Because Rebellion is Ended (Revelation 19:2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/17/2015 9:06 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Because Rebellion is Ended

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Revelation 19:3

            Message of the verses:  “3 And a second time they said, "Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER."”

            We see the second time that the word Hallelujah is used in chapter 19 and the reason is for the aftermath of the destruction of Babylon.  When we were studying the 17^th and 18^th chapter we saw the destruction of both the religious and economical Babylon, and now we see in this verse from chapter nineteen the aftermath of what happened to Babylon, that is that “Her smoke rises up forever and ever.”  What exactly does that mean?  John MacArthur tells us that this speaks of the permanence of her destruction.  We can look at a couple of verses in the OT that are similar in the permanence of the destruction of both Sodom and Gomorrah and also Edom.  “27 Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD; 28  and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace (Genesis 29:27-28).”  “9  Its streams will be turned into pitch, And its loose earth into brimstone, And its land will become burning pitch. 10 It will not be quenched night or day; Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation it will be desolate; None will pass through it forever and ever (Isa. 34:9-10).” These two verses speak of Edom’s destruction.  John MacArthur writes “The flames and smoke will eventually die out, but the judgment is eternal on the souls of the sinners destroyed.  And hell is a place ‘where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched’ (Mark. 9:48), where the damned ‘will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.  And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever’ (14:10-11).”

            I have one more paragraph to quote from John MacArthur and then I want to also quote what I wrote in 2005.  “The destruction of the last and most powerful empire in human history marks the end of man’s day.  The rebellion that began long ago in the Garden of Eden is finally ended (apart from the futile, short-lived revolt at the end of the Millennium; 20:7-10).  There will be no more false religion, worldly philosophy, injustice, unrighteousness; all the sorry results of human depravity will be vanquished.”

            “As stated in a previous SD there are two types of Babylon’s, one is the religious Babylon, which Antichrist destroyed when he set up the worship of him, and the other Babylon is the satanic economic-political system which God destroyed as recorded in chapter 18.  The words in verse 1 “after these things” refers to the destruction of this political Babylon.  Even though religious Babylon has been referred to as a harlot it seems that this time it is referring to the political Babylon, or it may be referring to both.  At any rate these is a celebration in heaven over this event, and it is important to note that these beings are celebrating because of the attributes of God, and one of them is that His judgments are righteous, as Psalm 19:9b describes them, “The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.”

            Verse 2 speaks of God avenging the blood of His Bond-servants on this great harlot.  The word translated avenged has this meaning:  “to protect, defend, one person from another.”  God does take care of His own and even though He most always does not pay His bills at the end of the week, He will pay them at the correct time set up by Him.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to better understand what the Lord will be doing in the future to stop the sin problem on earth.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Carnal”  (1 Corinthians 3:1).

Today’s Bible question: “Who refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead until he saw Him?”

Answer in our next SD.

9/17/2015 10:00 AM