Psalm 15 /Rev. 11:4
Keep God’s word; pray and preach widely.
All nations will be blessed!
Comparison of two Scriptures is as followed:
Psalm 15 explains to us the life of those who live with God. How they keep God’s word. How they make every effort to seek godliness so that they do not say any bad word. They are blameless before God. They hate sins so that they keep their hands from anything that does not belong to them. They hate any kind of bribe. They turn down any ill-gotten gain. They are the olive trees and the lamp-stands just as what is written in Rev. 11:4. They meditate on God’s word day and night. They are on fire for the lost souls. They earnestly intercede for all the people by grasping God’s word. They fervently preach gospel to everyone on earth.
Rev. 11:4 prophesies that God will raise up two witnesses at the End Time. They are the two olive trees and the two lamp-stands. (Please refer to Zechariah 4.) They are not talkers, but doers. They walk and live before God. They keep God’s word by themselves so that their lives shine for God. They understand what God desires. They join together in Jesus Christ and pray for everyone. They also go out and preach gospel to all nations and to all people. Surely, they bring God’s blessings to everyone. The whole earth will be filled with God’s glory because of them.
Now let’s read Rev. 11: 4 carefully. ‘Two’ in here means many. It also tells us that unity is essential in our service. The body of Christ must grow to unity in the faith and in the Truth. God’s heart is content when all of His children serve Him in one heart.
They are like two olive trees. What does God mean by that? Two witnesses are those who seek to understand God’s words in the Bible. They put God’s word into practice. They pray earnestly by grasping God’s word, like extracting oil from the olive. They desire nothing but to honor God, and to save all people. That is why the Bible says they are two olive trees. God’s word are like the olive. To get the good taste of olive, you have to chew on it. The more you chew on it, the better it tastes. It is the same with reading God’s words. We must continuously meditate on the Bible we read so that we can fully understand what God means. It is useless to our spiritual growth if we just go through the Bible without understanding of it. In fact, this kind of attitude toward God’s word can be a disadvantage to us. The devil has been using false prophets to twist God’s word so as to lead us away from God.
“Two lamp-stands” means God’s children must shine for the Lord. If we want to shine for the Lord, the first thing is to have clear pipes so that the oil can flow through smoothly. We must keep a clear and smooth fellowship with the Lord and with true Christian. The pipes shall not have any blocking; not even a bit of sins, a bit of hatred, a bit of lust, or a bit of pride. Any of it will hinder our fellowship with God and with true Christians.
We must keep the shade of the lamp from dust. A dusty shade hinders the light sending out from the lamp. Therefore, we must keep ourselves clean from the dust on earth. Be careful not to be defiled by the world.
The lamp must be filled with pure and clean olive oil. Oil is the word of God. And it is also the Holy Spirit. Olive oil is extracted from the olive. When we grasp God’s word and pray earnestly according to God’s will, the Holy Spirit will fill us up. Then we have strength to do the right and shine for God in darkness. It is just like our Lord prayed earnestly in Gethsemane. How Jesus grasped God’s word and prayed earnestly for God’s will be done. Never put other kind of oil in your lamp. Never turn to the evil spirit. Nor pray according to man’s will or selfish desire. Once we put diesel oil into our car by mistake. At once the car was dead. By putting the wrong type of gasoline we almost ruin the whole engine. This incident has given me a great lesson about the importance of spiritual purity. At the end time, the wise virgins must make effort to buy oil and light their lamps. We must only buy the pure truth in the whole book of Bible. The oil in the lamp must be pure olive oil. Never get the wrong kind of oil in our lamp. Nor buy the impure oil, such as false teachings. False teachings sound right but they are wrong. If we accept the wrong oil in our lamps, we will be harmed.
The last important thing to keep our lamp shinning is: kindle the lamp. A fervent love of God and of the souls is the fire to kindle the lamp. How do we apply this lesson to our lives? Fervently eat God’s word, accept His word by simple faith. Eagerly seek to understand God’s word. Grasp God’s word and earnestly intercede for the churches on earth. When Paul joined with some fellow workers in Antioch in worshipping and praying, the Holy Spirit sent them out to preach gospel to everywhere. If we serve God in this manner, we will see God work mightily all over the world—a great revival will come to the whole world. The number of people in God’s house will increase quickly, from 1 to 2, from 2 to 4, 4 to 8 and so on and so forth.
If the lamp is not burning, there is no light or heat even if there is lots of oil in it. Some people love to read Bible and pray and are careful to be holy, but they are cold in serving God. They lack of the burning love of God and of the souls in their hearts. They are useless in God’s kingdom. They cannot bear fruit for God. Never follow the way of old Eli. He was very cold to his ministry. There was no fire in his lamp, so his lamp was very dim. Though he kept a routine of serving God, he could not even help his own son to do the right.
The two witnesses stand before the Lord of the earth. Our Lord is called “the Lord of all the earth.” How He desires everyone to be saved, not one to be perished. Therefore, Apostle Paul urged us that first of all, offer earnest prayers to God for all people. This is good and it pleases God. How pity that most of God’s children do not pay attention to His word. We do not understand God’s desire. Therefore, whenever we kneel down in prayers, we always pray for ourselves or for our love ones. And we often pray to God for the worldly things. This kind of prayer is not after God’s heart. That is why we spend lots of time in prayers but we get very little. If we seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness first, then for our needs, we are after His heart. Let us join together in constant prayers like those who did on the upper room of Mark. We will see a great revival coming quickly. The fire of gospel will be kindled all over the world.
Now let’s turn to Psalm 15.
V.1-2. who can live with the high and holy God? Jesus says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them is the one who loves me…My Father will love him, and my Father and I will come to him and live with him.”(John 14:21, 23) The Bible also says, “I am the high and holy God, who lives for ever. I live in a high and holy place, but I also live with people who are humble and repentant” (Isaiah 57:15). The first condition to live with God is to read the Holy Bible carefully. Otherwise, where and how can we “HAVE” God’s commands? If we are humble and repentant at God’s words everyday, the blood of our Lord will wash away all of our sins. The Holy Spirit will burn out all of the filthiness in our hearts. The Holy Spirit will also provide for us the strength to keep God’s commands. Then we can obey God in everything. We always will do what is right. Our words will be true and sincere. Then we are Christians really live with God.
V. 3. Make every effort to be blameless. Fear God and do not speak ill of people. Be careful not to speak ill of others even when there are many people doing that. The Bible says: do not share in the sins of others.
V. 4. Hate evil and love good; and keep one’s promises. We are so easy to fear the bad people and bully the good one. For example, Pilate knew Jesus was innocent. But he allowed the crowd to convict Jesus of death sentence, because he was afraid to lose his position and the support of the people. Ebed-Melech, a eunuch, was not afraid of those evil leaders. When he heard they put Jeremiah God’s faithful and godly servant into a cistern, he stepped forward boldly. He did not care what would happen to himself. The Bible recorded his good deeds. He is sure to get a great reward in heaven.
Ruth is a good example of the one who keeps her promise. She vowed to follow her suffering mother-in-law. To keep her promise she had to give up her hometown and her own mother. She had to sacrifice the chance of remarrying. Though she knew she would have no future, she did what she had promised. In spite of all the cost, she followed Naomi to the end. At first, Orpah also cried and followed Naomi. But Orpah could not keep her promise because she thought the cost was too high. Therefore, she finally kissed Naomi and said good-bye to her. She represents a kind of Christian who loves God by mouth only. What they get from God is limited enjoyment of this world. They have lost great blessing and eternal joy in heaven. Let us be God’s children walking in the light. Be honest and always do what we promise to God and people, even when it hurts. Those who follow the example of Ruth will play an important part in God’s kingdom which beyond their imagination. They will also get best blessing on earth.
V. 5. Never charge interests for loans; never accept bribes. Be on guard against all kinds of greed. Never accept a bribe to testify against the innocent. Abraham vowed not to take anything from the Gentile king. Therefore, he got great reward from God.
In conclusion, let us rise up and testify for God just like the two witnesses. Keep God’s word and hate evil; pray widely and preach gospel broadly; so that God can use us to bring blessings to all people.