Revelation 9:10
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10 And[kai] they had[echo] tails[oura] like[homoios] unto scorpions,[skorpios] and[kai] there were[en] stings[kentron] in[en] their[autos] tails:[oura] and[kai] their[autos] power[exousia] was to hurt[adikeo] men[anthropos] five[pente] months.[men] KJV-Interlinear
10 And
they have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power
to hurt men for five months. NASB
Remember that John uses
phrases such as ‘like’ and ‘appear’ and ‘as it were’ to describe the
demons.Nowhere do we have an exact
description of them.John in his
description is attempting to use things that are common to his knowledge, to
approximate a picture for us, of how these demons look and operate. And needless to say, their appearance and
nature, is way beyond bizarre.
The last attribute is a
tail.One that
apparently curls up like that of a scorpion, and having a stinger of some type.
We assume from the context
that they will use their stinging abilities, as well as their biting abilities
from their teeth, to torment people.
Their
purpose?To hurt men.And more specifically as we have already studied, to hurt unbelievers,
not believers in Christ.
How they will be able to
differentiate between a believer and an unbeliever, we are not told, but
needless to say, God is the referee, and there will be no foul or transgression
of the rules that God has laid down for these demons.
The
purpose?To
shake unbelievers to their senses, and get them to see truth, putting aside the
lies that they have made out of their lives, and believe in Christ and
therefore be saved from eternal condemnation.
To hurt, ‘adikeo,’ means to be unjust, to do wrong, to injure, to
take, to make suffer, to be treacherous. And therefore, we know that the demons
will use all of the resources at their disposal to torment unbelievers, to take
away their dignity, to drive them to the point of emotional frenzy.
Remember, that people
will be driven to the point of wanting suicide, rather than continuing with the
torments, and likewise rather than believing in Christ.
For the hard core
unbelievers, their common sense and rationalization will be anything but practical. Their reasoning will be absurd.
This event will not be
something that they will hear about, or read about, occurring somewhere
else.It will not be some unusual anomaly
that is here one day and then gone.This
event is going to exist across the entire planet, and will affect nearly every
person on the planet, and it will last for a full five months.
No one (unbelievers) is
exempt, not rulers, not celebrities, not peasants, no one.
The mere unusual nature
of this event, should be enough to convince everyone
that they are on the wrong track as far as God is concerned. But as we will see, most will not only hold
on, to their negative attitude toward Christ, they will become even more
defiant.
And the lesson for us is
simple.Even in the most extreme cases,
people will stubbornly reject truth, when it should be the most easy to turn
toward truth.So how, much easier is it
to reject truth now, when the pressure is not near as extreme?
Regardless of what kinds
of pressures you have or might have in life, if you simply ignore your God
assigned obligation to study doctrine (that is, learn from a legitimate
instructor of truth), and far too many people have a very passive and subtle
attitude toward their spiritual life, then you will never achieve the maximum
potential that God has prepared for you.
Nearly everything in this
world, gives us examples of the various characteristics of the spiritual
life.You can be in absolute poverty, or
you can be a trillionaire.Which would
you prefer if you had the choice?
And God has given you a
choice of just those two extremes for your next life. Remember your next life will last forever,
not for just a few decades.So being in
the upper category would be extremely advantageous, don’t you think?
Make a quick review of
Psalm 1.Happiness’s (plural) go to whom? The one who wants it. The one who really, really,
really, wants it.Not to the
passive, not to the indifferent, not to the one who thinks that they have
already arrived.
But to the one who ‘studies
[doctrine from instruction] to show themselves mature [complete].
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