Unrepentant

Revelation 9

Welcome! This past week the small fall break team from NC State was here. Their visit was brief, but they spent a day on campus doing surveys and sharing the gospel with all who would listen, with all who were curious; we estimate that the gospel was shared between 10 and 15 times, and seeds of Christian thought were planted in other cases as well. We used a custom survey this time, and the results were interesting. I thought you might want to hear the questions.

1. Of the following, which gives you the greatest fear? (a) Ebola (b) Terrorism (c) Economic collapse (d) Solar storm (e) Manmade environmental disaster (f) Natural disaster (g) Other

2. Of the following, what gives you the greatest stress? (a) School (b) Family issues (c) Girlfriend/boyfriend (d) What’s going on in the world (e) Uncertainty about the future (f) Other

3. How do you most often manage the fear or stress in your life? (a) I don’t. (b) Block it out. (c) Entertainment. (d) Alcohol or drugs. (e) Prayer (f) Other

4. What do you think will happen to you personally after you die? And how sure are you of your answer (and give a percentage)? (a) Worm food (nothing) (b) Heaven. (c) Hell. (d) Reincarnation. (e) Other.

5. What determines what happens to you after you die? You may pick more than one answer; give the percentage of each. (a) The good things you did during your life. (b) The bad things you did. (c) What you believed. (d) It’s not up to you. (e) Other.

6. What do you believe the Bible says is the answer to the previous question?

For #1, at least one person picked each answer, although very few picked ebola (surprising to me) or solar storm. For #2, school was the top pick, although many also picked “what’s going on in the world” and “uncertainty about the future.” For #3, many said they don’t manage stress or they block it out. A few picked “other” and said things like exercise or meditation. For #4, not surprisingly, heaven was the top choice; a few said worm food. For #5, the top answers were the good things you did during your life and the bad things you did. Even among people who called themselves Christians, the absolutely essential role of faith was not understood. And this is something we have seen time and time again on campus. The top answer to #6 was to leave it blank or to say “don’t know.”

Well, today we continue our series on Revelation, focusing in on Chapter 9. Let me start by reminding you of some of the events of the previous chapters. If you want to talk about sources of fear, we have already seen plenty! In Chapter 4, we are presented a vision of a heavenly throne surrounded by a rainbow, issuing forth thunder and lightning, set among seven torches and what looked like a crystal sea. In the vision there were twenty-four thrones surrounding the main throne, with twenty-four elders seated upon them, each dressed in white and wearing crowns of gold on their heads. Also, there are four fantastic living creatures, each with six wings filled with eyes, one with the face of a lion, one as a calf, one as a man, and one as an eagle. The living creatures and the elders continually praised God who was on the main throne.

In Chapter 5, a scroll was seen in the right hand of God on the throne, and an angel asked who was worthy to open this scroll. No one was worthy, and John, the author of the book of Revelation, states that he wept because no one was worthy. But then a Lamb appeared, looking as if it had been slain, yet fully living, and this Lamb, who was Christ, took the scroll, and the elders the living creatures and countless angels and others worshiped the Lamb because He was worthy, together with God the Father who sat on the throne, worthy not only to open the scroll, removing its seals, but to receive “praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever.”

In Chapter 6, the Lamb began to open the seals; with opening each of the first four seals, one of the four living creatures said in a voice like thunder, “Come!” Upon opening the first seal, a rider on a white horse rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest, the result being a kind of false peace, peace through conquering. Upon opening the second seal, a rider on a red horse rode out as a bringer of war, ending the false peace. Upon opening the third seal, a rider on a black horse rode out holding a pair of scales, demanding high prices for food, symbolizing famine and hunger. Upon opening the fourth seal, a rider on a pale or ashen-colored horse rode out, bringing death.

When the fifth seal was opened, those who had lost their lives because of their faith in God, the martyrs, asked how much longer it would be until their deaths were avenged. The answer given was that it would be a little longer. Upon opening the sixth seal, there was an earthquake, the sun turned dark, the moon turned red, and stars or some other kind of heavenly bodies fell to earth, and mountains and islands were “removed.” Then, those still alive hid in caves and called on the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the Lamb.

In Chapter 7, four angels were seen holding back some kind of wind, and a fifth angel came to put a seal on the foreheads of 144,000 believers, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And then a great multitude of people, from every nation, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, and they praised God, along with the angels, the elders, and the living creatures.

