SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
3/23/2015 7:20 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Prayer for
Vengeance PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
6:9-11
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; 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?" 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.”
As the fifth seal is opened we do not hear anything from
the four living beings, but only see what John had to write and what he writes
is that he sees underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain and
the reason that they had been slain is for the cause of Christ, and then he
goes on to write what these slain believers are asking Christ to do for them
and that is what we will be discussing as we look at this fifth seal. What we are about to look at is not popular
with many people, and for that matter not many Christians, but what we will be
discussing is the truth and we will show different verses from the Word of God
to show this truth. As the focus shows
we are going to be talking about God’s vengeance, and the fact that the prayers
of these slain believers are asking for is that God will bring about His
vengeance on those who are killing believers on the earth.
I like the way that John MacArthur begins his commentary
on this section where he writes “It has been observed that God created man in
His image and man has returned the favor.
People have created goes in whatever form pleases them and accommodates
their sinful lifestyles. In the cynical
words of British author D. H. Lawrence, ‘God is only a great imaginative
experience’ (cited in The Columbia
Dictionary of Quotations, Copyright 1993, 1995 by Columbia University
Press). God rebuked such foolish people
in Psalm 50:21: ‘You though that I was
just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.’ God is who He has revealed Himself to be in
Scripture and not what people imagine Him to be.” I think that this is a good way to begin our discussion
of what we are going to see when this fifth seal is opened by the Lord. As I listened to the message, or at least
part of it this morning by John MacArthur on these verses I learned that he had
not totally figured out exactly what to call this fifth seal. He was going between calling it “Prayer for
Vengeance” or calling it just “Vengeance.”
I see in his commentary that he had decided to call it “Prayer for
Vengeance: The Fifth Seal.”
I have mentioned in many of my Spiritual Diaries that it
is very important for believers to learn what the attributes of God are in
order to better know who the God that true believers worship is, and what the
Bible shows us what He is about. I don’t
think that Scripture tells us all about God, but what it does tell us about God
we need to learn so we don’t end up creating Him in our image. I have mentioned in the past some of the
books that I have read over the last several years in order to better see what
the attributes of God are according to the Scriptures. “The Knowledge of the Holy” by A. W. Tozer is
a very short book, but well worth ones reading.
“The Attributes of God” by Arthur Pink is another worthwhile read. “Knowing God” by J. I. Packer is also one
worth reading. Chip Ingram has written a
book and also has a study guide out with the book he entitled “God as He Longs
for You to Know Him.” My favorite book
that I have read two times is entitled “The Joy of Knowing God,” and it is
written by Richard Strauss, as in that book he lists many attributes of God and
does a wonderful way of explaining them that makes it easy to understand. It has been said that Christianity is a
relationship and not a religion, and in a relationship one has to know the
person who is in that relationship with you.
God know us better than we know ourselves, and it is up to us and the
working of the Holy Spirit to get to know Him.
When we get to know God we will see that there are many Scriptures that
show that not only is God love, but that He is a God of vengeance. However it is okay for God to have vengeance
for He is the only one who can do it properly.
Look what Paul wrote “Ro 12:19
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of
God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the
Lord.” We cannot handle vengeance, only
God can and as in everything He does it perfectly.
Let us look at some of what are called the imprecatory
Psalms and to refresh your memory about these I want to go back to when I was
writing my Spiritual Diaries on the Psalms and at the time I spoke of the
different kind of Psalms that we find in the Word of God. We will be looking at a quote from Dec. 20,
2011 and in that SD I wrote about what I learned from the fifth Psalm which is
the first imprecatory Psalm and we will look at what Warren Wiersbe wrote about
the imprecatory Psalms: “: “Because of the prayer in verse 10, Psalm 6
is classified as one of the ‘imprecatory psalms’ (see 12, 35, 37, 58, 59, 69,
79, 83, 109, 139, and 140). In these
psalms, the writers seen to describe a God of wrath who can hardly wait to
destroy sinners. The writers also seem
to picture themselves as people seeking terrible revenge against these
enemies. But several facts must be considered before we write off
the psalmist as pagan brutes who cannot forgive, or God as a ‘dirty bully.’ To begin with, the enemies described are
rebels against the Lord (5:10), and in some instances, against the Lord’s
anointed king. The Jews were a covenant
people whom God promised to protect as long as they obeyed Him (Lev. 26; Deut.
27-29). In His covenant with Abraham,
God promised to bless those who blessed Israel and to curse those who cursed
them (Gen. 12:1-3). When the Jews asked
God to deal justly with enemies, they were only asking Him to fulfill His
covenant promises, He must deal with sin.
Ever since the fall of man in Genesis 3, there has been a battle going
on in the world between truth and lies, justice and injustice, and right and
wrong; and we cannot be neutral in this battle.
‘If the Jews cursed more bitterly the Pagans,’ wrote C. S. Lewis in Reflections on the Psalms, ‘this was, I
think, at least in part because they took right and wrong more seriously. For if we look at their railings we find they
are usually angry and not simply because these things have done to them but because these things are
manifestly wrong, are hateful to God as well as to the victim’ (P.30).
“Those who have difficulty accepting the
‘imprecations’ in The Psalms must also deal with them in Jeremiah (11:18ff;
15:15;17:18; 18:19ff; 20:11ff) and in the preaching of John the Baptist (Matt.
3) and Jesus (Matt. 23), as well as in the requests of the martyrs in heaven (Rev.
6:9-11). However, no one will deny that these servants of God were filled with
the Spirit and wanted the Lord’s will to be accomplished. Perhaps our problem today is what C. S. Lewis
pointed out: we don’t hate sin enough to get upset at the
wickedness and godlessness around us.
Bombarded as we are by so much media evil and violence, we’ve gotten
accustomed to the darkness.”
We will look some more at this subject before we delve
into these verses in an outline form and perhaps finish the introduction in our
next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have to agree
with the statement in my above quote: “we don’t hate sin enough to get
upset at the wickedness and godlessness around us. Bombarded as we are by so much media evil and
violence, we’ve gotten accustomed to the darkness.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to live in and better understand the love that Christ
has for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “In Sodom” (Genesis 14:12).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was Jacob’s youngest son?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/23/2015 9:24 PM
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