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

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/11/2015 10:24 AM

My Worship Time                                                                   Focus:  An Unusual Announcement

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 10:5-7

            Message of the verses:  “5  Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven, 6  and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE EARTH AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS IN IT, that there will be delay no longer, 7  but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets.”

            Perhaps I jumped the gun in yesterday’s SD when I wrote about the word “mystery” as it is in verse seven and we will probably go over it a bit more in this SD.  Now we spoke earlier why John MacArthur does not believe that the angel we see in this passage is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we also spoke earlier that he believes that we are past the mid-point of the tribulation period.  Well in my Spiritual Diary dated July 15, 2005 I wrote something different and this just goes to show you that not everyone is on the same page as far as certain things found in the book of Revelation, but I will paste a part of this former SD to show that there are differences of opinions by two very good men:  “Dr. Wiersbe points out that this section of Revelations is the middle of the tribulation period and when the seventh angel blows his trumpet the last half of the tribulation period will begin and the judgments that will take place then will be even worse that those of the first half of the period.  There is kind of a Laul at this point as far as the judgments are concerned and while this is going on this Angel, who is believed to be the Lord Jesus Christ swears by and oath in the Name of the God of creation that God will wait no longer and that the things that will soon be fulfilled have been announced by the prophets of old.  One of the earlier judgments saw those who have been murdered for their faith in heaven asking God how long it will be before He judges those who had murdered them, and the answer to that question is found in Peter’s writings where he writes, “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.”  Actually the whole chapter of 2Peter 3 is a good reference to answer those martyrs questions. 

            “I want to focus in on the word “mysterious” of “mystery” as to how it is used in Scripture.  This word is not used in the same way one uses mystery in our English language where it means that the outcome is not know.  The word as used in the Bible means that God’s people know what is going on but those of the world system do not have a clue as to what is going on.  Jesus spoke of God blinding the eyes of some of the Jewish leaders when He was on earth, and it seems that they were blinded so that they could not understand these mysteries that were spoken of by the prophets.”  Good men differ in some things when it comes to the Scriptures but they don’t differ on the very important things like salvation or the deity of Jesus Christ.  I have to say that I go along with John MacArthur in his view that this is not the Lord Jesus Christ for whatever difference that makes.

            We see the angel lift his right hand to heaven while in his left hand we find the little book and we know that heaven is where God dwells and this is according to John MacArthur “the standard gesture for taking a solemn vow (cf. Deut. 32:40; Dan. 12:7).  To take such a vow is to affirm before God that one is going to speak the truth.  That vow indicated that what the angel was about to say was the utmost importance and truthfulness.”  Now we see in verse six that the angel took his vow in the name of “Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in ti, and the sea and the things in it.”  What we see here is the eternity of God along with His sovereign power which is in an over every single thing in His own creation.  God owns everything for He has created everything and ultimately is in control of everything.  God is the creator in spite what the evolutionists believe, for they just don’t want to be accountable to God, but one day everyone will be accountable to God and all men will either stand before the Lord at the judgment seat of Christ where all true believers will stand or they will stand at the Great White Throne Judgment which we will talk about later, but not one believer will stand before God at this judgment.  Paul and Barnabas spoke these words in Acts 14:15 “"Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM.”  Paul also spoke the following words to the men of Athens in Acts 17:22-26 “22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ’TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.”  We see in both of these Scripture passages form Acts that Paul “identified God to pagan Gentiles as the source and first cause of the created universe.”  As believer in Jesus Christ we also need to proclaim this message as a lead in to the message of salvation.  God is eternal and has always existed and always will exist.  I know that this is hard to understand when we live in a world of time, but as I have been mentioning that there are some things we don’t understand but believe by faith and this is one of them.  God is eternal.

            I mentioned in the earlier SD from July that when we read the words “that there will be delay no longer,” that is an answer to those souls found under the altar we saw earlier in the seal judgments who prayed that God would act and He is acting as there will be no longer any delay.  John MacArthur writes “The phrase ‘but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound’ indicates that the judgment of the seventh trumpet is about to come and that is not a single event, but covers ‘days’—indicating a period of time.  This period includes the seven bowl judgments (16L1-21), which would appear to require some weeks or months to unfold.  So the sounding of the seventh trumpet brings the final judgment depicted in the bowls of fury poured out on the earth.”  God’s patience is complete or done and the following is what we read in Revelation 15:1 “Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.”  Now only is God’s patience done, but when these seven last judgments are finished so the wrath of God will be finished.

