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
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