Keeping

 

Read.

Hear.

Keep.

 

We read, we understand, but do we keep?

 

I don't know about most people, I can only speak from my own personal experience, but I don't remember a lot of the stuff I was made to learn in school. Remember having test after test, after test on so many different things? History, science, math, geography, and so on.  We remember being taught to read and write, don't we? And we've been able to keep this knowledge. We remember our basic math and basic science. We also have a rudimentary knowledge of history, geography and such. Do we have the details though? I remember at one point learning all the state capitols, today, I don't remember them. I remember being taught basic algebra and such, I have difficulty with recalling that. Do I know the periodic table I was told to memorize? No. This knowledge, and a lot of the knowledge I was given has gone into the dark, dark recess of my mind- I didn't keep the knowledge I let it slip away.  I didn't use the knowledge and through lack of use it was allowed to disappear.

 

A lot of us have a basic knowledge of the Bible, but beyond the basics do we know details? Do we really seek the truth of prophecies or are we content to take fanciful theories not based on a thorough exegetically study of the Word of God? Do we listen to our church teachers, our leaders and neglect combing through history books not connected to our religion? Do we take history and then the word of God and align them as God reveals? 

I know I take a lot from learned scholars, but in doing so I have also gone to the history books myself. I have gone to the library- and not just online, this was even before online existed (I'm old), and studied from texts of history to prove what I was reading wasn't the word of man storytelling to fit their own agendas.  These Biblical scholars have delved deeply into history and it shows in their work.  Each of us is accountable for the truth we are given by the Holy Spirit, we can only pray we are not deceived, pray fervently not to be duped by those seemingly God-fearing men and women that are in truth the servants of Satan- deceived themselves.

 

I need to keep reading, hearing and studying all this so I may- KEEP it as I am told to do by the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

God help us all!

 

Continuing with our studies of Revelation-- 

 

Rev 10:8  And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.

 

The voice from heaven which told John not to write what the seven thunders uttered, spoke again. He told Him to take the little book which is opened in the hand of the angel standing upon the sea and earth. John is taking something from an angel, very interesting.

 

Rev 10:9  And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

Rev 10:10  And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

Rev 10:11  And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

 

The little book is open. Was there ever a little book closed?

 

Daniel {12:9} And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words [are] closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

 

Now a little book is opened.

 

John is to take this little open book and eat it. Eat it? Who eats books? Seriously? If I devour a book I'm reading it with enthusiasm. We've discussed this before recently, the book of Daniel- a book of prophecy was to be sealed to the time of the end. Now here in Revelation John is being given prophecy and in this particular prophecy he is shown an amazing angel who has this little open book and he's instructed to eat it. After eating it his belly would be bitter even though the book tasted sweet.

 

In the 1800's there was a religious revival that was unprecedented, as the book of Daniel and Revelation were studied and enlightenment seemed to descend upon people. History fit together with the prophecies and this particular prophecy in Daniel talked of 2300 days. The end of that 2300 day would be in 1844. So people began to believe that Christ would return then. They believed it so thoroughly their lives revolved around the predicted second coming of Christ- it was sweet, so sweet to have such understanding! Then when Christ didn't come as they believed the bitterness was vile in their bellies. There was more to be done. This was the beginning of the end so to speak. There had to be more prophesying, a lot more, and where were John's thoughts directed?

 

Rev 11:1  And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.

Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

 

The temple of God! The wonder of the Sanctuary and its services. If after 2300 years the Sanctuary was to be cleansed and that didn't mean Christ's returning it surely meant something momentous.

 

A study of the Sanctuary services revealed the typified day of Atonement, the day the Sanctuary was CLEANSED. The High Priest had to enter the Most Holy Place, a place so sacred it was only entered once a year on this day. So in heaven it's safe to believe that Christ entered in the Most Holy Place, the most sacred of places to finish the cleansing. Once that cleansing is complete then Christ will return again- we live in that cleansing time.

 

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Again I'm going to defer to the Book of Daniel and Revelation for a more intellectual explanation of things.

 

(Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith) --

 

By this message, our attention has been called to the temple above, and through it the light and truth on this subject has come out. Thus we measure the temple and the altar, or the ministration connected with the temple, the work and the position of our great High Priest; and we measure the worshipers with that part of the rod which relates to character, the ten commandments.

 

"The court which is without the temple leave out." This must be interpreted to mean that the attention of the church is now directed to the inner temple and the service there. Matters pertaining to the court are of less consequence now. It is given to the Gentiles. That the court refers to this earth is proved thus: The court is the place where the victims were slain whose blood was to be ministered in the sanctuary. The antitypical victim must die in the antitypical court, and He died on Calvary in Judea. The Gentiles being thus introduced, the attention of the prophet is directed to the great feature of Gentile apostasy, the treading down of the holy city forty and two months during that time. Thus we are carried back into the past by an easy and natural transition, and our attention is called to a new series of events.

 

Verse 3 And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

The period of "a thousand two hundred and three score days" is variously referred to in the Scriptures. It appears in three forms:

As 1260 days in this verse and Revelation 12: 6.

As 42 months in Revelation 11: 2 and 13: 5.

As 3 1/2 times in Daniel 7: 25 and 12: 7, and Revelation 12: 14.

 

These all refer to the same period and can be easily be calculated. A time is a year, as is evident from Daniel 11: 13, marginal reading. A year has twelve months, and a Biblical month contains thirty days. Thus we have the following:

1 year of 12 months at 30 days - - - - 360 days

3 1/2 years, or times, of 360 days - - - - 1260 days

42 months of 30 days - - - - - - - - 1260 days

 

A year made up of 12 months will be readily conceded, but that the month has 30 days needs perhaps to be demonstrated. This can readily be seen by referring to the record of the flood in Genesis 7 and 8. There we learn the following:

 

1. That the flood came on the seventeenth day of the second month. (Genesis 7: 11.)

2. That the waters subsided on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. (Genesis 8: 4.)

3. That the flood continued for five months--from the second to the seventh month.

Reference to Genesis 7: 24 reveals the fact that "the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days." Our calculation showed five months. This text mentions 150 days; hence we have five months equaling 150 days, or 30 days to a month.

Thus we have a definite measure for calculating the prophetic periods, bearing in mind that in prophecy a day is equal to a year of ordinary time.

 

The Two Witnesses.--During this time of 1260 years the witnesses are in a state of sackcloth, or obscurity, and God gives them power to endure and maintain their testimony through that dark and dismal period. But who or what are these witnesses?

 

Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

 

Evident allusion is here made to Zechariah 4: 11-14, where it is implied that the two olive trees are taken to represent the word of God.

 

Zec 4:11  Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?

Zec 4:12  And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?

Zec 4:13  And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

Zec 4:14  Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

 

David testifies, "The entrance of Thy words giveth light;" and, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Psalm 119: 130, 105.

 

Written testimony is stronger than oral. Jesus declared of the Old Testament Scriptures, "They are they which testify of Me." John 5: 39.

 

Says George Croly: "The 'Two Witnesses' are the Old and New Testaments. . . . The essential purpose of the Scriptures is to give witness to the mercy and verity of God. Our Lord commands, 'Search the Scriptures, . . . they are they which testify [bear witness] of Me.' This was addressed to the Jews, and described the character and office of the Old Testament. The New Testament is similarly pronounced the giver of testimony. 'This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.' (Matthew 24: 14.)" [1]

 

These declarations and considerations are sufficient to sustain the conclusion that the Old and New Testaments are Christ's two witnesses.

*******

IT MAKES SENSE!  So many are now looking for two men to come to earth and make their stand on behalf of God-  we've seen it in movies, we've read it in books -Left Behind and others. People are allowing themselves to be deceived so they will be waiting for things that will NEVER happen and as long as they are waiting for those things they are not fully prepared for the coming of our Lord and Savior! Deception comes in so many forms, I pray to God we are NOT deceived! That we are prepared for our Lord's return!  We don't want to watch the deceptions come to pass to further the deceiving, do we? We want to hold fast to the truth even when everything around us is caught up in deception. Being in the minority, seemingly standing alone when all around us are deceived this is the fate of many of God's people throughout Biblical history- please, Lord, if we must seemingly stand alone let us remember that YOU are always with us, always!

 

All through Your grace- may we continue our study tomorrow. Help us to read, hear and keep!