Missions Paul

However this applies to your situation today you do not belong to fear or intimidation!

“The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. ¹⁴ It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.” (Revelation 9 v 13-16)

But for you and me:-

1. There is No Fear. “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” v14.  The mention of the Euphrates River would have caused shock-waves to the first century. When the Romans conquered the whole of the Middle East, this River was part of their possession. This river was a border to the Parthians (largely Iran and parts of Iraq and some ‘stan’ nations) and this Empire was often in civil war with the Romans. Destruction from the East? From the Parthians? Others would wrongly interpret it to mean other places. The point is it is some place and some people to be feared. Except for us! “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33)
2. There is No Intimidation. “The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number” v16. Count it up. That’s 1 million but twice so, 2 million. Can you imagine such an army? How intimidating?! Except for us! “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall … The Lord Almighty is with us.” (Psalm 46: 6-7) There is no one bigger than our Lord! We are not alarmed!

Today you can live free of fear and intimidation because you belong to the Lord of Lords!

Think of the unimaginable, your worst ever scenario and now triple it and triple it again!

That’s how perhaps we feel when we are reading this Revelation.

But again we are not in despair for remember that the prayers of all Gods people are rising from the altar. Don’t forget the martyrs praying, ‘How long …?’ and the uncountable multitude dressed in white and declaring, ‘Salvation belongs to our God …’ So don’t be distracted by all the evil you will see and remember this is not a timeline as we have been conditioned into reading Revelation over the years. This is a vision with so many things taking place at the same time that it is as if John is looking at a huge backdrop. It is heading in a direction for sure but the chapters nor the sequences are indicators of this is next then that etc.

The 6th trumpet is blown and surely this will now bring about a move back to God for those who are set in their sinful ways?

Again we see lots of imagery.

“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 sulphur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulphur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulphur 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.” (Revelation 9 v 13-21)

The 6th judgment is an escalation of violence and destruction on the earth. Again a third are killed by 4 demonic angels who had been held back at the edge of Israel’s borders, the Euphrates River. We don’t speculate who this army of 2 million is. Some have and still do. They miss the point or indeed stretch it.

John is quite descriptive in what he sees. This is a huge onslaught. It could be all human or mixed human/demonic. They are difficult to stop for they wear breastplates giving them some form of protection. They demonstrate power (heads of lions) and they are deceptive (their tails inflict injury).

Once again John sees the fraction, the 1/3rd. It is the indicator that God is giving time and space for a remnant to repent. He is a judging God but He demonstrates mercy. His mercy outweighs His judgment by at least 2/3rds. For those who continue to rebel they will have no excuse.

But again man doesn’t change. Even after these judgments there is no repentance. It makes us wonder. What will it take to bring about the repentance and turning back to God?  Will this ever happen? John isn’t in a rush to tell us. There is more to come.

The pessimists will always be with us. “It’s getting worse!” “These are the last days run to the hills!”

When reading this Revelation do not do so through fearful eyes. Jesus is the First and the Last and He is all the way through controlling everything that happens.

As the 6^th trumpet is about to be sounded and we read further destruction coming on the earth (and we haven’t got to the seven bowls yet!) we are comforted by this one verse:

“The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God.” (Revelation 9 v 13)

There are 2 altars. The bronze altar where the sacrifices are offered and the gold altar which stands in front of the veil and where incense is burned which as we have seen is symbolic of the prayers of God’s people. The fire from the bronze altar of sacrifice was taken and placed on the gold altar. The blood from the sacrifice on the bronze altar was sprinkled on the 4 golden horns of the bronze altar.

The blood sacrifice was sprinkled on the prayer altar. The priest with blood on his hands from the lamb smeared the horns of this altar. The horn in the Bible was symbolic of power and strength.

Those refugees who managed to grab hold of the 4 horns were given automatic asylum (1 Kings 1:50-53).

John hears a voice not from the Abyss but from the 4 horns of the golden altar.

In the darkest of moments there is The Voice speaking.

It is the voice of the blood of Jesus.

It is the voice of mercy.

It is the voice of the prayers of God’s people.

It is the voice of refuge to those seeking God.

It is the voice of power.

It is the voice of Jesus.

For those who recognise this voice then we are comforted to know He is here. We don’t expect the worst but we anticipate His plan being fulfilled on this earth.

