Rabbi Schneider - Why Would a Loving God Judge?
We are in the midst of a scene that began in Revelation chapter 5, where Jesus opened up a scroll. And when He opened the scroll the final plagues of the Lord began to fall upon the earth. As I've been saying as we're reading about these plagues, it sometimes confuses us, because we're so use to hearing about the loving Jesus, the Jesus that blessed the children. We're so use to hearing about the meek Jesus, that it's difficult for us to embrace this side of Jesus where we see all these really hard judgments coming upon mankind, sores coming upon mankind, mankind hiding in caves to escape the judgments, people in agony. I mean tremendous judgment falling upon the world.
In fact the last time we saw anything even close to this was when the Lord destroyed the world with the flood during the time of Noah. This will be even worst. Men will be being tormented. What we need to understand is this beloved ones, is that the nature of the Lord is double sided. I'm gonna show you this later in today's message, but I want you to hear me. God is first of all merciful, but He is also just. When these plagues begin to fall, it's because of the fact that those that are remaining on planet earth have not responded to His mercy. And because they've rejected His mercy God has no other alternatives, but to bring forth His justice and to rid the world of sin. I'm gonna talk more about that at the end of the broadcast.
Right now what I want to do, is I want to bring you right back into the midst of the plagues. And then once again when we get to the end of this discussion, I'm gonna put it all together by helping you to understand these plagues as it results to the nature of God, His purpose and His person. I left off last time on last week's show with the six of the plagues in Revelation chapter 6 verse 12 through 17. It is when the sixth seal is broken and the result of that is that there will be cosmic and ecological disaster. The natural forces that are holding the world and our planet in harmony will break down. In other words, the sun and the moon and the stars will begin to not give their light. The moon will be turned to blood. Things are gonna begin to happen in the universe that are gonna bring plagues and hardship upon the planet.
This is talked about in the book of Joel, where he said, "In the last days the sun will refuse to give it's light. The moon will be turned to blood". Forces like gravity and other again, natural forces that keep shalom, harmony in the universe will break down, resulting in great ecological disturbances. I'm gonna be moving quickly today, because in my previous broadcast on the subject you began to get the feel. There will be wars and rumors of wars. There will be plagues. There will be disease. There will be earthquakes. All these things are gonna be escalating as we move through the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bulls.
Why did I say seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bulls? Because in the book of Revelation there are twenty one judgments that fall upon the world during the tribulation and these twenty one judgments as I've been teaching, are broken down into the three categories of seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bulls. The seals escalate into trumpets and the trumpets escalate into seven bulls. In other words, as these plagues begin to fall upon the planet they intensify, they get worse. The trumpets are worst than the seals and the bulls of wrath are worst than the trumpets. It gets increasingly worst. I believe that perhaps the reason that the plagues get worst, is because God is actually hoping that when these plagues begin to fall it will cause mankind to repent.
But by the time we get to the last of these seven plagues, the last seven of the twenty one, which are called the bulls of wrath. By the time we get to the final seven plagues, the seven bulls of wrath, it's too late. Mankind is being judged and God's final wrath is being poured out upon the earth in the same way beloved ones, that He drowned the Egyptians in the sea. He caused the plagues to fall upon Ancient Egypt, right? And He told Pharaoh that, "You need to let My people go". When Pharaoh didn't let the people go God would pour out a worst plague. And finally when Pharaoh hardened his heart for the last time God drowned them all in the sea. In the same way these plagues will come. People will have an opportunity to return to the Lord, but by the time the seven final plagues come, the seven bulls of wrath man will be so far gone. There will be no other alternative, but for God to destroy sin and eradicate sinners from the earth.
We're moving now into these deeper plagues. We already gone through now the first six seals. At the seventh seal, listen to this, at the seventh seal the seven trumpets are released. Let's read now Revelation chapter 8. I'll be reading verses 1 and 6. "When the lamb broke the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them". So what's happening? At the seventh seal we are getting ready now to release the next phase of judgments that will begin with, listen now, the seven trumpets beginning to sound. As we move into the next verse we're gonna see the first of these trumpets sound and the plagues will escalate. So we've escalated from the seals into a more powerful demonstration of God's judgment falling upon the earth as we enter in now, to the seven trumpets.
Let's look now, beloved ones, at the first trumpet as it sounds, verse number 7. "The first sounded and there came hail and fire mixed with blood and they were thrown to the earth". And so as the first trumpet sounds we have hail and fire and blood hitting the earth. You know I'm thinking about a fire that took place in 1871 in Wisconsin and Michigan's upper peninsula. And listen to this, it burned up, this fire that hit the earth burned up a staggering 3.8 million acres of land on the earth. There's gonna be natural disaster, beloved, hitting the world like we've never heard before. We hear about raging fires that hit California, wiping out thousands and thousands of acres of land.
Beloved, during the Great Tribulation this type of epidemic is gonna be all over the world. It's gonna be terrible. The judgment of God, the One that holds the earth in His hands is gonna reveal beloved, His judgment against sin and sinners upon the world. Listen, think about it. Does it make any logical sense that God is gonna allow mankind to rebel against Him forever? Does it make any sense that God is gonna allow forever mankind to put his foot up in God's face, rebelling against Him, saying that there is no God? No beloved, eventually the judgment of God is gonna fall and all mankind will bow to Him. "Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord". God's power is gonna be revealed. He's been patient for all these years. Eventually beloved, His patience will stop and His glory will be revealed through these judgments.
Let's look up the next trumpet. The next trumpet sounds in the book of Revelation and we read here that in chapter 8 verse 8 and 9, there will be oceanic disaster. You know almost two thirds of the world is covered by the ocean. When you and I think of the world we often times don't see the world as being mostly water, because we live on the land. It just goes to show us how our perception of reality is often not reality at all, because again when we think of the world we think about it as land mass, but two thirds of the world is actually the ocean. God is gonna cause great oceanic disaster to take place. It's gonna be unlike anything we've ever seen before.
In fact, over and over in the book of Revelation I'm gonna show you, John in describing these judgments and what is happening on the earth uses the word something like, or like. In other words, there's nothing in the world that he's ever seen before that can be exactly compared to it. All he can say was, is it's something like this. He can't say it's exactly this, because he never saw anything like it before. So he says it's gonna be something like this, oceanic disaster, tremendous problem. Marine life dying. Can you imagine oceans filled with dead fish, so that the stench of it just completely covers the world with the foul, polluted smell of rotten dead fish? That's what's gonna be happening beloved ones, during the Great Tribulation.
As we continue to read, we read in Revelation 8 verse 10 and 11 about toxic water, that the world's water supply is gonna become toxic. So many ways it could happen. We don't know how it's gonna happen, whether it's gonna be through some type of bacteria, whether it's gonna be through oil spill, some type of maybe oil fountain being unleashed in the ocean. We don't know. All we know beloved, is that the world's water supply is gonna become toxic. It's not that hard to imagine something like this. I mean it isn't far fetched.
There's so many ways it could happen and I want to tell you beloved, as a representative of the Lord and a spokesman, it's gonna happen. The good news is as a child of God, God is gonna be your sustenance. Even as He fed Elijah during the famine, He's gonna take care of His people. Even as he caused water to come out of the rock for the Ancient Israelites, He'll be sufficient for His people. He's Yahweh Yireh. He's the Lord our sufficiency, the Lord our provider. But these things are gonna be happening on the world. Listen, the sun is not gonna come out upon the world and shine every day since it has been since the creation of the world. God is calling mankind to repent. He's calling mankind to Himself. He's calling mankind to Jesus and eventually He's gonna stop calling and His judgments gonna fall. I'm gonna get to that at the end of today's lesson.
As we continue we see that there's gonna be a darkening of the planetary lights. In other words, we read in Joel and other portions of scripture that the sun will stop giving it's light. Things are gonna be happening in the planets. God holds the solar system together. He holds the entire universe together. Eventually He's gonna let go, everything's gonna begin to go haywire. Darkness will cover the earth. We see by the way these same types of things happen in Ancient Egypt where it became dark.
I want to go on here to the next one. In the fifth trumpet we see demonic locust. Chapter 9 of Revelation verse 1 through 11, John said, "He saw something like". He kept on saying here, "It was something like this. It was something like a head of a man. It was something like," he said this. So a couple examples were, he said in verse number 5, "Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion," describing these demonic locust biting people. In verse number 8 of Revelation 9 he says, "And they had hair," he said, "like". There's that word like. "Like the hair of women and their teeth were like the teeth of lions". He couldn't say they were lion's teeth, because they weren't lion's teeth. They were something like what he had never seen before, so he could only use the word like to describe them.
I want you to understand beloved ones, that these phenomenon that John is describing, they seem hard to imagine. But let me ask you this, if God created you, you and me and there's no question that he created you, right? You know your alive. You have consciousness. You can walk over to your mirror right now and see your reflection. If God created humanity should we limit Him in thinking He can create other orders of created beings, including these demonic locust to torment men? No, He can just as easily create anything else as He created mankind. In fact it's easier for Him to create other orders of life, because mankind is unique like non other of His creations, because we beloved one, you and I are created in His own image. Don't limit you know God. Don't let yourself say, "Well that's not possible," just because you've never seen it before. You're the biggest miracle of all. If you exist then it shouldn't be hard for you to believe in any other miracle, because you're the greatest miracle of all, the fact that you exist and have consciousness. Then the sixth trumpet sounds and a deadly army is released. This other worldly type of army.
Then the seventh trumpet sounds and beloved, when the seventh trumpet sounds something incredible happens. God is gonna deliver His people from the next set of plagues that are about to be unleashed upon the earth. This final set of plagues are called, listen now, the seven bulls of wrath. Listen, seven seals have taken place. Seven trumpets have sounded. The plagues have gotten increasingly worst. Now at the seven trumpet, listen, God's people are taken out of the world safely. Then what happens, is God's final wrath is poured out upon the earth and these final seven judgments are known as the seven bulls of wrath. It's too late for man to repent. It's all over.
The judgment of God has come. But beloved I'm preaching today and you're listening, because the wrath of God has not come yet. There won't be evangelist like me preaching on television when the seven bulls of wrath are poured out. The scripture says, "If today, today, today you hear His voice do not harden your heart". You know the scripture says that the Lord's Spirit will not strive with man forever. If today you hear His voice, I want you to know that what happens is the Holy Spirit will come to you. He'll come to me. He'll give us an opportunity to respond, but if we don't respond when He comes beloved, He backs off.
See the scripture says that when God's final wrath is poured out upon the earth, he that restrains, speaking of the Holy Spirit, will no longer be restraining. Meaning that when the seven bulls of wrath are being poured out upon the earth at the end of the Tribulation, the Holy Spirit's gonna be removed from the world. I want you to hear me. If you're just feeling even subtly right now the voice of the Lord calling you to Himself, maybe you're living in a lifestyle right now and you know the lifestyle that you're leading is absolutely not God's will for your life. And you hear the truth that's coming, you believe it's true, but you're not sure if you're ready to give your life to Jesus. I'm here to tell you right now my friend, that if you don't obey Him now while you sense Him speaking to you, you may not have the grace to obey Him later. Meaning this, that we can't just choose to give our life to Jesus whenever we want to, but rather we have to have the grace to give our life to Him.
So if God is dealing with you right now He's giving you grace to turn to Him. You can't say, "You know what? I'm gonna lead my life another two years this way and then I'm gonna give my life to Him," because in two years your heart may be so hard you're not gonna have it within you to give your heart to Him. So I want to say to you right now, if you're sensing Jesus calling you to Himself, if you're not fully living for Him, I want you to know you can't wait. If you're not doing it yet, you may not have an opportunity to do it later. I want to pray for you right now.
Father God I believe that You're speaking to people that are watching, that there are people Father God that are listening to the sound of my voice that have not yet come into a salvation experience with You. They've heard about the book of Revelation. Some of them were raised in church. It puts the fear of God in them and yet Father God they're on the fence right now. They're on the one hand feeling like they need to yield to You and on the other hand they're feeling, "I don't know if I'm ready". Father right now in Jesus name I call them in. As an ambassador of Christ Father God right now I call in the harvest. Holy Spirit I ask that You'll knock louder right now on the hearts of those that are listening.
Right now my friend some of you just felt it. I'm asking you to get on your knees with me. Get on your knee and just say:
Jesus forgive me. I surrender to You. I give You my life. I pledge my life to You right now. I ask You King Jesus to come into my heart. Forgive me for my sins and Jesus help me find the resolve to follow You. Jesus I repent. I turn to You. Jesus forgive me. I ask You to help me right now to lay my life down to obey You.
If you just prayed that prayer I want to ask you to write us. We've got some materials we want to put in your hands. If you've never asked Jesus into your life before and you did it just now, please write us at Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Beloved, I love you. This is the most important decision that you'll ever make in your entire life. God bless you and shalom.