Bible Gem 2275 – Where is the Terror in the Sixth Trumpeted Judgement? (Revelation 9:13-21)

¹³Then 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. ¹⁴And the voice said to the sixth angel who held the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River.”

¹⁵Then 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. ¹⁶I heard the size of their army, which was 200 million mounted troops. ¹⁷And in my vision, I saw the horses and the riders sitting on them. The riders wore armour that was fiery red and dark blue and yellow. The horses had heads like lions, and fire and smoke and burning sulphur billowed from their mouths. ¹⁸One-third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues—by the fire and smoke and burning sulphur that came from the mouths of the horses. ¹⁹Their power was in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails had heads like snakes, with the power to injure people.

²⁰But 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! ²¹And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Revelation 9:13-21

The eagle did warn us to expect terror – three times. I think you have to agree that what is described here is indeed terrifying. Does it terrify you? Reading these words and contemplating the future can indeed be terrifying. I have noticed the responses to the Gems have dropped off since beginning Revelation 6, 8 and 9 where the judgements have begun. This is not edifying stuff to be talking about. I would far rather be gemming a more comfortable, edifying book than Revelation. I had wondered about 1 and 2 Peter, especially as I love the letters of Peter; they fascinate me. And even more appropriately as our church (MCBC) is focused on Peter’s letters at the moment. I didn’t know they were planning to focus on Peter before I felt the LORD leading me to gem Revelation. Peter has written some the best Greek of the New Testament. How could Peter, a Jewish fisherman, have penned some of the best Greek of the NT? Good question; one which confounds the experts. But that doesn’t make me regret my decision to gem Revelation. I know that this is the book / letter I am supposed to pick apart at this point in time.

Why is the sixth trumpeted judgement so terrifying?

I think there are a number of reasons:

The Size of the Army Involved in this Battle

I am not going to add more detail to this section, simply to remind us all, the force as described would constitute the largest ever gathered for battle in human history. Just compare the figures in the quotes I gave you in the last Gem to see how many times the size of the force described in Revelation 9:16-19 outnumbers the largest armies ever gathered before. As I said in the previous Gem, the text appears to seat each rider on a horse. Thus the army is in effect a cavalry, which doesn’t necessarily make military sense, as armies need infantry as well as cavalry. You might want to suggest armoured divisions as well if we are talking modern warfare. But remember this was written in the 1st Century AD.

The Demonic Nature of the Force

Following the opening of the shaft of the Abyss in Rev 9:1-2, what came out from the Abyss is terrifying to say the least. What do we believe from John’s description? The nature of the visions given to him increase in weirdness. They are strange to say the least. Either what we have here is typical apocalyptic writing filled with strange other worldly visions, symbolic in essence, but without real world equivalents. Thus we have to search for meaning from what John has described. That is difficult given the hidden nature of the creatures described. Are we to interpret the visions in symbolic ways or are we to take them at face value and conclude they are descriptive of the demonic world? It could be either. Read what I wrote in Bible Gem 699 – The Unseen World of Evil.

Interpreting the Colours, Snakes’ Mouths and Tails and other Fanciful Things

How are we to interpret John’s symbols – symbolically or with real world application? I was at a loss to know before writing this Gem. What do I say about the colours, horses with heads like lions, and snake heads in their tails, and the plagues which came from them. Most commentators relegate them to the world of apocalyptic visions and make no more comment. Allow me to quote from Winston Churchill once more.

That’s “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

Winston Churchill

Since writing the last Gem I have been doing some sleuthing, inspired by recollections which surfaced in my memory from something I had read a long time ago concerning the Romans and their use of poisons. I have been given a paper, Poisons and Poisoning Among the Romans by David B Kaufman which trigger me to recall some info from the past. Poisons and poisoning are frequently mentioned in Roman literature. Caligula is said to have kept a trunk full of poisons. Nero was a serial poisoner who at one stage wanted to poison the entire Senate at a banquet he held. The Romans also used poison as a warfare strategy.

