With the sixth trumpet, the severity of the judgments increases to yet another level. Let’s take a look at verses 13-21.
v.13, “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God”:
· John hears the sixth angel blow his horn:
o Then he hears a voice from the golden altar.
o He tells us that the voice came from the “four horns of the golden altar.”
o The question is, “Whose voice is it that speaks?”
o Some say it’s Jesus, but that doesn’t fit in this context.
o Some believe it’s the voice of the altar itself:
Ø But Revelation never explicitly says that inanimate objects speak.
o Others believe that this is the unified voice of the prayers of the saints that are associated with the golden altar:
Ø But the saints nowhere else issue a command to an angel.
Ø Also the word "voice" is singular, which means it can’t be the voices (plural) of the martyrs.
· Its best to take this as the angel of the golden altar that we saw back in 8:3:
o “And another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.”
· Here in 9:13, it literally reads, “this is the altar, the golden one, the one before God.”
· There are four horns on the altar, one at each corner.
· So the voice is coming from “from the four horns of the golden altar,” implies "from the midst of" them.
v.14, “one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ’Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates’”:
· The instructions to the sixth angel are from the angel of the altar and they are clear, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
· The article "the" in the phrase "the four angels," indicates that these four angels are familiar figures, but the reason for their familiarity is still unknown to us:
o They appear nowhere else in the Scriptures.
o They apparently serve as leaders of the invading army.
o Some have seen them as good angels because of their resemblance to the angels of 7:1:
Ø But those angels are at the four corners of the earth.
Ø And they’re not bound at the river Euphrates.
o Good angels are never bound.
· These are fallen angels who are kept bound until the divinely appointed time for them to perform as agents of God's wrath.
· The "great river" is a well known description for the Euphrates in the Old Testament:
o The Euphrates forms one of the borders of the land promised to Abraham and is the river that the enemies of God will cross, prior to the last conflict before the Millennium.
o Its headwaters are in the mountains of Armenia, and it joins the Tigress River in lower Babylon.
o The two rivers combining for length of 1800 miles.
o The Euphrates separated Israel from her two chief enemies: Assyria and Babylon.
o The area beyond the Euphrates to the east is traditionally the source from which in the attacks came against Israel.
o Some have tried to see this "Euphrates" in a symbolic way, but there is no contextual reason to do so:
Ø And its Old Testament context pretty much requires that it be literal.
v.15, “And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they might kill a third of mankind”:
· These four angels have been in a state of readiness, waiting for the appointed time to swing into action.
· Though they had fallen from Divine favor, they had still prepared for their evil task:
o God will use them to pour out His wrath on rebellious mankind.
· The phrase "the hour and day and month and year" has been the basis for chronological calculations, people using this phrase to try to figure out God’s time-table:
o But the article "the" shows that a duration of time is not in view, but the occasion of each one of the time designations is one and the same.
o In other words, the appointed hour occurs on the appointed day, in the appointed month, and in the appointed year.
o This is a fixed point in future time, an hour, day, month, and year when God will act.
o These four angels await the signal that this particular hour has arrived.
· Once again, this shows us the Divine providence that recurs so often in Revelation:
o God's actions are not accidental, but planned and precise in time.
o The point of a fixed hour, of a fixed day, of a fixed month, of a fixed year.
o All the forces of history are under God’s Sovereign control.
· The purpose of the angelic preparation is "so that they might kill a third of mankind.”
· Try to grasp the magnitude of these judgments, and the depth of God’s wrath. Here’s some theoretical numbers (they are not exact) based upon today’s estimated world population:
o Based on 8.5 billion estimated people alive today (est. 2025), one fourth would equal 2,050,000,000 (billion) people will die at the time of the fourth seal judgment.
o Remember that physical death has already hit the world under the fourth seal judgment back in 6:7-8.
o And during the third trumpet (8:10-11 “many died” of the wormwood waters). How many? We are not told.
o With the estimated 8.5 billion people alive today, and 25% (2,050,000,000) who will be killed (6:7), that means that 6,150,000,000 would remain.
o During the wormwood judgment “many men died from the waters” (8:11), how many died? Again, we don’t know for sure.
o Here, one third of the remaining population will be killed by these “four angels.”
o One-third of 6,150,000,000 is 2,050,000,000 (billion) people.
o We don’t know the exact numbers of people who will perish, but we do know that death has not occurred to the extent that it will in a future time of God’s judgment.
