July 23, 2025 • 37 mins
The trumpets of judgment continue to sound in Revelation 9, unveiling horrors that challenge our modern sensibilities and spiritual complacency. As the fifth angel's trumpet pierces the apocalyptic air, we witness the unlocking of the bottomless pit—the abyss where evil entities are imprisoned—releasing demonic locusts that torment humanity for five excruciating months.
These aren't ordinary locusts. With human faces, women's hair, lion's teeth, and scorpion stings, they embody something far more sinister than anything in nature. Under the command of their king—Apollyon, the Destroyer—they inflict such agonizing torment that people desperately seek death but cannot find it. Yet remarkably, those bearing God's seal remain untouched, protected in the midst of chaos.
When the sixth trumpet sounds, the spiritual warfare intensifies. Four angels bound at the Euphrates River unleash a demonic cavalry 200 million strong that kills one-third of humanity. The scale of this judgment is unprecedented since the Great Flood, yet the survivors stubbornly refuse to repent, clinging to their idols that "cannot see or hear or walk."
This chapter forces us to confront uncomfortable questions about what we truly worship. Do we prioritize career, materialism, politics, or social media above our relationship with God? As the ancient wisdom states, "The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts"—we inevitably become like the gods we worship.
God's judgment reveals both His justice and mercy. Even amidst the devastation, two-thirds of humanity is spared, given another opportunity for repentance. The message resonates beyond ancient apocalyptic literature into our daily lives: where do our affections truly lie? What occupies our time and attention? When we honestly examine our priorities, we often discover that "God's just not on the daily schedule."
Take this moment to consider what holds the throne of your heart. Does Christ have the rightful place He deserves, or have lesser gods quietly usurped His position? The time for genuine repentance—a complete reorientation of heart, mind, and behavior—is now, before the final trumpet sounds.
Intro music - Toby Mac
Outro music - Consumed By Fire
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Well, thanks for listening in.
I'm Randy Duncan, and we'reabout to tackle Revelation,
chapter 9, which will see theremaining three woes we were
warned about at the end of lastchapter.
Now, normally I would remindyou of what we covered in the
previous chapter, but we have anawful lot to cover here in this
chapter, and so I'm going toforego that, except to remind
you that we have seen the firstfour trumpet judgments, but now
(00:32):
we're about to see those finalthree unfold.
And so, again, a lot to coverin this chapter.
So let's get right to it,beginning with the first two
verses, which read and the fifthangel blew his trumpet and I
saw a star fallen from heaven toearth and he was given the key
to the shaft of the bottomlesspit.
He opened the shaft of thebottomless pit and from the
(00:52):
shaft rose smoke like the smokeof a great furnace, and the sun
and the air were darkened withthe smoke from the shaft.
And so we see, now the fifthangel blows his trumpet, which
will bring us the first of thethree woes that we were warned
about in the previous chapter.
And remember, as bad as thingshave already been through the
first four trumpets or judgments, things are about to get much
(01:15):
worse.
But when the fifth angel blowshis trumpet, john sees a star
fall from heaven to earth.
Now, I mentioned in an earlierchapter that this is impossible
if you try to read it literally,because stars, on average, are
about a million times largerthan the earth, and so from a
physics standpoint, this justdoesn't make any sense, which is
(01:38):
why we need to always keep inmind the literary genre we're
reading.
Revelation is an apocalypticgenre, and so it uses metaphors,
similes and other symbolicimagery to convey its prophetic
visions.
And so these figures of speech,like the dragon that we'll read
about soon, the seven-headedbeast or the woman clothed with
(02:00):
the sun, these are all used toexpress complex spiritual truths
and future events, but in vividand evocative language.
So when we read that John seesa star fall from heaven to earth
, we don't need to try andinterpret that literally and
then try to conjure up someoff-the wall scientific
explanation as to how that couldliterally happen, because
(02:22):
scripture already gives usplenty of clues as to what's
going on here, and so, forexample, we already know that
the stars can represent angels.
If you remember, in Revelation,chapter 1, jesus explained that
.
As for the mystery of the sevenstars that you saw in my right
hand.
The seven stars are the angelsof the seven churches.
(02:43):
Or in one of my favoritechapters in all of scripture,
job 38, where God asked Jobwhere he was when God was
creating the earth, and when themorning stars sing together and
all the sons of God shouted forjoy.
Now, obviously stars can't sing, which again points to stars
(03:03):
being a metaphor for angels.
But here's our biggest clueJohn says he saw a star fall
from heaven and he was given thekey to the bottomless pit.
So right away we should betipped off that the star is not
a literal star, but an angel.
Now there are a couple ofthoughts here regarding the
(03:24):
angel.
Some believe that the angel isSatan himself, and so they
mention that the term falling,as in falling from heaven, is a
clue, and we see possiblereference to this in Isaiah 14,
where a shining morning starfalls from heaven.
And even Jesus said in Luke 10,18, I saw Satan fall like
(03:46):
lightning from heaven.
But other commentators arguethat this angel is a good angel
sent by God, and that thelanguage of falling is simply
another way of describing anangel as descending to the earth
, and so it may not have thenegative connotation we often
think of, and we'll see inRevelation, chapter 20, that an
angel does descend from heavenwith a key to the abyss, which
(04:09):
he then locks, and so this isnot a simple matter.
But either way, this angel isgiven the keys to the bottomless
pit and he's given authority toopen it.
Well, what in the world is thebottomless pit?
Well, the bottomless pit is alsotranslated as the abyss.
In the original Greek, it's thephrase phreatos teabousu, which
(04:32):
literally means the shaft ofthe abyss, and the angel is
given the keys to the shaft.
But in Revelation, the abyss isa place of evil and where evil
entities are imprisoned.
The abyss is a place of eviland where evil entities are
imprisoned.
In apocryphal books like 1Enoch, the abyss is referred to
as the underworld where somedemons are confined.
In Luke 8, 31, the legion ofdemons that Jesus cast into the
(04:59):
pigs beg him to not send them tothe abyss.
And we also see in 2 Peter 2, 4, for God did not spare the
angels who sinned, but cast theminto Tartarus and delivered
them in chains of darkness to bekept until the judgment.
And finally, jude 6 has thissame idea, saying the angels who
did not keep their own positionbut abandoned their proper
(05:23):
dwelling.
And it's this abyss that theangel has the key to.
And what does the angel do?
Verse 2 told us shaft of thebottomless pit, and from the
shaft rose smoke like the smokeof a great furnace, and the sun
(05:50):
and the air were darkened withthe smoke from the shaft.
Well, whatever happens nextcan't be good, but we begin to
find out in verses 3 through 6,which tell us Then from the
smoke came locusts on the earthand they were given power, like
the power of scorpions on theearth.
They were told not to harm thegrass of the earth or any green
plant or any tree, but onlythose people who do not have the
(06:11):
seal of God on their foreheads.
They were allowed to tormentthem for five months, but not to
kill them, and their tormentwas like the torment of a
scorpion when it stings someone,and in those days people will
seek death and will not find it.
They will long to die, butdeath will flee from them.
And so the angel opens theshaft of the abyss and, like I
(06:35):
said, it isn't good because, inaddition to smoke rising up out
of the abyss, locusts alsoemerge.
And so let's talk about theselocusts for a moment Now.
As we just saw, revelation usessymbolic language, just as with
the star falling from heaven.
And here we have our first cluethat these locusts are not
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actual literal locusts, becauselocusts don't live in the abyss.
The second clue is that theselocusts are given derived power
and authority.