I got thinking, is it possible that snake heads and tails connected with the cavalry horses were a war strategy of the Romans. Was the spike in the horse’s chanfron armour protecting the horses head covered in poison? Is the snake’s head in the horses tails some veiled reference to poisons placed in the tails of the horses to infect the enemy? It would have to be harmless for the horses but toxic for humans. I have been doing some digging into the colour references made in verses 9:17-19 concerning the fiery red, dark blue and yellow colours in the armour along with the reference to “the fire, smoke and burning sulphur 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.” It sounds fanciful but then I discovered that the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used red realgar which is a derivative from arsenic and orpiment used as a poison. Rich blue nitrates and nitrites were used in conjunction with acids from copper, zinc and magnesium which formed deadly toxins. Ancient Prussian blue paint pigments were regarded as highly poisonous and a yellow arsenic based sulfide extracted from orpiment was a very effective neurotoxin which were also carcinogenic. Perhaps the description of John’s vision has a more real world application than first imagined.

History’s Seven Deadliest Plagues Compared with the Plagues of Revelation 9

The death toll from this sixth trumpet judgement amounted to one-third of the population of the earth!! Now that fact alone is terrifying. The scale of this death toll is like nothing ever experienced before. As if this were not bad enough, there are two more terrifying elements to all of this. The first is despite all of the above happening as a result of the Sixth Judgement we are told:

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! ²¹And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Revelation 9:20-21

Does this remind you of something? This seems reminiscent of the plagues of Egypt and the response of Pharaoh. Perhaps that is the very point of this passage in Revelation to remind us that in the end the Egyptians are going to prove more wise and less stubborn than the smart people of the earth in the early 21st Century. How shocking is that! God’s purpose in giving people more time is so they can repent and change their ways and spare themselves from having to face judgement. They need to move from the people-who-belong-to-this-world to those-who-belong-to-the-Lamb. If they don’t, they will be lost and have to face the wrath of God and the Lamb. The sad thing is just like the Egyptians, once they harden their hearts to God, it is so hard to turn around and come to repentance. Just like Pharaoh of old, when we harden our hearts to God, He then hardens us to the point where we can’t repent, just like Esau (Hebrews 12:17).

The second most terrifying element is the timing of these apocalyptic events. I told you in Gem 2274 that Revelation telescopes the time frame. A third are taken out in judgement leaving twice as many the opportunity to repent. When they don’t, He takes another 1/3, leaving behind twice as many again. Are you getting the idea? You must surely be understanding by now. I told you in the next Gem (this one), I would revisit the patterns and series of these visions. The visions are patterned and predictable; we need to understand that and the time frame on which they happen. Yes it is true that a day with the LORD is comparable to a thousand years on earth. But it is also true that biblical time frame is compressed as well.

You have to realise that these visions are cyclic, overlapping and multi-layered. Hebrew prophecies are multi-layered, cyclic and overlapping. We Western Gentiles don’t realise that. We ordinary Christians and even the commentators keep wanting to track the past, present and future aspects of Revelation. It is like they know or have heard that Revelation has a past component and present component and a future component. So all we have to do is find where each break comes. Well, best of luck. Many before you have tried and failed. These seals, trumpets and bowls are so similar in their structure and their approach and in the repetitions that they include. Not only that, but the way of thinking about them is just like the shofar as I indicated in Gem 2266 – Putting the Pieces Together. Stand the shofar on end and look down on it. Note the spirals and realise in reading Revelation that is the perspective you should gain. In other words, the seals, trumpets and bowls ought to be seen as being superimposed on each other at the same time and spiralling upward getting more intense and overlapping each other all at the same time.

I think many of us think that there is so much time before the events of Revelation will come to pass. Therefore our conclusion is that the Day of the LORD is a long way off yet. That is a fallacy. As Paul tells us:

Now concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, we don’t really need to write you. For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape. But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-4

So many Christians tell me but ‘this’ hasn’t happened yet and ‘that which follows ‘that’ it is still to come. Friends, we need to comprehend that in all probability, the seals, trumpets and bowls will all take place overlapping one another. So our linear concept of future history is going to pass by really quickly. In next to no time, the Lamb will have come and it will be too late. Be careful friend, it will all happen sooner than you think.

That’s “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

Winston Churchill

Why is this second terror so terrifying? The size of the army makes any army before it seem insignificant.

Ian

The demonic nature of the visions make us realise the opening of the shaft of the Abyss is a scary outcome.

Ian

The colours associated with the horses and the armour are an indication that Roman chemical warfare may have been involved; suggesting the strong possibility of likely chemical warfare in the final battles.

Ian

The significant escalation in the death toll from millions to billions is a terrifying proposition.

Ian