The Reason for Fear PT-2 (Rev. 6:12-14)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/31/2015 8:42 PM

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  The Reason for Fear PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 6:12-14

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

            In this second part of “The Reason for Fear,” we will begin to look at the different elements that are found in these verses and begin to comment on them.

            The first thing we will look at is that “there was a great earthquake.”  We can go back into history and read about many earthquakes that have literally killed millions of people, but the earthquake that John is writing about here will actually shake more than the earth.  John MacArthur in describing this writes:  “Seismos (earthquake) literally means ‘a shaking.’  In Matthew 8:24 it describes a great storm on the Sea of Galilee, and the Septuagint uses it in Joel 2:10 to describe the heavens trembling.” 

            God has used a shaking to get peoples attention in the past as in the case when the Law was given as seen in Exodus 19:18 where we read:  “Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.”  There have been other times too like when Paul and Silas were in the Philippian jail and God shook the jail so that all of the chains of the prisoners fell off.  He did this to get the attention of the jailer in order for Paul to present the gospel to him so that he and his whole family would be saved, and thus began the Philippian church.  God also used these shaking to judge people, for instance in the other book I am currently studying, the book of Ezekiel where he wrote “"In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel (38:19).”  As we look at reasons for fear then an earthquake is among the top reasons for people to be afraid.  The earthquake that John writes about here as a part of this sixth seal will be one that will bring great fear and probably much death and destruction upon the earth and it will even cause trouble in the sun and moon as we see in the second part of this verse which reads “the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair.”  Sackcloth was a rough material like burlap is something many people may not remember when feed came in burlap bags.  In Bible times it was used when a person was mourning or when they wanted to confess their sins and were greatly sadden about it.  In John’s description the sackcloth would have come from black goats.  John MacArthur quotes Dr. Henry M. Morris who explains what could cause this phenomenon:  “The great earthquake described here…for the first time in history is worldwide in scope.  Seismologists and geophysicists in recent years have learned a great deal about the structure of the earth and about the cause and nature of earthquakes.  The earth’s solid crust is traversed with a complex network of faults, with all resting upon a plastic mantle whose structure is still largely unknown.  Whether the crust consists of great moving plates is a current matter of controversy among geophysicists, so the ultimate cause of earthquakes is still not known.  In all likelihood, the entire complex of crustal instabilities is a remnant of the phenomena of the great Flood, especially the breakup of the fountains of the great deep.

            “In any case, the vast worldwide network of unstable earthquake belts around the world suddenly will begin to slip and fracture on a global basis and a gigantic earthquake will ensue.  This is evidently, and naturally, accompanied by tremendous volcanic eruptions, spewing vast quantities of dust and steam and gasses into the upper atmosphere.  It is probably these that will cause the sun to be darkened and the moon to appear blood-red.”  All we have to do is think about how the earthquake in Greenland cause so much trouble a few years ago causing planes to be rerouted coming from and to Europe to understand a small bit of what Dr. Morris is speaking about.

            We have looked before at what the prophet Joel has written about what will happen concerning the “Day of the Lord,”  “"The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes (2:31).”

            This SD is shorter than I would like it to be, but my wife and I are on vacation and I have driven 1100 + miles in the last two days and I am tired, but wanted to keep up with my SD’s on Revelation.

3/31/2015 9:29 PM

Interlude

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/30/2015 9:27 PM

As I said in our last SD on Ezekiel we are now at an interlude portion of the book, between chapter 32 and the rest of the book from 33-48 and as I promised I will quote from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on what he wrote about this interlude.

Interlude

            “Chapters 33-48 of Ezekiel focus on the hope of Israel as found in the promises God has made to His chosen people.  In chapter 33, God reminds His prophet that he has been commissioned to be a watchman whose task ii is to protect and inform the people by keeping his eyes open to what is happening and his earls open to what God is saying.

            “In the previous chapters, the Lord revealed His judgments on His own people and on the neighboring nations.  Ezekiel told the exiles in Babylon that the city of Jerusalem would be taken by the Babylonians, the land would be ravaged, and the temple would be destroyed.  But in this closing section of the book, he had the happy privilege of announcing a bright future for the people of God.  The holy city and the Promised Land would be restored (chapts. 33-36), the divided kingdom would be united and protected (chapts. 37-39), and there would be a new temple in which the glory of the Lord would reside (chapts. 40-48).  The glory that he had seen depart from the defiled temple (11:23) he saw return to the new temple (43:4-5; 44:4).  The kingdom promised by the prophets would be established, and the Messiah, the Son of David, would reign from Jerusalem.

