2 Woes Of The Trumphet Blast
REV 9
2 Woes of the Trumpet blast
Intro:
If we review American history, particularly New York history, the date 9/11 brings familiar refrain depending on whose view you view it from. T o America, this was a tragedy on par with Pearl Harbor. To those belonging to the Islamic extremist, it was a blasting of the trumpet of triumph against whom they considered the enemies of God.
This attack signaled great woe and calamity unto America and those who love democracy. Better yet this attack was indicative of two woes for two towers were destroyed. Two towers that symbolized the might, the power, financial prow less, and American ingenuity, the tallest of the tall, the great superpower of the world.
And now in a flash, this great super power and symbol of man's pursuit of humanism and the desire to be without God, has been brought to their knees.
America remembered God for two whole weeks after 9/11 before they forgot again the One whose mercy and grace they sought on that fateful day. Years later America is still at war against an enemy who declares us the great Satan, the enemy of God.
Little do they know the two woes they caused on 9/11 will pale in comparison to the woes God will bring on the real enemies of the true God. The enemies who continue to neglect, rebel, and reject Him who created them, sustained them, and saved them. Yes two woes they inflicted on the enemies of God on 9/11; If only they would read Rev. Chapter 9, they would not rejoice and even America would not forget for they would fear the two woes of the trumpet blast
Background
The opening of the seventh seal revealed the second succession of 7 judgments - trumpet judgments that God will pour out on the enemies of God.
These trumpets were symbolic of celebrations and impending invasions. Obliviously this is a celebration to those belonging to God and a sounding of the alarm of the impending judgment and invasion of calamity on those who reject Him
Rev 8 reveals that after God sealed His children He has now broken open this seventh seal which was so terrible that all of heaven became silent. God has answered the prayers of the saints with vengeance in the form of 4 trumpet judgments. Some of the judgments are even linked to the plaques and judgments God dispensed on Egypt to let His people go!
· Trumpet # 1
We see the presence of Hail and fire which is similar to the 7th plaque God poured out on Egypt that left no plant life, animal life, human life alive on a third of the earth
· Trumpet # 2
We see a third of the sea turned into blood. Similar to the 1st plague leveled on Egypt that even in the cisterns, and water jugs was the presence of blood. The smell was horrendous and everything died in the third of the sea. The burning mountain could also symbolize the epic sea battles between nations that are so horrific that the sea turns red!
· Trumpet # 3
We see the falling of a star called wormwood that means bitter in which a third of the freshwaters in the rivers and streams causing death to those who drink of it. The freshwater that sustains life has become undrinkable
· Trumpet # 4
Similar to the ninth plaque on Egypt where darkness was so thick it could be felt but the people of God had light!
The first three trumpet judgments affected the land, sea, and rivers in a third of the earth but the fourth blast affects the entire world. A third of the sun, moon, and stars are struck. Causing darkness where it should be light, coolness when it should be hot.
As we see through the blast of the four trumpets in Rev. 8 the common thread is death!
It must also be noted as with the plaques on Egypt- God was striking down the notion of idol worship. Most of the plagues against Egypt were also against the gods they worshiped.
They worshipped the Sun- God caused darkness.
The mighty Nile River - God brought blood.
Their gods of fertility- God killed their first born!
God does not give His glory to another neither does He share His throne!
Trans: And yet Rev 8:13 John alerts us to a very real reality to the enemies of God:
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 Holy Bible: New International Version.
Which is a prelude to what is about to come in Rev. 9 that announce the two woes of the trumpet blast
Somebody say WOE!
In verses 1-11 we see 1 Woe of the trumpet blast
A fifth angel blowing the fifth trumpet of judgment unleashes a star that falls to the earth. This was no ordinary star for verse 2 describes this star was a personal pronoun of He! This star was more than an impersonal force but was a person.
