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Revelation you can Understand
A
Layman's Interpretation, Understanding
Bible Revelation
Chapter 9
We are now finished
with the catastrophe of what has or is happening to the earth, so we
hear the fifth angel blew his trumpet in chapter 9. Mankind
is now fully involved in what has to be classed a terrible time for
people on the earth. John saw a star fallen from heaven to
earth and he (star) was given the key of the shaft of the bottomless
pit. Jesus said, “...I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven...”
If you wish, you can say like a star Satan has fallen out of heaven,
saying the same as Jesus said in Luke 10 : 18. So the star fell.
But we have to say that the Angle that opens the shaft of the
bottomless pit is not Satan tossed out of heaven. But an Angel
we do not know.
In chapter 7 the four angels were told not to harm the grass of the
earth or any green growth or any tree, so that God's mark could be
on his people. The Locusts here in chapter 9 are also told to not
hurt, harm the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree.
But now harm is going to happen. to those of mankind who have
not the seal of God upon their foreheads. They were allowed to
torture others for 5 months, not to kill them. They tried to kill
themselves but they cannot.
It is speculative what this torture is for those who reject God, but
we do know the torture is like a scorpion when it stings a man. It
can be economic, financial, health. Those who do not belong to God
belong to Satan, so I cannot imagine Satan hurting his own people,
so this leads me to think the pit is opened and a major event
happens to people, so the locusts represent the event that hurts
people for 5 months.
A description of the
locust as Matthew Hendry sees it
Locusts had counterfeit authority ready for battle, human faces show
they had wisdom reasoning etc, women's hair to lure people. Lions
teeth to rip up people they catch, iron breastplates protect them to
get the job done noise wings chariots rushing into battle. Tails
scorpions and hurt for 5 months 5 months a short time
This is the first woe is done
The first woe has
passed; behold two woes still to come.
The sixth angel
blew his trumpet then I heard a voice from the four horns on the
golden alter before God, saying to the sixth angle who had the
trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river
Euphrates,” so the four angels were released, who had told to be
ready at the hour, the day, the month, and the year to kill a third
of mankind.
The description of the troops ten thousand , ten
thousand a large army. The riders breastplates the colour of fire
and of sapphire, and of sulphur, the heads of the horses were like
lions, and fire, smoke, sulphur came from their mouth and by this a
third of mankind was killed. A great battle is about to happen.
To get to the
meaning of the paragraph above note that even though a third of
mankind was killed in this great battle, the rest of the people did
not repent.
So the problem is that people in spite of God's judgement people are
still not motivated to search out God.
That leads to a conclusion that the third of mankind being killed is
not a sheer slaughter of mankind, but maybe a war a natural war but
a large battle involved a third of mankind. because it means about
two billion people are killed on that particular hour, day, month
and year.
People are not recognizing that this terrible event above, the great
battle is God's judgement. That leads to the event meaning a
natural disaster, it could be a nation has decimated mankind. Could
be a Nuclear War, could be something else has happened. But men have
not changed at all, they have not seen the event as the judgement of
God.
People have made a mistake not recognizing God's hand on mankind
because if they did they might repent, but here they do not repent.
We will look at the plagues in Revelation 16 later where
people here also would not repent.
Exactly what the event that decimated a third of mankind, in chapter
9, is speculative, except, there is no speculative thinking
needed, that God's hand in bringing God's plan for mankind is coming
to an end.
It is probably
worthwhile to think about that in spite of events that cause harm to
mankind or the planet, things such as drought, earthquakes, floods,
hail storms and the list goes on, people do not look towards God,
that is why we read people still would not repent.
So often I hear people saying our crops need so much rain to keep to
get their crops harvested. They talk as though they need so much
rain, but do not add that the only reason rain happens is that God
has created a world and God looks after people whether they
recognize God or not. God and sends his rain to people the believers
and unbelievers and he does that so that people, hopefully, see
God's goodness.
What this means is that in all events, good or bad ,mankind needs to
recognize that God, a God exists who created the world and he has
set mankind on a journey in which there is an end to the old heaven,
earth, works and a time coming where people will have to give an
account of their lives to God.
There will be a new heaven, a new earth where righteousness reigns
and those who acknowledge God, go the Jesus Christ and have their
sins forgiven have a new life where there is no death, mourning,
pain and tears. The great promise from God to people who reach out
to God. You need to add, “...He who has an ear, let him hear what
the spirit says...”
You have to be prepared to listen to God's message. Clearly this
book, Revelation, we are discussing, you do need to take notice what
God has said. If you do listen you will be happy. If you do not
listen you will regret that decision and there is no way to undo the
injury to yourself.
Let us now move into chapter 10 and we note that it is in chapter 11
the seventh angle blew its trump so chapter ten is like an interlude
giving us or information. Three woes were to happen as in
chapter 8 :13. The first woe happened chapter 9: 1-12
then 13-21 the second woe has happened. The third woe is dramatic
and what is it that, that is, going to happen in the third and final woe in chapter 11.
Let us first deal with chapter 10.
Bible Revelation Chapter 1
2 & 3
4
5
6 7
8 9
10
11
12
13
14
15&16
17&18
19
20
21 & 22
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