SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/15/2015
9:36 AM
My Worship Time
Focus:
PT-2 The 7th 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.”
In our last SD we were looking at some of the effects of
this great earthquake that is described here, an earthquake that is the most
powerful earthquake that will ever happen on planet earth for it will be not
just in a localized area, but over the entire earth, and as John MacArthur
writes God will use this to prepare the earth for what it will look like during
the Millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ.
We will go on talking about this earthquake at the beginning of this
Spiritual Diary, but before that I want to quote another of my Spiritual
diaries from September of 2005 on verses 19-21 of Revelation: “As stated in the last SD it is sometimes
difficult to determine the time table of how all of this fits together, but
looking at the end of verse nineteen and then looking forward to chapters
seventeen and eighteen this to me, is a preview to what will be written about
there when John will give more detail to the destruction of Babylon, both the
government side of it and also the religious side. Back to
verse nineteen where the first part of it is describing the city of
Jerusalem and what these earthquakes will do to it. The city is split into three parts and from
earlier studies of Revelation I have learned that this could be the time when
all Israel will be saved for this earthquake could be what the Lord uses to separate
the believing Jews from the non believing Jews.
“I am not sure if John is using hyperbole in verse
twenty-one when he writes that every island fled and the mountains were not
found, because this was the same type of statement that was made in an earlier
judgment and the commentary on that verse that I read said John was using
hyperbole, at any rate this will surely be a big mess on earth during this last
judgment. In verse twenty one John
writes of giant hailstones falling on people and even throughout all of this
awful judgment people will still blaspheme God and not turn to Him for
forgiveness.”
Now as we look at
the first effect written about in this earthquake we see that the “Great City”
that is the city of Jerusalem will be split into three parts. MacArthur writes that this is
“beginning a series of
geophysical alterations to the city and its surrounding region that will
conclude when the Lord Jesus Christ returns.
Zechariah 14:4-10 describes these changes in detail.” We will look at these verses from Zechariah
14:4-10 “4 In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in
front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its
middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain
will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. 5 You will flee
by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to
Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of
Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones
with Him! 6 In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. 7
For it will be a unique day which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night,
but it will come about that at evening time there will be light. 8 And in that day living waters will flow out
of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the
western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. 9 And the LORD will be
king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His
name the only one. 10 All
the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem;
but Jerusalem will rise
and remain on its site from Benjamin’s Gate as far as the place of the First
Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine
presses.” John MacArthur
concludes “The physical changes will prepare Jerusalem for the central role it
will play during the millennial kingdom, when Christ will reign there as King
(Ps. 110:2; Isa. 2:3; 24:23; Mic. 4:7).”
However there is a contrast between Jerusalem and the
nations as Jerusalem will be enhanced while the other nations will fall as seen
in verse 19. In what I wrote about from
Joel in yesterday’s SD this goes right along with it as Joel 3:18-19 say “18 And
in that day The mountains will drip with sweet wine, And the hills will flow
with milk, And all the brooks of Judah will flow with water; And a spring will
go out from the house of the LORD To water the valley of Shittim. 19 Egypt will become a waste, And
Edom will become a desolate wilderness, Because of the violence done to the
sons of Judah, In whose land they have shed innocent blood.”
John mentions Babylon, the capital of Antichrist’s
kingdom and what will happen to it, but later on in chapters 17-18 he goes into
more detail of how Babylon is destroyed, and why it must be destroyed so we
will look into more detail when we get to chapter seventeen and eighteen which
should be very shortly.
John MacArthur quotes Henry Morris once again as he
writes “The gentle rolling topography of the world as originally created will
be restored. No more will there be great
inaccessible, uninhabitable mountain ranges or deserts or ice caps. The physical environment of the millennium
will be, in large measure, a restoration of the antediluvian [pre-flood]
environment.”
We will conclude the description of this seventh bowl in
our next SD and then will begin looking at chapter seventeen hopefully on
Monday.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am amazed at
how the Lord has me studying Joel chapter three and Revelation chapter sixteen
at the same time as this is just the way it fit into what I am studying the
Bible. God made it clear to me last December
that I was once again to study the book of Revelation and that actually put my
study on the Old Testament prophets into a different time slot, actually a new
time slot as I was only doing one SD each day and not I, for the most part am
doing two, which is of the Lord. I am
also amazed at reading other passages from the Psalms and Isaiah and Zechariah
among a few that foretell what will happen in the Tribulation Period. My friend who is now with the Lord use to
tell me when I would send my SD’s to him to keep looking for those nuggets and
as I study both Joel and Revelation I can see that there are similar nuggets in
both books written many years apart.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord for healing from
an accident that my wife had last week, and thanking the Lord that although
there is much pain no vital parts are injured.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Syria” (2 Chronicles 28:5).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was the father of
Methuselah?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/15/2015 10:14 AM
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