SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/26/2015
9:25 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Grain Harvest
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 14:14-16
Message of the
verses: “14 Then I looked, and
behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden
crown on His head and a
sharp sickle in His hand. 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." 16
Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.”
The following are three verses which have the words “one
like a son of man” in them: Da 7:13 "I kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He
came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. Re 1:13 and in the middle of the lampstands I
saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded
across His chest with a golden sash. Re 14:14 Then I looked, and behold, a
white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a
golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.” Now it is interesting that we see this phrase
and not the phrase “the Son of man” for that phrase is found in the NT when
Jesus walked upon the earth some 80 times in the NASB.
When we look at the grain harvest we see that it represents
the upcoming bowl judgments while the grape harvest represents Armageddon. And we see that there is a sickle in both of
the harvests. John MacArthur writes “both
[harvests] can be described by the same three points: the reaper, the ripeness and the reaping.” We will only look at the reaper which is
found in verse fourteen in this SD and then will look at the “ripeness” and the
reaping in our next SD, and then we will be looking at the grape harvest’s same
three points in the SD after our next SD.
The Reaper: “14
Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man,
having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.”
We have gone over the fact that when we read “I looked,
and behold,” we see that John is introducing a new subject which he is
here. This phrase is seen also in 4:1;
6:2, 5, 8; 7:9; 14:1. John’s attention
was the “white cloud” something he probably was familiar from reading Daniel
7:13-14 “13 "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a
Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was
presented before Him. 14 “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom,
That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His
dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom
is one Which will not be destroyed.”
“One like a Son of Man” is speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ who is coming to establish His kingdom which will fulfill what we see in
Daniel’s prophecy. The white cloud
symbolizes His glory and also His majesty as seen in Rev. 1:7 “BEHOLD, HE IS
COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him;
and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.” Matthew 17:5; 24:30; 26:64; and Acts 1:9 also
speak of this. Let’s look at Acts 1:9 “And
after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on,
and a cloud received Him out of their sight.”
Later on an angel speaks to His disciples and says to them: “"Men of Galilee, why do you stand
looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven,
will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."” As mentioned the Lord Jesus was waiting for
His time to come back to earth as prophesized by Daniel and that time will be
right after the seven bowl judgments.
As we go back to wondering why the definite article is
not used in the phrase “one like a son of man” John MacArthur writes “Why the
text does not use the definite article and read the son of man is not clear.
Yet the phrase also appears without a definite article in its only other
appearances in Revelation.” We have
already looked at those from the book of Revelation. He goes on to write “Perhaps the article was
omitted to strengthen the allusion to Daniel 7:13. In any case, there is no doubt that the one
like a son of man is the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the last time Scripture refers to Him by that title, and it
presents a marked contrast with the first time the New Testament calls Him the ‘son
of man.’ Then He had nothing, not even a
place to lay His head (Matt. 8:20); now He is about to take possession of the
entire earth.”
We also see Him described as having a golden crown on His
head, but that crown is not the crown of a king, but the crown of a victor in
either war or in an athletic event. When
Jesus returns to earth He will be a conquering hero as He will rid the earth of
all sinners including Satan, the Antichrist, the False prophet, and also all
those who have not named the name of Jesus as their Savior and Lord.
The Reaper also had a “sharp sickle” in his hand. When I was a boy one of our neighbors has a
long sharp sickle that I would sometime use to cut down some high weeds. We also had a smaller one, something I still
have, and this was used something like a weed-whacker is used today, with the
exception it was a lot harder to use. Sickles
were used in the days when Jesus was on the earth to cut down the wheat or
other grain and then it was taken into a threshing floor where the grain was separated
from the chaff. Jesus will be doing this
type of harvesting as seen in this section, but this section speaks of
harvesting sinful men and not grain.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The prophetic
Word from the OT will be fulfilled in this NT passage and this strengthens my
faith that God’s plan will be fulfilled as He prophesied in His Word. This gives encouragement that all things He
has prophesied will also come true.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord, with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Rahab” (Joshua 6:25).
Today’s Bible
question: “What New Testament book
begins with the words ‘In the beginning?’”
Answer in our nest SD.
7/26/2015 10:06 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment