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
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