[Sermon] Revelation 9:12-21 - The Angels at the Euphrates
Oct 2, 2016 5:30:05 GMT
shiloh, elizabeth, and 1 more like this
Post by Benjamin on Oct 2, 2016 5:30:05 GMT
Okay, so... in my series on Revelation, I'm about to reach chapter 11, which means I'm a couple of sermons behind in terms of what I've posted here.
Allow me to sort that out by posting the next! This is The Second Woe: The Angels of the Euphrates.
For those who prefer the PDF version, you can find that here: download the PDF
You can also find the document on Scribd, by clicking this text.
What we’re going to see today serves in many respects as a continuation of the themes that we explored the last time I preached. While many of the ideas here are similar, however, there are nonetheless a few surprises in store, and a number of discoveries that can be made. Turn with me in your Bibles, if you would, to Revelation chapter 9, and we’ll begin our reading today at verse 13. Let’s read.
Then 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 who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
I’m going to address the passage today in two parts, but under four headings. First, we’ll look at the judgment, as it pertains to the angels, and the army. Second, we’ll look at God’s mercy, in the altar, and the outcome. The angels, the army, the altar and the outcome.
So let’s begin with judgment. Let’s examine the angels.
The Angels
Look at verse 13.
“Then the sixth angel sounded: and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
Once again, the book of Revelation introduces to us something new, to mark the escalation of God’s judgment. Here, for the first time in 9 chapters, we see one of the angels that stands before the throne of God specifically charged with enacting a judgment. Whereas the five angels that preceded him blew trumpets to signal judgments, this angel is the first to physically initiate one himself - and he is unique in that sense. This indicates to us that what we’re about to witness in this passage is the next step in the escalation that we see throughout this book – a fact reinforced by the nature of this second “woe”.
…but what of his task?
This angel is called to “release the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
Now, that’s a mind-blowing sentence, so I’d like to take a step back here and let that soak in. I don’t know if this applies to you as it does to me – but I suspect it does – we often have a tendency to read such things in Scripture and to gloss over them, as if they apply to another world, or another reality, or as if these things are somehow not directly applicable to our lives here and now.
…but listen to that description again:
“four angels… bound at the great river Euphrates”.
That is… incredible. There are, right now, as I speak, four literal angels, bound and chained somewhere at the river Euphrates. Really, just… let that filter in for a moment. What an amazing thing. You know, we live our lives in such ordinary terms, bound as we are in this physical world, that we sometimes fail to recognise that we’re part of a much broader reality. …yet here it is.
…but who are these angels, and why are they bound?
Well, to be honest with you, Scripture doesn’t give us a lot of information about who these angels are; but there are details here in this passage that allow us to draw some conclusions.
To begin with, we know that these angels were bound; chained at the Euphrates River. There were of course other angels that were bound in Scripture, and we find them referred to in just two locations. The first of these is 2 Peter 2:4, which states that “God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.”
The second description comes from the book of Jude, and it is similar to the first. Jude refers to “angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode” who are now “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the Great Day”. I am not going to go into detail this morning as to what sin these angels committed, or why they were reserved in darkness. For our purposes this morning, it is sufficient for us to understand that God locked these angels away in the great darkness of the Bottomless Pit. It was in that place that the Lord God placed the locusts of Revelation 8, with the express charge of tormenting those angels reserved in chains, until the Lord calls them forth for final judgment.
Now, with all of that said, we can clearly see that the angels represented here in Revelation 9 are not among that group. As opposed to those in the Bottomless Pit, the angels in Revelation 9 are bound under the Euphrates river, and – verse 15 – they have been “prepared for the hour and day and month and year”.
What we do know is that these are nonetheless fallen angels, as their chains attest. They are bound in judgment, and reserved for judgment. …but unlike those we’ve just seen, these angels are held back for another purpose; not merely for their own judgment, but for the judgment of unrepentant man during the outpouring of the wrath of the King. As to why they were bound, all we can do is speculate. Perhaps – I’m borrowing here an idea put forward by a friend – their intent at some point in history past was to commit such a massacre, and they were bound and withheld from doing so until such a time as God Himself saw fit to judge the earth. That’s a provocative thought, but the reality is, we simply don’t know. We’re not told.
What we are told is that the unchaining of these angels somehow triggers an unprecedented and terrible massacre upon the earth. Look at verse 16.
“Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.”