I mean, how many literallocusts have you ever seen that
had real power and authority?
But just like the otherjudgments, this one also recalls
the plagues on Egypt.
(07:17):
In Exodus, we see that theswarm of locusts was, I believe,
the eighth plague, and theycovered the whole land so that
the land was darkened and Egyptwas overwhelmed.
In Exodus, the locusts devouredvegetation and brought Egypt to
its knees.
But here the locusts are toldnot to harm the grass of the
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earth or any green plant or anytree.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that they'reinstructed to harm the people
who do not have the seal of Godon their foreheads.
Those with God's seal arespared this torment.
And this reminds us ofRevelation, chapter 6, where
those who will be spared fromthe wrath of God and the Lamb
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are sealed and protected, andalso in Ezekiel 9, when the
executioners carry out God'sjudgment against Jerusalem.
Those with the sign on theirforehead are spared.
And remember, in Revelation,chapter 3, jesus said Because
you have kept my word aboutpatient endurance, I will keep
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you from the hour of trial thatis coming on the whole world to
try those who dwell on the earth.
And so we saw that believerswill be protected and preserved
in the midst of suffering andjudgment.
And so it is here that thisjudgment is restricted to the
evil and the wicked.
Now some people may ask ifbelievers are raptured out
(08:41):
before the great tribulationbegins, then who are the
believers that we're talkingabout here?
If believers have been rapturedout, who are these believers
that need to be sealed by God?
Good question, and here are acouple of potential responses.
First, some would argue thatthere's actually no such thing
as a rapture, and nowhere inRevelation do we read anything
(09:04):
that would cause us to thinkthat believers will not be here
through the Great Tribulation.
And, as we discussed in chapter3, when Jesus said that he
would keep us during the hour oftribulation, he isn't saying
that he'll remove us before thetribulation begins, but that he
will protect us during thetribulation.
And we've seen how thesejudgments echo the plagues in
(09:27):
Egypt.
Well, did God remove his peoplebefore the judgments came upon
unbelievers?
No, he protected them duringthe midst of them, and that
culminated with the death of thefirstborn.
Throughout Egypt, believers whohad a mark the blood on the
doorpost were spared judgment.
It was only after the judgmentsthat God brought his people out
(09:51):
of captivity and into thepromised land.
And so some people would arguethat revelations are the same.
They point out that nowhere arewe promised to escape the
suffering that Christiansthroughout all of history have
endured.
Even Noah wasn't taken outprior to judgment on the whole
world, but he was protected inthe midst of it.
(10:12):
On the other hand, those whohold to a pre-rapture
eschatology argue that believerswill be raptured off the earth
prior to the Great Tribulation.
Well, if so, then who are thebelievers that we read about
needing to be sealed so that thelocusts don't harm?
Haven't believers already beenraptured?
Well, they argue that thebelievers mentioned here are
(10:35):
people who will be saved afterthe rapture of the church during
the Great Tribulation.
And so many believers connectthose sealed here in Revelation
9-4 to the 144,000 servants ofGod that we discussed in
Revelation 7.
And if you remember, those areidentified as 12,000 individuals
from after the rapture and theyserve as evangelists during the
(10:59):
tribulation and they're seen asbeing divinely protected to
carry out God's work in themidst of those judgments.
(11:25):
Now, one problem with thatparticular theory is that we're
not given any sort of indicationhere in Revelation that the
judgment is restricted only tonon-believing Jews.
The most straightforwardreading of this is that the
judgment is poured out on allunbelievers.
And also, remember we discussedthat the 144,000 that John
heard in chapter 7 can also beinterpreted as a symbolic number
(11:46):
representing the entirety ofsaved believers.
And if that's the case, thenthis interpretation loses a
little bit of ground.
Now, if you haven't listened tochapter 7, I would encourage
you to go back and listen tothat because, depending upon
your eschatology or your endtime beliefs, that'll sort of
color your interpretation ofsome portions of Revelation, and
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different denominations haveall sorts of different
eschatological views about therapture, the great tribulation,
the second coming of Jesus, theresurrection of the dead, the
thousand year reign and thosesorts of things the
thousand-year reign and thosesorts of things.
But regardless of which campyou're in, remember that your
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belief about the rapture is inno way a salvation issue.
You can be completely wrongabout the rapture either way,
and as long as you've placedyour faith and trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ, you've asked forforgiveness and you've
personally accepted what he didfor you on the cross, your
thoughts about the rapture don'tmatter.
A Bible teacher I used tolisten to several years ago.
He always said hey, if youdon't believe in the rapture,
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that's fine, don't worry aboutit, I'll explain it to you on
the way up.
But let's set the rapture asidefor now and get back to the text
at hand.
We're told in verse 5, talkingabout the locusts, that they
were allowed to torment them forfive months, but not to kill
them, and their torment was likethe torment of a scorpion when
(13:15):
it stings someone.
So let's first talk about whoor what these locusts are, and I
think we're safe to concludethat they're not normal
grasshopper-like locusts.
As I mentioned, real locustsdon't live in the abyss and they
don't have power or authority.
And we'll see in verse 11 thatthese locusts, they have a king,
(13:36):
and so I think it's safe to saythat these locusts are demonic.
It says that they were givenpower, like the power of
scorpions on the earth, but thepain they inflict on humans
transcends what humans wouldnormally experience with a
scorpion sting.
I think it's also interestingthat in Luke 10, where Jesus is
(13:57):
talking to 72 of his followersat the time is talking to 72 of
his followers at the time, itsays the 72 returned with joy,
saying Lord, even the demons aresubject to us in your name.
And he said to them I saw Satanfall like lightning from heaven
.
Behold, I have given youauthority to tread on serpents
and scorpions and over all thepower of the enemy, and nothing
(14:20):
shall hurt you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice inthis, that the spirits are
subject to you, but rejoice thatyour names are written in
heaven.
And so we see this symboliclink between scorpions and the
demonic realm.
In verse 20, we'll see that thelocusts inflict judgment on
people who worship demons.
(14:40):
Interesting, the book of Wisdom, which is an apocryphal book,
says in Wisdom 1116, one ispunished by the very things by
which one sins.
And maybe another way to saythat in our day is that they
receive poetic justice.
Now we've mentioned how thesejudgments echo the plagues on
(15:01):
Egypt.
And think about it theEgyptians, they worshipped
animals and they were plagued bylocusts and frogs.
But again, verse 5 tells us.
They were allowed to tormentthem for five months, but not to
kill them, and their tormentwas like the torment of a
scorpion when it stings someone.
And so we see that thesedemonic locusts inflict harm on
(15:24):
people who do not have the sealof God.
They can harm those people, butthey're not allowed to kill
them, which tells us that theirpower and authority is given to
them from someone else, butpermission is not granted for
them to kill anyone.
This power comes from God, andGod is not allowing them to kill
(15:44):
at this time.
He limits the demons so thatthey can't kill even those who
have rebelled against God.
And this reminds me of Job,where Satan is allowed to test
him.
God allows Satan to inflicttremendous suffering upon Job.
He's allowed to do anything hewants to Job, but he is not
(16:04):
allowed to take his life.
So make no mistake, god is theone in control, and even Satan
and his minions are limited inwhat evil they can carry out.
I think there's an importantlesson in that story of Job and
how it's related to suffering.
As people who are reading thestory, we're given a sort of a
peek behind the curtain and weknow what's going on and what's
(16:27):
playing out, but as someone inthe midst of the suffering, job
is not aware.
And one thing to keep in mindis that even in the end, job
never learns.
He never receives an answer tohis question of why.
