The Trumpet Judgments Part III; 200 Thousand Thousand (Rev 9:12-20)
We return to our study in Revelation 9, discussing the Trumpet Judgments. So far, we have studied the first five of these Trumpet Judgments, and this week we will study the sixth, with the seventh in a few weeks when we reach Revelation 11.
These first five Trumpet Judgments are:
Hail and fire mixed with blood, destroying vegetation
Meteor strike, polluting the Mediterranean Sea or perhaps an ocean
Wormwood, perhaps a comet, making bitter a vast amount of the water
Darkening of the Sun, Moon and stars
Demonic locust/scorpions released from the "pit of the abyss", Hades (also Tartarus or Gehenna) by Satan, led by Apollyon (the destroyer). These demons will seek out the unsaved and sting them with a scorpion like sting and torture them for five months. Men will try to kill themselves because of the misery, and they will not die.
One woe is past. Behold still two more woes are coming after these things. Rev 9:12
As I have commented before, never--ever--say that things in your life cannot get any worse! No matter what you are facing in life, my friend, things can always get worse. I know that from experience, making that comment and later being in a severe automobile accident that put both my wife Kay and I in the hospital, and Kay in a wheelchair for 2 months. Things can, and sometimes do, get worse.
God has a plan and purpose for everything that happens in your life and mine. This only makes sense, doesn't it? God does nothing--not a single thing--without a reason. Even what appears to be the most mundane of events in our lives have a purpose; some are prominent in our lives some are not in the grand scheme of things. How many times have you experienced a life changing event--happy or sad--that you did not know was coming? I am sure you will agree that this occurs more often than not.
This week, we will see that things just keep getting worse for the unsaved masses during the Tribulation Period with two more "woe" judgments. As I had mentioned last week, God continually offers salvation to the unsaved during this period; however the great majority will continue to reject Jesus Christ.
Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Rev 9:13-15 NKJV
There are some people that either in ignorance or with full knowledge of what the Bible literally says have a belief that God is taken by surprise, that He has no design in our future, that all things happen "by chance". Many of these people do not like the idea that God has control, and either want to stay in ignorance of God's Word or, with the knowledge of what God's Word says, just abandon the literal meaning saying "that's not what God meant", "it is figurative" or some other reason. The idea that God does not have a design denies the supernaturality of God and the omnipresence (being in all places at one time) of God.
The scene here in heaven is at the altar of incense. This golden altar parallels the one in the Holy Place in the Temple, and the voice that is heard is not identified directly but is most likely God Himself being that this golden altar is "before God", and since God is in charge the orders come directly from Him.
As we discussed prior, God's angels are not bound, only some of the fallen angels or demons were (in Hades or Tartarus, in chains of darkness). In regards to these fallen angels spoken of here, they are not just bound during that time frame; "The perfect tense of the participle translated bound implies that these four angels were bound in the past with continuing results; they were in a state or condition of bondage until God's determined time came for them to be released to execute their function as instruments of divine judgment. (John MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Revelation 1-11)
The place where these four demonic angels are bound is "the great river Euphrates". The Euphrates River at one time established the eastern boundary of Israel, but also is the site of many events in Biblical history. This is one of the rivers mentioned as being in the Garden of Eden, where sin originated; it flows through the area where the Tower of Babel and later Babylon were built. Most people know this region as "the cradle of civilization". Essentially, the Euphrates River cuts right through Evil Central both in the past and in the future. That these demonic angels are bound at this location would seem to make a lot of sense.
These demonic angels would direct an onslaught against mankind, killing one third of the population of the earth; combined with those killed in the fourth seal judgment, this would be over half of the earth's population.
The text "who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year" does not speak of duration but instead of a specific time set by God for these angels to be unbound. Again, as we saw earlier, God has a design; God designed for a specific day and hour when these demons would be loosed. God is not surprised; nothing happens by chance; it is all part of the design of God!--JH
Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. Rev 9:16-17
I find that when we are studying the sheer numbers involved in parts of Revelation (Rev 5:11; Rev 7:4-8), it makes more of an impact in our minds if we compare it to something we know. Five thousand, for instance, would be the population of Waynesburg. Here, we see a literal number of 200 million; we know this is literal because John not only saw but this number was told him.
How many people would two hundred million be? Well, if you compare it to the maximum capacity of Heinz Field, the home of the Steelers (about 65,000), it would take the population of 3,077 maximum filled stadiums to complete this army. In addition, the "Morgantown Metropolitan Statistical Area" defined by the US Census Bureau, is about 120,000 in 2009 numbers; it would take 1,667 times the population of that area to comprise this number. Boggles my mind!
There are basically two camps of thought regarding the interpretation of this army. One is that is a literal army of men; it is said that the Chinese army number two hundred million; there are also some that feel this would be the armies of "Gog and Magog" mentioned in Ezekiel. The descriptions of the horses could possibly be machines of war. One huge issue that a commentator mentioned is the logistics of such a movement, and that movement happening in the sudden time frame that this seems to indicate. In other words, a literal army has to be transported, fed, quartered and there are of course sanitary issues as well. It would literally take many months to plan and deploy a literal army of this size.
The second thought is that this is a demonic army, and while we cannot be dogmatic about it, this may make more sense. Wiersbe notes in The Bible Exposition Commentary that the focus is not on the riders of the horses but on the horses themselves: The deadly power of these horses is in their mouths and tails, not in their legs. Fire, smoke, and brimstone issue from their mouths, and their tails are like biting serpents. They can attack men from the front as well as from the rear. I take it that this is another demonic army, headed by four fallen angels; and that all of them are today bound by the Lord, unable to act until God gives them permission. Also, the context would seem to bear this out; since the fifth trumpet judgment yielded a demonic locust/scorpion army, this would seem natural to be the case.
The colors of the breastplates of the horsemen line up with the means of death that people will suffer from; the red (literally fiery red) is used to symbolize either blood or fire; hyacinth is a blue flower and would correspond to smoke and sulfur yellow to the yellow smoke from brimstone (sulfur).
Regardless of this army being human or demonic, half of the world's population will be dead. A quite sobering thought.--JH
By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed — by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
Rev 9:18-19
As we have discussed before, demons want to harm humans. We are all made in the image of God, and these demonic horsemen will have a great wrath against us because of that. They will not have to eat, they will not have to rest, they will have only one singular purpose: killing people. They will be driven by rage and anger against those both saved and unsaved (note the term "mankind").
I think that one of the most horrible ways to die would be to burn to death. A person can linger for days with a large percentage of third degree burns on the body; however, with the skin being the body's largest organ, this death would be extremely painful even if the death were quick and merciful--which it will not be.
Death from smoke inhalation is also a miserable death. About one third of people admitted to the hospital for burns have lung injury from hot smoke injury. Smoke inhalation "symptoms range from coughing and vomiting to nausea, sleepiness and confusion. Burns to the nose, mouth and face; singed nostril hairs; and difficulty breathing / carbonaceous sputum (burned saliva) are also signs of smoke inhalation injury" (Wikipedia). We often do not think about the fact that smoke is hot, and the heat in addition to the noxious elements in the smoke does great damage.
Brimstone is also known as sulfur, and is taken too lightly as a death causing agent. It has a low flashpoint (about 400 degrees), can burn the skin and cause eye damage. But the worst thing about sulfur is when it burns it gives off either sulfur dioxide, which can be fatal. I read the MSDS information in the Emergency Response Guidebook and the smoke emitted can cause pulmonary edema (abnormal buildup of fluid in the air sacs of the lungs) and can result in fluid in the lungs blocking oxygen to the body; in short, a person can literally drown because of the fluid.
Let's look at a parallel passage in Revelation 21:
But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Rev 21:8, NKJV
I feel that in Revelation 9:17-18 we see that God gives the people of earth a preview as to the horrors of Hell. We see that these three means of death--fire, smoke and brimstone--are also shown in Revelation 21:8. These people will die a physical death due to this judgment, and will die a horrible death; those spoken of in Revelation 21:8 will suffer eternal death, and be in misery forever in fire and brimstone and smoke as shown in other passages.--JH
But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. Rev 9:20-21
The Hardness of the Human Heart Displayed
One would think that the combination of five months of torment and then death (from fire, smoke, and brimstone) would bring men and women to their knees in repentance; but such is not the case. These judgments are not remedial but retributive: God is upholding His holy Law and vindicating His suffering people (see Rev. 6:9-11). Even a casual reading of Revelation 9:20-21 reveals the awful wickedness of mankind, even in the midst of God's judgments. The most frightening thing about Revelation 9 is not the judgments that God sends but the sins that men persist in committing even while God is judging them. --Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary
I find it astounding that with all that has gone on so far in Revelation--the seal judgments, and the trumpet judgments we have seen so far--the end result shown here in Revelation 9:20, 21. I have talked to many people, and especially those that consider themselves very wise, that say that they need to see proof that God exists. They want evidence. It is as though they almost want God to come up and introduce himself to them, wave a magic wand and do some great miracle or healing or what ever. Paul wrote in the following passage:
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Rom 1:20-21, NKJV
Does God cause man to sin? No. Does God harden hearts? Not exactly. Instead, it is what is already in the heart that causes the issue. We run into the same issue with the repeated statement in Exodus "and God hardened Pharaoh's heart". It is not that God made Pharaoh's heart any more sinful than it already was; it is that the human heart is born sinful. In short, man wants to do things his way; this is part of the curse and often times the human heart resents the idea that anyone-- especially God--would tell him what to do. If you think about it, the sinful nature was already in the heart of Pharaoh, God just brought it out for all to see like wringing water out of a wet towel. And a wet towel that is wrung is hard, just like the heart of Pharaoh's heart was hardened by God.
As a pastor, I have found one of three results in confronting someone with sin. Either he is convicted of sin and repents, or the man agrees but drops out of sight (as darkness flees from the light) as he had no intention of repenting of the sin in the first place or lastly, he gets really miffed and comes across with the usual "who are you to judge?" statement. If the person is saved, then God will discipline that person and bring him back in line like a father does a son (Hebrews 12:5-11) through circumstance or by conviction of the Holy Spirit.
But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. Rev 9:20-21
They Love Their Sin
The nature of the human heart is to rebel against God. The common theme throughout the Bible is the redemption and changing of the human heart by Jesus Christ, but we must also remember that it is the nature of men to reject God and His authority. In Romans 3:10, Paul wrote that "there are none good" and in 3:23 he wrote the inspired statement "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Before a man comes to Christ, he is in a state of spiritual deadness and it is Christ that makes him alive (Ephesians 2:1-9).
The world is only as moral as it is because the church is here and it is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Yet, we have to look at the text today and ask ourselves if there are parallels in our country today.
While our country is not at the extreme that is seen today's passages, we are following this same pattern today as then to a degree. All of this is not new; a review of Romans 1:18-32 will show that evil actions and intent have been in vogue all along. However, because of the absence of the Holy Spirit's restraining ministry in that day, the people then will sin with reckless abandon and not care. We will examine these verses much more closely next week, but let's just take a quick look at them as a preview. There is a parallel between this passage and another passage in the Old Testament which we will consider then:
1) These people left after these judgments so far "did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.". Idol worship is not just merely bowing to a statue; it is more deep than that. Yes, idol worship does include this, but there is so much more; in fact, I feel that you and I worship idols much more often that people realize.
2) These people will not "repent of their murders". Rather than to get in to much discussion here, I will make one bold statement: you and I should be thankful for the long suffering and mercy of God in our country. Otherwise, America should be wiped from the face of the earth.
3) These people will not repent of "their sorceries" At first glance, it would appear that this speaks of witchcraft, of "casting spells", and more. While that might be part of the equation, it is much deeper than that.
4) These people will not repent "of their sexual immorality". The term "sexual immorality comes from the Koine Greek word pornea...
5) These people will not repent "of their thefts". Today if you steal, you are punished, although sometimes the punishment is too light in our country today. In that day, it will be a time of lawlessness, and a time of great food shortages.