And then, in Chapter 8, which Tim discussed with us last week, we saw the seventh and final seal opened. And the result was silence, absolute silence, for half an hour. We don’t know exactly what this silence was like, but I can tell you what I think of. When our children were babies, and they fell or bumped their heads or otherwise hurt themselves, we observed that, if it was a bad bump or fall, there would be silence before the flood of crying or screaming began. Furthermore, we noticed that the longer the silence, the worse the injury must have been, and the worse the crying or screaming would be. It was kind of like the reverse of the gap between lightning and thunder; when the thunder comes almost immediately after the lightning is when you worry a little, because you know you are basically under the storm. With babies, at least with our children when they were babies, it was the reverse. The more seconds you can count of total silence, the more you worry and the more you know it will be quite a job to console your child. I honestly don’t know if this is what the thirty minutes of silence meant, but it is something like what I picture; forces being set up, moved into place, arranged, the tension constantly building, the longer the silence goes on.

Then at last, an angel took a censer, filled it with hot coals, all afire, and threw it to earth, where there was thunder, lightning, and an earthquake. And then seven angels who had been given seven trumpets prepared to sound their trumpets.

And so, just as something happened after each seal was opened, something will happen after each trumpet is blown. The Greek word for trumpet here could refer either to a trumpet or a ram’s horn, a shofar. (Trumpets have valves; a shofar is simply a horn.) I want to play an audio clip of a shofar for you now. At least for me, there is something that thrills me deep in my heart when I hear the sound of a shofar. In this recording, you will hear three of the four shofar blowing patterns: the first is the tekiah, a single long blast, the second is the shevarim, three medium-length blasts, and the third is the teruah, multiple short staccato blasts. The fourth kind of blast, not on this recording, is the tekiah gadola, a single extra-long blast that becomes increasingly loud as it goes on. According to Jewish tradition, the tekiah announces that God is King, the shevarim is a call to repentance, and the teruah is a warning of impending judgment. This description, although not specifically Biblical, fits in perfectly with the message behind each of the blasts given by the angels.

Here is the audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVMiZAqTWQ0

And so, as we learned last week, the first angel sounded his shofar or trumpet, and hail and fire struck the earth, burning up a third of the land on earth. The second angel sounded his shofar or trumpet, and a large object fell into the sea, turning a third of the sea into blood or something resembling blood and destroying a third of all life in the sea. The third angel sounded his shofar or trumpet, and something fell from the sky like a star or torch, and it had the name Wormwood, meaning bitter; it destroyed a third of the fresh water sources on earth, and many people died from drinking this poisoned water. And then the fourth angel sounded his shofar or trumpet, and something seemingly affected a third of the heavens, a third of the sun, a third of the moon, a third of the stars, darkening these sources of light by a third.

There are parallels between these judgments and those of God on Egypt back at the time of Moses. In fact, I would conclude that the entire Exodus story of God’s judgments on Egypt, although literally true, also served as a kind of foreshadowing of the ultimate judgment of God on the whole world at the end of days, what we are reading here. Recall that the first plague against Egypt was the turning of the waters of Egypt into blood, similar to the curse of the second trumpeting angel. The seventh plague against Egypt was storms of hail and fire, similar to the curse of the first trumpeting angel. And the ninth plague against Egypt was a prolonged darkness, similar to the curse of the fourth trumpeting angel. At first glance there does not seem to be something analogous to the curse of the third angel, but in Exodus 15, immediately after the Israelites’ deliverance from the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, they walked for three days without finding water and then came to water only to find that it was bitter, “marah” in Hebrew. Recall that the Israelites grumbled against Moses, who then cried out to God. God led Moses to a particular piece of wood, which Moses put into the water, and then the water then became fit to drink. God used this event as a testing and a teaching moment, telling them that if they followed all of God’s commands and decrees, He would not bring on them any of the plagues of the Egyptians. Recall that the plagues against Egypt were really calls of repentance and obedience to God; God had one simple instruction to the Egyptians: Let My people go. The plagues would have stopped if Egypt had repented. The bitter water was similarly a kind of call to repentance and obedience, for Israel. We will talk more about the purposes of the trumpet curses as we get into today’s passage. So let’s get into Chapter 9 of Revelation.

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. When he opened 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. – Rev. 9:1-2

When is a star not a star? Well, as we have said throughout this series, John was given a vision of the future, of the end of days, and much in this vision was symbolic of deeper truths. I feel pretty certain that this is one of those cases, because physical stars or other physical heavenly bodies like comets and asteroids cannot be given keys. There is almost definitely a symbolic meaning here; this “star” is a person, and he is given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. (A key is symbolic of authority; whoever has a key has the rights and power over whatever the key symbolically opens.) Also note the tense: John saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth, presumably at some earlier time. The trumpet doesn’t set into motion the falling star; it sets into motion the handing over of the key. So who is this star? I think it is likely that this is Satan, although it could possibly be another demon or perhaps an angel who still followed God (although I doubt it, because demons are “fallen” angels). One reason this could refer to Satan is a passage from Isaiah 14:

How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon [or of the north]. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. – Isaiah 14:11-15

On one level, this is a prophecy against a king of the then physical Babylon, but as is often the case in Isaiah and the other Old Testament prophets, it has another, deeper meaning. For who is the ultimate “king of Babylon”? It is Satan. Babylon is symbolic in Revelation and elsewhere of the world that follows Satan, of those that follow the teachings and philosophies of this world that are opposed to God. And this is exactly what Satan has tried to do; he is an angel, a powerful, once beloved angel of God, who was jealous and wanted to be like God himself. For this he was indeed cast down.

Another passage that relates to this is Luke 10:18. This is Jesus talking:

He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” – Luke 10:18

The theme of Satan being cast down to earth is explained in greater detail in Revelation 12, which we will look at in a few weeks. But let’s focus back on Rev. 9. It says that the star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. So Satan (or whoever it is) is given a key. What is this key to? The Abyss. “Abyss” is used seven times in Revelation, and in each case it refers to a kind of prison for fallen angels, for demons. Other scriptures talk about demons that have been cast into this prison. In 2 Peter 2, while warning about false prophets and the destruction they bring on themselves, Peter writes,

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment… - 2 Peter 2:4

Another verse referring to this is in Jude:

And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. – Jude 1:6

Yet another passage referring to this is Luke 8, where Jesus cast a bunch of demons out of a man into pigs. Recall what the demons, collectively named “Legion,” requested of Jesus:

And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. – Luke 8:31

So the demons knew that’s where others of their kind were being sent, and they didn’t want to go there. Well, what’s happening here is that this Abyss is being opened, so that demons can come out. That can’t be good! Let’s see what happens:

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. 9:3-6

This also reminds me of the Exodus account. Recall that those who had the seal in lamb’s blood on their doorposts, the Israelites, were spared the final terrible plague of death of each firstborn. Here, it is those who have the seal of God on their foreheads who are spared. The seal brings to mind the 144,000 who were sealed back in Chapter 7, but it also brings to mind the idea that all believers in Christ are said to be “sealed” with the Holy Spirit. The idea of sparing those who are righteous, those who are given a mark on their foreheads, can also be found in Ezekiel 9. I believe the sealing here refers not only to the 144,000 but to anyone who had turned to Christ. It is interesting that in the very passage where Jesus told his disciples that He saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven (Luke 10), that He next says that He has given His followers authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm them.

As for the plague itself, the obvious comparison is the plague of locusts, the eighth plague on Egypt. But this is far worse; locusts are bad enough, as they destroy crops and lead to famine; in fact, for the past several years, the island of Madagascar, east of the Africa mainland, has been suffering from a modern-day plague of locusts. It has severely threatened their crops, and famine has only just been held off because of international efforts to use chemical spraying to control the locust population. There are some amazing pictures and videos of locust swarms in Madagascar on the internet, where the sky literally looks like soup, there are so many of them flying around.

But what is going on here is far worse than locusts; these are demonic beings, as much or more like scorpions than locusts. What is the agony of the sting of a scorpion? If someone gets a full dose of the poison of one of the more poisonous types of scorpions, the person can be in so much pain that they roll around on the ground and even foam at the mouth. I believe the agony that these creatures cause is infinitely worse. It says people preferred death to the continued agony (but death was denied them).

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. – Rev. 9:7-10

Again it is hard to know how much here is symbolic in this description and how much is literal (or it could be both). If they are demons, it is not surprising that they look like they have crowns, because demons wish they could reign instead of God. The crown also symbolizes victory and conquest; the type of crown is the Greek stephanos, the crown of victory, and indeed, they are unstoppable. And it is not surprising that they resemble humans (but in a hideous way), for they hate humanity; they are jealous of God’s favoritism and grace towards mankind. Other aspects of the description, lions’ teeth, iron breastplates, and terrifyingly noisy wings, indicate their strength and the way their appearance induces total fear and despair.