You might be forgiven for being a little thrown off here. We were just talking about four angels, and suddenly John is describing something completely different. This is an unusual, even uncomfortable transition from one topic to the next – which is actually fairly typical of this book. I mentioned in one of my earlier sermons that the book of Revelation has often been criticised for its poor grammar and flow in the Greek. This book stands in stark contrast to the gospel of John, which is a beautifully constructed and written book in every sense. What I’d suggest this represents, however, is the speed at which John is observing these incredible events unfold. More than that, we need to be mindful that what John is seeing here is repeatedly and consistently horrific. It’s been exhausting enough to study, let alone to physically endure watching it all unfold! It should come as no surprise to us, then, if John’s racing mind runs from one thought to the next without so much as a breath in between.
There’s another suggestion here, however – and I’d like you to take careful note of it. In so many instances in this book, the expression of time is important. That’s certainly the case here. Let’s go back to verse 15.
“So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.” Perhaps this is the reason for John’s breathless account here. His overly specific reference to an “hour and day and month and year” suggests that there is a literal, 60-minute hour in which these angels, and the army that accompanies them, are permitted to take life. Perhaps John’s haste here reflects their haste, as these horses chomp at the bit and strain to accomplish their mission while they still have time.
That, too, is a staggering thought. So vast is the depth God’s wrath against sin that a quarter of all mankind will die within a single 60-minute hour. That’s a sobering thing. You know, I’ve been talking for five sermons straight now about the judgment of God, and sometimes it all feels a little overwhelming. …but the reality is, there isn’t a single person among us who can understand how deeply the sin of man offends the holiness of God.
Let’s move on, and see what this judgment entails.
The Army
Look at verse 17.
And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
The first thing I want you to notice here is that there are in fact two different figures described here: the horses, and their riders. That alone might point you in a familiar direction – the description here is very similar to one we’ve seen already in this book. There, much as we see here, the riders seem to be less significant than the horses. If you’re still unsure as to where I’m going with this, you might recall the horsemen of Revelation 6. There, the Lord called forth four horsemen from the throne of Heaven to ride out in judgment. That tells you where I’m going with this, but I’d like to outline for you what others have written on the topic too.
There are in fact a multitude of views on these verses. Some have regarded these as the armies of the four nations that surround the Euphrates, while others have conflated the horsemen here with the Armies of the Kings of the East, as described later in Revelation. Numerous scholars have aligned these horsemen with the armies of the 8th Century Islamic Caliphate, while still others point to the fire, smoke and brimstone as representing cannons, or, more recently, nuclear weapons. What you may have picked up throughout this series, however, is that while many have claimed that in Revelation, things are not exactly what they seem, I would greatly prefer to suggest to you that things are EXACTLY what they seem, if we take the time to study them and allow the text to speak for itself. So bear with me, and allow me to justify my view.
We’ve already seen that this army is typified by horses, and I’ve linked you back to Revelation 6. We’ve spent some time studying this already, particularly in reference to Zechariah 6 and 2 Kings 6, so I won’t re-tread that ground again. What I would have you notice today, however, is that the characteristics of this army are explicitly aligned with the character of the King. Look at verse 17.
“And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow.”
Now, we need to be a little bit careful here, because the construction of this verse in the Greek is markedly different from what I’ve just read to you. In fact, it reads literally as this: “those who sat on them had breastplates of fire, hyacinth, and brimstone”. The colours themselves are the translators’ inference, and are not in the original script. What I’d like to do is view this verse literally, because when we do, the entire description takes on a different complexion. So let’s break these characteristics down.
First, fire. We know from the book of Hebrews that “our God is a consuming fire”, and we’ve likewise seen the imagery throughout the book of Revelation of the radiance of the King expressed in similar terms. Revelation 1 described the eyes of Jesus Christ as a “flame of fire”, and “his feet… like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace”. Even His “countenance was like the sun shining in its strength”. But we see this image ascribed to the angels, as well. Hebrews 1:7 says “He makes his angels spirits, and, and His ministers a flame of fire”. You’ll remember, too, that we looked previously at 2 Kings 6, wherein the army of the Lord appeared before Elisha and his servant. In that instance, we see a mountain “full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha”. So, the image of fire is certainly consistent with angelic beings. We’ll come back to Hyacinth in a moment, but first, let’s examine Brimstone.
Anyone who has had even a cursory experience in the church will be familiar with what brimstone represents. We’ve all heard of preachers that stand in the pulpit and teach “fire and brimstone” – and the term itself has become synonymous with judgment. We find that in Scripture too, of course: in Genesis 19, for example, “the Lord rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord, out of the heavens”. Psalm 11:6 says that “upon the wicked, He will rain coals; fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup”. But perhaps the most telling reference is Isaiah 30:33, which reads “For Tophet [that is, Sheol] was established of old, yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large; Its pyre is fire with much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it.”
