Revelation 9:13-21

Revelation chapter 9 we’ll begin reading with verse 13 as we look at the sixth trumpet today. And the sixth angel sounded, I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, loose the four angels which are bound in the river Euphrates. 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. And the number of the army of the horsemen were 200,000,000. And I heard the number of them. Thus I saw the horses in the vision, and then that sat on them having breastmen. plates of fire and of Janseneth 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. By these three were the third part of men killed by the fire, by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths, and 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. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, and they should, that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood, which neither can see or hear nor walk. neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this morning. In the book of Revelation, you find allusion after illusion, after illusion, metaphor, symbol after symbol, drawn from the Old Testament. There is no New Testament book that’s more demanding of a knowledge of the Old Testament, especially the Old Testament prophets, than the Book of Revelation. And a lack of familiarity with the Old Testament is often a reason why there is a misinterpretation of the Book of Revelation. The pictures of this book, which are painted for us are vivid and they are inspiring for the Christian. But it’s difficult to interpret the text because of its heavy use of symbols. But by following the time clues that you were provided with regard to the proper framework for interpretation, we saw that in chapter 1 versus 1 through 3, and by following the Old Testament symbolic interpretations in the prophets, we can see how best to interpret these sections. Now, the seal and the trumpet judgments, we have seen relate to those who dwell upon the earth or the land. In other words, Israel of John’s Day. We compared the sealed book to the one that was given to Ezekiel in Chapter 2 and 3 of Ezekiel. and how it was lamentations and woes and so forth against Israel. The seven seal began the opening of the seven trumpets. So it is a continuation of, and now really a further revelation of the book. We’ve opened the scroll by getting the seals off. That gave us a general idea of the contents, and now we’re looking at the more detailed aspects. as we look at this chapter. Now we’re looking at chapter 9 here and we’re looking at the sixth trumpet and verses 13 to 21 and here we have the army of the Euphrates mentioned. The angels of destruction, the destruction here lead forth an immense overwhelming army. We see that in verses 13 to 60. We see that in verses 13 to 6. The voice that releases the four angels comes from the horns of the golden altar, according to verse 13. Now, we have already seen that golden altar in chapter 8, early on there, in that chapter 8, 3 to 5. And so we see that is speaking of the altar. are in heaven. It’s associated with the prayers of the saints, if you see, if you read that in chapter 8, and they are pleading to God to judge those who have harmed them, according to chapter 6 and verses 9 through 11. The sending of the army Euphrates, I think, should be seen in light of God answering the prayers of these martyred saints who are in heaven. Now I am inclined to distinguish these four angels from the four angels of chapter 7. The angels in chapter 7 stand on the four corners of the earth, or the land, if you would. While those in this chapter are in or at the Euphrates River, they’re in one corner of the land, the eastern border. The angels in chapter 7 are holding back the forces of judgment until God’s elect people are all sealed. So they’re good angels. The angels here in chapter 9 are said to be bound. The very word that is used with regard to Satan in Revelation chapter 20. And I suggest you that they are evil angels. Chapter 12 speaks about the dragon fought and his angels. So there he is. his demonic forces. It was across the Euphrates River that Israel’s previous conquerors have come. Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, the river. The river Euphrates was the ancient far boundary of Israel’s land as given by God. This was realized under David and Solomon’s rain. At this time, there were places along this river boundary where Roman armies were stationed, along with other auxiliary troops from previously conquered nations that were part of the Roman army. Josepha says this in his 7, Chapter 1, Paragraph 3 of his wars. Rome obtained many of its troops from garrisons stationed on the Euphrates at this time, as well as many other auxiliary troops from the subject countries of this area. Thousands would come from the region of the Euphrates in this war against the Jews. Josephus says of Titus, and when he had stayed three days among the principal commanders, and so feasted with them, he sent away the rest of his army to several places where they would be everyone best situated, but permitted the 10th Legion to stay as a guard at Jerusalem. It did not send them away beyond the Euphrates where they had been before. So these angels here are said to be loosed as if God is unleashing judgment. God and his eternal purpose is, going to destroy one third of the men of Israel. This is similar then to the second seal with the red horse and