The Male Child (Rev. 12:5-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/4/2015 10:39 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  The Male Child

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Revelation 12:5-6

            Message of the verses:  “5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.”

            In today’s SD we will be looking at the third main player who will be taking part in the final battle and that is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ as once again we go back in time to see the birth of Jesus and actually in verse five it describes what He did when He came the first time in a very brief way as He was born and then was taken up to heaven after doing the will of His Father.  This was in spite of all of what the devil had thrown against Him trying to kill Him at birth, giving great temptation to Him throughout His life on earth, and then actually trying to have Him die on a different day than when He must die which was on the Passover.  Satan was not able to do any of these things to the Lord and we can believe that he will not be able to do anything to Him to stop Christ’s coronation for He will “rule all the nations with a rod of iron” which will happen on His earthly reign during the Millennial kingdom.  John MacArthur writes “In fact, the verb poimaino (rule) carries the connotation of ‘destroy’ as it does in 2:27.  The Messiah will come and destroy ‘all the nations’ (19:11-21) and in His kingdom have dominion over the nations that enter to populate that kingdom.  An iron rod is also one that cannot be broken.  Just as all of Satan’s past efforts to hinder Christ have failed, so also will his future efforts fail (cf. 11:15).  The phrase ‘rod of iron’ speaks of the resoluteness of Christ’s rule; He will swiftly and immediately judge all sin and put down any rebellion”

            The following things that I write are difficult to understand, at least for me and that is that we know that Satan was defeated at the cross and yet he is still the head of his earthly rule as even Jesus did not dispute when He was tempted by Him.  I realize that this happened before the cross.  John MacArthur writes on this subject:  “But though he is a defeated foe, Satan will not give up.  Unable to stop Christ’s birth, ascension, or rule, Satan still assaults His people.  He has already instigated the genocidal massacre of Jews in Europe, as well as the death of countless thousands throughout history. During the Tribulation, Satan will increase his efforts to destroy the Jewish people, so that the nation cannot be saved as the Bible promises (Zech. 10-13:1; Rom. 11:25-27).  And so that there will be none left alive to enter the millennial kingdom, he will seek to kill believing Jews.  As always, Israel will be his prime target.  In a brief glimpse of what will be described more fully in verses 13-17, John noted that ‘the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days (cf. v. 14).  God will frustrate Satan’s attempt to destroy Israel during the Tribulation by hiding His people, just as the Lord Jesus Christ predicted: 

             ‘"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. 21 “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will (Matthew 24:15-22).’”

            When the antichrist goes into the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and commits the abomination of desolation that will be the key for the Jewish people to leave and go to where they will be led to go which is in the wilderness, something that their ancestors knew something about.  Now also the 1260 days is one half of the Tribulation Period.

            MacArthur finishes this chapter in his commentary by writing “The great cosmic war of the ages between God and Satan that began with Satan’s rebellion is set to reach it climax.  In this passage John provided important background information on that war and introduced its key figures.  Then his vision turned to a description of the war, but in its heavenly and earthly phases, and its inevitable outcome.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Although it is hard to understand the power that Satan has since he has been defeated, I believe that his total destruction is not too far off as we race towards the end times.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I take this from the quote that I put on my SD that I did this morning from the book of Hosea, as the quote comes from Warren Wiersbe:  “God will not allow us to enjoy His gifts and at the same time ignore the Giver, for this is the essence of idolatry.”   It is my step of faith not to have this kind of thing happen to me, but to do as Paul wrote to the Thessalonians “In everything give thanks.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Caesar” (Luke 20:22).

Today’s Bible Question:  “Who said ‘Arise, go thy way: thy faith has made thee whole?”

Answer in our next SD. 

6/4/2015 11:17 AM

 

The Dragon PT-2 (Rev. 12:3-4)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/3/2015 7:16 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                  Focus:  The Dragon PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Revelation 12:3-4

            Message of the verses:  “3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. 4 And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.”