The point here, consistently, is this: when we focus on the exact words used here, rather than on the image that the translators would have us take away, we see that each of these first two elements has a direct connection with God, and, more specifically, with His own righteous judgment. In fact, there is not a single instance in Scripture where the mention of brimstone is not associated with the judgment of God.
Bearing that in mind, let’s move on to look at hyacinth.
Hyacinth refers specifically to a flower whose colour traditionally ranges from dark purples through to deep reds. If each of the elements we’ve already examined does indeed represent the judgment of God, then this reference may refer to the severity of the judgment. Brimstone, when it burns, tends to burn with an extremely hot flame. During my research for this sermon, I actually watched a series of videos that showed brimstone obtained from the area of Sodom and Gomorrah, lit on fire. Remarkably, it burned with both a deep red glow, and a dark purple flame.
So, let’s take this information and apply it back to the passage. Look at the latter half of verse 17 again.
“…and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.
What I would suggest to you is that the image of the breastplates of the riders, and the three plagues that flow from their mouths, are subtle variations on the same theme. Let me explain that.
We’ve already seen that fire, brimstone and smoke are reflections of the character of the King. But the nature of the breastplate suggests something else. We know, don’t we, what a breastplate is. It’s primarily a cover for battle; something that is put on. I’d suggest that this indicates to us that the judgment that is occurring within this chapter is not the normal function of these creatures. If they are angelic, and I think the evidence here is compelling enough to suggest that they are, their ministry is not normally one of judgment. This would be consistent with the representation in 2 Kings 6, where the heavenly horses form the armies of the Living God. Here, however, they are tasked with a specific role, and so they come like a burning fire, like the breath of God Himself, to exact judgment upon mankind.
This is reinforced by the nature of that judgment: what we see emerging from their mouths are three attributes that are normally attributed to God Himself, and from that we can understand that their role here is one given to them by the King. Fire, smoke and brimstone thus represent the fact that this judgment is from God – and as we’ll see in a moment, there is no question among those remaining on earth that this judgment is of the Lord.
There’s another aspect to this that we need to consider. Once again, even despite all the judgment that we’ve seen up to this point, the wrath of God here continues to be restrained. This army and all its horsemen, terrifying as they are, has power over just a third of mankind. …but there’s something more ominous than that here. This is the last judgment in this book in which the Lord will show restraint.
…but as we’ve seen so often in this book, there is always a glimmer of hope.
Let’s take a step back for a moment, and return to where we started. Let’s look at the altar.
The Altar
Look at verse 13.
“Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God…”
We’ve heard voices before in this book, but never one from the altar. If you remember, the last time we saw this altar was in Revelation 8 – turn to that, for a moment… Revelation 8, and verse 3.
“Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings and an earthquake.”
We’ve seen throughout this series that the things in heaven were modelled for us here on earth in both the tabernacle and the temple. This altar fits that same pattern. The altar of incense was located in ‘the holy place’, within the temple, before the veil that led into the Holy of Holies. The altar itself was around a metre tall, and about half a metre square, and had a rim around it that formed a crown. The Lord Himself described this to Moses, as we read in Exodus chapter 30, which says:
“You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood. A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width-- it shall be square- and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns with pure gold; and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around… and you shall put it before the veil that is before the Ark of the Testimony." (Exodus 30:1-2,6)
These horns, positioned at the four cardinal points on the altar, have a parallel here in the book of Revelation. You may remember in our studies in chapters 4 and 5 that we encountered four living creatures around the throne. These four living creatures were similarly positioned, and represented the four chief tribes of Israel: Judah in the East, Ephraim in the West, Dan in the North, and Ruben in the South. In the temple, this altar had a specific function: twice a day, every day, the priests would offer incense, representing the prayers of the saints, upon this altar. One day of the year, however, the High Priest would take the blood of the sin offering of Yom Kippur, offered for the sins of the whole nation, and sprinkle it upon each of the horns. It seems historically that on that day, and that day alone, this altar, once cleansed with the blood of that offering, would be placed within the Holy of Holies, wherein a fragrant offering would be burnt before the Lord.
There is a twofold application here, of course: by sprinkling the blood upon the horns, the priest indicated the sufficiency of the sacrifice for the entire nation of Israel, from East to West, North to South, and demonstrated his own faith in the ability of God to remove that sin in its entirety.
By offering incense upon that same altar, the priest then indicated the sufficiency of the sacrifice to grant access to the throne of grace, wherein the prayers of the saints would be offered up before God.
Hebrews describes this beautifully. Turn with me to Hebrews 9.
In many respects I wish I could read the whole chapter to you, but for the sake of time, I won’t. Let’s start at verse 1.
Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. 2 For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary; 3 and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, 4 which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; 5 and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.
…and now verse 11:
"But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance."
Keep your Bibles open to that passage, if you would, we’ll come back to it in a moment.
What this passage is suggesting to us is that the altar of incense, as viewed here in heaven in Revelation 9, represents not just the place upon which the prayers of the saints are offered, but the entire process through which Jesus Christ accomplished the right for us to bring our prayers before God. He, by His blood, made us clean, taking the sins of the world upon Himself to make known the justice of Almighty God – and, having suffered, He sat down at the right hand of God the Father, and remains today the One Mediator between God and Man, by virtue of all He has accomplished.
…but there’s a contradiction here, too. Did you pick up on it?
In the book of Exodus, the Lord commands Moses to place the golden altar before the veil – that is, outside the Holy of Holies. …but where is it here? Where is the altar in Revelation 8 and 9?
We are told, repeatedly in fact, that this altar is “before the throne” (8:3, 9:11).
…and what a beautiful contradiction this is.
Turn with me now back to Hebrews 6 and verse 17. Let me show you why this altar now stands behind the veil.
Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
Do you see it? Do you see the connection? Why has the altar moved?
Because if we have died with Christ, then we shall live with Christ, and if we live with Christ, then we stand with Christ before the throne of grace, in power of the once for all eternity shed blood of the eternal spotless Lamb. …and in His blood, in His Name, in His strength and in His grace, we have entered in to the very Presence of God behind the veil. …and so our prayers are offered not through an earthly priest, but through the Son of God Himself. The voice from the altar is His.
“So let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace, that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:6)
Praise the Lord, what a beautiful thing.
…but as always, the same God who is perfect in mercy is also perfect in judgment. …and so, while the presence of this altar before the throne is glory to those who are saved, it is judgment to those who reject God’s Messiah.
Turn back to Revelation 8, and look at verse 4.
“And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.”
The movement of this altar, from far, to near, also represents the fullness of His judgment. For when the church is drawn near, when the Lord Himself descends from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God, that great event, that blessed hope, spells not only redemption for God’s children, but judgment for those who are at enmity with Him.
What we must come to understand is that the judgment and mercy of God are intrinsically linked. Just as the blood of the Lamb who was slain is a holiness that burns like a fire for the purification and clothing of the saints, it is likewise the pain of eternal torment for those who have rejected the King of Kings, for all eternity. And so we see that God’s mercy, and His wrath, represented in the altar before the throne, are inevitably the consequence of two things: His own unapproachable holiness, and our own fallen, sinful nature. And the irony is, the only way to avoid being burned by the righteousness of God, by the fire, and brimstone, and smoke that we’ve just seen and studied… is to be clothed with it – and that, at the greatest cost of all: through the precious blood of the Lamb.
You see, that the same process Christ Jesus endured for us, which is for our salvation – is the same accomplishment that stands for the condemnation of those who reject Him. “This is the condemnation: that light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” This is the double-edged sword of the gospel: for just as we saw even this morning that righteous Noah’s life was both salvation for his own family, and condemnation to the world around Him, so the blood of Jesus Christ is life to those who believe, and eternal condemnation to those who refuse to repent.
…and this brings us to the outcome.
The Outcome
… look at verse 20.
20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Ultimately, the passage we’ve seen this morning is about just two things. It is about the righteous judgment of a Holy God, poured out upon a world that still refuses to repent… and it is about the perfect justice of that same King, who, through His own death upon the cross, bore that judgment that we might be set free. …and not just set free, but made sons and heirs with Him. You see, even at the end of the world, mankind still falls into one of two responses to Jesus Christ; and both are typified in this one altar.
For this, always, is the crux. In his gospel, John put it like this:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Who ever believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
The entire point of this book… of the passage we’ve studied this morning, and of the book as a whole, is this: There is only one altar, one mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ. He has in his mouth a double-edged sword that is the gospel of his death and resurrection; and that message is either life for you, through faith, or judgment – not just with fire, in Revelation 9, but for all of eternity, because there is only one salvation, and you’ve been afforded only one life. “It is determined to man once to die; and after that, judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)
So which is it, for you?
If your faith is in Christ, if you’ve been washed in the blood of the Lamb, then you may take comfort that your prayers ascend before the throne of God, mediated by our Great High Priest.
…but if you’ve never put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you need to understand what the Holy Spirit says to you. You are already dead in your sin, and all that remains is judgment. This judgment, yes – but worse, eternal judgment. And so, if you’ve never called on the name of the Lord before, if you’ve never placed your faith in the death and resurrection of the King of Kings, who lived, and died, and is alive forevermore, than please… won’t you do that? In the silence of your heart, call on Him. Call on His Name. He is mighty to save, and there is no other redeemer.