            The last part of this section speaks of the “mystery of God” and we went over it in yesterday’s SD and also a bit in the SD from July which is copied into this SD so I will not write any more on this subject in this SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  In the sermon that was at our church last night our Pastor spoke on brotherly kindness which is found in 2 Peter chapter one and as I looked at the SD from July and the one that I am doing today I have mentioned that there is a difference of opinion between two men I have great respect for when it comes to teaching the Word of God and this makes me go back to the sermon from last night.  The reason for this is that as believers we are to have brotherly love for other believers even when we disagree with what they believe about certain passages in the Bible as long as they do not go against the doctrines of God, but in the case of what we are looking at there is a need for brotherly love and to respect each others opinions and leave it at that.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Show brotherly love and also love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to continue to learn to live in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ with things like showing brotherly love for my fellow believers.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Revelation”

Today’s Bible question:  “How old was Joseph when he was sold into Egypt as a slave?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/11/2015 11:06 AM

           

 

The Unusual Answer (Rev. 10:4)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/10/2015 7:56 AM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  The Unusual Answer

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Revelation 10:4

            Message of the verses:  “When the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them."”

            Let us begin by going back and looking at Revelation 1:19 “"Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.”  We see here what John’s job description was, and these orders came from the Lord Jesus Christ so John was only doing his job when he was about to write down what the seven peals of thunder had spoken.  However he then hears a voice from heaven, and we have to wonder who’s voice from heaven he heard.  Well it does not tell us whose voice was speaking, but if I was to guess I would think that it was the Lord Jesus Christ and the reason that I say this is because He is the one who gave John the orders in Rev. 1:19.  Now another thing that is not revealed is that John was not given any reason not to write down what the seven peals of thunder said.  We may as well not speculate on what the seven peals of thunder said for if God would have wanted us to know what it was He would have had John record it.

            Daniel had similar experiences with the visions that God gave to him.  "The vision of the evenings and mornings Which has been told is true; But keep the vision secret, For it pertains to many days in the future’ (Daniel 8:26).”  Again let us look at Daniel’s writings “He said, "Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time (Daniel 12:9).”  Now let us move to Paul’s experience as seen in 2 Corinthians 12:4 “was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.”  Now I want to go to one of my favorite verses in the entire OT “"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law (Deut. 29:29).  Let’s look at this same verse from the “Message”  “GOD, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It’s up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation.”  Job 37:5 says “"God thunders with His voice wondrously, Doing great things which we cannot comprehend.”  The words of what the seven peals of thunder fall into the category of what Job 37:5 says.

            The word mystery is a very interesting word and so I want us to look at it from the Greek/English dictionary that is on my Online Bible Program.  First I will give you the verse that it comes from:  “Ro 11:25  For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery-so that you will not be wise in your own estimation-that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” 

“3466 μυστηριον musterion moos-tay’-ree-on

 

from a derivative of muo (to shut the mouth); TDNT-4:802,615; n n

 

AV-mystery 27; 27

 

1) hidden thing, secret, mystery

1a) generally mysteries, religious secrets, confided only to the initiated and not to ordinary mortals

1b) a hidden or secret thing, not obvious to the understanding

1c) a hidden purpose or counsel

1c1) secret will

1c1a) of men

1c1b) of God: the secret counsels which govern God in dealing with the righteous, which are hidden from ungodly and wicked men but plain to the godly

2) in rabbinic writings, it denotes the mystic or hidden sense

2a) of an OT saying

2b) of an image or form seen in a vision

2c) of a dream”

            I believe that the “church” actually falls into the category of being a “mystery” for it was not revealed in the OT but is in the NT.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  There are many times in my life when I wish that God would reveal to me things that I would like to know about, but then one of the things that I do is to look at Deuteronomy 29:29 and realize that God does not have to tell me everything, but the things He does tell me I must obey.  What this is all about is having faith that God loves me and will do the best for me even if I don’t understand it.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  My desire all of this year and I suppose for all eternity is to love the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to better understand the love that Christ has for me and live in it.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Goliath” (1 Samuel 17:4).