It is generally acknowledge that scripture has already indicated the identity of this person in Isa 14:12-17
12How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground—mighty though you were against the nations of the world. 13For you said to yourself, “I will ascend to heaven and rule the angels. I will take the highest throne. I will preside on the Mount of Assembly far away in the north. 14I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.” 15But instead, you will be brought down to the pit of hell, down to its lowest depths. 16Everyone there will stare at you and ask, “Can this be the one who shook the earth and the kingdoms of the world? 17Can this be the one who destroyed the world and made it into a shambles, who demolished its greatest cities and had no mercy on his prisoners?”[1]
Ezek 28:11-19
12“Son of dust, weep for the king of Tyre. Tell him, ‘The Lord God says: You were the perfection of wisdom and beauty. 13You were in Eden, the garden of God; your clothing was bejeweled with every precious stone—ruby, topaz, diamond, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald—all in beautiful settings of finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. 14I appointed you to be the anointed Guardian Angel. You had access to the holy mountain of God. You walked among the stones of fire.15“‘you were perfect in all you did from the day you were created until that time when wrong was found in you. 16Your great wealth filled you with internal turmoil, and you sinned. Therefore, I cast you out of the mountain of God like a common sinner. I destroyed you, O Guardian Angel, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. Therefore, I have cast you down to the ground and exposed you helpless before the curious gaze of kings. 18You defiled your holiness with lust for gain; therefore, I brought forth fire from your own actions and let it burn you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all those watching you. 19All who know you are appalled at your fate; you are an example of horror; you are destroyed forever.’ ”
Jesus chimes in on the fate of this destroyer in Luke 10:18-20
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” [2]
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version.
And yet in this context the children of God were casting out demons in the name of the Lord indicating that the strong man has come and Satan must now be on the run!
This person was given authority to open up the Abyss- which is described in Luke 8:31 as the abode of the demonic, the dwelling place of demons:
It is the bottomless pit. This word is used nine times in the scriptures with 8 uses within Revelations
In Judaism the abyss is regarded as the prison of punished demons (e.g., 1 Enoch 10:4–6; 18:11-16; Jub. 5:6–10). The NT shares this view (→ δαιμόνιον).
Thus in Luke 8:31 the exorcised demons of Gerasa implore Jesus not to banish them into the ἄβυσσος. Those held there under lock and key
It is a place where evil spirits are confined (Luke 8:31; Rev. 9:1-11; 20:1-3), and the place from which the Antichrist will ascend (Rev. 11:7; 17:8).
And yet God is the one who holds the key to a pit that has no end that even the demons were afraid to go
Luke 8:30-33
30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.
32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and he gave them permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
The Holy Bible: New International Version.
It is interesting to note that the abyss was also considered a watery place and yet the demons that entered the pigs that ran from Jesus drown themselves rather than be possessed. Can we say that pigs are wiser than this generation who is willing to open the portals of demon possession by the associations and appetite for the occult.
The smoke out of the abyss shows forth the great demon affliction those without God seal would endure. The 1st four trumpets judgments were natural in nature and now the blowing of the fifth trumpet signals the world's affliction by spiritual attack of the pit of hell!
The appearance of locust is similar to the eighth plaque on Egypt in Ex 10:12
And the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts will swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail.”
The Holy Bible: New International Version.
Unlike in Exodus these locusts will not attack vegetation but man himself. Their sting would be so horrible that those afflicted will desire death but find death fleeting.
The locusts are symbolic of an invading army
Jer 8:3 declares they will seek death over life!
Suicide will even be impossible to them- a prelude to eternal damnation which death will never interrupt the folly of rejecting a gracious God!
Job 3:21
to those who long for death that does not come,
who search for it more than for hidden treasure
For a period of 5 months, the normal life span of locust, which shows that God is still in control, the inhabitants of the earth will be tortured, afflicted, harassed!
The description of them appears to indicate a vast invading modern army; some early writers’ attributed these hoards to the Mohammedan or Christian heretics whereas the smoke of the abyss is also symbolic of the influence of Satan upon the earth.
They had stings of scorpion’s tail with is not common for ordinary locusts Even though their are reports that there is a locust sold in the markets of Baghdad that resemble this creature.
And they are ruled by Apollyon the destroyer- the one who brings perdition unto mankind- a state of eternal damnation into which a sinful and unrepentant person passes after death.† complete and utter ruin.
