SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/8/2015
10:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Judgment
Lamented
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
18:9-19
Message of the
verses: “ 9 "And the kings of the earth, who
committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over
her when they see the smoke of her burning, 10
standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ’Woe,
woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment
has come.’ 11 "And the merchants of the earth weep
and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargoes anymore- 12 cargoes of gold and silver and precious
stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet, and every
kind of citron wood and every article of ivory and every article made from very
costly wood and bronze and iron and marble, 13
and cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine
and olive oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep, and cargoes of
horses and chariots and slaves and human lives. 14 “The fruit you long for has
gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away
from you and men will no longer find them. 15 “The merchants of these things,
who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her
torment, weeping and mourning, 16 saying, ’Woe, woe, the great city, she who
was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and
precious stones and pearls; 17 for in one hour such great wealth has been laid
waste!’ And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as
make their living by the sea, stood at a distance, 18 and were crying out as they saw the smoke of
her burning, saying, ’What city is like the great city?’ 19 "And they threw dust on their heads and
were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, ’Woe, woe, the great city, in
which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she
has been laid waste!’”
I wrote the following on October 19,
2015 “These two verses and all the way to verse nineteen describe the morning
over this “great system” of Babylon.
Rulers and merchants will morn alike as they see the city destroyed in
one single moment’s judgment from God.
This was their whole life, all they had to live for, and now it is all
gone, gone from them forever. They once
live for and lived in luxury and now that that is gone they morn over its loss
like a person morns over a loved one who meant a lot to them who is now passed
away. One day as Jesus and His disciples
were going through a grain field on the Sabbath day they began to rub the grain
together in order to get something to eat and the Pharisees accused them of
break a law because they were “working” on the Sabbath day. Jesus told them that the Sabbath day was made
for man not man for the Sabbath day. I
can see a similar thing here in this section of Revelation 18 because in both
cases men had their lives out of balance.
The Pharisees were in fact worshiping the Law and therefore missed the
most meaningful Person who would come their way and the merchants and rulers
described in this section of chapter 18 were worshiping their lifestyle of
money and luxury and missed out on worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ who was
trying to draw men of this time to Him through these judgments, but they would
not listen.”
I remember the first time that I was
taught from this section of Revelation as I was listening to a tape by Hal
Lindsey who was teaching different sections of the book of Revelation and when
he got to verse 13 which speaks of horses and chariots he inserted the word “Volkswagen”
for the word chariot making sure that everyone who was listening to him was
awake. He also said that at the end of
verse thirteen that it was talking about the souls of men as there seems to be
slavery in the Tribulation period which men will make money over.
John MacArthur begins his commentary
on this section by writing “Nothing so clearly reveals the hardness of sinners’
hearts as their lack of sorrow over their sin.
Through the years of devastating judgments, the Tribulation sinners will
relentlessly refuse to mourn over their sin.
But through they will not lament over their sin, they will cry over the
destruction of Babylon. When the glorious
centerpiece, the head of Antichrist’s empire, is judge and destroyed, there
will be worldwide dismay and mourning.”
As we have been looking at the different judgments that God will bring
upon the people of planet earth, and remember that these judgments will be used
by God to bring people to repentance, we have not seen much repentance for
after some of the judgments we read that people actually cursed the Lord for
bringing these judgments on them. There
is one place where we read that people turned to the Lord after a judgment
where there was a great earthquake in Jerusalem as a part of a judgment and
7,000 people were killed in that earthquake, and then we read that people in
Jerusalem actually turned in repentance to the Lord.
As we look over this rather long
series of verses, probably the longest we have ever attempted to look at in one
section, we see that the first to lament were the “kings of the earth.” This group will include the ten kings that we
have looked at earlier those who were true to Antichrist to the very end. There will be leaders under them as well and
they will mourn over the destruction of Babylon too. This is the very seat of Antichrist’s
political, economical, and religious empire that God will destroy. The destruction will be different than when
we first meet Babylon or Babel at the tower of Babel where God confused the
languages, but here He will completely destroy the city as the OT prophets also
spoke of will happen.
Verse three tells of the sins that
these leaders committed against the Lord, “acts of immorality and lived sensuously
with her” (Babylon). Now I believe that
this destruction of Babylon will be a part of the last bowl judgment and
perhaps as the rulers of the world are coming to Jerusalem to fight against the
Lord they will see this destruction take place as they see if off from a
distance. John MacArthur writes “Obviously,
the entire world is not destroyed at this point, since those watching Babylon
burn are safe for the moment. Babylon’s
destruction is, however, a precursor to the doom that will soon fall on the
entire world.”
We see the anguish from these
leaders as they watch Babylon burning and being destroyed “Woe, woe, the great
city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.” I am not totally sure that Babylon will be
destroyed in exactly one hour, but I am sure that it could be if God chose to
do so, but to say the least it will be swift as verse eight predicted, “"For
this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and
famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is
strong.”
We will look at the next mourners in
our next SD.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: As I was
listening to the fourth chapter of Amos in preparation of my Spiritual Diary
from the book of Amos I kept hearing “Yet you have not returned to Me.’” God
said this statement after the different judgments that He brought on Israel,
the Northern Kingdom, and this reminds me of some of the things that will not
only happen during the tribulation period, but things that are happening on our
country today. As stated earlier God
brings judgment on people and nations to get their attention, so that they will
repent. I remember after 911 that the
leaders of Washington came out to as the Lord to keep us safe, and they even
had a service to seek the Lord, but it seems to me that most of it was as phony
as the people who took a part in it, (not all of them, but a great many of them).
My Steps of Faith for Today: I never want
to conceal my sins from the Lord, but to confess them to Him and seek His continuous
forgiveness.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “All
powerful.”
Today’s
Bible question: “Did Joseph recognize
his brothers when they first came to Egypt?”
Answer
in our next SD.
9/8/2015
11:25 AM
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