the four seal with the pale horse where there’s bloodshed and death. So in the confusion, the chaos, the catastrophe of the Roman Jewish war, you must see God’s hand directly involved as he allows for the loosing of these angels. Now, it’s interesting that there are four angels. According to Josephus, there were four legions that assaulted Jerusalem. In his War 6, Book 6, Chapter 8, paragraph 1, the works that belonged to the four legions were erected on the west side of the city. The idea of angelic princes or leaders over armies, is found in the book of Daniel, and I won’t trouble you to look, but if you read chapter 10 of the book of Daniel, you’ll see he talks about the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece and so forth, and we begin to realize that he’s talked about some type of angelic or demonic leadership that is involved with these different armies in battling one against the other. And the good angel needs Michael’s help against the prince of Persia and so forth. You’ll find that in chapter 10, verse 13, and verses 20 and 21. You can see that listed there. So we can see here where angels could be used here, demonic forces, to carry out the purpose here of attacking and harming the apostate Israelites. So both good and evil angels are more directly involved in military affairs than we really realize, according to Daniel’s prophecy. Notice the contrast with the previous section in Chapter 9. We have the tormenting locusts in Chapter 9. You recall that we said these were demonic forces, and the fallen star from heaven, Heaven referred to Satan. He has to be given a key. He doesn’t have the key. He’s given the key to open up the bottomless pit and let out these forces. And they are tormenting demonic forces. But they’re only permitted to torment the Israelites. The army that’s led by the four angels now is said to kill a huge amount of these apostate. Jews, one third of them. The demon locusts were unseen, whereas this army is going to be visible. Now in verse 16, we have the phrase here, 200,000,000. This is an immense number, over 200 million soldiers. Ray Summers, in his book Worthy as the Lamb, has calculated that an actual army of this many men would form a column, them one mile wide, 85 miles long. I mean, this is quite a huge amount of people. It would be virtually impossible for a nation or even a coalition of nations to feel such a large army as this. The U.S. led coalition of 30 nations during the Gulf War in 91, only amounted to 1 million troops. The former Soviet Union once had a war. one of the largest armies in the world at 1.3 million men under arms. China had 2.3 million men under arms at that point as well. But like many of the large numbers in Revelation, we must not press a literal amount in this case, I don’t think. Rather, it appears that God portrays an immense, overwhelming army, so gigantic that it would be invincible. Josephus relates how the Romans employed psychological warfare against the Jews that were in Jerusalem. They had their Calvary all in their battle armor on and their plates and so forth, and then the soldiers were all with their breastplates on and everything, and they would march around. the city and to intimidate those who were in the city. Here’s what Josephus says in his wars, book 5, chapter 9, paragraph 1. So the soldiers, according to custom, opened the cases where in their arms before lay covered and marched with their breastplates on, as does the horsemen lead their horses and their fine trappings. Then did the places that were before. the city shine very splendidly for a great way, nor was there anything so grateful to Titus’ own men and so terrible to the enemy as that sight. For the whole old wall in the north side of the temple were full of spectators, and one might see the horses full of such as looked at them, nor was there any part of the city which was not covered over with their multitudes. nay, a very great consternation, seized upon the heartiest of the Jews themselves when they saw all the army in the same place together with the fineness of their arms and the good order of their men. So we have the angels of destruction lead forth here an immense overwhelming army. Is there any questions about that section? The second section here is. is the description of the army in verses 17 through 19. We read this. Thus I saw the horses in the vision, them that sat on them having breastplates of fire and of jason and brimstone. And the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions of lions, and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. And by these three were the third part of men killed by the fire and by the smoke, and by the the brimstone which issued out of their mouths for their power is in their mouth and in their tails their tails their tails were like under serpents and had heads with them they do hurt now you reminded here that this is all a picture of woe a vision he starts out here in verse 17 and thus i saw and we shouldn’t be thinking of this in a literal manner. He’s given us a symbolic portrayal here. It appears the riders on the horses had breastplates of the color of fire, Jasoneth, and brimstone. In other words, fiery red, hyacinth, blue, which is the same as the jacinth, and jacinth, and sulfur yellow, depicting the fire, red, the smoke, blue, and the brimstone here in yellow that came out of the mouse of the horses. Now the horses themselves were hideous monstrosities according to this passage. Dragon-like mouse, you might see them as breathing out fire like Leviathan in Job 41. They had heads of lions, because they come to devire, and they had devour, and they had. had tails like serpents because they had a poisonous bite. Evidently, if you escape the horse’s mouth and what they breathe out, and they go past you, they can still bite you with their tails. It seems to be the thoroughness of the destruction being portrayed here. Certainly, it conjures up a picture of sheer terror here that is going to be. brought to bear against the Jews. Just as Saul was said to breathe out threatening and slaughter at Christians in the book of Acts. So in the same way, these horses breathe out threatenings and slaughter against the Jews. The smoke and fire and brimstone are expressions of utter destruction in Scripture. For example, In Psalm 116, upon the wicked, he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone. This shall be the portion of their cup. Or as we read in the prophecy of Ezekiel, chapter 38, verse 22, on the judgment against Gog, I will reign upon him and upon his bands and upon many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, great hailstones, fire, and and brimstone. Both of these occasions are utter destruction. Look at Revelation 14. We touched on this before, but look at verses 8 through 11. When it talks about Babylon falling, it’s complete destruction. There followed another angel saying Babylon has fallen, has fallen, that great city because she made all nations drink of the wine, of the wrath of her fornication. and the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if any man worshipped the beast in his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, he shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, and the presence of the holy angels in the presence of the lamb, and the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receiveth the mark of his name. So we have the idea of total destruction. By the way, if you look at chapter 20 of the book of Revelation, and verse 10, what do we read about the lake of fire here? The devil that deceived them was killed. catch in the lake of fire in Brimsta where the beast and the false prophet are, and they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. So we see this kind of language being used in the book of Genesis chapter 19 and verse 28, when Abraham tries to spare the city of Sodom and Gomorra because of Lot’s presence, and he pleads with God, and the morning gets up and he goes up on the mountain top and he looks over, toward Sodom and what does he see? He looked towards Sodom and Gomorre and told all the land of the plain and behold and lo, the smoke of the city went up as the smoke of a furnace. Because God rained fire and brimstone upon those cities and utterly destroyed them. So this army of the Euphrates comes with the purpose of utterly destroying Israel. There’s no soft. there’s no mercy they are going to be ruthless any questions about the description of this army the last part of this did you anybody have anything the last part had to do with a refusal to repent here in chapter 19 or excuse me chapter 9 verses 20 and 21 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 in idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor are their thefts. The rest of the men here are referring to those who escape the judgment that we’ve just read about with the four angels unleashing the army of the Euphrates. And we see that a third part of the men of Israel are going to be destroyed, but there are some that remain. The indication in verse 20 and 21 is that both tables of the law are violated, whether it comes to the worship of God, or where it comes to the behavior that they engage in, both thefts and sorceries and all these things. murders and so forth. All these things indicate violations of the law. Both tables are touched upon here, which means that they were not obeying the law of God. The question arises, did the Jews really worship demons? Did they really worship idols? Please remember that God has already spoken of apostate Jews in Chapter 3 of the Book of Revelation as belonging to what? of Satan. Now think about that. They’re the synagogue of Satan. Their involvement is involving themselves in their worship with Satan. The satanic character of the perverse form of Judaism that was prevalent at this time can be seen in their rejection and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Forsaking Christ, the Jews actually became worshipers of the beast. When it came to, we have no king but Caesar, and the rejection of Christ, the true king, we see who they picked. So in their own way, the Jews were worshipping the image of the beast. Nor do we know to what extent the demonic plague upon them drove them to worship the various gods of idols of gold, and silver and brass and stone and wood and everything else. We don’t know. closes the book of 1 John with a solemn warning. Remember that warning was 1 John 521? Little children keep yourselves from idols. And so we can see the danger could definitely be something that was dominant at the time and he has to warn Christian people not to get caught up in it. And speaking to the seven churches. Christ condemns those who brought idol worship and sexual immorality into the churches. He uses the names Jezebel and Bealum, and describing them in Chapter 