Reading through the Bible in one Year: Galatians 4-6

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Revelation 22:1-5 (NASB95)
¹ Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, ² in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. ³ There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; ⁴ they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. ^[1]

This section of scripture is loaded with metaphors and symbols regarding Christ Jesus.  He is the river of live as indicated by the Psalmist

Psalm 1:1-3 (NASB95)
¹ How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! ² But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. ³ He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NASB95)
⁷ “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord And whose trust is the Lord. ⁸ “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.

John 4:13-14 (NASB95)
¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

John 6:35 (NASB95)
³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

^[2]

In order to have a river, you must have water.  Jesus is the water of life, He told the Samaritan woman that if she came to Him, she would never thirst again.  Jesus is the water of life, He provides the symbolic river that runs pure and clean, so clean that the water is crystal clear.  Imagine water so pure that it looks like glass. 

Genesis 2:16-17 (NASB95)
¹⁶ The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; ¹⁷ but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Ezekiel 47:12 (NASB95)
¹² “By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.”^[3]

The idea behind the tree yielding twelve kinds of fruit is that it is constantly bearing fruit.  Yet where did this tree come from?  This is possibly the tree that was transplanted from earth to heaven; it may be the tree of life from Genesis.  Consider this, originally the tree of good and evil enabled man to die out of disobedience.  Yet through the obedience of Christ Jesus this tree changed its symbol.  Once Jesus died on the cross, redemption from having eaten from the tree was provided.  Therefore the tree took on a different meaning.  Now this tree of good and evil is the ability of man through God's guidance to understand and apply the scriptures to their lives.  This tree originally represented the death of man, now it represents the way that God has interacted with man so that he can understand good and evil.  The fruit of the tree is the fruit that believers produce when they are planted by the streams of God's water, the word, and are living according to God's will.  Jesus paid the penalty for the curse, so now there is only righteousness that comes from the tree.  The salvation story started with a tree, and it ends with a tree.

Ezekiel 47:1-2 (NASB95)
¹ Then he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east. And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar. ² He brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate by way of the gate that faces east. And behold, water was trickling from the south side. ^[4]

Also consider the description of the tree, which comes directly from the description in Ezekiel.  This is where the prophecy of the water flowing under the door of the temple, turning into a stream, then into a river, (Ezekiel 47:1-12).  The fruit of the water is spoken of as healing the nations, the fruit of the tree is considered to be healing to the nations.  When the word of God goes forth, people are healed of their sicknesses, both physical and spiritual.  Yet in the new heaven and new earth, everyone will live in perfect health, drawing their strength from the very throne of God.  Which is exactly what Ezekiel's picture is, the difference is that the water in Ezekiel comes from the altar, in Revelation it comes from the throne of God.

Revelation 2:17 (NASB95)
¹⁷ ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’

Revelation 7:3 (NASB95)
³ saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.”

Zechariah 14:11 (NASB95)
¹¹ People will live in it, and there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security.

Genesis 3:16-19 (NASB95)
¹⁶ To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.” ¹⁷ Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. ¹⁸ “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; ¹⁹ By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

Exodus 33:20 (NASB95)
²⁰ But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” ^[5]

Look at verse three, as believers we are bond-servants of Christ. We will serve Him in heaven just as we serve Him here on earth.  The question regarding the mark of God being on believers foreheads seems to be answered here.  The nations acquired righteousness through Jesus, and we have a new name imprinted on our foreheads.  The curse will be lifted because Satan and everyone who is not written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of eternal fire.  As a matter of fact, the curse is literally reversed by the Lamb of God, it is turned from a curse to a blessing.  The curse is lifted so much that in verse four people will be able to look directly into the face of God and will not suffer harm.

Exodus 34:29 (NASB95)
²⁹ It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him.

Daniel 12:3 (NASB95)
³ “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

John 1:4-5 (NASB95)
⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. ⁵ The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

2 Timothy 2:12 (NASB95)
¹² If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us;

1 John 1:5-7 (NASB95)
⁵ This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; ⁷ but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Revelation 5:10 (NASB95)
¹⁰ “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

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Verse five is also loaded with parallels; we will stand in the light of the Lord, which refers us back to the Gospel and Epistle of John where he describes Jesus.  Those whose names are written in the book of life will also reign with Him forever and ever.  How is that?  More than that, who will they reign over?  I wonder if this is speaking of the entire body of believers being the body of Christ ruling over the universe.  But then, the universe will be re-created at that time, everything having become new.  I suppose that we will have to wait to see what God will have the believers reigning over. 

Revelation 22:6-9 (NASB95)
⁶ And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place. ⁷ “And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.” ⁸ I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. ⁹ But he said to me, “Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God.”^[7]

John received the words of God from the Angel and was so overwhelmed that he bowed down to the angel.  The angel quickly rebuked John, indicating that he should worship God and not the angel.  Look though, Jesus promised that He would be coming soon!  That was a long time ago, it must mean that Jesus is coming much sooner than when John received the prophecy.  I wouldn't be surprised if it is in our lifetime that the end of times starts.  Look at verse 6, the angel indicated that all the prophets and the bond-servants of God have been preaching in order to ready the world for the coming of Christ.  It is the final chapter in the story of redemption.  On that thought, I have heard it said that to study and understand the Bible, you must study it from the first page to the last page, including all the scripture in between.  That is the only way that you can understand God's plan for His people.  If you only study the Old Testament, many of the great blessings of the New Testament will be missed, and vice versa.  Some call this being "full gospel", it makes sense to me.  To understand Revelation is to understand Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, John, Matthew, Thessalonians, and a myriad of other books combined.  The story is a mix of all the books of the Bible, the prophets looked forward to the return of Christ and His reign over the earth.  The Bible looks forward to the time when the curse will be removed and the world will stand righteous before the Father.  Consider this, I hacked through Revelation relatively quickly.  I really didn't go very deep with any of the studies, but focused mainly upon allowing the scripture to interpret scripture.  I'm not trying to pat myself on the back, just pointing out that this book is no different than any other biblical book. 

Revelation 22:10-11 (NASB95)
¹⁰ And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. ¹¹ “Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.”

Daniel 12:10 (NASB95)
¹⁰ “Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.

Ezekiel 3:27 (NASB95)
²⁷ “But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you will say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.^[8]

John was encouraged to write the words of Revelation and to spread it around to the churches.  This prophecy was to be shared so that if at all possible all will come to know Jesus as savior.  Unfortunately, the ones who choose not to follow Christ still will not follow Christ, yet those who are following Christ will be encouraged to keep themselves holy just as God is holy.

Father, as we consider the words of Revelation, and the tremendous truths that wait for us when we get to heaven, place a burning desire in our hearts to live like Your ambassadors today.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

Reading through the Bible in one Year: Luke 11-12

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

We will be closing out the book of Revelation today, tomorrow we will be starting Romans.  I have enjoyed the study in Revelation, it was not as involved as I thought it would be though.  Starting with Romans tomorrow, we will start looking at the nuts and bolts of the Christian life.

Revelation 22:12-13 (NASB95)
¹² “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. ¹³ “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Isaiah 48:12-13 (NASB95)
¹² “Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called; I am He, I am the first, I am also the last. ¹³ “Surely My hand founded the earth, And My right hand spread out the heavens; When I call to them, they stand together.

John 3:36 (NASB95)
³⁶ “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

John 13:7 (NASB95)
⁷ Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.”

John 14:21 (NASB95)
²¹ “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” ^[1]

Jesus is the first and the Last, He is the same God that moved the prophets of old and He is the same God that worked hand in hand with man from the beginning.  The story of the Bible is about Him, Israel is merely a picture for us to understand how God relates to man.  Jesus preached about obedience all the way to the end of the Bible.  This should tell us something, we are certainly not under the law, but we are under commission to practice what we preach.  If we are not putting His words into action, then it is a false religion based upon knowledge and not upon the reality of a change within our hearts.

Revelation 22:14-15 (NASB95)
¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

Revelation 7:14 (NASB95)
¹⁴ I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

John 1:12-13 (NASB95)
¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 10:18 (NASB95)
¹⁸ “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” ^[2]

The one requirement that is required for man to get into heaven is that he must have his robes washed in the blood of the Lamb.  Notice the word "right" it is used a lot in the New Testament, in most places it is translated as "authority", for an example of this, look at the reference from John 10.  That is a very strong word, it conveys the idea of authority, power and of rights.  Jesus paid the price for our sins, by accepting that payment we have the authority to enter heaven and partake of the tree of life.  We have the power to enter into heaven, this is not something to be taken lightly.  Some have stumbled and fallen away from the faith, it is a simple matter of clinging to these promises and claiming victory in life.  Christians often sell themselves short, not really tapping into the power of God because their lives are marked with weakness and ineffectiveness.  Perhaps it is time that we change our thinking, clinging to our right to enter heaven and staking our lives on that truth.  Then acting as if we believe the word by putting the word of God into action in our lives. 

Look at the contrast in verse 15, those who cannot enter the city are the ones who are contrary to the word of God.  This verse seems to reflects back to the present day, because the new heaven and new earth were set up for believers.  Therefore if unbelievers were in the new earth, then it will have sin as a part of it.  John is delivering the message to the present day church that the contrast between believers and unbelievers should be obvious.  Believers who are tapped into Christ Jesus and live according to His will are not going to have their lives described by any of these sins.  Sure, they may stumble and fall, but they will not make a practice of it.  The life of the unbeliever is focused on their lusts, passions and desires, the life of the believer is also described by our passions and desires, the difference is that believers are concerned with Jesus Christ and His life, while unbelievers are tapped into the world.  As human beings our passions and our desires are demonstrated in our lives, the question is whether our lives demonstrate Christianity or do they represent the world?  If our lives are not demonstrating Christ Jesus, is it because we are stumbling, or is it because we have never really come to know him?  

Revelation 22:16-17 (NASB95)
¹⁶ “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” ¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. ^[3]

The first thing that hit me on these two verses is that there is no restrictions for those who wish to come.  Jesus sent the angel, the Spirit, the bride and all believers to beckon to everyone to come.  The invitation is an open one extended to all people and all nations, it is also an invitation which does not have restrictions.  There is no payment, no penalty, the water of life is free to all.

Revelation 22:18-21 (NASB95)
¹⁸ I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; ¹⁹ and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book. ²⁰ He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. ²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

Leviticus 26:14-15 (NASB95)
¹⁴ ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, ¹⁵ if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,

Deuteronomy 4:2 (NASB95)
² “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

Deuteronomy 12:32 (NASB95)
³² “Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it.

Deuteronomy 29:20-21 (NASB95)
²⁰ “The Lord shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹ “Then the Lord will single him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law. ^[4]

The reference in these verses is not a new concept.  It is not a final word for the Bible that if people add to it God will add to them, etc.  It is an echo from the Old Testament where God established that His Law was untouchable.  Today the redemption of man through Jesus Christ is equally untouchable.  The story of Revelation is straight-forward and simple completing, compiling, and verification of the story that God had given the Old Testament prophets.  The story of redemption is also a completion of the Old Testament prophesies along with the completion of the Old Testament law. When God gave John the vision or the opportunity to view the events that took place in Revelation, He did not give John a new revelation, He showed John how all the scriptures that the prophets had written previously were going to work together in order to tell the completed story.

Jesus is coming quickly, in our time frame, we will debate that statement today.  But think about it this way, God changed His mind when He was going to destroy Nineveh and granted them a reprieve.  Perhaps God through His grace has extended man just a little longer, He is still coming quickly.

Father as we consider the closing words of Revelation, thank You for the vision and the opportunity to study how Your word has been consistent from the beginning.  Open our eyes to opportunities to share Your word with others.

In Him,

Joe Turner.