SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/21/2015
8:10 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Third Seal: Famine
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 6:5-6
Message of
the verses: “5 When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature
saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, a
black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 6
And I heard something like
a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of
wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not
damage the oil and the wine."”
What is it that we associate the
word black with famine? I have mentioned
in earlier SD’s that one of the best ways to study the book of Revelation is to
use a concordance in order to look of different words and how they are used elsewhere
in the Bible. “Our skin was black like
an oven because of the terrible famine (Lam. 5:10 KJV).” Whenever there is a war going on famine is
sure to follow because of the cost of the war that is being fought and also
because very little crops will be growing during a war. Food supplies can be destroyed by those
fighting in the war especially with the type of equipment that is available for
war efforts today. Let us now look at
Matthew 24:7 to see that Jesus predicted the same thing that is found in
Revelation 6:5-6: “"For nation will
rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there
will be famines and earthquakes.” As we
look throughout the Old Testament and even into the New Testament we will see
that God used famine as a means of judgment, but there has never been a famine
like the one that this black horse and rider will bring about during the
tribulation period.
While studying the book of
Revelation in the past my thoughts were different a bit when I looked at the
part in verse five where John wrote about a pair of scales and then wrote about
a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius,
which is probably spoken of by God since John hears the voice coming from the
center of the twenty-four elders. My
thoughts were that since the average wage earner earned a denarius in a day he
would have to work all day in order to get enough food to sustain himself, but
when I read in John MacArthur’s commentary about this subject he believes that
this is talking about food rationing something that went on during the
depression in the 1930’s and also after WWII in places like Europe and
Japan. This may be the right way to
understand this because I don’t suppose that there will be many people holding
down a job during this period of future history. However those who do have work will have to
spend the day working for enough food to live on. Barley is a less superior grain than wheat.
MacArthur writes “In light of those
extreme conditions, God cautions people not to damage (waste) the oil and the wine,
used in the preparation and cooking of food, as well as the purification of
water, will need to be carefully protected.
“A deceptive peace followed by
worldwide wars and a resultant devastating global famine will combine to
escalate the universal chaos. All this
will take place during the first half of the Tribulation, while the worse will
be yet to come.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Many
people will find it hard to believe that God would cause something like this to
happen, but with sin comes judgment, and with more sin comes more
judgment. However with repentance comes
forgiveness and many people will turn to the Lord during these difficult days
of the Tribulation period.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to
love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and I desire to
live in the love that the Lord has for me, and better learn of that love He has
for me.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Behold,
he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him.”
Today’s
Bible question: “Who said ‘If thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean?’”
Answer
in our next SD.
3/21/2015
8:41 PM
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