Revelation 9 – The Fifth and Sixth Seals
“Then
the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven
to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. He opened the
shaft of the abyss; and smoke rose up from the shaft, like smoke from a huge
furnace. The sun and air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft. Then
locusts came forth from the smoke and onto the earth. They were given power
like the power that scorpions have on the earth. They were told not to hurt the
grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree. They could only hurt the
people who didn’t have the seal of God on their foreheads. The locusts weren’t
allowed to kill them, but only to make them suffer for five months—and the
suffering they inflict is like that of a scorpion when it strikes a person. In
those days people will seek death, but they won’t find it. They will want to
die, but death will run away from them.
“The
locusts looked like horses ready for battle. On their heads were what seemed to
be gold crowns. Their faces were like human faces, their hair was like women’s
hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. In front they
had what seemed to be iron armor upon their chests, and the sound of their
wings was like the sound of many chariots and horses racing into battle. They
also have tails with stingers, just like scorpions; and in their tails is their
power to hurt people for five months. Their king is an angel from the abyss,
whose Hebrew name is Abaddon, and whose Greek name is Apollyon. The first
horror has passed. Look! Two horrors are still coming after this” (verses 1-12).
The first four seals affect nature directly
and pressure humanity. The next two seals directly target humanity
specifically. This is a judgment on the world to produce repentance (change of
mind and behavior).
The fifth seal is the unleashing of the
locusts from hell. These are not man-made, specifically they are described as
originating from “the abyss.” Their king
is “Abaddon” (Hebrew) or Apollyon (Greek).
The name would translate into English as “Destroyer.” According to
Jesus, Satan’s “job description” is to “steal, kill, and destroy” [see John
10:10].
Their target and time frame of the locusts are
specific. For five months they are given reign to torture but not kill
humans. Their power is likened to the
scorpion, whose sting is an intense burning sensation. Death will not be
possible [9:6] even though it is sought/desired during these five months. The
reality is that death would bring an eternity of misery worse than what they
are experiencing. Even in wrath, God is showing mercy.
“Then the
sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the
gold 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.’ Then the
four angels who had been made ready for that hour, day, month, and year were
released to kill a third of humankind. The number of cavalry
troops was two hundred million. I heard their number. And this is the way I saw
the horses and their riders in the vision: they had breastplates that were
fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The horses’ heads were like lions’
heads, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and sulfur. By these three
plagues a third of humankind was killed: by the fire, smoke, and sulfur coming
out of their mouths. The horses’ power is in their mouths and
their tails, for their tails are like snakes with heads that inflict injuries” (verses 13-19).
The sixth seal releases four angels from the
Euphrates River. These have been prepared for this moment. They are given power
to kill one third of the world’s population. In Revelation 6:8 one fourth of
humanity is killed. This adds up to 58%
of the world’s population as of March 1, 2015 and would be about 4.3 billion
dead. They command 200 million cavalry troops.
A tendency has been to mistakenly identify these as the number of troops
at the battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16:16).
The words translated 200,000,000 is literally
“two, myriad, myriad” or “two, ten-thousand, ten-thousand.” The latter
translation would be the three numbers multiplied together to equal 200
million. (As of 2010 India had about 600 million people available for military
service and a standing military of 1,325,000. China has a standing army of
2.285 million with a reserve of 2.3 million. The largest army in the world is
Vietnam with 5.5 million active and reserve. The number could also indicate two
separate groups of ten-thousand each. However the Greek understanding of
“myriad” was “uncountable.” The point is
this number might mean “two infinities times infinity” as a dynamic
equivalency.
What are these things? How would John, a first
century writer, describe our war machines?
He has no language to name them so he describes them in common images.
Another idea is that John is describing creatures that we have not yet begun to
be able to think could possibly exist.
The rest
of humankind, who weren’t killed by these plagues, didn’t change their hearts
and lives and turn from their handiwork. They didn’t stop worshipping demons
and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can’t see or
hear or walk. They didn’t turn away from their murders, their spells and drugs,
their sexual immorality, or their stealing (verses 20-21).
The point of the seals comes down to
Revelation 9:20 – 21. Humanity will NOT repent.
The pressure increases but hearts only harden. Punishment or correction
does NOT bring change, repentance, or reformation. At this point the world
clings to worshiping demons and idols. A demon, in the Bible, is a fallen
angel. An idol is a substitute for God. Yet people stick to the worship of the
false gods. They do not turn from
murders, sorceries (spells and drugs), sexual immorality, and stealing.
Revelation 10 – “The Mystery”
God does not tell “all.” The only thoughts we
can know are revealed by God. There are
two types of revelation, general and special. First, “general revelation”
involves what can be observed and what can be deduced or known intuitively.
Observed:
- “Ever since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities—God’s eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through the things God has made. So humans are without excuse” [Romans 1:20].
- “Heaven is declaring God’s glory; the sky is proclaiming his handiwork. One day gushes the news to the next, and one night informs another what needs to be known. Of course, there’s no speech, no words— their voices can’t be heard— but their sound extends throughout the world; their words reach the ends of the earth” [Psalm 19:1 – 4].
