Revelation 9:12-21

Trumpet after trumpet sounded the judgment and wrath of God. With the fifth trumpet John saw in his vision the fury of demonic power released from the bottomless pit. For five straight months death was taken away from the earth, and in its place came the torment of the ages. Devils unleashed the most savage tortures upon mankind, and all the nations writhed in distress at the stings of demonic devices.
As the fifth month ended, it seemed as though a respite had finally come. The devils had been given a limit to their persecution. They could only harm and torment mankind for five months, but after that, their terrors must abate. However, when the fifth month ended, there was no rejoicing. As John’s vision continued, there was a new unleashing of horror. With the sixth trumpet, a second wave of demonic terrors began. From the Euphrates River were released four demonic beings who led 200 million satanic beings in an onslaught against mankind.
With faces like lions, and mouths of destruction, these beings roared across the planet leaving unbridled carnage in their wake. For five months men had been tormented, but they had not been killed. Now, the demonic forces were given power over the lives of those who were still living on earth. None could escape, all were in danger of the devastating and deadly fire of these demons. God’s judgment was being unleashed in the most terrifying manner on all of mankind. Eventually, a third of the earth was killed.
What was the response of the people on earth in the face of such dire circumstances? John tells us in verse 20, that those who were not killed by this terrible annihilation turned further away from God. Instead of repenting of their sin and acknowledging the grace of God in sparing their lives, those who survived this onslaught continued in sin and debauchery. Seeing the terrors of God unleashed frightened them for a season, but their sin was too enticing and they returned back to idolatry, sexual sin, and immorality.
The terrors of the Almighty had left them unchanged. They were not fazed by destruction. Instead, they gathered to themselves more sin, and rejected the gospel message that they had heard. They did not want God’s salvation, they wanted to have one more moment of pleasure while they still could. They refused to believe that what God offered was better than what they could fulfill with their own sinful desires. But this should not be surprising, rather, this is simply the nature of fallen man since the Garden. The sinful heart always beholds the truth of God with a skeptical eye.
What John saw in his vision is not isolated to the future day of God’s wrath. Many do this today. Hearing of the impending destruction of God on them, many turn in mockery and scorn. At times, we imagine that when God shows His power, they will believe on Him. This text teaches us a much greater truth. In the depravity of the human heart, mankind is not convinced of the truth of God by merely being tormented. Only the Holy Spirit can accomplish the transformation necessary in a man for him to become a repentant believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Without the Holy Spirit doing His incredible work of regeneration and conversion in these last inhabitants of the earth, they merely become blasphemers and further disbelieve their need for repentance. It takes the supernatural work of the Spirit to transform men, not simply Divine terror.

Reflect: Reread v.15. What does the phrase, “which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year,” tell us about the Sovereignty of God?

In the Valley of the Shadow of Death

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

“Mom said that she doesn’t think that dad will make it…” were the words that I heard before my brother broke down crying on the other end of the line. It has been nearly 14 years since the shadow of death loomed so heavy over our family. As I collapsed up against the cold block wall of my office, the raging river of questions flooded my mind with sorrow and despair, and the threatening tide of doubt crashed against my confidence in the goodness and wisdom of God. Is this how it goes? Will I ever hear his voice again? What about all the conversations I want him to have with my sons? I just want to be with mom right now…, the surge of pain flooded over my faith and left me neck deep in uncertainty. How powerful, and how dangerous is news. In an instant, I was crippled. My mind was clouded, my body was shaking. What was I to do?
The thought of, I’m not ready for this, slowly squeezed its way into my mind.
The feeling I had reminds me of a video I once saw of astronauts in training. In the video, NASA placed these aspiring astronauts into human gyroscopes. Perhaps you have seen one of these before, where a rider is strapped into a seat that is suspended in the center of several metal circles. Once started, the metal bands rotate sporadically causing the seat to be sent out of control, spinning and flipping in every direction. It is the task of the astronaut while facing such exhausting mental disorientation to focus and regain control of his own body and the movements of the gyroscope. In this moment of sheer panic, he must find his bearings and regain composure.
Sitting in my office, I was strapped to my own sort of gyroscope. The mental, emotional, and spiritual bands of this situation left me spinning and flipping out of control. I needed to find my bearings and regain composure, but every spiritual surety that my mind could see was being quickly hurled out of grasp by incessant waves of confused emotion. John Owen spoke well when he said “the heart is made up of so many contradictions.” It was like I was plunging down the face of a steep cliff towards a bottomless pit. The fingertips of my mind would barely grasp the ledge of some spiritual truth and would briefly stall my descent, but almost immediately the feeble grip would be torn by the convulsing of my emotions and again I would plunge further into the chasm of fear.
Before I hung up the phone with Matt, my mind caught a glimpse of the truth, God is not surprised. We are surprised. News is a powerful and dangerous force over us, but an all-knowing and all-powerful God is never caught off guard by anything. As one hand grasped the ledge of God’s power, the other clutched securely onto the ledge of God’s goodness. With my body trembling under the strain of my emotions, I finally surrendered my heart to the good and wise Providence of God.

