To Farmers: "Despair and Wail!" (Joel 1:8-12)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/31/2015 8:58 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  To Farmers:  “Despair and Wail!”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Joel 1:8-12

            Message of the verses:  “8 Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth For the bridegroom of her youth. 9 The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off From the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, The ministers of the LORD. 10 The field is ruined, The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine dries up, Fresh oil fails. 11 Be ashamed, O farmers, Wail, O vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field is destroyed. 12 The vine dries up And the fig tree fails; The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, All the trees of the field dry up. Indeed, rejoicing dries up From the sons of men.”

            I have been studying the different prophets in the Old Testament beginning with Isaiah since July 2, 2013 and there are certain things in them that go along in similar ways, and I think that one of the reasons is that many of the parts of the prophets are written in Hebrew pottery which is what we have in today’s verses.  When I began to study the book of Psalms I remember that Dr. Wiersbe wrote about some of the different forms of Hebrew pottery.  I will look for that quote and hopefully be able to find it and put it here in this SD. 

            Now we will look at what Dr. Wiersbe writes about Hebrew poetry and I will try to give an example of each from the Psalms.

            “Hebrew poetry is based on ‘thought lines’ and not rhymes.  If the second line repeats the first line in different words, as in Psalm 24:1-3 (“The earth is the LORD’S, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it. 2 For He has founded it upon the seas And established it upon the rivers.3 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place?”)  If the second line contrasts with the first, as in Psalm 1:6 (“For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.”) and also Psalm 37:9, it is antithetic parallelism.  Psalm 19:7-9 (“7 The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple  8  The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.  9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.”) But when the second line completes the first, it is climatic parallelism (Psalm 29:1 “Ascribe to the LORD, O sons of the mighty, Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.”).  With iterative parallelism, the second line repeats the thought of the first as seen in Psalm 93, and in alternate parallelism, the lines carry the same thought as in (Psalm 103:8-13 “8  The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. 9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. 10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.”).  You don’t bring these technical terms into the pulpit, but knowing what they mean can give you great help when you study.  To interpret Psalm 103:3 “3 Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases;” as God’s promise to heal every sickness is to ignore the synonymous parallelism of the verse:  the forgiveness of sins is like the healing of disease (see Psalm 41:4). “4 As for me, I said, "O LORD, be gracious to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.’”

            I hope that this will help us better understand the prophets and the way that they write their books.  Now all of the prophetic writings are in Hebrew Pottery for even when looking at some of the different prophets some may be in Hebrew pottery and then they may stop and write in the regular way.  However there are other things that I have found to be similar and that is that many times, like in the case of Joel there will be a lot of “bad news” so to speak and then later on there will be a blessing that will take place.  We are in what I like to call the “bad news” part of this prophet’s writings.

            Joel names different crops that were affected by the locusts and were ruined which would cause the farmers and vinedressers to weep and wail.  He even mentions the apple tree and the pomegranate, then the wheat and barley are also mentioned.  Some of these are used in the worship of the Lord at the temple and I suppose that when you consider that the people were to bring their first fruits to the Lord then all of them can be considered a part of the worship of the Lord. 

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “From season to season, the locusts ate whatever was produced, and the drought kept the soil from producing anything more.  In verses 18-20, Joel includes the flocks and herds and their pastures.  All that the farmers could do was express their grief and lament like an engaged girl whose fiancé had died.  It seemed a hopeless situation.” 

7/31/2015 9:20 PM

 

           

PT-2 of The Introduction to Rev. 15

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/31/2015 9:25 AM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  Introduction to Revelation 15 PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 15:1-8

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished. 2 And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. 3  And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! 4 “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED."

    “5 After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened, 6 and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.”

            We have been looking at the wrath of God as we look at Revelation chapter fifteen, as this seems to be the theme of this chapter as we read in the first verse that when these last seven plagues are finished, and I might say that the word translated plague is a very interesting word that we will look at later on, when these are finished then we read that “the wrath of God is finished.”  The word “finished” has also been translated as “accomplished” and that may be a better way of looking at that word as once these plagues are finished in a rapid way then it will accomplish what God has planned to do, and that is that His Son will set on the throne in Jerusalem as we have read prophesied in the second Psalm.  “6 “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain."”  Verse five says “5  Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying.” 