At the end of the day, joblearns that God is God and he is
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not.
It's okay to wonder and ask andto be honest with God about our
emotions, even our anger andconfusion Abraham and David and
others sure were.
But that doesn't mean we'llalways get an answer In the end.
Sometimes all we can do islearn to trust in God's plan and
His goodness and His mercy andthat, as we're told in Romans
(17:12):
8.28, and we know that, forthose who love God, all things
work together for good for thosewho are called according to His
purpose.
Anything beyond that, we're indanger of trying to play God
ourselves.
All things work together forgood for those who are called
according to his purpose.
Anything beyond that, we're indanger of trying to play God
ourselves and, trust me, thatnever works out too well.
(17:35):
But we see here that the wickedare tormented, and this torment
is likened to the sting of ascorpion, but obviously goes
well beyond what we wouldnormally associate with a
scorpion sting.
And how do we know that?
Because we're told in verse 6,and in those days people will
seek death and will not find it.
They will long to die, butdeath will flee from them.
And so this goes well beyondanything a scorpion can inflict.
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The torment inflicted by theselocusts or demons is agonizing,
and those who are beingtormented are in such agony that
they will seek death.
But death doesn't come.
The suffering is so great thatpeople will prefer death over
the agony of living.
But death will elude them.
(18:19):
They seek death but cannot findit.
There's no relief Sort of apicture of hell, isn't it?
Except that hell lasts forever.
One commentator has mentionedthat this is a picture of the
spiritual death of man, whereyou have this profound torture,
anguish, despair, schizophrenia,complete depression and
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delirium.
And this sort of anguish andsorrow, schizophrenia, complete
depression and delirium.
And this sort of anguish andsorrow, it's unique to
unbelievers, because they haveno hope.
And there's this thought aboutthe torture and punishment in
hell that it's in fact not allabout punishment and torture but
also torment.
And this concept of hellsuggests that the suffering
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experience is not only apunishment imposed by God but a
natural consequence of aperson's rejection of God.
But this torment, it doesn'tcome from regret over rejecting
God, because many people havenever wanted God in their lives
and certainly had norelationship with him, but it
stems from the profound absenceof his presence, because God is
(19:25):
the source of all goodness andlove, and so on this view, hell
is also the eternal consequenceof a soul's choice to sever
itself from God, resulting insort of this complete
deprivation of his divineattributes goodness, joy, peace,
beauty and love.
And this separation creates avoid where no goodness can exist
(19:48):
, leaving the soul in sort ofthis desolate state of torment,
not just because of externalpunishment, but because it's cut
off from the very source of allof those attributes.
And so that also contributes tothe source of unending
suffering.
But we continue with thedescription of the locust in
verses 7 through 11, where ittells us In appearance the
(20:12):
locusts were like horsesprepared for battle.
On their heads were what lookedlike crowns of gold, their
faces were like human faces,their hair like women's hair and
their teeth like lion's teeth.
They had breastplates likebreastplates of iron, and the
noise of their wings was likethe noise of many chariots, with
horses rushing into battle.
(20:32):
They have tails and stings likescorpions and their power to
hurt people for five months isin their tails.
They have as king over them theangel of the bottomless pit.
His name in Hebrew is Abaddonand in Greek he is called
Apollyon.
And so we now get a closer lookand description of these
locusts.
(20:53):
And remember, john says herethat the locusts were like
various things, telling us againthat John is using similes,
suggesting that we shouldn'ttake this literally but
symbolically.
And what we see is that there'ssome sort of this collage of
humans and animals and insects,and the description is full of
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comparisons.
They had gold crowns on theirhead, which suggest and
symbolizes power and authority.
Their faces were like humanfaces, which may symbolize the
intelligence of the demons.
Now, don't ever think that youcould outsmart or outthink a
demon.
As humans, we have no chance atsuccess against a demon, apart
(21:36):
from the grace of God and thepower of Christ.
But their hair is like women'shair and their teeth like lions,
which may point to theirdestructive capacity.
But it also says that they hadbreastplates like iron, which
symbolized their impregnability.
They have no soft spots wherethey could be attacked.
But the bottom line, humanshave no chance to withstand or
(21:59):
overcome this demonic invasion.
And it also tells us that thenoise of their wings were like
many chariots and they havetails and stings like scorpions.
Now I'm going to mention acompletely different
interpretation of these locusts,just so you're aware.
But there are some people whobelieve that what's being
described here are modernmilitary helicopters, fighter
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jets or swarms of drones.
Now, this is a speculativeinterpretation held by some who
see this imagery the locustslike horses prepared unto battle
, the faces of men which couldbe the pilots or the
breastplates of iron, the soundof their wings, the sting in
their tails, all of that all asresembling advanced military
(22:43):
technology.
And John is describing thosethings in the best way he knows
how, using the symbolism of hisday.
And if you ever wonder whatswarms of drones sound like,
just look up videos of swarms ofChinese drones and listen.
And if you were John in thefirst century, how would you
have described them?
But again, this view is notuniversally accepted and, given
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the apocalyptic and the symbolicnature of Revelation, most
scholars still interpret thepassages symbolically
representing demonic forcesrather than literal modern
machinery.
But verse 11 provides anotherdetail regarding these locusts
when it says they have as kingover them the angel of the
bottomless pit.
(23:28):
His name in Hebrew is Abaddonand in Greek he is called
Apollyon, and so the idea thatthese locusts are demonic in
nature it's given more credencein verse 11, because we learn
that they have a king over themand their king is the angel of
the abyss.
In other words, these locustsor these demonic creatures are
(23:50):
under the rule of the angel thatrules the abyss, and the name
of this angel in Hebrew isAbaddon, the angel prince of the
abyss, the minister of deathand author of havoc on earth.
And the name Abaddon isrendered in Greek by the name
Apollyon the destroyer.
Now, we don't know the identityof Apollyon the destroyer for
(24:13):
certain, but a good and areasonable guess is that it's
the dragon Satan himself.
If it's not Satan, then thereference is to another powerful
and evil angel, possibly theangel of death.
But the most likely referenceis to Satan who rules over
demons.
But the bottom line of whatwe're reading here is that these
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locusts, or these demons whocome up out of the abyss, most
likely represent angels ofjudgment, and this judgment will
be horrifying and people canturn to God by accepting Christ
and be protected, or they canprepare to face those horrors.
But we continue with verses 12through 15, which read the first
woe is past.
(24:55):
Behold, two woes are still tocome.
Then the sixth angel blew histrumpet and I heard a voice from
the four horns of the goldenaltar before God saying to the
sixth angel who had the trumpetRelease the four angels who are
bound at the great riverEuphrates.
So the four angels who had beenprepared for the hour, the day,
(25:16):
the month and the year werereleased to kill a third of
mankind.
So after reading what we havealready read, you forget that,
as bad as it will be, that it'sonly the first of three
judgments that are coming.
We still have more woes to go,and here we see the sixth angel
blow his trumpet.
But we also need to keep inmind that all of this is
(25:38):
unfolding according to God'splan and His will.
But we see here the second woeand the sixth trumpet start.
John hears a voice from beforeGod's throne which tells us that
the voice is most likely thatof an angel, and the voice
commands the angel to releasethe four angels who are bound at
the great river Euphrates.
Now this sort of reminds us ofthe four angels who were
(25:59):
restraining the four winds fromthe four corners of the earth
that we discussed in chapter 7.
But these aren't the same fourangels, because these angels
have been bound, suggesting thatthey're demons that have been
prevented from unleashing theirhavoc on the world Until now.
