SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/19/2015
8:20 AM
My Worship Time
Focus:
PT-1 Exposure of the Harlot
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
17:1b, 15
Message
of the verses: In today’s Spiritual
Diary we will be looking at the first part of the first main point from the
outline of John MacArthur to which he has entitled “The Exposure of the Harlot”
and the first sub-point he has entitled “The Authority of the Harlot.”
The Authority of the Harlot: “who sits on many waters….And he said to me, ‘The
waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and
nations and tongues. (17:1b, 15).
My first comment has to do with how
verse fifteen describes different people groups as being “peoples and multitudes
and tongues.” The media of this country
has done everything to make us believe that there are different races of people
on planet earth, mostly because they will call those who are black as the black
race which stirs up many problems. Now
the truth of this is that every person on planet earth is from the human race,
there are no other races of beings on planet earth. Think of the problems that could be avoided
if people understood this simple truth that the Bible teaches, that we are all
one race as we all descend from Adam and Eve, and we are all made in the image
of God. Now back to Revelation as it
speaks of this false religious system that it calls the harlot.
As we look at our verses this
morning we can see that this harlot, which John sees in his vision, is like a
king sitting on a throne beside many waters.
It is true that cities, that is major cities have been settled beside
waters, like oceans, or rivers, or lakes in order to have a source of water for
things like transportation, and for drinking, and other things we use water
for. Babylon was situated by the
Euphrates River as Jeremiah writes in 51:13 “you who dwell by many waters,” and
this is the same phrase that is applied in our passage of today. Babylon was a proud city that sits by many
waters just as this harlot of the future takes her seat by many waters.
No the waters of our passage is not
h20 but as the angel explains “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits,
are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.” John MacArthur writes “The metaphor is an apt
one, since a city situated in a commanding position on a great waterway would
be highly influential. The harlot will
not merely influence, but will dominate all the unredeemed peoples and
multitudes and nations and tongues of the earth (cf. the similar phrases in
5:9; 7:9; 11:9; 13:7; 14:6). The harlot’s
authority will be universal; the entire world will be committed to the false
worship of the Babylonian system, rather than the true God.”
The
Alliance of the Harlot (Rev. 17:2-3): “2
With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the
earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries." 3 Then the angel
carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a
scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and
ten horns.”
I suppose that this is one of the
most mysterious sections of the book of Revelation as we see a woman sitting on
a scarlet beast and the beast has blasphemous names on it along with seven
heads and ten horns. Sounds like a good
script for a Hollywood movie, but it is a vision that John sees and writes about
long before we had movies.
The influence that this harlot has
goes even to the kings of the earth which shows that her influence is immense
indeed. I suppose that we could say that
everyone was drinking of the cool-aid, and doing it willingly. John MacArthur writes “The phrase ‘committed acts
of immorality’ translates a form of the Greek very porneuo (‘to commit sexual immorality’). It aptly describes the
harlot’s interaction with the kings of the earth. The symbolism of spiritual adultery, used in
the Old Testament to describe Israel’s apostasy from Jehovah (cf. Ezek. 16, 23)
is inappropriate here. The unredeemed
rulers and the nations they represent do not know God and are never pictured as
His wife.” Now this is something to
think about as we look at two different things that the Bible teaches us, one
from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament, and the first one can be
seen from the study that I am doing in the book of Amos. In the first chapters of the book of Amos God
is judging different Gentile nations for how they treated Israel. There is a difference between how God judges
these nations and how He deals with Israel, and the reason is that Israel
belongs to God. Our Pastor spoke two
Sunday evenings on how discipline is to be done in the Church, the way that the
Bible speaks of it. The same principle
applies here and that is that God has set this discipline up for His own people
in order to bring them back to Himself, similar in the way He disciplines
Israel in the OT. The 12th
chapter of Hebrews speaks of this along with other books of the NT including
what our Lord has to say in Matthew 18:15-17.
What we are looking at in this passage in Revelation 17 is people being
involved with a false religion, something that all the people of the earth will
be involved in during parts of the Tribulation period with the exception of
those who come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
We will continue looking at this
second sub-point in our next SD.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am
thankful that God loves me enough to cause me to grow up in the Lord even
though at times He has to discipline me in order for me to grow.
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: “Death” (Romans 6:23).
Today’s Bible
question: “In what form did the Holy
Spirit descend on Jesus?”
Answer and explanation in
our next SD.
8/19/2015 8:58 AM
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