            We continue to look at some of the activity of Satan as seen in these two verses in today’s SD.  We want to look at the influence that Satan had on the other angels that God had created as the verse says “And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.”  As we continue to look at chapter twelve of Revelation we see that its span goes from before the earth was created up all the way to the Tribulation Period, for what Satan did when he swept away a third of these angels happened before the earth was created.  A couple of years ago when I was leading a Bible Study on the early parts of Genesis John MacArthur said on one of the CD’s we were listening to that one of the people he was reading about how long it took Satan to fall after God created him as being Lucifer was probably about twenty minutes.  I suppose that this was just a guess on that person’s part, but it seems that when you read from both Isaiah and Ezekiel’s accounts that it did not take too long and it must have been shortly after that that the other one third of the angels fell with him.  When we look at this verse the angels are called “stars of heaven.”  MacArthur writes “The genitive case offers further support for that interpretation:  these are ‘stars’ belonging to ‘heaven’; that is their proper abode.  Angels are depicted symbolically as ‘stars’ elsewhere in Scripture (9:1; Job 38:7).”

            We see that when these angels fell that they were cast down to earth, but that does not mean that they do not still have access to heaven.  We can see the truth of this from the book of Job as God asks Satan where had he been and was told that he was on the earth.  Now there will be a time when Satan and all of the angels will again be thrown out of heaven and this time they will not be allowed to come back into heaven.  We will look at that a bit later on.

            We don’t know how many angels joined Satan, but as we look at the book of Revelation  we have seen some very large numbers when it comes to demons, so the number must be very large indeed.  Revelation 5:11 says “Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands,” as this verse speaks of the “good” angels which have two times as many as those who followed Satan.  Let’s look again at Revelation 9:16 “The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.”  These are all demons.  Needless to say Satan has a very large army.  Two more verses to look at are Ephesians 6:12 and also Colossians 2:15 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”  “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”  This speaks of those demons who are currently free to roam the earth and the heavenly realm. MacArthur writes “They, along with evil men under his control, assist Satan in his unholy war against God.  Adding to the (unrevealed) number of these unbound demons to the calculations given above increase the numbers of both the holy and the demons.”

            We have one more thing to look at and it could take a long time to completely study this event and that is that Satan desires to destroy the nation of Israel, and has desired this since God called Abram out of idolatry to worship the One True Living God which is first seen in the 12^th chapter of Genesis.  The portion from Revelation I am speaking of is “the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.”  Now not only has Satan been bent on killing off the children of Israel, but he began right off with the children of Adam and Eve, for it was he who was behind the killing of Able, as he always goes after the righteous people of God.  Job is another example of who Satan went after too.  However we not want to briefly look at a portion of Scripture that John MacArthur has in his commentary to help make this point of how Satan goes after the Jewish people and it comes from the book of Exodus.  MacArthur writes “Because they were the chosen people through whom the Messiah was to come, and by whom the good news of forgiveness was to be proclaimed, Satan reserved his special hatred for Israel.  After Joseph’s death, the Israelites became slaves in Egypt.  In that place, the fates both of the nation and of its human deliverer hung by a slender thread.  ‘8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, "Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.’

            ‘15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other was named Puah; 16 and he said, "When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live." 17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?" 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them." 20 So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty. 21 Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive."

    ‘1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen to him.

    ‘5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, with her maidens walking alongside the Nile; and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid, and she brought it to her. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews’ children." 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, "Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?" 8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, "Go ahead." So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses, and said, "Because I drew him out of the water."’”

            Now as we look at this rather long portion of Scripture we might think that Pharaoh wanted to get rid of the people is Israel because they were a threat, but Satan was behind this as he was trying to stop the birth of the Messiah who could only come through the people of Israel.  Now even though the Messiah has come Satan still wants to get rid of the Jewish race completely because this would stop the plan of God that He has for them, plans in the Tribulation Period, the Millennial Kingdom, and also the Eternal Kingdom.

            Now as we look closely at our verse in Revelation we see that Satan tried to have the Messiah killed once He was born, and then after His birth by using Herod who killed all of the babies in Bethlehem two years old and younger.  However we read the following from Matthew 2:13 and 16 which shows how God protected Jesus “13 Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him."”  “16 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi.”

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing “At the outset of our Lord’s earthly ministry, Satan tempted Him to mistrust God (Matt. 4:1-11).  But the devil’s efforts to get Jesus to abandon His mission did not succeed.  Satan tried to use the people of Nazareth to kill Jesus (Luke 4:28-30), but their enraged attempt to ‘throw Him down the cliff’ (v. 29) ended in failure when He calmly ‘pass[ed] through their midst, [and] went His way (v. 30.’  Satan’s other attempts to cut short Jesus’ earth ministry also ended in failure, ‘because His hour had not yet come’ (John 7:30; 8:20).  Even the devil’s seeming victory at the Cross was in reality his ultimate defeat (Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14; 1 Pet. 3:18-20; 1 John 3:8).”