“God, my flesh and my heart fail, but you are my rock!”

I breathed the Psalmist’s words in prayer through the phone, and the Spirit of God did His great work of preaching the truth to my mind. God is good. God is wise. God’s ways are perfect. Gladly will I glory in my infirmities and my heartaches and the convulsions of my soul, because they are not meaningless. The God who has filled the waves of the sea with purpose, has filled the waves of the soul with so much more. My physical body and my emotions fail, but He is the rock that I can fall upon. When I flail and crumble with emotion, it is to Him that I can turn. Like a little lamb, comforted by the rod and staff, I can look tragedy in the face and say, “You are simply an obedient servant of my Father. Your reach will never go beyond His desire, and your power will only extend to His design.” I can rest in His wise, loving, good, and perfect but not-yet understood Providence. The waves will crash around this Rock, but He will not be moved.

Revelation 9:1-11

The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. – Jude v. 6
As a three-fold “Woe” was unleashed through the last three of the seven trumpets, terror flowed out of an abyss and poured across the earth. In John’s vision, it began when a fallen star was given permission to open the abyss and retrieve the beings and demons that had been trapped there. The one who came to unlock the abyss is described in ways that match the language used by both Isaiah and Jesus.

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. - Isaiah 14:12-15

And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. - Luke 10:18
Here this fallen star or angel appears to be Satan, and he is given permission to unlock the abyss and release those demons that have been imprisoned there. Although scripture is not explicit on when or how these specific demons were locked away in the pit, we do see some indications that certain demons were in fear of being locked away during the ministry of Jesus.

And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. – Luke 8:30-31

Here the demons being cast out begged Jesus to not send them into “the deep.” The words “the deep” clearly don’t mean the sea, because after Jesus cast the demons out of the man, they went into some pigs and ran into the ocean. Here, Jesus clearly had the power and the option to banish these demons to this locked-up pit that we see in Revelation 9, and in this instance He didn’t. This abyss, or pit, must have been filled with the worst of the worst of the followers of Satan. Now, in the last days, permission was given to unlock the pit and release its inhabitants to attack the inhabitants of the earth.
As these vile beings poured out of the abyss, they unleashed an unbelievable terror on mankind. Miraculously, for five months, no human being was able to die. This would be a spectacularly wonderful thing for all those involved if it weren’t part of the God-ordained punishment of their unbelief and rebellion. However, their miraculously extended lives were filled with hellish agonies. As the demons flooded out like swarming locusts, they were given the ability to sting those who had somehow survived the torments of the Tribulation up to this point.
The astonishing preservation was blended with excruciating pain. 

Why would God do this? Why wouldn’t he just sweep with a coup degras and wipe out all of these people? Why allow them to continue to suffer? The key reason that we can find in the context is that there were those around them that were unscathed by these demon attacks that were declaring the gospel to them. This was God being longsuffering. The most gracious thing that He could do was to bring them to despair. Instead of striking them dead and replacing their temporal pain with eternal punishment, He extended temporal pain that they might turn in desperation to Him and be spared from everlasting pain. For five months the terrors of the fifth trumpet deluge rolled across the earth in darkness and agony so that those who had not turned would be given yet another chance to repent and believe.

