Revelation 9:13-21 KJV And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, (14) Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. (15) And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. (16) And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. (17) And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. (18) By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. (19) For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. (20) And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: (21) Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
I'm not sure I understand just how all this works in Revelation, but it's interesting to see how much of it is connected to the place of prayer. We tend to get into trouble when we begin to neglect prayer. Even at the end of His life, when things were getting very tough, Jesus pushed to spend MORE time in prayer, not less.
When He found His disciples sleeping during His prayer time -
Matthew 26:40-41 KJV And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? {41} Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
There's awesome power in prayer. We may not understand how it is all working, but we need to stay with it.
Notice that these angels were prepared for a specific time period.
As this sixth trumpet judgment sounds we see 1/3 of mankind destroyed in this judgment. By this period of time over 1/2 of the earth's population will be destroyed, over 3 billion people! In the previous trumpet judgment we saw demonic forces at work and now here, are these similar or are these speaking of an actual army.
This is a real army; over 200 million soldiers and we are to take it literally. Right now there is only one nation that can boast of having a militia of two hundred million. That is China.
In Revelation 16:12-16 we are told, "Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 'Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.' And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon."
You see, the Euphrates River runs for some 1700 miles and is anywhere from 3 to 12 miles wide with the average depth being about 30 feet. So you can see that this river is a natural barrier between the eastern and western empires. Imagine what it would take to have 200 million soldiers cross this river by boat. It would be very foolish.
But God said that He will dry up the waters of the Euphrates River, in which there is now a great dam in Turkey which crosses the Euphrates River and has the ability to dry it up. These things are in place to stop this river at will, God's will. But for what purpose will it be stopped? We are told in verse 16 of Revelation chapter 16, "And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon."
If you took 200 million soldiers, marching them shoulder-to-shoulder, you would have a massive troop movement, to say the least. It would be 1 mile wide and some 87 miles long. Now in the book of Daniel we are told that the Antichrist moves to take control of the world, not through peace any longer, but through war and power. And as he is down in North Africa, he gets word of a massive troop movement against him, and he turns back northward to deal with this insurrection. Daniel 11:44 says "But news from the east and the north shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many."
As this massive army moves further westward, some of the troops will move in from the north, the other half from the east, to meet the Antichrist and his forces in the valley of Megiddo. This is the final conflict before Christ returns to set-up His kingdom on this earth.
Revelation 9:20-21 KJV And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: (21) Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Repentance won't come easy in the Tribulation.
You know how hard it is to repent on this side of the Tribulation. Repentance means to change your mind about something and change your actions accordingly. Some people expect to wait until the Tribulation before they'll repent. The Bible seems to indicate that they won't be able to do it.
2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 KJV (7) For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. (8) And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: (9) Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, (10) And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (11) And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: (12) That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Here in verse 20 we see that they made idols from the works of their hands and they worshiped these idols. And they refused to repent of this sin and let go of them. It is amazing what people do worship and the Psalmist puts this into perspective for us in Psalm 115:4-8 as he tells us, "Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell; They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them." We do become like the gods we worship, whatever they may be!
Then, in verse 21 we see murders, mind-altering drugs, fornication, and stealing listed. What happened here? Think of it like this. If your relationship with God is off then your relationship with your fellow man will be off also, it will be askew! It is as Paul said in Galatians 5:19-21, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." It is not a pretty picture when man is in rebellion against God!
Those who have survived these judgments so far refused to repent of their evil deeds. One person said this in regards to their actions, "One of the clearest proofs of the depravity of man is his implacable [hardheartedness] hatred of the only solution to his greatest problem." The gift is there for them to receive, it is free and yet they reject it. It is as Paul said in Romans 1:18-25, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man — and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen." That is what sin does, it blinds people and keeps them in that fallen condition, in rebellion against God!
I don't want to close on that note, it is a downer you might say. Let me leave you with this to think about. Jesus Christ is the only solution to man's problems and if people reject Him, they will face His judgment. But that is not the heart of God for Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30. That is the heart of God, may we never forget that. God does not want any to perish but you have a choice to make and He will not force you to come to Him, but He truly loves you so much that He died for you so you can enter into that relationship with Him. Won't you come!
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