02.28. LECTURE No. 28 -- Rev_9:13-21
LECTURE No. 28 -- Revelation 9:13-21
God’s Judgment under the Sixth Trumpet - The Only Safe Principal of Interpretation Is A Voice from the Altar - The Altar a Place of Judgment and Sacrifice - Job Had a Altar - We Have an Altar - The Voice of the Altar - What It Meant - Judgment Has Become a Necessity - A Great Army of Two Hundred Million - Not the Battle of Armageddon As Some People Think - The Foolishness of Unbelief - Even under Judgment Men Will Refuse to Repent
IN our last lesson based upon Revelation 9:1-12, we considered those things which will come upon the earth at the sound of the Fifth Trumpet. We discovered from the Word of God that, following the sounding of the Fifth Trumpet, a plague of infernal locusts will come forth from the bottomless pit to torment men for a period of five months, during which time they shall desire to die and death shall flee from them.
Advance Lesson Now let us continue our study by reading what is written in Revelation 9:13-21, where it says,-
“And the sixth angel sounded, and 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 great river Euphrates.
“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.
“And the number of the army on the horses were two hundred thousand, thousand: and I heard the number of them.
“And thus I saw the horses in a vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstones: 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 was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.
“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.
“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:
“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
This passage, my friends, is somewhat similar to the one which we studied in our last lesson, in that it deals with things that are supernatural. The general theme of the passage is, that of well deserved judgments upon the wicked of the whole earth.
Principal of Interpretation
We have already stated our principle of interpretation of this remarkable book of prophecy. We believe the only safe principle of interpretation is to accept any passage as literal, unless otherwise implied in the text or context, and shall adhere to this same principle interpretation in our study of this passage. In doing so we shall save a lot of time, and I am sure will avoid a lot of unnecessary confusion.
Theme The theme of the entire passage is suggested in Revelation 9:13, where it says,
“And the Sixth Angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God.”
This statement, I am sure, is rather difficult for the average reader to understand, because many people have not made a careful study of the Old Testament scriptures concerning the use of the altar. We know that the Tabernacle which Moses built, with its altar, and ether articles of furniture, was made after the pattern of the true Tabernacle in the heavenlies.
On the ancient altar there were horns into which the blood of the sacrifice was poured, which flowed down into a pit beneath the altar. They were not mere ornaments, therefore, but were placed there for this specific purpose, namely, to receive the blood of sacrifice offered for the sins of the people on the great Day of Atonement, or whenever the people sought to purge themselves from their transgressions, by bringing the required sacrifice. The Blood of Abel When Cain slew Abel, Abel’s blood cried unto God from the ground, which had received Abel’s blood; and so when a man in Israel had brought the required sacrifice, and the blood of the sacrifice had been poured into those horns on the altar, the blood of the atoning substitute cried, as it were, unto God, to bestow mercy upon the guilty sinner.
Ordinarily, therefore, the altar, and the horns thereof, represented the place of sacrifice, where guilty men received grace and mercy from the Lord.
The fact, therefore, that when the sixth Angel sounded there was a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God at the true sanctuary in the heavens, is very significant. A Place of Mercy The fact that the horns of the altar were looked upon as a place of mercy is suggested and confirmed in 1 Kings 1:50, where it says,
“And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.”
By this act he sought to express his repentance; and he knew that if he was to receive mercy at all, he could only receive it at the place of mercy, thus he sought the forgiveness of Solomon and the favor of God, and received them both by taking hold of the horns of the altar. A Place of Judgment But exactly the opposite is true in our lesson. At the sounding of the Sixth Trumpet, John said, “I heard a voice from the four horns of the Golden Altar which is before God.”
Was this a voice crying for mercy upon the wicked of the whole earth? No, indeed! This was no voice calling for mercy upon sinful men, because, according to our lesson text, no sacrifice had been brought which would cause the voice of the altar to cry for mercy.
On the other hand, quite the contrary was true.
It would seem here, as if the altar itself was crying unto God to send forth the spirit of vengeance as if it has been sinned against.
The altar has always been a means of approach unto God ever since man first sinned in the Garden. Cain and Abel were first required to bring an offering unto the Lord. We know also that Noah built an altar unto the Lord immediately after he came forth from the Ark, and offered sacrifices of clean beasts thereon, which were as a sweet smelling savor unto God.
Job Had an Altar The Patriarch Job also offered up sacrifices on the altar in behalf of his own sons and daughters, and when Moses pitched the Tabernacle in the wilderness, the Altar became an established part of the worship of Israel.
There was also a great altar before the Temple that stood in Jerusalem.
We Have an Altar
Today, in the day of grace, the author of the Book of Hebrew says, in Hebrews 13:10, “We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the Tabernacle.”
In other words, since Jesus as our atoning substitute, shed His blood for us on the cross and ascended into heaven, we can pray any time and any where, and if we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as God’s Son, and as our Saviour, we can be saved. A Cry from the Altar
Why then do we have this cry from the horns of the altar, which is suggested in our lesson text?
