The Devastating Army From The East

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Studies in the Book of Revelation
Studies in the Book of Revelation
The Devastating Army From The East
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In this passage, Pastor Brian expounds the sixth trumpet, and teaches why he leans toward the idea that this vision symbolizes the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70.

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The Devastating Army From The East

Revelation 9:13-21

 

In the visions that God gave John that we call the Revelation, there are three series of Judgments – there are 7 seal judgments, 7 trumpet judgments, and 7 bowl judgments.

 

We have studied the seven seal judgments, and have looked at five of the trumpet judgments. Today we come to the sixth trumpet judgment.

 

Let’s review just a little bit.  In Revelation chapters 8 and 9 we read of six angels blowing their trumpets bringing about God’s judgments on earth.  We have studied five of these trumpet judgments already, and will study the sixth one today.  In 9:1-12 we have the fifth trumpet judgment. We discovered that this judgment was that God gave Satan permission to release a great horde of demons upon the world to work their destructive mischief.  They were not permitted to kill people, but did torment them for five months. In the vision these demons appear as locusts, probably to depict the sheer vast number of them. They have tails like scorpions, which Jesus likened to evil spirits in Luke 10.

 

These demons could not hurt those that had the seal of God on their foreheads (the church of Christ on earth).  We noticed that Satan and his demons can’t do anything unless God grants them the permission to do so.  The key to the bottomless pit was given to a star which had fallen from heaven.  Power was given the locusts. They were commanded not to hurt the grass or trees or any green thing, but only unbelievers.  This shows God’s infinite superiority to Satan and His absolute sovereignty over him.

 

Of course, the great question in all of this is what is it depicting? When is this demonic horde released to harm unbelievers?  To that, there are three basic answers.

The Preterist believes these demons were released on the Jewish people in the city of Jerusalem which was being attacked by the Romans.

The Idealist believes these demons were released and have been doing their utmost mischief in the world among unbelievers over the entire history of the church.

The Futurist believes these demons will be released during what they call The Great Tribulation during the last seven years of the history of the world, and at that time all unbelievers will be demon-possessed.

 

Of those three options, I find myself leaning towards the Preterist position. There does seem to be some compelling evidence of the influence of evil spirits upon the Jews who were under attack from the Romans.  And Jesus did speak of an unclean spirit that goes out of a man, but later returns to find the house unoccupied, swept and put in order. So it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first (Mt. 12:43-45). His last statement is a bit chilling.  He says, “That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”  It seems like Jesus is saying that the man he was speaking about represents the evil generation that He lived amongst. Jesus went everywhere casting out demons, but those freed did not invite Christ into their lives to rule them. Thus that evil generation will find themselves much more bound and oppressed by Satan than they were before Jesus came.

 

Well, now we come to the sixth trumpet judgment.

 

1. The Voice From The Golden Altar (9:13-14)

 

Why is this voice speaking from the four horns of the golden altar?  Well, in chapter 8 John saw a vision of an angel adding incense to the prayers of the saints on the golden altar of incense. Immediately the trumpet judgments started to take place on the earth. What that shows us is that the judgments of God taking place on earth are connected to the prayers of His people. I think the prayers being mentioned here are probably the prayers of the martyrs from chapter 6 where they cry out “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

 

Now again in Revelation 9:13 we hear a voice from this same golden altar of incense commanding the sixth angel who had the trumpet to release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. Again it appears that this angel is sounding the trumpet judgment in response to God answering the prayers of His people.

 

2. The Four Angels At The Euphrates River (9:14-15)

 

Who are these four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates?  The text does not tell us exactly, but the fact that they are “bound” may provide a clue.  The only other being in the book of Revelation said to be “bound” is Satan in Revelation 20.  Therefore, these four angels are probably high ranking evil spirits who have been bound by God, but are released at some point.

 

When are the four angels released?  The text says they had been prepared “for the hour and day and month and year.”  In other words, God had predetermined the exact time these angels would be released to accomplish their destructive work.

 

The fact that these angels are released at an exact time is very instructive to us. It might help us to narrow down when this takes place.  Remember, that the Idealist position does not view things described in Revelation as specific people or events. That position sees them as principles which are true throughout the entire history of the church. Yet, it appears that what we are reading about here takes place at a specific place and time in history. If that is true, then we must ask the question, when does it take place?  The Futurist says it will take place at the end of the world, right before Christ returns. The Preterist says it already took place in the first century directly preceding the destruction of Jerusalem. The question we should be asking, is which position makes more sense?

 

Remember, that Revelation is a letter from John to seven churches which existed in the first century in Asia. One of the purposes of this letter is to enable these early Christians to persevere under trial and persecution.  It would seem odd then, if the majority of the Revelation is not fulfilled for at least 2,000 years after it was written. Are we to believe that the prophecies in Revelation had no relevance to the people to whom John wrote?

 

Also, remember that there are several time indicators that John mentions that tell us when the fulfillment of the prophecies will be.

 

1:1 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place…”

 

1:3 “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.”

 

22:10 “And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.”