            We have been looking at some OT verses that speak of the wrath of God, and mentioned that this also speaks of what the Bible calls “The Day of the Lord.”  Today we will look at different aspects of the wrath of God as John MacArthur writes “The historical outpourings of God’s wrath fall into several categories.  First is what might be called ‘sowing and reaping’ wrath.  People sin and suffer the logical consequences of that sin; ‘Those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble harvest it’ (Job 4:8; cf. Gal. 6:7-8).  A second kind of wrath is cataclysmic wrath, when God sends massive, destructive judgment.  That judgment may engulf the entire world, as it did with the Flood (Gen. 6-8), or a smaller region, as when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:1-29).  Romans chapter 1 reveals God’s wrath of abandonment when Paul three times used the phrase ‘God gave them over’ to demonstrate God’s judicial abandonment of sinners, removing restraint to the deadly consequences of their sinful choices (vv. 24, 26, 28).  Hosea 4:17 declares, ‘Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.’  As previously noted, God’s terminal judgment is poured out in historical Day of the Lord judgments.  Finally, there is eternal wrath, God’s eschatological wrath that will in the future be poured out on the whole world (1 Thess. 10; 5:9).  The ultimate result of eternal wrath will be the sentencing of all unrepentant sinners to hell forever.

            “But throughout the entire historical outpouring of God’s wrath, from Eden to the final explosion of His eschatological wrath, a strange paradox exists:  God is busily working to save sinners from His own wrath.  God’s nature encompasses not only righteousness and holiness, but also grace and mercy.  Even during the devastating judgments of the Tribulation, God will call sinners to salvation.  He will do so using the 144,000 Jewish evangelists (7:2-8; 14:1-5), the two witnesses (11:3-13), a host of redeemed Gentiles and Jews 7:9-17), even an angel flying in the sky (14:6-7).  As the outpouring of divine wrath escalates, God’s evangelistic efforts will escalate as well.  The result will be the greatest harvest of souls in human history (cf. 7:9).  A redeemed Israel and souls from all the nations will be saved, many to survive the Tribulation and enter the millennial kingdom.” 

            We will see as we study chapters 15 and 16 that this will be the final outpouring of God’s wrath before the return of Jesus Christ to planet earth to set up His promised Kingdom.  This final wrath will be expressed in seven “bowl” judgments and they will be rapid-fire judgments, not lasting as long as the other judgments we have already studied earlier.  Remember that God said that the last three trumpet judgments were “woes,” well that last woe brings on these last seven bowl judgments.  Chapter fifteen forms the introduction to these judgments as it is the shortest chapter in the book, only eight verses in all.  Some could conclude that this is here to defend God’s wrath, but God needs no defense in what He does, for after all He is God.  “"The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He (Deu. 32:4).”

            As we begin to look at chapter fifteen we see what John describes as “another sign in heaven,” and this chapter describes how God readies to send these last seven plagues that will come from heaven to planet earth, which is similar to when the other judgments were being readied.

            John MacArthur writes the following on the word translated wrath:  “Thumos (wrath) is a strong word, describing rage, or a passionate outburst of anger.  God’s anger must be expressed against all unforgiven sin (cf. 14:8, 10).  In 16:19 and 19:15 God’s final wrath is called His ‘fierce wrath.’  The prophet Zephaniah wrote of this final outpouring of God’s wrath in Zephaniah 3:8:  “"Therefore wait for Me," declares the LORD, "For the day when I rise up as a witness. Indeed, My decision is to gather nations, To assemble kingdoms, To pour out on them My indignation, All My burning anger; For all the earth will be devoured By the fire of My zeal.”

            He concludes with the preview of what we are going to look at by writing “As this chapter unfolds, three motives for the final outpouring of God’s wrath will become evident:  the vengeance of God, the character of God, and the plan of God.”  

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Wrath is as much a part of God as the other attributes that are mentioned in the Word of God, but many do not want to learn about it as they would rather look at the love of God, His grace and mercy, which too are a part of God’s attributes.  However when we look at the world today and see many Christians being killed for their faith in Christ and we look at the many millions of abortions that have happened in our country since 1972 we have to cry out for God’s wrath to come upon the guilty ones, and as we continue to study the book of Revelation we will see that final wrath when God will sentence those who have not trusted in His salvation through His Son Jesus Christ pay or their sins. 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to continue to get the word out as far as what the world is about to witnesses so that God can use it to call sinners to repentance and believers to growth and revival.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “The prodigal son” (Luke 15:18).

Today’s Bible question:  “Of what country was Evil-Merodach king?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/31/2015 10:20 AM

Joel speaks to the Drunkards: "Wake up and Weep! (Joel 1:5-7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/30/2015 9:04 PM

My Worship Time                                             Focus:  To the Drunkards:  “Wake up and weep!”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  Joel 1:5-7

            Message of the verses:  “5 Awake, drunkards, and weep; And wail, all you wine drinkers, On account of the sweet wine That is cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation has invaded my land, Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the fangs of a lioness. 7 It has made my vine a waste And my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away; Their branches have become white.”

