SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/7/2015
3:05 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Battle PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 12:7-8
Message of the
verses: “7 And there was war in
heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his
angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a
place found for them in heaven.”
Now we know that Revelation 12:7-8 speak of a battle, but
we don’t know, at least the Bible does not tells us the reason for this battle,
and as mentioned MacArthur has a theory that I have listened to from his sermon
on why this battle takes place and that is what we will be looking at in this
SD.’
John MacArthur writes “While it is impossible to be dogmatic,
this ultimate battle may be triggered by the Rapture of the church. Describing that event the apostle Paul wrote,
‘For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise
first. Then we who are alive and remain
will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,
and so we shall always be with the Lord’ (1Thess. 4:16-17). Possibly, as the raptured believers pass
through their realm, the prince of the power of the air and his demon hosts
will try to hinder their passage. That
may trigger the battle with Michel and the holy angels.”
We have seen Michael in action before when we looked at
Daniel chapter ten where in answer to Daniel’s prayer a holy angel was sent to
give Daniel an answer but was help up by a powerful demon who is said to be in
control of the Persian Empire. Michael
had to rescue this angel as he was their fighting for three weeks. We learn from this incident and others that
Michael is seen in Scripture as the defender of God’s people against satanic
destruction. Let us look at Daniel 12:1 “"Now
at that time Michael,
the great prince who
stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be
a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that
time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book,
will be rescued.” This verse is speaking
of the Tribulation Period, but in it we see Michael’s job as he “stands guard
over the sons of you people.” We have
also mentioned Jude 9, but will look at it again: “But Michael the archangel, when he disputed
with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce
against him a railing judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"” It was very important that no one find out
where Moses was buried for if his body had been found there may have been many
who wanted to worship it, so the Lord sent Michael to make sure this did not
happen. Now in this passage we see that
Michael is described as an archangel and we also saw this term in 1
Thessalonians 4:16 where we read “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel.”
MacArthur writes “It is possible that the archangel in that passage is
Michael and that he is shouting as he confronts Satan’s attempt to interfere
with the Rapture.” When one thinks about
how the Rapture happens as described in Scripture it is not impossible to
believe that all of the saints who are to be raptured may need some kind of
protection for after all we are going to be going through the “air” which we
have already learned is the domain of Satan and his demons.
We will try and finish this section in our next SD as it
is Sunday and time to me is different on Sunday with the going to church and
other things to do.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful for
the safety that God provides to me from Satan and his demon hosts, knowing that
God is all powerful gives me comfort.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to make every effort to live in the love of Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Daniel” (Daniel 2:27-29).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which prophet announced the
downfall of Babylon after Judah had been overthrown by the Chaldeans?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/7/2015 3:34 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment