SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2015
10:02 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Pit Unlocked
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
9:1-2
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.”
In our last SD we mentioned that the “star” which fell
from heaven was none other than Satan and we looked at Isaiah 14:12-15 to show
that Satan is also called a star in those verses and that they also show that
this “star” had fallen. Perhaps it would
be best to look at those verses again: “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.’ 15 “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of
the pit.” Notice the five “I wills” in
these verses as they represent the first sin that ever was committed, and it
was done by the highest angel that God had created. I think it best to look at the other passage
that speaks of Satan, which is found in Ezekiel 28:12-16 “12 "Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say
to him, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in
beauty. 13 “You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone
was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and
the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the
workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were
prepared. 14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you
there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the
stones of fire. 15 “You
were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness
was found in you. 16 “By the abundance of your trade You were internally
filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of
God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the
stones of fire.” This passage speaks
more of how Satan fell and what he was before he fell.
As the fifth angel sounded his trumpet John saw this “star”
which had fallen to the earth. He has
already seen heavenly bodies fall to the earth in other visions, but this star
was different as it was not an inanimate piece of celestial matter, but this
star was a being. Let us look at Job
38:7 “When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for
joy?” This verse does not speak of stars
that we see in the sky but beings. “There
can be little doubt that angelic beings are intended here” is what commentator
Barns says which I got from my online Bible program. Now as we saw in the verses from Isaiah and
also Ezekiel Lucifer fell and became Satan.
As I was looking at these two sections from the Old Testament I was
wondering what God’s feelings were when this most beautiful, most powerful,
most perfect angel that He created decided to go against Him. I can’t help but think that at that time it
was heartbreaking to God to see him fall, and yet because of God’s attributes
of wrath and justice God had to act to bring him to justice and we are seeing
this unfold as we study the book of Revelation as God takes back planet earth
from evil men and from Satan and all the angels that followed him in his fall.
We know that Satan in the past and actually at this time
has access to heaven. We know that from
Job as Satan and God have a conversation in heaven. I might interject here that this is probably
one of the reasons that a new heaven and a new earth are created at the end of
the book of Revelation as the others have been contaminated with sin. Now we also know this because our Lord Jesus
Christ intercedes for us as our High Priest in heaven when Satan accuses us
before God in heaven. Satan’s angels
also have access to heaven and in an earlier SD I mentioned about how one of
Satan’s angels was allowed by God to tell the false prophets of Ahab to go to
war where he would be killed. Remember
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good
to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Now in Revelation 12:7-9 we read the following “7 And
there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The
dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough, and there
was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was
thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives
the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown
down with him.” This is a battle scene
which takes place when Satan and his angels are completely thrown out of heaven
and they will never return again. Now
what we have after this is all of the demons and also Satan are now on planet earth
and they all realize that their time is short before they all go into the lake
of fire so it will be the people on planet earth who will have more trouble
because of this. I might mention that
Satan has worship here on earth as people meet to worship him and it is their
thoughts that he will be the winner of the battles that will take place on
earth, especially the battle of Armageddon.
John MacArthur writes “With this theater of operation now
restricted to earth, and his time running out (cf. 12:12), Satan will seek to
marshal all of his demonic hosts—those already on earth, those cast to earth
with him, and those incarcerated in the ‘bottomless pit’ (literally ‘the pit of
the abyss’). Abussos (‘bottomless’) appears seven times in Revelation, always in
reference to the abode of incarcerated demons (cf. 9:2, 11; 11:7; 17:8). Satan himself will be held prisoner there
during the Millennium, chained and locked up with the other demonic prisoners
(20:1, 3).
I remember my wife telling me about a sermon that she
heard by Dr. David Jeremiah as he was teaching about the bottomless pit and his
comment was that perhaps it was at the bottom of the deepest part of the
ocean. As I was going over my SD on Job
38 I came across the following: “God
asks Job about the depths of the sea if he knew how deep the sea is and many
other questions that Job could not answer.
We know today that the deepest part of the sea is found in the Pacific
Ocean and it is 35,810 feet or 6.78 miles down.” Whether or not this is where this “pit” is
located we don’t know but we do know it is someplace.
Let us look at a couple of different Scripture references
to show us that God has chosen to incarcerate certain demons in this “pit.” “For if God did not spare angels when they
sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness,
reserved for judgment (2 Peter 2:4).”
John MacArthur writes the following “The phrase ‘cast them into hell’ is
a participle derived from the Greek noun Tartarus. Just as Jesus used the term for hell derived
from the Jewish vernacular (Gehenna;
cf. Matt. 5:22), so Peter chose a term from Greek mythology with which his
readers would be familiar. Tartarus was
the name used in Greek literature for the place where the worst sinners, those
who had offended the gods personally, went after death and were punished. The place where God keeps demons imprisoned
is actually different from the imaginary place of Greek mythology. Yet the use of the term Tartarus does seem to convey the idea that because of the
heinousness of their sin, God has imprisoned certain fallen angels in such a
place of severest torment and isolation.
They remain in that place, awaiting their sentencing to final punishment
in the eternal lake of fire (Rev. 20:10, 13-14).”
I think that this is a good place to stop and then pick
up more of this section in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: What I see in
this passage is the justice of God, the sinfulness of both men and angels, and
also the plan of God in which He takes back planet earth for His glory and for
His Son who will reign for 1000 years as promised to the nation of Israel. For all of these things I am thankful.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
To love the Lord with all of my heart,
soul, mind, and strength, and to live in and better understand the love that
Christ has for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Three days” (Acts 9:8-9).
Today’s Bible
question: “Where is the record of the
resurrected Christ appearing to ‘two on the Emmaus Road’?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/25/2015 11:23 AM
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