            Joel does not mention too many sins that the people are committing, but he does mention drunkenness and also in 2:12-13 he will mention the insincerity of some of the worshipers.  We noticed that Hosea also mentioned drunkenness in 7:5 and we will also see Amos mention it in his book from 4:1, so drunkenness must have been a big problem in Judah during this time period, but then it has been a big problem in our country for many years and I suppose that it is a big problem in many countries and in many time periods so what Joel is exposing still goes on.  It is possible that Joel exposing of drunkenness could have carried over to people who had other sinful pleasures for drunkenness can cause other sinful things to happen.

            Now after what we saw happen in verses 2-4 I suppose that these people had a good reason to weep because there was no wine to be had and there would not be any for a while after what the locusts did to the vineyards.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “Keep in mind that bread and wine were staples in the Jewish diet, so that even the people who didn’t get drunk were affected by the loss.”  The water was not always good to drink by itself so the people would mix wine with it, but it would not be a strong drink at all.

            As we look at verse six we see the personal pronoun “my” as Joel speaks of the invading army which is mighty coming into his land.  I believe that even though the my is not capitalized here that Joel is speaking for the Lord for all the land is the Lord but He takes special concern for the land of Israel.  The locusts that are mentioned in verses 2-4 represent the invading army too as they will come in and do damage to Judah.

7/30/2015 9:21 PM

PT-1 of The Introduction to Rev. 15

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/30/2015 7:55 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Introduction to Revelation 15

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 15

            Message of the verses:  1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished. 2 And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. 3  And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! 4 “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED."

    “5 After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened, 6 and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes. 7 Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. 8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.”

            John MacArthur entitles this chapter in his commentary on the book of Revelation “The Temple of Doom,” and it covers these eight verses which make up the fifteenth chapter of the book of Revelation.  We spent 24 days looking at the fourteenth chapter of Revelation and I suppose that this 15^th chapter will not take us that long as it is shorter than the 14^th.

            I may have mentioned that I am very slowly reading a book written by Dr. David Jeremiah which he entitled “I Never Thought I Would See the Day,” and in this book he writes about things that are happening in our country that he never thought that he would ever see including what people think about the Word of God.  The Word of God is the most important book that man has and there are probably more Bibles that are in the world than any other book ever printed, however that does not mean that people read it as faithfully as they should.  The Bible tells us all we need to know about where we came from and where we are going, it tells us how we can have a relationship with God through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we are learning from the last book in the Bible it tells us what the future holds, for it tells us Who it is that holds the future.  People worry about the future, and with good reason, and people who do not know the Lord have even greater reason to worry about the future for as we will see in this chapter there is coming a time when as the first verse in this chapter tells us that with the seven plagues that the seven angels are about to throw down upon planet earth, which will be described in the next chapter that with them the wrath of God will be complete, but as we will see there is still a lot of wrath from God to come.

            We will look at some other verses which speak about this terrible time that is just over the horizon of human history, verses that were written many hundreds and even thousands of years ago that speak of this awful time that will come upon the whole world.

            As we study the books of the Old Testament we have seen that God has poured out His wrath upon man because of their sinfulness.  Paul writes the following about how Adam and Eve brought the entire human race under God’s judgment “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned. (Rom. 5:12).”  Next we see the wrath of God at the flood which covered the entire world and has caused the world to be a different place to live when it was over.  We see this in the book of Genesis 6:5-8 where it reads “5  Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 The LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”  God’s wrath through the flood was about to happen as we see in these verses.  God’s wrath seems to be pointed to a time in which the Bible calls “The Day of the Lord,” and that is the theme of the OT book of Joel, a book that I am just beginning to study at this time.  The day of the Lord is seen in different books of the Word of God including OT books along with NT books and we have seen it in the letter to the Thessalonians which we looked at last year and are seeing it in the book of Revelation as it will climax in this book.  Let us take a look at some passages from the book of Isaiah a book we also studied a few years ago.  “6 Wail, for the day of the LORD is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore all hands will fall limp, And every man’s heart will melt. 8  They will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor, They will look at one another in astonishment, Their faces aflame. 9 Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it (Isa. 13:6-9).”

Next Ezekiel 30:3 “"For the day is near, Even the day of the LORD is near; It will be a day of clouds, A time of doom for the nations.”  Joel 1:15 “Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.” Amos 4:12 “"Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; Because I will do this to you, Prepare to meet your God, O Israel."”  Next we will look at Zephaniah as he gives the following frightening account of the Day of the Lord:  “14 Near is the great day of the LORD, Near and coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the LORD! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. 15  A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness, 16  A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high corner towers. 17 I will bring distress on men So that they will walk like the blind, Because they have sinned against the LORD; And their blood will be poured out like dust And their flesh like dung. 18 Neither their silver nor their gold Will be able to deliver them On the day of the LORD’S wrath; And all the earth will be devoured In the fire of His jealousy, For He will make a complete end, Indeed a terrifying one, Of all the inhabitants of the earth.”  We will look at one more in this SD and then finish up this introduction in our next SD.  “"For the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity; They will be led forth at the day of fury (Job. 21:30).”  Job may be one of the oldest books that we find in the Word of God as many believe that he lived near the time of Abraham.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I continue to study about what the Lord has planned and told from His Word what will happen it has been my desire since I first became a believer to get the message out so that people will not have to go through this time of testing that is about to come upon the whole world, and as far as personal meaning to me I continue to go back to what Peter wrote in his second letter after explaining some things about what will happen in the future of this world.  “10  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.  11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness (2 Peter 3:10-11).”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  “always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence (1 Peter 3:15b).”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “He went to the Synagogue” (Luke 4:16).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘I will arise and go to my father’?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/30/2015 8:43 AM

The Elders and Citizens in General "Hear This" (Joel 1:2-4)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/29/2015 9:51 PM

My Worship Time                                Focus:  The Elders and Citizens in General:  “Hear This!”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                       Reference:  Joel 1:2-4

            Message of the verses:  “2 Hear this, O elders, And listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days Or in your fathers’ days? 3  Tell your sons about it, And let your sons tell their sons, And their sons the next generation. 4 What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.”

            We are beginning to look at the first sub-point under the first main point from the outline of Dr. Wiersbe, a practice that I follow in many of my Spiritual Diaries.  We mentioned in the two earlier SD’s on Joel that “The Day of the Lord” is the theme of the book of Joel and that it was broken up into three different time periods with the first being what is called “The Immediate Day of the Lord” which covers Joel 1:1-20, which is the entire first chapter.  We will be looking at four different sub-points under this first main point in the next few days as we begin our study of this short book of Joel.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes of Joel in his introductory commentary of this first main point:  “Joel was a realist who looked at life from the standpoint of the Word of the Lord.  He addressed himself to five groups of citizens and gave them four admonitions from the Lord.”  As stated we will look at these four admonitions, the first one today as Joes speaks to the elders and the plain citizens and his words are to “Hear this!”

            Now if we look at this second verse in Joel from the KJV it reads “2  Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?”  Dr. Wiersbe has an endnote on this:  “In the KJV, the Hebrew word is translated ‘old men’ in 1:2 and 2:28, and ‘elders’ in 1:14 and 2:16.  The NIV uses ‘elders’ everywhere except 2:28, where the contrast between ‘young men’ and ‘old men’ is quite obvious.  It’s possible that the ‘old men’ were indeed the official elders of the land.”

            Joel addressed the elders or old men first for what is probably two reasons:  that they had long experience and could authenticate what he was saying, and the other reason is that people respected the older men in that generation, something that does not happen in our culture today.  Why do I make that statement?  Well I told one of my friends that our adult children don’t need much advice from us because they can get all of the answers on their “smart phones.”  Now that Joel had the support of the older generation his voice would carry some respect and the elders would agree that their nation was in a very difficult situation such as they had never seen before.  What was about to happen was something that people would tell the next generation and the next generation and so on. 

            Notice Joel uses four different words for how these locusts would go about and eat everything that was able to be eaten.  Some suggest that he did this to show the four stages of the life cycle of the locusts, but as we look at these different words and follow them throughout the passage we see that perhaps the point was that everything would be completely destroyed, for that is what Joel is saying would happen.  The speed in which locusts can destroy plant vegetation is very fast and when they come into a field it looks like a dark cloud has come across the field and with the results that nothing is left when they are done.  Let us look at another place in Scripture where this happened:  Exodus 10:12-20 “12 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up on the land of Egypt and eat every plant of the land, even all that the hail has left." 13 So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the LORD directed an east wind on the land all that day and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. 14 The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt; they were very numerous. There had never been so many locusts, nor would there be so many again. 15 For they covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Thus nothing green was left on tree or plant of the field through all the land of Egypt. 16 Then Pharaoh hurriedly called for Moses and Aaron, and he said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you. 17 “Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and make supplication to the LORD your God, that He would only remove this death from me." 18 He went out from Pharaoh and made supplication to the LORD. 19  So the LORD shifted the wind to a very strong west wind which took up the locusts and drove them into the Red Sea; not one locust was left in all the territory of Egypt. 20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go.”