 

It seems to me that we must violently strain the meaning of those words to suggest that John intended his readers to believe that these prophecies would not be fulfilled for at least 2,000 years, even though he told them they must SOON take place, and that the time is NEAR.

 

Therefore, I find myself gravitating towards the Preterist view regarding the trumpet judgments in Revelation 8 and 9.  I think what we are reading about here in Revelation 9 probably had its fulfilment in the first century.

 

Remember that the invasion of locusts in 9:1-12 was a symbolic vision of a great horde of demons that would be released to torment men. The Jews within the city of Jerusalem from 67-70 AD do appear to be tormented by demons. Josephus, a Jewish historian from that day records their crazy and irrational behavior.  He describes the loss of all ability to reason, the frenzied mobs attacking one another, the deluded multitudes following the most transparently false prophets, the crazed and desperate chase after food, the mass murders, executions and suicides, the fathers slaughtering their own families and the mothers eating their own children.

 

What will these four angels do when they are released?  9:15 tells us that they kill a third of mankind.  They are intent on bringing about the death of a great number of human beings.

 

3. The 200 Million Horsemen (9:16-19)

 

How do these four angels bring about the death of multitudes of people?  Evidently through the armies of the horsemen described in 9:16.  At this point the four angels disappear and are not heard of again. In their place we see armies of horsemen numbering 200 million.

 

Is the number 200 million literal or symbolic?  I believe that most, if not all the numbers in the book of Revelation are symbolic, and that this 200 million is symbolic as well. There is no nation on earth that has 200 million soldiers. The largest armies of any nation are somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 million.  Even in World War 2, there were only 70 million soldiers if you counted all of them from both sides of the conflict.  The text tells us there were 200 million horsemen!  If you want to take this vision literally, you don’t need just 200 million soldiers; you need 200 million soldiers on horseback.  It seems obvious to me that this gigantic number was used to describe an indefinite number of incalculable immensity. An army of that size would be invincible.

 

I believe this vision of a vast army on horseback represents the vast Roman army that attacked and surrounded Jerusalem until it was entirely defeated in 70 A.D.  This is exactly what God told them would happen if they failed to keep His commandments.  Dt. 28:36-37, 49, 64 “The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the Lord drives you… The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young… It shall besiege you in all your towns until your igh and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you… Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known.”

 

Some interpret these riders on horses as demons. However, we have already seen the demon invasion in 9:1-12, and in that vision the demons don’t kill anyone. Here they are killing 1/3 of mankind!  So, it seems better to me to see this as a military invasion of real people.

 

How does John describe the Riders and the Horses?  Their breastplates were the color of fire, and hyacinth and brimstone.  Brimstone is sulfur which is yellow. Fire is red.

 

Out of the mouths of the horses proceed fire and smoke and brimstone.  Of course the description is not to be taken literally, as if these horses actually exhaled fire and sulfur and smoke! So, why does God depict these riders and horses as being connected to fire, brimstone and smoke?  All of these elements were present when God judged and destroyed Sodom.  In Genesis 19:24 we read, “Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.”  The next day Abraham looked down toward Sodom and saw the smoke of the land ascending like the smoke of a furnace. Why would God connect the destruction of Sodom with these invading armies in Revelation 9?  The answer is because Jerusalem is called Sodom in Revelation 11:8. God judged and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in the OT with fire and brimstone. By using the figures of fire and brimstone in Revelation 9, we understand that Jerusalem will also be judged and destroyed by God.

 

The horses had heads like lions, and had tails like serpents.  Now, what do lions and serpents have in common in Scripture?  Both are used to describe Satan.  1 Peter 5:8 says that Satan is like a roaring lion prowling about seeking someone to devour.  Rev. 12:9 says that Satan is the serpent of old. What does that tell us?  That this invading army are made up of Satan’s people. God is using unbelievers ruled by Satan to carry out His judgment upon Israel. That should not surprise us because in Isaiah 10 we read that God brought judgment on Judah through the pagan Assyrians. God brought judgment upon Israel through the pagan Romans, who no doubt were spurred on by Satan himself.

 

Where do the armies come from?  Revelation 9:14 tells us that the four angels were bound at the great river Euphrates.  When they are released, the 200 million horsemen march on their enemies. It would seem that we are to understand that the 200 million horsemen proceed from beyond the great river Euphrates as well.

 

So, are we to understand the phrase “the great river Euphrates” literally or figuratively?  Why is this river mentioned here? The Euphrates River was the eastern boundary both of the Roman Empire, and the Promised Land. On the opposite side of the Euphrates River was Nineveh, the capitol city of Assyria. In the 8th century B.C., the Assyrians crossed the Euphrates River and swept into the northern 10 tribes of Israel, and devastated it, just as God had promised would take place if they gave themselves to idolatry.

 

Again, in the 6th century B.C., the Babylonians crossed the Euphrates, and swept into Judah, destroying Jerusalem and taking its people into captivity. God promised it would happen, and it did.

 

So, the Euphrates River had come to symbolize God’s judgment on idolaters through the means of an invading army.