            Satan will once again fail to destroy the nation of Israel even though that nation is surrounded by enemies at this present time and many or most of them do not yet believe in their Messiah, God will protect them as He always has.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Since the Lord saved me in 1974 He has put a love in my heart for the people of Israel, and I pray for them most every day that God will  continue to protect them and prepare them for what is coming their way.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To love the Lord with all of my heart, and all of my soul, mind and strength, and to live in the love of Christ.  To remember that obedience is better than sacrifice.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Jesus appeared to him in a great light”  (Acts 9:3-9).

Today’s Bible question:  “The Jews asked Jesus if it was alright to give tribute to whom?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/3/2015 8:17 AM

 

 

The Dragon (Satan) (Rev. 12:3-4)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/2/2015 8:34 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  The Dragon (Satan)

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Revelation 12:3-4

            Message of the verses:  “3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. 4 And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.”

            I wrote the following short section about these verses on 08/06/2005 “These verses are surely speaking of Satan, and as far as the seven heads and the ten horns this will be brought up again and will be dealt with then.  It has always been the desire of Satan to destroy the way for the Messiah to come, but he failed at that and even though He may have thought he succeeded  when he had Christ killed in reality that is what sealed his eventual fate of spending eternity in hell. Verse four seems to be speaking about a time in the past when Satan rebelled against God and took a third of the angels with him. There are times when it is difficult to understand all of the symbolism that John wrote about in this book; however the best commentary for the book of Revelations is the rest of the Scriptures.”  I want to expand on what I wrote then in the rest of today’s SD.

First of all we want to be reminded that John saw another sign and this sign is the emergence of a new character that is called the “great red dragon.”  John says that this sign appeared in heaven.  Now we realize that Satan is not a dragon, but as we learned earlier these signs represent different things and in this case the sign represents Satan as the first sign, the woman represents the nation of Israel.  John MacArthur writes “The symbolic language used to describe him pictures the reality of his person and character.  Only in Revelation is Satan referred to as a dragon; before that he is called (among other names) a serpent (Gen.3:1ff; 2 Cor. 11:3).  A dragon is a far more terrifying symbol.  In the Old Testament the same Hebrew word translated dragon (Isa. 27:1; 51:9) is also translated monster or sea monster (Gen. 1:21; Job 7:12; Pss. 74:13; 148:7; Jer. 51:34; Ezek. 29:3; 32:2).  It pictures a large ferocious and terrifying animal.  Red, the color of fiery destruction and bloodshed, further stresses Satan’s ferocious, deadly, destructive nature.  In the words of Jesus, ‘He was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44).  The Hebrew word for ‘serpent’ (nachash) used in Genesis 3:1 is used interchangeably in some texts with the Hebrew word for dragon (tannin) (cf. Ex. 7:9, 15).  So the animal Satan used in the Garden of Eden was a reptile, but one not yet cast down to its belly (Gen 3:14).  Likely, it was more upright—a dragon standing on two legs, cursed to walk on four legs close to the ground, or slither like a snake.  Red is a fitting color for the dragon, since he attacks both the woman and her child.”  I never thought of the term “cast down” to the animal that Satan used to speak to the woman, but that does make sense when you think about it as that animal was cast down to the ground and we will see later in our text that Satan will be cast down to the earth never to return to heaven again, for when he will be cast down to earth the next step will be the lake of fire shortly after that, but we are getting ahead of ourselves as we will speak of this later.

In the book of Ezekiel and chapter twenty-nine, verses 1-5 we read of Pharaoh who was the enemy of God, and as we read this section we will see that it captures the essence of the frightening imagery which is used to describe Satan:

“1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth of the month, the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh King of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. 3 "Speak and say, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, The great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers, That has said, ’My Nile is mine, and I myself have made it.’ 4 “I will put hooks in your jaws And make the fish of your rivers cling to your scales. And I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, And all the fish of your rivers will cling to your scales. 5 “I will abandon you to the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers; You will fall on the open field; you will not be brought together or gathered. I have given you for food to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the sky.”

