The Witnesses’ Attitude (Rev. 11:3b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/17/2015 1:37 PM

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  The Witnesses’ Attitude

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 11:3b

            Message of the verses:  “clothed in sackcloth.”

            I suppose that you may be thinking that perhaps it is hard to figure out the attitude of a person by what he is wearing, but when you think about it we even do this in today’s culture.  I am a product of the growing up in the late 60’s and 70’s what some call the “hippie” generation and when one looked at a man with long hair and perhaps having earrings, or mostly one earring back then, and you could see men wearing a certain kind of clothing that when you looked at them you knew that the belonged to a generation with loose morals, smoked dope and probably did drugs.  When you went into the airport you may see people in long flowing attire having flowers in their hands and these were known as a “flower child,” belonging to some sort of a religious cult. 

            Ok enough of the “hippie generation” let’s talk about the attire of these two witnesses who were wearing sackcloth.   Now I just did a search on the word “sackcloth” from my Online Bible Study in the NASB95 version of the Bible and came up with 42 verses that had that word in them and the first mention of it is found in “Ge 37:34 So Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.”  Jacob had just heard about what he thought was the death of Joseph and so he wanted to mourn which is the reason why he put the sackcloth on.  Now I want to look up the word and see what the Hebrew meaning of it is:  “1) mesh, sackcloth, sack, sacking

1a) sack (for grain)

1b) sackcloth

1b1) worn in mourning or humiliation

1b2) same material spread out to lie on”

            Now let us look at the last times we find this word in the OT:  “5 Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. 6 When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. 7 He issued a proclamation and it said, "In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8  "But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. 9 “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish." 10 When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it Jonah 3:5-10).”  These are the last verses in the book of Jonah and we find in them much mourning by the people of Nineveh as they were convicted of their sins and as they felt badly about them they put sackcloth on which was even ordered by the king.  Now we get the ideal that as we look at these two witnesses that they are probably in mourning over what they find on earth when they begin to bear witness to the people around them that the Lord is judging the world because of it sinfulness and that there is still hope if one looks at what the Lord Jesus Christ did for them on the cross for their salvation. 

            John MacArthur describes sackcloth as it “was rough, heavy, coarse cloth worn in ancient times as a symbol of mourning, distress, grief, and humility.” 

            Now I want to take a minute to talk about which time period of the tribulation that these two men will be a part of, and the reason that I want to do this is because some think that they witnesses in the first half of the tribulation period and some think that they witness in the second half of it.  I must say that I have always put them in the first part of the tribulation period, but when reading and listening to John MacArthur he puts them in the second part of it.  I believe that there are problems in either part of it, but there may be fewer problems in the last part of it.  I wrote the following in my Spiritual Diary on July 21, 2005 “Starting in verse three and going to verse thirteen of this chapter John describes the two witnesses of the book of Revelations.  Verse three gives the length of their ministry and that is twelve hundred and sixty days which is the way that the first half of the tribulation period is spoken of in the Scriptures.  These two men will begin their witness at the beginning of the tribulation period and perhaps it will be them that will be a witness to the 144,000 Jewish evangelists.  They are described as two olive trees and two candlesticks that stand before the God of the earth.  There is an interesting reference to two olive trees in the book of Zec. 4:2, 3; 11-14 which may or may not refer to these two witnesses. The olive tree is certainly a symbol of the nation of Israel and the nation of Israel is suppose to give light unto the rest of the nations and that is what these two will be doing when they come to the earth.”  Now as far as the olive tree, we will begin to talk about it in our following Spiritual Diaries.  As far as when these men witnesses to a troubled world  I will leave that up to whoever reads this to decide. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that I need to put on sackcloth in my mind as I look at our world and look at our country and do as these men will do in the tribulation, which ever time period they are witnesses in, and that is tell this dying world of the only hope that a person can find, and that is in salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to live in Christ’s love.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Saul” (1 Chron. 10:1-4).