            “Some students prefer to interpret Ezekiel 33-48 idealistically or symbolically, applying those descriptions ‘spiritually’ to the church today rather than literally to Israel in the future.  But if we’ve been interpreting Ezekiel’s prophetic word literally up to this point, what right do we have to change our approach and start interpreting his words symbolically?  As Dr. David Cooper said, ‘When the plain sense of Scripture makes good sense, then we need no other sense.’  We must face the fact that both approaches—the symbolical and the literal—present problems to the interpreter, but taking Ezekiel’s prophecies at face value seems to present fewer problems.  Furthermore, seeing literal fulfillment of these prophecies accomplishes the purpose for which God gave them, the encouragement of the people of Israel.  Few nations if any have suffered as Israel has suffered, and to rob God’s chosen people of their hope is to make their suffering meaningless. 

            “Our approach will be to assume that these prophecies will have a literal fulfillment and that Israel will one day see her Messiah and share in the glorious kingdom promised by Ezekiel and the other prophets.  At the same time, we will seek to apply the basic spiritual lessons taught in these chapters, truths that apply to God’s people in the church today.”

            I have stated before that the people who want to take the promises that God gave to Israel and apply them to the church are doing a great disloyalty to the Word of God.  I totally believe that our enemy is the one behind this so that he can even use people who have been truly born-again to go against Israel.

3/30/2015 9:48 PM

The Reason for Fear PT -1 (Rev. 6:12-14)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/30/2015 7:33 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  The Reason for Fear PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                            Reference:  Revelation 6:12-14

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

            I want to begin again with something that I wrote from an earlier SD on these verses which is dated May 13, 2005 “These next six verses describe the sixth seal being opened, and the results of that seal being opened.  The sixth seal is a tremendous earth quake that will affect all of the earth in one way or another.  It also affects the sun, moon and the stars as they will not shine like they use to, possibly because of all the added pollution on the earth as a result of this earthquake.  In verse 13 it speaks of stars falling from the sky, and this could be referring to meteorites or it could possibly be referring to rockets with nuclear bombs on them and appear to be stars coming out of the sky.  Whatever they are, they are a judgment from God.  God’s judgment is holy and just and because God is holy He has to judge sin, and for those who have not accepted the judgment of sin that was laid upon Jesus Christ at the cross they will one day have to face the wrath of God and the Lamb.”  You can see that when I wrote this I spoke of the possibility of some of these judgments coming from man, but controlled by God as a judgment none the less.  Mankind has the technology to destroy this earth and later on in the book of Revelation we actually see a statement from God about this 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."”   The possibility is there for sure, but I don’t think that anyone can be dogmatic about this one way or the other.

            Now what we see in this sixth seal is unlike what we saw in the first five seals and that is that humans are involved in those seals, but this one involves God as He acts alone.  Now I know that this may sound like I am saying that it is impossible for man to be involved in these judgments, but that is not the case for even if man is involved by sending rockets with nuclear bombs on them it would still be a judgment from the Lord.

            As this seal is broken the world is in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation period, a period which is actually called “The Great Tribulation” by our Lord in Matthew 24:21 “"For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.”  Remember that in the middle of the Tribulation the Antichrist goes into the temple and performs the abomination of desolations which Daniel spoke of.  Now we will look at another verse from Matthew twenty-four as we have noted that chapter twenty-four is  what is called “The Olivet Discourse,” with Jesus speaking about the same things that are written in some of the judgments described in the book of Revelation.  “"But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken (Matt. 24:29).”  Let us also look at a similar passage from Luke’s gospel: “and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven (Luke 21:11).”  Remember Luke 21, and Mark 13 are parallel passages to Matthew 24.  More now from Luke “25  "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26  men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

            Joel is one of the OT prophets who speaks of the endtimes and he wrote in 2:1-2, 10 the following:  “1 Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the LORD is coming; Surely it is near, 2  A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations.  10 Before them the earth quakes, The heavens tremble, The sun and the moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness.”  It is amazing to me that we can see these prophecies written in the Old Testament and then spoken again in the New Testament.  Joel was not the only prophet who speaks of these things happening for Ezekiel 13:5-16 and Zephaniah 1:15 also write of this.

            We will continue with this in our next SD as we will break down thee verses from Revelation 6:12-14 at that time.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am so very thankful for the Word of God, and also the God of the Word.  It is wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit of God has put together the Bible using many different authors from different centuries and yet having it fit together in such a wonderful way.  Man could have never written the Bible without being led by the Spirit of God, for man would not have written the things that we see in the Word of God for mankind is to self-centered and would not have been able to tell the truth of his condition.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love or Christ today.  I ask the Lord to give my wife and I safety as we begin a trip of some 1300 miles to Key Largo Fl for a month of R & R.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Mount Carmen” (1 Kings 18:19).

