REVELATION UNCOVERED 8:TRUMPETS & TROUBLES MORNING MESSAGE A CHANGE IN ANGLES As we went through the first angle of the Great Tribulation, there were a few big principles: From the seven seals we saw, the horses were forces; war, civil strife, and environmental disaster. We are unleashed on ourselves. To a certain respect, mankind, although out of control, exercises control on many of those things. During the tribulation, the vision speaks of the lost, and of God s people. As of yet, there is no mention of anyone taken up or raptured; there s just these two groups going through the trials. In the next angle of the Tribulation, the emphasis moves from what happens on earth to what happens above and below. It highlights cosmic and demonic forces of which we have absolutely no control, but God is still perfectly in control. This evening, we ll look at the cosmic events, but this morning, we re skipping ahead to chapter 9. The demonic forces are trickier imagery but vital to understand. I ve heard a few preachers raise an idea that s hard to dismiss. They think that, as the culture moves farther from Christ, we are moving back to a spiritual condition as before Christ. Reading through the Gospels we find a lot of demonic possession and oppression. Perhaps there s more to that than, just a bunch of ignorant ancients who hadn t studied Freud yet! In our day; Catholic priests to protestant ministers, feel this situation is even now underway! Let s use our imaginations a little. In this age of science and empiricism, how do you think the culture would react to actual demonic influences? For example, consider the behavior of possessed people in Christ s time; seizures, excessive violence, and strange speaking; don t you think we d slap a medical label on it and prescribe a few pills? -But what if some of these behavioral problems were actually supernatural? THE FIFTH TRUMPET: LOCUSTS As we go into this part of Revelation, we find something unexpected; even with the unleashing of demonic forces, God is actually acting in love and mercy. But to understand that, we need some background, so here we go... The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss [pit]. When he opened the Abyss [pit of the abyss], smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss [pit]. And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. (Rev 9:1-6) Let s go step by step through the imagery, first Who or what is the fallen star? This fallen star is handed a key, so we are talking a who, and not a what. So who is the fallen star? Here s the most solid line of Biblical reasoning. Isaiah 14:12 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, [O shining star, son of the morning!] How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! 1
REVELATION UNCOVERED 8:TRUMPETS & TROUBLES MORNING MESSAGE Luke 10:18 And [Jesus] said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. It is very likely, the key is given to Satan. And the place the key opens is named by two different words that are used interchangeably. If we look at both words, we get the full meaning: pit (freh -ar) a hole in the ground, for holding water or other purposes, such as a prison. abyss (ab -us-sos) depthless or bottomless. It is not hell, per se; it is a place (perhaps temporary) where demonic forces are held. The concept of the abyss underwent development in Jewish thought. In Gen. 1 6-7, it was the chaos of the heavens, the waters that God put in order. The waters were imprisoned to give way for the land. (There was the idea of a subterranean sea.) From that, it was seen as the abode and prison of God s enemies. The bottom line: It is the place of an evil underworld that is supernatural in nature. From this place come locusts, but locusts don t breed in the underworld, they breed in the sand, so they obviously serve as imagery for something other than ordinary locusts. -But even so, why locusts? We live in the land of little grasshoppers, not giant locust swarms. So to gain an appreciation, we need to get in the Middle Eastern mind of John. How do Middle Eastern people see locusts? The Bible scholar, Barclay describes their experience like this: The destruction [locusts] cause is beyond belief. When they have left an area, not a blade of grass is to be seen; the trees are stripped of their bark. Land where the locusts have settled looks as if it had been scorched with a bush fire; not one single living thing is left. Their destructiveness can best be appreciated from the fact that it is recorded that in 1866 a plague of locusts invaded Algiers and so total was the destruction which they caused that 200,000 people perished of famine in the days which followed. Egypt and Yemen suffered this kind of devastation just 2 years ago! So, the image is a force of overwhelming numbers that destroys all living sustenance; death and famine always follow. And there s virtually nothing a nation can do about it. Locusts are the image of unstoppable destroyers. But as bad as they are, these are no usual locusts. Their origin is demonic. And what s more, their behavior is unnatural. Locusts don t attack people, they decimate the food supply. These locusts do the opposite; they don t touch plants but attack people. It s even more than that; they only attack certain people whom they distinguish on a spiritual basis. They attack only those WITHOUT the seal of God on their forehead. We ve already covered the centuries of symbolism for this. The forehead is how one thinks; our convictions, awareness, and the way we do life. God essentially, seals His presence in the mind. This tells us two things: 1. The locusts are supernatural in nature, and- 2. God s people are on the earth, while this is going on. However, it makes sense that God s people are protected against a demonic force. Those without the seal are attacked, but not to death. It is like a scorpion sting, which is incredibly painful, but rarely fatal. 2