When the Sixth Trumpet is sounded, why will a voice be heard coming from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God? There is only one answer! And that is, because men have rejected God’s only way of salvation!
In olden times those who sinned against the altar, by refusing to bring the required sacrifice, were cut off from Israel. In this day of grace those who sin by refusing to accept the sacrifice which Jesus made for them upon the cross, are judged unworthy of eternal life, and shall be denied the glories and the privileges of heaven.
The cry that shall come from the horns of the altar, therefore, will not be a cry for mercy, but a cry for vengeance and for judgment upon those who have rejected God’s plan of salvation.
Need for Judgment The need for judgment upon the wicked of the whole earth is suggested by the nature of the plague which is to follow upon the sounding of the Sixth Trumpet.
According to our lesson text the voice from the golden altar will speak to the Sixth Angel, which has the Trumpet, saying, “Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.”
This is a striking command and one which is well worthy of our consideration; for it says in the fifteenth verse, “The four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and for a year, for to slay the third part of men.”
It is reasonable to believe that since these four angels are bound in the area of the great river Euphrates, that they are fallen angels of some sort who kept not their first estate, and in consequence are bound and are no longer at liberty.
The Apostle Peter speaks in 2 Peter 2:4, saying, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast the down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment, etc.”
These four angels, therefore, no doubt belong to that class of Angels, and they are bound, and no matter what their will or wish may, they will be restrained from doing it until the sounding of the Sixth Trumpet, at which time they will be released for an hour, and a day and a month and year, which will be a period of thirteen months and one day and one hour. This statement gives the exact duration the plague described in our lesson text. A Bible Expositor Says: The fact that these angels are bound in the area of the Euphrates River is of considerable interest and importance, his book on the Apocalypse, Seiss says on this point,-
“It was in this locality that the power of evil made their first attempts again the human race. It was in this locality that the first murder was committed, it was in this region that the great apostasies, both before and after the flood had their centers. It was in this region that Israel’s most oppressive enemies resided, and that the Jews were compelled to drag out the long and weary years of their great captivity.
“It was in this region that the great oppressive world powers took their commencement. It is the region where all this world’s beginnings were made- where man first saw the light, first sinned, fell from his estate, and vanished from paradise, and introduced all earth’s miseries - where Satan first alighted upon our planet, won his first triumphs and first set his foul agencies against man in operation.
“The Euphrates itself is one of the primeval rivers, and the only one we know of that remains, and there, where guilt came in the place of innocence, and Babylon supplanted Eden, and hell sent up its Upas, instead of the tree of life, and death came in upon the children of men,-these four fallen sons of light, with their evil hosts, rave in the bonds imposed in mercy, but, at the appointed hour, in wrath to be relaxed, that earth’s blaspheming millions may feel what shall then have been so richly merited.” A Great Army
We are now ready to consider the great army of infernal horsemen which are to be released upon the world at the sounding of the Sixth Trumpet, and the loosing of the four angels.
We are told plainly that the number of them is to be two hundred thousand thousand, in other words, two hundred million.
Now some expositors would have us believe that the army of horsemen spoken of here are the same as those spoken of in Ezekiel 38:1-23, who are to come down from the north against the Holy city and the Holy people and the Holy land in the latter days of the Present dispensation.
They also would have us believe that what is stated here represents the march of the armies of the earth to the Battle of Armageddon. But, my friends, there is absolutely no way of confirming this from the scriptures. Not the Army from the North
What is stated here in this passage does not represent the armies from the north, spoken of in Ezekiel 38:1-23. Every effort to make these words fit into the situation described in Ezekiel 38:1-23 breaks down at every point, and the same is true in regard to the Battle of Armageddon, which will not take place until the very close of the Tribulation period. Not the Battle of Armageddon And let me state right here that the Battle of Armageddon will not be a battle between the nations of the earth, but will be a battle between the armies of the earth, led by the Antichrist, against the armies of Heaven, led by the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is confirmed in Revelation 19:11-21. We shall have more to say about this later when we come to that portion of our study. But for today let it suffice to say that the army spoken of here DOES NOT represent the armies of Ezekiel the 38th chapter, nor the Battle of Armageddon.
If such were intended, it certainly would be implied in the lesson text. But since there is nothing stated, or implied, which would cause us to believe this, we must of necessity accept the Word as it is written, and believe that when the Sixth Trumpet is sounded, and the four angels are loosed, a great army of infernal cavalry numbering two hundred million, will be loosed upon the earth for to slay the third part of men. The Creatures Described As to the description of these infernal creatures, the Apostle John said,
“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. 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. 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.”
It is significant to notice, in this description, that the riders upon the horses are only mentioned, and are in no wise described. It is to be the creatures themselves who do the damage, and who will kill the third part of men.
Unbelief Refuses to Believe
I know there are a lot of people who will say there were never any such creatures seen upon the earth, and therefore they assume that there never could be, but in this they are mistaken. You can depend upon this, my friends, that when God has written a certain thing in His Word for our instruction, He is well able, out of His storehouse of wisdom, and by His creative power, to perform and fulfill every word which He has written, however impossible it might seem to us at the present time.