Reflect: From Luke 8 and Revelation 9, who do we see as unquestionably in power over Satan and his demons?

Revelation 8:10-13

As the final seal of the scroll was opened, seven angels began blowing trumpets to signal the next wave of God’s judgment on the earth. With the first two trumpets came blood, fire, hail, and the devastation of the waterways of the earth as the water was turned to blood. In John’s horrifying vision, the earth’s shipping and food supplies were devastated by the terrible unleashing of God’s judgment. Now, the third angel sounded his trumpet and a meteoric catastrophe was released.
With some symbolism, John describes how that a great star plummeted to the earth. Perhaps our modern scientific terminology prevents us from calling this star an actual star, since, all the stars of the universe are typically larger than our own sun. And since the sun is approximately 1.3 million times the size of the earth, it would be impossible for our sun (or any other star) to plummet to the earth’s surface (if anything, the earth would sizzle on the sun’s surface like a little water droplet on the stove). We would have to understand that John’s use of the word star is less scientific and more descriptive. Here a heavenly body that glows and burns as it cuts through earth’s atmosphere (perhaps a meteor or asteroid) falls from the sky and devastates the earth’s water supplies in the process.
The word used to describe the calamity it causes on the water supply is “Wormwood.” This is a term that has been used in various forms to describe poisonous and toxic substances. In essence, John is saying that a third of the earth’s water supply will be polluted and unpotable. In verse 11, those who drank from the poisoned and bitter waters will die as a result. The catastrophic effects of this giant meteor would no doubt leave people wondering if their next sip of life-sustaining water would be their last. What an incredibly frightful time, where you can’t even trust a drink of water!
While the inhabitants of the planet writhed under the judgment of God, the fourth angel began to call with his trumpet, and the unthinkable terror continued. The sun, and the moon, and the stars were all thrown into an astrophysical chaos. John describes it as a darkness that swallowed up a third of each. Whether the inner gravitational workings of the universe began to unbind or collapse, or some other inexplicable calamity was occurring, the reality is that the heavens above would never be the same once this trumpeter finished his disastrous call.
It is an interesting point that the first four devastation-trumpeting angels take up only six verses, and the remaining three trumpeters will require the next three chapters. Arriving at the end of chapter 8, John explained that he saw an angel soaring through heaven proclaiming a triple “Woe” on the earth for the remaining three trumpet calls. In the words of this angel, the devastation of the earth’s food supplies, water supplies, shipping, and the undoing of the heavenly bodies was just the beginning. The remaining three trumpets would bring much more horror and terror than the first four.
God’s justice is sure. There is no wrong deed that will be left unjudged. In His justice, God will undo all the wrong of all the ages. He will cleanse the earth of its sinfulness and the marks of the fall. As we see the terrible and fearful works of the Almighty God, we must not lose sight that His ways are perfect, and His judgments are pure and right. His cleansing work is not just random and cruel. It is executed with the clearest wisdom and purpose to achieve an eternal goal known most perfectly to Him. We must look on in fright and respect as we read the terrors of the just hand of the Almighty.

Reflect: If God has the power to undo the heavens and cause catastrophic astrophysical events, what does that tell us He is using that same power to do right now while we do not see these catastrophes?

Revelation 8:1-9

In Revelation 4, Jesus appeared before the throne of God and received from God the title deed to the earth in a scroll form. This scroll was bound with seven seals, and as Jesus unfastened each of the seals, a different judgment rolled down from heaven and worked to purge Creation of the rebellion of mankind and the dominion of Satan. The first four seals each unleashed one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and the fifth and sixth seals unleashed the wrath of God like nothing before seen.
When we arrive at Revelation 8, we find the Lamb (Jesus) opening the last of the seven seals. In opening this seal, there will be seven angels who will blow seven trumpets. By the time the seventh trumpet is blown, in chapter 16, there will be seven bowls of God’s wrath poured out on the earth. Even though the previous six seals were absolutely horrifying in their magnitude, this seventh seal will bring unimaginable devastation on the planet.