Another gentle reminder not to read anything more into John’s vision than needs be. Just when you think it couldn’t get much worse, the horror chapters of his vision intensifies.

“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.” (Revelation 9 v 1-12)

When you think we have reached the very gutter we discover there’s no depth to the evil of this world.

We know Jesus actually owns the keys to the Abyss. “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” (1:8) We now see that Jesus gives the key of the Abyss to this fallen angel whose name means ‘place of destruction’ (Hebrew Abaddon) and ‘destroyer’ (Greek Apollyon). It doesn’t take much guessing who this fallen star/angel is!

This is scary stuff! It is real. We must never underestimate evil but also we must not over rate it either. It is indeed destructive. Remember these judgments are challenges to the people to repent. God is saying to the inhabitants of the earth that if they keep searching and desiring destruction for their lives then He will give it to them. That’s the point here. He will give.

Who gave the key to the Abyss? Jesus! It wasn’t stolen from Him.

Who gave the power to the locusts? God did.

Who restricted the locust’s power to harm and kill? God did.

The point is don’t fear Abaddon and Apollyon. He is fallen. A failure under the control of our Saviour.

“These are the last days …” – every generation needs someone to be saying that and hearing it. I certainly have even from a child with every catastrophic event in the world I have been warned that the end is nigh. 

We are moving into some of the most difficult passages to read in the Bible. 

As we have already seen, trumpets in the Bible signify the raising of the troops for war, they are an alarm, getting the city ready, “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm …” (Joel 2:1)

So we move from the seven seals to the seven trumpets. 

As we read these next verses keep in mind how nature is going crazy, they call them natural disasters, they put the blame on how mankind has cared for its world, but it is far greater than this.

“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 mid-air 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!” (Revelation 8 v 6-13)

John certainly would have had the Egypt story in his mind and the judgments do resemble the plagues. We have seen the connection with the story of Egypt already with the Passover Lamb and once we get through these difficult to read events we will see how God’s people “sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb” (15 v 3)

The question has to be when does all this happen? Has this happened? Is it taking place now or is this to come? Yes is the answer.

Let’s just look at 2022.

At the start of the year we had floods in Brazil and Iran; heavy destructive snowfall in Turkey, Pakistan and the US; fires out of control in Spain and Argentina; volcanoes erupting in Ecuador and Tonga. Throughout the year it didn’t get any better and even over this last few months we have seen a 1/3rd of Pakistan under water; severe heat over the Middle East, Africa and Europe leading to wildfires and droughts; the largest river in Asia, the Yangtze dried up in the heatwave; Typhoons in Japan and South Korea and the US; the list goes on.

So the answer is yes, in every generation, why? 

This is not complete total judgment, it is a third, these are trumpets; they are warnings. Not from earth to earth but heaven to earth. Heaven is warning the ‘inhabitants of the earth’ (v13). Those who are earth bound, with no interest in heaven, no thoughts towards God and His throne. These are warnings to repent, to change, to move towards God. 

So we are right to say, ‘These are the last days …’ we are right to say these natural disasters that are ever before us are not natural but supernatural. They are the trumpets of God.

So the silence is broken. Thirty minutes went by and the tension built. What would happen next?

“Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.” (Revelation 8 v 3-5)

Remember the martyrs? “How long O Lord until we see justice?” (6 v 10) They are at the altar crying for justice. These were prayers which formed incense. They were specific questioning prayers plus also prayers of ALL of God’s people, yours and mine, confused prayers, ‘HELP’ prayers, agonising prayers, all kinds of prayers over every generation were on the altar. Not one prayer had fallen to the ground.

The prayer was fire in the hand of the angel and brought judgment upon the earth. Prayer shook the earth. Prayer isn’t only about getting things in your life but it is, according to what John saw, being part of God’s judgment upon this fallen world.

This world will be judged. God will do it through using prayer. Those cries over a cancerous child, a broken home, a war-torn nation rise before God. Those unutterable heart-ache groans because you cannot find the words have produced a smoke rising to God. 

There will come a day and maybe those days are upon us when what we see on the earth is not only evil but the Angel of judgment. Maybe every generation since John has experienced heaven’s judgment on the earth and perhaps this just intensifies as time heads to some finale. Maybe there is an unseen battle that is reliant on the pathetic, weak, helpless prayers of you and me in order to see heaven on earth.

