Lesson 20 - Revelation 9 & 10

[Music] [Music] well last week actually I guess not last week a couple weeks ago we opened revelation chapter 9 and there we heard about a fallen angel symbolized by a star being given a key to the entry shaft into a deep place in the interior of the earth called the abyss and it is occupied by rebellious spirits that I think we can rightfully label as demons a king ruled over the abysus inhabitants and the name given to him was Abaddon that in Hebrew means destroyer so when the fallen angel opened up the shaft smoke billowed out and in mixed in with that smoke were legions of these demons in the form of grotesque locusts like creatures they had human faces laurel wreaths on their heads long hair teeth like a lion bodies like war horses and with a stinger in their tails that inflicted the pain equivalent to the sting of a scorpion interestingly enough their stings did not kill rather they just hurt relentlessly and no balm and no medication seemed to be able to relieve the agony God set boundaries on them in that this plague of locusts would only operate for five months and they were not allowed to harm those who had been divinely sealed that is a group of believers who were on earth during God's judgments but were supernaturally protected for armed the only seal people mention thus far in Revelation is the 140 or thousand of the tribes of Israel so I must assume this is who is being described now what can be so very challenging about this chapter chapter 9 is that indeed it uses many symbols but John also uses real-world creatures and examples to try and describe these other worldly critters all right and then in events so the symbolic is mixed with the literal and it can be hard frankly at times speculative when trying to separate these events and beings and and their meaning into categories of either symbolic or literal so for example these locusts aren't actual locusts but rather they have the characteristics of locusts and that they swarm and they fly at the same time they have a very uncharacteristic attributes for locusts in that they don't harm vegetation but they do sting the judgment of locusts is called the first of the three whoa WOA woah judgments it is simultaneously the fifth of the trumpet judgments so the idea is that the fifth the sixth and the seventh trumpet judgments are especially horrible so they are given the nickname of the woe judgments I'm highlighting this so it's clear that these three woe judgments are not seen as additional to the 21 Seal Bowl and trumpet judgments that would have given us a total event of twenty four judgments so let's reread part of Revelation chapter nine Revelation chapter 9 we're gonna start 12 so if you have a complete Jewish Bible will be page 1 5 4 1 15 41 15 41 and we're gonna start at verse 12 the first woe has passed but there are still two woes to come so the sixth angel sounded his shofar and I heard a voice from the four horns of the gold altar before God saying to the sixth angel the one with the shofar released the four angels that are bound at the great river euphrates and they were released and these four angels had been kept ready for this moment for this day month and year to kill a third of mankind and the number of cavalry soldiers was 200 million I heard the number here is how the horses looked in the vision the riders had breastplates that were fire red iris blue and sulfur yellow the horses heads they were like lions heads from their mouths issued fire smoke and sulfur it was these three plagues that killed a third of mankind the fire the smoke the sulfur issuing from the horse's mouth for the power of the horses was in their mouths but it was also in their tails for their tails were like snakes with heads and with them they could cause injury now the rest of mankind those who were not killed by these plagues even then did not turn from what they had made with their own hands they did not stop worshipping demons and idols made of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood which cannot see or hear or walk nor did they turn from their murdering their involvement with the occult and withdraw their sexual immorality or their stealing so now the sixth judgement comes which is also the second woe and we're told that a voice comes from these four horns of the gold altar before God now the gold altar as it is with the temple on earth is the incense altar however the altar of burnt offerings on earth also has four horns so perhaps it is that the material that the altar of burnt offerings in heaven is gold instead of the stone like it's used on earth either way the horns represent power that there is four of them symbolizes an all-inclusiveness includes essentially four is the symbolizes the four points of the compass the whole world it's interesting that at the earthly temple the horns were a place of asylum for criminals that is a criminal could rush to the temple altar grab hold of one of its horns and they could not be arrested for as long as they stayed there I mean for example we we read in first Kings chapter 2 that job rushed to the altar and he grabbed hold one of its horns so the King Solomon wouldn't kill him in other words the altar was a place of sanctuary from the wrath of humans and of God in Exodus 21 we read this 21 14 but if someone willfully kills another after deliberate planning you are to take him even from my altar and put him to death so while sanctuary at the altar is available for some crimes it's not available for murderers and one of the things we must remember about the altar is that it was holy so no layman was permitted to touch it only priests and properly purified Levites so if a man sought sanctuary at the altar at the same time when he came and grabbed the horns what did he do to it he defiled it but in the case of Revelation 9 13 and 14 the horns of the altar became a voice and that voice refuses to offer sanctuary and instead it releases hostile wrath instead of protecting people from it in fact when we consider that in Chapter 6 upon the breaking of the fifth seal we hear of believing martyrs abiding under the altar of God and they are pleading with him to avenge their murder and God says they have to wait a little while longer but now we have that same altar that they're under commanding wrath so I think the connection is clear enough that we should see that this is the moment when that wait is over God is avenging now for at least beginning the process of avenging the killers of the martyrs in carrying out the justice that's called for in Exodus 21 14 well the voice when the altar commands the release of four angels who are said to have been bound at the Great River which is the Euphrates now to be bound means to be restrained you usually against one's will so much like the demons of the abyss and their their leader Abaddon who were bound against their will restricted against these well against their will so to these four angels were restrained and restricted from carrying out what they wanted to carry out wrath on mankind they were restrained until the precise moment that the Lord had preordained as verse 15 of chapter revelation chapter 9 says and they were released and these four angels had been kept ready for this moment for this day for this month for this year to kill a third of mankind why the mention of the Euphrates River well this 1,700 mile long river is the longest in Western Asia and it carries with it significance as regards what is going to define the territory that will eventually be given over to Israel to occupy in Genesis 15 we read Genesis 15:18 that day Audra and I made a covenant without wrong I have given this land to your descendants from the wadi of egypt to the great river the Euphrates River now often this statement from Genesis gives us the sense that you're afraid uses just merely the northern boundary marker of Israel's promised land but what we have to understand is this boundary extends to the rivers entire length not just part of it its entire length so the northern boundary of ideal Israel the Israel it eventually will be is some 1,700 miles second samuel 8 3 david on his way to establish his dominion as far as the Euphrates River also defeated a days ere the son of her home king of Silva see King David understood the promise made to Abraham and he intended to bring that promise to realization if he could the land that modern Israel occupies today that's just a fraction of what it's it going to eventually be the heated disputes over the Golan Heights and the West Bank in Gaza this represents just a tiny portion of the land of future Israel now the purpose of these 4 angels is to lead to the killing of 1/3 of all mankind we think about that number in today's terms we'll be talking probably about two and a half billion billion with the BEA people and the tool that's going to be used to accomplish that as a demonic army of 200 million now whether these are 200 million actual demons are they are 200 million humans being demonically empowered can be debated endlessly we are not given a description of these beings only the horses on which they ride further 200 million is meant as a round number not as a precise number see we see large and small round numbers used throughout the Bible yet neither should we regard the 200 million as just symbolic it means 200 million regard of a million more or fewer this devastating war machine of 200 million this is enormous in size and is a force as unstoppable as a tsunami that these four angels were rebound were bound they were restrained next to the river Euphrates means that the vast army that comes to kill so much of mankind comes from areas that are geographically located near and around the afraid ease River but it also means that because the Euphrates is considered by God as defining the full extent of Israel's northern boundary then it becomes clear that the primary target of this vast army is Israel certainly one third of mankind does not currently and will not at the time of this judgment live in Israel but the collateral damage caused by this invasion is going to spill over into the rest of the world and it's going to result in the death of billions how exactly this happens to this point in Revelation were not told well starting in verse 16 the horses not their riders the soldiers the horses are described and we're told that they had breastplates that were red like the color of fire and included also the color of blue like irises yellow like the color of sulfur the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions and out of their mouths shot fire and smoke and sulfur now let's pause for a second plainly these are not actual horses rather the terms John is using to describe what he sees are confined the thing that commonly existed in his day so the soldiers came sitting or riding atop something that John calls horses because the only thing soldiers could ride upon in his day outside of chariots were animals like horses or camels so like the so called loaded locusts that swarmed out of the abyss these 200 million soldiers horses were not actual biological horses but we should also notice that these soldiers were not foot soldiers that marched in formation from all the places that they would cut that they will come instead they came riding atop something fearsome that John could only be understood as strange beasts that could best be communicated to his contemporaries as horses now we're told at the power of these horses the part of the horses that inflicted the damage was both their mouths and their tails that is both the front in the back of the horse and it was from the three plagues we're told of fire smoke and sulfur that these horses emitted that one third of mankind was killed so whatever the fire smoke and sulfur represents each of these here is called a plague the tales of the horses are said to be like snakes with heads and that they caused great injury now in the Bible snakes serpents are symbolic of evil that the serpents within the tails of the horses have heads this means they're intelligent beings how these caused injury now note the speaks of injury not necessarily death all right it's not spelled out however since the chief characteristics of Satan are a liar and a deceiver it may be that this is what causes such great harm you know something else to notice is that the power of the horses is said to be in their mouths as well as in their tails and since the term mouth is used and since the mouth is used for speaking my best conclusion is this is referring to false prophets and others who speak against God and his truth perhaps they are bringing with them the false words of the Antichrist nonetheless it seems that promoting falsehood is what is being envisioned by this symbolism but with all the killing and destruction that God's wrath is bringing on a scale not seen since the Great Flood it may seem the spreading lies and deceit is not nearly as dangerous or important as the indiscriminate brutality of military conflict I mean from a purely physical standpoint that's no doubt true but from a spiritual standpoint deception is the bigger enemy than physical death it was from the enemy's lie that Adam and Eve fell it was from the enemy's lie that idolatry arose from among God's people and it cost Israel hundreds of thousands of lives is God punished them for turning to other gods it is idolatry that has and continues to be the chief sin that makes people rebel against God and it lays out the broad road that leads to eternal death deceit in the Bible is often symbolized and times even personified as darkness God's Word is given to us as light that illuminates the truth in order to counteract the darkness of deceit that deceives this world and yet even with the truth so readily available the vast majority of all humans throughout history especially in the 21st century choose darkness over light falsehood over what is real so when all is weighed deceit is the bigger enemy than the business end of a gun a gun may take your life deceit can take your soul and so these horses of verse 19 are the Bears of deceit and millions probably billions of souls are going to be lost from the lies that they spread in fact I think my understanding on the meaning of the mouths and the tails of the horses prepares a purveyors of deceit and darkness is verified by verse 20 which speaks about idolatry as being continued among mankind even as countless millions fall to the supernatural wrath of God and to what apparently is a vast armed conflict see this is a theme that we see throughout Revelation that is despite it becoming obvious that the catastrophes and the cosmic events happening in sequence cannot possibly be random or natural and the undeniable fact is they precisely will match what the Bible predicts still still most of mankind will shape their collective fists at God and DoubleDown and their rebellion and disbelief rather than repenting and asking God for mercy so verse 20 says that two thirds of the Earth's population that has survived these horrors of God's wrath to this point even then would not turn from their idols of gold silver bronze stone and wood nor did they turn from their murdering nor from the use of drugs and all other kinds of perversion nor from stealing from one another thus the plagues were intended to be seen by Earthlings as warnings from heaven warnings that were not heeded by most now certainly some are going to come to belief as a result of all this some well but they're not sealed they're not protected and one can project a little bit they would no doubt become instant targets for those who are so hardened that they will fully go on rebelling I mean one can only imagine a bounty on God worshippers at this time since God will without doubt be considered an enemy of humanity is he not in some cases already I mean to continue worshipping idols in the midst of all this calamity represents a kind of comical irony as stated in several places in the Old Testament these sculpted pieces of wood and stone and precious metals can't walk or see or hear but as a result of worshipping these fictional gods neither can their creators or their worship see or hear because idolatry blinds people to the truth and in turn it hardens them against God repentance is almost impossible for idolaters and so their eternal death is almost inevitable simply look at the Pharaoh of Egypt is an example of the stubborn self destruction of an idolatry to quote Charles Lee Feinberg the ungodly are incorrigible in their murders and sorceries and immorality punishment does not soften wicked hearts only the love of God can let's move on to Revelation chapter 10 open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 10 still on the same page page 15 41 if you have a complete Jewish Bible Revelation chapter 10 well next I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven and he was dressed in a cloud with a rainbow over his head his face was like the sun his legs like columns of