Lesson
one: If we get into the word of God every day, we will discover new treasures
in God's word every day. While there are rare times that health and
overwhelming circumstances keep us from that time with God, too many people
have seen that their time in the word has been rewarded with fresh and deeper
understandings of God and his word for us to allow anything to mess with our
time in the quarry, so to speak.
Lesson
two: After first reading Revelation 6 on Monday, and seeing it as an overview
of things that will happen throughout the course of history, today I spent time
meditating on the paragraph that describes the first of the seven seals. My
conclusion is that there is not enough information for us to create an
interpretation that ties this in to a specific figure at a specific time in a
specific place. The seal is symbolic, the first living creature is symbolic,
and the rider and his white horse are symbolic.
Lesson
three: The characteristic of this rider on the white horse is that "he came out conquering, and to
conquer".[5]
Throughout history, we will see one power conquering another. We will not see a
world at peace. Since we have had over 19 centuries of history unfold before
us, we can see that this characteristic of one nation conquering another has
certainly been carried out repeatedly, and continues in our present time with
many stories of one group seeking to conquer another.
Lesson
four: The Church is not to look to the world as our home, expecting some kind
of world peace that accepts the church. The world around us will always be at
war. Jesus told us to expect "wars
and rumors of wars".[6] He
said that, "nation will rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom".[7]
The figure of the rider of the white horse puts into our mind something that is
easy to remember, that history will see this figure in many different
expressions, all with the same characteristic of one people seeking to conquer
another.
What
do we do with this? We focus on Jesus' promise that, "the one who endures to the end will be saved".[8]
Our endurance includes accepting that the church will go through these seasons
of one person or nation conquering another, and we will be able to endure to
the end even in such miserable world events. “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”[9]
At
the very least, we can say that the book of Revelation in general, and each of
these seven seals in particular, are breathed out by God for the building up of
our faith so that we will endure until the end no matter who is trying to
conquer whom. While the world is busy strategizing who is king of the sandcastle,
the church can carry on as the ones who are "more
than conquerors through him who loved us”.[10]
Not even these conquering figures can stop the church that Jesus is building on
the rock.[11]
From
my heart,
Monte
[1] “In
their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to
keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God.”
(II Corinthians 4:4)
[2] “And we impart this in
words not taught by human wisdom
but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” (I Corinthians 2:13)
[3] II Timothy 3:16-17
[4] Revelation 1:3
[5] Revelation 6:2
[6] Matthew 24:6
[7] Matthew 24:7
[8] Matthew 24:13
[9] I John 5:4
[10] Romans 8:37
[11] “…and on this rock I
will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it.” (Matthew 16:18)
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