Let us now speak of the dragon having seven heads and ten horns and also on those heads were seven diadems.  In order to understand this we have to understand that when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden Satan has been allowed by God to rule the world.  Now he will continue to do so up until the sounding of the seventh trumpet which we saw in Revelation 11:15.  Now remember that once we began to study chapters 12-14 we have gone back in time looking at the Tribulation Period through the eyes of antichrist who will be led by Satan.  The word diadem speaks of royal crowns which symbolize power and authority.  Satan has headed up seven consecutive world empires beginning with Egypt, and then Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and Antichrist’s future empire which will take place during the Tribulation Period. This final kingdom headed up by antichrist will be a ten-nation confederacy and this is seen by the ten horns.  Let us look at Daniel 7:23-25 “23  "Thus he said: ’The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it. 24 ’As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings. 25  ’He will speak out against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.”  For more on these verses in Daniel you can look at my Spiritual Diaries dated 09-06-2013 and 09-08-2013.

I mentioned that God has allowed Satan to be the ruler of the world since the fall of man, and we also must realize that God is the One who is completely in control, but when we look at the temptations of Jesus in both Luke and Matthew we see that He did not argue with Satan when Satan offered Him his kingdom.  Satan has been allowed to get into the governments of the world over time and will surely get into the government of the rule of Antichrist during the Tribulation Period.  We will look at this more in detail as we continue our study of this 12^th chapter of Revelation.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that the Lord Jesus provided me a way to get out of the kingdom of darkness and be brought into the Kingdom of Light through His life, death, burial, and resurrection from the dead.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “His eyes were put out” (2 Kings 25:7).

Today’s Bible question:  “What happened to Saul of Tarsus near Damascus?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/2/2015 9:34 AM

 

The Woman PT-2 (Rev. 12:1-2)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/1/2015 12:07 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                Focus:  The Woman PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Rev. 12:1-2

            Message of the verses:  “1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 2  and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.”

            We have gone over the fact that the Bible teaches that Israel will play a key role in the Tribulation Period from our study in the book of Daniel.  Daniel chapter nine teaches that there will be seventy weeks of years or 490 years in order for the Lord to accomplish certain things that are found in verses 24-27 of the ninth chapter of Daniel.  The prophecy has a certain starting point and ends temporarily with one week left on the prophecy, and that one week computes to seven years, exactly how long the Tribulation Period is.  The gap between the end of the 483^rd year and the beginning of the last seven years is where the church age fits into, the age we are now living in at this time.  Once the church is taken out by the Rapture there will arise a man whom the Bible calls among other things the antichrist and he will make a covenant with Israel for seven years which begins the Tribulation Period.  God then begins again to deal with the nation of Israel, just as He did in the Old Testament times.  Let us look at Jeremiah 31:35-37 to give some more light to this subject:  “35 Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name: 36  "If this fixed order departs From before Me," declares the LORD, "Then the offspring of Israel also will cease From being a nation before Me forever." 37 Thus says the LORD, "If the heavens above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel For all that they have done," declares the LORD.”  This is a wonderful series of verses to show that God is still dealing with Israel.  Amos 9:8 says “"Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, And I will destroy it from the face of the earth; Nevertheless, I will not totally destroy the house of Jacob," Declares the LORD.”

            God will continue to deal with Israel as we have seen and His focus will again be on them during the Tribulation Period, but that will not be the end of His dealings with Israel for there are many OT promises and even in the NT that show that Israel will receive their promised Kingdom and Christ will rule the world from Jerusalem.  We have gone over Romans 11:26 before but it bears repeating at this time: “and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB."”

            Satan has been the one who has caused the nation of Israel to be persecuted and there are many examples of this in the OT.  From the time that it was learned that God would the Messiah through the nation of Israel Satan has tried to stop that from happening.  The line went through Jacob’s son Judah and then it went through King David’s line and all the way Satan tried to stop this from happening.  When Jesus was born Satan tried to kill Him but only succeeded to kill many innocent babies, while Joseph and Mary escaped to Egypt.  Satan tempted Jesus as seen in both Matthew and Luke gospels, both of them in chapter four, but Jesus did not succumb to those temptations.  Satan wanted Christ to be crucified after the Passover Feast, but God planned for Christ to die at the same time the Passover lambs died and so He did.  Satan continues to be behind the persecution of the Jews to this day for God has promised to protect them and as we have seen the nation of Israel was formed on May 5, 1948 and lives today.  Satan continues to try and destroy Israel as they are surrounded on all sides by enemies.  This persecution will continue in the Tribulation Period as Satan will try once again to destroy Israel.