Today’s Bible question:  “Whom did Pharaoh, king of Egypt, appoint to prepare for the famine?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/30/2015 8:09 AM

           

 

 

The Corpse is Buried (Ezek. 32:17-32)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/29/2015 8:56 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  The Corpse is Buried

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ezekiel 32:17-32

            Message of the verses:  “17 In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth of the month, the word of the LORD came to me saying, 18 “Son of man, wail for the hordes of Egypt and bring it down, her and the daughters of the powerful nations, to the nether world, with those who go down to the pit; 19 ’Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down and make your bed with the uncircumcised.’ 20 “They shall fall in the midst of those who are slain by the sword. She is given over to the sword; they have drawn her and all her hordes away. 21 “The strong among the mighty ones shall speak of him and his helpers from the midst of Sheol, ’They have gone down, they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.’ 22 “Assyria is there and all her company; her graves are round about her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword, 23 whose graves are set in the remotest parts of the pit and her company is round about her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living. 24  "Elam is there and all her hordes around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised to the lower parts of the earth, who instilled their terror in the land of the living and bore their disgrace with those who went down to the pit. 25 “They have made a bed for her among the slain with all her hordes. Her graves are around it, they are all uncircumcised, slain by the sword (although their terror was instilled in the land of the living), and they bore their disgrace with those who go down to the pit; they were put in the midst of the slain. 26 “Meshech, Tubal and all their hordes are there; their graves surround them. All of them were slain by the sword uncircumcised, though they instilled their terror in the land of the living. 27  "Nor do they lie beside the fallen heroes of the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war and whose swords were laid under their heads; but the punishment for their iniquity rested on their bones, though the terror of these heroes was once in the land of the living. 28 “But in the midst of the uncircumcised you will be broken and lie with those slain by the sword. 29  "There also is Edom, its kings and all its princes, who for all their might are laid with those slain by the sword; they will lie with the uncircumcised and with those who go down to the pit. 30 “There also are the chiefs of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who in spite of the terror resulting from their might, in shame went down with the slain. So they lay down uncircumcised with those slain by the sword and bore their disgrace with those who go down to the pit. 31 “These Pharaoh will see, and he will be comforted for all his hordes slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his army," declares the Lord GOD. 32 “Though I instilled a terror of him in the land of the living, yet he will be made to lie down among the uncircumcised along with those slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his hordes," declares the Lord GOD.”

            What we have in this section is all of the nations that were judged before Egypt are down in the pit or Sheol and they will welcome Pharaoh there.  Not a pretty situation at all.  I believe that when Sheol is used in the Old Testament it is used as the place of the dead and when we see the parable that Jesus gave in the NT book of Luke you will see that there are two compartments in Sheol, one for those who were believers and the other for those who were not believers where there is much torment as described in Luke 16:20-31, and this is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. 

            Now as far as the date of this seventh oracle Dr. Wiersbe writes “since no other date is recorded, we assume it was given two weeks after the previous message—March 17, 585 BC.  It follows the style of 31:15-18 and describes the people of Egypt descending into Sheol, the world of the dead.  Ezekiel was instructed to wail because of the multitudes of people who would be slain by the swords of the Babylonians.”  Since this happened before the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple which happened in August of 585 the events that Ezekiel is describing are still in the future, when Babylon will go and attack Egypt.

            Many of the nations that Ezekiel is mentioning in this section have already been spoken of him in the earlier chapters of his book, although some of them have not been mentioned.  Pharaoh will see many people in Sheol that he had heard of or knew who went there before him.  Dr. Wiersbe writes a paraphrase of the picture that awaits Ezekiel:  “So you thought you were so beautiful and strong?  Look at you now! You prided yourselves in being a circumcised people, but no you are lying down in death with the uncircumcised.  Like us, you thought you were invincible, but now you have joined us in death and decay.  You are no longer on a throne—you are in a g rave!  Your bed is a sepulcher.”   

            For believers that picture that we just saw painted will not happen and it is not because we, in and of ourselves are righteous, but we have the righteousness of Jesus Christ who while hanging on the cross exchanged His righteousness and took on our unrighteousness.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:55  ‘"O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  This for sure is a wonderful promise for all who have put their faith in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation.

            In his commentary on Ezekiel Dr. Wiersbe writes an Interlude between chapters 32 and the rest of the book which I will quote in our next SD on Ezekiel.

 3/29/2015 9:22 PM

Intoduction to the Sixth Seal Judgment (Rev. 6:12-17)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/29/2015 10:32 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Introduction to the Sixth Seal

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 6:12-17

            Message of the verses:  “12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"”

            I want to go over something that we have spoken about before, but needs to be done again today and that is “The Day of the Lord.”  The Day of the Lord is mentioned nineteen times in the Old Testament and four times in the New Testament.  What we are learning from Revelation chapter six on has to do with the Day of the Lord.  When it is mentioned in the Old Testament there were times when it is mentioned during a time when judgment was going to fall upon the nation of Israel, and so the prophet would use that current judgment to picture what would happen in the last days.  Psalm 7:11 says “God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day (NIV).”  While this is true “the Day of the Lord is an expression used to describe periods when God specially intervenes in human history for judgment (J. MacArthur).”  MacArthur goes on “It is a unique time when God’s power and holiness are unveiled, bringing terror and death to His enemies.  The prophets describe the Day of the Lord as ‘destruction from the Almighty’ (Isa. 13:6; Joel 1:15), a time of ‘fury and burning anger’ (Isa. 13:9), a ‘time of doom’ (Ezek. 30:3), ‘great and very awesome’ (Joel 2:11), and ‘darkness and not light’ (Amos 5:18; cf. v. 20).” 

