SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/3/2015
8:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Character of God PT-2
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 have mentioned that I use the NASB95 version of the
Bible and it is my belief that this is the best translation that is offered
today, and that is why I use it. When
you are reading the NT in this version and you see sections that are all capital
letters then the translators believe that that portion are quotes from the OT. I suppose that is a good thing, but I think
that it could be done in a better format.
When I began to read and listen to John MacArthur on Revelation he
stated that there were no direct quotes from the OT in this book, but it is obvious
that the people who translated the NASB95 disagree with that statement. I am not sure who it is who is correct, but
we do know that there are places in the book of Revelation that at least use
things from the OT even if they are not direct quotes. One thing to keep in mind and that is that
the OT’s original language is Hebrew, but later on it was translated into Greek which is called
the Septuagint and there are places in the NT, especially in Hebrews that when
the author quoted the OT that he used the Septuagint version of the OT. As far
as what we see in verse four we know for sure that this is not the complete
song of Moses. We will continue looking
at these verses in today’s SD, remember that we are going to compare the Song
of Moses with the Song of the Lamb which is found Revelation chapter five.
John MacArthur writes:
“Like the song of Moses, the song of the Lamb expresses the themes of
God’s faithfulness, deliverance of His people, and judgment of His
enemies. Commentator John Phillips
compares and contrasts the two songs: ‘The
song of Moses was sung at the Red Sea, the song of the Lamb is sung at the
crystal sea; the song of Moses was a song of triumph over Egypt, the song of the
Lamb is a song of triumph over Babylon; the song of Moses told how God brought
His people out, the song of the Lamb tells how God brings His people in; the
song of Moses was the first song in Scripture, the song of the Lamb is the
last. The song of Moses commemorated the
execution of the foe, the expectation of the saints, and the exaltation of the
Lord; the song of the Lamb deals with the same three themes.’” This quote comes from a book entitled “Exploring
Revelation” from the Moody Press and written in 1987.
Now I believe that it is important to understand what we
are looking at as we look at the words in this fourth verse of Revelation
chapter fifteen, for as stated they are not a direct quote from the Song of
Moses, and for that matter not a direct quote of the Song of the Lamb. We also need to know how these songs of
redeemed saints extols God’s character who is the omnipotent, immutable,
sovereign, perfect, and righteous Creator, and also the Judge. We will now look at MacArthur’s quote to
explain the first part of this: “The
words of the song recorded here do not match exactly either the song of Moses
in Exodus 15, or the song of the Lamb in Revelation 5. But the themes and many of the key terms are
similar. This song adds some new stanzas
to the triumph song of God’s redeemed people, yet every one of its lines finds
an echo in the Old Testament. ‘Great and
marvelous are Your works’ is reminiscent of Psalm 139:14 ‘Wonderful are Your
works, and my soul knows it very well.’
The title ‘Lord God, the Almighty,’ celebrates God omnipotence,
essential to the triumphant power of the last judgments, appears frequently in
Revelation (cf. 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 16:7, 14; 19:6, 15; 21:22), and the title ‘God
Almighty’ was the name by which God revealed Himself to Abraham (Gen. 17:1);
cf. Gen. 35:11; 48:3; Ex. 6:3). The exclamation
‘righteous and true are Your ways’ reflects the Old Testament truth that ‘all
[God’s] works are true and His ways just’ (Dan. 4:37; cf. Deut. 32:4; Hos.
14:9). God is called the ‘King of the
nations’ in Jeremiah 10:7. The phrase ‘Who
will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?’ is also drawn from Jeremiah 10:7
(cf. Ps. 86:9). The truth that God alone
is holy is an oft-repeated Old Testament thee (cf. 1 Sam. 2:2; Pss. 22:3; 99:5,
9; 111:9; Isa. 6:3; 57:15; Hab. 1:12).
The phrase ‘for all the nations will come and worship before You’ quotes
Psalm 86:9 (cf. Jer. 10:7), while the phrase ‘Your righteous acts have been
revealed’ echoes such Old Testament passages as Judges 5:11 1 Samuel 12:7; Psalm
103:6; Daniel 9:16; and Micah 6:5).” It
is my belief that this quote gives us a good idea of what is found in verse
four.
How do these songs extol God’s character in the way
described in the paragraph before this long quote from John MacArthur? We God is all that we spoke of in that
paragraph and because God is all of that He must judge sinners, and as stated
before that sometimes bothers people who think that God should just turn His
head from sin, but that would not fulfill all of His attributes, especially His
wrath, and justice. Job 8:3 asks “Does
God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert what is right? The answer comes from Psalm 19:9, “The
judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.”
As we look at the closing portion of this song “all the
nations will come and worship before You,” we see that this causes great anticipation
of what will happen during the Millennial Kingdom which Christ will rule over
from Jerusalem. The song actually closes
with “FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED.” This speaks of God’s judgment which has been
revealed during the last part of the Tribulation when with the seven bowl judgments
carried out the wrath of God will be complete.
Isaiah 66:23 says “"And it shall be from new moon to new moon And
from Sabbath to Sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me,"
says the LORD.” That portion from Isaiah
will fulfill the first phase of the fulfillment of what Paul wrote in
Philippians 2:10-11 which says “10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL
BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that
every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.” Of course the last phase will
happen at the Great White Throne Judgments described later on in Revelation
which is the final judgment of the lost sinners who did not chose to accept the
forgiveness that is offered through Jesus Christ who said “"I am the way,
and the truth, and the life; no
one comes to the Father but through Me (John 14:6).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I just enjoy
learning more and more about the character of God and that is what has happened
in this two day study of His character found in these two verses.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind and strength, and to better understand the love He has for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “James”
Today’s Bible
question: “How many years did Jacob
serve his future father-in-law for Rachel?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/3/2015 9:25 AM
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