Sixth Trumpet (Second Woe) Series

By: Tom Lowe Date: 5-23-16

Lesson: III.C.8: Sixth Trumpet (Second Woe): Four Angels With an Army of Two Hundred Million, Killing A Third of Mankind (Revelation 9:13-21)

Revelation 9:13-21 (KJV)

13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Introduction

The horror of the vision mounts. The demonic locusts were allowed to injure but not kill; but now come the squadrons of demonic cavalry to annihilate a third part of the human race.

Since the appearance of the eagle announcing the three woes in 8:13, the trumpets have been identified as woes (9:12). What is identified as the second woe here is also the six trumpet. This is a passage which is mysterious and whose details no one has ever been able to fully explain.

John’s conviction, though voiced as a lament, that idolatry has a hold on man so great that he will go on worshipping the works of his own hands even while the infinite power of the true God is displayed all about him. A subtle implication at the end of the passage is that the world is just this way. John wrote to Christians to encourage them to be faithful to God even though this evil world rejects Him. They must bear their witness in this world—as it exists.

Commentary

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13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

There were two alters in the ancient tabernacle, one stood without, in the court (the brazen alter; the alter of sacrifice)—and one stood within the Holy Place directly in front of the veil which covered the holy of holies (the “golden alter,” where incense was burned.). There is another “golden altar;” it is in heaven in front of the throne of God.

It is not known whether this was the voice of Christ or of an angel, one of His delegated messengers. The “horns of the golden altar,” refers to the heavenly altar and its four decorative projections, one at each corner (See Exodus 27:2). This is where the “voice”—one voice, instead of a symphony of the voices of all the martyrs (6:9, 10), and a voice of authority instead of an angel’s voice—seemed to emanate, and it is probably the same altar mentioned in 8:3, the place where the prayers of the saints have been expressed to God. According to 6:9, this altar was where the souls of all who had been martyred were waiting for God’s punishment to be executed on their enemies. Their prayers called for vengeance, and God was releasing it in these “woes”: “As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!” (8:13).

The voice is heard from the four horns of the golden altar. Why was the voice not from the altar itself, instead of from the four horns? In ancient religions the power of the deity was thought to reside in the horns of its altar. Therefore, this order comes directly from God. The fact that the angels are held ready for the exact date and time (9:15) also indicates that what is about to happen is completely under Gods control. The voice coming from the horns indicates power over all the universe (Psalm 118:27; Psalm 89:17-24; Psalm 92:10; Psalm 132:17; Revelation 5:6).