Today’s Bible question:  “Which man authored the most books of the Bible?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/17/2015 2:11 PM

 

Duty of the Two Messengers (Rev. 11:3a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/16/2015 9:34 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  Duty of the Two Messengers

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 11:3a

            Message of the verse:  “"3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days,”

            We are now getting into one of the themes, and I am not sure that is the right term to use, but we will go with it as we begin to look at the two witnesses of Revelation chapter eleven.  The first question that people want to ask is who are these two witnesses and we will get to that later as to who we think they are, but only the Lord knows for sure who that are.  We will first of all look at the duty of these two men, and yes I truly believe that they are men. 

            We first of all need to identify who it is who is speaking here for whoever it was said “And I will grant authority,” and so we know someone is speaking with a great authority for He grants authority to these two men.  It is believed by me and others for sure who have read this passage that it is either the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who is speaking here for they are the only one who can give this authority. 

            John MacArthur writes the following on why there are two witnesses:  “There are two witnesses because the Bible requires the testimony of two people to confirm a fact or verify truth (Deut. 17:6; 19:15; Matt. 18:16; John 8:17; 2 Cor. 13:1; 1 Tim. 5:19; Heb. 10:28).”

            The verse goes on to say that they are to prophecy and we want to take a closer look at this word:  “1) to prophesy, to be a prophet, speak forth by divine inspirations, to predict

1a) to prophesy

1b) with the idea of foretelling future events pertaining esp. to the kingdom of God

1c) to utter forth, declare, a thing which can only be known by divine revelation

1d) to break forth under sudden impulse in lofty discourse or praise of the divine counsels

1d1) under like prompting, to teach, refute, reprove, admonish, comfort others

1e) to act as a prophet, discharge the prophetic office”

            John MacArthur adds “Prophecy in the New Testament does not necessarily refer to predicting the future.  Its primary meaning is to ‘speak forth’ ‘to proclaim’ or ‘to preach.’” 

            Now what are they going to preach about when they begin to preach which will happen near the mid-point of the Tribulation?  I believe that they will be preaching about what is going on in the world at that time, they will expose the Antichrist, and also tell of the judgments that are coming into the world, that they are from the Lord so that He will judge sinful man, demons and Satan, and is also doing this to take back the earth under His control as it was before sin entered the universe.  The verse tells us that they will preach fro twelve hundred and sixty days.  Now I don’t know if we have covered the point that the number of days in a year during Biblical times was 360 days as each month had only 30 days in it.  Now they had some kind of way of taking care of the extra five days, but their calendar was a lunar calendar. 

            They will be preaching from the city of Jerusalem and like people who tell the truth in our world today, and I mean the truth of the Scriptures they will get under the skin of many people who have believed the lie of Satan. 

            MacArthur writes on the fact that they are men:  “The fact that they are actual preachers and not symbols of institutions or movements is indicated by the description of their clothing and behavior.”  We will look at more of this in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is comforting know that God will always have a witness of His grace and mercy in the world as we see these two witnesses are during the time of the Tribulation, but I need to be a witness to those whom God brings onto my path each day.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to better live in and understand the love of the Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Philippi” (Acts 16:12, 30).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who killed himself after the battle of Gilboa?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/16/2015 10:04 AM

 

The Temple Measured PT-2 (Rev. 11:1-2)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/15/2015 8:21 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  The Temple Measured PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 11:1-2

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, "Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. 2 “Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.”

            When I was listening to the sermon that John MacArthur has on these two verses he made a statement that I think was rather unusual for him to make, and that is that he had studied these two verses for ten years and finally found out what he believed they were referring to, and then spent the rest of the sermon explaining what he had learned.  We actually went over what he learned as part of our last SD on these two verses, but I wanted to cover in a bit more detail some of the things that he has covered in his commentary about them as he seems to many times bring out the Greek words to make the passages more understandable, so as I said in our last SD there may be some things repeated in this SD we will still go forward with it.

            Unlike the prophecy in Ezekiel where we see that there was a man or an angel to do the measuring and Ezekiel did the recording in John’s vision he is involved in the measuring of the temple, which as we discussed is the Tribulation Temple John MacArthur points out that the Greek word for measuring is Kalamos “refers to a reed like plant that grew in the Jordan Valley to a height of fifteen to twenty feet.  It had a stalk that was hollow and lightweight, yet rigid enough to be used as a walking staff (cf. Ezek. 29:6) or to be shaved down into a pen (3 John 13).  The stalks, because they were long and lightweight were ideal for use as measuring rods.”

            Now we did discuss that there were two reasons for measuring in the Bible as one is for destruction and the other for ownership, and in this case it was for ownership, but as we will see he leaves a part of it out and that is the key to understanding this passage.

            MacArthur goes on “Naos (temple) does not refer to the entire temple complex (cf. v. 2), but to the inner temple, made up of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.  The ‘altar’ is probably the brazen altar, located outside the inner sanctuary in the courtyard, since that is where ‘those who worship’ in the temple would have gathered.  The people were never permitted into the inner temple; only the priests could enter the Holy Place (where the incense altar stood; cf. Luke 1:8-10).  The worshipers in John’s vision depict a remnant of believing Jews alive during the Tribulation who are worshiping God.”

            In MacArthur’s commentary he states that there will be five temples built and I have always felt that there would be four.  The one he points out that is different than the one that I had heard of was Herod’s temple and I had thought that that temple was only remolded by Herod of the temple that Zerubbable built on the return of the Jews after the Babylonian captivity.  We know according to Daniel 9:24-27 that there will be a Tribulation Temple and I want to point out something that I learned years ago that has something to do with the rebuilding of the temple in Israel today, the temple that will be the Tribulation Temple.  It was back in the 1990’s that I listened to a man named Rob Linstead (not sure of the spelling) who told of a little known passage found in Numbers and also mentioned briefly in Hebrews.  The story of the “Ashes of the Red Heifer” is something that is important to the rebuilding of the temple in Israel.  When the young lad found the “Dead Sea Scrolls” there was in them something called the “Copper Scrolls,” and it was in them that, as Linstead says, is the directions to where the ashes of the red heifer are located.  Why is this important?  Well in Moses’ day they did the first sacrifice of the red heifer and the children of Israel had to find a perfect red heifer and take it outside the camp and burn it and then take the ashes and put them into a container which was called a corlile (again not sure of the spelling).  These ashes were used to purify things including the articles that were in the tabernacle and eventually in the temple that Solomon built.  Linstead says that there have been three of this in the history of the Jews and the last one was done around the birth of Christ.  In 70 AD when the Romans came into Jerusalem and destroyed the temple the “Ark of the Covenant” along with other things including the ashes of the red heifer, according to Linstead were hidden in a cave near the Dead Sea.  There was a man named Jones who actually was  Indiana along with some help from college students was trying to find these ashes.  Now here is where the story gets kind of bizarre.  Jones was standing outside the cave he was searching for the ashes in when some Hollywood producers came by and began to talk to him about what he was doing.  Well the rest is history as the “Indiana Jones” movies came out of this chance get to gather in front of this cave in Israel.  I use to have a video of the original “Indiana Jones,” hat and all taking about finding the ashes of the red heifer. 

            Now we have spoken of Romans 11:26 in earlier SD’s which says that one day “all Israel will be saved,” and it is believed that this speaks of the time of the Tribulation when this will occur.  Perhaps when the temple is rebuilt in the future, which will be in the first half of the Tribulation when it is believed that Antichrist will allow this to be done as a part of the treaty with Israel to bring peace in the Middle East, that this will bring a kind of revival in Israel.  MacArthur writes “The reinstitution of the temple worship will reawaken interest on the part of many Jews in the Messiah.  Many will realize that ‘it is impossible for the blood of goats and bulls to take away sins’ (Heb. 10:4.  God will use that dissatisfaction to prepare their hearts for the day when He will ‘10 “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 firstborn. 11 “In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 “The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; 14 all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves. 1"In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity (Zech. 12:10-13:1).” 