Today’s Bible question:  “What is the last book in the Bible?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/10/2015 8:23 AM

 

An Unusual Act (Rev. 10:2b-3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/9/2015 10:23 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                    Focus:  An Unusual Act

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                        Reference:  Revelation 10:2b-3

            Message of the verses:  “He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land; 3 and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars; and when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices.”

            I think that when people read through the book of Revelation and begin to study it that they look forward to the things that we are studying now and not look so much for the first chapters of the book.  I have to say that I was looking forward to this chapter and the following ones too, but I also enjoyed studying the first five chapters too.  We are still talking about this angel that we began to discuss in our last SD and from these verses he must have been a fairly large angel to do what we read about here.

            Now we must remember that John is seeing this in a vision and we really don’t know where this took place, but it very well could be that this angel standing on the land and on the sea means that God was about to judge all of the earth.  We have learned that the scroll that was in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ was full of judgments that were to take place on the people of the earth and on the demons so that God would take back the earth through these judgments so He has the right to do this for after all He is the Eternal God who made all of this and therefore it is all His:  “FOR THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S, AND ALL IT CONTAINS (1 Cor. 10:26).” 

            We see that this large angel (we think he was large in John’s vision) cried out with a loud roar like a lion and this reflects the power, majesty, and authority of God.  Jeremiah 25:30 says “"Therefore you shall prophesy against them all these words, and you shall say to them, ’The LORD will roar from on high And utter His voice from His holy habitation; He will roar mightily against His fold. He will shout like those who tread the grapes, Against all the inhabitants of the earth.”

            After the roar of this angel we hear something very unusual “the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices.”  When you study the Scriptures you see that numbers mean different things and the number seven means completeness and also perfection.  There are places in the Scripture where thunder speaks of judgment.  Let us look back at Revelation 8:5 “Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”  Rev. 11:19 “And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.”  Rev. 16:18 “And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.”  Remember I said earlier that one of the best ways to study the book of Revelation was to use a concordance.  There are also other pictures of this in both the OT and NT.  28 “Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came out of heaven: "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." 29 So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, "An angel has spoken to Him." 30 Jesus answered and said, "This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes (John 12:28-30).”  Let us look back at Exodus 9:23 “Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt.”  1 Samuel 7:10 says “Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel.”  Isaiah 29:6 “From the LORD of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.”  John MacArthur writes “These seven loud, shattering, powerful voices cry out for vengeance and judgment upon the sinful earth.  The thunder was separate from the angel’s voice and may have represented the voice of God (cf. 1 Sam. 7:10; Ps. 18:13).  The text does not say what the thunder said, but hearing it certainly would have added to the terror of the scene of judgment (cf. 8:5; 11:19; 16:18).”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  God’s plans are perfect even when it comes to His judgment and wrath for without them no one could be saved and go to heaven.  I say this because it was the judgment and wrath of God taken out on Jesus Christ while on the cross that made it possible for those who accept this to be saved for Christ took our punishment on the cross so that we could receive His righteousness.  For this I will be forever grateful and thankful.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to be better at loving the Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to be better at living in the love of God.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Galilee” (Matthew 2:22-23).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who was the champion in the Philistines?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/9/2015 10:56 AM

An Unusual Angel (Rev. 10:1-2a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/8/2015 9:10 AM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  An Unusual Angel

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Revelation 10:1-2a

            Message of the verses:  “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; 2 and he had in his hand a little book which was open.”

            Including this verse I want to quote the verses in the book of Revelation with “strong angel” in them.  “Re 5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?"  Re 10:1 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; Re 18:21 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.”  We see this phrase used a total of three times in the book of Revelation and to me it is showing a difference between an angel and a strong angel as it seems the “strong angels” have a more difficult and perhaps a more important job to do.  We also see a distinction between the seven angels who were blowing the trumpets and this strong angel.  Remember we called these seven angels who had the trumpets “presence angels” as they were close to the presence of God.  John MacArthur writes the following about the word another as some have though that this strong angel was in fact the Lord Jesus Christ.  He writes to defend his position that this is not the Lord Jesus Christ:  “First, the use of allos (another of the same kind) identifies this angel as one exactly like the previously mentioned trumpet angels.  If Christ were being referred to here, the word heteros (another of a different kind) would be expected, since Christ is essentially different from angels.  Christ could not be described as an angel exactly like the other angels, since they are created and He is the uncreated, eternal God.”

            He sites other reasons as to why this is not Jesus Christ, but an angel, and one of the reasons is that Christ is never called an angel in the book of Revelations unlike in the Old Testament where He is sometimes called “The Angel of the Lord.”  In Revelation He is called “the son of man, the first and last, the living One, the Son of God, He who is holy, who is true, the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of creation of God, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, the Lamb, Faithful and True, the Word of God, and King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

            I think that even though there are other reasons that this is not the Lord Jesus Christ we can assume that indeed it is not Him, but just as John writes “another strong angel.”

            When we look at the description of this angel one might think that this description is only for the Lord, but in our study of the book of Ezekiel we saw another angel with a similar description who is called Lucifer:  “11 Again the word of the LORD came to me saying, 12  "Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 “You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared. 14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. 15  "You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you.”  These verses picture Lucifer before he fell as described in Isaiah 14 and then became Satan.  In the book of Daniel, he also saw an angel with a similar description as the one in Revelation chapter ten.

            We will now take a brief moment to look at his description.  First we see that he was “clothed with a cloud.”  Clouds actually at times symbolize judgment and this angel’s job is judgment as we will see later on in this chapter.  The cloud also symbolizes power, majesty, and glory.  MacArthur writes “Clouds are associated with the second coming of Christ in judgment in 1:7; 14:14-16; Matthew 24:30; Mark 13:26; 14:62; and Luke 21:27.”

            This next description is rather fastening to me and that is he has “a rainbow upon his head.”  MacArthur writes Iris (rainbow) was the Greek goddess who personified the rainbow, and served as the messenger of the gods.  In classical Greek iris was used to describe any bright halo surrounding another object, such as the circle surrounding the eyes on a peacock’s tail, or the iris of an eye.”  We find this same word in Revelation 4:3. 

            We first see the rainbow in the book of Genesis:  “12  God said, "This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; 13  I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. 14  "It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, 15  and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16  "When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”  Here we see the rainbow as a promise from God never to bring about another flood over the whole earth as He had just done.  He is speaking of mercy here and this mercy came in the midst of His judgment something we look at earlier in Malachi 3:16-4:2.  “16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who esteem His name. 17 “They will be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him." 18 So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.  1 "For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of hosts, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branch." 2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.”

            Next we see” his face was like the sun.”  “After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory (Rev. 18:1).”  Here is something to think about and that is the face of an angel can illuminate the earth like the sun how much more can the glory of the Lord’s brightness illuminate.  It is no wonder that no one can see the Lord and live.  Here is something else to think about and that is that when the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth that His glory was hidden so that He could become a man in order to take our place on the cross and die in our place so that we who accept this can receive His righteousness.  “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21)”

            Next we see John describing his feet and that his legs are firm immovable a “pillar of fire.”  MacArthur writes “That symbolizes his unbending holiness in stamping out his judgment on the earth, pictured here as fire that consumes the ungodly (Mal. 4:1).”

            We conclude with another quote from John MacArthur about the “little book” that the angel has:  “Some argue that the use of biblaridion (little book) in verse 2 distinguishes this book from the biblion (‘book’) of 5:1.  But that reasoning overlooks the fact that biblaridion is the diminutive form of biblion, and that biblion is also used to refer to the ‘little book’ in 10:8.  Rather that distinguishing this book from the one in chapter 5, the diminutive form merely adds a further description of it in this vision.  The book needed to be made smaller for the sake of the symbolism of this vision, since John was to eat it.  The use of the perfect participle heneogmenon (‘which was open’) emphasizes the idea of the scroll being open; having been opened, it is to remain open.  That further identifies it with the now fully unrolled scroll of 5:1.  The little book lying open in this unusual angel’s hand unveils all the terrors of divine judgment yet to come.”

            You may wonder why we are using the word “unusual” so many times and it is because in his study of chapter ten MacArthur says the things he was were unusual and as we continue in our study of this chapter we can understand why he thought that.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I think about God’s grace in the midst of judgment I am thankful for that fact.  God’s grace is an amazing part of His attributes and it is because of His love that is also a part of His attributes that we have the privilege of receiving His grace even in times of judgment.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Pilate” (Matthew 27:65).

Today’s Bible question:  “What is the name of the region of the Holy Land in which Nazareth is located?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/8/2015 10:09 AM