fire he had a little scroll flying open in his hand and he planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land and he shouted in a voice as loud as the roar of a lion and when he shouted seven thunderclaps sounded with voices that spoke and when the seven thunders spoke I was about to write but I heard a voice from heaven say seal up the things the seven thunders said do not write them down then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted his right hand towards heaven and he swore by the one who lives for ever and ever who created heaven and what is in it earth and what is in it and the sea and what is in it there will be no more delay on the contrary and the days of the sound from the seventh angel when he sounds his shofar the hidden plan of God will be brought to completion the good news as he proclaimed it to his servants the prophets well next the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said go and take the scroll lying open in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the land so I went over to the angel I asked him to give me the little scroll and he said to me take it eat it it will turn your stomach bitter but in your mouth it'll be as sweet as honey well I took the little scroll from the Angels hand I ate it and in my mouth it was sweet as honey but after I swallowed it my stomach turned bitter and that I was told you must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings notice that during the first set of seven judgments that we studied that was the sealed judgments the first six of the sealed judgments occurred one after the other in chapter 6 back in chapter 6 but then there was this interlude that is it was chapter 7 and then with chapter 8 the seal judgments picked back up again with the words when the lamb broke the seventh seal so it is that we find this same pattern with the seven trumpet judgments in Chapter eight the seventh and final of the sealed judgments is announced the first judgment trumpet judgment happens with six of the seven trumpet judgments announced in happening one after the other and rapid order then we have this inner that is chapter 10 and this continues well into chapter 11 and then the last the seventh of the trumpet judgments is announced however it's important that I remind you that when this apocalypse was was written by John and for another thousand years there would be no such things as chapters and verses in the Bible old or New Testaments so for us in our day see there's this kind of Mirage that occurs when we read the Bible there being this hard stop at the end of a so called chapter and a hard start at the beginning of the next so-called chapter but in reality no such things as chapters exists in the Bible they are late man-made additions see adding in chapter markings they were inserted somewhat arbitrarily by the way it can make it feel to the reader like like time has passed or the scene has changed or one subject is ending and another one is beginning but when you remove the chapter markings it all just flows together very naturally as originally intended now an interesting feature of this new interlude chapter 10 is that the same pre-tribulation doctrine adherents who say that the interlude of chapter 7 that occurs between the sixth and the seventh of the seal judgments means the chapter six and seven were out of order and therefore chapter seven has to be put before chapter six and oddly they do not insist upon the same treatment for the interlude of chapter seven of chapter ten rather chapter ten even though this interruption also occurs between two jug of judgments only this time it's the trumpet judgments trumpet judgments six and trumpet judgments seven in other words they don't apply this interlude this this idea of reversing chapters doesn't apply to the trumpet judgments they don't use the same criteria regarding the use of an interlude that they use for the seal judgments why not because just as reversing chapters six and seven is the only means to make their predetermined in times timeline work out properly they must also leave chapters nine and ten as they are to make their end times timeline work out properly and in fact ignore the interlude what's the difference between the two interludes nothing substantial but such as the nature of dubious man-made doctrines that they just can't hold up when taking the holy scriptures as they're written so just as we're not we did not agree to reverse chapters six and seven in Revelation we're also not going to bother chapter ten either these interludes are indeed actual chronological interruptions in a particular series of judgments or perhaps these are additional things that are happening more or less in parallel with their respective series of judgments I confess I don't have a rigid opinion on which option that might be now the first verse of chapter 10 introduces us to this mighty angel who makes another appearance earlier in revelation 5 it was this mighty angel who while at God's throne in heaven asked who's worthy to open the scroll that was in the Ancient Ones hand and we learn that his appearance to John was that he was dressed in a cloud at a rainbow over his head and his face was like the sun and his legs like column of fire who is this angel who is it first I want to address an anomaly present here and I suspect some of you may have caught it already only if you have a complete Jewish Bible well it described this mighty angel as having legs like columns of fire all other translations have him as having feet like columns of fire without doubt the complete Jewish Bible has it as its intended let's start with the logical sense since when