A very similar description of creatures is found in the Old Testament book of Joel:

Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors? Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten. Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips. A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. – Joel 1:1-6

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand—a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was in ancient times nor ever will be in ages to come. Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste—nothing escapes them. They have the appearance of horses; they gallop along like cavalry. With a noise like that of chariots they leap over the mountaintops, like a crackling fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle. – Joel 2:1-5

At the sight of them, nations are in anguish; every face turns pale. They charge like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. They all march in line, not swerving from their course. They do not jostle each other; each marches straight ahead. They plunge through defenses without breaking ranks. They rush upon the city; they run along the wall. They climb into the houses; like thieves they enter through the windows. Before them the earth shakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine. – Joel 2:6-11

Aren’t there fascinating parallels? It seems that Joel is describing this same scene. Back to Revelations 9:

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). The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come. – Rev. 9:11-12

The first four trumpets were similar in that they all attacked nature. This fifth trumpet (also called the first woe) was different; humanity was the primary target. This fifth trumpet was far more horrible, more terrible, than anything that came before it. Let’s muster up our resolve, and go on to the sixth trumpet (the second woe).

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. – Rev. 9:13-16

This golden altar is a heavenly version of the golden altar in the Tabernacle and later the Temple. The description of it can be found in Exodus 30. I don’t have time to go into it in detail except to note that it did indeed have horns on its corners and it was covered with gold. It was used for sacrifices of incense, similar to what we have seen in Revelations Chapters 6 and 8. But it was also used as a place of refuge and mercy. Two examples are as follows:

At this, all Adonijah’s guests rose in alarm and dispersed. But Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, went and took hold of the horns of the altar. Then Solomon was told, “Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon and is clinging to the horns of the altar. He says, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword.’” – I Kings 1:49-51

When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah though not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar. – I Kings 2:28

It had to be shocking to John and to his first century Jewish listeners hear that a voice came from the very place of mercy saying to begin an attack of vengeance. The second woe meant that this was seemingly not the time for mercy any longer. These angels appear to have been bound to hold back an even larger demon army than that of the fifth trumpet.

And death was back, after its temporary restraint in the times of the fifth trumpet. Like the fifth trumpet, the target of this woe was mankind, and a third of them were killed. By the way, if you do a little math, back in Revelation 6:8 it says that when the fourth seal was opened, a fourth of the world was killed. This left 75%. Here it says a third was killed; a third of the remainder was 25%, so together, half of the population was now gone.

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. – Rev. 9:17-19

The colors of the breastplates match the materials coming out of the horses lion-like mouths: red, the color of fire, dark blue (or gray or black; the Greek word can be any of these) of smoke, and the yellow of sulfur. I personally think this, like the locusts/scorpions of the previous trumpet, refers to some kind of a demonic army, not necessarily a human one. We will see a human army later in Revelation.

And we now come to what I think is the saddest part of this entire chapter; sadder even than all of the calamitous events described so far:

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

Repentance was still possible, or these two verses would not be here. Indeed, Joel 2 (which we saw has a parallel description of these events) says something similar:

The day of the Lord is great; it is dreadful. Who can endure it? “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing—grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God. – Joel. 2:11b-14

Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the Lord, weep between the portico and the altar. Let them say, “Spare Your people, Lord. – Joel 2:15-17a

God desired that these people would repent. But they would not; they will not. Proverbs 27:22 is blunt, but unfortunately accurate of these people:

Though you grind a fool in a mortar, grinding them like grain with a pestle, you will not remove their folly from them. – Prov. 27:22

Despite seeing clear, dramatic, and terrifying demonstrations of God’s unlimited power, the people would not, will not change. Does this mean that not a single person repented? I don’t think so; John is seeing the people as a whole, as a nation, as a planet of nations. Individuals do change; this church is filled with individuals who have come to the end of themselves and given their lives over to Christ, putting Him in the director’s seat, giving Him the key to our hearts and souls. For us, the call of the shofar is a call to stay near to Him, to remember our first love, to worship Him in Spirit and in truth, and to pray for those whose hearts are far from Him, asking God, “Spare Your people, Lord.”