Because we're told that they'vebeen prepared for this hour,
(26:20):
day, month and year, and they'renow released to kill a third of
mankind.
And it's interesting, thedemons are unable to act without
permission from God and thetiming of this onslaught has
also been arranged and we seethat these demons have been
prepared and in holding for notonly this year or this month,
(26:41):
but for this very day and hour.
And the heartbreaking effect isthat one-third of mankind is to
be killed.
Now we saw in the earlierjudgments that it was one-third
affected One-third of the water,the green grass, animals, trees
and so on.
But now this one-third willimpact humanity and as I record
(27:02):
this episode, there are about8.2 billion people on the planet
.
A third of that number is about2.7 billion people.
Let that sink in.
And for a bit of perspective,if you wiped out every person in
the United States and China,you would still be 1 billion
people short of that number.
(27:22):
Just unimaginable destructionand suffering.
But after describing thedestruction that they would
inflict, john continues with hisdescription of the locust, or
these demons, beginning in verse16, where he says the number of
mounted troops was twice 10,000times 10,000.
I heard their number and thisis how I saw the horses in my
(27:45):
vision and those who rode onthem.
They wore breastplates thecolor of fire and of sapphire
and of sulfur.
They wore breastplates thecolor of fire and of sapphire
and of sulfur, and the heads ofthe horses were like lion's
heads, and fire and smoke andsulfur came out of their mouths.
And so we now see the agentsresponsible for the slaying of
mankind are specified.
The angels release a massivearmy, a cavalry that exceeds any
(28:08):
other cavalry, and the way theGreek is constructed.
Here John is likely referringto mounted soldiers, and the
Greek phrase that's used here,dis miriades miriaton, suggests
several units of 20,000multiplied by 10,000.
Now some of your Bibles maytranslate this simply as 200
(28:28):
million, which is the correctmath, but I'm not sure we should
push this too literally,because the point is that the
number is an almostincomprehensibly large army, an
especially terrifying, demonicarmy, and it's an army that is
so great in number that itdefies counting.
Now for those who interpretthis invading army as a literal
(28:51):
human army being sent to judgehumanity, they'll point to the
200 million and suggest that,look, the only country capable
of amassing such a large army isChina.
And so they'll link this withsome of the kings of the east
verbiage in Revelation 16, andthen they work that into their
eschatology.
But the actual text here itdoesn't specify that and we'll
(29:13):
tackle that when we get there.
I just wanted to go ahead andmention it in case you're
wondering.
But keep in mind that John firsthears the number of Calvary
coming and then he sees theCalvary and he describes them in
verse 17, when he said thatthey wore breastplates like the
color of fire and of sapphireand of sulfur, and the heads of
the horses were like lion'sheads and fire and smoke and
(29:36):
sulfur came out of their mouths.
But the difference betweenthese creatures and the ones
that we read about earlier isthat these invaders kill.
The previous ones were limitedto only torture, but these have
the power to execute judgment onthe world in the form of death.
And John continues in verses 18and 19 saying by these three
(29:57):
plagues, a third of mankind waskilled by the fire and smoke and
sulfur coming out of theirmouths, For the power of the
horses is in their mouths and intheir tails, for their tails
are like serpents with heads andby means of them they wound.
Now, outside of the flood, thekilling of a third of the
world's population is simplyunparalleled in human history.
(30:20):
But the creatures described aresurreal.
They may have even remindedpeople of the mythical creatures
in the Greco-Roman world, likethe chimera, since it had the
head of a lion, a snake for atail and also breathed fire.
And the reference to fire andsulfur echoed judgments of Sodom
and Gomorrah Because, remember,god rained down fire and sulfur
(30:41):
when those cities weredestroyed.
And so, just like the locust,these horses described by John
are most likely not real horsesbut demons, because fire, smoke
and sulfur don't emit from themouths of real horses.
But we finish now with the lasttwo verses of the chapter, with
verses 20 and 21, where Johntells us the rest of mankind,
(31:03):
who were not killed by theseplagues, did not repent of the
works of their hands, nor giveup worshiping demons and idols
of gold and silver and bronzeand stone and wood, which cannot
see or hear or walk, nor didthey repent of their murders or
the sorceries, or their sexualimmorality or their thefts?
And so what we've seen withthis sixth trumpet judgment is
(31:26):
that one-third of human beingsare killed and, amazingly, those
who remain still don't repentof their evil deeds and continue
to worship false idols.
And I say it's amazing becausethose who escape being killed
should have seen firsthand whathappened to unbelievers, and so
they should have responded withremorse and repentance.
(31:48):
But they don't.
They refuse to repent, and thefailure of human beings to
repent underscores the justiceof God's judgments.
God allows one-third ofhumanity to die, but he spares
two-thirds to invite repentance.
But, just like Pharaoh duringthe plagues of Egypt, they
refuse to repent.
(32:09):
In Luke 13, 3, jesus said that Itell you, but unless you repent
, you will all likewise perish.
You see, repenting is theproblem, and the biblical idea
of repenting involves a sincereturning away from sin and a
turning toward God, and it'smarked by a change of heart and
(32:30):
mind and behavior, because it'srooted in the recognition of
your wrongdoing, your genuinesorrow for it, and then an
ongoing commitment to align withGod's will.
In the Old Testament, theHebrew word, often translated as
repent, means to turn or return, and it implies a physical and
a spiritual reorientation, likereturning to God from a path of
(32:54):
disobedience.
In the New Testament, the Greekword metanoia is used, meaning
a change of mind or atransformation of thinking.
Acts 3.19 says repent metanoia,therefore, and turn back that
your sins may be blotted out.
2 Corinthians 7 10 tells us, forgodly sorrow produces a
(33:16):
repentance, metanoia that leadsto salvation.
And so what this tells us isthat it's not just about a
one-time asking forgiveness ofsin and then continuing to live
and practice sin just like youalways were.
It involves a change of mindand heart and yes, behavior, a
behavior that's in line withGod's will.
(33:38):
And we see here that not onlydo the people not repent, they
continue to practice idolatryand the works of their hands,
and all of this idolatry orvalue in other things above God
simply reflects a broaderrejection of God, because people
prioritize materialism, theirown ideologies or sometimes even
(34:01):
spiritual deception over God,and these people who continue to
consistently violate God'scommands show that they've not
repented and so they'redeserving of punishment.
I remember reading one time andit may have been Marcus Aurelius
, but it went something like thesoul becomes dyed with the
(34:22):
color of its thoughts, and toput that into a more religious
context, we might say that webecome like the gods we worship.
And if there's truth in thatand I believe there is then the
question becomes what or who areyou worshiping?
And we often go astray in whatwe worship or what we devote our
time and our attention and ouraffections to, because we
(34:45):
confess with our tongues thatGod's the most important thing
in our life, but then we betraythat by how we actually live day
to day, and whether that's ourcareer or materialism, addiction
, social media habits, politicsjust fill in the blank.
And there's nothing inherentlywrong with any of those things.
It's about priorities.
(35:05):
I mean, how much time per daydo you spend mindlessly doom
scrolling on social media ordigesting propaganda from your
favorite news outlet versusspending time with God?
And how do you feel afterwards?
Refreshed, renewed, encouraged?
Yeah, probably not.
Far too often.
(35:26):
God's just not on the dailyschedule.
On the long list of businessfor the day and the things that
we have to get done, jesusdoesn't even make the cut.
