Friday, November 10, 2023
Then the
sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking from the four horns
of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God. And
the voice said to the sixth angel who held the trumpet, “Release the four
angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River.” Then
the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year
were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth. I
heard the size of their army, which was 200 million mounted troops. And in my vision, I saw the horses and
the riders sitting on them. The riders
wore armor that was fiery red and dark blue and yellow. The horses had heads like lions, and fire and
smoke and burning sulfur billowed from their mouths. One-third
of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues—by the fire and
smoke and burning sulfur that came from the mouths of the horses. Their
power was in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails had heads like snakes, with
the power to injure people. But
the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their
evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of
gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor
walk! And they did not repent of their murders or their
witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts. Revelation 9:13-21
According to Genesis 12, the
Euphrates is a natural border of Israel.
The reason God’s judgment is focused on this area is because it is the
place of beginnings for evil in the world.
Those evils included the first sin, first murder, and first recorded
idolatry, when Nimrod built the infamous Tower of Babel. God may take His time in bringing judgment,
but He always brings it about properly at the right time! All the different kinds of evil in this world
are staggering to the average person. We
wonder how God can sort it all out – especially if we have felt its sting.
When I was serving as pastor in
Gainesville, Florida, there was an assault on our church buildings one
night. Fortunately no one was there, but
the "gang" left the place, including my study, in shambles. There were satanic symbols painted on the
walls, and broken stuff everywhere. The
Chief of Detectives of the Gainesville Police was a member of our church, and he
assured me it was the same as some other Satan-worshipping rituals he'd seen.
How deep does evil run? An Associated Press release in 1990 reported
that …in Medellin, Columbia, the home base for the billionaire drug barons
of Columbia, their most vicious weapons are sicarios, hired assassins who, with
shotguns, pistols and icepicks, have killed presidential candidates and judges,
a newspaper publisher, an attorney general, assorted army personnel and at
least forty police officials. These sicarios are recruited children, as young
as six and trained to be professional killers by fourteen.[1] It takes demonic inspiration to bring
children to this depth of evil. We are
not yet in that time (the Great Tribulation) yet we see the seed being planted,
and growing each year.
If you are a normal human being, you
ask: Why
all this evil? The answer falls
under the general heading of the judgment of God, but the reason of Satan’s
brutality will be to amass an army large and mean enough to kill one-third of
the world's population…and his ultimate end will be to gain control, to rule
the entire earth. His front man for this
is called the Beast elsewhere
in Scripture. The world is being
conditioned at this very point to accept the ways Satan's henchman
operates. Evil is growing stronger in
this world. Human minds, under the
inspiration and direct manipulation by the Enemy, are up for grabs. Technology, combined with economy, is
influencing the minds of tomorrow's world leaders. Consider MTV a micro-cosmic example (as
reported in 1993): A recent
self-promotional ad in an advertising trade publication brags: ‘Any channel can deliver eyeballs. But how
many can include hearts and minds?’ In
another ad, MTV calls itself ‘not a TV channel, but a cultural force.’ Still another and perhaps even more revealing
ad shows a young man relaxed in an arm-chair with his remote control. The ad
copy tells us this man is the ‘opinion leader’ among his friends. The headline declares, ‘Buy this 24-year-old
and get all his friends absolutely free.’[2]
It is impossible to gauge the amount
of influence cultural giants like Twitter, Instagram, and all the other social media
giants will wield in the Great Tribulation.
But, just the same, I'm glad God is still in control, and He will allow
Jesus to pluck the church out of this world before that all starts. It’s commonly called rapture.
War is seldom the war to end all wars. But this one is getting close. Under the holocaust of the fourth seal (Rev.
6), one-fourth of the world’s population die. Under the sixth angel's trumpet, one-third of
those survivors now die. You would think
even the worst God-haters would get religion after that! But that doesn’t account for the stubbornness
of those delusional enough to think they’re greater than God. The people left on earth, rather than repent
and give glory to the true living God, simply become more hardened than ever,
and turn even more so to their material gods and devil worship.
It is indeed an amazing thing that
people would worship or entrust their future to nutty things like Ouija boards,
Witchcraft, and other goofiness, rather than a God who came right to us, and
died for us, and rose again so we could too!
Yet, that is exactly what they do, and they get angry at anyone who
tells them the truth.
It is reported that in Germany there
are more registered fortune tellers than pastors. Satan worshippers all over the world pray to
the devil for him to break up the marriages of pastors. And that’s just a faint shadow of delusion's ultimate
stubbornness, which will show up when the Beast is in charge. Dr. John Phillips, in a commentary on
Revelation gives a great statement of just how unglued the whole idea of
righteousness will become in the Great Tribulation:
What a picture of a crime-oriented culture! Man has finally arrived at his goal: a government and culture in which
permissiveness is the accepted norm and where all kinds of deviation and
misbehavior are applauded and encouraged, a government presided over by a fascinating
but foul individual called the man of sin. [3]
Up to this juncture the seals and
trumpets have been judgments of God's Allowance. The extreme judgment in this passage indicates
the progressive nature of sin and its consequences; this time the judgment is
by God's Activity. It is the wrath of God that falls. And in the day of God's wrath, who can stand?
The Psalmist says it plainer than
anyone:
God is an honest judge. He is angry with the wicked every day. Psalm
7:11
Apostle Paul wrote that clearly:
Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of
God will fall on all who disobey him. Ephesians
5:6
Apostle
John also covered that in his Gospel:
And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never
experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.” John 3:36
For You Today
These judgments could tend to depress
you -- if they didn't scare you to death and make your heart pound!
I am glad that God waited at least
until 1956 to begin the Tribulation and His judgments. That was the year I gave my heart to Jesus
Christ. He saved my soul, and sealed my
life and eternity against the day of judgment the world is going to go
through. And if Jesus forgave enough sin
to save me, He will save ANYONE!
One final word in this devotion that
has turned into the length of a sermon:
If you have never trusted Christ, by
asking Him to forgive your sins, but you do see now that is exactly what your
heart wants more than anything, simply bow your head and tell Him that. He’s just waiting to hear from you.
There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons
in the Rocky Road library.
Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com
Images without citation are in public domain or cited
via weblinks.
Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
[1] Associated Press
5-30-90
[2] Advertising
Age, 7/28/93
[3] John Phillips, EXPLORING REVELATION, (Neptune, NJ, Loizeaux Bro, 1993), 137
