SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
6/12/2015 8:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to War of the Ages PT-3 (War on
Earth)
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
12:13-17
Message of the
verses: “13 And when the dragon saw
that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to
the male child. 14 But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the
woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was
nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the
serpent. 15 And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after
the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. 16 But
the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the
river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. 17 So the dragon was enraged
with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who
keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
The following is what I wrote on the 11th of
August 2005 in my Spiritual Diary related to Revelation 12:13-14 “As seen in the last few verses of this
chapter Satan has been thrown out of heaven and is now taking out his anger on
the nation of Israel and this is exactly what verse thirteen is saying, for the
woman who gave birth to the male child is the nation of Israel.
“All of these events take place at
the beginning of the last half of the tribulation period, which is when
antichrist goes into the re-built temple in Jerusalem and desecrates it as was
told about in the book of Daniel and also in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus
was speaking about this in His Olivet Discourse in chapters 24 & 25. Jesus forewarned the Nation of Israel that
when they saw this event happening, that is the desecration of the temple, that
they should flee the city and not come back for there would be much trouble
going on there for them after this event.
Verse 14 tells that the escape for the remnant of Israel will be on
eagles’ wings and that “she” will be taken to a certain place where she will be
nourished for three and a half years, or until the end of the tribulation
period. How do we understand what these
eagles’ wings are all about? As I have
said before the rest of the Scriptures are the best commentary for the book of
Revelations and it can be noted in a number of places that this description was
also given to the nation of Israel when God brought them out of Egypt. Exodus. 19:4 has this to say about it: “‘You yourselves have
seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and
brought you to Myself.’” How God
does this is not as important as the fact that He will accomplish it just as He
has said He will.”
The following is what I wrote on the
12th of August in my Spiritual Diary related to Revelation 12:15-17
“There are times in this wonderful book that it is difficult to
understand for sure whether John is giving the picture of using descriptive
language that is just symbolism and that is the case here, at least, for
me. The spiritual truth that I gain from
this section is that God takes care of His own people not matter how much Satan
tries to destroy them, and if one looks at history one can see that the Jews
have been targeted by Satan ever since they were a small family living only in
the Middle East.
“I will
give only one explanation as to what the flood and the earth opening its mouth
to swallow up this flood might mean.
John could well be speaking of a flood of people, or an army that
antichrist will send after these Jews, and it could be that there will be an
earthquake that will happen to swallow up this army that is sent to pursue
Israel. If one looks at different
Scriptures from the OT there are word pictures that describe similar
things. Isaiah 59:19 “So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and
his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a
flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” (AV)
Numbers 16:31 “ Then it came about as he
finished speaking all these words, that the ground that was under them split
open; 32 and the earth opened its mouth
and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to
Korah, with their possessions.” (NASB)
Numbers 16 speaks of the rebellion of Korah and the results of their
rebellion are seen in these two verses.
“Satan
became very angry when the Lord protected Israel, so he went off to cause much
trouble with the rest of the offspring of Israel. It is possible that there will be many in
Israel who did not choose to go to this place where God will care for those who
have gone there and so these are the ones who Satan will try and destroy. It is also possible that Satan will be going
after the “Tribulation Saints” too, and tries to destroy them. At any rate Satan realizing how little time
he has will try and destroy as many as he can.”
What
these verses speak of is one of the darkest stains that has been seen in
history and that is how the Gentiles have treated the Jews which is commonly
called anti-Semitism. We have seen the
happen from the time that God called Abraham up until the likes of Stalin and
Hitler who have killed millions and millions of Jews just because they were
Jews. We know that Satan hates the Jews
and has tried to destroy them since the beginning when God called them and it
is because of his hatred for the Jews that he has tricked or influenced even
believers to be against them, especially today.
When a person believes that the promises that God has given to the Jews
is for the church it causes them not to be supportive to the Jews as the body
of Christ should be especially at this present time when it seems that even the
United States is going against the Jews.
God’s promises to the Jews still stands and one day (I hope soon) the
Lord will return for His Church which will soon begin the last seven years of
history on this earth like we have known it and then at the end of those seven
years He returns again to set up His promised kingdom from Jerusalem and Israel
will have their promised kingdom that will last for 1000 years.
Not all
of the suffering that the Jews have gone through has been because of Satan, but
God has chastised them for their sins, sins mostly of unbelief which led to
idol worship, and the sin of not recognizing their Messiah when He came the
first time.
Now we
need not go over the history of all of the times the Jews have been treated
badly because they are Jews, but we do need to look at a time when it will be
the worst time for the Jews, which will happen in the Tribulation Period, for
it will be far worse than when Nazi Germany under Hitler killed six million
Jews. General Dwight David Eisenhower
told his troops to capture pictures of what the Nazi’s did to the Jews for he
said if he did not do this then the world would forget. He took the pictures, but it seems to me that
the world has forgotten.
John
MacArthur quotes John Phillips who wrote the following on the survival of the
Jews: “Significantly, the turning point
came in Moses’ life when he saw, in the desert, that mysterious burning bush,
which flamed and blazed away but, for all the crackling of the fire, was not
consumed. That bush clearly symbolized
Israel, which cannot be consumed despite the ceaseless hatred of her foes,
because God is in her midst. Israel
cannot be assimilated into the nations, nor can she be exterminated by the
nations. She is a burning bush in the
wilderness.” 6/12/2015 9:23 AM 6/12/2015 9:24 PM
We will continue
to look at this introduction in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I always want to stand true for the people of
Israel for I owe much to them as my Savior came from the Jewish people along
with the Word of God.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To continue to trust the Lord for the many
things that are going on in my life these days and to love the Lord with all of
my heart, soul, mind and strength.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Elisha” (2 Kings 5:10).
Today’s Bible question:
“Where did the fifth angel in Revelation 16:10 pour out his vial?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/12/2015 9:29 PM
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