A few years back the ordinary man would have said that such a thing as present day radio was utterly impossible. He would have said the same thing regarding airplanes, and television, and many other things of our modern world; but today, these things are present realities, and even though they seemed impossible, they have come to pass.
Therefore, when God says in His Word that He is going to send an army of two hundred million infernal horsemen upon the earth, at the sounding of the Sixth Trumpet, to slay the third part of men, and gives to us a description of the creatures which are to be sent forth, and describes the manner in which they to perform their work of destruction, I am compelled to believe exactly what God has written for our instruction.
I wonder when we will cease to limit God by our own narrow conception of things, and by our wicked unbelief?
They Repented Not
Now in Revelation 9:20-21 of our lesson text it says,
“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: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts!”
These words are a summary of those conditions which will exist upon the earth at that time, and they show clearly the necessity of the terrible plague and the awful judgment, just described which will come upon men at the sounding of the Sixth Trumpet. It reveals that such extreme judgment will then well deserved.
Idolatry to Be Revived The first thing mentioned is, that when these things occur, men will be worshiping devils, and that there will be revival of idol worship. It seems hard to believe that men would worship devils but they do, nevertheless! This is confirmed in 1 Corinthians 10:20-21, where the Apostle Paul said, “But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s Table and of the table of devils.”
Personal Experience
Personally, I know the truth of what is stated here. During six years I lived in Japan, Korea and China, and have seen with my own eyes heathen people offering sacrifices and praying to demons. If it is a terrible thing to think about, it is far worse to witness these things, and be made to realize the state and condition and the spiritual danger of that soul which engages in these things.
Those who engage in demon worship are subject to demon possession.
Thus, in olden times, there were those who had familiar spirits and unclean spirits and lying spirits of every kind.
Even King Saul, when he knew that God had forsaken him, went to the Witch of Endor for advice. Ahab listened to the lying Prophets who were inspired by wicked spirits, and followed them to his doom.
The Apostle Paul cast an evil spirit out of a girl at Philippi who troubled him, and brought upon himself the anger of those who owned the girl, because she brought them much gain.
Even Our Own Country And it is needless to say, my friends that not only in heathen lands, but also in so-called Christian lands, our own country included, devil worship is being carried on under the name of so-called spiritualism. We do not need to be surprised at this; for in 1 Timothy 4:1-3, it says,
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies and hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”
Indeed, my friends, what one of us dare say that these things are not coming to pass in these very days in which we live. The great falling away and the apostasy are upon us, and men are being turned from the truth unto fables, and “God will send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Men Will Kill Each Other
Another outstanding characteristic of the age, as it will be then, will be the spirit of murder, which will be abroad in the land. We all know this terrible sin is increasing every day, and there is not a single day but what our attention is called to this awful crime committed somewhere near at hand, or in distant places in our own country. We think it is terrible now, but it will be much worse by the time these things come to pass, which are mentioned in our lesson text.
Still Refuse to Repent
It says also that they repented not of their sorceries. This would indicate that many will be deceived by modern witchcraft, and the enchantments which men will use to lead men to their own destruction. Some things you are hearing over the radio these days are only a prelude of those things that are to come.
It says also, “They repented not of their fornication nor of their thefts.”
You know as well as I do that these two sins are becoming more and more prevalent, and that our own country, in many places, is well nigh turned already into a modern Sodom and Gomorrah.
- The social sin has been the forerunner, and the downfall, of every great nation of antiquity, and our fair land will be no exception if we persist in going the road we are now traveling.
- The social sin will surely lead to moral degeneracy, and to spiritual bankruptcy.
- The social sin also leads to sins of violence, such as murder and robbery, etc.
It is a sad comment on present day conditions that in nearly every bank robbery that is reported in our newspapers, when the facts are known there is usually a woman in the case. When the womanhood of any nation loses its virtue, that nation is just as surely headed for the judgments of God, as God’s Word is true!
Now the startling thing in our lesson text is that after one third of the earth’s population shall have been killed, it says, that “the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues-repented not.”
Considering the state of society, one would think that God could scarce restrain from destroying them all from the face of the earth, yet in His wrath, He will remember mercy upon some when this terrible plague comes upon the earth, and only one-third of the population of the earth will be killed. How wonderful that in the midst of judgment He will remember mercy upon so many of the earth’s population, and how terrible on the other hand that those who witness these things will in no wise be touched by them. By that time they will have hardened the hearts to such an extent that in the face of such terrible plagues, and testimony of God against them, they will continue right on in sin.
Like the Rich Man’s Brethren In the account given by our Lord, in Luke 16:1-31, concerning the rich man and Lazarus, you will remember that the rich man, who was in hell said, “I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou wouldst send him to my Father’s house, for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment”, then, “Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them, and he said, Nay, Father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead they would repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”
~ end of lecture 28 ~