            John MacArthur writes “John say that the woman was clothed with the sun, and had the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.  That fascination description reflects Joseph’s dream, recorded in Genesis 37:9-11:  ‘9 Now he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, "Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." 10 He related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?" 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.’  In the imagery of Joseph’s dream, the sun represents Jacob, the moon Rachel, and the eleven stars Joseph’s brothers.  The allusion to Joseph’s dream is fitting, since his life parallels Israel’s history.  Both endured the indignity of captivity in Gentile nations, yet were in the end delivered and exalted to a place of prominence in a kingdom.”

            In seeing the woman clothed with the sun this reflects that Israel will one day be redeemed, thus showing glory, brilliance and also dignity, and the reason for this is because they are God’s chosen nation.  Now when we look at the reference of the moon under her feet MacArthur writes that his “may be a further description of Israel’s exalted status.  It could also include the concept of God covenantal relationship with Israel, since the moon was part of the cycle of Israel’s required times of worship (cf. Num. 29:5-6; Neh. 10:33; Ps. 81:3; Isa. 1:13-14; Col. 2:16).  The crown (stephanos; the crown associated with triumph in the midst of suffering and struggles) of twelve stars (Joseph being the twelfth) on the woman’s head refers to the twelve tribes of Israel.”

            We next see that the woman is with child, she is pregnant and this further confirms her identity as Israel, for the church cannot be a mother since the church is yet to be married, which will happen in Rev. 19:7-9: “7 “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he said to me, "Write, ’Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’" And he said to me, "These are true words of God."”   2 Corinthians 11:2 says “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.”  The phrase “the woman cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth,” shows that just as a pregnant woman in labor feels pain, in the same way Israel was in pain because of the persecution that Satan is given to them, as he attempts to destroy Israel once again.  John MacArthur writes “No nation in history has suffered as long or as severely as Israel has—both from God’s chastening, and also from Satan’s furious efforts to destroy the nation through whom the Messiah would come.”

            Next we will look at the woman’s cause for her suffering.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  When we look at pain and suffering from the Word of God we see that after it is over, as long as the suffering is of the Lord for doing what is right, then the glory will come.  Jesus Christ it the perfect example of this for after His great suffering on the cross He was resurrected to glory.

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 Christ, and to remember that “the successful Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Twelve”

Today’s Bible question:  “What physical punishment was given to Zedekiah when Jerusalem was destroyed?”

Answer in our next SD.

6/1/2015 12:54 PM

The Woman PT-1 (Rev. 12:1-2)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/31/2015 8:57 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                 Focus:  The Woman PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Revelation 12:1-2

            Message of the verses:   “1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 2  and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.”

            The following is a quote from my SD from 08/05/2005 from these two verses:  “There have been different interpretations of this verse throughout history, but most of them are wrong because the person was trying to make his own point and was not looking at other Scriptures to make the correct interpretation.  There are many cross-references in the rest of the Bible that will help one understand what this book is talking about.  If you go back to Genesis 37:9-10 to read about the dream that Joseph had it can be seen that this verse in Revelations is speaking of the nation of Israel.  Isaiah 54:5 speaks of the nation of Israel as a woman, along with Isaiah 66:7-9, and also Jeremiah 3:6-10 and Micah 4:10 and 5:2-3. In verse 2 it can be seen that this woman is with child and she is in great pain.  For sure it was very painful for the nation of Israel, (in the person of Mary), to give birth to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, for Satan, who will be introduced in the following verses, has been her (Israel’s)enemy ever since Israel had begun as a nation for anti-Semitism began with Satan and he uses it to try and destroy the nation of Israel, but he never will for God is in control and He has a plan for the nation of Israel.”

            Now I want to talk briefly about the first few words of verse one “A great sign.”  This is the first of seven signs that are found in the last half of Revelation.  John MacArthur writes “Mega (great) appears repeatedly in this vision (cf. vv. 3, 9, 12, 14); everything John saw seemed to be huge either in size of in significance. Semeion (sign) describes a symbol that points to a reality.  The literal approach to interpreting Scripture allows for normal use of symbolic language, but understands that it points to a literal reality.  In this case, the description plainly shows that the woman John saw was not an actual woman.  Also, the reference to ‘the rest of her children,’ those ‘who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus’ (v. 17), shows that this woman is a symbolic mother.” 

            There are some who read and study the book of Revelation that think that the entire book is symbolic, but as MacArthur writes when we get to the last part of Revelation we see the word sign seven times indicating that what John sees is a sign of something that is important for us to understand.  When we see this word we can then understand that with the absence of this word that what we are reading in Revelation is literal and will happen one day in the future.