            The rest of the passage found in Revelation 11:1-2 speaks of “Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.”  We have stated what this means, that God will deal with the Jews during this time period which speaks of why the court of the Gentiles is not measured.  Now the “forty-two months refers to the last part of the Tribulation period when the most severe judgments will take place. It will be at this time when what Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24: 15-20 will take place:  “15 “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. 17 “Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. 18 “Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. 19 “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 “But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.”  We know that many will flee Jerusalem and those that stay will be under harsh tribulation. 

            I hope that this passage is more understandable as it is not one that is easily understood, and it seems to me that the Lord had me study this passage and the one in Ezekiel at the same time to help me better understand both of them, for which I am thankful.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God measures and also seals what and who belongs to Him.  I read in the book of Ephesians that I have been sealed by the Holy Spirit:  “Eph 1:13  In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14  who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”  I am thankful for this sealing showing to me that I belong to the Lord forever.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Cornelius” (Acts 10:30).

Today’s Bible question:  “In what city did the jailer ask, ‘What must I do to be saved’?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/15/2015 9:23 AM

The Temple Measured PT-1 (Rev. 11:1-2)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/14/2015 6:55 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  The Temple Measured PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                          Reference:  Revelation 11:1-2

            Message of the verses:  “1 Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, "Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. 2 “Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.”

            Let us begin with a quote from my earlier SD of July 20, 2005 and at the end there is a statement that is made that I will try and answer in this SD.  “At the time when this book was written the temple in Jerusalem had already been torn down by Titus and his Roman Legions in 70 AD so there is no way that John would have been referring to that temple.  The Temple was first built by Solomon and that was destroyed in 586 BC and was rebuilt some years later by the returning Jews, and that was the Temple that was there when Christ was upon the earth.  Christ said that that Temple would be destroyed and it was in 70 AD.  The Temple which is spoken of in Revelations 11 will be rebuilt when antichrist comes to power and it is the Temple that the antichrist will go into and desecrate as prophesied by the prophet Daniel and also by the Apostle Paul in 2Thessolians.

            “The question is why is John measuring it?  Dr. Wiersbe points out that when something is measured it is the property of the one who is having it measured, so this Temple and the city it is in is owned by God.  John is told to leave out the outer court and not to measure it, and is then told that the Gentile nations will tread under foot the city of Jerusalem for three and a half years, speaking of the last half of the seven year tribulation period.  I have not read anything as to why John was told not to measure the outer court.”

            I explained in my SD on Ezekiel last night (5-13-15) that these two verses and chapters 40-43 of Ezekiel have something in common and because of that I quoted a portion from John MacArthur’s sermon which he gave on these two verses sometime in the 1990’s.  I will use that same quote in this SD and then we will go on and try to answer why the court of the Gentiles was not measured.

            ““John is told to do some measuring in verse 1. Let's call this the temple measured. There was given me a measuring rod like a staff and someone said, `Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it.'" Now John had a lot of visions and every once in a while he got involved in his vision, like in chapter 10 when he had the vision of the great angel and the little book in the angel's hand, he was told to eat the little book. Now that's getting involved in the vision. And here again he is very involved in the vision and he is told by someone, it says, to take this rod and measure the temple of God.

 “Now let's break this verse down so we can get a grip on it. There was given me...he says, probably by the same person who also spoke to him, the someone who said, likely an angelic being, if you go back to 10th..chapter verse 8, there you have an angelic being speaking to him. I think if it were to be God or Christ, they would probably be identified as such, maybe not but it seems best that an angelic voice is here speaking to John and also is the one giving him this measuring rod.