can we compare feet to pillars feet look anything like pillars nope feet don't look anything like pillars they don't operate like pillars but legs do the reason for this textual anomaly is that in Greek there are separate words for legs and feet with potus meaning feet well that's what's found in the Greek New Testament manuscripts but an ancient Hebrew there's only a single word that is used for both feet and legs rag lime rig Lane John was a Galilean Jew he thought in Hebrew so somehow or another when writing down this vision either John or a scribe chose says they were doing doing it in Greek chose the Greek POTUS when clearly skill a legs was more correct now second as we look at the various descriptive attributes of this mighty angel we see him dressed clothed in a cloud see this is an Old Testament description of God he had a rainbow over his head this matches the description of the ancient one sitting on the throne with a rainbow over his head from Revelation chapter 4 his face shining as the Sun that's found in revelation 1:16 and yet this mighty angel is not said to be God and not said to be the ancient one and not said to be the lamb the only way to square all these attributes and come up with the answer to the question of who this mighty angel is is to assume that he is the angel of the Lord of the Old Testament or as the four Ackerley states in the original hebrew in the Tanakh the angel of Jehovah in the Old Testament this angel speaks with the authority of God God's very attributes and appearances are assigned to this angel because of most Bible commentators Taylor strict adherence to a very rigid Trinity doctrine they say this mighty angel has to be Christ which is by the way also the same thing they say about the angel of the Lord has to be Christ do this I strongly disagree the angel of the Lord is like the Shekinah another manifestation of God separate from God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit when dr. Fineberg was asked why he assigns Christ as the person of the mighty angel he answers this he appears as an angel because reference is made to conditions in Israel before their Messiah had been revealed in incarnation to them what how can that be revelation reveals first and foremost the Christ has already risen he's in heaven with God as the Lamb John's visions he's getting our glimpse of the future not the past old man-made doctrines die really hard don't they and some of the most brilliant brilliant Bible scholars will at times offer some of the most fantastic solutions to make traditional doctrines fit with Scripture see we also find that this mighty angel had a little scroll in his hand this is not the scroll with the seven seals that only the Lamb was able to open this is something different now we're gonna discuss that a little bit more in our next lesson the angel planted his left foot on the land his right foot on the sea why this was to show sovereignty over all the earth this prepares us for when that strange ungodly beast emerges from the sea and later chapters and it reinforces that God rules above even the halls of hell well this mighty angel shouts as loud as the roar of a lion and when he shouted seven thunderclaps sounded and they too had voices that spoke spoke words now thunder is usually a precursor to God making an appearance of theophany and or to God bringing judgment some say that the angel shouting like the roar of a lion is proof that this mighty angel is Christ because he is also called the Lion of Judah I can't abide in that because at this point in Revelation Christ is known by one thing only the Lamb that appeared to be slain shouting like the roar of a lion in my opinion is more like a metaphor for a loud terrifying roar of a lion as he captures his helpless prey however I think the main point being made is that the voices heard our voices of deity or voices that are directed by deity John says he was about to write down what the divine voice is said when he was told not to see John's primary job since the first chapter of Revelation has not been to interpret these visions but merely to faithfully record what he sees in them revelation 1:19 so write down what you see both what is now and what will happen afterwards John being told to seal up what he heard the seven thunders saying reminds us of Daniel being told the same thing in Daniel chapter 12 did John understand what he heard probably do a similar degree as he's understood all else he's been told however this knowledge think about this this knowledge died with John as God did not want us to know about it in advance whatever it is in verse 7 this mighty angel that in the Old Testament goes by the title the angel of the Lord he lifts his right hand towards heaven and he swears by the one who lives forever and ever the one the ancient one God the Father these are all names and titles for the same person of God so it shouldn't be difficult to imagine that the angel of the Lord a separate and different manifestation of God would vow in the name of the Father Yeshua did similarly as he regularly prayed to God the Father asking for the Father's will to be done in him even though he too was God the mighty angel has sworn to carry out that which God has commanded and what he has commanded is to carry out his assignment with no further delays when the seventh trumpet sounds the hidden plan of God will be brought to its completion and the hidden plan is the good news that Christ forgives sins and he makes atonement for those sins that we've already committed but to better understand the significance of this act of swearing by this mighty angel we need to refer back to Daniel chapter 12 verse 