SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
9/11/2015 8:22 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Judgment
Completed
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Rev.
18:21-23a
Message of the
verses: “21 Then a strong angel took up a stone like a great
millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "So will Babylon, the great
city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer. 22 “And
the sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not
be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you
any longer; and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer; 23 and
the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer;”
Before we get started on this section I want to comment
on the words “angel” and “angels” as far as how many times we see these two
words in the book of Revelation. I am
quoting the number from the NAST95 version of the Bible. I found “angel” 50 times and found “angels”
22 times. Now from Genesis to Jude the
word “angel” is found 140 times and the word “angels” is found 67 times so we
can see that as far as the book of Revelation there is a very high number of
times that these words are used as the Lord uses the services of His angels
many times in what unfolds in the book of Revelation. We also have to remember that there are times
when these words refer to the “bad” angels or demons as on third of all the
angels that God created fell and went on to be a part of Satan’s kingdom. At any rate this passage begins with another
“strong angel.” Let’s us look at Rev.
5:2 and also 10:1. “2 And I saw a strong
angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book and
to break its seals?"” “1 I saw
another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the
rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like
pillars of fire.”
This strong angel is depicting what is going to happen to
Babylon by picking up a large stone as big as a millstone and then throwing it
into the sea in essence drowning it.
Babylon will have this same thing happen to her as the angels explains
Babylon will be thrown down with violence, and the result is that it will not
be found any longer. Now we want to go
back to the OT book of Jeremiah and look at 51:61-64 for a similar look. “61
Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "As soon as you come to Babylon,
then see that you read all these words aloud, 62 and say, ’You, O LORD, have promised
concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be nothing dwelling in
it, whether man or beast, but it will be a perpetual desolation.’ 63 "And as soon as you finish reading this scroll, you will
tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates, 64 and say, ’Just so shall Babylon sink down and
not rise again because of the calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and
they will become exhausted.’" Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.”
Now as far as the rest of this section of Revelation
chapter 18 that we are looking at we can see that this destruction will be so
complete that none of the activities that John lists here will ever again
happen in Babylon as there will be a complete destruction of it. John MacArthur writes that “Babylon will be
so thoroughly destroyed that it will never rise again, as predicted by the Old
Testament prophets (Isa. 13:19-22; 14:22-23; Jer. 50:13, 39; 51:27).” We will look at these verses in a moment, but
first I want to ask the question and hopefully give an answer to the question
why complete destruction to Babylon at this point? As I think about this I have to say that this
“system” and Babylon is a system that began back in the 11th chapter
of the book of Genesis and has been going on ever since then will be destroyed,
in my opinion, because God, through Jesus Christ, is taking back control of
planet earth and as we see one of the results of this that Jesus Christ will
reign for a 1000 year Kingdom on planet earth He does not want any remnants of
this false religion hanging around. Now
I see another parallel in this situation that happens later on in the book of
Revelation and that is the complete destruction of planet earth along with all
of the stars and planets that God made during creation. Same question “Why?” and I believe a similar
answer. Satan has had access to heaven
as he does now and will have until he is thrown out with a fight as we have
already seen in our study. I believe
that one of the reasons that God gets rid of or un-creates planet earth and the
stars he created is because of sin for since He makes everything new then there
is no reminder of the stench of sin in the new world that He creates which is
seen in the end chapters of Revelation.
Indeed there is a “New World Coming.”
Well we have one more short section to look at in chapter
eighteen and then we move on to chapter nineteen and this is a chapter that we
all should anticipate looking at for in this chapter we see the glorious return
of or God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Peter is the one
who speaks of how the world and all the stars will be destroyed, as they will
burn up, and the reason that he brings that up is because he tells his readers
that since this is going to happen in the future and we know about it now what
sort of people should we be. As John had
to eat the scroll which was sweet in his mouth because he knew what was going
to happen it became bitter when he realized that he had to tell people of all
the awful things that were soon coming.
I as a believer have this same opportunity and I want to make the most
of it as long as I am on planet earth.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I had the opportunity of sharing my faith
with a man yesterday and he was very ready to hear the good news of the gospel
and for that I am thankful.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Acts” (7:56).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said, ‘God thank thee,
that I am not as other men are?’”
Answer in our next SD.
9/11/2015 9:00 AM
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