SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/16/2024 8:12 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Sign in the Sky”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
24:30a
Message of the verse: “30 "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky,
and then all the tribes of
the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE
CLOUDS OF THE SKY”
Jesus is saying in this second highlighted portion
of verse thirty all the
tribes of the earth will mourn. They
will be mourning over their sin realizing that they will be lost forever, that
is the ones who did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that perhaps believers will also be
mourning over their sin too because they are seeing the Lord at this time with
their very own eyes. I am thinking about
the prophet Isaiah and what happened when in a vision He saw the Lord “1 In the
year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and
exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above
Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he
covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and
said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of
His glory." 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice
of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
5 Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am
ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of
unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." 6
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he
had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and
said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away
and your sin is forgiven." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying,
"Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here
am I. Send me! (Isaiah 6:1-8). Isaiah was surely a believer, but in seeing
the Lord when he did caused him to remember his sin and cry out "Woe is me, for I am
ruined! Now think also of John
the Apostle who lived with the Lord Jesus Christ for three years, who was the
disciple that Jesus truly loved, and then in the first chapter of the book of
Revelation when he saw the Lord, “17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a
dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I
am the first and the last, 18 and the
living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the
keys of death and of Hades” (Rev. 1:17-18).
John had seen the Lord after His resurrection, saw Him as He went up
into the clouds to return to heaven, but he had never seen the Lord like this,
and when he did see Him he fell
at His feet like a dead man.” We
in our human bodies cannot really understand what the Lord looks like, and so
we have these two examples of Isaiah and John seeing the Lord in at least part
of His glory and look what happened to them.
Moses is another one who wanted to see the glory of the Lord, but in his
human body it would have killed him, and so the Lord put him in the cleft of a
rock and passed by behind him so that he would live, and then on the Mount of
Transfiguration Moses was with the Lord along with Elijah and they both could
look upon the Lord for they were in a type of glorified body themselves.
John
MacArthur writes “There will be some from all the tribes of the earth who will
mourn over their rebellion against God and their rejection of His Son. Having heard the gospel proclaimed (v. 14;
Rev. 14:6), those people will turn from and mourn over their sin and receive
Christ as Lord and Savior.” It seems that
MacArthur has some more things to say about those who will see the Lord at His
coming, as I was thinking more about those who were believers than unbelievers,
and I have to say that I am not in complete agreement with what he wrote, for I
was thinking about the scene in Revelation 19 when those who see the return of
the Lord to planet earth begin to fight against Him, so perhaps MacArthur is
describing a different time.
I
will conclude this SD with a rather long paragraph from MacArthur’s
commentary. “Among the repentant will be
many Jews. Through Zechariah the Lord
promised His people: ‘And I will pour out on the house of David and on the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication so that they
will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one
mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter
weeping over a first-born. In that day
there will be great mourning in Jerusalem (Zech. 12:10-11). Having realized that they have rejected their
Messiah, they will turn to Him in faith, casting themselves on His mercy. At that time the ‘the fulness of the Gentiles
[will have] come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is from
Jacob’’’ (Rom. 11:25-26; cf. Isa. 59:20).”
1/16/2024 8:50 AM
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