And as we see all of thedestruction and death here in
Revelation 9, it should awakenus to examine our own hearts,
areas in our own lives whererepentance might be needed,
(35:49):
because this message ofrepentance is not only for the
world, but also for people whoprofess to be Christians but who
may have gotten too comfortablewith the values of the world
that are not in line with God'swill.
And so my prayer for you isthat you prioritize what truly
matters and endures in life, andthat you not let the
(36:09):
distractions and the fleetingthings of this world prevent you
from having a deeper and moremeaningful relationship with God
.
Give Christ the rightful placehe deserves in your life and in
your heart.
No, I don't want to chase whatthe world does.
(36:31):
How we want you, how we wantyou.
First things first.
I seek your will, not my own.
Surrender all my wants to you.
Keep the first thing first.
(37:00):
Thank you, to keep the burstingburst.
To keep the bursting burst, allmy desires re-burst.
(37:24):
To keep the bursting burst.
To keep the bursting burst,thank you.
Well, thanks for listening in.
I'm Randy Duncan, and we'reabout to tackle Revelation,
chapter 9, which will see theremaining three woes we were
warned about at the end of lastchapter.
Now, normally I would remindyou of what we covered in the
previous chapter, but we have anawful lot to cover here in this
chapter, and so I'm going toforego that, except to remind
you that we have seen the firstfour trumpet judgments, but now
(00:32):
we're about to see those finalthree unfold.
And so, again, a lot to coverin this chapter.
So let's get right to it,beginning with the first two
verses, which read and the fifthangel blew his trumpet and I
saw a star fallen from heaven toearth and he was given the key
to the shaft of the bottomlesspit.
He opened the shaft of thebottomless pit and from the
(00:52):
shaft rose smoke like the smokeof a great furnace, and the sun
and the air were darkened withthe smoke from the shaft.
And so we see, now the fifthangel blows his trumpet, which
will bring us the first of thethree woes that we were warned
about in the previous chapter.
And remember, as bad as thingshave already been through the
first four trumpets or judgments, things are about to get much
(01:15):
worse.
But when the fifth angel blowshis trumpet, john sees a star
fall from heaven to earth.
Now, I mentioned in an earlierchapter that this is impossible
if you try to read it literally,because stars, on average, are
about a million times largerthan the earth, and so from a
physics standpoint, this justdoesn't make any sense, which is
(01:38):
why we need to always keep inmind the literary genre we're
reading.
Revelation is an apocalypticgenre, and so it uses metaphors,
similes and other symbolicimagery to convey its prophetic
visions.
And so these figures of speech,like the dragon that we'll read
about soon, the seven-headedbeast or the woman clothed with
(02:00):
the sun, these are all used toexpress complex spiritual truths
and future events, but in vividand evocative language.
So when we read that John seesa star fall from heaven to earth
, we don't need to try andinterpret that literally and
then try to conjure up someoff-the wall scientific
explanation as to how that couldliterally happen, because
(02:22):
scripture already gives usplenty of clues as to what's
going on here, and so, forexample, we already know that
the stars can represent angels.
If you remember, in Revelation,chapter 1, jesus explained that
.
As for the mystery of the sevenstars that you saw in my right
hand.
The seven stars are the angelsof the seven churches.
(02:43):
Or in one of my favoritechapters in all of scripture,
job 38, where God asked Jobwhere he was when God was
creating the earth, and when themorning stars sing together and
all the sons of God shouted forjoy.
Now, obviously stars can't sing, which again points to stars
(03:03):
being a metaphor for angels.
But here's our biggest clueJohn says he saw a star fall
from heaven and he was given thekey to the bottomless pit.
So right away we should betipped off that the star is not
a literal star, but an angel.
Now there are a couple ofthoughts here regarding the
(03:24):
angel.
Some believe that the angel isSatan himself, and so they
mention that the term falling,as in falling from heaven, is a
clue, and we see possiblereference to this in Isaiah 14,
where a shining morning starfalls from heaven.
And even Jesus said in Luke 10,18, I saw Satan fall like
(03:46):
lightning from heaven.
But other commentators arguethat this angel is a good angel
sent by God, and that thelanguage of falling is simply
another way of describing anangel as descending to the earth
, and so it may not have thenegative connotation we often
think of, and we'll see inRevelation, chapter 20, that an
angel does descend from heavenwith a key to the abyss, which
(04:09):
he then locks, and so this isnot a simple matter.
But either way, this angel isgiven the keys to the bottomless
pit and he's given authority toopen it.
Well, what in the world is thebottomless pit?
Well, the bottomless pit is alsotranslated as the abyss.
In the original Greek, it's thephrase phreatos teabousu, which
(04:32):
literally means the shaft ofthe abyss, and the angel is
given the keys to the shaft.
But in Revelation, the abyss isa place of evil and where evil
entities are imprisoned.
The abyss is a place of eviland where evil entities are
imprisoned.
In apocryphal books like 1Enoch, the abyss is referred to
as the underworld where somedemons are confined.
In Luke 8, 31, the legion ofdemons that Jesus cast into the
(04:59):
pigs beg him to not send them tothe abyss.
And we also see in 2 Peter 2, 4, for God did not spare the
angels who sinned, but cast theminto Tartarus and delivered
them in chains of darkness to bekept until the judgment.
And finally, jude 6 has thissame idea, saying the angels who
did not keep their own positionbut abandoned their proper
(05:23):
dwelling.
And it's this abyss that theangel has the key to.
And what does the angel do?
Verse 2 told us shaft of thebottomless pit, and from the
shaft rose smoke like the smokeof a great furnace, and the sun
(05:50):
and the air were darkened withthe smoke from the shaft.
Well, whatever happens nextcan't be good, but we begin to
find out in verses 3 through 6,which tell us Then from the
smoke came locusts on the earthand they were given power, like
the power of scorpions on theearth.
They were told not to harm thegrass of the earth or any green
plant or any tree, but onlythose people who do not have the
(06:11):
seal of God on their foreheads.
They were allowed to tormentthem for five months, but not to
kill them, and their tormentwas like the torment of a
scorpion when it stings someone,and in those days people will
seek death and will not find it.
They will long to die, butdeath will flee from them.
And so the angel opens theshaft of the abyss and, like I
(06:35):
said, it isn't good because, inaddition to smoke rising up out
of the abyss, locusts alsoemerge.
And so let's talk about theselocusts for a moment Now.
As we just saw, revelation usessymbolic language, just as with
the star falling from heaven.
And here we have our first cluethat these locusts are not
(06:57):
actual literal locusts, becauselocusts don't live in the abyss.
The second clue is that theselocusts are given derived power
and authority.
I mean, how many literallocusts have you ever seen that
had real power and authority?
But just like the otherjudgments, this one also recalls
the plagues on Egypt.
(07:17):
In Exodus, we see that theswarm of locusts was, I believe,
the eighth plague, and theycovered the whole land so that
the land was darkened and Egyptwas overwhelmed.
In Exodus, the locusts devouredvegetation and brought Egypt to
its knees.
But here the locusts are toldnot to harm the grass of the
(07:38):
earth or any green plant or anytree.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that they'reinstructed to harm the people
who do not have the seal of Godon their foreheads.
Those with God's seal arespared this torment.
And this reminds us ofRevelation, chapter 6, where
those who will be spared fromthe wrath of God and the Lamb
(07:58):
are sealed and protected, andalso in Ezekiel 9, when the
executioners carry out God'sjudgment against Jerusalem.
Those with the sign on theirforehead are spared.
And remember, in Revelation,chapter 3, jesus said Because
you have kept my word aboutpatient endurance, I will keep
(08:19):
you from the hour of trial thatis coming on the whole world to
try those who dwell on the earth.