Allow me to sort that out by posting the next! This is The Second Woe: The Angels of the Euphrates.
For those who prefer the PDF version, you can find that here: download the PDF
You can also find the document on Scribd, by clicking this text.
What we’re going to see today serves in many respects as a continuation of the themes that we explored the last time I preached. While many of the ideas here are similar, however, there are nonetheless a few surprises in store, and a number of discoveries that can be made. Turn with me in your Bibles, if you would, to Revelation chapter 9, and we’ll begin our reading today at verse 13. Let’s read.
Then 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 who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
I’m going to address the passage today in two parts, but under four headings. First, we’ll look at the judgment, as it pertains to the angels, and the army. Second, we’ll look at God’s mercy, in the altar, and the outcome. The angels, the army, the altar and the outcome.
So let’s begin with judgment. Let’s examine the angels.
The Angels
Look at verse 13.
“Then the sixth angel sounded: and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
Once again, the book of Revelation introduces to us something new, to mark the escalation of God’s judgment. Here, for the first time in 9 chapters, we see one of the angels that stands before the throne of God specifically charged with enacting a judgment. Whereas the five angels that preceded him blew trumpets to signal judgments, this angel is the first to physically initiate one himself - and he is unique in that sense. This indicates to us that what we’re about to witness in this passage is the next step in the escalation that we see throughout this book – a fact reinforced by the nature of this second “woe”.
…but what of his task?
This angel is called to “release the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
Now, that’s a mind-blowing sentence, so I’d like to take a step back here and let that soak in. I don’t know if this applies to you as it does to me – but I suspect it does – we often have a tendency to read such things in Scripture and to gloss over them, as if they apply to another world, or another reality, or as if these things are somehow not directly applicable to our lives here and now.
…but listen to that description again:
“four angels… bound at the great river Euphrates”.
That is… incredible. There are, right now, as I speak, four literal angels, bound and chained somewhere at the river Euphrates. Really, just… let that filter in for a moment. What an amazing thing. You know, we live our lives in such ordinary terms, bound as we are in this physical world, that we sometimes fail to recognise that we’re part of a much broader reality. …yet here it is.
…but who are these angels, and why are they bound?
Well, to be honest with you, Scripture doesn’t give us a lot of information about who these angels are; but there are details here in this passage that allow us to draw some conclusions.
To begin with, we know that these angels were bound; chained at the Euphrates River. There were of course other angels that were bound in Scripture, and we find them referred to in just two locations. The first of these is 2 Peter 2:4, which states that “God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment.”
The second description comes from the book of Jude, and it is similar to the first. Jude refers to “angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode” who are now “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the Great Day”. I am not going to go into detail this morning as to what sin these angels committed, or why they were reserved in darkness. For our purposes this morning, it is sufficient for us to understand that God locked these angels away in the great darkness of the Bottomless Pit. It was in that place that the Lord God placed the locusts of Revelation 8, with the express charge of tormenting those angels reserved in chains, until the Lord calls them forth for final judgment.
Now, with all of that said, we can clearly see that the angels represented here in Revelation 9 are not among that group. As opposed to those in the Bottomless Pit, the angels in Revelation 9 are bound under the Euphrates river, and – verse 15 – they have been “prepared for the hour and day and month and year”.
What we do know is that these are nonetheless fallen angels, as their chains attest. They are bound in judgment, and reserved for judgment. …but unlike those we’ve just seen, these angels are held back for another purpose; not merely for their own judgment, but for the judgment of unrepentant man during the outpouring of the wrath of the King. As to why they were bound, all we can do is speculate. Perhaps – I’m borrowing here an idea put forward by a friend – their intent at some point in history past was to commit such a massacre, and they were bound and withheld from doing so until such a time as God Himself saw fit to judge the earth. That’s a provocative thought, but the reality is, we simply don’t know. We’re not told.
What we are told is that the unchaining of these angels somehow triggers an unprecedented and terrible massacre upon the earth. Look at verse 16.
“Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.”
You might be forgiven for being a little thrown off here. We were just talking about four angels, and suddenly John is describing something completely different. This is an unusual, even uncomfortable transition from one topic to the next – which is actually fairly typical of this book. I mentioned in one of my earlier sermons that the book of Revelation has often been criticised for its poor grammar and flow in the Greek. This book stands in stark contrast to the gospel of John, which is a beautifully constructed and written book in every sense. What I’d suggest this represents, however, is the speed at which John is observing these incredible events unfold. More than that, we need to be mindful that what John is seeing here is repeatedly and consistently horrific. It’s been exhausting enough to study, let alone to physically endure watching it all unfold! It should come as no surprise to us, then, if John’s racing mind runs from one thought to the next without so much as a breath in between.