If this is so then that not only explains the power of prayer but why we are tempted to pray less. More prayer, more incense and the more God judges the sin, evil and death in this world. 

So we pray let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Come Lord Jesus come. 

Do you wake in the morning and look on the news app or television and wonder if things will ever get any better?

I’ve got some good news.

“And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them…. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.” (Revelation 8 v 3, 6)

How many seals were there? 7.

Trumpets? 7.

Bowls? 7.

Having read the devastation of the seals we will move further into the vision to see the pain and suffering of the trumpets and the bowls.

It is not easy reading. But for many in the world it isn’t easy living right now.

But the number seven is key here.

As we all know from ancient times it is the number belonging to a bigger, a more complete, whole, perfect and strategically planned story than what is set before our eyes and being experienced. Behind it all someone is in charge.

That someone is God!

Do you remember that ‘Strictly’ dance of Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice? Heightening awareness of the deaf community the music stopped as they continued to dance, it was spell-binding.

We underestimate the power of silence.

So we stand amazed at the opening of the seventh seal and what happens next.

“When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” (Revelation 8 v 1)

This is more than an absence of noise. It is not 30 minutes of not knowing what to do or say.

Ceaseless praise is paused. Eternal worship is silenced.

This is awe. This is anticipation. We want to know why and we will make some assumptions but for now it is quiet. Can you imagine this? Sometimes is happens in church services. It wasn’t in the schedule but it just happened, maybe for only a few minutes, but we sense its power.

Noise isn’t everything but presence is.

The vision of John has no timeline and like visions and dreams tend to do they have the present and future overlapping each other.

I say that because so many have drawn a timeline from this vision but how do they truly know?

Will there be an end-time tribulation? I grew up surrounded by films and books telling me so. Yet in my adult life I have met people who have come out of a season which if that wasn’t known as suffering/ a tribulation then I don’t know what it. They have been persecuted horrendously. They have lost homes, loved ones, their very lives have been broken mentally and physically.

We want to know who are the white-washed, palm-waving, uncountable multitude of people, declaring, ‘Salvation belongs to our God’?

“Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. ‘Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’ nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water. ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”   (Revelation 7 v 13-17)

What a huge encouragement this would be to the churches in Western Turkey who have been facing increasing tribulation from Rome and who were trying to survive their worst nightmare.

But what about all those today?

According to Open Doors so far in 2022 there have been:-

• Over 360 million Christians living in places where they experience high levels of persecution and discrimination.
• 5,898 Christians have been killed for their faith.
• 5,110 churches and other Christian buildings attacked.
• 4,765 Christians detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned.

How do they react to this part of the vision of John?

Their bodies soaked with blood.

Their time on earth spent without protection.

Hungry, thirsty, facing the worst of the elements even from nature. Wandering aimlessly without hope, crying out to God. This is life within a tribulation. Whether that be the first century, 2022, or even the very last one on earth.

And how are they encouraged?

God, their God, our God, does not sit on His throne as a CEO to watch. No. Our God comes from the throne and heals every part of our experience on earth and wipes away every tear.  

In the year 2000 I was called into a far greater desire to see the gospel in the nations of the world by a simple old worship song in a humble wooden structure of a church, my eye catching a teenage girl who looked like she had nothing, yet was caught up in a love song to Jesus. That worship experience birthed a surrendered heart within me.

Something is wrong if as a follower of Jesus you are in the middle of a room of worshippers and you are not joining in. If the music team (or whatever they are called) worship then the congregation joins in. Performance doesn’t birth worship, worship does.

As in heaven so on earth.

Those in white robes and palm branches, an uncountable multitude from the corners of the earth were declaring, ‘Salvation belongs to our God!’ Then see what happens next from all the living beings and creatures around the throne:

“All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honour and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” (Revelation 7:11-12)

Worship births worship in heaven and on earth.

It is not just songs, music or an atmosphere.

It is worship from brokenness. The living beings knew the story of the great multitude as they heard and watched them worship.

This was worship not from calling out for judgment (as in chapter 6) but praise for God’s salvation. It overwhelmed the angels, elders and creatures. They agreed, Amen!

They fall down and join the euphonious and harmonious worship of heaven which seems to stretch across the throne bouncing back and forth in glorious praise.

We probably know and John may have an idea but we are still to find out who exactly are the white-robed palm-waving choir?