2, verses 14 and 20. Both Jezebel and Balam sabotaged the nation of Israel by idolatrous worship. Remember, Alimus, the Jew that Paul and Barnumus ran into on the island of Crete on their first missionary journey. He was a Jew, but what was he? Alimus the sorcerer. He was practicing sorcery. One of the things it’s mentioned here in verse 21. You read that in Acts 19, verses 13 to 15. Shouldn’t be thought strange then that the Jews, an apostate as they were, might be involved in sorceries at this time. When one turns away from the true God, one often ends up worshipping Satan and gets involved in all kinds of demonic activities. As for fornication, we must realize it’s not just sexual sin that we could be talking about here. Certainly, we know that spiritual fornication was the mark. of the Great Harlot in Revelation 17, apostate Jerusalem. So here is the circumstance. Josephus bears some eloquent testimony to this whole matter, writing repeatedly of God’s wrath’s wrath against the apostasy of the Jewish nation. He says this in his Jewish Wars chapter, book four, Chapter 6, paragraph 3. These men, therefore, trampled upon all the laws of man, and laughed at the laws of God. And as for the oracles of the prophets, they ridiculed them as tricks of jugglers. Yet did these prophets foretell many things concerning the rewards of virtue and the punishments of vice, which when these zealots violated, they occasioned the fulfilling of those very prophecies belonging to their own country. Neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful and wickedness than this was from the beginning of the world. I suppose that had the Romans made any longer delay in coming against these villains, the city would either have been swallowed up by the ground opening upon them or been overflowed by water or else been destroyed by such thunder as the country of Sodom perished by, for it had been brought forth, for it had brought forth a generation of men much more atheistical than were those that suffered such punishments, for by their madness, it was all, it was that all the people came to be destroyed. If we read this and we look at it, how hard. must men’s hearts be that the most extreme form of divine judgment doesn’t seem to move them to repent. Men in his natural unrepententant state is incapable of repentance. Outward events, even God’s judgments cannot by themselves induce repentance. You need an inward change. You need an inward change. You need a new heart produced by the Spirit of God to repent of your sins. Repentance is a divine gift in something that unaided man cannot do. So the sixth trumpet here. The symbolic images of this chapter, when carefully, I think, examined, can be understood to apply to John’s generation. Even the futurist, who you recall, or the literalist when they come to this book, even they see this as symbolic in their interpretation of this kind of language. Any questions about this section? Let me make then some observations on chapter 9. The first is this. You should realize there is demonic activity in the world. We see that in the first part of chapter 9. You don’t wrestle against mere flesh and blood, which is to be the opposition of man, but against principalities against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Ephesians 6, 12. Satan is horde of demons actively work doing all sorts of evil in this world. Now, these powers of darkness can only deceive men and harm in them and destroy them. As they are given permission, people, I think, would be actually horrified if they knew the danger that they are in as unbelievers. How susceptible they are to the powers of darkness. And when given divine permission, demons were eagerly torment those they’ve deceived. They have teeth as lions and stings, stingers as scorpions, in order to inflict pain and misery on their victims. There may be pleasure and sin for a season, but if God turns loose his demonic forces here, if he lets them loose, sinful men will be greatly tormented. The second part of this chapter deals with the outpouring of God’s judgment upon the ungodly. God often turns the enemies of his people against one another. The apostate Jews and the heathen Romans are both turned against one another, to fight one another, in order that one will destroy the other. God can raise up a vast army from a great distance away to accomplish his bidding, and he catches people off guard by this tactic. You might think there’s no danger, and all of a sudden, from a great distance away, here from all the way at the far boundary here of the Roman Empire at the Euphrates River, all of a sudden, destruction is going to come. Notice how God’s instruments of judgment here, in this case, the Roman Empire and their auxiliary forces, though formidable and powerful, have limits set on them by God. They can only kill a third part of these apostate Jews. When God’s judgments are unleashed, people should repent. They should turn. from their sinful ways, and yet they stubbornly cling to their sins. They refuse to repent, which leads to their inevitable destruction. Even the heaviest blows, a divine judgment unaccompanied by divine grace, cannot produce repentance. Men will always remain hardened in their sins if the grace of God does not reach out to them and touch them. Any other thoughts, or maybe there’s some practical thoughts that I haven’t touched on, any other things about this chapter that you could think of.