7/29/2015 10:21 PM

The Reaping (Rev. 14:19-20)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/29/2015 12:13 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  The Reaping

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Rev. 14:19-20

            Message of the verses:  “19 So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God. 20 And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.”

            The first thing I want to do is give a rather long quote from Hal Lindsey who became kind of famous from his first book “The Late Great Planet Earth,” and I was listening to some tape messages by him in Jan. of 1974 when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord.  He also wrote a book entitled “There Is A New World Coming” which is his commentary on the book of Revelation, and this quote comes from that book.  He entitles this sub-section “Messiah to Jerusalem’s Rescue,” and he writes “The armies of all nations will be gathered in the area of Israel, especially around Jerusalem.  Think of it: at least 200 million soldiers from the Orient, with millions more from the forces of the West headed by the Antichrist of the Revised Roman Empire (Western Europe)!  Messiah Jesus will first strike those who have ravaged His city, Jerusalem.  Then He will strike the armies amassed in the valley of Megiddo, or Armageddon. No wonder blood will stand to the horses’ bridles for a distance of two hundred miles from Jerusalem! (Revelation 14:20).

            “It’s grizzly to think about such a carnage, but just to check all this out I measured from the point where the Valley of Armageddon slopes down to the Jordan Valley.  From that point southward down the Valley through the Dead Sea to the port of Elath on the Gulf of Aqabah measures approximately two hundred miles.  Apparently this whole valley will be filled with war materials, animals, bodies of men and blood!

            “Let the nations of the world be warned!  Let those who attack the believing remnant of Israel in the last days take heed, for the Lord says of Israel, ‘After the glory He has sent Me (The Messiah) against the nations who persecuted and plundered you, for anyone who touches you, touches the apple of God’s eye’ (Zechariah 2:8).”  (End quote)

The things that are in the above quote are the results of what happened when the angel swung his sickle to the earth and as we see it will be catastrophic to say the least.  What we are talking about here is pictured in John’s vision as grapes going into a wine press in order to get the juice out of the grapes and this pictures vividly the splattering of the juice as the grapes are stomped out.  Now again what is being pictured here is what will be going on when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back to earth which is described in chapter nineteen of Revelation, and as mentioned He will come back when the full furry of the battle of Armageddon is going on, nations fighting against nation, but when they look up to see the Lord return they will stop fighting against each other and begin to fight against the Lord and the armies that will return with Him.  The following is what is written about this in Revelation 19:11-21 “   11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." 17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, "Come, assemble for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great." 19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. 21 And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.”

John MacArthur writes “Putting the scene in this chapter together with that of chapter 19, while the angel cuts the grapes, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who crushes out their lives.

“Unregenerate humanity faces a frightening future, as this incredible scene indicates.  Those who refuse to repent, even after repeated warnings, will learn firsthand the sobering truth that ‘it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Heb. 10:31).  They would do well to heed the psalmist’s admonition:  “Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”

As we look at what will happen it is still hard to understand all of the carnage that will be going on during this absolutely horrible time on planet a time so horrible that Jesus said in “Mt 24:22 “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”  We know the truth of this and it is up to us to tell others about this truth so that they will not have the potential of going through this horrible time that is coming soon as we have learned in our study of Revelation, for this is the next thing to happen as far as prophetic truth.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am compelled to tell others of the things that will soon take place as John says in Rev. 1:3 “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I pray that all who read this will tell others of this truth and they in turn will tell still others of this truth.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Milk” (1 Corinthians 9:7).

Today’s Bible question:  “What was a custom of Jesus at Nazareth on the Sabbath?”

Answer in our next SD.

7/29/2015 12:54 PM

More on Joel

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/28/2015 11:14 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  More on Joel

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                             Reference:  Joel 1:1

            Message of the verses:  “1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:”

            We mentioned in our last SD on Joel that the theme of his book is “The Day of the Lord,” and it seems that the Lord was using some very difficult economic conditions in the land of Judah to get the attention of the people of Judah who were not living for the Lord.  We also wrote about the different ways that the day of the Lord is seen in the book of Joel beginning with the very first chapter, and also mentioned how the locusts played into this theme.

            Joel’s name means “the Lord is God,” and like all true prophets of the Lord Joel was commissioned to cal the people back to the worship of the Lord, the One true God and he did this by declaring the Word of the Lord to them.  We can see this in the very first verse of his book and it can also be seen in the first verse.  Jeremiah 1:2 says “to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.”  Ezekiel 1:3 says “the word of the LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and there the hand of the LORD came upon him.)”  Dr. Wiersbe points out that the first verses of Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi all begin in the same way talking about the Word of the Lord.  God will use His prophets to bring the people back to Him by using His Word.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “It was the task of the priest to teach the people the law, and it was the responsibility of the prophets to call the people back to the Lord whenever they strayed from His Law.  The prophets also interpreted historical events in the light of the Word of God to help the people understand God’s will for their lives.  They were ‘forth-tellers’ as well as ‘foretellers.’”

            It was Joel’s job to tell the people of Judah how to understand what God was doing through the drought along with the plague, (the locusts).  As we look around the world today and see things that are happening that cause disasters like earthquakes, floods, droughts, and other things that cause devastation I wonder how many people are asking how the Lord is involved in all of this.  We can be assured that God is in control of all things and for the believer we have to trust the Lord in all circumstances that come about as Romans 8:28 tells us.

            Dr. Wiersbe concludes this section of his commentary by writing “As you can see from the suggested outline of Joel’s book, the prophet announces ‘the Day of the Lord and applied it to three events:  the plague of locusts, the future invasion of the Assyrians, and the distant judgment that the Lord would send on the whole world.  In this chapter, we want to focus on the first two applications of the ‘Day of the Lord.’”  Now as far as the last section of the Day of the Lord we are looking at that in our study of the book of Revelation, and have also looked at it last year in the study of both letters to the Thessalonians.

7/28/2015 11:34 PM

PT-1 of the Grape Harvest (Rev. 14:17-18)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/28/2015 8:02 AM

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  The Grape Harvest  PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                          Reference:  Revelation 14:17-20

            Message of the verses:  “17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. 18  Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe." 19 So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God. 20 And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.”

            We mentioned that the sub-sections for this harvest will be the same as those of the grain harvest so we will first be looking at the reaper, then the ripeness, and finally the reaping. It is doubtful we will get to look at all of these in this SD.

            John MacArthur writes the following as a way of introduction to this subject:  “The vision of the grain harvest is followed by the vision of the grape harvest, which does not speak of the bowl judgments but of the judgment that takes place at the battle of Armageddon.  The vintage judgment is more dramatic because of the imagery of the winepress.”

            The Reaper (Revelation 14:17):  “17 And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.” 

            Unlike the grain harvest the reaper in this vision is not the Son of Man, but is an angel which is the fifth one mentioned in this 14^th chapter of Revelation.  The angel comes out of the temple which is heaven which is like we saw the fourth angel come as described in verse 15.  Just as Christ had a sharp sickle so this fifth angel also has a sharp sickle too.  As we have been studying the book of Revelation we have seen that angels have prominent roles in what is going on in this book.  We will remember that it was angels who summoned the four horsemen, and they also sounded the seven trumpet judgments and also defeating Satan and his demon hosts.  There will be angels who will pour out the last judgments, the bowl judgments as we will see eventually when we study chapter sixteen.  An angel will announce the Battle of Armageddon “Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, "Come, assemble for the great supper of God (Rev. 19:17).”  It will also be an angel who will bind Satan after Christ returns to the earth “1 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time (Rev. 20:1-3).”  Angels will also assist the Lord Jesus Christ in His final judgment:  “and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels (Matthew 13:39).”  “"So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous (Matthew 13 49).”  “And to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire (2 Thess. 2:7).”

            The Ripeness (Rev. 14:18):  “18  Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.’”

            We now look at the sixth angel that is mentioned in the 14^th chapter and as it is written this angel has power over fire and he came out from the altar.  John MacArthur writes “That title is closely connected with the fact that he came out from the altar.  This heavenly altar has already been mentioned in 6:9-11:  ‘9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" 11 And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.’  It most likely is emblematic of the Old Testament brass incense altar (Ex. 40:5), where twice daily priests burned incense to be offered in the Holy Place as a picture of the people’s prayers, since the martyrs underneath it are view praying and prayer is associated with incense (5:8; Ps 141:2; Luke 1:10).  Those martyred saints are praying for God to take vengeance on their tormenters and send His wrath. 

            “The altar is also described in 8:3-5:  ‘3 Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.’  Every morning and evening the Old Testament priests would take hot coals from the brazen altar (upon which sacrifices were offered) and bring them to the incense altar.  There they would ignite the incense (Ex. 30:7-8; 2 Chron. 29:11), which would rise toward heaven, symbolizing the prayers of God’s people (5:8).  At that same time, the people outside would be praying (Luke 1:10).”

            “Mt 6:10 ’Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.  Lu 11:2 And He said to them, "When you pray, say: ’Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.”  Remember these verses as being a part of what we call the Lord ’s Prayer when actually it should be called the Disciple’s prayer, well I think as we look at what is going on in Revelation 14:18 we see that this prayer is being answered as John MacArthur explains:  “That angel had power over the altar’s fire (the definite article is present in the Greek text, which literally reads ‘the fire’) indicates that he had been ministering at the heavenly counterpart to the earthly incense altar.  Unlike the angel in verse 17, this angel does not come from the throne of God, but from the altar associated with the prayers of the saints.  His appearance means that the time had come for those prayers to be answered.  The time had come for God to take fire associated with intercession and use it for the destruction of His enemies and the enemies of His people.” 

            Now as we look at this passage we can see the unrepentant sinners are the grapes that are on the vine mentioned in this passage, and they are cut off with the sharp sickle of the angel.  We mentioned in our last SD about the word ripe as meaning over ripe or even rotten and I gave an illustration from my childhood days of working on the farm.  Well the illustration of that story goes better with this word ripe for this word refers to something fully ripe and in its prime as it pictures the earth’s wicked and unregenerate people as bursting with the juice of wickedness which is ready to come to harvest.

            We will save the last sub-section, the reaping for our last SD in the 14^th chapter of Revelation, a chapter that we began on the 5^th of July, a chapter that is very important in better understanding about angels and also their role in judgment, the final judgment that will come upon this earth when it is ripe for being harvested.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As a believer in Jesus Christ and as being a part of His church there are times when my prayers reflect on the Lord saving people as it should, but there are also times on praying like the souls under the altar that God would judge the sinful people who are causing great harm to the people of the Lord.  As I reflect upon some of the things that I have been learning from the book of Revelation I believe that both prayers will be answered.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to give me the wisdom on how to pray.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “He struck the rock instead of speaking to it” (Numbers 20:7-13).

Today’s Bible question:  “What does on eat who feeds the flock?” 

Answer in our next SD.

7/28/2015 8:56 AM

Intoduction ot the book of Joel

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/27/2015 11:12 PM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  Introduction to Joel

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Joel 1:1

            Message of the verses:  In this evenings SD we want to take a look at the book of Joel and give an introduction to this second minor prophet.

            We will begin with Joel 1:1 to get the information on who Joel is:  “The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel,” and that is all we have as far as who Joel is.  John MacArthur writes from his study Bible “Extrabiblical tradition records that he was from the tribe of Reuben and Gad.  The context of the prophecy, however, hints that he was a Judean from the Jerusalem vicinity, since the tone of a stranger is absent.”

            When we look at the order of where the book of Joel is in the cannon of Scripture it is obvious that those who put the OT cannon together thought that Joel’s writings were before the Jews went into exile, and not post exile.  In MacArthur’s Study Bible he writes that “it is believed that a late ninth century B. C. date, during the reign of Joash (ca. 835- 7:96 B. C.).”   

            Now as far as the theme of the book of Joel it is “The Day of the Lord” as this subject permeates all parts of Joel.  I have to say that after studying the books of 1^st and 2^nd Thessalonians and also studying the book of Revelation this theme has been looked at a lot in our recent SD’s. 

            Warren Wiersbe writes the following in his introductory commentary on the book of Joel:  “Joel may well have been the first of the writing prophets; he probably ministered in Judah during the reign of King Joash (835-796 B. C.).  You find the record in 2 Kings 11-12 and 2 Chronicles 22-24.  Joash came to the throne at the age of seven, and Jehoiada the priest was his mentor.  This may explain why Joel says nothing about the king, since Joash was learning the job.” 

At this time I want to quote an endnote from Dr. Wiersbe about The Day of the Lord:  “The term ‘Day of the Lord’ is used to describe the fall of Israel in 722 B. C. (Amos 5), the fall of Judah in 586 B. C. (Ezek. 13:5), and the battle of Carchemish in 605 B. C. (Jer. 46:10).  Each of these local calamities was a precursor of the worldwide judgment that is promised by the prophets and also our Lord (Matt. 24; Mark 13).”  However in his commentary he writes “but the main emphasis is on the future ‘day of the Lord’ when the nations will be judged and Christ will return to set up His glorious kingdom.”

In his book Joel will refer to three important events that speak of the day of the Lord, and the first has to do with the locusts which are seen in Joel 1:1-20.  Next the invasion of Judah by the Assyria which is found in Joel 2:1-27, and then the ultimate day of the Lord is seen in 2:28-3:21.  Dr. Wiersbe concludes “In the first, the locusts are a metaphorical army; in the second, the locusts symbolize a real army, and the third, the locusts aren’t seen at all and the armies are very real and very dangerous.”