. Concise Oxford English dictionary (11th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Look what kind of father he is- he desires to kill and inflict death on his own children. Jesus said that he has been a murderer from the beginning, the father of lies and those who are bewitched by him are his children because they desire darkness rather than light.
Jesus talked about this time of tribulation in Matt 24:21 as a time of unequal great distress
Trans: the first woe is past, two other woes are to come!
Somebody say Woe! Woe!
2 woes of the trumpet blast (v 13-20)
The sixth angel blast of the trumpet releasing 4 angels of the second woe! The presence of the golden altar alludes to the tribulation saints who were crying out for vengeance in Rev 6 crying out -How long! And God is replying here-
Release the four angels who were bound!
The Euphrates region would be modern Iraq
And they were released to kill a third of mankind. Remember a third already was killed in Chapter 8 and in Chapter 6 a fourth were already killed!
This sixth trumpet blast indicates warfare and destruction. It is already on the schedule to come. A date has been planned and a time set forth where the world will be subjected to world conflict!
200 million soldiers- John declared he heard their number. There is debate if this number is literal but as of May 1965- China boosts of an army of 200 million!
It appears John is envisioning weapons of modern warfare of tanks and mortars, nuclear weapons which even today every nation desires for protection from its neighbors.
A third of mankind is destroyed by this vast army.
And yet with the appearance of the demons, the presence of plaques, fires, and sulfur verse 20 -21 indicates the true condition of the inhabitants of the earth
The rest of mankind that 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. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
The Holy Bible : New International Version.
They still could not find repentance; they would not ask for mercy nor receive grace.
They rather seek death than life and be dishearten that death would not come rather than seek the giver of life.
Those who have been sealed had the key to life and yet they rather die in disease, demonic affliction, fire, and the residue of man's destructive power!
They refuse God! And worshipped that what is dead:
· Can't talk,
· Can’t move, can’t feel.
· Can't love, and can't give!
Dan 5:23
23 Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.
The Holy Bible : New International Version.
· They continued to murder
· They continued witchcraft, rebellion, and manipulation
· They continues magic arts which is aligned to pharmacies which indicate man has worshipped the alluring power of narcotics to dull his reality
· He refuses to forego sexual perversion and immorality
What would man not sleep with and what would he not defile
There is no change of heart even with all the affliction, death, spiritual oppression and possession around him.
Ps 115:4-8
4 But their idols are silver and gold,
made by the hands of men.
5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but they cannot see;
6 they have ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but they cannot smell;
7 they have hands, but cannot feel,
feet, but they cannot walk;
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
8 Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them.
The Holy Bible: New International Version.
Conclusion:
There is a time and a place on the schedule of God upon the enemies of God. There is Woe that is coming rather two woes of the trumpet blast that is bringing not only spiritual affliction and torment but natural torment and death.
World war will visit nation after nation that will exceed the destruction of two towers. Death will not even save mankind from the consequences of his rebellion. But for the sealed children of God, this will not harm them. Though death be to the left and to the right of them they can rest assure they will be safe for god id in control and they belong to Him. He won’t let no one be stripped out of His hand, His blood is too value for one of them to be lost!
2033 What England Did For One Subject
The King of Abyssinia once took a British subject named Cameron prisoner and incarcerated him in the high fortress of Magdala. No cause was assigned for his confinement. When Great Britain found out, she demanded an immediate release for her citizen. King Theodore refused.
Within ten days after the refusal was received, ten thousand British soldiers were sailing down the coast headed for Magdala. Then marching across an unfriendly country for seven hundred miles, they went up the mountains to where the prisoner was being held. They gave battle, tearing the gates of the fortress down and reached the depths of the dungeon. They lifted that one British subject out, placed him on their shoulders and carried him down the mountains to the coast where a big ocean vessel soon sped him safely home.
That expedition took several months and cost the English government twenty-five million dollars. The entire resources of the government were made available in the rescue of only one citizen. Every child of God has this privilege and birthright in Christ.
Two woes of the trumpet blast- a period where vengeance is mine saith the Lord and He will repay them to their face! One woe, two woes! Beware the 2 woes of the trumpet blast. A time that is unparallel in the entire world.
Song:
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