            I want to focus in on the final eschatological judgments of the Day of the Lord which happen during the times in the Tribulation period because that is what we are looking at in the book of Revelation, however as stated earlier there were times when “Day of the Lord” events happened during the Old Testament times when judgment came upon Israel because of their sin against the Lord. 

            Joel 2:28-32 “28 "It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. 29 “Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30 “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. 31 “The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 32 "And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered; For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, As the LORD has said, Even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.”

            Zechariah 14:1 “Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.”

            Malachi 4:1, 5 “1"For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch."   5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.”

            Acts 2:20 “20 ’THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME.”

            1 Thessalonians 5:2 “2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.”

            2 Thessalonians 2:2 “2  that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.”

            2 Peter 3:10 “10  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

            When we looked at the first five seal judgments we can say that these were preliminary judgment that lead up to the rest of the judgments that will follow which include the sixth and seventh seal judgments, and then the seven trumpet judgments and finally the seven bowl judgments.  MacArthur writes concerning this “That Day will unfold in two stages, first during the Tribulation (1 Thess. 5:2), and then at the end of the Millennium (2 Pet. 3:10).  Those two stages are separated by a thousand years.  It is noteworthy that Peter, as if to erase any questions about that separation, reminds the reader that ‘with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day (2 Pet. 3:8).’”

            Now when we studied the books of first and second Thessalonians we went over why Paul wrote so much to them about the Day of the Lord and the end times when the Lord Jesus would come in the clouds to receive His bride.  The Thessalonians had many questions, and for that I am glad because if they would have understood exactly what Paul had taught them when he was with them then we would not have had what he wrote to them in order to straighten up their views on the end times.  The return of Christ is mentioned in very chapter of both first and second Thessalonians.  The study we did on this was last year beginning on March 11, 2014 and then it finally concluded on 12-13-2014, but I was also looking at different Old Testament books during that time so it did not take all that long for the Thessalonians letters. 

            People living through the Tribulation Period will not realize exactly when the Day of the Lord will begin as is stated by both Paul and Peter for when the church is taken out at the rapture there will not be any believers at that time, but God will begin to save people during this time, but they will not have the knowledge right away to understand all that is happening.  When things begin to happen as far as the Day of the Lord beginning they will then understand what is going on at as we stated before when they begin to share this information is when they will begin to be killed for the cause of Christ.  There will be 144,000 Jewish witness during the end times along with the two witness which will come during the last half of the Tribulation period, and then there will be an angel flying in the heaven telling people about the gospel, so it seems that eventually people will get a crash course on the end times. 

            In this sixth seal one of the things that helps identify it is fear and as I was listening to John MacArthur’s sermon on this section we will be looking at he gave a list of things that people fear that came from the columnist Ann Landers.  I will quote this list as many may get a laugh when reading it.

             FEAR

 

If a person can't handle normal fear, we say that person has a phobia. By phobia we basically mean an abnormal response to a normal fear, or the invention of an abnormal and bizarre fear. A phobia is fear exaggerated. It is fear that disables a person. It is fear that is uncontrollable and unconquerable, it is fear that totally takes control of a person so that they cannot function normally. Such phobia leads to paranoia, panic attacks, and various kinds of deviant and anti-social behavior.

 

 When you look at people and examine what they're afraid of, it's quite amazing. Ann Landers, interestingly enough, through all the years accumulating her mail, has listed what people are afraid of. She's got a list of the things people fear most. She says, "First of all, there are very bizarre fears about which people have written me, such as the fear of falling into the toilet, the fear of certain colors, the fear of being buried alive, or the fear of calling someone by his given name. But the most common fears, according to my mail...she said...are the following: animals, bees, being alone, being stared at, blood, blushing, cancer, cats,

choking, corpses, crowds, darkness, death, deformity, demons, dirt, dogs, dreams, elevators, enclosed space, flying, germs, height, horses, illness, insanity,

insects, lightning, mice, nakedness, noise, pain, poverty, pregnancy, robbers, school, sexual intercourse, sleep, smothering, snakes, spiders, strangers, surgical operations, syphilis, thunder, travel, vomiting, work and worms."

 

            I hope you enjoy this list.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I know that it will be a fearful time during the Tribulation period, but as a believer I am trying to learn to only fear the Lord and not my circumstances around me.  I don’t always succeed.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the Lord of the Lord so that I will not fear the circumstances around me.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego” (Daniel 3:17).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did Elijah contend with the prophets of Baal?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/29/2015 11:36 AM   

The Promise (Rev. 6:11)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/28/2015 8:47 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  The Promise

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Revelation 6:11

            Message of the verse:  “11  And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.”

            I wrote the following on May 12, 2005:  “It may seem from this verse that patience has to be exercised in heaven too.  This verse also speaks of these martyred believers receiving a white robe, which speaks of righteousness, and also means that they have a body in order to put this robe on.  The last part of this verse shows, like many other places in the Bible, that God has a plan and nothing will be able to stop this plan, and part of that plan is that there will be a number of believers who will die for the cause of Jesus Christ, and when that final number is complete then God’s plan will be complete and His wrath will be satisfied, and justice will be served by Him.”

            In Revelation 6:9-11 we have been looking at the prayers of the saints who have been transported to heaven because they have died for the cause of Christ.  There prayer is that God would bring about vengeance upon those who have been committing these crimes.  In today’s SD we will look at the promise that God gives to these saints.  I spoke of these saints has having a body, and I do believe that when a believer dies that they will receive a body, but not the type of body that they will receive at the rapture which will be like the glorified body that Christ now has.

            Now as for the gift that God gives to each of these believers it is a white robe and John MacArthur writes the following about it.  “The gift that was given to each of them by God as they arrived in heaven was a white robe (stole; a long robe flowing to the feet).”  Now we have learned earlier that this white robe symbolizes righteousness, eternal righteousness. 

            Next we see that God tells them to rest for a little while longer, and this certainly is not a rebuke from the Lord to them for being impatience for these saints are now perfect and cannot sin.  God wants them to trust Him and His plan to care for the judgment that the evil men on earth deserve and to just stop and enjoy heaven.  We know that it will not be too long before God does exercise judgment on these men.  In the tenth chapter of Revelation and verse six we read “there will be delay no longer,” so this must mean that the waiting of these saints is over.  God tells them that others will be killed for the cause of Christ and He had to wait for that to happen.   MacArthur writes “God sovereignty predetermined the exact number of those who would be killed.  The petitioners were told to enjoy heaven’s rest until that number had been reached.  Robert L. Thomas notes:  ‘The word to the souls under the altar gives them reassurance that God will eventually avenge their blood, but the time for the culmination of that vengeance has not yet arrived.  One feature that must yet transpire beforehand is the increase of their number through additional martyrdom.  The earth dwellers under the dawning leadership of the beast from the sea will take an even greater toll of human lives before Christ finally intervenes through His personal arrival back on earth.  Until then, they already martyred are told to rest and enjoy their state of blessedness already attained.’”

            Now as far as the “fellow servants and brethren,” they are two different classes of people.  The fellow servants may or may not die for the cause of Christ, but the brethren are the ones who will die for the cause of Christ. 

            The world today seems to forget the things that are right and wrong.  Our parents fought in WWII against a demon possessed Hitler who was trying to kill all of the Jews and thus what came out of it was the Jews were brought into their land and given a nation in May of 1948.  Now we see that our government is trying to distance themselves from the very people that our parents died to save.  Is it so hard to believe that we will go through the same type of thing that Hitler was trying to accomplish in the Tribulation period?

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  What I can learn from this is that God surely does answer prayers in His own time when He is ready, and that God has a plan and nothing will stop it.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The first day” (Luke 24:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace?’”

Answer in our next SD.

3/28/2015 9:19 AM

 

The Monster Punished (Ezek. 32:11-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/27/2015 9:54 PM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  The Monster Punished

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ezekiel 32:11-16

            Message of the verses:  “11 For thus says the Lord GOD, "The sword of the king of Babylon will come upon you. 12 “By the swords of the mighty ones I will cause your hordes to fall; all of them are tyrants of the nations, And they will devastate the pride of Egypt, And all its hordes will be destroyed. 13 “I will also destroy all its cattle from beside many waters; And the foot of man will not muddy them anymore And the hoofs of beasts will not muddy them. 14 “Then I will make their waters settle And will cause their rivers to run like oil," Declares the Lord GOD. 15 “When I make the land of Egypt a desolation, And the land is destitute of that which filled it, When I smite all those who live in it, Then they shall know that I am the LORD. 16 “This is a lamentation and they shall chant it. The daughters of the nations shall chant it. Over Egypt and over all her hordes they shall chant it," declares the Lord GOD.”