The people will seek death and not find it. In a biology course, we were told the basic effect of salmonella food poisoning was: at first you re afraid that you re going to die, and then you re afraid you won t! -It is a tongue in cheek way of describing profound suffering. In the vision, John is attributed a physical image to this demonic force: The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women s hair, and their teeth were like lions teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer). (Rev. 9:7-11) These locusts take on the look of war horses. The crowns are stephanos ; they wear a conqueror s crown. They have human faces; this imagery suggests that they aren t mindless bugs, but attack with a malicious human-like intelligence. The fact that they follow a demonic king supports the idea. They have lion s mouths; that suggests they are fierce. The woman s hair, to me anyway, might imply a twisted or out of place beauty about them as well. Breastplates reflect the exoskeleton of insects, and imply invulnerability. People are stung and they can t even fight back! The demonic creatures follow a leader, named Abaddon or Apollyon which translates to, destroyer, we may know it as the angel of death or possibly, the Grim Reaper, which is interesting because this demonic force cause suffering, but death is denied! The five months of torture is well short of a year. The imagery suggests an incomplete, or a limited time of affliction. But it s followed by an even worse supernatural event. THE SIXTH TRUMPET: FOUR ANGELS AT THE EUPHRATES The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number. The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury. (Revelation 9:13-19) Release of four angels. These are not heavenly angels. For example, the four angels we ve encountered already, held back the winds, they didn t cause them. These creatures thirst for violence, they re more like vicious dogs, straining at the chain. So it s safe to assume they are demonic, just like the creatures they are following. the next symbol is The Great River Euphrates- If we refer to Gen. 15:18, Deut. 1:7, we find the Euphrates was God s design for the boundary of the Promised Land. These demonic forces, who were once held out, are now released into God s land. 3
The army of this demonic force is legion. Like the demonic locust, they are overwhelming and unstoppable. But the imagery has changed. Now the invaders have the authority to take life. In John s time, they probably bring to mind a people who have already been implied; the Parthians. The Parthians were considered a savage unstoppable horde that was legendary with bows from horseback. What s more, they had a tradition of braiding their horses tails so they looked like snakes. The nations shuttered at the thought of them. So we get the picture of a demonic force that is merciless, invulnerable, and once banished; is now unleashed. The colors of the breastplate match their weapons- fire, smoke, and sulfur Lions are the imagery of fierceness, but these are no natural lions; they spew three plagues from their mouths that are different but yet; associated. Fire can be a painful affliction; and it is also an ignition source. Sulfur is also known as brimstone; meaning burning rock. This is a different affliction beyond simple fire. The melting temperature of sulfur is much lower than its ignition temperature. So when exposed to flame, the sulfur first melts and then burns as a liquid. The affect would be more like napalm. As for the smoke: Melting and burning sulfur puts off a gas that smells like rotten eggs. But far worse; it turns to acid when combined with water; like, say the moisture in our breath. So guess what happens when it s breathed it in! This demonic breath is essentially three ways to be burned to death. WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR US? That is some background to the imagery; and I do stress, IMAGERY; so what does it mean really? It s almost incidental whether these creatures are physical or unseen spiritual forces; the point is this: An element of the Tribulation is an overwhelming demonic force. This aspect of the Tribulation is totally beyond human control. The full wrath of this force will be upon those outside of God s family; but, not completely. It is important to note that only 1/3 of humanity is afflicted. That is significant, but it is not absolute; this tells us something very important. It tells us that God has not completely given up on humanity. We are in the end of days here. Sin is well advanced in its disease, but not yet to the point of no return. God, in His mercy and love, is giving one last great warning. Why would we think that? -As often happens in Scripture, we glean the foundational issue at the close of the chapter: The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts. (Rev. 9:20-21) How could it be that people would remain so stubborn in such obvious judgment? It seems like that s becoming less of a mystery every day, doesn t it? When people distance themselves from God, their views becomes so distorted, they lose sight of good from evil. When people distance themselves from God, they lose any sense of reverence or holiness. Such virtues are foolish. When people distance themselves from God, they fall in love with darkness, even as it consumes them. 4
In short, when people distance from God, they have neither the sense nor the will to change direction. The warning is not just for the lost, but for the believer as well. The Tribulation is proof against a myth we hold dear; trials naturally drive people to God. It is far more likely that trials will drive a casual faith in the opposite direction. The time to get right with God is BEFORE the trials hit. You ve probably heard the old Puritan saying, The same sun which melts wax hardens clay. When we hold a casual faith, we are still, pretty much clay, and the heat will come in some form. The ones who overcome are those who are sealed beforehand, they have washed their robes beforehand. Now is our beforehand ; judging by the nature of your faith, what will the heat do to you? 5