Psalm 36/ Revelation 12:6
Run To The Lord For Protection, Or You Will Be Killed By The Evil One, And Drink The Water Of Life And Joy
Psalm 36/ Revelation 12:6
Let us read Rev. 12:6, “The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God.” Who is this woman? Many Bible commentary think that this woman means the Israelites. The male child born by her is Jesus Christ. But if we go deeper and meditate on this verse, we can get very meaningful application to our own spiritual lives. Rev. 12:1 said, this woman “clothed with the sun”. She seeks righteousness according to God’s words. Therefore, she clothes herself with Christ. This woman, “with the moon under her feet”. She stands firmly in God’s love. Just like the light of the moon is a reflection of the light of the sun. God is with her because she stands firmly in truth and love. “A crown of twelve stars was on her head”. She cares about all of God’s children. Day and night she interceds for them and advises them the right way to love God. She regards all of God’s children as her glory. Just like Paul, he regarded believers in churches as his glory.
This woman represents a type of Christians. God hopes all of His children would be like this woman in labor: First, to stand firm in the Truth by faith, second, to pray for God’s business by holding His promises, and thirdly, to bear much fruit for Jesus Christ. But Satan hates this kind of Christians most. Therefore, we have to run to God every day as this woman in labor did. We must hide in God’s protection to escape from the persecutions or temptations from Satan.
Where is the shelter for our spiritual lives? A desert prepared by God. Desert means to see no one except Jesus Christ. When we read Bible, we see how Jesus himself took shelter in God. Every time as soon as he finished working, Jesus separated himself from the crowd and went to mountain or desert all by himself to be with his Heavenly Father. When everyone came to look for him and wanted him to stay. Jesus had already known the will of God and set out to other places to preach and to save people. When people wanted to kill him, Jesus prayed through the night. He then called twelve disciples and sent them out to save more people all over the place!
We also read in Rev. 14 about the one hundred and forty four thousands people (144,000). How they love the Lord with all their hearts! They follow the Lord closely. Wherever the Holy Spirit goes, they follow. They are not involved in family business, personal emotions, or things of the world. Neither are they afraid of hardships or persecutions. They bravely march forward to follow the Lord.
This is the vision of Home of Grace for Christ’s Workers. We have a burden to set up 6 cities of refuge on earth according to God’s will. It is to provide a spiritual “desert” for those who called by God to escape from all of the temptations of sins and wickedness, and to take refuge in Jesus Christ. It is by the blood of Jesus that our sins can be forgiven. It is by the help of the Holy Spirit that we can keep God’s words. Then, we know we live in Jesus Christ. We will be changed and become useful workers for God, like this woman in labor. We can bear much good fruit that last forever for God’s kingdom. Our Lord is indeed our refuge. The evil one can never hurt us so long as we continue to live in the Lord.
Psalm 36, V. 1-4 David knew in the spirit how evil the wicked are. The wicked have no fear of God in their hearts. Their hearts are full of sins, evil, sexual immorality, impurity, jealousy, argument, hatred and murder. (Galatians 5: 19-21) They look beautiful and godly on the outside, but on the inside are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. The wicked are like the priests, the teachers and the Pharisees in the Temple when Jesus was on earth.
The wicked flatter themselves in their own eyes. They think no one will know about their sins. But God surely knows it all. They think God will not bless or curse. They do not fear God and regard the only True God as a false god.
Today in our churches, there are many Fathers, pastors, missionaries, prophets and believers behaving like the way of the wicked. They have been deceived by the evil one. Therefore, they indulge themselves in sinful desires, and they do evil things without fearing of God. Their spiritual lives have been destroyed by Satan. Then, they are used by Satan to destroy other people. They pretend to be godly in church, but they are godless in their hearts. Paul teaches us to have nothing to do with this kind of people in church. Paul said, “you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.” (1 Corinthians 5: 11) Mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. The evil men and deceivers will go from bad to worse. We must put God’s words richly in our hearts and guard it carefully. We are to endure hardships, pray earnestly, preach the Truth by the help of the Holy Spirit, lead people to repent and obey God’s words, and be ready for the coming of Christ.
The wicked also stands for our old nature. The Bible said, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.” Once, Ruth and I went to California, west of America for ministry. We lived in a house of a sister. There, we met one of her tenants, brother Guo, Yiu Fong. He came from other states and was teaching in a university over there. He had parents, wife and children. His whole family loved the Lord. He told us that when he first arrived at this city by himself, he was zealous and very active in serving the church. Later, he could not overcome the temptation of sins. He had an affair with his female student. At first, he was afraid that God might punish him for it. But gradually, his heart became hardened because of sins. At the end, he completely ignored God and indulged himself in sinful desires. He even boasted, “I am a brave man. I will bear the consequences by myself!” He was not afraid of God anymore. But pretty soon, he found that he had cancer. The doctors told him that they had to cut off almost one forth of his body, including one of his whole leg and some part of his body up to his waist. And there was only sixty percent (60%) of chance that he could live after the operation. He dared not do that operation. He confesseed his sins and repented completely. He begged for God’s mercy. When we met him, he was taking chinese herbs for his cancer. He was very grateful that God used cancer to save his soul. Soon, we heard that he passed away. He wanted everyone to know that God cannot be mocked. And God is merciful when we repent.
V. 3-4. The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful. When I went to London for the first time, a sister told me that lately there was a very young and smart professor of a famous seminary ran away secretly with a married woman. No one knew where they were at that time.
Later another sister asked me for advice. She said that she met a man about thirty years old at a meeting of Bible Study. He was the leader of that group. She liked him and he also was interested in her. He wrote her by e mail and told her that he was a homosexual. Then some people in church told her that he was living with a black woman who was much older than him. When he led the Bible Study, he used Bible to tell her to live with him. When he explained about faith and deeds in the book of James, he said in public, “If you have faith, you must put it into action.” She knew that he used that scripture to tell her, “If you like me, you should just go ahead and live with me.” When I heard this, I was very shocked. What a dreadful man he is! He dared to change the meaning of the word of God in this way to meet his sinful needs. This kind of explanation and application of Bible is from hell. Later, this man was accepted by a famous seminary in UK as a student in Theology.
This sister asked me, “Shouldn’t I love him since the Bible told us to love?” She also asked me whether she could attend that seminary and study with him. How dreadful the way she applied Bible to her problem. We must never change the meaning of God’s word according to our sinful desires. Be sure to listen to God’s words in an attitude of quietness and humility. We must think and search to understand the original meaning of His words. Never be deceived by the devil to put God to the test by what God said in the Bible. Remember how the devil tried to tempted Jesus by using the scriptures in the Bible: The devil told Jesus to jump down from the highest point of the temple. I advised this sister to keep far away from this wicked man.
This is such a sinful generation. God’s children must run away from sexual immorality and avoid all kinds of wickedness. We must run to our Lord for protection, or we will be killed by the devil.
If the wicked do not repent and insist on their wicked way and doing evil, they will perish in the Lake of Fire, a lasting suffering day and night. It is not that God does not want to save them or cannot save them. It is that they reject His salvation, they choose their own destruction. “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light”. (John 6:19)
V. 5-8 How God is unwilling to see the wicked perish! If the wicked turn to God to confess their sins and repent, God will forgive. God is faithful and righteous. He will forgive us our sins and purify us from all wickedness. (1John 1: 8-9)
All men have sinned against God. But God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jesus will never forsake those who take refuge in Him. No matter what sins we have committed in the past, His blood from the cross can redeem us, so long as we confess and repent by faith. Jesus came to take away our sins. He came to destroy the devil’s work, and to crush the head of the devil. Jesus has overcome the power of sin and the power of death.
He also gives us the Holy Spirit to help us when we are in need. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can depart from evil to do good, and widely preach His salvation. Our Lord desires everyone to be saved and to understand the Truth.
Blessed is he who takes refuge in the shadow of the Lord. This is the desert God has prepared for His children. We must continue to shelter in Jesus by faith from beginning to the end, and continue to keep His words. We will surly experience His great love that is as high as the heavens are above the earth. His great love is higher than any kind of love of our world.
Every word of God is true. His word stands forever and will never change. Jesus always told us, “I tell you the truth.” He is our true, reliable and everlasting rock.
God lives in the highest place. He is the only justice and righteousness. He does not show favoritism. God blesses those who make effort in grace to pursue a love of righteousness and a godly hatred of wickedness by reading the Bible, so that they will live with God on the top of His mountain. Those who know God, will tremble with fear of His word. God honors he who is humble and repents, and fears of His word. For example, Paul was so brave when he preached the gospel, because he knew God. It was by the power of God that Paul could preach the gospel to Rome in chains. He knew God so that he had no fear of anything when preaching the gospel. But he clearly told us that we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling. The only thing that Paul feared was the Judgment of Jesus Christ. Therefore, he carefully kept God’s word when he marched forward bravely for God’s works.
God’s love is also very sensitive. He cares not only every human being but also every creature of this world. He desires no one to be perished. He also has compassion for birds, animals, bugs,… and every creation on earth. When God saw Hagar an Egyptian maid was expelled by her masters and was crying in a desert, he showed mercy to her. God sent messanger to comfort her and her son. How high, how wide and how deep God’s love is! How priceless is God’s love that He sacrifices Himself to save sinners.
The love of human tends to be impure, self-centered, limited, and with conditions. Many times our love drives people to love the world and fall into sin. Sometimes we even hurt people by our limited and narrow love. There are times people use their love to satisfy their sinful desires.
God’s grace is for all the peoples. He opens His wings to protect us, just like a mother hen protects her chicks by her wings. But what a pity that men do not want to take refuge in the shadow of His wings. Therefore, many people have been deceived by the evil one and fall into the Hell.
V.8 Those who draw near to the Lord and serve Him in the Temple, and listen to God’s word with fear, will enjoy what is good and rejoice in the richest food in the feast. (Isaiah 55: 2) God’s word is like the richest food that makes you satisfied. Once you have tasted the river of joy, you will know what has attracted you most from the world is nothing but rubbish. We will never be thirsty for anything of the world, if we drink this living water of life. Before that we are just like the Samaritan woman. She was so thirsty when she drank from the dirty water of the world, that she had had six husbads. But her thirst was not quenched, she got worse and worse. Jesus said that whoever drinks His living water will never thirst again. If we drink this living water of life, we not only will thirst no more, but also we will bring others to drink this living water of life so that they can taste the true joy of eternal life.
V. 9 God’s word is the fountain of life. When we accept His word by faith and put it into practice, we grow in the spirit. Proverbs 15: 24, “The path of life leads upward for the wise to keep him from going down to the grave.” God is the soruce of life. Therefore, never regard the Holy Bible as a kind of knowledge or a textbook. We must accept His words by faith, pray according to His words, and do exactly as He says. We will experience a complete change of our lives. It is like Saul was transformed into Paul. The worst of sinners was changed into a servant of God. Paul was even willing to lay down his life to save others. The Pharisees could memorize the scriptures. But it was only a knowledge for them. Woe! He who has knowledge but no faith! Woe to those who know God’s word but do not do it!
God’s word is the only True light. There are many kinds of light in the world. There is light from Satan. Though it is very attractive, it leads people to destruction. There is also light from our human wisdom. It may teach us to do good things but it cannot save our souls. Only God’s word is the True light that leads us to eternal life. If we follow the True light, our path will shine ever brighter. The spiritual man knows all things. They are crystal clear in the spirit, just as a sea of glass. When Anania and his wife went to Peter, they fell down and died. It was because Peter pointed out how they lied to God that they had prenteded to offer everything to God in public.
V. 10 May God continue His love to those who know Him. For example, Daniel and Paul had been kept to the end in God’s love. Because they always humbled themselves before the Lord and regarded God’s word as the most holy in their lives. But King Solomon was not like them. In the beginning he was loved by God, but later his heart was led astrayed. He loved his foreign wives and worshipped other gods. Therefore, God was angry at him at the end.
May God continue His righteousness to the honest in heart. Jesus understands our weakness. Though we do not want to rebel against God or hurt people, we are caught by sin sometimes. Therefore, God always disciplines those who are honest in heart, so that we will not continue to sin and fall from His grace to grave.
V. 11 The proud and the evildoer are not afraid of God when they commit sins or do evil. Just like Delilah and King Saul, they had become instruments for the devil. They want to destroy and crush those who love God. The proud and the evildoer want to drive away those who love God from the will of God and the inheritance of God. We pray that they can never destroy us or drive us away from God’s will and inheritance
V. 12 Let us take refuge in God and join to the Lord. The Almighty God will throw down the enemies, including the inner enemy of our own old nature and the external enemy the Devil. They will become a footstool for our feet. They are not able to rise or hurt us any more!
CONCLUSION:
God hopes that every Christian pays attention only to His words, so as to understand His will and get hold of His promise in prayers until it comes true. This is how a Christian becomes conceived through the Holy Spirit, to be a woman in labor. Then, we will bear much good fruit at the proper time which will last forever for His kingdom.
To meet God’s expectation, we must learn to escape from sins and wickedness, to avoid involving with worriness or anything of the world. (Luke 21: 34-36) We must keep a personal fellowship with the Lord every day. Then we can learn how to flee to and take refuge in Jesus by reading His words and praying in the spirit. Then, we can fully know the insight of the gospel and the wicked plans of the Devil. We will be transformed to a new creature, and become powerful and obedient servants of God. We will be useful and fruitful in His Kingdom. Amen!