“The measuring rod, like a staff, was just that. It was a rod used in ancient times for measuring. John has just received this prophecy, chapter 10 verse 11, and he has been told that he's supposed to say many more things, write many more things. It's almost as if chapter 10 verse 11 is a renewed commission for John to write the book of Revelation. And now as he is ready to write, he is going to be actually involved in the very vision about which he will write. And the first thing he's told to do is take a measuring rod. The word is calamosit refers to a reed that grew in the Jordan Valley, it's the name of a reed. And they grew down in the lowlands of the Jordan Valley and they grew to be somewhere between ten and fifteen feet high. They were a hallow stalk, like a bamboo stalk and because they were so very light they were cut down and cut into proper lengths and used as measuring instruments like a yardstick. They were also used, by the way, when they were refined and shaved down with some kind of an instrument to a point as a pen. We find such use even in the Scripture and they were used as a walking staff. So they had a lot of use. So here John is told to take this stick, we don't know how long it was, it's to be used as a measuring instrument. He says, “Rise, get up and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it."

            ““Now the question obviously is...why is he doing this? What is the point of this? Well, there are two things that occur in the Bible with regard to God in measuring out things, one is judgment and the other is ownership. God in Old Testament history has at times measured out something for destruction. That is to say He measures it out. It's a way of saying, "I'm confining My destruction to this particular area, or this particular city, or this particular location, or this particular people. But in this case that doesn't seem the best understanding for the measurement. It is also true that in the Old Testament God also measured out things as being His own, His own possession, personal possession for the sake of preservation. For example, in chapter 21 of the book of Revelation you have also very carefully measuring out of the city, the new Jerusalem. Verse 15 of Revelation 21, the one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and its walls.  And the measuring is of the new Jerusalem, the heavenly holy city in which the saints will dwell forever and ever. And it seems it's in a similar usage of the measuring that John is instructed to act here, that God wants him to measure out His temple because it belongs to Him. He's identifying it as His own. That is particularly true because he says measure the temple and the altar and those who worship in it. This appears then to be an act of defining the parameters of God's property, what it is that belongs to Him, or better, who it is that belongs to Him. In fact it would be easy to understand that God is saying, "I am going to measure out the people of the temple, the people who worship in it, the people to whom it belongs, namely Israel." And if you understand that God is measuring off Israel for some protective, preserving, favored position, then you get the idea.”

Well the answer is kind of given in the last few statements here as we see that God is mainly concerned with the nation of Israel.  Now I have mentioned this in earlier SD’s that the Tribulation Period is the 70^th week of Daniel’s prophecy, and during that whole prophecy the Lord is dealing with the nation of Israel.  The prophecy is actually seventy sevens or 490 years and it begins in Nehemiah chapter two and ends in Luke chapter 19 with seven years left on it.  Daniel writes that the last seven years will start up when the antichrist makes a covenant with Israel for seven years, the exact amount of time left on the prophecy.  The church will be gone at the rapture and we believe shortly after that this covenant with Israel will be made and thus the last seven years begins.  What we see here is God dealing with the nation of Israel here and that is why John does not measure the court of the Gentiles here.  Now this is the short story of these two verses and we will look into them with more detail in our next SD, and it may be that some of the things that are written in the next SD will be repeated to keep up with the flow of it, but that is ok.

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:   God’s plans are perfect even though they are hard for us humans to endure at times.  God will continue to save people during the Tribulation Period including Jews and Gentiles alike.  It is my desire to have people who read these SD’s who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord to be saved so that they will not have to go through the awfulness of the Tribulation Period.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  My desire is to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength, and to better learn to live in the love of the Lord.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “He drove them out of the temple” (John 2:15).

 

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said ‘At the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing’?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

5/14/2015 7:25 AM

 

 

 

Introduction to Revelation Eleven

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/13/2015 6:15 AM

My Worship Time                                                       Focus:  Introduction to Revelation Eleven

            This SD will be a bit different because I will not quote any verses but just give a little review as to some of the things we have been looking at and then a preview to what we will begin to see in chapter eleven.  We will meet the two witnesses in chapter eleven and I have to say that this is one of my favorite chapters from the 6^th to the 19^th chapters of Revelation which makes up the Tribulation Period of the book of Revelation.  The seventh trumpet judgment is also a part of this chapter and we will look at it later on as the first fourteen verses have to do with God’s two witnesses.