            After this SD we will have one more that deals with the nation of Egypt and in particular the prideful leaders that they had during this time of their history.  If we go back and look at what happened to them when the Lord first destroyed them as seen in the book of Exodus we will see that there was also a great deal of pride in their leader then too as it took ten plagues from the hand of God to destroy them, but they did not give up even then as the chased Israel to the edge of the Red Sea and it was there that God opened up the Red Sea to allow Israel to pass through on dry ground, but drowned the Egyptians when they tried to pass through.  We did not hear from Egypt for a while after that, but eventually they began to be built up again and after that the pride came back strong which is something that the Lord hates and this time the Lord would use His servant Nebuchadnezzar to bring them to their knees again as seen in these verses.  This is not the only place where God used a prophet to prophesize against Egypt as at the end of the book of Jeremiah God also spoke of when the few remaining Israelites went to Egypt God told them not to go, but when they did go God told them that in effect they were going from the frying pan into the fire because He was going to use Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Egypt and that is what He did.

            In this section we see that even the animal life was affected because of what the Babylonians would be doing to Egypt.  The water in the rivers and cannels would be muddy and then run like oil as no one was left to draw water from them.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Ordinarily, the flowing of oil is a picture of peace and prosperity from God’s blessings, but in this cause, it speaks of peace because of God’s judgment.  Now humans or animals are there to stir up the mud and defile the water.  But the picture also reminds us that Egypt’s defeat would help to bring peace to the ‘pool’ of nations.”

            It is a shame that people in the nations that are around today do not watch what the Bible had to say about why the Lord would destroy nations earlier as history will eventually repeat itself because no one takes the time to study it and learn from it.  One of the great concerns that I have for this wonderful country that I live in is the attitude that we have against the things of God, things that God has written in His Word that if a nation follows them that He will destroy it.  As one reads the first chapter of the book of Romans they will see the downfall of either people or a nation as we read “God gave them over,” and what He gave them over is the sinful things that are seen in the verses of Romans chapter one.  Then again in Genesis 12:3 we see that God promises blessing to those who bless Israel, but cursing to those who curse Israel and we now have a president that is doing everything in his power to stop supporting the nation of Israel.  As we read how the nations in the OT were destroyed because of pride and other sinfulness and also how they treated Israel there is no reason to believe that it will not happen to us someday.

3/27/2015 10:16 PM

Petition From the Souls under the Altar (Rev. 6:10)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/27/2015 11:36 AM

My Worship Time                                                 Focus:  Petition From the Souls under the Altar

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 6:10

            Message of the verses:  “10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"”

            On May 11, 2005 I wrote the following in my Spiritual Diary about this verse:  “I am sure that this verse has given problems to many people throughout the ages as they have read it because some perhaps cannot understand why these martyred saints are calling for their own blood to be avenged.  As believers on this earth we are told to pray for those who are our enemies, and both Jesus Christ and Stephen have done this just before they died, but these believers are now in heaven and they, along with I suppose martyrs throughout the Church age, have been asking when will God avenge their deaths and when will God’s justice be given upon this earth to all those who have rejected Him.  It is in God’s character to judge sin because justice is part of His character.  There are many of the Psalms which cry out this same cry, and one day soon God will answer all of these prayers.”  I certainly cannot say that I have changed my mind about what I wrote in May of 2005.

            There are some who think that the fifth seal is martyrdom, but when we look at the purpose of these seals that Christ is opening they are judgments and martyrdom is not a judgment, so we have to conclude that this fifth seal depicts God’s wrath and God’s judgment upon those who are evil and who are killing the believers who are trying to tell the truth about Christ, and about what is going on during the Tribulation period.

            I have been thinking a lot about prayer in the last few months and have come to some conclusions about it that to me, are very important in my walk with the Lord.  Prayer is having God’s will be aligned with my will and that is an important thing to remember.  As we look at these saints who are now perfect because they are in heaven we see that what they are praying is in the will of God for they have no sinfulness about them, the flesh is not a part of them so they can pray with a pure heart which is unlike those of us who are believers still in our bodies here on earth. 

            Jesus prayed for those who had Him crucified, and Stephen did the same as seen in Acts 7:60, but there will come a time when the patience of God will come to an end and He will judge because that is also a part of His nature, and we are seeing that time described in the book of Revelation beginning with chapter six.

            John MacArthur writes the following about prayer:  “May Christians act as if prayer were a mere formality that has little effect.  Yet, amazingly, the prayers of the Tribulation martyrs will move God’s hand of judgment.  Jesus illustrated that same principle in the parable of the persistent widow and the unrighteous judge:  ‘Will not God being about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?  I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly’ (Luke. 18:7-8).  The prayers of the Tribulation martyrs will participate in activating the torments of the sixth and seventh seals along with the trumpet and bowl judgments which follow.

            “God’s hand of judgment will move in response to the martyrs because their prayers will be urgent, fervent, impassioned, and consistent with His purpose and will. Krazo (cried out) is a strong word that emphasizes the urgent need and denotes strong emotions (cf. Matt. 9:27; 14:26, 30; 15:22; 20:30-31; Mark 9:24).  The twenty-four elders and the angels loudly praised God (5:12), and the Tribulation martyrs will petition Him ‘with a loud voice.’  In keeping with their call for vengeance and justice, they address Him as the ‘Lord, holy and true. Lord’ does not translate kuios the common New Testament word for Lord, but the stronger term despotes (‘master,’ ‘ruler).  It speaks of God the Father’s might, power, majesty, and authority.”  I surely find the book of Revelation opening up more when I better understand some of the words that are given meaning to by John MacArthur. 

            I write about the attributes of God in my Spiritual Diaries because it is a good way to better understand God as we look at His different attributes.  Also by knowing His attributes one has a better idea of how to pray to Him about different things as seen here by the martyrs in this verse for they appeal to the holiness of God along with the truthfulness of God, the faithfulness of God and the justice and wrath of God.

            These martyrs have  question for God and that question is, as I stated in my May 11, 2005 Spiritual Diary, may be asked of God by all the martyrs, and that is how long will you wait before you avenge our blood and take action upon those evil men on the earth.  How long is a prayer that I am sure has been asked of God many times in the past, and will continue to be ask of God, probably every day.  One more thing I want to look at and that is the phrase “those who dwell on the earth,” as we have seen this phrase in 3:10 and will see it again in 8:13; 11:10; 13:8, 12; and 17:2 and 8. This phrase speaks of the ungodly.  MacArthur adds “As was the case with murdered Abel, the very ground cries out for their blood to be required at the hands o their killers.” 

            We are living in the last days of God’s grace upon this earth as we know it now, for once the Tribulation period begins it will signal that God is about to take back His universe, and He will do it with the series of judgments that are found in the book of Revelation as we are beginning to see.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord for the privilege of prayer, and for also teaching me more and more about it and how to better pray better.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Titus” (2 Corinthians 2:13).

Today’s Bible question:  “On what day of the week did the women bring spices to Jesus’ tomb?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/27/2015 12:14 PM

           

 

The Monster Captured (Ezek. 32:1-10)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/26/2015 8:07 PM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus:  The Monster Captured

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ezekiel 32:1-10

            Message of the verses:  In today’s SD we will be looking at the sixth main point from Dr. Wiersbe’s outline, and in this case it will be on the first part of chapter 32 of the book of Ezekiel.  Chapter nine in his commentary is entitled “Egypt Will Fall,” and it covers chapters 29-32 so we are in the last chapter of Ezekiel that is covered in his ninth chapter of his commentary.  He entitles this sixth main point “The Monster Trapped” and it covers verses 1-16 of Ezekiel chapter 32.

            The Monster Captured (Ezekiel 32:1-10):  “1 In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2  "Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him, ’You compared yourself to a young lion of the nations, Yet you are like the monster in the seas; And you burst forth in your rivers And muddied the waters with your feet And fouled their rivers.’" 3 Thus says the Lord GOD, "Now I will spread My net over you With a company of many peoples, And they shall lift you up in My net. 4 “I will leave you on the land; I will cast you on the open field. And I will cause all the birds of the heavens to dwell on you, And I will satisfy the beasts of the whole earth with you. 5 “I will lay your flesh on the mountains And fill the valleys with your refuse. 6 “I will also make the land drink the discharge of your blood As far as the mountains, And the ravines will be full of you. 7 “And when I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars; I will cover the sun with a cloud And the moon will not give its light. 8 “All the shining lights in the heavens I will darken over you And will set darkness on your land," Declares the Lord GOD. 9 “I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples when I bring your destruction among the nations, into lands which you have not known. 10 "I will make many peoples appalled at you, and their kings will be horribly afraid of you when I brandish My sword before them; and they will tremble every moment, every man for his own life, on the day of your fall."”

            The year and date of this prophecy was given to Ezekiel was March 5, 585 BC, so this was after the siege would have been complete by the Babylonians on the city of Jerusalem, destroying it and also destroying their temple, and this would have been two months after the exiles in Babylon received the news that Jerusalem had fallen (33:21-22).  We have seen the use of the monster theme in chapter 29:1-16, but Ezekiel will use it again to bring about more spiritual truths.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “This is an ‘official lamentation’ for the king of Egypt who though he was a great lion but in God’s sight was only a crocodile.”  The NASB uses the word “Monster” to describe him.  We also see in verse three that Pharoah would splash around in the water which would muddy up the waters and create problems by not obeying the Lord.

            We previously saw that in chapter 29 the Lord had to use a hook to capture this beast, but now he is so week that a net can be used to capture him.  After being caught by the net God would take him to land and allow or probably cause him to die on the land and then the vultures would devour his carcass.  We then see two more images in this section, first we see that the land would drink up his blood and the heavens shrouded in darkness (vv. 6-8).  When we go back to the book of Exodus and look at the first and ninth plagues they will remind us of these two things that are done to Pharaoh.  The turning of the water into blood and then having darkness over the land of Egypt for three days, and also we will see this happen in the Great Tribulation as one of the bowl judgments brings darkness on the kingdom of Antichrist.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “The description of the signs in the heavens makes us think of the future day of the Lord described in Joel 3, Amos 5:18-20, and Matthew 24.  It has been said that past events cast their shadows before, and so it will be with the fall of Egypt.  It was a dress rehearsal for the judgments of the last days.  Once again, Ezekiel explained that just as the fall of Assyria caused a shock wave to go through the nations (30:16; see 27:35 and 28:19), so the fall of Egypt will frighten the nations (32:9-10).  But will they learn from this experience and turn to the Lord?  No, they will go right on sinning and rebelling against His truth.” 

            What a shame that people do not learn from history.

3/26/2015 8:36 PM  

The Persons of Rev. 6:9 (PT-2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/26/2015 7:48 AM

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  The Persons of Rev. 6:9 (PT-2)

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 6:9

            Message of the verses:  “9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained;”

            We have been talking about the vengeance of God as seen in chapter six and also we have been talking about the persecution against believers which is going on during the Tribulation period, and in particular what had happened to those who were found under the altar in heaven when the fifth seal was broken by or Lord Jesus Christ.

            The persecution will probably begin slowly for at the beginning of the Tribulation period there will not be too many believers since the rapture had recently occurred which took all the true believers out of the world.  It will probably take a while for those on earth to figure out what happened when the rapture occurred, and it will take a while to clean up the mess that happened when drivers of cars, planes, trains and boats just up and disappeared leaving those vehicles to go off on their own.  I suppose that many people will think that this was an alien invasion and probably will be glad that all of these fundamental Christians have left the planet, but some will be in grief, losing loved ones and probably in time they will figure out exactly what happened to them leaving them open to the Gospel.  After time people will grow tired of hearing what happened to the believers in the rapture and also what these new believers will be telling others what will soon happen, and then the persecution will begin, especially when as we learned in our last SD that the Holy Spirit’s influence will be taken out of the world leaving men to act like men act when there is no restraint.  Now as has always been the case there will be as Christ described in Matthew 13:24-43, there will be tares among the wheat and when the persecution begins the tares will run, not willing to die for the cause of Christ and will probably in some cases become a part of the persecution of real true believers.

            We have been following the events that will take place during the Tribulation period as seen in Revelation with what Christ has said in the book of Matthew, the Olivet Discourse.  “15 “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17 “Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. 18 “Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. 19 “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 “But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. 21 “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. 22 “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short (Matthew 24:15-22).”  Now as we look at verse fifteen we see that Christ mentions the “Abomination of Desolation” which signals the mid-point of the tribulation period, so what we see with the fifth seal being opened could be some of those who had been slain for the cause of Christ during the time leading up to the middle of the Tribulation period and even up past the mid-point.  Some of the timing of this is difficult to determine, but we do know that all of this will happen.  One of my favorite moves, in spite of the infidelity in it is Dr. Zhivago and in one of the last scenes the mistress of Dr. Zhivago tells him that “this is an awful time to be alive,” and I am sure that many people who are living through the Tribulation period will be echoing those same words.

            Now I want to quote what John MacArthur has to say about which altar is described here in this verse as it is not completely described as it is possible that it could be one of two altars.  “The text does not define which altar is in view, nor does that scene in heaven parallel the earthly temple (or tabernacle), which had no throne (cf. 4:2).  The altar John saw is most likely emblematic of the altar of incense in the Old Testament (Ex. 40:5), because of the association of incense with prayer.”  Now in my previous study of Revelation I wrote the following about this altar:  “As the fifth seal is broken it tells of those who have given up their lives for the cause of Jesus Christ, and they are now in heaven and are underneath the altar.  Dr. Wiersbe points out that this is the place where the blood of the OT sacrifices was poured out when an animal was sacrificed.  To OT teaches that the life is in the blood, and thus when the blood was poured out it was reprehensive of the animal.”  Not often to Warren Wiersbe and John MacArthur disagree on Scripture but this point, which cannot be proved one way or the other is one of them.

            As we finish this verse we can see exactly why these saints had been persecuted and slain:  “who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained;” These true believers had maintained their testimony for the cause of Christ and therefore were killed because of it and now were in heaven praying that God would take revenge on those who had done this to them.  These believers were now perfect as they were in heaven in new bodies without a sin problem from the flesh which we all have while on earth.

            We will look at more of their prayer request for vengeance in our next SD.

3/26/2015 8:21 AM     3/26/2015 11:39 AM

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Those who are under the altar because of their testimony for Christ had gone through a lot of pain similar to what Christ went through to buy them out of the slave market of sin.  I have to go through pain at times, either mental or physical in order to grow in my walk with the Lord even though I know that it is no pleasant.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in the love of the Lord even though I am still trying to understand it.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “40 days and 40 nights” (Exodus 24:18).

Today’s Bible question:  “Paul had no rest in his spirit because he could not find whom?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/26/2015 11:48 AM