Tag Archives: bsf lesson 24

BSF Study Questions Revelation Lesson 24, Day 5: Revelation 19:17-21

Summary of passage:  An angel calls together all the carrion birds to feast on the flesh of the defeated enemies of Jesus.  The beast and the kings of the earth and their armies made war against Christ and his followers.  The beast and the false prophet were captured and thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur.  All their followers were killed and the birds gorged on their flesh.

Questions:

12)  They die and become a feast for the birds.

13)  Any other religion outside of Christianity.  Deluded by the ways of the world.

14)  Personal Question.  My answer:  Not sure if it does.  I know I’m on the winning side.  I live my life the best God wants me to.  I tell others about God and pray about them but ultimately it’s up to their Free Will and God if they turn.  I don’t worry about it and try not to worry about anything.  God has it all!

Conclusions:  No words needed.

We’ve see “how will you live differently questions” so much I have no new answers.  Lesson 24 Day 4, Lesson 14 Day 2  Lesson 11 Day 5

End Notes:  Graphic end to Christ’s enemies.  Ezekiel 39 prophesied this as Gog and Magog which we’ll see in Revelation 20.

The angel is brighter than the sun since he’s standing before the sun.  This is reflective of God’s glory.

Note the repetition of “flesh” 5 times.  This shows how the flesh is to be let go when God arrives and how all in the flesh will be judged.

There are four different suppers in the Bible:

1)  The supper of salvation, alluded to in Jesus’ parable (Luke 14:16-24)
2)  The Lord’s supper, a commemoration of Jesus’ sacrifice
3)  The marriage supper of the Lamb  (Revelation 19:9)
4)  The supper of the great God (Revelation 19:17)

Everyone will attend at least one of these suppers.  But will you be one of those eating or be one eaten?

We saw the inhabitants of the earth gather in Revelation 16:14.

Some ask:  who would be stupid enough to gather together and battle Jesus?  Well, we can never underestimate man’s hatred of God.  After all, we did murder Jesus on the cross–Emmanual incarnate.  Some scholars say the armies were gathered together to fight each other and then Christ arrives.  You make the call here.  Remember:  the End Times will be chaotic.  One horrible judgment after another.  In times of chaos, man does stupid things as panic and the fight for survival thrive.

Note:  THERE IS NO BATTLE.  Judgment is immediate.  Christ uses his sword (the Word) and it is finished.  He is the victor.

Lake of eternal fire is eternal punishment and torment (Revelation 20:10), also what we consider hell.  Note how the beast (Satan) and the false prophet are thrown alive into the lake of fire BEFORE the Great White Throne of judgment holds court (Revelation 20:11-15).  Their fate is doomed from the beginning.

Conclusions to Revelation 19:  We make ready for Christ’s return and Christ wins.  We want to be on the winning side and prepared.

Conclusions to Lesson 24:  We saw “you” or “your” a whooping 10 times this lesson and this doesn’t include Days 1 & 6.  Weak and repetitious.

BSF Study Questions Revelation Lesson 24, Day 4: Revelation 19:11-16

Summary of passage:  John now sees a white horse with a rider called Faithful and True in heaven.  He wears a robe of blood, has blazing eyes, and wears crowns. His name is the Word of God.  He is followed by an army of heaven.  Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword to strike down the nations and on his robe and thigh is written “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”

Questions:

9)  Jesus.  It all starts with God/Jesus and ends with Him.  He is the bearer of Truth and He is faithful to His promises.

Note:  Revelation 3:14 is Jesus speaking, calling himself “the faithful and true witness”.

10)  Personal Question.  My answer:  His robe is dipped in blood shows how he has sacrificed for me to be righteous before God and how he brings justice.

11)  Personal Question.  My answer:  This question should be in the present tense in my opinion.  We are called to be Faithful and True to God and His word and if I do that, I’ll lead a life worthy of God’s calling.

Conclusions:  Weak.  Very, very weak.  With so much imagery here, this is the best BSF can come up with?

End Notes:  This is Jesus’s Second Coming.  Zechariah 14:3-4 tells us when Jesus returns He will come first to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.  This answers the plea of Isaiah in 64:1-2 as well as the great multitude and the survivors of the Great Tribulation where Israel as a whole will turn to Jesus.

A horse in battle was rare in ancient times.  Only the officers rode horses.  Hence, we see Jesus as powerful and full of honor.  Probably not the same horse as in Revelation 6:2.

In Revelation 6:2 we see white as victory.  In Revelation 7:9, we see the multitude wearing white robes symbolizing victory because of their faithfulness.

The rider is no doubt Christ from all the Messianic references in this passage.

In Revelation 1:14 and 2:18 we saw eyes as flames of fire in the description of Christ.  The fire burns through to our soul, revealing all of our dirty secrets, lies, and deceit.

This is a different crown word here than before.  There are two Greek words used in the Revelation for “crown.” One is “Stephanos” is the crown of achievement used in connection with the Church (Rev.2:10; 3:11), the twenty-four elders (Rev.4:4, 10), Israel (Rev.12:1), Jesus Christ (Rev.14:14), the locust-demons (Rev.9:7), and the Antichrist (Rev.6:2).  The other is “diadema”, which is the crown of royalty and authority.  It’s used in connection with seven worldly kingdoms and the ten yet-future kings that make up the heads and horns of the image of the beast (Rev.12:3; 13:1).
In this case, Jesus is wearing many “diadems” at His Return which are the crowns associated with the kingdoms of man.  Some scholars believe Jesus is wearing the beast’s crowns as a sign of victory over the beast.  Others suggest the crown shows Jesus as triumphant over man and the whole earth and its inhabitants.

The war is a war of righteousness from verse 11.

We saw the sharp sword coming out of Christ’s mouth in Revelation 1:16.  This is of course the Word, not a literal sword.  We see the robe dipped in blood in Isaiah 63:1-6 and scholars debate whether it’s the blood of his enemies or His blood shed for our sins.  Either is quite possible.  He is going to strike down the nations and rule with an iron scepter comes from Psalm 2:9 and Isaiah 11:4.  Treading the winepress of the fury of God we saw in Revelation 14:17-20.

Note the location Christ’s name is written:  his thigh.  We saw this in Genesis 24:2,9; 47:29 as the location where oaths were made.  It will be easily visible to all.  Some scholars suggest the name no one knows is in fact Yahweh.

This is the beginning of the final battle–Armageddon.  The armies are believers (Jude 14-15; Revelation 17:14).  Angels will also accompany Christ as well (Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalm 68:17).  Their weapon is the fine linen they wear–the blood of Christ.  All we need for victory!

BSF Study Questions Revelation Lesson 24, Day 3: Revelation 19:6-10

Summary of passage:  John heard what sounded like a great multitude, rushing waters, and loud peals of thunder, rejoicing in God for the Lamb’s wedding.  The angel told John to write God’s true words, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”.  John started to worship the angel who chastised him and said only God is worthy of worship.

Questions:

6a)  The time where God is about to fulfill His promises to mankind here on earth, establish His kingdom, and have believers reign eternally by His side.  The imagery of a wedding is used to express the intimate relationship between God and His people (the bride).  See End Notes for more.

b)  Ephesians 5:25-33:  Christ loved the church that he gave himself up for her to be holy by the washing with water through the word, making the church holy and blameless.

2 Corinthians 11:2:  The church is promised to Christ as pure.

John 14:15-21:  Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us and be with us forever.

John 15:9-17:  Jesus loves us as the Father loves him to the point he gave his life for us.  We are to love each other in the same way.

7)  Believers or the Church.

8 )  Personal Question.  My answer:  That only God is worthy of worship as man is equal to angels.  Don’t worship the messenger; worship the source.  Praise God more for all His goodness.

Conclusions:  The most poignant lesson out of this is John’s mistake of worshiping the angel, the messenger, instead of God, the master.  John who has seen all these visions of God and been spoken to by God’s messengers and walked with Jesus should have an insanely close relationship with God and yet, here he is, making a grave mistake and is rebuked for it.  How human!  Shows how we all make mistakes, God corrects us and loves us through our mistakes, and then He still invites us in.

Another lesson from this is we need to be careful we don’t worship the messenger either (people, pastors, false prophets, etc–especially in the End Times).

End Notes:  The sound John heard would be enormous.  So many praising God.  How awesome!

In the Old Testament, Israel is presented as God’s wife (Hosea 2:19-20, Isaiah 54:5, Ezekiel 16).

In the New Testament, marriage is frequently used to describe the union between the church and Christ.  Matthew 22:1-14 is where we also see believers as Christ’s bride.

The bride has made herself ready is how Christians are cleansed by the blood of Christ so we can be pure by wearing fine linen when we appear before God.  Scholars point out how the bride or the people of God have also resisted the beast and remained true to God and thus are ready.

Clean (katharos) reflects purity, loyalty and faithfulness, the character of the New Jerusalem.  Bright (lampros) is the color of radiant whiteness that depicts glorification.

The fine linen is our good works of which we were created for.

The marriage supper in ancient times was when guests were invited to celebrate the betrothal of the bride and groom before the actual wedding.  There is a period of time between the two which is where earth is now.  Believers are awaiting Jesus’ return to take us to heaven and complete the marriage.  We are betrothed but waiting.  The feast itself was the party of the year.  It was a huge celebration and all were expected to attend. (Matthew 8:11; Luke 14:15; 22:16).

We see the Fourth Beatitude in this reading:  Revelation 19:9

Why does John fall in worship at the angel’s feet?  Surely he knows only God is worthy of worship.  Two possible reasons:  1)  He is so overcome by this scene of God’s consummation of His plan that he forgets himself.  2)  He believes the angel to be God or Jesus.

Interestingly, John will make this same mistake again in Revelation 22:8-9.

Prophecy always relates back to Jesus since we are all awaiting Jesus’ return.  His testimony is what we are called to speak.  Prophecy is about Jesus.  Period.

BSF Study Questions Revelation Lesson 24, Day 2: Revelation 19:1-5

Summary of passage:  Nothing new here.  The roar of the great multitude praised God’s glory and power and salvation and His just judgments against the great prostitute.  The servants’ blood has been avenged by the burning city and the 24 elders and 4 living creatures fell down and worshiped God.

Questions:

3)  Part personal Question.  My answer:  Salvation, glory, and power.  Salvation means eternal life with God.  Glory is God’s amazing holiness and justice.  Power is God’s control over the universe.

4)  Personal Question.  My answer:  God’s justice, truth, power, glory, and salvation.  Salvation for I am forgiven and promised a place in heaven by God’s side for all of eternity.

We’ve been asked about God’s attributes as well before:  Lesson 2 Day 4, Lesson 14 Day 3

5a)  Salvation, justice, and permanence (the city of Babylon has been destroyed and it will never rise again).

b)  Personal Question.  My answer:  We’ve been asked this before (Lesson 2 Day 4, Lesson 3 Day 5, Lesson 9 Day 2 & Day 5, Lesson 10 Day 5, Lesson 14 Day 3, Lesson 16 Day 4 .  It doesn’t do either of those listed.  My worship stays the same.

Conclusions:  All personal application questions.  Like I said in my summary, no new information here.  It’s a repetition of what we’ve just seen in heaven.  John is summarizing.  This day’s questions should have been combined with the third day’s.  Weak lesson.

End Notes:  In Revelation 18 the inhabitants of the world mourned Babylon’s fall.  Here, God’s people celebrate it.  We see heaven rejoicing throughout the book of Revelation for Christ’s return and God’s culmination of His plan for mankind happening or about to happen (Revelation 4, 5, 7, 11, 15, 16).

We saw the great multitude in Revelation 7:9-14 who came out of the great tribulation.  It was in Revelation 6:10 where the martyred saints cried out for justice and here we see that prayer answered.  Revelation 4 is where we met the 24 elders and the 4 living creatures.

Fun Fact:  Hallelujah appears 4 times here in Revelation 19 but no where else in the New Testament.  Hallelujah is a two-word transliteration of the Hebrew phrase for “Praise the Lord”.  It is found 24 times in the book of Psalm.

In verse 5 the “voice from the throne” could be Jesus but more likely is one of the attending angels at God’s throne.  The words the voice speaks is from Psalm 113:1; 115:13.

Similar language in terms of speaking of the End Times judgement:  Isaiah 34:10 and Deuteronomy 32:43.

BSF Study Questions The Life of Moses Lesson 24, Day 5: Numbers 25:6-18

Summary of passage:  An Israelite man brought a Midianite woman to the Tent of Meeting.  Phinehas, son of Eleazar, drove them through with a spear.  The plague against the Israelites stopped but 24,000 died.  God made a lasting covenant of priesthood with Phinehas because he was zealous for God’s honor and made atonement for the people.  The leader of the Simeonite family was killed and now God told the Israelites to treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them for their deception.

Questions:

10a)  Phinehas was jealous for God’s honor and the killing shed blood to atone for the Israelites’ sins.  Furthermore, Phinehas was just as jealous for God’s honor as God is jealous for His honor, showing how much Phinehas has a heart for God.

b)  Personal Question.  My answer:  Defend Him when blasphemied.  Tolerate no sin around you and say something when others are committing blatant sins against Him.  Be Godly yourself.

11a)  Balaam is credited with giving the Midianites the idea to entice/defeat the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.

[See also Numbers 31:16]

b)  Balaam was killed along with the five kings of Midian shortly after his blessings of the Israelites.  He is remembered as a lover of “wages of wickedness” according to Peter.  He is remembered as greedy and motivated by money–an unbeliever out for himself.

12a)  Personal Question.  My answer:  God cannot tolerate sin nor be near sin.  His honor matters and He rewards those who defend Him here on earth.  He punishes justly and gives all a chance to turn to Him.

b)  Personal Question.  My answer:  To be holy.  To maintain it.  To honor and defend it.

Conclusions:  Question 12 is a filler.  It’s nice to see Balaam being punished for his misdeeds. So often in this world we don’t see sin being punished.  We just have to trust the sinners will be handled by God in heaven.  Still, God is a just God and incidents like this renew our faith that He is in control and consequences will be paid.

End Notes:  Scholars believe Zimri was having sex with Cozbi right in front of the tabernacle, which would make sense to solicit such a reaction from Phinehas.

This one act stopped the plague–an encouragement to us who think sometimes what we do doesn’t matter.

Phinehas had the zeal of God and was ensured he would be the line of the priesthood out of Eleazar’s sons.

Now the Midianites are an enemy of God after they had attacked God’s people first.  God’s anger is burning against them and He orders them to be destroyed.  Good lesson not to mess with God and His people!

BSF Study Questions The Life of Moses Lesson 24, Day 4: Numbers 25:1-5

Summary of passage:  While Israel camped, the men engaged in sexual immorality with Moabite women.  The Israelites joined them in worshipping false gods and God’s anger burned.  The Lord ordered those who engaged in false god worship killed.

Questions:

8a)  To indulge in sexual immorality with pagan women and join them in worshipping false gods, breaking two of the ten commandments and the law against being with unbelievers.

b)  Personal Question.  My answer:  The consequences of that sin.

c)  Personal Question.  My answer:  Not sure here.  I didn’t worship any false gods.  I did worship God.  He continues to provide for my every need in every way always.

9)  The people are about to cross over into the Promised Land.  They need to be godly people and fulfill God’s will and desire for them to be separate and a standard to look up to.  Plus, everything is going well for the Israelites.  Their enemies are afraid.  God just blessed them through Balaam.  Now, one of the oldest tricks in the book, sexual sin, is threatening to take down the Israelites.  God must stop this now.  It must be made clear to the Israelites that this sin is unacceptable.  As most of us know, sin and especially sexual sin, only leads to more sin.  And sin God will not tolerate.

Conclusions:  I liked this in how we see the devil never giving up in trying to take down God’s people.  I like how God answers:  swiftly and severely.  I didn’t like the personal questions at all.  They took the wind out of this passage for me as I paused and had to deliberate.  This passage speaks for itself and sometimes I think the passage gets lost when we try to inject ourselves and our experiences.  Instead of being about God’s word, it’s about us.  History is history and yes we learn from history, but facts are facts.

Example:  John F Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald for no other reason than for evil purposes and to gain notoriety.  In all the history books I’ve read about this historical event, not one has asked me about myself personally or how I applied his death to my life.  It was a tragic event as history both past and present are full of tragic events.  This will never change because man himself never changes.  Deep down we are sinners.  The devil grabs a hold of some people and never lets go despite God’s word.  Deep down we are all capable of murder.  Deep down we are undeserving of God’s mercy.  Deep down we are evil.

Point being:  not everything applies to us personally.  We all know if you do evil, you will face consequences either here on earth or in heaven.  We all know (even unbelievers) deep down who we should worship and who we shouldn’t worship.  We all know as Balaam discovered we will either be blessed or cursed by our decisions.

I am utterly frustrated here with the broad generalizations that are so broad (not even sexual sin is pinpointed here) that I am left with a headache in trying to figure out how to narrow it down.

End Notes:  In some Bible translations you will see Midianites instead of Moabites here. They are indeed separate peoples who at the time were living in the same general area.

We’ve seen Baal before, a constant threat to the Israelites as he was a popular fertility god that promoted sexual sin.

Note how Balak could not curse the Israelites but God can and does–because of disobedience. We ourselves bring upon our own destruction, not others.

Balaam is credited with suggesting this idea of sending in women to seduce the men (Numbers 31:16; Revelation 2:14).  However, he didn’t live very long (Numbers 31:7-8).  God’s judgment was swift upon him.

Map of Shittim:  http://www.jesuswalk.com/moses/maps/map-shittim-peor-topo-750x356x300.jpg

This map shows just how close the Israelites are to the Promised Land and God is taking no chances in His plans being thwarted now:  http://www.bibletrack.com/notes/image/Jericho.jpg

BSF Study Questions The Life of Moses Lesson 24, Day 3: Numbers 23-24

Summary of passage:  Numbers 23:  Balaam builds 7 altars and prepares 7 sacrifices.  He speaks with the Lord who puts words in his mouth, blessing the Israelites instead of cursing them.  Again, Balak brings Balaam to a different spot to curse the Israelites.  God again puts words in Balaam’s mouth, saying He is with His people who will devour those who oppose them.  Balak, not giving up his quest to curse the Israelites, drags Balaam to a third location in Peor and builds 7 more altars and offers 7 more sacrifices.

Numbers 24:  Balaam, now at his third location, finally realizes God will not curse his people.  As a result, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him and he utters more blessings upon Israel:  they will live abundantly, their king and kingdom will be exalted, and they will devour hostile nations.

Balak, angry at the three blessings instead of the three curses, sends Balaam away with no riches.  Balaam reminds Balak that he told him he would only speak God’s words and then he utters a prophecy against Moab, telling Balak that Israel will crush them along with Edom and Seir.  Salaam utters more oracles:  Amalek will be ruined along with the Kenites, assure, and Eber.

Questions:

5)  First Oracle:  Numbers 23:7-10:  God tells Balak that He cannot curse the Israelites for He has set them apart.

Second Oracle:  Numbers 23:18-24:  God tells Balak that He will not change his mind, that He the Lord is with them, that He brought them out of Egypt, and that the people shall rise like a lion and devour their victims.

Third Oracle:  Numbers 24:3-9:  Balaam utters more blessings upon Israel: they will live abundantly, their king and kingdom will be exalted, and they will devour hostile nations.

Fourth Oracle:  Numbers 24:15-19:  Balaam tells Balak that Moab, Edom, and Seir will all be crushed by Israel.

Final Three Oracles:  Numbers 24:20-24:  Balaam says that Amalek, the Kenites, Asshur, and Eber all will come to ruin.

6a)  He is taking Balaam to different places in order to physically see the Israelites and in a vain effort to find a place where God may curse His own people.  Balak strikes me as a man who doesn’t give up easily.

b)  Personal Question.  My answer:  Nothing lately but usually when I do this I don’t like the answer the first person gave me so I go to another person hoping they will give me answer–and it’s usually the answer I want to hear, not a different one.  I haven’t done this in quite some time.  I think I’ve learned my lesson from doing this.  I ask God and my husband.  That’s about it.

7)  Personal Question.  My answer:  Balaam is a pleaser.  He takes the path of less resistance and finally bows to God’s will only because he realizes he is defeated and is out for own self-preservation.

Conclusions:  Surprisingly, I liked this lesson.  It was fun to watch God have fun with Balaam, uttering blessings instead of curses each time.  You can almost see the frustration on Balaam’s face, knowing with each utterance he was getting less and less of an earthly reward.

It was fun to watch Balak be frustrated and to see him moving Balaam from place to place as if that would make God change his mind.  It is very comical, and you can almost see God from up above laughing at them!  I like to think God has a sense of humor like his creation, man, does.

End Notes:  Numbers 23:  Oracle means prophecy.  We tend to think of oracles as false prophets as the word was popularized by the Greeks who uses oracles to tell the future as indeed this is the first definition of the word in Webster’s Dictionary:  “a person (as a priestess of ancient Greece) through whom a deity is believed to speak.”  Another definition:  “an answer or decision given by an oracle.”

Interestingly, this is a latin word meaning “to speak.”  Well, the Greeks didn’t speak Latin so they themselves didn’t use the word “oracle”.  As most Bibles were written down in the Middle Ages which used Latin as the language of writing, this word is not all that old.  In my opinion, this is not a great translation here and prophecy would be better (which by the way is a Greek word meaning “the inspired declaration of divine will and purpose”) which fits here much better as indeed some bible translations use the word prophecy and not oracle.

Here we see God speaking through Balaam, obviously not a godly-man.  But God uses all for His purposes.

Note how Balaam would like “to die the death of the righteous” but not live like the righteous.  He wants the good life but not the work that goes along with the good life.

Both men are exasperated!  Balak wants a curse and Balaam wants money but neither gets what they want for God is in charge here.

God educates Balak about who he is dealing with and who His people are and that Balak has no chance against them.

Wild ox here is translated different ways:  unicorn, ox, rhinoceros, or goat.  The Hebrew word here which occurs 9 times in the Old Testament (twice in our readings–24:8) means one horn.

Balak is frustrated, saying at least don’t bless them if you won’t curse them!  Funny how God works.

Numbers 24:  Three times Balak offered up rams and bulls in an effort to have the Israelites cursed.  This would have been quite the expense at the time.

We see that Balaam did try to evoke sorcery  (24:1) to curse the Israelites, but it didn’t work so seemingly he gave it up.  Hence, Balaam and Balak are cursed by God in the third oracle.

The oracles are progressive:  first, Balak does not receive a curse, next he gets a blessing instead of a curse and finally he himself is cursed.  You’d think he’d learn his lesson!

The fourth oracle is a bonus per se.  Balaam, realizing he won’t get paid, just keeps speaking.  This is about Jesus as he is the start and the scepter and will rule over all nations.  This prophecy was also fulfilled by King David (2 Samuel 8:2,14).

Without the curse, Balak realizes he cannot defeat the Israelites so wisely he does not attack like he wanted to back in Numbers 22.  Instead, he returns home, defeated.

Balaam:  His name possibly means devourer or glutton.  He was evidently a professional magician of a nomadic clan.  He obviously had a reputation of getting gods on his side.  God spoke through him 7 times!  Was Balaam converted to God’s side?  No.  Next we hear of him is Numbers 31:8 where he dies.  He is condemned in 2 Peter 2:15, Jude 11, and Revelation 2:14.  He is credited with suggesting the tactic of using sex to defeat the Israelites, resulting in 24,000 deaths (Numbers 25:9; 31:16).

He has been called by scholars the Judas of the Old Testament as he seems faithful at times but greed turns him to evil.

Seven books of the Bible mention Balaam.  This shows how important these events were in Israelite history.  God uses a pagan and a magician in a land full of pagans and magicians as a warning:  He is coming and He shall win.

Summarized from Zondervan’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary by J.D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney:

Balaam is held up as an example of pernicious influence of hypocritical teachers who attempt to lead God’s people astray.  No bible character is more severely excoriated.

We see three things of God’s rule in the world through the story of Balaam:

1)  God overrules man’s sinful rule and his desire to bring his own purposes to pass.

2)  God’s promises prevail no matter the odds always.

3)  God guards His people from threats even when they are not even aware of them (like Balak who wanted to attack them).