AUG 9

Revelation 11:1-2
Memorise Psalm 91
“…for the tree is known by his fruit”

HOW WILL GOD PROTECT HIS PEOPLE? (I)

As we think of the intense persecution that the Jews will have to undergo, we may wonder, how will they ever survive? What will life be like for the Jews under the wicked and cruel regime of the future kingdom of the Antichrist? The Word of God assures us that as God’s chosen people, He has a plan and a purpose for them. They will not be cast aside. Instead, God will protect them and care for them, even amidst the sufferings that they will have to endure.

In Revelation 11:1-2, John was instructed to measure the temple of God, and the altar, but not the outer court. In the Old Testament, these were the sections of the temple that only Jews were allowed to enter into. A distinction is then made, that the outer court is given to the Gentiles, and that portion need not be measured. This measuring out seems to be a setting of boundaries by God, whereby he demarcates the area in which he will give special focus and attention to. This likely signifies God’s assured protection of the Jews from persecution of the Gentile powers during the second 3½ years of Daniel’s 70th week. Although Jerusalem will be treaded under foot by these foreign nations for those 42 months (3½ years), yet God will measure out His chosen people, the Jews, and will protect them.

An analogy may be drawn from Ezekiel’s vision of Jerusalem in the last days of Babylonian destruction. In Ezekiel 9 is recorded how six men carrying a slaughter weapon were commanded to slay all the living in the city, both old and young. But before this extermination was to be carried out, another man clothed with linen equipped with a writer’s inkhorn was ordered “to set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof” (Ezekiel 9:2-4). Those who are devoted to the Lord are “the apple of His eye, and hidden under the shadow of His wings” (Psalm 17:8). “Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge even the Most High thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling” (Psalm 91:9, 10).

In the midst of persecution, the Lord knows how to protect His own from harm and danger. Without the Lord’s permission, Satan cannot touch the Lord’s people.

Thought: Remember Job.
Prayer: I thank Thee Father that I am safe in the everlasting arms of Jesus Christ my Saviour.