The Sixth Trumpet

Revelation 9:13 “Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,”

John writes that a sixth angel hand sounded his trumpet. Notice that he doesn’t identify who voice it is that he heard. He merely states that voice that he hears comes from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God.

Many scholars have different interpretations of who the voice is. Some have said that voice is either God or the Lamb (Rev. 10:4, 8; 5:6-7; 11:12). Others have said that voice isn’t God’s since the voice is uttered “before God.” Others have said that the voice symbolizes the altar itself speaks, while others have said that the voice is that of the angel who had the golden censer who stood at the altar (Rev. 8:3-4); additionally Jewish tradition taught that an angel served God as an intermediary in conveying His word, for example in the case of the Ten Commandments (Acts 7:53; Gal 3:19; Heb 2:2). Therefore it is believed that the angel is the voice speaking on behalf of God.

One thing that all scholars have agreed upon that I have read, is that rather this voice is God, the Lamb Jesus Christ, or an angel, God is answering the prayers of the martyred saints who constantly cry out to Him for deliverance, for vindication of the divine justice on those who had killed them, is now about to be poured out on the wicked in response to their prayers (Rev. 6:9-10). God will always answer prayers and keep His promises.

Revelation 9:14 “saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.””

The “voice from the altar” instructs the sixth angel who had blown the sixth trumpet to release the four angels who were bound at the great river Euphrates. These four angels are not to be confused with the four good angels that are standing at the four corners of the earth that we read about in (Rev 7:1). Here in v.14 these four angels John states that they are “bound (the verb is in the perfect tense to denote a lapse of time) at the great river Euphrates.” These are demonic fallen evil angels, since good angels are never bound (Rev. 20:1-3; 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 6). These evil angels are permitted by God to be let loose so that God’s judgment of plagues can punish all godless people who rejected Jesus Christ.

The reference to the great river Euphrates. At the time of John’s writing, the Euphrates was the border of the Roman Empire, beyond which were the terrifying horsemen of the Parthian Empire. Before the emperor Trajan’s victory over the Parthians in A.D. 114–16, these enemies stalked to impose violence upon those living within Rome’s borders. It is possible that the description of these horsemen breathing fire out of their mouths and stinging with their tails would remind John’s readers of the way in which Parthian horse archers fired both while advancing and while retreating.

The MacArthur commentary points out that “The region near the Euphrates was the central location of three world powers that oppressed Israel: Assyria, Babylon, and Medo-Persia. It was on the banks of the Euphrates that Israel endured seventy long, bitter, wearisome years of captivity (cf. Ps. 137:1–4). It is the river over which the enemies of God will cross to engage in the battle of Armageddon (16:12–16).”

Revelation 9:15 “So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.”

These four evil angels had been prepared by God to unleash hell on earth for this precise hour and day and month and year according to what God had ordained. God has always raised up both men and demons as His instruments to accomplish His divine purpose throughout history. As one writer states: Each acts out of their own volition, according to their schemes and nature, but God, knowing them from eternity past, raise them up in history to carry out His purpose even at the exact hour (Isa 10:5f; Rom 9:11-18).

These four evil angels were released to kill a third of mankind.

Now remember in (Rev. 6:8), the fourth seal that was open killed one-fourth of the earth’s population; now we are told that a third of mankind will be killed, this would mean that more than half of the earth’s population will be killed, and what is equally important to know is that these judgments do not account for all the deaths during the other seal and trumpet judgments nor all those that will occur.

The MacArthur commentary states that, “The terrible slaughter will completely disrupt human society. The problem of disposing of the dead bodies alone will be inconceivable. The sickly stench of decaying corpses will permeate the world, and it will take an enormous effort on the part of the survivors to bury them in mass graves or burn them.”

How could all these people die?

Revelation 9:16 “Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.”

The death toll of over a billion of people will be the result of a demonic army of horsemen that number 200 million. John isn’t speculating about this number, he said “I heard the number of them.” He was given the exact number of demons that will invade the earth and unleash massacre that has not ever been seen.

This army is not a human army, as some who have said that this is the 200 million Chinese army. This may sound good for selling books or for TV, but this army isn’t human, it is a demonic army.

Revelation 9:17 “And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.”

John now goes from hearing the number of the demon army, to describing what he sees. He saw horses in his vision. Those who sat on these horses had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth is a flower that is blue, and brimstone is sulfur which is yellow. The heads of the horses looked like the heads of lions; and fire and smoke and brimstone proceeded from the horses’ mouths who have been sent out to cause death and destruction on the evil population that has rejected God and gospel of Christ.

Revelation 9:18 “By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.”

Fire, smoke, and brimstone are natural elements that God used to bring judgment in the past during sinful actions of Sodom and Gomorrah (cf. Gen. 19:24, 28), here he using them again agains the sinful actions of mankind. Fire, smoke, and brimstone will also be present in Hell for all those who have rebelled against God (Rev. 14:10; 19:20; 20:10; 21:8).

Revelation 9:19 “For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.”

The demon like horses power to kill resides both in their mouth and their tails killing anyone in their path.

Revelation 9:20 “But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.”

John informs his readers that the rest of mankind that didn’t die by the three plagues, refuse to repent from their works of their hands, they refused to stop worshiping demons, and manmade idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which were powerless to save, for those idols couldn’t see nor hear nor walk. After all that had happen around the globe, the death toll of over a billion people, bodies sprawled out every where, and people still are unwilling to repent, just as those who refuse to repent and cursed God’s name (Rev 16:9-10).

Revelation 9:21 “And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

Because of the hardness of their hearts, God gave them over to reprobate mind. Left to their own sinful desires they refuse to repent from their murders, and we see people doing the same today. They refused to repent from their sorceries, pharmakon, a drug used in magic, witchcraft, to conjure up demonic spirits. Pharmakon is where we get our English word pharmacy, pharmakeia to administer drugs. Look at the widespread of drug sells and use today, weed, cocaine, fentanyl, Xanex, mollies. They refused to repent from immorality, porneia the root word of our English word pornography. This is sinful acts that include not only looking at sex acts, but engaging in adultery, fornication, homosexuality, and rape. All of which is widespread today. Lastly, the people will refuse to repent from thefts. The Greek word is Klemma stealing, from the root klepto, to steal. We see that people today will steal at any given chance, they will shoplift, break in homes, steal from their jobs, steal from their families to support their drug habits, politicians steal, law enforcement officers steal, CEO’s steal. All of the sinful rebellion and refusal to repent from sin and turn to God and faith in Christ is happening today, satan and his demons have laid the foundation, and many have wilfully followed with pride, and it will only get worse as the day of Christ continues to approach.