SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/4/2015
2:52 PM
My Worship Time Focus: On the
Throne
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 4:2b-3a
Message of the
verses: “and One sitting on the
throne. And He who was sitting was like
a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance;”
Now as we look at this verse we can get a picture of the
One who is ruling this universe, it is not run by chance or run randomly, but
by God, and this verse sees Him sitting on the throne.
Let us take a look at a couple of verses from the book of
Hebrews, Heb. 1:3 “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact
representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.
When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty on high,” and now Heb. 10:12 “but He, having offered one sacrifice for
sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,” and lastly Heb. 12:2 “fixing
our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set
before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right
hand of the throne of God.” As we look
at these verses and compare them with our verses in Revelation there is a
difference in what Christ is doing, and that difference is that He is not
resting, but sitting in a posture to begin to judge, for the judgment of sin
was taken care of on the cross, but now the judgment that will soon take place
on the earth is being readied.
John does not mention who the One sitting on the throne
was, but when we look at Isaiah’s vision in Isaiah 6:1 we will see who this
is: “In the year of King Uzziah’s death
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His
robe filling the temple.” Let us also
look at what is a relatively unknown prophet has to say in 1 Kings 22:19 “Micaiah
said, "Therefore, hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His
throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His
left.” Let us also look at Daniel 7:9-10
“"I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took
His seat; His vesture was like white snow And the hair of His head like pure
wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire.” This also reminds me of the first three
chapters of Ezekiel, but we will only look at Ezekiel 1:26-28 “26 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. 27 Then I noticed from the appearance of
His loins and upward something like glowing metal that looked like fire all
around within it, and from the appearance of His loins and downward I saw
something like fire; and there was a radiance around Him. 28 As the appearance
of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the
surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of
the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking.” These visions that were seen by these
prophets brought fear into the hearts of some of them, like Isaiah, Daniel, and
also Ezekiel, and when John saw the risen glorified Christ in chapter one he
too fell down as a dead man, unlike those who claim to have gone to heaven and
seen God in our day and age.
John MacArthur describes what John saw when he wrote “like
a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance.”
“That description is reminiscent of the flashing light, blazing fire,
and vivid colors in Ezekiel’s vision.
Revelation 21:11 describes jasper as ‘crystal-clear’; therefore, it is
best to identify this stone as a diamond.
All the shining, flashing facets of the glory of God are compared to a diamond,
brilliantly refracting all the colors of the spectrum. A sardius, from which the city of Sardis got its
name, is a fiery, bloodred ruby. It too expresses the shining beauty of God’s
glory, and may also symbolize God’s blazing wrath, about to be poured out on the
sinful, rebellious world (chapters 6-19).”
The high priest wore a breastplate which had on it twelve
stones which representing the different tribes of Israel. On that breastplate the first stone which represented
Reuben was a sardius, and the last stone was jasper which represented Benjamin
the last son. I may be possible that
since these stones represent God’s covenant relationship with Israel. The judgment that was about to come upon the
earth will not negate the covenant that God has with Israel. We know that because in the 7th
chapter of Revelation we will see 144,000 Jewish evangelists going out into the
world to tell the world that salvation comes through what Christ did on the
cross and in the tenth chapter we also see the two Jewish witnesses. Paul writes in Romans 11:26 that “all Israel
will be saved,” and this will happen in the tribulation period.
MacArthur finishes by writing “John’s vision of God’s
throne is not one of peace and comfort.
Its flashing, glorious, splendorous magnificent reveals the terrors of
God’s judgment. Truly, ‘Our God is a
consuming fire’ (Heb. 12:29; Deut 4:24).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: In my prayers
that I pray every day I think about the fear of the Lord and then try and
realize how I am to fear the Lord.
Seeing this description of the Lord and the others and knowing the
reaction that these different prophets had I truly can fear the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to better understand and live in the love Christ has
for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Jerusalem.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What did Joseph say was the
meaning of the kings dream?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/4/2015 3:28 PM
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