SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/16/2015
8:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to Revelation 8
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
8:1-5
Message of the
verses: “ 1 When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for
about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and
seven trumpets were given to them. 3 Another angel came and stood at the altar,
holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might
add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before
the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints,
went up before God out of the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer
and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there
followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an
earthquake.”
We will be looking at the seventh seal over the next few
days and as we look at the first verse we see that just as the other seals had
been broken by the Lord Jesus Christ so this one is also broken by Him.
A little review is always good so we will do that as we
begin to look at chapter eight. We have
learned that what we are now looking at is what the Bible describes as “The Day
of the Lord,” and we believe that this began with the opening of the sixth
seal. As the seals were opened we first
saw false peace, then war, then famine, then death, and then we saw vengeance. All of these judgments were horrifying, but
these are only the beginnings of what we will begin to see as we look at the
seventh seal being opened. As we studied
the last chapter and read about the Tribulation Saints who were then in heaven
we saw that the Lord gave comfort to them and then listed a number of things
that they had to endure before their deaths in order for them to get to
heaven. "They will hunger no
longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat
(Rev. 7:16).”What we have been seeing is that the Lord is about to take back
the earth in a final holocaust of wholesale destruction and will end Satan’s
and man’s rule on planet earth and will then replace it with the Millennial
Kingdom headed up by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Man actually figured out that is was the Lord
who was responsible of what was going on as we read when the sixth seal was opened,
but all many of them wanted to do was to die so that they would not see any more
of what was going on with these judgments.
The problem was that if they died they were still going to face His
judgment in hell.
Now remember that this scroll that we were introduced to
in chapter five is the title deed to the universe including planet earth and
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was slain is the only One who can open up
the seals on this scroll. This scroll contains
the judgments that will take place in the Day of the Lord, and as we will see
they will continue to get worse and worse in intensity. Jesus called this last three and a half years
of the Tribulation Period the Great Tribulation, and it is also known as the
Time of Jacob’s trouble.
What is contained in this last seal judgment? Well that is what we are about to see in
these first five verses of chapter eight, but the answer is that this last seal
will open a series of seven more judgments called the Trumpet Judgments, and
then the last Trumpet Judgment will open up the Bowl or Vial Judgments. John MacArthur writes “Though some believe
the events of the trumpet and bowl judgments happened simultaneously with those
of the sixth seal, it seems better ot understand them as telescoping out of
each other sequentially. That the seventh
seal contains the seven trumpet judgments seems clear, since there is no
description of judgment in the seventh seal, but an anticipation of severe
judgment followed immediately in the next by the seven trumpet judgments. In a similar manner, the seventh trumpet does
not describe a judgment (10:7; 11:15-17), but rather contains the anticipation
of heavenly rejoicing over the judgment to come, which will lead to the final
destruction of Satan and establishment of the rule of the Lord Jesus
Christ. As 10:7 indicates, the seventh
trumpet is the ‘finish.’ Chapter fifteen
and verse one makes clear that the seventh trumpet, which finishes the work of
judgment, contains the final fury of God’s wrath, which the pouring out of the seven
plague judgment pictures: ‘Then I saw
another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven
plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.’ Chapter 16, verse 1, identifies these seven
plagues as ‘seven bowls of the wrath of God.’
They are then described in detail in the remainder of chapter 16 (vv.
2-21).”
Chapter fifteen and verse one is a favorite verse because
it speaks of the wrath of God being complete after these judgments are
finished, and that is a good thing.
John MacArthur concludes “Four key words may be used to
describe the events associated with the opening of the seventh seal: silence,
sounding, supplication and storm.” We
will begin to look at these four different words in our next SD as we continue
on our journey through this wonderful and final book of God’s Word.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The simple fact
of Revelation 15:1 is that God’s wrath will be done once the last seven plagues
are finished, however when our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross He cried out
“It is finished,” and this means paid in full.
God’s wrath was done for those who will accept the forgiveness that
Christ has for us as He paid for our sins, however for those who decide not to
accept this gracious offer His wrath is not finished yet. Think about this truth.
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: “Paul left town.” As I looked over that question this is the
only correct answer. I misread it in my
mind and that is why I said there was two correct answers.
Today’s Bible
question: “How old was Jehoash when he
began to reign in Jerusalem?
Answer in our next SD.
4/16/2015 9:34 AM
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