SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/11/2015
10:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Fifth Bowl Judgment
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation 16:10-11
Message of the
verses: “10 Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on
the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their
tongues because of pain, 11 and they
blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they
did not repent of their deeds.”
My thoughts from 9/16/2005 on these two verses are as
follows: “The fifth vial judgment is poured out upon the throne of the
antichrist and then the verse goes on to say it will be dark over his
kingdom. This judgment seems to be only
for antichrist and his followers and not for those who follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is possible that this will
happen throughout most of the world, with the possible exception of Israel, or
it could just be upon the site where antichrist has set up his headquarters,
which will probably be in Babylon. At
any rate this darkness will be the kind of darkness that you can actually feel,
for you will not be able to see you hand in front of your face and on top of
that all of antichrist’s followers will still be suffering from the first
plague of having those Job like sores on their bodies. One would think that this would cause some of
them to begin to think about following the “God of heaven,” but all they will
do is blaspheme Him. The phrase “God of
heaven” is used mostly in the OT and one of the times it is used there is in
Daniel 2:44: "In
the days of those kings the God of
heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that
kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to
all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.””
In the beginning comments on the bowl judgments it was mentioned that
some of these judgments would be similar to those that God did when He was
judging Egypt and so this is one of those that is similar, with the exception
that it is in a larger area, but still on those who are wicked like Pharaoh. 21Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch
out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of
Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt." 22 So Moses stretched out his
hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for
three days (Ex. 10:21-22).” “He opened
the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great
furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit Rev.
9:2).” I once heard a story about people
going into one of the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky and when they got way into the
cave the guide said that for a moment that he was going to turn the lights out
and it was so dark that people could actually feel the darkness, and this is
probably the kind of darkness that this fifth bowl judgment will bring to those
who follow the Antichrist. As far as who
this will affect John MacArthur writes “Commentators disagree over where specifically this bowl will be
dumped. Some think it will be on the actual
throne that the beast sits on; others on his capital city of Babylon; still
others on his entire kingdom. It is best
to see the throne as a reference to his kingdom. Regardless of the exact location of where the
bowl is dumped, the result is that darkness engulfs the whole earth, which is
Antichrist’s worldwide kingdom. The beast
will be as helpless before the power of God as anyone else.”
Now along with the book of Revelation as I work my way
through the Old Testament I am also studying the book of Joel at this same time
and Joel writes some interesting things that seem to go along with this bowl
judgment: A day of darkness and gloom, A
day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So
there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor
will there be again after it To the years of many generations. 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of
decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. 15 The sun
and moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness (Joel 2:2 and 3:14-15).” Zephaniah writes “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 (Zep. 1:15).” Jesus says the following from His Olivet
Discourse: “"But in those days,
after that tribulation, THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS
LIGHT (Mark 13:24).” We can compare that
with some verses in the books of Isaiah and also Luke, and Acts. “For the stars of heaven and their
constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it
rises And the moon will not shed its light (Isa. 13:10).” “Then the moon will be abashed and the sun
ashamed, For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, And
His glory will be before His elders (Isa. 24:23).” “"There will be signs in sun and moon
and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring
of the sea and the waves (Luke 21:25).” ’THE
SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND
GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME (Acts 2:20).”
Now just for a
moment let us look back at what the people of planet earth are going through,
and I believe that the unbelievers will be going through something worse than
the believers: We have seen Job like sores, bad oceans with only blood in them,
then rivers and lakes with only blood in them, so the drinking water is minimal
at best, and now darkness covers at least a part of the earth, but especially
in the kingdom of the Antichrist. Then
we read that the people curse God and will not repent of their sinfulness. This is very hard to imagine. Now we mentioned about the Old Testament
phrase “The God of heaven” and this was also used in Revelation 11:13 but in
this verse after a plague that fell on Jerusalem there were people who did give
glory to the God of Heaven. Old
Testament times this is used in my study I found seventeen times this phrase is
used from Genesis to Jonah. As mentioned
this phrase in our text today goes along with the fact that there was no one
who would repent and this is the last time that we read reference to their
unwillingness to repent. MacArthur
writes “The first five plagues were God’s final call to repentance. Sinners ignored that call, and are now
confirmed in their unbelief. The final
two bowls, containing the severest of all judgments, will be poured out on the
hardened, implacable impenitents.” I
have to mention that these last two bowl judgments may take longer than one day
to look at each of them.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As I can see here
in this section and the commentary written on it that there comes a time when
the Spirit of God stops His call for repentance for unbelievers. Jude writes the
following in: “Jude 1:23 And others save
with fear, pulling them
out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” A fairly long time ago perhaps at least 30
years ago my former Pastor was preaching through the book of Jude and when he
came to this verse he told the story of how he led an older person to the Lord
as he said that that person was pulled out of the fire. It was yesterday that I had to opportunity to
talk to my 82 year old neighbor about his need for the Lord and my prayer is
that I will have more times to talk to him and that the Spirit of God will call
him to repentance and trust in the Lord for salvation.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to celebrate 42 years of marriage to my wife today.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Five years” (Genesis 45:11).
Today’s Bible
question: “From where does every good
gift and every perfect gift come?
Answer in our next SD.
8/11/2015 11:39 AM
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