SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/10/2015
8:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to Revelation 5
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 5
Message
of the verses: I thought it best to
do this SD on the introduction of Revelation chapter five, a chapter that will
led us into the first judgments that God will bring upon the whole world with
His emphasis still on the people of Israel to bring them back to a saving
knowledge of their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. I have mentioned that I am also studying the
book of Ezekiel at the same time I am studying the book of Revelation, and I
want to quote a portion of Ezekiel chapter 37 to show that God will bring
Israel to a point where they will be saved, after all Paul writes in the
eleventh chapter of Romans that there will come a time when “all Israel will be
saved.” We live in a time where Israel
has been a nation for most of our lives, I was a little over one year old when
Israel became a nation and so it seems normal to me to see the Jewish people
back in their land. God used the prophet
Ezekiel to write about Israel becoming a nation again and we will look briefly
at what he wrote about this and then comment on it a bit. “1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He
brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the
valley; and it was full of bones. 2 He caused me to pass among them round
about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 He
said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered,
"O Lord GOD, You know." 4 Again He said to me, "Prophesy over
these bones and say to them, ’O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.’ 5 “Thus
says the Lord GOD to these bones, ’Behold, I will cause breath to enter you
that you may come to life. 6 ’I will put
sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath
in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.’" 7
So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and
behold, a rattling;
and the bones came
together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on
them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.
9 Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath,
prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ’Thus says the Lord GOD,
"Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they
come to life."’" 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them,
and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. 11
Then He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold,
they say, ’Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely
cut off.’ 12 “Therefore
prophesy and say to them, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will open
your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the
land of Israel. 13 “Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have
opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. 14
“I will put My Spirit
within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land.
Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it," declares
the LORD.’"”
As we look at these verses we can
see that Ezekiel was being told by God that one day Israel would become a
nation again, and this happened in May of 1948, so the bones became alive and
then the body became alive, and at the end of these verses God says that He
will put His Spirit within them and they will know that He is God. I believe that verse fourteen goes along with
what Paul wrote to the Romans that all Israel will be saved, and that this will
happen near the end of the tribulation period.
Another passage from the Old Testament book of Daniel shows that God
would deal with Israel for 490 years, but at the end of 483 years the Messiah
would be cut off, that is that He would die, and then Daniel writes when this
last seven years would begin, and it would begin with the signing of a peace
treaty between the antichrist and the nation of Israel for seven years. The seven year period is what we call the
tribulation period and it is yet in the future.
The problem that we face now is that Satan has taken over what we call
the world system, and what we will see in Chapter Five of Revelation is that
God is preparing to take back control of planet earth and what we are looking
at in the first part of chapter five is a scroll that has seven seals on it,
and this scroll is the title deed of planet earth and once this scroll is
opened and the things written on it are complete then God will take back His
earth and then the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God will set on David’s
throne for 1000 years as promised to the Jewish people in many OT prophecies
with the length of it added in the book of Revelation.
Over the course of history there
have been many men who want to take over and rule planet earth, but none will
be completely successful. We mentioned
Satan, who was the first to do this and he will one day have two men who will
aid him in trying to accomplish this feat, the Antichrist and the False Prophet
and along with Satan make up the unholy trinity. Before this happens we can look back at human
history and see men like the rulers of Rome, Hitler, Stalin, and the likes of
them who have tried and failed to rule planet earth. Jesus Christ the Lamb of God as I stated will
do this because He is the One who created all that is seen and has the right to
rule over it.
John MacArthur writes “The events of
chapter 5 occur right after those of chapter 4.
The scene, as in chapter 4, is the throne of God in heaven. Present are the cherubim, the twenty-four
elders (representing the raptured, glorified church), and the Holy Spirit in
His sevenfold glory (4:5). The events
described in these two chapters anticipate the holocaust of divine judgment
about to be poured out on the sinful, rebellious, cursed earth (chapters
6-19). Awestruck by the indescribable
majesty of God’s throne, and the flashes of lightning and peals of thunder that
proceed from it, the cherubim and elders begin a series of hymns of praise to
God. Those hymns celebrate God as
creator and redeemer, and rejoice that He is about to take back what is
rightfully His. This is the moment that
all Christians (Eph. 1:14) and the entire creation (Rom. 8:19-22) long for.”
I have mentioned that there is a
scroll that has to be opened and to better understand about this scroll John
MacArthur quotes Dr. Robert L. Thomas: “This
kind of contract was known all over the Middle East in ancient times and was
used by the Romans from the time of Nero on.
The full contract would be written on the inner pages and sealed with
seven seals. Then the content of the
contract would be described briefly on the outside. All kinds of transactions
were consummated this way, including marriage-contracts, rental and lease
agreements, release of slaves, contract-bills, and bonds. Support also comes from Hebrew practices. The Hebrew document most closely resembling
this scroll was a title-deed that was folded and signed, requiring at least
three witnesses. A portion of text would
be written, folded over and sealed, with a different witness signing at each
fold. A larger number of witnesses meant
that more importance was assigned to the document.”
In our recent study of the book of
Jeremiah we saw this kind of thing in action.
July 1, 2014 I wrote on the 32nd chapter of Jeremiah and it
tells about how Jeremiah bought a piece of property from his nephew, and he
bought it when the Babylonians were about to defeat Israel, so in a human view
this was not too smart, but in God’s eyes this was very important because it
showed that Israel would once again return to the land. The document was set up in the way that Dr.
Thomas explained in the quote seen above.
As we look into chapter five of
Revelation we will see this scroll and we will also see worship, worship to the
Lamb of God, worship because He will begin to have this scroll opened in order
to take back planet earth which is rightfully His.
John MacArthur writes “The chapter
divides naturally into three sections:
the search for the worthy one, the selection of the worthy one, and the
song of the worthy one.” God willing we
will begin our study in our next SD.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: What is
see in the things written above is that God is fully in control of planet earth
even though Satan is the head of the world system he can only do what the Lord
allows him to do, and one day God will cast him into the lake of fire which was
created for Satan and his fallen angels.
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.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Hannah”
(1 Samuel 1:9-11).
Today’s
Bible question: “To what individual did
Paul write two epistles?”
Answer
in our next SD.
3/10/2015
8:57 AM
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