7 and see something almost identical occurring so in Daniel 12 verses 4 through 9 we read this think about what we just read in Revelation seal it up John listen to this but you Daniel keep these words secret seal up the book until the time of the end meaning you're gonna rush here and there as knowledge increases and then I Daniel looked and I saw in front of me two others one on this bank of the river and the other on the on its other bank and one of them asked the man dressed in linen who was above the water of the river how long will these wonders last and the man dressed in linen who was above the water of the river raised his right and left hands towards heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time times and half a time that it will be when the power of the holy people is no longer being shattered that all these things will end I heard this I could not understand what it meant so don't feel bad so I asked Lord what's gonna be the outcome of all this but he said go your way Daniel for these words are to remain secret and sealed until the time of the end so what we see happening now in Revelation is what Daniel was told would happen at the time of the end Daniel could make no sense of it because too much had had too much had to happen in between his time exile in Babylon in the 500 BC and when the events of Revelation many still future to us actually start coming about see what must become clear to the church about this secret plan of God is that the final redemption is coming but so was judgment and wrath and the two of them go hand in hand mercy is for those who love and obey God judgment is for those who do not there's no middle ground there's no halfway point in reality what we see happening here in Revelation fulfills a promise made by Yehovah even centuries earlier than Daniel in Deuteronomy he promised this to Moses in Deuteronomy 32 chapters 39 to 43 see now that I yes I am he there is no God beside me I put to death I make alive I wound and I heal no one saves anyone from my hand for I lift up my hand to heaven and swear as surely as I'm alive forever if I sharpen my flashing sword and I set my hand to judgment I will render vengeance to my foes I will repay those who hate me I will make my was drunk with blood my sword will devour flesh the blood of the slain and the captives flesh from the wild haired heads of the enemy see how two nations about his people for he will avenge the blood of his servants he will render vengeance to his adversaries and he will make atonement for the land of his people yes the Vengeance of the martyrs under the altar in heaven is now underway at this point in Revelation that's what we're reading about in Revelation chapter 10 the oath that the mighty angel is making is to say delays over the time for giving a little more time for people on earth to repent and be saved is over you know all those signs we you see sometimes on street corners you see them in movies the end is near chapter sin at 10 says the end is now that's a scary thought see there's no lack of pastors and Bible teachers and religious hucksters who pronounce that they have a word from God telling them the day to the end or that they have discovered a secret code in the Bible and they have decoded it and they know the time of the end and for a few bucks they'll tell you what it is I suspect that because God has given John so much information about the end times but upon hearing some other information John was told not to divulge it that very possibly that information which is held back is about revealing that time back in Chapter nine we were told that for angels about that were bounded through afraid ease at the Euphrates had prepared to act at a very specific moment in history right down it says to the day the month and the year that date was set by God long before can there be doubt that the date for all the events of Revelation including messiahs return and the end of history as we know it has also been set down to the day the month and the year if this is true then all that is happening right now that we see playing out on our TVs is a divine process that is more or less on autopilot nothing's gonna stop it no one will be permitted to know the moment until that process reaches its climax and no amount of guessing there's gonna lead any among us any human to that knowledge Matthew 24:32 through 42 now let the fig tree teach you its lesson when its branches begin to sprout and leaves appear you know that summer is approaching and in the same way when you see all these things you are to know that the time is near it's right at the door yes I tell you that this people will certainly not pass away before all these things happen heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away but when that day and hour comes nobody knows not the angels in heaven not the Sun only the father for the son of man's coming will be just as it was days of Noah and back then before the flood people went on eating and drinking and taking wives becoming wives right up until the day that Noah entered the Ark and he did not know what was happening until the flood came and swept them all away it'll be just like that when the Son of Man comes there will be two men in the field one will be taken and the other one will be left behind there will be two women grinding flour at the mill one will be taken the other one will be left behind so stay alert because you do not know on what day our Lord will come we'll finish up chapter 10 and get into chapter 11 [Music] you

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Length: 55min 45sec (3345 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 07 2018