There’s another suggestion here, however – and I’d like you to take careful note of it. In so many instances in this book, the expression of time is important. That’s certainly the case here. Let’s go back to verse 15.
“So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.” Perhaps this is the reason for John’s breathless account here. His overly specific reference to an “hour and day and month and year” suggests that there is a literal, 60-minute hour in which these angels, and the army that accompanies them, are permitted to take life. Perhaps John’s haste here reflects their haste, as these horses chomp at the bit and strain to accomplish their mission while they still have time.
That, too, is a staggering thought. So vast is the depth God’s wrath against sin that a quarter of all mankind will die within a single 60-minute hour. That’s a sobering thing. You know, I’ve been talking for five sermons straight now about the judgment of God, and sometimes it all feels a little overwhelming. …but the reality is, there isn’t a single person among us who can understand how deeply the sin of man offends the holiness of God.
Let’s move on, and see what this judgment entails.
The Army
Look at verse 17.
And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.
The first thing I want you to notice here is that there are in fact two different figures described here: the horses, and their riders. That alone might point you in a familiar direction – the description here is very similar to one we’ve seen already in this book. There, much as we see here, the riders seem to be less significant than the horses. If you’re still unsure as to where I’m going with this, you might recall the horsemen of Revelation 6. There, the Lord called forth four horsemen from the throne of Heaven to ride out in judgment. That tells you where I’m going with this, but I’d like to outline for you what others have written on the topic too.
There are in fact a multitude of views on these verses. Some have regarded these as the armies of the four nations that surround the Euphrates, while others have conflated the horsemen here with the Armies of the Kings of the East, as described later in Revelation. Numerous scholars have aligned these horsemen with the armies of the 8th Century Islamic Caliphate, while still others point to the fire, smoke and brimstone as representing cannons, or, more recently, nuclear weapons. What you may have picked up throughout this series, however, is that while many have claimed that in Revelation, things are not exactly what they seem, I would greatly prefer to suggest to you that things are EXACTLY what they seem, if we take the time to study them and allow the text to speak for itself. So bear with me, and allow me to justify my view.
We’ve already seen that this army is typified by horses, and I’ve linked you back to Revelation 6. We’ve spent some time studying this already, particularly in reference to Zechariah 6 and 2 Kings 6, so I won’t re-tread that ground again. What I would have you notice today, however, is that the characteristics of this army are explicitly aligned with the character of the King. Look at verse 17.
“And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow.”
Now, we need to be a little bit careful here, because the construction of this verse in the Greek is markedly different from what I’ve just read to you. In fact, it reads literally as this: “those who sat on them had breastplates of fire, hyacinth, and brimstone”. The colours themselves are the translators’ inference, and are not in the original script. What I’d like to do is view this verse literally, because when we do, the entire description takes on a different complexion. So let’s break these characteristics down.
First, fire. We know from the book of Hebrews that “our God is a consuming fire”, and we’ve likewise seen the imagery throughout the book of Revelation of the radiance of the King expressed in similar terms. Revelation 1 described the eyes of Jesus Christ as a “flame of fire”, and “his feet… like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace”. Even His “countenance was like the sun shining in its strength”. But we see this image ascribed to the angels, as well. Hebrews 1:7 says “He makes his angels spirits, and, and His ministers a flame of fire”. You’ll remember, too, that we looked previously at 2 Kings 6, wherein the army of the Lord appeared before Elisha and his servant. In that instance, we see a mountain “full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha”. So, the image of fire is certainly consistent with angelic beings. We’ll come back to Hyacinth in a moment, but first, let’s examine Brimstone.
Anyone who has had even a cursory experience in the church will be familiar with what brimstone represents. We’ve all heard of preachers that stand in the pulpit and teach “fire and brimstone” – and the term itself has become synonymous with judgment. We find that in Scripture too, of course: in Genesis 19, for example, “the Lord rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord, out of the heavens”. Psalm 11:6 says that “upon the wicked, He will rain coals; fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup”. But perhaps the most telling reference is Isaiah 30:33, which reads “For Tophet [that is, Sheol] was established of old, yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large; Its pyre is fire with much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, kindles it.”
The point here, consistently, is this: when we focus on the exact words used here, rather than on the image that the translators would have us take away, we see that each of these first two elements has a direct connection with God, and, more specifically, with His own righteous judgment. In fact, there is not a single instance in Scripture where the mention of brimstone is not associated with the judgment of God.
