SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/5/2015
8:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Return of Death PT-2
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.”
We continue to look at these verses today and I want to
think about how awful it will be for this much death to be upon the earth as we
think about having one third of the total population of the earth being
killed. When Israel came out of Egypt
there were probably two million people that came out and by the time that they
were suppose to go into the Promised Land they sinned and God said that all
people over the age of twenty years old would die in the wilderness over the
next forty years. Now if there were one
and a half million who were over twenty years old that meant that one the
average 105 people would die each day and have to be buried in the desert as
they traveled to the Promised Land. That
must have been a huge problem, but this is even a greater problem as one third
of the world’s population would be killed in this judgment of the horses. There is close to eight billion people on the
earth at this time. If one billion would
go up in the Rapture that would leave seven billion people. The first judgment would take one and
three-quarter billion people as that is one fourth of the earth population. Now if another one fourth died from some of
the other judgments that would leave five billion people and now if one third
of five billion people died in this judgment that would be around one billion
six hundred million people who would die leaving over three billion people
alive on the earth. Many more will die
due to the wars that we will look at later so it is my belief that one out of
four will be left on planet earth after all the judgments are complete, so that
will leave around 1.5-2.0 billion people, but then when the Lord comes He will
judge between the sheep and the goats according to Matthew 25 and so there may
only be around one billion people to go into the Millennial Kingdom when it
begins after the Lord returns.
Satan will by this time be kicked out of heaven which we
will actually study in Rev. 12, but now he has many of his demons and is
probably near full force because of some being let out of the pit which we
studied earlier. This will be a horrible
time to be alive on planet earth due to all of this satanic activity and also
because of the judgments that will come upon the earth as we are seeing.
Now who or what
are these two hundred million riders on these horses that are described
here? Some believe that this is Red
China who boast of having a army that large many years ago, and I used to learn
towards this, but have since changed my mind as I believe that these are demons
and these demons are not going to just sting their victims as we saw in the
last judgment, these demons are going to kill their victims. In Revelation 16:12 we read of a great many
people coming from the East to be involved in the battle of Armageddon: “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the
great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would
be prepared for the kings from the east.”
This verse does not tell the number of how many will be involved in this
battle from the East so we must say that this judgment and the one we are
currently studying are not the same as one is a trumpet judgment and the other
is a vial or bowl judgment.
John MacArthur writes the following: “Before describing the horses, the actual
agents of destruction, John briefly described those who sat on them. He noted that the riders had breastplates the
color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone.
The color of fire is red; that of hyacinth, dark blue or black like
smoke; that of brimstone, a sulfurous yellow, describing the rock which, when
ignited, produces a burning flame and suffocating gas. Those are the very colors and features of
hell (cf. 14:10; 19:20; 20:10; 21:8), and they paint a terrifying picture of
God’s wrath poured out on the sinful world by these demons. These colors are reminiscent of the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the nearby cities (Gen. 19: 24-28).”
We have spoken about horses in earlier SD’s and said that
they are agents of war as seen throughout the Scriptures, but these are not
actual horses as John describes them they have heads of lions and we know that
lions are very dangerous and like to kill their prey. Out of the mouth of these “horses” comes fire
in which they kill their victims and we also see that smoke and brimstone are
used to describe these horses.
MacArthur writes “It may be noted that the word ‘plagues’
will appear frequently in the remainder of Revelation (11:6; 15:1, 6, 8; 16:9,
21; 18:4, 8; 21:9; 22:18) as a term for the destructive final judgments.”
More deadly descriptions are given of these horses as
John writes “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.” John is giving us a description of death in
these verses as he describes the power that these horses have to kill one third
of the earth’s population.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As I look at all
of the prophetic things that are found in the book of Revelation and for that
matter in other parts of both the OT and the NT I think that it is my obligation
to tell others about what is going to happen so that they can make a decision
to trust Christ as Lord and Savior so that they will not have to be here when
these things happen on planet earth in the future.
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 and also to be ready to
tell others of the truths that I am finding in the Word of God.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Remember the Sabbath and keep
it holy” (Exodus 20:4).
Today’s Bible
question: “What is the kingdom of God?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/5/2015 9:11 AM
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