            There are four symbolic women who are identified in Revelation.  We looked at the first one who was named Jezebel in Revelation 2:20 and although this was an actual woman she was probably not named Jezebel, but she represented the things that the original Jezebel had done.  Jezebel was the wife of Ahab and she was the one who brought Baal worship into Israel.  Next in chapter seventeen and verse one through seven we see another woman who is depicted as a harlot.  This woman represents the apostate church.  The last woman is described in Revelation 19:7-8 as the bride of the Lamb and she represents the church.  MacArthur writes “Some argue that the woman in this present vision represents the church, but as the context makes clear (cf. v. 5), she represents Israel.  The Old Testament also pictures Israel as a woman, the adulterous wife of the Lord (Jer. 3:1, 20; Ezek. 16:32-35; Hos. 2:2) whom God will ultimately restore to Himself (Isa. 50:1).  A reference to the Ark of the Covenant (11:19) adds further support for identifying the woman as Israel.”  Now for those who are following my blog posts from Hosea, they will have seen something similar.

            I just was to say again that there are those who believe that the Lord is done with Israel, and also there are those who say that the church began in the OT.  I truly have trouble with these statements as the beginning of the church is seen clearly in Acts chapter two.  There are many OT verses that show that God is not done with Israel, and Paul makes this very clear in Romans 9-11 even stating in chapter eleven that one day “all Israel will be saved.”

            We will continue with these verses in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  When the plain sense of Scripture makes sense, seek no other sense.

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 Jesus Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Judah” (Genesis 44:18-34).

Today’s Bible question:  “How many books of the Old Testament are considered to be historical?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/31/2015 9:26 AM     

 

           

Introduction to Revelation 12 (Revelation 12:1-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/30/2015 8:54 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  Introduction to Revelation 12

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                Reference:  Revelation 12:1-6

            Message of the verses:  “1 A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; 2  and she was with child; and she *cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. 3 Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. 4 And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child. 5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.”

            These are the verses that we will be looking at over the next few days as we begin the second half of the book of Revelation.  John MacArthur entitles this chapter in his commentary “The War of the Ages PT-1:  The Prelude.”  I can say that I am excited to begin this twelfth chapter because I have learned where this chapter and also chapters 13-14 fit into the chronological part of the book of Revelation.  We learned that chapters 12-14 are a review of what we have been seeing happen through the eyes of the Antichrist, while chapters 6-11 were seen through the eyes of the Lord.  We are now going to be looking at the “beast” or the “Antichrist” and see more about him and also more about Satan, and I believe that we will also be looking at the “False Prophet” which is the sidekick of the Antichrist.

            Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.”  We then read in the 14^th chapter of the book of Isaiah “12  "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! 13 “But you said in your heart, ’I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14 ’I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’”  This of course is speaking of Lucifer who after the sin recorded with these five “I wills” became Satan as he committed the first sin against God.  Lucifer was the highest Cherub, but he forfeited that position because of His sin.  Ezekiel writes in 28:14 “"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.”  All of these things that we are reading about that concern the fall of Satan happened before man was created on planet earth.  Now I must say that this is my opinion, but my opinion also is that it did not happen too far in advance of the creation of man.  The timetable for these events is not exact but there can be made some conjectures as to when this happened by studying the Word of God.

            After man was created the fallen Lucifer, now Satan brought his temptation to Eve in the garden of Eden and we learn that Adam also fell, and in fact was responsible to God for this sin as we see from New Testament writings. 1Ti 2:13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.  1Ti 2:14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.”

            As we look at “The War of the Ages” we see that it began in heaven as we saw when we looked at the chapters from both Isaiah and Ezekiel and with that war one third of the angelic beings followed Satan.  This left two thirds of them to be with God.  God created many angels as we can see from the numbers given in the book of Revelation.  We saw two hundred million demons come on to the earth “Re 9:16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.” 

            Next this war came to earth and Satan claimed the kingdom of earth from man when he caused the first couple to fall into sin.  And thus the war of the Ages was off and running. We are now going to begin to look at the final battle, which will end with Satan, the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and all the demons along with unregenerate man to be cast into hell, a place where God said was created for the devil and his angels.  John MacArthur writes “The sounding of the seventh trumpet will proclaim the triumphant victory of the Lord Jesus Christ over the usurper, Satan:  ‘Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever’ (11:15).  There will be joy I heaven because Christ has defeated Satan and established His eternal kingdom.  Thus, the outcome of the war between Satan and God is not in doubt.  Christ ultimate triumph is certain.”

