SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
10/20/2015 7:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Summons
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
20:13a
Message of the
verses: “And the sea gave up the
dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in
them.”
This section is much shorter than the one we competed in
our last SD that took three Spiritual Diaries to complete. We are still in the vision of the courtroom
scene with God the Father as the Judge sitting on His throne, and now we will
proceed with the summons.
We have mentioned before that all of these who will be
summoned are already dead and they are awaiting their trial in a place called
Hades, which is a place of torment, and not it is time for them to have their
day in court so to speak. We have
mentioned that by the time that this trial was to take place that the entire
universe was uncreated, but before that happened we see in this part of verse
thirteen that the “sea gave up the dead which were in it. John MacArthur writes “The sea may be singled
out because it is seemingly the most difficult place from which bodies could be
resurrected. But God will summon from
its depts. New bodies for all who perished in the sea throughout human history,
including those who drowned in the Flood, those who went down with the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Arizona,
and countless other ships that have sunk, as well as all the millions of other
people who met their end at sea. Death
symbolizes all the places on land from which God will resurrect new bodies for
the unrighteous dead. The sea and death
are pictured as voracious monsters that have swallowed those bodies and will be
forced to disgorge them before their uncreation.”
Now we must go on to get a better understanding of the
word “Hades” which is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word sheol.
This word is used a total of sixty-seven times in the Old Testament and
it describes the realm of the dead in general.
When the word Hades is used ten times in the New Testament it speaks of
the place of punishment where the unrighteous dead are kept pending their
sentencing to hell. We see in this scene
that Hades has been emptied of its captive spirits and John MacArthur writes
that they “are reunited with resurrection bodies before the bar of God’s
justice.” These unbelievers are fitted
with bodies suited for hell, as they will be ready for their sentencing to the
lake of fire which is difference than Hades, for it will be forever.
A couple of things that I want to write about and one of
them is things that I learned from the book by Erwin Lutzer “One Minute After
You Die.” Lutzer writes that hell is not
occupied at this time and after the scene that we are now looking at in
Revelation 20:11-21 it will be occupied.
One more thing that came to my mind that speaks of where
the Old Testament has the souls of all the dead, a place we mentioned as sheol,
and there is a story that our Lord tells in the gospel of Luke that speaks to
this in chapter sixteen and verses 19-31:
“19 "Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple
and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. 20 "And a poor man named Lazarus was laid
at his gate, covered with sores, 21 and
longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table;
besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. 22 “Now the poor man died and was
carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was
buried. 23 “In Hades
he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus
in his bosom. 24 "And he cried out
and said, ’Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may
dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in
this flame.’ 25 “But Abraham said, ’Child, remember that during your life you
received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being
comforted here, and you are in agony. 26
’And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those
who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there
to us.’ 27 "And he said,
’Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house- 28 for I have five brothers-in order that he may
warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 “But
Abraham said, ’They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 “But
he said, ’No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they
will repent!’ 31 "But he said to
him, ’If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be
persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’"” Now what I have learned about this story is
that after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that the souls
who were believers went to heaven which is where they are at now, and the souls
which were unbelievers stayed there until they were called to be sentenced in
the scene we are not looking at.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Both heaven and
hell are real places in spite of what people joke around about now, and one day
those who do not believe in the forgiveness and salvation that Jesus Christ
paid for while on the cross will find out that hell is not something to joke
about just because they don’t believe in it, for their will be as we are
studying a rude awaking for them.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I do have a desire to tell others about what
I am learning in my study of Revelation, especially about heaven and hell and
how they can avoid hell and be blessed with heaven.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Jerusalem” (Nehemiah 2:17).
Today’s Bible
question: “At whose home did Paul and
Silas stay in Philippi?”
Answer in our next SD.
10/20/2015 8:08 AM
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