The gods Must be Crazy

Revelation 8:6–9:21 NIV

Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter. The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night. As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!” The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer). The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come. The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number. The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury. The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Introduction: Story of High School thinking Locusts were Apache Helicopters.

- Reminder: Jesus explains the signs that his readers would not readily know about.

The signs they would know about, they know because they come from scripture, mostly the O.T.

But now here is a third reason they would understand the signs - They relate to the culture, and society of their day.

What we often do is read Revelation and go, “Oh, that reminds me of XYZ in our culture day, that must be what it’s talking about.”

However, we should be asking, How would the 7 churches have understood this imagry first so we can understand the message of these 7 trumpets, and then go, “Oh, that is a message we need to hear, because while we may not be dealing with XYZ, we are dealing with ABC in our culture and this message helps us respond to that...”

So this is what we are looking for, what are signs from the O.T., which signs relate to the culture of 90 AD in Asia Minor, and What is Jesus saying through them.

The first thing we learn is that....

Jesus is showing the gods to be false.

The Plagues in Exodus are not just about freeing the Israelites, but they are also God winning spiritual warfare with the gods of Egypt.

Each Plague was a direct attack on one of the gods of Egypt, and what God was showing the Egyptians and especially Pharoah, that...

The god over a certain area like the sun, the nile, crops, etc. were not really the ones who control those things, but the one true God was, and is actually restraining these gods from making a mess of things, but when he stops restraining them, then this plague occurs.

God is actually attacking the different gods of the Egyptians, and therefore showing them to actually be powerless.

These gods are not actually good, because when they are released they are the ones who cause damage.

John ties into 1st, 7th, 8th, and 9th plagues of Egypt in the 7 Trumpets, but with a twist. Why? Because he is not dealing with the gods of Egypt, he is dealing with the gods of the Roman Society.

The First Trumpet is clearly referencing the 7th Plague of the Exodus which attacked Nut the goddess of the sky. For the Romans it would be an attack on the Jupitor for the greeks Zeus the Sky Gods, who were supposed to cause rain in order to make crops grow.

Trumpets 2 and 3 are reminiscent of the first Exodus Plague, which was Moses turning the Nile into blood with his staff. This was a direct attack on the Egyptians god Hapi who was the god of the Nile. These would be an attack on the Roman God Neptune (or Poseidon in greek, Little Mermaid and Hercules) What however is the reference to the Mountain and the Star? Perhaps the gods are at war with the Jupiter being cast down from the sky and destroying the sea, which is Neptunes realm.

The Fourth Plague reminds us of the 9th plague of the Exodus which was darkness, and it was an attack on the god Ra of the Egyptians who was the sun god. Apollo was the god of the Sun, Artemis, the god of the moon, and the stars were thought to be representative of a whole host of gods. This also reminds us that darkness comes on the day of the Lord. In Mark 13:24-25, Jesus says this is the coming of the day of the Lord - which in Isaiah 13:10 is a reference to the destruction of Babylon, In Ezekial it describes the destruction of Egypt at the hands of the Babylonians, A theme from Joel that is the fate of all Nations at the Day of the Lord. But here in this passage it is not a total darkness, but just 1/3 as a warning to the people so that they would repent.

The 5th Trumpet with the Demon Locusts is reminiscent of the seventh plague, the Locust Plague in the Exodus Story which was an attack on the Egyptian god Seth the god of storms and disorder. Like in the exodus story darkness came as a result. Here tho, this seems to be an attack on Apollo who seems to be referenced at the end as their leader, and they are demons not real locusts.

The fallen star reminds us of Jesus description of Satan falling like lightning in Luke 10:18 when his disciples said that even the demons submitted to their authority. - So we have this picture of Zeus (ie Satan) being made low by God which results in the hail, His throne and he himself are thrown down to earth which destorys Neptunes domain the sea and the rivers. God allows Zeus (ie Satan) to open the abyss to release these demon hords.

Apollo - Wikepedia - The Son of Zeus - Remember in Pergamum was a grand temple to Zeus, and why possibly John says that is where Satan lives.

The palm tree was also sacred to Apollo because he had been born under one in Delos. Animals sacred to Apollo included wolves, dolphins, roe deer, swans, cicadas (symbolizing music and song), ravens, hawks, crows (Apollo had hawks and crows as his messengers),[315] snakes (referencing Apollo's function as the god of prophecy), mice and griffins, mythical eagle–lion hybrids of Eastern origin.[305]

Homer and Porphyry wrote that Apollo had a hawk as his messenger.[316][315] In many myths Apollo is transformed into a hawk.

The locusts, however, also bring some sort of physical pain to people like the boils plague of the exodus, but we don't know what. People, however, want to die for 5 months because of it.

The depiction of the Demon Locusts are taken out of the book of Joel. They sound like horses like the army that comes on the day of the Lord Joel 2:4-5, The teeth like lions is the description of the nation that devoures God's land Joel 1:6,

Joel 2:4–5 LEB

Like the appearance of horses is their appearance, and like horsemen they run; like the sound of chariots on the tops of the mountains, they leap about; like the sound of a flame of fire devouring stubble; like a strong army arranged in rows for battle.

Joel 1:6 LEB

Because a nation has invaded my land, strong and beyond counting. Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are those of a lioness.