· The fifth trumpet brought torture in the physical sense (9:5):
o The sixth trumpet supersedes it, bringing death in the physical sense.
o It will affect "a third of men," meaning a third of those who dwell on the earth.
o This doesn’t include any who are in God’s service, who were excluded under the fifth trumpet.
o The "one third" also seems to represent an increase in intensity over any judgment so far.
v.16, “And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them”:
· Literally translated, it reads, "and the number of the armies of cavalry was 20 thousands of 10 thousands; and I heard the number of them."
· There is no explanation to tell us the source of the armies:
o The identity of the armies has raised questions. Are they men or are they demons?
· The presence of the four angels in the area of the Euphrates River is a point in favor of these being men:
o God used human armies of pagan nations, like Babylon, to fulfill His purposes in the Old Testament.
· However, the fact that the horses, rather than the riders, are the destructive agents suggests that this combination of horse and rider is demonic.
· The determining factor in favor of these being demons is the description of the horses:
o They differ so greatly from any ordinary horses that these horses must be other than natural.
· If we add to that the association with: (1) the four demonic angels of 9:14, (2) the fire, smoke, and brimstone proceeding from their mouths, and (3) the nature of the visiting locusts under the fifth trumpet, a strong case can be made that these are fallen angels or demons.
· The Greek word translated as “horsemen,” can literally be the word “cavalry”:
o The armies resemble a force composed of mounted troops, like a cavalry.
· Here, it’s the horses, rather than the horsemen, who are the attacking members of this group.
· There are literally "20 thousands of 10 thousands" which = 200 million:
o Some feel that the numbers too large to be literal.
o It could be argued that rarely, if ever, has an army of men that large been assembled.
o But these armies are demonic, not human, so the largeness of the number is not an obstacle.
· John is careful to point out that he “heard the number of them":
o The figure came to him as part of this vision.
v.17, “And this is how I saw, in the vision, the horses and those who sat on them: the riders [not in Greek text] they had breastplates the color [not in Greek text] of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone”:
· After hearing the number of the horsemen, John saw what they looked like:
o Remember, the mention of horses in the Bible is usually in connection with warfare.
o The horses that John saw in his vision are no exception.
· Literally, the verse reads, “and thus I saw the horses in the vision and those sitting upon them, having breastplates of fire and hyacinths and brimstone”:
o Remember, “the riders” is not in Greek text, neither is “the color” in Greek text.
o These are words put there to try to clarify the text.
· The question is, did the riders alone have breastplates or the horses too?
· By examining the Greek words and their order, there is a strong possibility that the horses and the those on them were wearing the breastplates:
o For horses to wear such things is not unheard of in ancient times.
· The riders, here, are in the lesser role:
o It’s the horses that do the damage and kill the people.
· It’s possible that these "breastplates of fire and hyacinths and brimstone" are actual materials which made up the breastplates:
o But it is difficult, if not impossible, to consider solid objects made of these.
· We know from the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament), that hyacinth was a dye the color of bluish smoke:
o The color description fits better here as matching the "smoke" that proceeds from the horses’ mouths.
· "of fire" probably represents a fiery red color.
· "Brimstone" described something made of sulfur and also something with a sulfurous hue or light yellow color:
o Brimstone was an accompaniment of God's wrath.
· The combination of the three colors reminds us of the fate of the Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:24, 28.
· The likeness of the horses heads to those of lions, suggests that this cavalry combines the swiftness of horses with the majesty and power of lions:
o Lions elsewhere in Revelation represent terror (their roar in 10:3), ferocity (their teeth and 9:8), and destructiveness (their mouth in 13:2).
· The most destructive part of the horses was their mouths, which release "fire and smoke and brimstone."
v.18, “A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths”:
· It's through fire, smoke and brimstone that a third of mankind dies.
· The word “plague” is the used to describe the destructiveness of the horses:
o It’s the same word used in the Septuagint to name the plagues of Egypt.
o The word “plague” will appear frequently from here on throughout the Revelation.
· Notice the repeated use of the article “the” with each of the plagues:
o The word, “the” indicates that each element is a separate part of the destruction.
o “the fire,” “the smoke,” “the brimstone” each contribute to the destruction.
· Fire, smoke and brimstone together will be responsible for the largest death toll in human history up to that point.
v.19, “For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads; and with them they do harm”:
· The prophecy continues by revealing more about the power of these horses.
· Out of their mouths come fire, smoke and brimstone, which we’ve already discussed.
· The power of the horses also lies in their tails:
o Their tails are “like” snakes, including the heads, which are capable of inflicting painful injury to their victims.
o This detail would have been especially meaningful to the church at Pergamum, where there were temples in honor of the gods. Zeus and Asklepios emphasized the role of snakes in their worship.
· The description of fire-breathing, demonic horses, with tails like snakes is frightening:
o Some have chosen to interpret them as figurative references to the serpents on the pagan altars or to the customs of the Parthians in braiding their horses’ tales to look like serpents.
· There have been lots of mystical meanings attached to the tails:
o The word "like" gives us a basis for some figurative understanding of the tails.
o The problem, however, is that most suggestions for symbolism ignore the power in their tails.
· The tails are probably not actual serpents, but they function like serpents:
o The power of the tails enables these horses to hurt people physically, like a snake- bite.
o They torture with the pain of a snakebite just as the locusts of the previous trumpet did with a scorpion sting.
· But, the locusts of the fifth trumpet only stung the people.
· These demonic horses will kill a third of the rebellious people left on earth.
v.20, “And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;”
· In spite of the evidence of God's wrath all around them, those left alive continue in their rebellion toward God.
· The text is clear in identifying "the rest" as those "who were not killed by these plagues":
o These are the survivors of the demonic cavalry.
· These survivors reject repentance:
o They will not turn away from the works of their hands.
o They refuse to change their conduct, their beliefs, or their attitudes toward God.
o After all these survivors have seen, they refuse to repent, to turn away from their wicked ways, which we would think would be the least they could do, in light of what the world had just been through.
· It’s interesting to note that this is the first mention of “repentance” since 4:1:
o In all cases in the book of Revelation, the response to repentance is negative, as it is here.
· God's loving care for people is repeatedly evident, and He tries to get them to turn away from sin, but they still refuse.
· The Greek word for “repent” has the idea of a change of mind:
o A rejection of something that is anti-God.
o A changing of one’s mind about the things of God.
· What they failed to turn away from, here, was "the works of their hands”:
o Throughout Scripture, the works of men's hands stands for idolatry (Deuteronomy, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Micah, Haggai, Acts).
o Worshiping idols has been a long-standing problem for mankind and will continue to be into the future as this prophecy shows us.
· Even something so great as the death of a huge portion of the world's population still won’t be enough to turn men from idolatry, even though God's servants will have warned them against it repeatedly.
· To worship idols, any idol, is to rob God of the glory due Him alone:
o It’s also to side with evil spirits who are very good at the corruption of man.
· Repentance = changing one’s mind = would lead to a turning away from sinful practices:
o Would lead to the abandoning of the worship of evil spirits and the idols that represent them.
· But failure to repent, failure to change one’s mind, to turn away, does just the opposite:
o It continues the worship of idols representing demons, whether made of gold, silver, brass, stone, or wood.
· In Scripture, the word “idol” refers to any image that represents anything created, or a heathen god.
· The apostle John could hardly forget the innumerable pagan shrines around him, where false priests and false prophets led their followers in bowing down before the false gods.
· Sins of idolatry mostly characterized his Gentile readers, but the sin of immorality, in verse 21, affected the lives of both Jews and Gentiles.
· Look back at v.20, “so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;”
o John reminds his readers of the helplessness of these idols, “gold, silver, brass, stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk”:
Ø A fact, which they undoubtedly already knew.
v.21, “And they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts”:
· Not only are the people unrepentant of their sins against the first two commandments of God, not to worship other gods, but they also reject God’s moral law as well:
o They are just as unwilling to repent of their social sins, sorcery, immorality, stealing, as they are of their idolatry.
o Three of the 10 commandments, the sixth, seventh, and eighth, explicitly prohibit three of the four sins listed: murder, fornication and theft.
o The New Testament also condemns these sins.
· "Sorceries" can refer to poisons, good luck charms, drugs, magic spells, or any object that is supposed to possess holiness, excite lust, or be otherwise enchanting:
o It can refer to witchcraft as well.
o Sometimes drugs were involved in such practices.
o If the drugs create magic spells, as practiced in Asia, to incite illicit lust, this is the equivalent of fornication.
o Sorceries were common in Asia and are still common today.
· The Bible sternly denounces this form of sin (Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel, Acts).
· Murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, are all on the list of those who will be excluded from the New Jerusalem in Rev. 21:8 and 22:15, because of their failure to repent.
Next time we’ll look at “the angel” and “the little book.”
May the Lord bless you as you continue to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord.
By His Grace,
Gary T. Dromi, Ph.D., D.Min.
