used during this battle.  It will probably be jet fighter planes, rockets and modern things like that that will be used in this war so how will they be able to burn those things for seven years.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “The burning of the equipment simply says that the Jews didn’t keep it to use themselves and they destroyed it so nobody else could use it.  God and his army came to spoil Israel, but Israel spoiled them!” 

            The other problem as far as timing of the battle comes when we read that it takes seven months to clean the land of dead bodies.  MacArthur believes that this could actually go into the Millennial Kingdom. 

            Now the whole object of this war is for God to destroy those nations that have been cruel to Israel in the past and are still to this day doing the same thing.  It is also to bring glory to God and also cause nations around to understand that it was God who is behind this and therefore they should glorify Him.  When Israel came out of Egypt everyone knew that it was the God of Israel who destroyed Egypt, but none of them gave glory to God they only though that He was powerful.  The other reason is that we have is found in “John 3:19  "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

            I will now give my take on how I think this could happen for what it is worth.  I believe that this battle of Gog and Magog happens near the beginning of the Tribulation Period and as far as the weapons used for fuel I think that it could be possible that nuclear warheads from rockets will fall harmless to the ground and Israel will use them to make electric power.  I have to admit that I have never read any commentary who said anything like this but perhaps this is possible.

4/24/2015 9:18 PM