More Judgments (Rev. 14:16-18)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR

09/03/2005

My Worship Time                  Focus:  More Judgment

Bible Reading & Meditation             Reference:  Revelations 14:16-18

            Message of the verse:  “17  After that, another angel came from the Temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.  18  Then another angel, who has power to destroy the world with fire, shouted to the angel with the sickle, ‘Use your sickle now to gather the clusters of grapes from the vines of the earth, for they are fully ripe for judgment.’”

            In this chapter there are six angels involved in either giving out the Gospel or giving out warnings of judgment to come or judgment upon those who have not paid attention to the first angel and heeded his call.

            Verse seventeen describes an angel coming out of the Temple of in heaven carrying another sharp sickle, and then in verse eighteen there is another angel involved in this process of judgment telling the first angel to use his sickle to gather the clusters of grapes from the vines on the earth for these vines are ripe and ready for the harvest.

            Again I can see this principle of Genesis 15:16 here, and that is that God does not bring judgment on those who dwell upon the earth, be it individual people or groups of people or nations, until the time is right.  I believe it can be explained like this:  God has a cup that He stores up His wrath in and when it is full He will then judge, similar to the way that verse eighteen explains it by saying that the grapes from the vines of the earth are fully ripe for judgment.  Once again this wrath of God is not a get even type of wrath, but God’s wrath is planed and because part of His character is being just then He must bring wrath upon sinful people who have not accepted the Way He has provided Salvation for all men.  I do not believe that God is standing in heaven cheering as His wrath is given out on the earth, on the other hand I believe that He is greatly saddened.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I seem to be getting hold of what the wrath of God is all about as I have studied it from the wonderful book of Revelations, and if I would have understood it better when our children were home then I could have been a better parent to them.  As stated above God does not enjoy executing His wrath, but because He is just then He must do it.  As I think about what Peter writes about concerning that God will judge His Church before He judges the people outside His Church then I must continually have the fear of God in my life.  As I look at the things unfolding in New Orleans and how some of those who live there seemed to be enjoying looting the stores and getting into trouble in other ways it can be easily seen that they have no fear of the Lord, and that seems to be a big problem in the Church today too.  Part of fearing God for the believer is to realize that God will judge sin, He has to because He is just.  In the believers life it could be called discipline because believers are in the family of God and because God loves His own so much He will not let them live in sin but disciplines them to make them better.

The Word of God was very challenging to my heart as I read it this morning.

My Steps of Faith Today:  To live my life in such a way that I have a better understanding of the fear of the Lord and act like it.

Memory verses for the week:                Psalm 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation; who shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?