            When we go all the way back to the third chapter of Genesis, which is probably the saddest chapter in all the Scriptures, but as we spoke yesterday there surely was some sweetness in that chapter as after the sin of Adam and Eve we read the following in Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."”  God is speaking to Satan in this verse telling him that there will come a redeemer who will kill him for that is what “bruise you on the head” means.  Satan will bruise the Redeemer on His heal, but the Redeemer will eventually have Satan killed or put into the fire that was prepared for him and all of his demons who followed him. The point is that God will provide a Redeemer and that Redeemer was the Lord Jesus Christ.  The problem was that all of mankind was born into sin and because of that they sinned.  They were as bad off as they could be and as we look throughout the Old Testament we see that even though God’s promise of a Redeemer was there that man did what he wanted to do, and that was sin, not paying much attention to the promise of a Redeemer who was to come.

            God would later on call Abram who became Abraham to begin the nation of Israel which is who God would bring the Redeemer through, but even Israel, God’s chosen people did not follow the covenant that God had given them.  Let us look at some verses to show that they rebelled against God and His covenant, but first look at one of the warnings that God had given them in 2 Kings 17:13 “Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets."”  This was given to the people of Israel because God loves them.  Now we will look at what happened to Israel as we look at the next two verses “14 However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God. 15 They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the LORD had commanded them not to do like them.”   Now look at 2 Chron. 36:15-16 “15 The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; 16 but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, until there was no remedy.”  Jeremiah adds “4 ’Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again, saying, "Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate." 5 ’But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn sacrifices to other gods. 6  ’Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become a ruin and a desolation as it is this day.”

            John MacArthur writes “Prophets such as Elijah Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, and the others confronted both wayward Israel and sinful Gentile nations.  Jeremiah’s experience was typical of the reception that the prophets often received:  “1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 3 "From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. 4 "And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear, 5 saying, ’Turn now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell on the land which the LORD has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever; 6 and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm.’”

            We see pretty much the same thing in the NT as Israel continues to turn their backs on the Lord, and not only Israel but the whole earth have pretty much turned their backs on the Lord.  As we come to the book of Revelation we have seen first of all the description of Christ and the call of John to write down the vision that he saw and was actually a part of.  The scroll that was spoken of in chapter five was given to Jesus Christ the Lamb of God and He began to open it one seal at a time and judgment began to fall on the peoples of the earth and onto the earth itself, however God has never left Himself without a witness to the people of the earth including the people of Israel as we saw in chapter seven that God sealed 144,000 Jewish evangelists which seems to happen soon after the Rapture of the Church taking the Church home to be with the Lord and setting the stage for the Tribulation to begin with the signing of a peace treaty with the nation of Israel by the Antichrist.  In chapter 14:6-7 we read “6 And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; 7 and he said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters."”  We have stated that the chronology of the book of Revelation is not in the order of the chapters that we read and we are not sure when this action by the angel will happen.  Now as far as the two witnesses we believe that their ministry begins around the mid-point of the tribulation period sometime after the Antichrist goes into the Holy of Holies and claims to be god.

            MacArthur writes “In addition to preaching the gospel, these two preachers will proclaim God’s judgment on the wicked world.  Their ministry will likely stretch from the midpoint of the Tribulation until just before the sounding of the seventh trumpet.  That trumpet will herald the pouring out of the rapid-fire bowl judgments, the battle of Armageddon, and the return of Christ.  During that period, they will declare that the disasters befalling the world are the judgments of God.  They will participate in fulfilling the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that the ‘gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come’ (Matt. 24:14).  They will also be used by God to bring salvation to Israel.”

            “But before introducing these two faithful witnesses, John records a fascinating incident in which he himself took part, an incident that sets the stage for the arrival of the two preachers.” 

            The incident that John takes part in is very similar to what we have been looking at in the book of Ezekiel.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Through the blood of Jesus” (Eph. 1:7).

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Jesus do to the money changers at the temple?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/13/2015 6:57 AM

John’s Unusual Assignment (Rev. 10:8-11)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/12/2015 10:10 AM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  John’s Unusual Assignment

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 10:8-11

            Message of the verses:  “8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, "Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land." 9 So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, "Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey." 10 I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. 11 And they said to me, "You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings."”