 

So, who are the ones this judgment is coming upon?  Who are the 200 million horsemen attacking?

Futurists – they believe this vision predicts a great world war at the end of human history by a coalition from the East, with China likely to be the leader.  Many take 1/3 of mankind literally, and believe that billions of people will die in this war.

Idealists – they believe this war is symbolic for all wars at all times throughout church history.

Preterists – they believe that this vision depicts the Romans conquering and destroying Jerusalem and the temple, putting an end to the priesthood and sacrificial system of the Old Testament covenant people of God.

 

Of these three options, I lean towards the Preterist position. But why would an invasion from the Romans be seen as a vision of a vast army invading from beyond the Euphrates River? Remember that the Euphrates had become linked with invading armies bringing God’s judgment upon idolaters. Well, the Romans were invading armies and Israel had become idolaters.

 

But why does the vision picture the armies with fire, brimstone and smoke? Because Sodom’s judgment was associated with fire, brimstone, and smoke, and Jerusalem is the New Sodom.

 

Jerusalem is the New Egypt. Remember that in chapter 8, we see some of the same plagues that God sent on Egypt:  hail and fire thrown to the earth, water turned to blood, and darkness. Why does the vision depict a return of these plagues? To demonstrate that Israel has become the New Egypt, and just as God judged Egypt, He is going to judge Israel.

 

Jerusalem is the New Jericho – just as pagan idolatrous Jericho was judged by God through the use of seven priests blowing seven trumpets, so we find in the Revelation that God is judging Israel through seven angels blowing seven trumpets.

 

Jerusalem is being compared to various pagan cities or nations that God judged. In the past God judged them for Israel’s sake. But now He is judging Israel, because she has become as evil as them because of their gross idolatry. All the imagery from those historical judgments is being depicted in these visions to shame Israel, who considered herself better than these pagan nations. Well, actually they are no better than them.

 

4. The Rest of Mankind (9:20-21)

 

How did the rest of mankind who were not killed do in response?  They did not repent. The rest of the world knew that Israel worshiped Jehovah, whereas the Romans had a myriad of gods that they worshiped. They took notice of the destruction of Jerusalem and the slaughter of the Israelites. But this great devastation made no effect on them. They did not learn from this judgment. It did not bring them to repentance. They went right on in their idolatry, murders, sorceries, immorality or thefts.

 

Conclusion

 

So, what can we learn from this vision? What would the Holy Spirit want us to take away from it?

 

  1. Prayer brings about results. We should not think of prayer as useless or meaningless because God has already decided what He is going to do. That may be true, but God uses means to bring about what He has determined to do, and one of those means is prayer. Remember that when the sixth angel sound his trumpet, John heard a voice from the golden altar, which is the place of the burning of incense (representing prayer). In this vision, the judgment that God brings is a response to the prayers of His people crying for justice on their persecutors.

 

James 5:16 says, “the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

 

As Christians we are not fatalists. We don’t throw our hands up in futility and say, “what will be will be.”  No, we pray for what we believe to be the will of God, and God responds to believing prayer bringing to pass His will on the earth.

 

  1. Satan and evil spirits can do only what God allows. Here we find four angels bound at the river Euphrates. Before they can muster this great army to march on their enemies, they must be released by the sixth angel with the trumpet. They could not bring about havoc and devastation until they were released by God. And when they were released, it was in the exact hour and day and month and year that God had determined ahead of time.

 

All of this just goes to show that Satan may have much power and many evil spirits working with him to deceive, tempt, and destroy. However, they can only do what God decides to allow them to do. And if God has decided to allow them to do it, He must have a very good and wise reason for it. We can trust God in all our battles against the evil one.

 

  1. Sometimes God uses Evil Men to Bring Judgment. He used evil Assyrians to judge Israel in Isaiah 10. He used the evil Romans to bring judgment on Israel in 70 A.D.  The wrath of God was being revealed from heaven against the first century world when God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, degrading passions, and homosexual relations (Romans 1). Could it be that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against the people of the U.S.? How else can we understand the entire moral reversal of a nation within one generation?! How else would explain the astronomical rise of fornication, couples living together outside of marriage, homosexuality and transgenderism being normalized, and gay marriage being legalized.  The Bible condemns all of those things, but our society has embraced them in mass. The wrath of God, it seems to me, is being revealed from heaven.

 

  1. The Depravity of Man. Man is so corrupt in all of his faculties that even these great devastating catastrophes do not move him to repentance. I remember that the Sunday after 9/11 all of the churches were full, and people were talking about God and faith. However, within just a few weeks, all of the spiritual interest had faded, and things were back to normal again.

 

If people are going to come to true and lasting repentance, it will take more than a Hurricane Katrina, or attack on Pearl Harbor, or death of a family member, or a Great Depression. It will take the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit taking out their heart of stone and giving them a heart of flesh, making them into new creations in Christ.

 

Let’s pray for our family, friends and neighbors to experience the new birth, coming to real and true repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!

 

 

 

 

 

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