SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/16/2015
10:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Attack Two
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 12:15-16
Message of the
verses: “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.”
The
following is a fairly long quote from my Spiritual Diary dated 08-12-05 when I
looked at these verses then and what I found when I looked at that Spiritual
Diary was something very similar to what I want to write today. I will add some more comments but this quote
has much of what I want to say today: “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 it’s 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.”
Now the last paragraph is mostly about verse seventeen which we will
look at in more detail in our next SD.
The
reason that it is believed that this is a picture and not a real flood is that
when Satan is described he is described as a “serpent” and we know that this is
now the form that Satan is in at this time.
This term goes back to Genesis chapter three when Satan caused the
serpent to speak to Eve, but at that time the serpent did not slither on the
ground like they do now, that came as a part of the cruse that God put on the
earth. So if Satan is fugitively
described as a serpent then the flood that is spoken of must also be fugitively
too.
God
sheltered Israel from the initial onslaught so there is no reason to think that
He will not do the same with this attack too.
When we look at the earth drinking up the water of the flood that came
out of the serpents mouth we can go back to the passage in the book of Numbers
as I mentioned in the quote from my previous SD on these verses, and that tells
of what God did to Korah. Let us look at
those verses at this time from Numbers 16:28-33 “28 Moses said, "By this you shall know that
the LORD has sent me to do all these deeds; for this is not my doing. 29 “If
these men die the death of all men or if they suffer the fate of all men, then
the LORD has not sent me. 30 "But if the LORD brings about an entirely new
thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is
theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men
have spurned the LORD." 31 As he finished speaking all these words, 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. 33 So they and all that belonged to
them went down alive to Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they
perished from the midst of the assembly.”
Now as we have been looking at the book of Revelation we have seen many
earthquakes and so who is to say that this is not one of those earthquakes that
will swallow up the army that antichrist sends after the Jews who are hiding in
the place where God sent them to protect them.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The protection that the Lord gives to Israel
during this time of the Tribulation increases my faith that He will care for me
as long as He will leave me on this earth.
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 Christ so that I will love
others as Christ loves me and extend mercy to others as Christ as done for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Animal Skins” (Genesis 3:21).
Today’s Bible question:
“What was the mark toward which Paul pressed?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/16/2015 10:38 AM
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