Bearing that in mind, let’s move on to look at hyacinth.
Hyacinth refers specifically to a flower whose colour traditionally ranges from dark purples through to deep reds. If each of the elements we’ve already examined does indeed represent the judgment of God, then this reference may refer to the severity of the judgment. Brimstone, when it burns, tends to burn with an extremely hot flame. During my research for this sermon, I actually watched a series of videos that showed brimstone obtained from the area of Sodom and Gomorrah, lit on fire. Remarkably, it burned with both a deep red glow, and a dark purple flame.
So, let’s take this information and apply it back to the passage. Look at the latter half of verse 17 again.
“…and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.
What I would suggest to you is that the image of the breastplates of the riders, and the three plagues that flow from their mouths, are subtle variations on the same theme. Let me explain that.
We’ve already seen that fire, brimstone and smoke are reflections of the character of the King. But the nature of the breastplate suggests something else. We know, don’t we, what a breastplate is. It’s primarily a cover for battle; something that is put on. I’d suggest that this indicates to us that the judgment that is occurring within this chapter is not the normal function of these creatures. If they are angelic, and I think the evidence here is compelling enough to suggest that they are, their ministry is not normally one of judgment. This would be consistent with the representation in 2 Kings 6, where the heavenly horses form the armies of the Living God. Here, however, they are tasked with a specific role, and so they come like a burning fire, like the breath of God Himself, to exact judgment upon mankind.
This is reinforced by the nature of that judgment: what we see emerging from their mouths are three attributes that are normally attributed to God Himself, and from that we can understand that their role here is one given to them by the King. Fire, smoke and brimstone thus represent the fact that this judgment is from God – and as we’ll see in a moment, there is no question among those remaining on earth that this judgment is of the Lord.
There’s another aspect to this that we need to consider. Once again, even despite all the judgment that we’ve seen up to this point, the wrath of God here continues to be restrained. This army and all its horsemen, terrifying as they are, has power over just a third of mankind. …but there’s something more ominous than that here. This is the last judgment in this book in which the Lord will show restraint.
…but as we’ve seen so often in this book, there is always a glimmer of hope.
Let’s take a step back for a moment, and return to where we started. Let’s look at the altar.
The Altar
Look at verse 13.
“Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God…”
We’ve heard voices before in this book, but never one from the altar. If you remember, the last time we saw this altar was in Revelation 8 – turn to that, for a moment… Revelation 8, and verse 3.
“Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings and an earthquake.”
We’ve seen throughout this series that the things in heaven were modelled for us here on earth in both the tabernacle and the temple. This altar fits that same pattern. The altar of incense was located in ‘the holy place’, within the temple, before the veil that led into the Holy of Holies. The altar itself was around a metre tall, and about half a metre square, and had a rim around it that formed a crown. The Lord Himself described this to Moses, as we read in Exodus chapter 30, which says:
“You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood. A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width-- it shall be square- and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns with pure gold; and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around… and you shall put it before the veil that is before the Ark of the Testimony." (Exodus 30:1-2,6)
These horns, positioned at the four cardinal points on the altar, have a parallel here in the book of Revelation. You may remember in our studies in chapters 4 and 5 that we encountered four living creatures around the throne. These four living creatures were similarly positioned, and represented the four chief tribes of Israel: Judah in the East, Ephraim in the West, Dan in the North, and Ruben in the South. In the temple, this altar had a specific function: twice a day, every day, the priests would offer incense, representing the prayers of the saints, upon this altar. One day of the year, however, the High Priest would take the blood of the sin offering of Yom Kippur, offered for the sins of the whole nation, and sprinkle it upon each of the horns. It seems historically that on that day, and that day alone, this altar, once cleansed with the blood of that offering, would be placed within the Holy of Holies, wherein a fragrant offering would be burnt before the Lord.
There is a twofold application here, of course: by sprinkling the blood upon the horns, the priest indicated the sufficiency of the sacrifice for the entire nation of Israel, from East to West, North to South, and demonstrated his own faith in the ability of God to remove that sin in its entirety.
By offering incense upon that same altar, the priest then indicated the sufficiency of the sacrifice to grant access to the throne of grace, wherein the prayers of the saints would be offered up before God.
Hebrews describes this beautifully. Turn with me to Hebrews 9.
In many respects I wish I could read the whole chapter to you, but for the sake of time, I won’t. Let’s start at verse 1.
Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. 2 For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary; 3 and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, 4 which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; 5 and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.
…and now verse 11:
"But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance."
