SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/4/2015
8:49 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Return of Death PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
9:15-19
Message of the
verses: “15 And the four angels, who
had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third
of mankind. 16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million;
I heard the number of them. 17 And this is how I saw in the vision the horses
and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of
hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of
lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 A third of mankind was killed by
these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which
proceeded out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in
their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have
heads, and with them they do harm.”
I wrote the following almost ten years ago July 7, 2005
about the two-hundred million horsemen: “There
has been some debate as to whether these horses and riders were human beings or
whether they were some sort of demons like the ones that were described earlier
that came up out of the pit and stung people.
Some believe that these are the armies of China, for China has boasted
to have an army of two hundred million soldiers as far back as forty years ago.
John says in verse 16 that someone gave him the number of two hundred
million. John again uses similes to describe
the riders of the horses and also the horses themselves.” We will further discuss as to the possibility
of whether or not these are human riders or demon riders.
We have named this “The Return of Death” as now we see
that more people will be killed by this judgment, the sixth trumpet or second
woe. The fifth trumpet judgment did not
bring death but those who were affected by it wished they were dead and
possibility they will get their wish in this judgment.
Let us look again at verse fifteen: “15 And the four angels, who had been
prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third
of mankind.” I want to focus in
on the phrase “who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year”
and then look at a verse from Matthew to show that Jesus tells His disciples
that God is the One who knows when things will happen as He is all
knowing: “"But of that day and hour
no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone
(Matthew 24:36).” Now this verse if from
what is called “The Olivet Discourse” as Jesus was giving it on the Mount of
Olives and it was given in a response to a question that His disciples gave to
Him about when He was going to return to set up His kingdom on earth, so what
He is speaking about here is eschatological in nature. I
really like things like this when I see them in the Word of God for it shows me
the preciousness of God and we can believe that this will happen exactly when
God has planned for it to happen, not one minute to early or late for God knows
all things and controls all things.
What is the purpose of these “horsemen” any ways? Well we read that they are to kill one third
of the people on the earth. Now I don’t
think that there purpose is to kill believers but those who have clearly said
in their heart that they want nothing to do with God and His Christ as we have
seen in different parts of this book.
Now we must remember to keep our focus on what God is doing during this
seven year period of time and that is that He is taking back control of planet
earth and will rid it of Satan, his demons, and also those people who want
nothing to do with Him. We have seen
this kind of thing happen in the Old Testament when the Lord brought the flood
upon the earth as seen in Genesis and then when the angel of the Lord killed
185,000 Assyrians who were about to attack Jerusalem. God has the right to do this and it is hard
for some to understand these kind of things including myself but again remember
Deuteronomy 29:29 as we looked at in our last SD: “GOD, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our
business. It’s up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in
this Revelation (Message).”
Now remember that in the fourth seal judgment back in 6:8
we read that one fourth of the world’s population would be killed with that
judgment and not we see another one third killed with this judgment and this
totals more than one half of the world’s population that will be killed with
just these two judgments. Now this
staggering fact of those who died does not include all of the death brought on
by other judgments that we have looked at.
John MacArthur writes “The repeated emphasis throughout the trumpet
judgments on one-third (cf. 8:7-12) demonstrates convincingly that these are
controlled, precise divine judgments and not mere natural disasters.” I believe what he is saying is that God is in
control of all of these judgments.
We have one more day of our vacation as we plan to get
back home, Lord willing, tonight and therefore I will have more time to devote
to my Spiritual Diaries and it is my desire then to also begin again my study
in the last eight chapters of Ezekiel.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am amazed, but
should not be at the preciseness that the Lord has in doing what He wants to
accomplish as we see in this section of Scripture. God is in complete control of all things even
those difficult thing that happen in our lives, things that are tests that we
go through to draw us closer to Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To trust the Lord in all things even when it
hurts, and to love Him with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to
live in His love and better understand it.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Judges.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What is the fourth
commandment?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/4/2015 9:32 AM
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