Saturday, March 28, 2015

The Promise (Rev. 6:11)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/28/2015 8:47 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  The Promise

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Revelation 6:11

            Message of the verse:  “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.”

            I wrote the following on May 12, 2005:  “It may seem from this verse that patience has to be exercised in heaven too.  This verse also speaks of these martyred believers receiving a white robe, which speaks of righteousness, and also means that they have a body in order to put this robe on.  The last part of this verse shows, like many other places in the Bible, that God has a plan and nothing will be able to stop this plan, and part of that plan is that there will be a number of believers who will die for the cause of Jesus Christ, and when that final number is complete then God’s plan will be complete and His wrath will be satisfied, and justice will be served by Him.”

            In Revelation 6:9-11 we have been looking at the prayers of the saints who have been transported to heaven because they have died for the cause of Christ.  There prayer is that God would bring about vengeance upon those who have been committing these crimes.  In today’s SD we will look at the promise that God gives to these saints.  I spoke of these saints has having a body, and I do believe that when a believer dies that they will receive a body, but not the type of body that they will receive at the rapture which will be like the glorified body that Christ now has.

            Now as for the gift that God gives to each of these believers it is a white robe and John MacArthur writes the following about it.  “The gift that was given to each of them by God as they arrived in heaven was a white robe (stole; a long robe flowing to the feet).”  Now we have learned earlier that this white robe symbolizes righteousness, eternal righteousness. 

            Next we see that God tells them to rest for a little while longer, and this certainly is not a rebuke from the Lord to them for being impatience for these saints are now perfect and cannot sin.  God wants them to trust Him and His plan to care for the judgment that the evil men on earth deserve and to just stop and enjoy heaven.  We know that it will not be too long before God does exercise judgment on these men.  In the tenth chapter of Revelation and verse six we read “there will be delay no longer,” so this must mean that the waiting of these saints is over.  God tells them that others will be killed for the cause of Christ and He had to wait for that to happen.   MacArthur writes “God sovereignty predetermined the exact number of those who would be killed.  The petitioners were told to enjoy heaven’s rest until that number had been reached.  Robert L. Thomas notes:  ‘The word to the souls under the altar gives them reassurance that God will eventually avenge their blood, but the time for the culmination of that vengeance has not yet arrived.  One feature that must yet transpire beforehand is the increase of their number through additional martyrdom.  The earth dwellers under the dawning leadership of the beast from the sea will take an even greater toll of human lives before Christ finally intervenes through His personal arrival back on earth.  Until then, they already martyred are told to rest and enjoy their state of blessedness already attained.’”

            Now as far as the “fellow servants and brethren,” they are two different classes of people.  The fellow servants may or may not die for the cause of Christ, but the brethren are the ones who will die for the cause of Christ. 

            The world today seems to forget the things that are right and wrong.  Our parents fought in WWII against a demon possessed Hitler who was trying to kill all of the Jews and thus what came out of it was the Jews were brought into their land and given a nation in May of 1948.  Now we see that our government is trying to distance themselves from the very people that our parents died to save.  Is it so hard to believe that we will go through the same type of thing that Hitler was trying to accomplish in the Tribulation period?

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  What I can learn from this is that God surely does answer prayers in His own time when He is ready, and that God has a plan and nothing will stop it.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and also to live in the love that the Lord has for me.  To better understand that love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The first day” (Luke 24:1).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace?’”

Answer in our next SD.

3/28/2015 9:19 AM

 

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