The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. – Habakkuk 2:20

As Jesus opens the final seal to the scroll, affirming His authority and entitlement as Ruler and Sovereign of all of Creation, John sees the roaring praise chorus of heaven lull into a quiet hush. No more are the 24 elders singing praises. The angelic beings that fill the corridors of heaven have all been silence. The innumerable mass of saints that have been cheering in worship all stand still and quiet. All of heaven goes eerily silent for about half an hour. Why? Perhaps as the final seal is seen and understood, there is a gravity over what is about to occur. Through this final seal the long-suffering God will finally pour out His justice and wrath on the earth. Every being in heaven holds his tongue and awaits the judgment of God.
The silence is broken when an angel approaches. Here John tells us that there is a heavenly altar where the angel offered incense along with the prayers of the saints. The fragrance of the incense rose with the prayers in the presence of God. Finally, the angel cast his incense-filled censer at the earth. Much of the sights that John saw here in heaven mirror the Old Testament Tabernacle with its altar of incense and a censer. In the tabernacle, the priest would fill the censer with incense and fire from the altar and then would walk through the people to sanctify and ceremoniously cleanse them. Now, the angel filled up his heavenly censer with the prayers of the saints and the fire of God. The earth was to be cleansed and purified by the wrath of God and the prayers of the saints.
When the fire-filled censer crashed into the earth, the earth shook with thunder and an earthquake, and the sky crackled with lightning. Following this dramatic show by this angel, seven other angels prepared to blow seven trumpets that they had with them. Much like the seven seals, each of these trumpets would carry with it a certain purifying and powerful event.

And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. – Joel 2:30

When the first trumpet sounded, hail and fire mingled with blood rained down from heaven. The trumpet judgments would have some striking similarities to the plagues that God had poured out on Egypt. Like the hail and fire that came from heaven in Egypt, this first trumpet catastrophe would bring with it the devastation of crops and livestock as farms around the world would be crushed and burned with falling hail and fire. Famine had begun earlier, but now, the wrath of God was falling on the crops and was absolutely devastating the earth’s greenery and food supply.

Reflect: Read Joel 2. What similarities do you see with that prophecy and what is happening here in Revelation?

Revelation 7:9-17

Have you ever done a research paper? I remember some of my first attempts at doing research papers in school. I was always the worst at it. There were deadlines for notecards and outlines and first drafts and revised drafts. I never could seem to get into a rhythm of getting things done on time or of getting things done with any measure of excitement. Every time that a teacher would announce “we are going to start a research paper” a small part of me would die at the prospect of the step by step laboring and the series of new deadlines that would arrive in my life. At the beginning of the school year the end of the research paper always seemed so far away and almost impossible. It was hard to imagine that through a few trips to the library, and weeks of work that eventually a fully completed research paper would emerge. (Sidenote: If you ask my teachers they will confirm my abysmal performance at these projects.)
I wonder what it was like for the first century church as they began plugging away at gospel living and gospel declaration. The gospel was spreading, but so was heresy. New churches were being started, but persecution was swallowing one congregation after another. Would the church ever be able to grow? Pentecost had proven to be an anomaly with thousands converted, and that must have been exciting for the Apostles, but would all of those who were added to the church that day remain in the church?
With this in mind as we come to John’s vision in Revelation 7, I can only imagine the joy and excitement that John felt as he beheld the spectacle of a countless host of believers. There was no such thing as a countless host of believers in the first century church. Now, on the precipice of eternity, John gazed on a throng that was so immense and so diverse that he had no way of tabulating its number. The message that he labored to teach in Asia Minor to churches that were now under threat of being cast away, that message would prevail. There would be millions more to come who would hear it and believe it. The gospel would not die at the end of the first century with heresy and persecution. No, the gospel would prevail and would spread and eventually in Revelation 4 and Revelation 7 believers from every nation, kindred, and tongue would join together in worship around the throne of God.

“Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.” – Revelation 7:12
The praise of those who had seen the mighty work of God was incredibly broad, yet it somehow understated the full reality of who God is. With the inability to fully fathom His immensity and splendor, in the inexpressible and ineffable awesomeness of His character, and because of the incomprehensibility of His manifold greatnesses, this group of saints roared with the profoundly simple praises that they could muster. The dread of persecution was gone, and God was now their provision, warmth and joy.
For John, a leader of the first century church, this glimpse of the future hosts of heaven worshipping God from all over the world must have left him with a renewed vigor to spread the gospel as far as he could. Similarly, as other saints have read John’s vision of a multi-cultural, ethnically diverse, God-glorifying multitude, they have counted their temporal life as nothing and have plunged into cross-cultural evangelism and missions work knowing that God planned to redeem some from all over the world. May we be encouraged to join the ranks of those who have gone before us and have gotten excited about the glimpses of these great masses. For John the research project was just beginning, but how exciting it was to realize that the massive work God would be accomplished through the gospel.

Reflect: What would John perhaps feel as he beheld the hosts of converted saints in heaven? What could that motivate him to do? What should this motivate us to do?

Revelation 7:1-8

As the earth roared with the sound of the great Flood, Noah and his family huddled inside the ark. God’s plan of salvation for this chosen group was executed perfectly. While the wrath and justice of God washed the entire planet clean, Noah and his family were preserved by the Sovereign power of God. When the night air filled with wails of Egyptian parents, the Israelite parents huddled inside their homes holding on to their own firstborn children thanking God for the salvation He had given them through the bloody doorposts. Here God had preserved those whom he desired, and spoiled the rest with His wrath.
Throughout scripture, in the face of some of the greatest tragedies, we see the preserving hand of God protecting His own. 

While floods of wrath and waves of death sweep around His people, they rest secure in His Sovereign protection, guarded by His faithful promises and limitless power. 

It should come as no surprise that amidst the unbelievable onslaught of the wrath of God, and the terrible annihilation of the earth through the opening of the six seals in Revelation 6, that God preserves a number of His own by super-natural protection.
While persecution claims the lives of some believers, there are many who are protected and safe-guarded from the frightening terror of God. In Revelation 7, John sees a crowd of people called the “servants of God” who are ethnically Jewish. These are people who most likely were converted as a result of the shocking events that transpired in Revelation 6. Having seen the fulfillment of Scripture (both Old Testament and New Testament prophecy) this group of people repented of their sins and turned in faith to Christ. Now, these converts from this great Tribulation period are marked by God as His own.
It seems that much like Noah and his family, and the Israelites in Egypt were preserved, this group of converted Jews endures and survives the carrying out of the end times. Instead of succumbing to the awful tragedies of war and famine and disease, this group remains faithful to God and is spared the devastation of His wrath. We must be clear though that this does not mean that they may not die during this period. Clearly in Revelation 6:10-11, there are some who perish through persecution carried out by wicked people, and perhaps even some might become victims of the cataclysmic splitting of the universe and the down-pouring of meteors and asteroids. But, for these who perish, unlike the non-believers they are not enduring the wrath of God. Rather, they are being brought immediately into the presence of God to worship, praise and enjoy Him.
By comparison, those who reject God and try to run from Him will receive the wrath of God that extends beyond the horrifying deaths that they will face in this time of sorrows. Their exit from the earth in death will be simply the “first death” that they will experience. As objects of God’s wrath, these will not enjoy the presence of God, rather, it will be the most devastating experience these beings could ever endure.
Here, however, we find a group of 144,000 that God spares from both physical death and from His wrath. Represented in this group are 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel. Here God in his perfect Sovereignty elected the precise number that He saw fit. 

Just as He always has, He secures safety for those Whom He wills, and it is no different for this special group of Jewish believers.

Reflect: Can you think of any other instances in Scripture where God lovingly preserved a group of His own people from death or destruction?