Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow their mighty blasts. The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were thrown down on the earth. One-third of the earth was set on fire, one-third of the trees were burned, and all the green grass was burned. Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and a great mountain of fire was thrown into the sea. One-third of the water in the sea became blood, one-third of all things living in the sea died, and one-third of all the ships on the sea were destroyed. Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch. It fell on one-third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star was Bitterness. It made one-third of the water bitter, and many people died from drinking the bitter water. Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and one-third of the sun was struck, and one-third of the moon, and one-third of the stars, and they became dark. And one-third of the day was dark, and also one-third of the night. Then I looked, and I heard a single eagle crying loudly as it flew through the air, “Terror, terror, terror to all who belong to this world because of what will happen when the last three angels blow their trumpets.” Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke. Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions. They were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were told not to kill them but to torture them for five months with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting. In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them! The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces. They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion. They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle. They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people. Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer. The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming! Revelation 8:6-9:12
- You are probably all too familiar with the syndrome of “then”.
- You were only four, and your big brother was going off to school; you
were told that someday soon you would also get to go; you couldn’t wait until then.
- You were 12 and bigger kids played on the teams…you would grow and then.
- You were 14 and still had to wait to begin driving…wait until then.
We wait, anticipate, long-for-the-day,
and then it comes. We’re excited (for a
while), and then we’re on to the next set of waiting, longing, and arriving. In light of that then stuff,
how do you feel about the End of Times…apocalypse? This prophecy of Apocalypse, the End Time
terrible tribulation, is not on many peoples’ front burner; not even “theologians”. Truth be told, it is an icky
kind of truth to tell. After all, who
wants to hear about a third of the earth’s waters, lands and creatures consumed
by fire? Some people believe…and
tremble. But, even then, one-third
leaves you a two-out-of-three chance of surviving. Good odds, even in a Las Vegas casino.
But this isn’t a roulette wheel, and we’re
not talking about vacation time or silly games.
This subject is God’s impending righteous judgment of the world for
sin. And it won’t be a third of the
world being judged; the last sentence of the text completes the equation…this
bloodbath is only 1/3 complete…the other two-thirds are right on its
heels. That hammer WILL fall. The only question is WHEN?
Many have taken a step onto that ledge
of predicting the when of the then. But that is as foolish as ignoring the coming
of judgment. When Jesus was teaching his
followers about the end of times he told them they couldn’t know
the “when” – that was in the Heavenly Father’s hands:
“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. Matthew 24:36
For You Today
I can think of a lot of ways I’d
rather suffer than by fire, but the moment and circumstances of our judgment is
not something we get to choose. The good
news is that we can choose to take a moment in time to change the outcome of
that judgment. That is the gift of Jesus’
death on the cross.
You
chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
Title image: Pixabay.com W Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
For another post on this text see: Going Out in a Blaze of Glory - Part 1
