Hello there! I’m glad you stopped back in today for our series in the book of The Revelation. This is important stuff, y’all. God promises blessings to those who read and heed this book, so why wouldn’t we read it? Oh, I know many people are frightened of it, so that is why we are walking through it slowly. I want you to gain confidence in Christ from the book of The Revelation. It is a book that tells us WE (the saved by grace children of God) WIN, and that Christ will take care of us. I want this study to deepen your love for, and trust in, God and Jesus.
Have you missed some posts in this series? There are about 50 of them that came before this one. Not a problem. Go HERE and you will find every single one of them linked in chronological order.
Today we return to the ninth chapter of Revelation where we will focus on verses 14-19. Last week we looked specifically at verse 13. If you missed that post, please go HERE and read it first. It will help you position the events of 14-19 appropriately.
Now, let’s refresh our memories of this entire passage.
13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God,
14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind.
16 The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number.
17 And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths.
18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths.
19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,
21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
There is a lot going on in verses 14-19, but today I want us to consider two pictures: the angels and the troops.
First, the angels. There are four of them and they have a mission. They have been prepared specifically for the day of the sixth trumpet. And not just the day, but the very hour that the trumpet is blown. This tells us that God has a plan and He is working that plan. Nothing happens by random chance in this world. The end will come according to God’s plan, and not one moment before His appointed time.
Scholars have debated whether these are ‘good’ angels or ‘bad’ angels. They have been bound, and are now released to kill one third of the human race. After the deaths that occur at this trumpet, well over half of the earth’s population will be gone. (Current world population is estimated to be 7.5 Billion.) These angels have been bound, and nowhere in Scripture do we find ‘good’ angels bound, so it makes sense to me that these are fallen angels; angels that chose Satan over God in the fall, but who are still under the ultimate authority of God.
Let’s turn our attention to the troops that are released. The focus falls on the horses rather than the horsemen, and we are told the exact number of them: twice ten thousand times ten thousand, or 200 million troops released for battle.
Much speculation has swirled over the origin of these troops. It really is a futile effort because the Bible simply does not tell us specific countries of origin for the troops. We are much better served to focus on what we are told about them. We know that these horses are likely not actual horses because of their description: they wore breastplates, had heads like lion and tails like serpents. They wound people with their tails. From their mouths spew sulfur, fire and smoke, and it will be these three elements that will be responsible for the deaths of 1/3 of mankind. Remember that millions have already died in the earlier judgments. So, let’s assume that one billion more people perish in this judgment. The entire earth is now population by around 3 billion people or less after the 6th trumpet judgment.
Y’all, I cannot even begin to describe what the earth will be like. People who have not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior will die from incineration and asphyxiation all over the globe. This gives us as close of a snapshot of hell on earth as humanity will have seen to this point, and God is not finished yet. Next week we will see how humanity responds to this devastation. Until then, stay close to Jesus and stay faithful.
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Would you like to know more about Jesus and why I chose to follow Him? Here are 8 reasons why I believe in Jesus.
In case you want to go deeper in your study, here is the link to another commentary on the book of Revelation that I use in my study.