In Deuteronomy 32:17 we see that the worship of the other gods of the other nations was considered by Moses to be not just worshipping statues or idols, but actually worship of demons.

Deuteronomy 32:17 LEB

They sacrificed to the demons, not God, to gods whom they had not known, new gods who came from recent times; their ancestors had not known them.

A few patterns that we need to see....

Debate: Is this simply spiritual warfare, or do the actual physical things on earth happen. If the pattern is the Exodus Plague then the answer is “Yes.” Spiritual Warfare has a physical effect. So the Army, the locusts are not physical beings, they are angelic/demonic beings, however, the Biblical worldview is that these beings are the ones affecting the physical world. So when there is spiritual warfare, hail, natural disasters can be the result.

Notice the pattern of the 5th. In the 5th seal, Christians were being martyred and praying for vindication, but in the 5th Trumpet Christians (Those Sealed by God) are not affected by the demonic hords. This is good news for us Christians, Satan can not touch us if we have the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The Pattern of 1/3 of everything. - This is very precise, and since we see symbols everywhere in Revelation this is likely also a symbol. And it means partial. God allows the Spiritual Warfare to affect the world partially, and humans partially, not wholly. And Why? These are warnings to repent. God is showing the gods to be false, to be liars, to be powerless before God, but he allows full destruction than people can not repent. This is a warning of what would take place if the gods had their way, and our allegience to the gods.

And so this passage is about repentance.

Repentance is turning from false gods to Jesus.

If you are not clear at this point that this passage is about Spiritual Warfare, and God’s attack on the gods of this world, specifically the Roman gods, then it is clear in...

Revelation 9:20–21 LEB

And the rest of humanity who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, in order not to worship the demons and the gold and silver and bronze and stone and wooden idols, which are able neither to see nor to hear nor to walk, and they did not repent of their murders or of their magic spells or of their sexual immorality or of their thefts.

In other words God has shown their gods the demons to be false, but the people aren’t giving up on them. They are not getting the message. They are not giving up on their worship of the gods/demons and everything that comes with it murder, magic spells, sexual immorality and thefts.

But that is not all. What the Israelite prophets came to recognize clearly is that people become like the “gods” they worship, a perspective that is especially carried on by Paul and John in the New Testament. Thus those who are being warned by the six preceding plagues continue in their pagan ways, here summarized by three of the Ten Commandments (their murders, … their sexual immorality or their thefts), and including their magic arts, an allusion to witchcraft, which is also thoroughly denounced by the Prophets. Enamored by such evils, “the rest of the people who were not killed by these plagues … did not repent” of these kinds of evils, not to mention all other kinds of evils. - Gordon Fee

What is Repentance: to have a change of self (heart and mind) that abandons former dispositions and results in a new self, new behavior, and regret over former behavior and disposition.

When your god is defeated, then maybe you should abandon your god.

But why don’t people abandon their gods and turn to the One True God.

What are some of the gods of our world? We think that our world is not as religious as the Romans were, but if you do not believe in the one true God you will place your ultimate trust somewhere.

Have you heard, Believe in the Science or Follow the Science? That is religious language.

Here is a secret, Science is not an entity to believe in or Follow. Science is a process of discovery in which humans learn more about or physical world. This learning can help humans create technologies. But it can not provide answers to the meaning of life, what is moral, nor does it give an ultimate answer to the purpose of things. It is a human endeavor at so it will not be perfect. It is a fine process, it is a good process, but it is a neutral process that if in different people’s hands can produce good or evil.

One of the things that has become clear in this pandemic is that we are in less control of this world than we think. Scientists have done their best, but it has been a learning process, not a thing of certainty. There have been mis steps, new learnings, changes in theories, and in many ways we seem to always be playing catchup to all of the new variants.

How do we repent. In this case, I don’t think we stop doing science, nor do we stop looking at the evidence and making decisions based on the evidence of science, but I think repentance looks like humility. A recognition that God is really in control of everything. We can do our best, and we should do our best to protect lives, but ultimately we need to do that recognizing that God is in control, Our salvation is not in preventing Covid 19, but in the Eternal Life we have in Jesus, and we are called to love each other with integrity, ethically, and that glorifies Jesus in the midst of this crazy world.

Other Idols we might address is ourselves. We have become the saviors of this world. Whether it be Climate Change, Safety, Health, Wealth, the Sexual Revolution. There are so many ways that we think we can solve the problems of this world on our own apart from God’s direction.

The sexual revolution stripped young women of the social support they need to play gatekeeper, just as it deprived men of a positive vision, or even a reason, for self-restraint. Recognizing those losses is where any reformation has to start. Kay S. Hymowitz is a City Journal contributing editor, the William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and the author of Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys.

We need to repent, by approaching these issues with humility. The full restoration of Creation will not happen till its author comes back to reform all. Yes, we should work towards improving these areas, but with humility and Trust in the one who created it.

How can we help others Repent?

Why don’t people repent?

They can’t see themselves as wrong, we are not humble. - We are like Pharoah.

We don’t know what is really going on behind the scenes. - It is not explained to us that God is showing our gods to be false.

So in our materialistic world view we have no room in our World View for the Supranatural.

The answer to our question will come in the next two Sermons.

Conclusion: