SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/8/2015
9:10 AM
My Worship Time Focus: An Unusual
Angel
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 10:1-2a
Message of the
verses: “1 I saw another strong angel coming down
out of heaven, clothed
with a cloud; and the
rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet
like pillars of fire; 2 and he had in his hand a little book which was open.”
Including this verse I want to quote the verses in the
book of Revelation with “strong angel” in them.
“Re 5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice,
"Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?" Re 10:1 I saw another strong angel coming
down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon his head,
and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire; Re 18:21 Then
a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the
sea, saying, "So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with
violence, and will not be found any longer.”
We see this phrase used a total of three times in the book of Revelation
and to me it is showing a difference between an angel and a strong angel as it
seems the “strong angels” have a more difficult and perhaps a more important
job to do. We also see a distinction
between the seven angels who were blowing the trumpets and this strong
angel. Remember we called these seven
angels who had the trumpets “presence angels” as they were close to the
presence of God. John MacArthur writes
the following about the word another as some have though that this strong angel
was in fact the Lord Jesus Christ. He
writes to defend his position that this is not the Lord Jesus Christ: “First, the use of allos (another of the same kind) identifies this angel as one
exactly like the previously mentioned trumpet angels. If Christ were being referred to here, the
word heteros (another of a different
kind) would be expected, since Christ is essentially different from
angels. Christ could not be described as
an angel exactly like the other angels, since they are created and He is the
uncreated, eternal God.”
He sites other reasons as to why this is not Jesus
Christ, but an angel, and one of the reasons is that Christ is never called an
angel in the book of Revelations unlike in the Old Testament where He is
sometimes called “The Angel of the Lord.”
In Revelation He is called “the son of man, the first and last, the
living One, the Son of God, He who is holy, who is true, the Amen, the faithful
and true Witness, the Beginning of creation of God, the Lion of the tribe of
Judah, the Root of David, the Lamb, Faithful and True, the Word of God, and
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
I think that even though there are other reasons that
this is not the Lord Jesus Christ we can assume that indeed it is not Him, but
just as John writes “another strong angel.”
When we look at the description of this angel one might
think that this description is only for the Lord, but in our study of the book
of Ezekiel we saw another angel with a similar description who is called
Lucifer: “11 Again the word of the LORD
came to me saying, 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.” These verses picture Lucifer before he fell
as described in Isaiah 14 and then became Satan. In the book of Daniel, he also saw an angel
with a similar description as the one in Revelation chapter ten.
We will not take a brief moment to look at his
description. First we see that he was “clothed
with a cloud.” Clouds actually at times
symbolize judgment and this angel’s job is judgment as we will see later on in
this chapter. The cloud also symbolizes
power, majesty, and glory. MacArthur
writes “Clouds are associated with the second coming of Christ in judgment in
1:7; 14:14-16; Matthew 24:30; Mark 13:26; 14:62; and Luke 21:27.”
This next description is rather fastening to me and that
is he has “a rainbow upon his head.”
MacArthur writes Iris (rainbow)
was the Greek goddess who personified the rainbow, and served as the messenger
of the gods. In classical Greek iris was used to describe any bright halo
surrounding another object, such as the circle surrounding the eyes on a
peacock’s tail, or the iris of an eye.”
We find this same word in Revelation 4:3.
We first see the rainbow in the book of Genesis: “12 God said, "This is the sign of the
covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is
with you, for all successive generations; 13
I set My bow in the
cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.
14 "It shall come about, when I
bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, 15 and I will remember My covenant, which is
between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again
shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 "When the bow is in the cloud, then I
will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every
living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” Here we see the rainbow as a promise from God
never to bring about another flood over the whole earth as He had just
done. He is speaking of mercy here and
this mercy came in the midst of His judgment something we look at earlier in
Malachi 3:16-4:2. “16 Then those who
feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it,
and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His
name. 17 “They will be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "on the day
that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves
him." 18 So you will again distinguish between the righteous and
the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. 1 "For behold, the day is coming, burning
like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the
day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of hosts, "so
that it will leave them neither root nor branch." 2 “But for you who fear My name,
the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go
forth and skip about like calves from the stall.”
Next we see” his face was like the sun.” “After these things I saw another angel
coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined
with his glory (Rev. 18:1).” Here is
something to think about and that is the face of an angel can illuminate the
earth like the sun how much more can the glory of the Lord’s brightness
illuminate. It is no wonder that no one
can see the Lord and live. Here is
something else to think about and that is that when the Lord Jesus Christ came
to earth that His glory was hidden so that He could become a man in order to
take our place on the cross and die in our place so that we who accept this can
receive His righteousness. “He made Him
who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21)”
Next we see John describing his feet and that his legs
are firm immovable a “pillar of fire.”
MacArthur writes “That symbolizes his unbending holiness in stamping out
his judgment on the earth, pictured here as fire that consumes the ungodly
(Mal. 4:1).”
We conclude with another quote from John MacArthur about
the “little book” that the angel has: “Some
argue that the use of biblaridion
(little book) in verse 2 distinguishes this book from the biblion (‘book’) of 5:1. But
that reasoning overlooks the fact that biblaridion
is the diminutive form of biblion, and
that biblion is also used to refer to
the ‘little book’ in 10:8. Rather that distinguishing
this book from the one in chapter 5, the diminutive form merely adds a further
description of it in this vision. The
book needed to be made smaller for the sake of the symbolism of this vision,
since John was to eat it. The use of the
perfect participle heneogmenon (‘which
was open’) emphasizes the idea of the scroll being open; having been opened, it
is to remain open. That further
identifies it with the now fully unrolled scroll of 5:1. The little book lying open in this unusual
angel’s hand unveils all the terrors of divine judgment yet to come.”
You may wonder why we are using the word “unusual” so
many times and it is because in his study of chapter ten MacArthur says the
things he was were unusual and as we continue in our study of this chapter we
can understand why he thought that.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As I think about
God’s grace in the midst of judgment I am thankful for that fact. God’s grace is an amazing part of His
attributes and it is because of His love that is also a part of His attributes that
we have the privilege of receiving His grace even in times of judgment.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To continue to do a better job of loving the
Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to better understand
and live in the grace and love of God.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Pilate” (Matthew 27:65).
Today’s Bible
question: “What is the name of the region
of the Holy Land in which Nazareth is located?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/8/2015 10:09 AM
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