SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/2/2015
7:56 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Character of God
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
15:3-4
Message of the
verses: “3 And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God,
and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Your works, O
Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! 4
“Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For
ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE
BEEN REVEALED."”
I want you to remember what we are looking at in this 15th
chapter of the book of Revelation as far as the outline that we are trying to
follow. John MacArthur wrote the
following when it came to following this chapter’s outline: “As this chapter unfolds, three motives for
the final outpouring of God’s wrath will be evident: the vengeance of God, the character of God,
and the plan of God.” We have already
looked at the “vengeance of God, and today will look at the character of God
and see how different songs will help us see God’s character as far as a motive
for God’s final outpouring of His wrath.
It is possible that we will not get through all of this section today,
but if we don’t we will continue in our next SD.
John MacArthur writes “The ultimate motive of God’s wrath
is His holy, righteous character, which demands that He judge sinners. It is God’s holy nature, soon to be revealed
in judgment against their persecutors, that elicits this song from the
redeemed.” Again some people have a big
problem with God’s wrath, but that is because they do not understand who God
truly is, and to do that you have to understand His character, and to
understand His character you have to understand His attributes. I have mentioned that I have read a number of
books that talk about the attributes of God, and that the one that I learned
the most from was “The Joy of Knowing God” written by Richard Strauss. He writes the following in the second
paragraph of the first chapter of this book:
“One day it occurred to me that God is the most fascinating person alive
and that getting to know Him could well be the most helpful thing that ever
happened to me. The more I probed His
nature the more convinced I became that knowing Him is the solution to the most
of my problems. And as I listened to
other share their burdens with me as their pastor, I became convinced that
knowing God better was the answer to many of their problems as well. I decided that I want to get to know God
intimately, and that I want to help others get to know Him as well, if I
possibly can.” These are important words
to understand and to follow, for it is easy to do what a lot of people do and
that is “put God in a box,” to make God into what you want Him to be instead of
being who He is. Some people will say
that God could not do this or that and when you look at His attributes you find
out that that is a part of who He is, and learning about His wrath is one of
the things that all believers need to know about. With
all of this said lets us move onto what we will find out in these two important
verses from the 15th chapter of Revelation.
John speaks about the “Song of Moses” in verse three and
then goes on to take some portions of verses from the OT to finish up these two
verses. The children of Israel sang a
song of praise when the Lord gave them water in the wilderness which is found
in Numbers 21:17-18 “17 Then Israel sang this song: "Spring up, O well! Sing to it! 18 “The
well, which the leaders sank, Which the nobles of the people dug, With the
scepter and with their staffs." And from the wilderness they continued to
Mattanah.” In Deuteronomy 31:19-22; and
32:1-44 we see that Moses taught the children of Israel a song of remembrance
which happened shortly before he died.
Dr. MacArthur writes “That song of Moses is not in view here, because it
deals with Israel’s unfaithfulness and God’s punishment of the nation before
her restoration. The context of
Revelation 15 is not one of unfaithfulness, but of faithfulness that triumphs.”
He goes on “The historical setting for the song of Moses
comes from the time of the Exodus. As
the bond-servant of God, Moses was called to lead the people of Israel out of
captivity in Egypt. God delivered them
from Pharaoh’s pursuing army by parting the Red Sea, stacking the water on either
side of a path, thus allowing the Israelites to cross safely on dry land. After they were safely across, the collapsing
waters drowned the Egyptian army. On the
far side of the Red Sea, the Israelites sang a song of praise to God for their
deliverance.” I think that it is best to
look at this song.
1 Then Moses and the sons
of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, "I will sing to the LORD,
for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. 2
“The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I
will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will extol Him. 3 “The LORD is a
warrior; The LORD is His name. 4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast
into the sea; And the choicest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea. 5 “The
deeps cover them; They went down into the depths like a stone. 6 "Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in
power, Your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. 7 “And in the greatness of
Your excellence You overthrow those who rise up against You; You send forth
Your burning anger, and it consumes them as chaff. 8 “At the blast of Your
nostrils the waters were piled up, The flowing waters stood up like a heap; The
deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 “The enemy said, ’I will
pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; My desire shall be gratified
against them; I will draw out my sword, my hand will destroy them.’ 10 “You
blew with Your wind, the sea covered them; They sank like lead in the mighty
waters. 11 “Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic
in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders? 12 “You stretched out Your
right hand, The earth swallowed them. 13 “In Your lovingkindness You have led
the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to
Your holy habitation. 14 “The peoples have heard, they tremble; Anguish has
gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. 15 “Then the chiefs of Edom were
dismayed; The leaders of Moab, trembling grips them; All the inhabitants of
Canaan have melted away. 16 "Terror
and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as
stone; Until Your people pass over, O LORD, Until the people pass over whom You have purchased.
17 "You will bring them and plant
them in the mountain of Your inheritance, The place, O LORD, which You have
made for Your dwelling, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have
established. 18 “The LORD shall reign forever and ever."”
We can see by this song that this was a song of victory
and of deliverance for those who are righteous, but at the same time a song of
judgment and of wrath on the enemies of God.
Now as we look at the Tribulation saints found in this chapter we see that
they are gathered in triumph there in heaven where they are safe and secure,
and this will echo the same song of deliverance sung a very long time ago by
the children of Israel.
We will stop here and pick it up in the next SD as we
also have to look at the Song of the Lamb which we have already looked at from
chapter five and then we will compare the two songs. One more point I wish to make and that is
that I did a word study on the words, sing, song, and sang, and found out that
the first mention of any of these words is found in Exodus 15:1 the verse we
just looked at and so singing is not mentioned in the Word of God until then.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Singing is a very
important part of my life and it always has been, but since I became a believer
the songs are different for me, and I am thankful that God has given us the
gift of music, for it is a much better world that we live in because of the
gift of music, especially the music of God.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord, and to continue
to try and love Him in a Biblical way.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Job” (Job 1:8).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which epistle is addressed to
the twelve tribes which are of the dispersion?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/2/2015 9:07 PM
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