5/30/2015 9:22 AM    5/30/2015 12:52 PM

            MacArthur concludes and also previews what we will be looking at in these six verses:  “Before describing that final war, the inspired apostle John first introduces the main characters involved in it:  The woman (Israel), the dragon (Satan), and the male child (Jesus Christ).”  In the next few days we will be looking at these different characters to see what their roles will be in the Tribulation Period.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the prophetic truth that is found in the Word of God.  While putting the spiritual armor one of the pieces is the “helmet of the hope of salvation” which is actually spoken of in “1Th 5:8 But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.”  Putting on that helmet is saying that we understand that Jesus Christ is coming again and that will help me throughout the day by knowing this.  “Tit 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,”

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 Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Elim” Exodus 15:27.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Who pleaded with Joseph in behalf of  Benjamin, when the silver cup was found in Benjamin’s sack?”

Answer in our next SD.

5/30/2015 1:04 PM

             

 

           

Promise of Communion (Rev. 11:19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/29/2015 8:10 AM

My Worship Time                                                                         Focus:  Promise of Communion

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Revelation 11:19

            Message of the verses:  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.”

            We have reached a milestone in our SD for today as this one is the last SD for the first half of the book of Revelation.  As you know I have been following the outline from John MacArthur’s commentary on the book of Revelation and with this SD we end the first commentary from him all 321 pages of it and then we will move into chapter twelve and the next half of his commentary on Revelation.

            MacArthur writes “Bound up in the seventh trumpet is the promise to believers of unbroken fellowship with God forever.  That fellowship is symbolized by the imagery of verse 19.  The opening of ‘the temple of God which is in heaven’ (the place where His presence dwells; cf. chapts. 4, 5) revealed ‘the ark of the covenant.  The ark symbolizes that the ‘covenant’ God has promised to men is now available in its fullness.  In the midst of the fury of His judgment on unbelievers, God, as it were, throws open the Holy of Holies (where the ark was located; (Ex. 26:33-34; 2 Chron. 5:7) and draws believers into His presence.  That would have been unthinkable in the Old Testament temple, when only the high priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year (Heb. 9:7).” 

            When we look at the Ark of the Covenant we see that this is where the High Priest put the blood on it once a year as seen in the OT and also in the book of Hebrews.  There are two cherubim on the top of the Ark of the Covenant and they look at each other.  Now here is something that I have heard a long time ago and still believe that this could very well be true.  One of the cherubim may in fact represent the wrath of God while the other represents the love of God and when the blood is placed on the ark then God is satisfied that sin has been covered.  Perhaps the Lord Jesus Christ did this after His resurrection to the one in heaven.  I wrote in an August SD the first time that I studied Revelation that I did not believe that there was a temple in heaven, but then added a note saying that I have changed my mind and now believe that there is a temple in heaven.

            MacArthur concludes by writing “But along with the ark in the heavenly temple ‘there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.’  Similar events are associated with God’s majestic, glorious heavenly throne in 4:5.  In 8:5 and 16:17-18 they are associated with judgment.  Heaven is the source of vengeance on unbelievers, as well as covenant blessings for the redeemed.

            “The message of the seventh trumpet is that Jesus Christ is the sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords.  He will one day take the rule of the earth away from the usurper, Satan, and from earth’s petty human rulers.  History is moving inexorably toward its culmination in Christ’s earthly reign.  When He returns, He will bring covenant blessings to the redeemed, but eternal judgment to those who reject Him.

            “In light of that sobering truth, Peter exclaims, ‘What sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness’ (2 Peter 3:11)!”

            I mentioned that looked at my SD on this verse in August of 2005 and after I read it I learned that I truly did not have much to say about this verse as I could not find out from different commentators what this verse meant.  I am thankful for the teaching and preaching ministry of John MacArthur who has made many things clear to me in this wonderful book of Revelation including Revelation11:19.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Trust the Lord to see me through this day of things that I find difficult to do, that God will continue to give me His wonderful grace and mercy to accomplish what He has for me to do today.

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

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “John the Baptist” (John 1:29).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did the children of Israel find twelve wells and seventy palm trees?”  (Hint:  The answer is in Exodus.)

Answer in our next SD.

5/29/2015 8:41 AM