Revelation 9:14
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14 Saying[lego] to the sixth[hektos] angel[aggelos] which[hos] had[echo] the trumpet,[salpigx] Loose[luo] the four[tessares] angels[aggelos] which[ho] are bound[deo] in[epi] the great[megas] river[potamos] Euphrates.[Euphrates] KJV-Interlinear
14 one
saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels
who are bound at the great river Euphrates." NASB
The voice comes from the
four horns of the golden alter of incense.
The golden alter represents the policy of God that allows no one but
those who have believed in Christ, to approach God.
Those who have rejected Christ, may not approach God in any manner whatsoever. Their
works are not as good as the work of Christ on the Cross. Mans works cannot save.
Jesus Christ executes the
plan of the Father, therefore, it is He who has the
right to speak in behalf of that plan.
The voice gave an order
to the angel which held the sixth trumpet.
That order was to release four demons who had
been incarcerated (bound) in the Euphrates River.
These four angels are not
specifically identified, but they are four specific leaders of massive demon
armies. And as we will see in just a couple of more verses, they lead four army
groups numbering fifty million demons in each army.
Humanity has had several
warnings, from human failure, to natural catastrophes, and with this next
judgment, humanity will see the second supernatural judgment. The first supernatural judgment we saw just
this past week, with the five month torments from massive numbers of demons.
The first demon judgment
had no specific numbers, but it had one leader. This judgment comes with four
generals leading an army of demons numbering at two-hundred million
demons.This is not a human army, for no
human has been bound anywhere along the Euphrates for all of human history.
The last days have been imminent
since the time that John wrote these words.
And no human army could have possibly numbered in that size way back
then.
The Euphrates River has
been a boundary and a symbolic division between civilization and
non-civilization since back in Johns day and prior. It was the eastern boundary of the promised
nation of Israel, and is the source from which many of Israel's enemies came.
In Johns
day, it was the eastern boundary of Rome. Beyond that boundary were uncivilized barbarians
and enemies of Israel and Rome.
Therefore literally and symbolically,
these four demon leaders and their armies, have been held at bay and prevented
from crossing the symbolic boundary into the venue of humanity, and prevented
from bringing harm to humanity.
That is until this
specific date in time.We will see that
in the next verse.There is a schedule
for judgments and they are next on that schedule of Gods timetable.
In the first series of disasters,
believers were the target of human atrocities.
Then God brought judgment against unbelievers as a warning first. That will
be rejected.
In the first series of
disasters, one-fourth of the population of the world will die. That makes for a
huge indictment against unbelieving humanity.
They do not change.
Now the next judgment will
take a tremendous toll against those unbelievers and the entire population of
the world.
In this universe there
are two great opposing forces, those of Satan, and God. To doubt that, is a tremendous mistake on anyone's
part.
Humanity is caught in
between them.God wants us all to be
saved, to see truth and live in heaven forever.
Satan wants to defeat God
and destroy all of humanity, for no other reason than he hates God.
Satan possesses a siren
call of sorts, which sings from the world, to all of humanity, calling man to
its enticements, to its lusts, to its ego and power and control concepts. All of which are destined to disaster for any
who listen and pursue them.
Many calls are subtle
suggesting that you need not comply with any of Gods mandates or principles,
that you need not recognize any authority but your own, that you need not
conform to any principle of truth, that you can pursue virtually anything with
the assumption of innocence doing no harm to anyone. Those suggestions are all lies.
However, the more that
people resist compliance with truth, the deeper they dig themselves into a pit
of despair and disaster.Even the resistance
to studying Gods word daily, leads to a lack of spiritual resources and makes
one susceptible to Satan’s cosmos ideology.
And as we have already
studied in Thessalonians, that negative attitude toward God and doctrine, will eventually
lead to the great apostasy at the end of our own Church Age, and that will
become the catalyst for bringing on the Rapture and the Tribulation.
The Tribulation (that
future seven year period) is what we are currently studying.
For it is that future
period, that the great wine press of judgment will squeeze and separate out the
very last believer in humanity, leaving only unbelievers and evil remaining for
their final judgments.
What is coming is very
real. The history that will lead up to it (our failure in this dispensation) is
very real.
You have but to decide
whether you are going to be a passive part of that failure, or whether you are
going to get your act together and abide by those things that God wants of
you.
At some point you might
want to review (again, or for the first time), the spiritual checklist (in the
special studies library) which we put together some time ago.
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