SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/24/2015
10:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to Revelation Nine
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
9:1-12
Message of the
verses: “1 Then the fifth angel
sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the
key of the bottomless pit was given to him. 2 He opened the bottomless pit, and
smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun
and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. 3 Then out of the smoke came
locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth
have power. 4 They were told not to hurt
the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who
do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were not permitted
to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the
torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. 6 And in those days men will seek
death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them. 7
The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their
heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of
men. 8 They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the
teeth of lions. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the
sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to
battle. 10 They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is
their power to hurt men for five months. 11 They have as king over them, the
angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the
name Apollyon. 12 The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming
after these things.”
Revelation 9:1-12 are the verses that we will be looking
at over the next few days as they describe the fifth trumpet judgment which as
you remember is the first of three “woes” as described by the angel in
Revelation 8:13. As we look at this
judgment we will see that the “star from heaven which had fallen to earth” is
none other than Satan himself. Let us
first look at Isaiah 14:12-15 which speaks of Satan’s fall “12 “How you have
fallen from heaven, O star
of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations! 13 “But you said in your heart, ’I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my
throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the
north. 14 ’I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” I wrote the following about these verses on
August 13, 2013 “As far as this passage speaking about Satan I want to quote
from Dr. Wiersbe: “The highest of God’s
angels tried to usurp the throne of God and capture for himself the worship
that belongs to God (Matthew 4:8-10).
The name ‘Lucifer’ (‘morning star’) indicates that Satan tries to
imitate Jesus Christ, who is ‘the bright and morning star’ (Rev. 22:16). ‘I will be like the Most High’ reveals his
basic strategy, for he is an imitator (Isa. 14:14; 2 Cor. 11:13-15). Like the king of Babylon, Satan will one day
be humiliated and defeated. He will be
cast out of heaven (Rev. 12) and finally cast into hell (20:10).”
In the beginning of his commentary on this chapter John
MacArthur goes through a brief history of what Satan has done since he fell
sometime after he was created by God. It
is not known exactly how long it took for Satan to fall, but I would think that
it was in a very short time after his creation as the most beautiful and
highest ranking angel that God created.
In my study of the book “The Battle for the Beginning” which was written
by John MacArthur he stated that Satan probably fell very quickly after being
created and also that his belief was that the angels were all created shortly
before God created the earth. Some have
even suggested that God created the earth to show the angels who did not fallen
Satan of His goodness and grace, but I am not sure that this was the reason at
all as to why God created the earth.
Let us look very briefly at some of the things that Satan
has done since his fall as described in our Isaiah passage. The first thing would be that he took one
third of the angels with him to following him in his quest to overtake the Lord. Next we see that he tempted and caused Adam
and Eve to fall and the result was that sin entered into the human race. Therefore, just as through one man sin
entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men,
because all sinned (Romans 5:12).” After
the fall of man we read the following in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise
you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."” This is the first promise that God gives of
the coming of Jesus Christ into the world.
In Satan’s tormenting of righteous Job we see that he
could not cause Job to fall back into the sinful life that he was before he
became a believer. What I am saying that
once God saves a person he will always be saved even though at times he will
continue to sin, his salvation stays with him forever.
Now the next item that I am going to write is
controversial but in many ways makes perfect sense. I will quote from John MacArthur’s commentary
at this time: “After the fall, God
graciously promised a Savior who would come to destroy Satan and deliver people
from his power (Gen. 3:15). Satan
countered by sending demons to cohabitate with human women, attempting to produce
a hybrid demon/human race of people for whom the God-Man could not atone (Gen.
6:1-4). In response, God destroyed that
race and the whole sinful world in the powerful judgment of the universal Flood—the
single greatest catastrophe the earth has yet seen.” 1 Now it came about, when men began to
multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the
sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives
for themselves, whomever they chose. 3 Then
the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he
also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty
years." 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also
afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore
children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown
(Genesis 6:1-4).” As I said this view is
controversial but when you add other Scripture verses to it from 2 Peter and
also Jude it does make sense to me.
One of the things that Satan has done is to cause upheaval
to the nation of Israel, the nation that God called to bring His Word and also
the Living Word into the world. As we
have been studying through the OT we have seen the many things that Satan has
tempted Israel to do right from the time when God first called them. Abraham went to Egypt when he was not supposing
to and brought back a handmaid for his wife whom he later fathered a son by
thinking that this was God’s way of giving him a son. That son has trouble to Israel even up to
this day as he was the father of the twelve tribes of the Arabs.
As we fast forward to the time when Christ came into the
world we see that Satan tried to have him killed when He was born or at least
when He was very young, and then when He grew up and began His ministry Jesus
was tempted by Satan for 40 days in the wilderness. Even though it was the will of God to have
Jesus die on the cross Satan played a big part in it as he caused Judas to
betray Him. Satan also was given
permission from the Lord to swift Peter like wheat and he betrayed Jesus three
times but did repent and became a powerful leader in the church giving the
first sermon on the Day of Pentecost.
Satan prompted Ananias and his wife Sapphira to corrupt the church by
lying to the Holy Spirit as seen in the fifth chapter of Acts. Satan hounded Paul hindering him with a “thorn
in the flesh.”
In order to preview what we will be looking at in these
first twelve verses of chapter nine as we follow the outline of John MacArthur
I want to quote from the last paragraph of his opening comments: “Each of the first four trumpet judgments
affect the physical universe in some way, but with the sounding of the fifth trumpet
the focus will shift from the physical to the spiritual realm. The traumatic events associated with that trumpet
vision unfold in four scenes: the pit
unlocked, the power unleashed, the appearance unveiled, and the prince
unmasked.” It does indeed sound exciting
to look at this fifth trumpet judgment, the first of three “woes.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I try to every morning put on the spiritual
armor that God has graciously provided for every believer as found in Ephesians
in order to stand: “Put on the full
armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the
devil.” It is very important for
believers to know the schemes of the devil, and equally important to put on the
spiritual armor. Warren Wiersbe in his
book “The Strategy of Satan writes on the spiritual armor a prayer that is an
example to follow, but warns that we as believers must pray as we want to pray: ““Father, thank you for the provision you
have made for victory over Satan. Now,
by faith, I put on the girdle of truth.
May my life today be motivated by truth.
Help me to maintain integrity. By
faith, I put on the breastplate of righteousness. May my heart love that which is righteous and
refuse what is sinful. Thank you for the
imputed righteousness of Christ. By
faith, I take the shield of faith. May I
trust you and your Word today and not add fuel to any of Satan’s darts. Thank you that I can go into this day without
fear. By faith, I put on the helmet of
salvation. May I remember today that
Jesus is coming again. Help me to live
in the future tense. Protect my mind
from discouragement and despair. By
faith, I take the sword of the Spirit.
Help me to remember your Word and to use it today. Father, by faith have put on the armor. May this be a day of victory.” Dr. Wiersbe adds “This is not a routine
prayer, and I have not recorded it here so that you can memorize it and repeat
it. Rather, it is here to give you some
idea of how we put on the pieces of the armor by faith, by prayer. This is a private matter between you and the
Lord. I cannot tell you how to pray; but
I can tell you that you had better pray.”
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 of the Lord.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The walls of Jericho fell”
(Joshua 6:20).
Today’s Bible question: “for how long was Saul without sight?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/24/2015 11:10 AM
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