SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/13/2015
9:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 of the Sixth Bowl
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
16: 12-16
Message of the
verses: “12 The sixth angel poured
out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so
that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. 13 And I saw coming
out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the
mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; 14 for they are
spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole
world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the
Almighty. 15 ("Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who
stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men
will not see his shame.") 16 And they gathered them together to the place
which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.”
In verse fourteen we see the purpose for the demons that
came out of the mouths of Satan, the Antichrist, and the False prophet, and
that is to gather the nations to fight against God, but according to Revelation
17:14 it will be over very quickly. “"These
will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is
Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and
chosen and faithful."”
Now in the fifteenth verse we see an encouraging word, a
word we find in parentheses that will give hope to the believers who are alive
at that time: “15 ("Behold, I am
coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes,
so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.")” We can see that this good news for believers
comes just before the seventh bowl judgment and it will give encouragement to
those believers who are still alive on earth during this awful time.
I have mentioned several times of how the Lord’s timing
for me to study the book of Joel along with the 16th chapter of the
book of Joel and in yesterday’s Spiritual Diary from the book of Joel I
mentioned that the commentary that Dr. Wiersbe gave on the verses from the 3rd
chapter of Joel fit perfectly with the study of the these verses we are looking
at in Revelation 16. As we proceed with
the study in Joel chapter three God gives a promise to those from Judah, a
promise that actually will be fulfilled at the end of the 7th bowl
judgment. The little encouraging phrase
in the midst of all the awfulness is to me something that is seen throughout
the prophetic writings found in the Old Testament for in those writings God
first of all tells how He will discipline His people and then gives them hope
of what will happen to them at the end of the age, and that hope for the end of
the age was a kingdom for Israel with their Messiah sitting as King over them
and this is about to happen. A parallel
to what is happening comes from the book
of Malachi where Malachi addresses great words of comfort that come from God to
those who are righteous and who were frightened by the horrible promises of The
Day of The Lord: “16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one
another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance
was written before Him for
those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name. 17 “They will be Mine," says the LORD of hosts,
"on the day that I
prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son
who serves him."” God tells
these people and is saying to those who are His today not to be afraid because
they and we belong to Him. Now remember
when we looked at another parenthetical passage from Revelation seven which
came before the trumpet judgments and just after the seal judgments (7:1-17)
and then there is another one between the end of the trumpet judgments and the beginning
of the bowl judgments which is seen in Rev. 10:1-11:14. John MacArthur writes “Because the bowl
judgments take place in a short period of time, the respite between the sixth
and seventh bowls is very brief.”
John MacArthur writes the following on the phrase “Behold,
I am coming like a theif.” The imagery
of Jesus coming like a thief appears elsewhere in the New Testament. Earlier in Revelation Jesus warned the church
in Sardis, ‘If you do not wake up, I will come like a their, and you will not
know at what hour I will come to you’ (3:3).
In the Olivet discourse He added, ‘Therefore be on the alert, for you do
not know which day you Lord is coming.
But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what
time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and
would not have allowed his house to be broken into’ (Matt. 24:42-43). The apostle Paul reminded the Thessalonians
that ‘the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night (1 Thess.
5:2), a truth that Peter also affirmed (2 Pet. 3:10). Jesus’ sudden, unexpected return will bring
fear and dismay to His enemies, but hope and comfort to His people.”