And so we saw that believerswill be protected and preserved
in the midst of suffering andjudgment.
And so it is here that thisjudgment is restricted to the
evil and the wicked.
Now some people may ask ifbelievers are raptured out
(08:41):
before the great tribulationbegins, then who are the
believers that we're talkingabout here?
If believers have been rapturedout, who are these believers
that need to be sealed by God?
Good question, and here are acouple of potential responses.
First, some would argue thatthere's actually no such thing
as a rapture, and nowhere inRevelation do we read anything
(09:04):
that would cause us to thinkthat believers will not be here
through the Great Tribulation.
And, as we discussed in chapter3, when Jesus said that he
would keep us during the hour oftribulation, he isn't saying
that he'll remove us before thetribulation begins, but that he
will protect us during thetribulation.
And we've seen how thesejudgments echo the plagues in
(09:27):
Egypt.
Well, did God remove his peoplebefore the judgments came upon
unbelievers?
No, he protected them duringthe midst of them, and that
culminated with the death of thefirstborn.
Throughout Egypt, believers whohad a mark the blood on the
doorpost were spared judgment.
It was only after the judgmentsthat God brought his people out
(09:51):
of captivity and into thepromised land.
And so some people would arguethat revelations are the same.
They point out that nowhere arewe promised to escape the
suffering that Christiansthroughout all of history have
endured.
Even Noah wasn't taken outprior to judgment on the whole
world, but he was protected inthe midst of it.
(10:12):
On the other hand, those whohold to a pre-rapture
eschatology argue that believerswill be raptured off the earth
prior to the Great Tribulation.
Well, if so, then who are thebelievers that we read about
needing to be sealed so that thelocusts don't harm?
Haven't believers already beenraptured?
Well, they argue that thebelievers mentioned here are
(10:35):
people who will be saved afterthe rapture of the church during
the Great Tribulation.
And so many believers connectthose sealed here in Revelation
9-4 to the 144,000 servants ofGod that we discussed in
Revelation 7.
And if you remember, those areidentified as 12,000 individuals
from after the rapture and theyserve as evangelists during the
(10:59):
tribulation and they're seen asbeing divinely protected to
carry out God's work in themidst of those judgments.
(11:25):
Now, one problem with thatparticular theory is that we're
not given any sort of indicationhere in Revelation that the
judgment is restricted only tonon-believing Jews.
The most straightforwardreading of this is that the
judgment is poured out on allunbelievers.
And also, remember we discussedthat the 144,000 that John
heard in chapter 7 can also beinterpreted as a symbolic number
(11:46):
representing the entirety ofsaved believers.
And if that's the case, thenthis interpretation loses a
little bit of ground.
Now, if you haven't listened tochapter 7, I would encourage
you to go back and listen tothat because, depending upon
your eschatology or your endtime beliefs, that'll sort of
color your interpretation ofsome portions of Revelation, and
(12:09):
different denominations haveall sorts of different
eschatological views about therapture, the great tribulation,
the second coming of Jesus, theresurrection of the dead, the
thousand year reign and thosesorts of things the
thousand-year reign and thosesorts of things.
But regardless of which campyou're in, remember that your
(12:32):
belief about the rapture is inno way a salvation issue.
You can be completely wrongabout the rapture either way,
and as long as you've placedyour faith and trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ, you've asked forforgiveness and you've
personally accepted what he didfor you on the cross, your
thoughts about the rapture don'tmatter.
A Bible teacher I used tolisten to several years ago.
He always said hey, if youdon't believe in the rapture,
(12:54):
that's fine, don't worry aboutit, I'll explain it to you on
the way up.
But let's set the rapture asidefor now and get back to the text
at hand.
We're told in verse 5, talkingabout the locusts, that they
were allowed to torment them forfive months, but not to kill
them, and their torment was likethe torment of a scorpion when
(13:15):
it stings someone.
So let's first talk about whoor what these locusts are, and I
think we're safe to concludethat they're not normal
grasshopper-like locusts.
As I mentioned, real locustsdon't live in the abyss and they
don't have power or authority.
And we'll see in verse 11 thatthese locusts, they have a king,
(13:36):
and so I think it's safe to saythat these locusts are demonic.
It says that they were givenpower, like the power of
scorpions on the earth, but thepain they inflict on humans
transcends what humans wouldnormally experience with a
scorpion sting.
I think it's also interestingthat in Luke 10, where Jesus is
(13:57):
talking to 72 of his followersat the time is talking to 72 of
his followers at the time, itsays the 72 returned with joy,
saying Lord, even the demons aresubject to us in your name.
And he said to them I saw Satanfall like lightning from heaven
.
Behold, I have given youauthority to tread on serpents
and scorpions and over all thepower of the enemy, and nothing
(14:20):
shall hurt you.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice inthis, that the spirits are
subject to you, but rejoice thatyour names are written in
heaven.
And so we see this symboliclink between scorpions and the
demonic realm.
In verse 20, we'll see that thelocusts inflict judgment on
people who worship demons.
(14:40):
Interesting, the book of Wisdom, which is an apocryphal book,
says in Wisdom 1116, one ispunished by the very things by
which one sins.
And maybe another way to saythat in our day is that they
receive poetic justice.
Now we've mentioned how thesejudgments echo the plagues on
(15:01):
Egypt.
And think about it theEgyptians, they worshipped
animals and they were plagued bylocusts and frogs.
But again, verse 5 tells us.
They were allowed to tormentthem for five months, but not to
kill them, and their tormentwas like the torment of a
scorpion when it stings someone.
And so we see that thesedemonic locusts inflict harm on
(15:24):
people who do not have the sealof God.
They can harm those people, butthey're not allowed to kill
them, which tells us that theirpower and authority is given to
them from someone else, butpermission is not granted for
them to kill anyone.
This power comes from God, andGod is not allowing them to kill
(15:44):
at this time.
He limits the demons so thatthey can't kill even those who
have rebelled against God.
And this reminds me of Job,where Satan is allowed to test
him.
God allows Satan to inflicttremendous suffering upon Job.
He's allowed to do anything hewants to Job, but he is not
(16:04):
allowed to take his life.
So make no mistake, god is theone in control, and even Satan
and his minions are limited inwhat evil they can carry out.
I think there's an importantlesson in that story of Job and
how it's related to suffering.
As people who are reading thestory, we're given a sort of a
peek behind the curtain and weknow what's going on and what's
(16:27):
playing out, but as someone inthe midst of the suffering, job
is not aware.
And one thing to keep in mindis that even in the end, job
never learns.
He never receives an answer tohis question of why.
At the end of the day, joblearns that God is God and he is
(16:48):
not.
It's okay to wonder and ask andto be honest with God about our
emotions, even our anger andconfusion Abraham and David and
others sure were.
But that doesn't mean we'llalways get an answer In the end.
Sometimes all we can do islearn to trust in God's plan and
His goodness and His mercy andthat, as we're told in Romans
(17:12):
8.28, and we know that, forthose who love God, all things
work together for good for thosewho are called according to His
purpose.
Anything beyond that, we're indanger of trying to play God
ourselves.
All things work together forgood for those who are called
according to his purpose.
Anything beyond that, we're indanger of trying to play God
ourselves and, trust me, thatnever works out too well.
(17:35):
But we see here that the wickedare tormented, and this torment
is likened to the sting of ascorpion, but obviously goes
well beyond what we wouldnormally associate with a
scorpion sting.
And how do we know that?
Because we're told in verse 6,and in those days people will
seek death and will not find it.
They will long to die, butdeath will flee from them.
And so this goes well beyondanything a scorpion can inflict.
(17:58):
The torment inflicted by theselocusts or demons is agonizing,
and those who are beingtormented are in such agony that
they will seek death.
But death doesn't come.
The suffering is so great thatpeople will prefer death over
the agony of living.
But death will elude them.
(18:19):
They seek death but cannot findit.
There's no relief Sort of apicture of hell, isn't it?
Except that hell lasts forever.
One commentator has mentionedthat this is a picture of the
spiritual death of man, whereyou have this profound torture,
anguish, despair, schizophrenia,complete depression and
(18:41):
delirium.
And this sort of anguish andsorrow, schizophrenia, complete
depression and delirium.
And this sort of anguish andsorrow, it's unique to
unbelievers, because they haveno hope.
And there's this thought aboutthe torture and punishment in
hell that it's in fact not allabout punishment and torture but
also torment.
And this concept of hellsuggests that the suffering
(19:05):
experience is not only apunishment imposed by God but a
natural consequence of aperson's rejection of God.
But this torment, it doesn'tcome from regret over rejecting
God, because many people havenever wanted God in their lives
and certainly had norelationship with him, but it
stems from the profound absenceof his presence, because God is
(19:25):
the source of all goodness andlove, and so on this view, hell
is also the eternal consequenceof a soul's choice to sever
itself from God, resulting insort of this complete
deprivation of his divineattributes goodness, joy, peace,
beauty and love.
And this separation creates avoid where no goodness can exist
(19:48):
, leaving the soul in sort ofthis desolate state of torment,
not just because of externalpunishment, but because it's cut
off from the very source of allof those attributes.
And so that also contributes tothe source of unending
suffering.
But we continue with thedescription of the locust in
verses 7 through 11, where ittells us In appearance the
(20:12):
locusts were like horsesprepared for battle.
On their heads were what lookedlike crowns of gold, their
faces were like human faces,their hair like women's hair and
their teeth like lion's teeth.
They had breastplates likebreastplates of iron, and the
noise of their wings was likethe noise of many chariots, with
horses rushing into battle.
(20:32):
They have tails and stings likescorpions and their power to
hurt people for five months isin their tails.
They have as king over them theangel of the bottomless pit.
His name in Hebrew is Abaddonand in Greek he is called
Apollyon.
And so we now get a closer lookand description of these
locusts.
(20:53):
And remember, john says herethat the locusts were like
various things, telling us againthat John is using similes,
suggesting that we shouldn'ttake this literally but
symbolically.
And what we see is that there'ssome sort of this collage of
humans and animals and insects,and the description is full of
(21:15):
comparisons.
They had gold crowns on theirhead, which suggest and
symbolizes power and authority.
Their faces were like humanfaces, which may symbolize the
intelligence of the demons.
Now, don't ever think that youcould outsmart or outthink a
demon.
As humans, we have no chance atsuccess against a demon, apart
(21:36):
from the grace of God and thepower of Christ.
But their hair is like women'shair and their teeth like lions,
which may point to theirdestructive capacity.
But it also says that they hadbreastplates like iron, which
symbolized their impregnability.
They have no soft spots wherethey could be attacked.
But the bottom line, humanshave no chance to withstand or
(21:59):
overcome this demonic invasion.
And it also tells us that thenoise of their wings were like
many chariots and they havetails and stings like scorpions.
Now I'm going to mention acompletely different
interpretation of these locusts,just so you're aware.
But there are some people whobelieve that what's being
described here are modernmilitary helicopters, fighter
(22:21):
jets or swarms of drones.
Now, this is a speculativeinterpretation held by some who
see this imagery the locustslike horses prepared unto battle
, the faces of men which couldbe the pilots or the
breastplates of iron, the soundof their wings, the sting in
their tails, all of that all asresembling advanced military
(22:43):
technology.
And John is describing thosethings in the best way he knows
how, using the symbolism of hisday.
And if you ever wonder whatswarms of drones sound like,
just look up videos of swarms ofChinese drones and listen.
And if you were John in thefirst century, how would you
have described them?
But again, this view is notuniversally accepted and, given
(23:07):
the apocalyptic and the symbolicnature of Revelation, most
scholars still interpret thepassages symbolically
representing demonic forcesrather than literal modern
machinery.
But verse 11 provides anotherdetail regarding these locusts
when it says they have as kingover them the angel of the
bottomless pit.
(23:28):
His name in Hebrew is Abaddonand in Greek he is called
Apollyon, and so the idea thatthese locusts are demonic in
nature it's given more credencein verse 11, because we learn
that they have a king over themand their king is the angel of
the abyss.
In other words, these locustsor these demonic creatures are
(23:50):
under the rule of the angel thatrules the abyss, and the name
of this angel in Hebrew isAbaddon, the angel prince of the
abyss, the minister of deathand author of havoc on earth.
And the name Abaddon isrendered in Greek by the name
Apollyon the destroyer.
Now, we don't know the identityof Apollyon the destroyer for
(24:13):
certain, but a good and areasonable guess is that it's
the dragon Satan himself.
If it's not Satan, then thereference is to another powerful
and evil angel, possibly theangel of death.
But the most likely referenceis to Satan who rules over
demons.
But the bottom line of whatwe're reading here is that these
(24:34):
locusts, or these demons whocome up out of the abyss, most
likely represent angels ofjudgment, and this judgment will
be horrifying and people canturn to God by accepting Christ
and be protected, or they canprepare to face those horrors.
But we continue with verses 12through 15, which read the first
woe is past.
(24:55):
Behold, two woes are still tocome.
Then the sixth angel blew histrumpet and I heard a voice from
the four horns of the goldenaltar before God saying to the
sixth angel who had the trumpetRelease the four angels who are
bound at the great riverEuphrates.
So the four angels who had beenprepared for the hour, the day,
(25:16):
the month and the year werereleased to kill a third of
mankind.
So after reading what we havealready read, you forget that,
as bad as it will be, that it'sonly the first of three
judgments that are coming.
We still have more woes to go,and here we see the sixth angel
blow his trumpet.
But we also need to keep inmind that all of this is
(25:38):
unfolding according to God'splan and His will.
But we see here the second woeand the sixth trumpet start.
John hears a voice from beforeGod's throne which tells us that
the voice is most likely thatof an angel, and the voice
commands the angel to releasethe four angels who are bound at
the great river Euphrates.
Now this sort of reminds us ofthe four angels who were
(25:59):
restraining the four winds fromthe four corners of the earth
that we discussed in chapter 7.
But these aren't the same fourangels, because these angels
have been bound, suggesting thatthey're demons that have been
prevented from unleashing theirhavoc on the world Until now.
Because we're told that they'vebeen prepared for this hour,
(26:20):
day, month and year, and they'renow released to kill a third of
mankind.
And it's interesting, thedemons are unable to act without
permission from God and thetiming of this onslaught has
also been arranged and we seethat these demons have been
prepared and in holding for notonly this year or this month,
(26:41):
but for this very day and hour.
And the heartbreaking effect isthat one-third of mankind is to
be killed.
Now we saw in the earlierjudgments that it was one-third
affected One-third of the water,the green grass, animals, trees
and so on.
But now this one-third willimpact humanity and as I record
(27:02):
this episode, there are about8.2 billion people on the planet
.
A third of that number is about2.7 billion people.
Let that sink in.
And for a bit of perspective,if you wiped out every person in
the United States and China,you would still be 1 billion
people short of that number.