            I have mentioned many times in my Spiritual Diaries that it was prophecy that the Lord used to draw me to Himself so that I could hear the truth of the gospel and be saved and prophecy is a very important part of the Word of God.  It is a very exciting part of the Word of God that people can get caught up in trying to fit some of the pieces of the prophetic word into what is happening in their world.  I have even heard stories of those who had read the “Left Behind” series stating that they really wanted to go through the Tribulation Period because of the adventure that it would bring.  Christianity is rather unique because of all of the prophecies that are in the Word of God although the Muslin “religion” also has eschatology in it as they look for what they call the “Twelfth Iman,” who when you read about him seems to fit into the role of Antichrist in Christian eschatology.  My point in writing all of this is that those who are believers have a responsibility in telling others about what the Lord is someday going to bring upon the people of planet earth, things that are spelled out in the book of Revelation.  Peter writes the following on this subject: “9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12  looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”  Peter is saying that since you know all of the things that will happen to this earth and the people in it what kind of believers should you be.  Well I think that those who know these things should be telling others about them.  Prophecy is sweet and also bitter just like the book that John is told to eat.  It is sweet to know that the Lord is going to take all of His people to heaven in the rapture so that they will miss the awfulness of the Tribulation Period, but it is bitter for those who will be here going through those awful judgments and as far as John is concerned he has to continue to tell others of the coming judgments that are written in the scroll that was opened in chapter six for there will be seven more judgments to come.  We can rejoice that the Lord will one day take planet earth back for Himself and for His Son, but we can also morn over the fact that we know people that if the rapture came today would be left on this earth to face the awfulness of the Tribulation period. 

            John MacArthur writes the following in conclusion of his commentary for chapter eleven.  In keeping with his bittersweet experience, John was told ‘You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.’  ‘Again’ indicates John was being commissioned a second time (cf. 1:19) to write the rest of the prophecies God was going to give him.  What he was about to learn would be more devastation than anything yet revealed—and more glorious.  He was to be faithful to his duty to record all the truth he had seen and would soon see.  The prophecies John would receive would relate to everyone (summed up in the four people groups of 5:9 and 7:9 everywhere.  So John is to warn of all the bitter judgments coming in the seventh trumpet and the seven bowls.  As an exile on Patmos (1:9) he had no opportunity to preach to all nations, but he was to write the prophecies and distribute them, so as to warn all people of the bitterness of judgment to come, and of death and hell.  Sinners everywhere may know because John recorded these prophecies that, while judgment is presently restrained, a future day is coming when the seventh angel will should his trumpet and sin’s dominion will be broken, the freedom of Satan and his demons will come to an end, godless men will be judged, and believers will be glorified.  This chapter represents an interlude of hope tinged with bitterness that reminds all Christians of their evangelistic responsibilities to warn the world of that day.” 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire to tell others of the things that will soon take place, soon is the word that is used in the book of Revelation about when these things will take place and we surely are closer to these events than when Revelation was penned around 96 AD.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength, and to better understand and live in the love of Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Seventeen”  Genesis 37:2).

Today’s Bible question:  “Through what do we have redemption?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/12/2015 10:46 AM

“My Wives Battle With Cancer”

 

“My Wives Battle With Cancer”

Today’s SD will be different, and one that I wish I did not have to write.  Last evening my daughter and I took my wife to the ER over what is going on with her cancer and spent the night there hoping to get some answers as to how this devilish disease can be fought off.  My wife has stated that she does not want any Kemo because it has not worked for her so basically she is hoping for a miracle or going on to face the certain death through her cancer.  We both know that God is in control and that if it is will, and would bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ that this certainly is possible.  The important things is that what God desires for her will bring glory to our Lord Jesus Christ.  With all this said I will take a day or so to be with her while she is in the hospital, as my great duty to my wonderful wife.

6/22/2026 6:28 PM