SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/14/2015
8:59 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1,
Seventh Bowl
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Revelation 16:17-21
Message of the
verses: “17 Then the seventh angel
poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from
the throne, saying, "It
is done." 18 And there were
flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great
earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so
great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. 19 The great city was split into
three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was
remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. 20
And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 And huge
hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because
of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.”
I have been looking at the Spiritual Diaries that I did
when I first studied Revelation in 2005 and have been quoting those in the SD’s
that I have been doing for this chapter and will do that today as I quote from
September 19, 2005: “Dr. Wiersbe points
out in his book on Revelations that it is possible that this last judgment,
because it is poured out into the air is a judgment against Satan, for after
all Satan is the prince of the power of the air. (Eph. 2:2)
It is possible and probably correct to say that this judgment will
happen at the end of the tribulation period and even though there are a number
of chapters left in this book it is clear that it is not written in complete
chronological order. Satan’s empire is
not only judged in this chapter of the book, but also in the next three
chapters too. In chapter seventeen
Satan’s religious system will be judged, and his political system will be
judged in chapter eighteen, and his military system will be judged in chapter
nineteen.
“I want to look at the first two verses of this last vial
judgment today and then do the next two three next time. As the last angel poured out his vial into
the air there comes a voice from the throne saying that “it is done.” This is the last of the judgments that began way
back in chapter six and was actually talked about in chapter five when John was
looking for someone to open up all of these judgments and found the only One
who could possibility do this and that was The Lord Jesus Christ. Before these last judgments began it was said
that with the completion of these judgments that the wrath of God would be
complete and that is probably why the voice from the throne cried out “It is
done.” Verse eighteen speaks of the
first part of this judgment and that is an earthquake that is so mighty that
none like it has ever been seen upon the earth since man come to be upon the
earth. There have been other earthquakes
in these judgments, but none like this one in power and strength.”
Now in order to explain what this judgment is about I
will quote John MacArthur at this point:
“The seventh bowl is the final outpouring of God’s wrath on sinners in
this present earth. After it Jesus will
come and set up His millennial kingdom.
At the end of that thousand-year period, there will be on final act of
rebellion, which will be quickly crushed (20:7-10). But that judgment will not take place in the
world as we know it, for the earth will be changed dramatically before the
kingdom arrives.”
As I was reading in my Bible this morning, something I do
each day and this year I have only been reading through the book of Revelation
along with the OT book that I am also studying I came across a verse that seems
to go along with what we are looking at in this section and I wish to quote it
at this point. Then the seventh angel
sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has
become the kingdom
of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever’ (Rev.
11:15).” We have written about what this
verse says in earlier Spiritual Diaries but in this verse we see what will
happen after this seventh bowl judgment happens and that is that Christ will
defeat sinful man, and defeat the devil who usurped control of planet earth
after the fall of man, but now when we read in Revelation 16:17 “It is done” we
can know for certain that what the angel says in Revelation 11:15 comes to
pass. Now I have also mentioned this in
an earlier SD, but bears repeating, and that is when the Lord Jesus Christ came
to earth He stated when He was 12 years old that He came to do the will of His
Father, and as He was dying on the cross He uttered the words “It is finished.” Revelation 15:1 tells us that with these
final bowl judgments the wrath of God will be completed. Here is the point in all of this and that is
that when Christ died on the cross God’s wrath was also complete for those who
will accept it for themselves, that is that if they understand and believe that
Christ died in their place and accept that forgiveness, and if they do not then
the only other thing that can happen to them is that God will take out His
wrath on them as we see in this section that we are studying. It is as simple as this that we accept Christ’s
death as payment for our sins since God took His wrath out on Him, or we end up
having God take His wrath out on us.
Revelation 10:7 says “but in the days of the voice of the
seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished,
as He preached to His servants the prophets.”
This verse looks forward to what will happen when this last bowl judgment
is poured out on the air, as it is the last judgment from God. We have already mentioned Revelation 15:1 and
this verse goes along with that verse: “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.”
John MacArthur writes of this last bowl judgment: “The seventh bowl will be the worst calamity
in the world’s history, the most complete and devastating catastrophe the earth
will ever experience. Its effects carry all
the way to the establishment of the earthly kingdom of Christ. Like the fourth angel, the seventh angel did
not dump his bowl on the earth, but poured it out…upon the air. Its first effects were on the earth’s
atmosphere, as if God were cleansing the former domain of Satan and his demon
hosts (12:9). The earth (v.2), the sea (v.3),
the waters (v.4), the sun (v.8), and finally the air are the targets of
judgment.”
Once again we hear a “loud voice” and this time it comes
from the throne and is spoken by God Most High, the One who possesses heaven
and earth and what He says is “It is done.”
MacArthur writes on these words: “The
perfect tense verb gegonen (it is
done) describes a completed action with ongoing results.” He then goes on to talk about the things that
I have already written about as he compares the “it is done” in this verse with
what Christ said on the cross “it is finished.”
Now we look at some of the early results of this seventh
bowl judgment: “And there were flashes
of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder.”
This is similar to what took place with the seventh trumpet
judgment: “And the temple of God which
is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple,
and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an
earthquake and a great hailstorm (Rev. 11:19).”
We can determine that this seventh bowl judgment affects the atmosphere
as we see the violent lightening and great thunder. What happened in the last trumpet judgment
was just a preview of what this judgment brings about.
Next we see that this judgment will bring about a very
violent earthquake: “and there was a
great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the
earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.” As I was preparing for this SD I was
listening to John MacArthur’s sermon on this section and I don’t actually know
when it was given except sometime in the 1990’s and there happened to be a
fairly large earthquake that just happened in Southern California that he
remarked about.
Now once again we have to go back to when our Lord was
crucified and we also find an earthquake that happened at that time when
judgment was given out by God, this time on Christ. “51 And behold, the veil of the temple was
torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. 52
The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were
raised; 53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the
holy city and appeared to many. 54 Now the centurion, and those who were with
him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that
were happening, became very frightened and said, "Truly this was the Son
of God!’ (Matthew 27:51-54).”
This earthquake associated with this seven bowl judgment
is truly different than any other earthquake that has ever happened as it will
not just be localized, but around the whole earth. “"For thus says the LORD of hosts, ’Once
more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea
also and the dry land (Haggai 2:6).” 26
And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, "YET
ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN." 27 This
expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things
which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be
shaken may remain (Hebrews 12:26-27).”
MacArthur writes “The shaking will be so severe that it will renovate
and reconfigure the earth in preparation for the millennial kingdom, restoring
it to something like its pre-Flood condition (v. 20).”
At this point we will stop and take up where we are
leaving off in our next SD on Revelation 16.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful for
the “it is finished” that Christ spoke while on the cross after He paid for my
sins, and because of this I want to better serve Him each day.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
to continue to try and get the word out of what will happen in the future.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Judas Iscariot” (John 12:5).
Today’s Bible
question: “The Lord delivered King Ahaz
unto the king of what land?
Answer in our next SD.
8/14/2015 10:01 AM
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