Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify Him.
Revelation 16:8-9
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Once each of the seven angels began to pour out their respective bowls of God’s final wrath and judgment on the earth and the unbelievers who lived on it, it was obvious that it couldn’t get much worse.
First, all those who chose to reject God, those whose names were not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life were covered with “ugly, festering sores” as the first bowl was spilled out (Revelation 16:2).
Then, after bowls two and three were poured out, all water on earth, whether ocean or river or spring, was turned to blood, leaving nothing else to drink or bathe in. This was payback for all the persecution and killing of Christians by those who chose to worship the beast, an emissary of Satan, and were marked through this allegiance (Vv. 3-7).
These were terrifying and horrific experiences as God’s power to bring punishment were on full display and the bad news for the unbelievers of the earth was that there were still four more bowls to be poured and number four was about to bring the worst yet. Let’s look at verses 8 and 9 of this chapter:
The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify Him.
We know that God has created everything in Heaven and on earth. In regard to space, He has placed everything in a perfect place to include the planets and the stars. This includes the placement of the earth in proximity to the sun that provides warmth and important special light that helps things grow.
If the sun was too away from the earth, it would be a polar wasteland, unable to support life, and if it was too close, no living thing could go without being utterly incinerated. And so every day, we should take time to give thanks for God’s grand design and how He has put everything in place so that we can live and survive.
Today’s passage serves as a reminder that the God who placed all the planets in orbit has the power to alter these entities. In this case, the fourth bowl of wrath is poured out by its angel “on the sun” and this unleashes an increased intensity of solar power on the earth. The scriptures tell us that all the unbelievers were scorched with fire and “seared by the intense heat”.
When I read that word “seared”, it drew my attention to when I cook a steak or other meat. Usually, I first place whatever I am cooking in the skillet at a high heat and the meat is darkened or seared on its surface before I place it in the oven to bake. The action is supposed to seal in the juices of the meat as it cooks.
Here, we’re not talking about meat searing but human flesh and the mere thought is totally scary and incredibly painful, and you would think that this fourth judgment imposed by God would bring every single non-believer to their knees, changing their allegiance to Him and His Son Jesus, but as we see, that didn’t happen.
...they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify Him.
When the first bowl of wrath was poured and the unbelievers were afflicted by the torturous sores over their bodies, I mentioned in that message how the penalty reminded me of what happened to Job in the book that bears his name. The big difference was that God didn’t make Job suffer out of punishment but rather testing.
Here, as we look at the aftermath of the fourth bowl, we can see another contrast between the Job story and this judgment on the unbelievers at the close of the Great Tribulation period. For while Job refused to curse God despite the misery and anguish he experienced, we see where the unbelievers on earth didn’t hesitate to curse “the name of God” over being scorched by the sun’s rays, a plague He authorized and controlled. And if they cursed God, you know how much they were under the control of Satan, the evil one who would have convinced them to do such a thing.
And so the unbelievers on earth turned further away from God, refusing to “repent and glorify Him. In other words, they just invited the next three judgments to come and tomorrow, we will look at the events triggered when the fifth bowl is emptied.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment