SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/28/2013
8:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Lord Will Judge His Enemies
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah
24:1-23
Message of the
verses: “1 Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste,
devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. 2 And the
people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her
mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor
like the debtor. 3 The
earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the
LORD has spoken this word. 4 The
earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of
the people of the earth fade away. 5 The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws,
violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore, a curse devours
the earth, and
those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and
few men are left. 7 The new wine mourns, The vine decays, All the merry-hearted
sigh. 8 The gaiety of tambourines ceases, The noise of revelers stops, The
gaiety of the harp ceases. 9 They do not drink wine with song; Strong drink is
bitter to those who drink it. 10 The city of chaos is broken down; Every house
is shut up so that none may enter. 11 There is an outcry in the streets
concerning the wine; All joy turns to gloom. The gaiety of the earth is banished. 12
Desolation is left in the city And the gate is battered to ruins.
“13 For thus it will be in the midst of the earth among the
peoples, As the shaking of an olive tree, As the gleanings when the grape
harvest is over. 14 They raise their voices, they shout for joy; They cry out
from the west concerning the majesty of the LORD. 15 Therefore glorify the LORD
in the east, The name of the LORD, the God of Israel, In the coastlands of the
sea.
“16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs,
"Glory to the Righteous One," But I say, "Woe to me! Woe to me!
Alas for me! The treacherous deal treacherously, And the treacherous deal very
treacherously." 17 Terror and pit and snare Confront you, O inhabitant of the earth. 18 Then it
will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into the pit, And he
who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare; For the windows above
are opened, and the foundations of the earth shake. 19 The earth is broken asunder, The earth is split through, The earth is shaken
violently. 20 The earth
reels to and fro like a drunkard And it totters like a shack, For its
transgression is heavy upon it, And it will fall, never to rise again. 21 So it
will happen in that day,
That the LORD will punish the host of heaven on high, And the kings of the
earth on earth. 22 They will be gathered together Like prisoners in the
dungeon, And will be confined in prison; And after many days they will be
punished. 23 Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, For the LORD of hosts will reign
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And His glory will be before His elders.”
I have highlighted “the earth” in this chapter to show
how Isaiah used the Hebrew word erets
in this chapter. I put the meaning of
this word in yesterday’s SD, and Dr. Wiersbe reported that that word was used
some sixteen times in this chapter of Isaiah.
As I was thinking about this chapter yesterday a verse
came into my mind from the book of Revelations which says in “Re 11:18 "And the nations were enraged, and Your
wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward
Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name,
the small and the great, and
to destroy those who destroy the earth.’” There is another verse that went through my
mind this morning that I think has to do with this chapter and that comes from
the book of Romans: 8:20-22: “For the
creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who
subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from
its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of
childbirth together until now.” All of
God’s creation, the entire earth and all the planets have been suffering
because of the curse of sin that is upon it and one day the Lord Jesus Christ
will return to the earth and set up His kingdom, and even though there will be
sin going on during that time it will be so much better than it is now. At the end of those 1000 years the Lord will
destroy all of the earth and planets that He made and will create a new heaven
and a new earth and a new Jerusalem, and then the curse of sin will finally be
over with. Satan has access now to
heaven and I believe that is why the Lord will even destroy heaven and make a
new one. We see some of these things
being spoken of in this chapter of Isaiah.
If I understand my eschatology correctly Isaiah 24 is
speaking of the times of the tribulation which will close the Day of the Lord
as the Lord Jesus Christ will come to earth as seen in Revelations chapter
nineteen and then will judge the sheep and the goats which are spoken of in
Matthew chapter twenty-four. This will
be the most devastating time that has ever happened on planet earth and the
Lord stated that if He did not return at this time then no one would be left
alive. He returns to the earth and
judges those who have been left on the earth, casting the “goats” into hell
along with Satan, the antichrist, and the false prophet, and sets the “sheep”
on His right side to go into the 1000 year kingdom to repopulate the
earth. At the end of that 1000 year
reign there will be a war as Satan will be let out of prison. The war will be short as the Lord will end it
and then put all those who were with Satan into hell forever. Just a note on this, and that is that the
earth will be perfect during the 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth, but
sin will still take place which shows that sin is a heart problem and not an environmental
problem.
I want to give a quote from Dr. Wiersbe at this time and
then quote John MacArthur in the remaining part of this SD: “Why does God punish the inhabitants of the
world? Because they have defiled the
world by their sins. When Adam sinned,
God cursed the ground as a part of the punishment (Genesis 3:17-18; Rom.
8:20-22), and God warned the people of Israel that their sins polluted the Promised
Land (Num. 35:33). Today we see man’s
greed polluting land, water, and atmosphere, as well as exploiting the earth of
its God-given treasures. Sin has
consequences in nature as well as in human character and conscience.” Just a note on this that I want to say and
that is that in our country the environmentalists to me, have little interest
in caring for the world, but more interest in making money. Making pollution is wrong, and destroying the
earth this way is wrong, but it is wrong because God says it is wrong, and that
is the only reason that it is wrong.
I think that it is best to quote John MacArthur in the
next SD because of the already length of this one, and so I will plan on doing
that in the next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I think because
of the environmentalists in this country and what they stand for, which is
wrong, it was hard for me to get a good perspective on the sin of doing harm to
the earth, and so with this in mind I want to do a better job, for the cause of
Christ, to do a better job of this.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord in guiding my
steps today.
Memory verses for the
week: Review Psalm 46 on my own.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “In the land of Shinar”
(Genesis 11:2).
Today’s Bible
Question: “Whose daughter did Jesus
raise from the dead?”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
8/28/2013 8:57 AM
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