SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/12/2015
10:41 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Selection of the Worthy One
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
5:5-7
Message of the
verses: “5 and one of the elders said
to me, "Stop weeping;
behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has
overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals." 6 And I saw between the throne (with the four
living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which
are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. 7 And He came
and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.”
I am not sure if I mentioned in our last SD that the
prayers of John were inappropriate or now but they were. Why you may ask were these tears of John inappropriate? An example from the life or our Lord on earth
will give us a good idea why they were: “12
Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out,
the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the
city was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, "Do not
weep." 14 And He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers
came to a halt. And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise!"
15 The dead man sat up and began to
speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother (Luke 7:12-15).” Jesus was saying to her that there was no
need for tears, and the reason was that Jesus was there and would take care of
the problem. When Jesus raised the 12
year old daughter of a man who was head over a Synagogue the same thing
happened. Now we can see why John did
not need to cry, but as we saw in our last SD his tears meant much, but Jesus
would care for the need of John’s tears even though he did not need to shed
them. A bit confusion, but true.
We see our Lord described as a lamb in verse six, and
also as a lion from the tribe of Judah, and also from the root of David. All of these are OT prophecies that speak of
God’s Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. In
Genesis 49:8-10 we see that Jacob was about to die and before he died he called
all of his sons to him and gave them a blessing, and with that blessing he told
them about what was going to happen in the future with each son’s tribe. In verses 8-10 we see what he said about
Judah: “8 "Judah, your brothers
shall praise you; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father’s
sons shall bow down to you. 9 “Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone
up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him up? 10
“The scepter shall not
depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh
comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” Now we know that Jesus came out of the tribe
of Judah, and also out of the family of Judah, the root of David and this too
is a Messianic prophecy of our Lord. One
only has to look at the genealogies of Jesus in both Matthew and Luke to see
that He came from the root of David.
Both Joseph and Mary came from the bloodline of David, Joseph through
the bloodline of Solomon and Mary through David’s son Nathan, but both from
David. I have mentioned in earlier SD’s
that it was necessary for Mary to come through the line of Nathan.
Now we know that when Jesus first came to earth He came
as a Lamb, for John writes “John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him
and *said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:36 and he looked at Jesus as He
walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"”
Jesus Christ came to first time to die on the cross for
the sins of those who would accept Him as their Savior and Lord. The problem is that the Jews were looking for
a lion as they knew the prophecies of the lion, but did not pay attention to
the prophecies of Jesus being the Lamb of God.
When we look at John 1:29 we see Jesus as a Lamb and that word is Arnion, and that means a little pet
lamb, and this little pet lamb was seen in the Passover celebration when the
father of a family would bring into the house a little pet lamb to stay in the
house with his family for four days and then have to violently kill the lamb,
which surely pictures our Lord who first came as a Lamb and allowed the people
of Israel and also the Romans to kill Him by hanging Him on a cross for our
sins.
A feature of this lamb was that he had horns, and horns
signify power for that is how an animal with horns defends itself. John MacArthur writes “In imagery drawn from
the animal world, horns is Scripture symbolize strength and power. Seven, the number of perfection, symbolizes
the Lamb’s complete, absolute power. The
Lamb in John’s vision also had seven eyes, again denoting perfect omniscience
and complete understanding and knowledge.
Thos eyes, John noted, represented the seven Spirits of God, sent out
into all the earth. AS noted in the
discussions of 1:4 and 4:5 earlier…the phrase seven Spirits of God describes
the Holy Spirit in all His fullness.
Here as in 4:5, the Holy Spirit’s fullness is seen in relation to
judgment, as He goes out into all the earth searching for guilty, unrepentant
sinners to judge (cf. John 16:8).”
We know that when Jesus ascended into heaven that He was
there to make intercession for His children, all those who had accepted Him as
Savior and Lord. It is Satan who would
accuse them before the Father and Jesus would intercede form them because they
now had His righteousness. There will
come a day when His intercession will come to an end and He will judge those
who are on the earth and those on earth will not see the Lamb, but the
lion. I am not saying that people will
not be saved in the tribulation period, for many will. The Lion that the Jews sought in Christ’s
first appearance will be seen during the tribulation period.
We mentioned the scroll in our last SD, and this scroll
is the title deed to the universe, and what we will begin to see is God taking
back His universe and the way He will do that is written on this Scroll. I also mentioned that we don’t know who the
strong angel was in our last SD, but I want to say now that the meaning of the
name Gabriel is “strength of God,” so it is possible that he was the one who
spoke in verse two.
When we look at verse seven we see the final, monumental
act in the heavenly scene. It began in
4:1 when John was taken into heaven describing the vision that he recorded in
chapter four and a now chapter five, and was building to the moment when the
Lamb would take the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the
Throne.
MacArthur writes “This is the same scene described by
Daniel in Daniel 7:13-14, although Daniel does not mention the scroll: ‘13
"I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds
of heaven One like a Son
of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 “And
to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations
and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be
destroyed.’
“The worthy One has arrived to take back what is
rightfully His.”
In tomorrow’s SD we will probably on be able to look at
half of the last verses in chapter five.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I want to look at
some verses in the second Psalm as they too have to do with this moment of
Jesus beginning to rule: “1 Why are the
nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? 2 The kings of the
earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD
and against His Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast
away their cords from us!" 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord
scoffs at them. 5 Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in
His fury, saying, 6 “But
as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain."” Jesus will one day rule and let me tell you
those kings of the earth will not be laughing anymore mocking Him as they do
now.
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 He has for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “His birthright” (Genesis
25:29-34).
Today’s Bible
question: “Tertullus said Pau was a ringleader
of what sect?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/12/2015 12:40 PM
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