Deduced/intuitive:
- “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt and do evil things; not one of them does anything good” [Psalm 14:1].
- “God has made everything fitting in its time, but has also placed eternity in their hearts, without enabling them to discover what God has done from beginning to end” [Ecclesiastes 3:11].
The second type of revelation is called
“special revelation.” Special revelation has three sources: the Bible, Jesus,
and the Holy Spirit.
- Bible: “In the past, God spoke through the prophets to our ancestors in many times and many ways” [Hebrews 1:1].
- Jesus: “In these final days, though, he spoke to us through a Son. God made his Son the heir of everything and created the world through him” [Hebrews 1:2].
- Holy Spirit: “However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you in all truth. He won’t speak on his own, but will say whatever he hears and will proclaim to you what is to come” [John 16:13].
God does NOT tell us everything. John tells
us, “When the seven thunders spoke, I was
about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Seal up what the seven
thunders have said, and don’t write it down” [Revelation 10:4].
John is invited to heaven to view what was to
come from Jesus’ perspective. He records
what he sees, as it is happening. To
John this is historical, to us it yet to happen (assuming a “futurist” reading
is correct).
For whatever reason we are not told; John is
prohibited from writing down the seven thunders. From this we see God demonstrating His
control over information, the understanding of information, and the application
of that information. Either this
information would be something misused or completely misunderstood. Either way
there are two images from the Old Testament.
Daniel is told to “seal up” the information given to him. Ezekiel is told to eat the scroll.
Despite the fact there is much God does not
reveal to us, there is much that He does.
This information is vital to us.
What is God revealing to us in this chapter? In verse six we see that
God “lives forever.” God has no beginning or end. The implication is that of
absolute power. No one can seriously challenge God. Verse six also claims that
God is the creator. In other words, God
designed, made, and sustains creation (heavens, earth, sea, “and that is in
it/them”). The implication is that of ownership.
Throughout the Bible there is an interesting
theme of “mystery.”
- “May the glory be to God who can strengthen you with my good news and the message that I preach about Jesus Christ. He can strengthen you with the announcement of the secret [mystery] that was kept quiet for a long time. Now that secret is revealed through what the prophets wrote. It is made known to the Gentiles in order to lead to their faithful obedience based on the command of the eternal God” [Romans 16:25 – 26].
- “You’ve heard and seen all this—won’t you admit it? From now on I’ll tell you new things, guarded secrets that you don’t know. They are created now, not long ago; before today you hadn’t heard of them, so you won’t say, “’I already knew them’” [Isaiah 48:6 – 7].
- “God showed me his secret plan in a revelation, as I mentioned briefly before (when you read this, you’ll understand my insight into the secret plan about Christ). Earlier generations didn’t know this hidden plan that God has now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets through the Spirit. This plan is that the Gentiles would be coheirs and parts of the same body, and that they would share with the Jews in the promises of God in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I became a servant of the gospel because of the grace that God showed me through the exercise of his power. God gave his grace to me, the least of all God’s people, to preach the good news about the immeasurable riches of Christ to the Gentiles. God sent me to reveal the secret plan that had been hidden since the beginning of time by God, who created everything” [Ephesians 3:3 – 9].
- “I’m completing it with a secret plan that has been hidden for ages and generations but which has now been revealed to his holy people. God wanted to make the glorious riches of this secret plan known among the Gentiles, which is Christ living in you, the hope of glory” [Colossians 1:26 – 27].
- About Jesus: “Without question, the mystery of godliness is great: he was revealed as a human, declared righteous by the Spirit, seen by angels, preached throughout the nations, believed in around the world, and taken up in glory” [1 Timothy 3:16].
God has always an only had one plan:
Jesus. That plan had one purpose: holy
people. God asks us to do something with what we know (has been revealed to
us).
John’s example is twofold. In Revelation 5 the
sealed scroll is opened. In Revelation
10 he is told to eat the little scroll (like Ezekiel). The image of eating is an act of taking into
the body. The Bible is not just
philosophy. It governs what we do with our bodies, or attitudes, and our
behaviors. Eating is also an image of fueling, nourishing, and sustaining the
body.
After consuming God’s word, John is told to
“prophecy.” He is commanded to tell others what he knows. Notice this message
is what has been revealed to him, NOT what he wants to say. This message must come from God and be fully
processed by the messenger. It has personally affected him. It is sweet to receive but turns the stomach
sour. While the Bible is sweet to enjoy, processing it is difficult. Naturally
there is a reaction to it. Sometimes our sensitivities war against the Bible’s
truth and it make us sick.
What is God offering? God offers mercy and
grace to those who accept and eternal hell for those who reject. God offers the cross, a place of death, to
those who would follow Jesus or a place of judgment for those who do not die to
themselves and their sins. This speaking of God’s word is both of promise and
judgment. We have no choice. This is the
will of God.
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