Keep your Bibles open to that passage, if you would, we’ll come back to it in a moment.
What this passage is suggesting to us is that the altar of incense, as viewed here in heaven in Revelation 9, represents not just the place upon which the prayers of the saints are offered, but the entire process through which Jesus Christ accomplished the right for us to bring our prayers before God. He, by His blood, made us clean, taking the sins of the world upon Himself to make known the justice of Almighty God – and, having suffered, He sat down at the right hand of God the Father, and remains today the One Mediator between God and Man, by virtue of all He has accomplished.
…but there’s a contradiction here, too. Did you pick up on it?
In the book of Exodus, the Lord commands Moses to place the golden altar before the veil – that is, outside the Holy of Holies. …but where is it here? Where is the altar in Revelation 8 and 9?
We are told, repeatedly in fact, that this altar is “before the throne” (8:3, 9:11).
…and what a beautiful contradiction this is.
Turn with me now back to Hebrews 6 and verse 17. Let me show you why this altar now stands behind the veil.
Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
Do you see it? Do you see the connection? Why has the altar moved?
Because if we have died with Christ, then we shall live with Christ, and if we live with Christ, then we stand with Christ before the throne of grace, in power of the once for all eternity shed blood of the eternal spotless Lamb. …and in His blood, in His Name, in His strength and in His grace, we have entered in to the very Presence of God behind the veil. …and so our prayers are offered not through an earthly priest, but through the Son of God Himself. The voice from the altar is His.
“So let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace, that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:6)
Praise the Lord, what a beautiful thing.
…but as always, the same God who is perfect in mercy is also perfect in judgment. …and so, while the presence of this altar before the throne is glory to those who are saved, it is judgment to those who reject God’s Messiah.
Turn back to Revelation 8, and look at verse 4.
“And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.”
The movement of this altar, from far, to near, also represents the fullness of His judgment. For when the church is drawn near, when the Lord Himself descends from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God, that great event, that blessed hope, spells not only redemption for God’s children, but judgment for those who are at enmity with Him.
What we must come to understand is that the judgment and mercy of God are intrinsically linked. Just as the blood of the Lamb who was slain is a holiness that burns like a fire for the purification and clothing of the saints, it is likewise the pain of eternal torment for those who have rejected the King of Kings, for all eternity. And so we see that God’s mercy, and His wrath, represented in the altar before the throne, are inevitably the consequence of two things: His own unapproachable holiness, and our own fallen, sinful nature. And the irony is, the only way to avoid being burned by the righteousness of God, by the fire, and brimstone, and smoke that we’ve just seen and studied… is to be clothed with it – and that, at the greatest cost of all: through the precious blood of the Lamb.
You see, that the same process Christ Jesus endured for us, which is for our salvation – is the same accomplishment that stands for the condemnation of those who reject Him. “This is the condemnation: that light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” This is the double-edged sword of the gospel: for just as we saw even this morning that righteous Noah’s life was both salvation for his own family, and condemnation to the world around Him, so the blood of Jesus Christ is life to those who believe, and eternal condemnation to those who refuse to repent.
…and this brings us to the outcome.
The Outcome
… look at verse 20.
20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Ultimately, the passage we’ve seen this morning is about just two things. It is about the righteous judgment of a Holy God, poured out upon a world that still refuses to repent… and it is about the perfect justice of that same King, who, through His own death upon the cross, bore that judgment that we might be set free. …and not just set free, but made sons and heirs with Him. You see, even at the end of the world, mankind still falls into one of two responses to Jesus Christ; and both are typified in this one altar.
For this, always, is the crux. In his gospel, John put it like this:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Who ever believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
The entire point of this book… of the passage we’ve studied this morning, and of the book as a whole, is this: There is only one altar, one mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ. He has in his mouth a double-edged sword that is the gospel of his death and resurrection; and that message is either life for you, through faith, or judgment – not just with fire, in Revelation 9, but for all of eternity, because there is only one salvation, and you’ve been afforded only one life. “It is determined to man once to die; and after that, judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)
So which is it, for you?
If your faith is in Christ, if you’ve been washed in the blood of the Lamb, then you may take comfort that your prayers ascend before the throne of God, mediated by our Great High Priest.
…but if you’ve never put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you need to understand what the Holy Spirit says to you. You are already dead in your sin, and all that remains is judgment. This judgment, yes – but worse, eternal judgment. And so, if you’ve never called on the name of the Lord before, if you’ve never placed your faith in the death and resurrection of the King of Kings, who lived, and died, and is alive forevermore, than please… won’t you do that? In the silence of your heart, call on Him. Call on His Name. He is mighty to save, and there is no other redeemer.
