The fifth trumpet has blown, the locusts as powerful as horses have hurt people for five months, and their king is the angel of the bottomless pit of hell. The first of three woes has passed, and the second woe comes with a blast from the sixth trumpet:
“Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates’” (Rev 9:13-14).
In the language of disunity from God versus perfect unity with God, we can view the seven angels with the seven trumpets as God’s warnings against disunity from him. The first five trumpets are to announce, but the final three woes are to act and to judge. During the announcement stage, the agents of judgment are restrained by God to await any further repentance in the world. But with the release of the three woes, judgment has arrived:
“So the four angels, who have been prepared for this hour, day, month, and year, are released to kill a third of mankind. The number of mounted troops is twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number” (Rev 9:15-16).
The timing of God’s judgment in response to disunity from him has been set, down to the hour, for a very long time. Whether it affects only those in rebellion against God, or whether many saints are to be martyred as part of the one-third of mankind is not clear, but John’s vision leaves room for at least considering this result. It is hard to imagine one billion troops singling out sinners from believers.
“And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound” (Rev 9:17-19).
As horrid as this description is, the death of one-third of mankind may be better than what ultimately follows, because the survivors (two-thirds of mankind) still do not respond to unity with God through repentance:
“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts” (Rev 9:20-21).
We would expect that a large fraction of the remaining people would have repented upon witnessing what the sixth trumpet has wrought. But none did! It is interesting to look at our own times, when a horrible virus has killed a large number of people, but there is little thought given by the unbelievers remaining that this could be God’s judgment for lack of repentance. I am not saying that we are in the middle of the sixth trumpet right now, but based on what I see on social media I do not see much repentance outside of churches and families of believers. Could this time be a dress rehearsal?
The actions begun with the blare of the sixth trumpet continue for two more blogs before the seventh trumpet is blown. Hurry back for Parts 4 and 5!