SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
6/1/2015 12:07 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Woman
PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Rev. 12:1-2
Message of the
verses: “1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman
clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of
twelve stars; 2 and she was with child;
and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.”
We have gone over the fact that the Bible teaches that
Israel will play a key role in the Tribulation Period from our study in the
book of Daniel. Daniel chapter nine
teaches that there will be seventy weeks of years or 490 years in order for the
Lord to accomplish certain things that are found in verses 24-27 of the ninth
chapter of Daniel. The prophecy has a
certain starting point and ends temporarily with one week left on the prophecy,
and that one week computes to seven years, exactly how long the Tribulation
Period is. The gap between the end of
the 483rd year and the beginning of the last seven years is where
the church age fits into, the age we are now living in at this time. Once the church is taken out by the Rapture
there will arise a man whom the Bible calls among other things the antichrist
and he will make a covenant with Israel for seven years which begins the
Tribulation Period. God then begins
again to deal with the nation of Israel, just as He did in the Old Testament
times. Let us look at Jeremiah 31:35-57
to give some more light to this subject:
“35 Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed
order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so
that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name: 36 "If this fixed order departs From before Me," declares the
LORD, "Then the offspring of Israel also will cease From being a nation
before Me forever." 37 Thus says the LORD, "If the heavens
above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all
the offspring of Israel For all that they have done," declares the LORD.” This is a wonderful series of verses to show
that God is still dealing with Israel.
Amos 9:8 says “"Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful
kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth; Nevertheless, I will
not totally destroy the house of Jacob," Declares the LORD.”
God will continue to deal with Israel as we have seen and
His focus will again be on them during the Tribulation Period, but that will not
be the end of His dealings with Israel for there are many OT promises and even
in the NT that show that Israel will receive their promised Kingdom and Christ
will rule the world from Jerusalem. We
have gone over Romans 11:26 before but it bears repeating at this time: “and so
all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME
FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB."”
Satan has been the one who has caused the nation of
Israel to be persecuted and there are many examples of this in the OT. From the time that it was learned that God
would the Messiah through the nation of Israel Satan has tried to stop that
from happening. The line went through Jacob’s
son Judah and then it went through King David’s line and all the way Satan
tried to stop this from happening. When
Jesus was born Satan tried to kill Him but only succeeded to kill many innocent
babies, while Joseph and Mary escaped to Egypt.
Satan tempted Jesus as seen in both Matthew and Luke gospels, both of
them in chapter four, but Jesus did not succumb to those temptations. Satan wanted Christ to be crucified after the
Passover Feast, but God planned for Christ to die at the same time the Passover
lambs died and so He did. Satan
continues to be behind the persecution of the Jews to this day for God has
promised to protect them and as we have seen the nation of Israel was formed on
May 5, 1948 and lives today. Satan
continues to try and destroy Israel as they are surrounded on all sides by
enemies. This persecution will continue
in the Tribulation Period as Satan will try once again to destroy Israel.
John MacArthur writes “John say that the woman was
clothed with the sun, and had the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown
of twelve stars. That fascination description
reflects Joseph’s dream, recorded in Genesis 37:9-11: ‘9 Now he had still another dream, and
related it to his brothers, and said, "Lo, I have had still another dream;
and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."
10 He related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him
and said to him, "What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your
mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the
ground?" 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the
saying in mind.’ In the imagery of
Joseph’s dream, the sun represents Jacob, the moon Rachel, and the eleven stars
Joseph’s brothers. The allusion to
Joseph’s dream is fitting, since his life parallels Israel’s history. Both endured the indignity of captivity in
Gentile nations, yet were in the end delivered and exalted to a place of
prominence in a kingdom.”
In seeing the woman clothed with the sun this reflects
that Israel will one day be redeemed, thus showing glory, brilliance and also
dignity, and the reason for this is because they are God’s chosen nation. Now when we look at the reference of the moon
under her feet MacArthur writes that his “may be a further description of
Israel’s exalted status. It could also
include the concept of God covenantal relationship with Israel, since the moon
was part of the cycle of Israel’s required times of worship (cf. Num. 29:5-6;
Neh. 10:33; Ps. 81:3; Isa. 1:13-14; Col. 2:16).
The crown (stephanos; the
crown associated with triumph in the midst of suffering and struggles) of
twelve stars (Joseph being the twelfth) on the woman’s head refers to the
twelve tribes of Israel.”
We next see that the woman is with child, she is pregnant
and this further confirms her identity as Israel, for the church cannot be a
mother since the church is yet to be married, which will happen in Rev. 19:7-9:
“7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has
come and His bride has made herself ready." 8 It was given to her
to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the
righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he said to me, "Write, ’Blessed are those who
are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’" And he said to
me, "These are true
words of God."” 2
Corinthians 11:2 says “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I
betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure
virgin.” The phrase “the woman cried
out, being in labor and in pain to give birth,” shows that just as a pregnant
woman in labor feels pain, in the same way Israel was in pain because of the
persecution that Satan is given to them, as he attempts to destroy Israel once
again. John MacArthur writes “No nation
in history has suffered as long or as severely as Israel has—both from God’s
chastening, and also from Satan’s furious efforts to destroy the nation through
whom the Messiah would come.”
Next we will look at the woman’s cause for her suffering.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: When we look at
pain and suffering from the Word of God we see that after it is over, as long
as the suffering is of the Lord for doing what is right, then the glory will
come. Jesus Christ it the perfect
example of this for after His great suffering on the cross He was resurrected
to glory.
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, and to remember that
“the successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Twelve”
Today’s Bible
question: “What physical punishment was
given to Zedekiah when Jerusalem was destroyed?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/1/2015 12:54 PM
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