I've been praying over two questions from our group. One from Dave (paraphrasing here), "Do we, in our study of Revelation get so focused on detail, that we don't provide ourselves time to stand back and ask our Lord, 'What do you want us to hear and see of You and Your Kingdom?'" The second is one that Steve has asked repeatedly, "These plagues about which we are about to read, the horsemen, the bowls; are they for the enemies of God or for all of us living on the earth?" I find I've been wrong on both points and most humbly eat the crow.
Dave is right, we have not gone to our knees enough, and I for one have been relying too much on my own initiative rather than listening for and reacting to His call. Larry and others asked that we continue to address the Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew from which our English translations are taken. We will do that and I pray that the Trinity will show us when we need to pull back to see their will on whatever larger scale the Persons of the Trinity wish us to see.
I dug into the plagues that are coming up next in our study and they are indeed to affect both Christ's church and its opponents. Both Beale and Leithart point out that, "The purpose of the trials first prophesied in Ezekiel and then carried out in Revelation are to punish the unbelieving majority in Israel while purifying the righteous remnant ~ serving both redemptive and judicial purposes.
love from your humbled
Hi Rick. To the 1st question. You are actually bringing out my question from a week ago in a deeper way. So, if we are going to step back somewhat from the detailed digging and ask for Holy Spirit guidance, my question once again is, "how do you see potential Holy Spirit guidance manifesting itself? Will the guidance mysterious arrive in one of the members thoughts? Will the guidance come from a miraculous circumstance? Will the Holy Spirit actual speak to all of us during a study? Will the interaction come from a spiritually gifted teacher using scripture to enlighten us? I like when members in the study describe how they feel the Holy Spirit has interacted with them. We are told that Holy Spirit interaction happens all the time and that we need this interaction (without it, we can do nothing). So, we should be able to articulate the interaction I assume. To your second question, I don't recall me asking this question. But I like the question. ~ Steve