Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Introduction to Revelation 5


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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