SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/6/2015
1:00 PM
My Worship Time Focus: From and
Before the Throne
Bible Reading and Meditation Reference: Revelation 4:5a-6a
Message of the
verses: We will be looking at two different
sub-points in this SD because they are both rather short, the first one is what
John saw coming from the Throne and this covers verse Rev. 4:5a “Out from the
throne come flashes of lighting and sounds and peals of thunder.”
Let us back up a bit and review that when we are speaking
of the throne that John saw that he is speaking of the presence of God, and it
is in the temple in heaven that John was carried up to. John sees flashes of lighting and sounds and
peals of thunder coming from the throne.
This is not like some kind of a thunder storm that we see here on earth,
but this is the furry of God who is about to bring judgment on this earth. Let’s look at a couple of OT verses to help
us better understand what is going on here.
First let us look at Exodus 19:16 “So it came about on the third day,
when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick
cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people
who were in the camp trembled.” Next we
will look at Ezekiel 1:13 “In the midst of the living beings there was
something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and
forth among the living beings. The fire was bright, and lightning was flashing
from the fire.” On October 25th
of 2014 I looked at this verse along with others from the book of Ezekiel and I
concluded by writing “What Ezekiel saw is similar to what John saw in heaven as
he described in the book of Revelations, and what they both saw was the glory
of God.”
Before the world went through the flood during the time
of Noah there was not thunder of lightening storms, but now they are very
common to see and also very dangerous.
God judged the world through the flood so to me this reminds me what I
am seeing in this verse from Revelation four is all about judgment. This is just the prelude to the coming
judgment that we will be looking at when we study chapters 6-19. A preview of this is seen in Revelations 8:5 Then
the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw
it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of
lightning and an earthquake.” Next we
look at Revelation 11:19 “And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened;
and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of
lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great
hailstorm.” Revelation 16:18 “And there
were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a
great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the
earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.” I have stated before that the book of
Revelation can be studied by using a concordance to see where passages like the
one we are looking at today are found elsewhere in the Scriptures and this
helps us to understand what we are looking at.
Now we will look at what was before the throne as seen in
Revelation 4:5b-6a “And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the
throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; and before the throne there was, something like, a sea of
glass like crystal.”
John is seeing two things that are before the throne in
heaven, the first were seven lamps of fire, and the second is the seven Spirits
of God. Have we been over these two
things before in the vision of Christ from chapter one or from the churches we
studied in chapters 2-3 of Revelation?
Well if you are thinking of the seven golden lampstands seen in the
vision of chapter one, that is not what John sees here, but these are like burning
torches, not lampstands with lamps on them.
Now as far as the seven Spirits of God we have looked at this at least
one time before and this speaks of the fullness of the Holy Spirit that we saw
in Isaiah 11:2 “The Spirit
of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.” We also looked at Zech. 4:1-10 “1 Then the
angel who was speaking with me returned and roused me, as a man who is awakened
from his sleep. 2 He said to me, "What do you see?" And I said,
"I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of
it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps
which are on the top of it; 3 also two olive trees by it, one on the right side
of the bowl and the other on its left side." 4 Then I said to the angel
who was speaking with me saying, "What are these, my lord?" 5 So the
angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know
what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord." 6 Then he said to
me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ’Not by might nor by power, but
by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts. 7 ’What are you, O great
mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth
the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"’" 8 Also the
word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the
foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it. Then you will know that
the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. 10 “For who has despised the day of small
things? But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand
of Zerubbabel-these are the eyes of the LORD which range to and fro throughout
the earth."” This vision that
Zechariah saw represents the power of the Holy Spirit while the one Isaiah saw
represented the Spirits wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge,
reverence, and deity. John MacArthur
writes “Torches are associated with war in Judges 7:16-20 and Nahum 2:3-4. John’s vision depicts God as ready to make
war on sinful, rebellious mankind and the Holy Spirit as His war torch. The Comforter of those who love Christ will
be the Consumer of those who reject Him.”
One more thing to look at and that is the sea of glass
that is like crystal. We know that there
is no sea in heaven so this is metaphorical in description. The sea is the floor or base of the throne
and was a vast pavement of glass which was shining brilliantly like
crystal. Let us again look to the book
of Exodus to see another description that relates to this. Exodus 24:10 “and they saw the God of Israel;
and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the
sky itself.” Moses, Aaron, and the
elders of Israel saw this sight. We have
seen, in our study of Ezekiel something similar in Ezekiel 1:22 and 26 “Now
over the heads of the living beings there was something like an expanse, like
the awesome gleam of crystal, spread out over their heads. Now above the expanse that was over their
heads there was something resembling a throne, like lapis lazuli in appearance;
and on that which resembled a throne, high up, was a figure with the appearance
of a man.” I hope that these descriptions
of heaven will wet your appetite to one day go there and be with the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. One may ask how
this can happen. The Bible teaches us that
because of the fall of Adam and Even in the garden that all people are born
into sin, thus all people sin for that is their nature. The book of Romans tells us that “all have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
The word Gospel means good news and the good news of the Gospel is that
the second person of the godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth as the
God-man to live a perfect life and then die on the cross to pay for our
sins. Because God was satisfied with His
payment for our sins He raised Him up from the grave three days later. We must admit we are a sinner and believe
that Christ died for our sins and then invite Him to live in you in the person
of the Holy Spirit so that you can serve Him.
Doing this will make you His child and will make it possible for you to
see what John saw in heaven for that will be where you will live with Christ.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Heaven is
wonderful news for those who know Christ as their Savior and Lord, but as we
have seen in this section the judgment and furry of God’s wrath is about to
come upon those on the earth who are sinners and for three and a half years it
will go on. The good news is that I can
tell others about this so that they will not have to go through these three and
a half years of terrible judgment.
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 of the Lord so that I can
live in that love.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “He was a tanner” (Acts 9:43).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which Gospel book does not
record stilling the storm?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/6/2015 1:51 PM
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