SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/9/2015
10:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
An Unusual Act
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 10:2b-3
Message of the
verses: “He placed his right foot on
the sea and his left on the land; 3 and he cried out with a loud voice, as when
a lion roars; and when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered
their voices.”
I think that when people read through the book of
Revelation and begin to study it that they look forward to the things that we
are studying now and not look so much for the first chapters of the book. I have to say that I was looking forward to
this chapter and the following ones too, but I also enjoyed studying the first
five chapters too. We are still talking
about this angel that we began to discuss in our last SD and from these verses
he must have been a fairly large angel to do what we read about here.
Now we must remember that John is seeing this in a vision
and we really don’t know where this took place, but it very well could be that
this angel standing on the land and on the sea means that God was about to
judge all of the earth. We have learned
that the scroll that was in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ was full of judgments
that were to take place on the people of the earth and on the demons so that
God would take back the earth through these judgments so He has the right to do
this for after all He is the Eternal God who made all of this and therefore it
is all His: “FOR THE EARTH IS THE
LORD’S, AND ALL IT CONTAINS (1 Cor. 10:26).”
We see that this large angel (we think he was large in
John’s vision) cried out with a loud roar like a lion and this reflects the
power, majesty, and authority of God. Jeremiah
25:30 says “"Therefore you shall prophesy against them all these words,
and you shall say to them, ’The
LORD will roar from on high And utter His voice from His holy habitation; He
will roar mightily against His fold. He will shout like those who tread the
grapes, Against all the inhabitants of the earth.”
After the roar of this angel we hear something very
unusual “the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices.” When you study the Scriptures you see that numbers
mean different things and the number seven means completeness and also
perfection. There are places in the
Scripture where thunder speaks of judgment.
Let us look back at Revelation 8:5 “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.” Rev. 11:19 “And the temple
of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in
His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder
and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.”
Rev. 16:18 “And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of
thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man
came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.” Remember I said earlier that one of the best
ways to study the book of Revelation was to use a concordance. There are also other pictures of this in both
the OT and NT. 28 “Father, glorify Your
name." Then a voice came out of heaven: "I have both glorified it,
and will glorify it again." 29 So the crowd of people who stood by and
heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel
has spoken to Him." 30 Jesus answered and said, "This voice has not
come for My sake, but for your sakes (John 12:28-30).” Let us look back at Exodus 9:23 “Moses
stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and
fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt.” 1 Samuel 7:10 says “Now Samuel was offering
up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.
But the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines
and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel.” Isaiah 29:6 “From the LORD of hosts you will
be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, With whirlwind and
tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.”
John MacArthur writes “These seven loud, shattering, powerful voices cry
out for vengeance and judgment upon the sinful earth. The thunder was separate from the angel’s
voice and may have represented the voice of God (cf. 1 Sam. 7:10; Ps.
18:13). The text does not say what the thunder
said, but hearing it certainly would have added to the terror of the scene of judgment
(cf. 8:5; 11:19; 16:18).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: God’s plans are
perfect even when it comes to His judgment and wrath for without them no one
could be saved and go to heaven. I say
this because it was the judgment and wrath of God taken out on Jesus Christ
while on the cross that made it possible for those who accept this to be saved
for Christ took our punishment on the cross so that we could receive His
righteousness. For this I will be
forever grateful and thankful.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to be better at loving the Lord with
all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to be better at living in the
love of God.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Galilee” (Matthew 2:22-23).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was the champion in the
Philistines?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/9/2015 10:56 AM
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