Now we look at something in the end of verse fifteen
which we have written about before and that is that there are seven beatitudes
found in the book of Revelation (cf. 1:3; 14:13; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14) and this
one found in Revelation 16:14 where Jesus says “Blessed is the one who stays
awake and keeps his clothes on, so that he will not walk about naked and men
will see his shame.” I remember early on
in my study of Revelation when I was listening to one of John MacArthur’s messages
he spoke of this verse and the people in the congregation kind of got a kick
out of it. Let us take a look at Matthew
25:1-13 “1 "Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins,
who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 “Five of them were
foolish, and five were prudent. 3 “For when the foolish took their lamps, they
took no oil with them, 4 but
the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. 5 “Now while the
bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. 6 “But at
midnight there was a shout, ’Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 “Then
all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8 “The foolish said to the
prudent, ’Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 “But the
prudent answered, ’No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead
to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ 10
"And while they were going away to make the purchase, the
bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding
feast; and the door was shut. 11 “Later the other virgins also came, saying,
’Lord, lord, open up for us.’ 12 “But he answered, ’Truly I say to you, I do
not know you.’ 13 “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the
hour.” The prudent ones speak of those
who do not walk about naked and the non-prudent speak of those who were
ashamed. MacArthur goes on to say “The
imagery here, however, is not that of bridesmaids preparing for a wedding, but
of soldiers alert and on duty. Only
soldiers who stay awake and keeps his clothes on is read for combat. Those caught unprepared when the battle
breaks out will walk about naked and men will see their shame—the shame of a
soldier derelict in his duty. Those whom
God has ‘clothed…with garments of salvation’ and ‘wrapped… with robe of righteousness’ (Isa. 61:10), who have
‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 13:14), will be ready when the judgment
comes. ‘Now, little children, abide in
Him,’ urged John in his first epistle, ‘so that when He appears, we may have
confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming’ (1 John
2:28). Those whom Jesus finds prepared
when He returns will be blessed.”
Now the brief interlude is over in this section and we
have to look at the battle that will take place and it takes place in what the
NASB says Har-Magedon and MacArthur says that this “is a Hebrew word meaning ‘Mount
Megiddo.’ Since there is no specific
mountain by that name, and ‘Har’ can refer to hill country, it is probably a
reference to the hill country surrounding the Plain of Megiddo, some sixth
miles north of Jerusalem. More than two
hundred battles have been fought in that region, including Barak’s defeat of
the Canaanites (Judges 4-5; cf. Judges 6:19), Gideon’s victory over the Midianites
(Judg. 7; cf. Judg. 6:33; the ‘valley of Jezreel’ is another name for the Plain
of Esdraelon)., and Josiah’s defeat at the hands of Pharaoh Neco (2 Chron.
35:22). The Plain of Megiddo and the
nearby Plain of Esdraelon will be the focal point for the Battle of Armageddon,
which will rage the entire length of Israel as far south as the Edomites city
of Bozrah (Isa. 63:1). Other battles
will also occur in the vicinity of Jerusalem (Zech. 14:1-3).”
I may have mentioned that when I was a very young
believer that I was speaking to a man that I had not known very long and he
told me something that I believe is true that has to do with what we are
studying about and that is that there are people today who worship the devil
and they know about this upcoming battle at the end of the age, but they
believe that Satan will come out victorious.
Well they, according to the Word of God, are wrong, and another thing to
realize that this battle will not take long for victory to come to the Lord
Jesus Christ and those who will be returning with Him at His second
coming. In our verse from Joel that we
studied yesterday we read “The LORD roars from Zion And utters His voice from
Jerusalem, And the heavens and the earth tremble. But the LORD is a refuge for
His people And a stronghold to the sons of Israel (Joel 3:16).” Another verse to look at is from Zechariah
14:1-3 “1 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you
will be divided among you. 2 For I will
gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be
captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled,
but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the LORD
will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of
battle.” Revelation 14:20 tells what
will happen during this battle: “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.” MacArthur concludes his commentary “The sixth
bowl sets the final stage, but before the brief ‘battle,’ the seventh and final
plague will hit.”
Perhaps this will be better left to Revelation chapter
19, but I remember some things about what I learned from this valley where for
200 miles there will be blood as high as the horses bridle, something we looked
at last month while studying Revelation 14, and it has to do with the second
coming of Jesus Christ. When Jesus
returned to heaven as seen in the first chapter of Acts an angel told His disciples
that He would return in the same way, that is from the very same spot which is
at the Mount of Olives, only when he returns there will be an earthquake when
His foot touches down and there will be a valley there. Now while looking for oil in this area it was
determined that there is a large fault in the earth which can cause an
earthquake, but it is waiting for the foot of our Lord to touch down. Believers will get into this valley to hide
as the Lord completes His victory at the battle of Armageddon.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: There are times
in my life when I need a respite from what is going on and when they come I
need to be more thankful to the Lord who gives them to me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord as the healing of
my wife continues, that He will give great comfort to her, and use the pain to
draw us closer to each other and to the Lord.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “To be born again” (John 3:3).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Why was not this
ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?’”
Answer in our next SD.
8/13/2015 11:01 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment