HELL ON EARTH
Revelation 9:1- 10:11
My grandfather loved to watch gunsmoke. One of the episodes is of a man who would travel from town to town with a huge rattlesnake in a glass cage. He would collect bets that no one could place his hand against the glass and keep it there when the rattlesnake struck.
All the gullible people would bet on the fellow citizen who had great courage. After all the bets were collected the man would take the cover off the cage, revealing the snake. The volunteer would move his hand towards the glass and place it there. The snake would then hiss and strike. Involuntarily the man would jerk his hand away.
The snake charmer collected all his money and moved on! He knew that the glass would hold. There was nothing to fear but fear itself. He played on fear to earn a living.
This story is a real picture of spiritual warfare. The snake is the devil, the glass Jesus. As long as we stay on the right side of the glass, we have nothing to fear. Real danger lurks on the wrong side of the glass. We are safe on the right side of the glass, no matter how fearful things appear.
In a world were we are at war with the demonic, we must put on the armor of God (last sermon) so that we can stand against the devils schemes.
Because our world is the theater where the story of redemption is played out, Satan and his legions have attacked the human race, turning the earth into the main battleground of the war of the ages.
Satan’s first attack was successful when he got Adam and Eve to disobey God. The consequences of that sin has had its effect on all mankind.
After the fall, God graciously promised a Savior who would destroy Satan and deliver people from his power. Satan countered by sending demons to cohabitate with women, attempting to produce a hybrid, demon/human, race of people for who Jesus could not atone. In response God destroyed that race with a powerful judgment, the flood.
Satan’s tormenting of righteous Job reveals his hatred for the godly. He threw everything he had at him in order to destroy Job and his faith. But Job remained faithful to God and God remained faithful to him, proving Satan’s attack unsuccessful. As he did with Job, Satan continually attacks believers!
No nation has experienced more of Satan’s assaults than Israel. Through out the Old Testament Satan tempted Israel and Judah to follow other gods, thus bringing on themselves God’s judgment. Israel and Judah were sent into captivity in Assyria and Babylon. In the Tribulation Satan will once again try to destroy this chosen people.
Jesus was a target for Satan’s attacks, even one of his disciples betrayed him. The church has also been a special target for assault. From direct frontal attacks to bringing unbelievers into it, mixing his tares among God’s wheat.
Please note that God sovereignly allows and oversees all of Satan’s assaults and fulfills His purposes in spite of them and through them.
During the Tribulation Satan will serve God’s purpose by being permitted to launch another deadly assault against the human race. That attack will come at the sounding of the fifth trumpet.
Fifth Trumpet vs 1-12
When the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, the effect is focused directly on human beings. John sees a star that had fallen, not an inanimate object, but an angel. This angel is given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.
When the Abyss opened, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. So much so that it darkened the sun and sky. i.e. burning oil wells in Kuwait.
Scripture teaches that God has sovereignly chosen to incarcerate certain demons in this Abyss. These demons are undoubtedly the most wicked, vile and perverted of all the fallen angels. Jude describes them as not keeping their positions of authority, but abandoned their home - these he has kept in darkness bound with everlasting chains for judgment. 6-7
Out of this vast cloud of smoke, John sees locusts swarming out to plague the earth. The destructive power of locusts in noted several times in the Old Testament (Deut. 28:38; 2 Chron. 7:13; Ps. 105:34; Joel 3:25; Nahum 3:15).
The imagery of the smoke is a clear depiction of a locust plague, millions of the grasshopper like insects swarm so thickly that they can darken the sky and blot out the sun.
Real locust eat grain, leaf and stalk, right down to the bare ground and bring barrenness and desolation as far as the eye can see.
But these are not ordinary locust, they are demons bringing swarming destruction. John describes them as scorpions. Their sting will inflict horrible pain, but it is not lethal. They cannot touch any green thing, but will torment all those who do not have the seal of God on them for five months. Men will seek death and won’t be able to find it.
John has never seen anything like this. Shaped like locust, look like horses, have faces like men, hair like women, teeth like lions, breastplates of iron and wings like the sound of horses and chariots racing to battle. That would strike fear in anyone!
What are they? One commentator (older) thought it was like a B-29 bomber, another a modern tank. It is none of these because they are spiritual beings. They come solely to torture and persecute men.
The leader of these demons is Abaddon (Heb), Apollyon (Gr), which means destroyer.
The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.
Sixth Trumpet vs 13-21
At the appointed moment the sixth angel blows his trumpet. The order is given to release the four angels who are bound at the Euphrates river. That they are bound indicates that they are demons.
The Euphrates river is well known and it’s no accident that these fallen angels are bound here. The river was a boundary for the Garden of Eden, it was near here the first murder was committed, the first war fought and the tower of Babel built in defiance of God. It was near here that Nimrod first built Babylon, where idolatry was born on earth. It was to Babylon that the Israelites were taken captive.
Chapter 18 states that Babylon will be rebuilt and become the headquarters of the commercial, religious and military activities of the world under the Antichrist’s rule.
Death, which took a holiday under the fifth trumpet, now returns with a vengeance. These four and their army have been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year... to kill one third of mankind.
We have already seen that twenty five percent of the population will be killed under the fourth horsemen. To slaughter close to a billion people will require a huge army. John reports the number to be 2 hundred million. This army is not human, just like the locust were. These are demons!
Their weapons are three, fire, smoke and sulfur. All proceeding from their mouths.
Response of those that Survive
Through out history people have been able to choose either to repent and turn from their sins, or refuse to repent. All to often, man has been hardened by sin and enslaved by evil that he refuses to repent. This will be the case when one third of the population is swept away.
The two thirds left alive, the rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues, refused to repent! This excluded those who have already turned to God and been sealed.
The idolatry continues as well as the murders, magic arts, sexual immorality and thefts. Under the influence of the demonic forces the world will descend to a point unparalled in human history. God is coming to execute justice! It is our responsibility as believers to faithfully proclaim the gospel to our generation, to snatch them out of the fire Jude 23.
The Mighty Angel and the Little Scroll
After the first six seals were broken in chapter 6 we were expecting immediately to move on to the seventh seal. Instead we had an interlude.
John sees a mighty angel coming down from heaven clothed in a cloud with a rainbow over his head. In his hand is a little scroll.
John is impressed by this mighty angel as he stands on both land and sea (mentions it three times). Also impressive is that the angel makes a solemn oath, no more delay, God’s judgment is upon the earth. That answers the question from the martyrs, how long?
The seventh angel is about to blow his trumpet and the mystery of God will be accomplished. Mystery is simply a divine truth previously undisclosed buy now made know through Jesus.
Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him. Romans 16:25-26.
John is then ordered to do something strange, take the scroll and eat it. What is in the scroll? Many suggestions from commentators, most likely it is the prophesy of what is left to come. After eating John is told to prophesy!
The picture of sweetness in the mouth and bitterness in the belly is typical of the word of God. The sweetness comes in the predictions concerning the mysteries of God and the return of Christ. The bitterness comes in being confronted by the fact that judgment is pronounced upon the earth.
The Gospel is like the message here. It is sweet to those who hear and respond, thus receiving eternal salvation as a free gift from God. It is bitter to men who reject it, and guarantees judgment and damnation.
This chapter presents an interlude of hope, tinged with bitterness that reminds all Christians of their evangelistic responsibilities to our world.