We will begin looking at Joel chapter on in our next SD.  7/27/2015 11:44 PM

 

PT-2 of the Grain Harvest (Rev. 14:15-16)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/27/2015 8:22 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 of the Grain Harvest

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 14:15-16

            Message of the verses:  In Today’s Spiritual Diary we will be looking at the second and third sub-sections of the “Grain Harvest.”  We looked at who the Reaper was in our last SD and found out it was the Lord Jesus Christ, and we also found out that these last verses of chapter fourteen contained two different times of harvest, the grain harvest, and the grape harvest.  Next we found out that as we will be looking at these different harvests the grain harvest represents the last judgments or the bowl judgments, while the grape harvest represents Armageddon.  Lastly we found out that each of these harvest can be described with the same sub-points, the reaper, the ripeness, and the reaping.  

            The Ripeness (Revelation 14:15):  “15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, "Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.’”

            The angel mentioned in this verse is the fourth angel that is mentioned in chapter fourteen as we remember an angel was also mentioned in verses 6, 8, and 9.  As promised we are seeing many of the things that are done in the book of Revelation are done by angels, both good and bad.  When we looked at the first three angels we saw judgment coming while this angel speaks of the execution of that judgment.  Next we see that the angel came out of the heavenly temple, the temple in heaven and he announces the judgment to begin in a loud voice.  We have spoken of loud things happening in the book of Revelation in earlier SD’s, and so this is another thing that happens that is loud, and this conveys both urgency and power, and also the authority that was delegated to this angel from God.  As we further look at the verse the angel cried out “to Him who sat on the cloud, ‘Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.’”  Now this messages comes from God the Father and is then delivered to God the Son and that message is to commence the judgment.  I know that when we get to the word “ripe” and explain the meaning of that word that it is a bit different than the example that I am about to give, but I want to give this example anyway.  When I was a teenager I worked on different farms to help the farmers bring in some of their crops, mostly helping with the bailing of hay and then straw at times too.  When the hay is cut it has to lie in the field for a while in order to have it dry out a bit before it can be put into bails, for if it is bailed too early and put into the barn it can actually get so hot in the barn that it can burn the barn down, so it is important for the farmer to know when the hay is ready to be bailed.  As far as the grain the farmer has to know exactly when he can harvest it and he will take a sample of the grain to have it tested to see how much moisture is in it, and when that is right the grain is ready to be harvested.  We will see that the earth is actually past ready to be harvested for it is over ripe which is what the meaning of that word means, and we can attribute that to the grace of God.  I have given the example of what we find in Genesis 15:16 in many of my Spiritual Diaries and that verse says “"Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete."”  God is speaking to Abraham telling him that his offspring will go into Egypt and then come back to the land he was living in at that time and one of the reasons that it will take 400 years for them to return is that the iniquity of the Amorite people is not yet complete, we could say it is not yet ripe for harvesting.  God has waited a very long time to judge the world, and as we see in this verse it is time for that judgment to come for the iniquity of those unbelievers living on the earth at that time will be complete or ripe.

            We have mentioned that Jesus came the first time to planet earth as a Savior and as a Servant, but this time He will come as a judge to exercise the right to judge that the Father has delegated to Him.  Let us look at John 5:22 and then 27 and then we will look at Acts 10:42 and 17:31.  “22  "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,”  “27  and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.”  “42 “And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.”  “31  because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."”

            John MacArthur write the following on the word ripe:  “In fact the verb translated ‘is ripe’ actually means ‘dried up,’ ‘withered,’ ‘overripe,’ or ‘rotten.’  The grain (the earth) pictured here has passed the point of any usefulness and is fit only to be ‘gathered up and burned with fire’ (Matthew 13:40).”

            The Reaping (Revelation 14:16):  “16 Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.”

            I think that it is best that I quote the paragraph that John MacArthur has written for this verse in his commentary.  “Here is one of the most tragic and sobering statements in all of Scripture.  Simply, and without fanfare, it records the executing of divine judgment.  The frightening details of that judgment are unfolded in chapter 16:  loathsome and malignant sores on the worshipers of Antichrist (v. 2), the death of all life in the world’s oceans (v. 3), the turning of the world’s rivers and springs of water into blood (v 4), the intensifying of the sun’s heat until it scorches people (v 8), painful darkness over all of the Antichrist’s kingdom (v 10), the drying up of the Euphrates River in preparation for a massive invasion by the kings of the east (v 12), and the most powerful destructive earthquake in history (v 18).  Those seven rapid-fire bowl judgments mark the first phase of the final reaping of the earth.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have mentioned the following verse from 2 Peter in this section in other SD’s but it is good to use it for this one too.  Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness.”  (2 Peter 3:11)

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remembering what kind of person I should be as seen in the verse above, I pray that I will be that kind of person.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “John.”

Today’s Bible question:  “How did Moses disobey God when the water came from the rock at Meribah?”

  Answer in our next SD.

7/27/2015 9:05 AM