(27:22):
Just unimaginable destructionand suffering.
But after describing thedestruction that they would
inflict, john continues with hisdescription of the locust, or
these demons, beginning in verse16, where he says the number of
mounted troops was twice 10,000times 10,000.
I heard their number and thisis how I saw the horses in my
(27:45):
vision and those who rode onthem.
They wore breastplates thecolor of fire and of sapphire
and of sulfur.
They wore breastplates thecolor of fire and of sapphire
and of sulfur, and the heads ofthe horses were like lion's
heads, and fire and smoke andsulfur came out of their mouths.
And so we now see the agentsresponsible for the slaying of
mankind are specified.
The angels release a massivearmy, a cavalry that exceeds any
(28:08):
other cavalry, and the way theGreek is constructed.
Here John is likely referringto mounted soldiers, and the
Greek phrase that's used here,dis miriades miriaton, suggests
several units of 20,000multiplied by 10,000.
Now some of your Bibles maytranslate this simply as 200
(28:28):
million, which is the correctmath, but I'm not sure we should
push this too literally,because the point is that the
number is an almostincomprehensibly large army, an
especially terrifying, demonicarmy, and it's an army that is
so great in number that itdefies counting.
Now for those who interpretthis invading army as a literal
(28:51):
human army being sent to judgehumanity, they'll point to the
200 million and suggest that,look, the only country capable
of amassing such a large army isChina.
And so they'll link this withsome of the kings of the east
verbiage in Revelation 16, andthen they work that into their
eschatology.
But the actual text here itdoesn't specify that and we'll
(29:13):
tackle that when we get there.
I just wanted to go ahead andmention it in case you're
wondering.
But keep in mind that John firsthears the number of Calvary
coming and then he sees theCalvary and he describes them in
verse 17, when he said thatthey wore breastplates like the
color of fire and of sapphireand of sulfur, and the heads of
the horses were like lion'sheads and fire and smoke and
(29:36):
sulfur came out of their mouths.
But the difference betweenthese creatures and the ones
that we read about earlier isthat these invaders kill.
The previous ones were limitedto only torture, but these have
the power to execute judgment onthe world in the form of death.
And John continues in verses 18and 19 saying by these three
(29:57):
plagues, a third of mankind waskilled by the fire and smoke and
sulfur coming out of theirmouths, For the power of the
horses is in their mouths and intheir tails, for their tails
are like serpents with heads andby means of them they wound.
Now, outside of the flood, thekilling of a third of the
world's population is simplyunparalleled in human history.
(30:20):
But the creatures described aresurreal.
They may have even remindedpeople of the mythical creatures
in the Greco-Roman world, likethe chimera, since it had the
head of a lion, a snake for atail and also breathed fire.
And the reference to fire andsulfur echoed judgments of Sodom
and Gomorrah Because, remember,god rained down fire and sulfur
(30:41):
when those cities weredestroyed.
And so, just like the locust,these horses described by John
are most likely not real horsesbut demons, because fire, smoke
and sulfur don't emit from themouths of real horses.
But we finish now with the lasttwo verses of the chapter, with
verses 20 and 21, where Johntells us the rest of mankind,
(31:03):
who were not killed by theseplagues, did not repent of the
works of their hands, nor giveup worshiping demons and idols
of gold and silver and bronzeand stone and wood, which cannot
see or hear or walk, nor didthey repent of their murders or
the sorceries, or their sexualimmorality or their thefts?
And so what we've seen withthis sixth trumpet judgment is
(31:26):
that one-third of human beingsare killed and, amazingly, those
who remain still don't repentof their evil deeds and continue
to worship false idols.
And I say it's amazing becausethose who escape being killed
should have seen firsthand whathappened to unbelievers, and so
they should have responded withremorse and repentance.
(31:48):
But they don't.
They refuse to repent, and thefailure of human beings to
repent underscores the justiceof God's judgments.
God allows one-third ofhumanity to die, but he spares
two-thirds to invite repentance.
But, just like Pharaoh duringthe plagues of Egypt, they
refuse to repent.
(32:09):
In Luke 13, 3, jesus said that Itell you, but unless you repent
, you will all likewise perish.
You see, repenting is theproblem, and the biblical idea
of repenting involves a sincereturning away from sin and a
turning toward God, and it'smarked by a change of heart and
(32:30):
mind and behavior, because it'srooted in the recognition of
your wrongdoing, your genuinesorrow for it, and then an
ongoing commitment to align withGod's will.
In the Old Testament, theHebrew word, often translated as
repent, means to turn or return, and it implies a physical and
a spiritual reorientation, likereturning to God from a path of
(32:54):
disobedience.
In the New Testament, the Greekword metanoia is used, meaning
a change of mind or atransformation of thinking.
Acts 3.19 says repent metanoia,therefore, and turn back that
your sins may be blotted out.
2 Corinthians 7 10 tells us, forgodly sorrow produces a
(33:16):
repentance, metanoia that leadsto salvation.
And so what this tells us isthat it's not just about a
one-time asking forgiveness ofsin and then continuing to live
and practice sin just like youalways were.
It involves a change of mindand heart and yes, behavior, a
behavior that's in line withGod's will.
(33:38):
And we see here that not onlydo the people not repent, they
continue to practice idolatryand the works of their hands,
and all of this idolatry orvalue in other things above God
simply reflects a broaderrejection of God, because people
prioritize materialism, theirown ideologies or sometimes even
(34:01):
spiritual deception over God,and these people who continue to
consistently violate God'scommands show that they've not
repented and so they'redeserving of punishment.
I remember reading one time andit may have been Marcus Aurelius
, but it went something like thesoul becomes dyed with the
(34:22):
color of its thoughts, and toput that into a more religious
context, we might say that webecome like the gods we worship.
And if there's truth in thatand I believe there is then the
question becomes what or who areyou worshiping?
And we often go astray in whatwe worship or what we devote our
time and our attention and ouraffections to, because we
(34:45):
confess with our tongues thatGod's the most important thing
in our life, but then we betraythat by how we actually live day
to day, and whether that's ourcareer or materialism, addiction
, social media habits, politicsjust fill in the blank.
And there's nothing inherentlywrong with any of those things.
It's about priorities.
(35:05):
I mean, how much time per daydo you spend mindlessly doom
scrolling on social media ordigesting propaganda from your
favorite news outlet versusspending time with God?
And how do you feel afterwards?
Refreshed, renewed, encouraged?
Yeah, probably not.
Far too often.
(35:26):
God's just not on the dailyschedule.
On the long list of businessfor the day and the things that
we have to get done, jesusdoesn't even make the cut.
And as we see all of thedestruction and death here in
Revelation 9, it should awakenus to examine our own hearts,
areas in our own lives whererepentance might be needed,
(35:49):
because this message ofrepentance is not only for the
world, but also for people whoprofess to be Christians but who
may have gotten too comfortablewith the values of the world
that are not in line with God'swill.
And so my prayer for you isthat you prioritize what truly
matters and endures in life, andthat you not let the
(36:09):
distractions and the fleetingthings of this world prevent you
from having a deeper and moremeaningful relationship with God
.
Give Christ the rightful placehe deserves in your life and in
your heart.
No, I don't want to chase whatthe world does.
(36:31):
How we want you, how we wantyou.
First things first.
I seek your will, not my own.
Surrender all my wants to you.
Keep the first thing first.
(37:00):
Thank you, to keep the burstingburst.
To keep the bursting burst, allmy desires re-burst.
(37:24):
To keep the bursting burst.
To keep the bursting burst,thank you.
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