Revelation
9:12-21.The Release of the Horsemen.
American Journal of Biblical Theology
Copyright © 2007, J.W. Carter Scripture quotes
from KJV
Revelation
9:12-21.
American Journal of Biblical Theology
Copyright © 2007, J.W. Carter Scripture quotes
from KJV
The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.
The opening of the seventh seal of the scroll of Chapter 5 is characterized by the heralding of seven trumpets. The first four trumpets were judgments against this physical world, demonstrating God’s sovereignty over the world and the folly of the placing of one’s confidence and trust in it. The last three trumpets are referred to as “woes” as they are judgments upon mankind who have placed their trust in the spiritual forces of this world.
Just as God is sovereign over the physical, God is also sovereign over the spiritual forces. However, by submitting to the spiritual forces of this world, those who have rejected God’s offer pf grace have submitted themselves to powers that oppose God, powers that will only wreak havoc upon its subjects if left unchecked. In our current world the Holy Spirit is empowered in the lives of both the lost and the saved, keeping the power of evil in check, though still in influence with those who allow. We see the example of this in the relationship between God and Israel. The promise that God made with Abraham and to Israel was to protect them and keep them in the land if they would obey him. When they disobeyed God and turned from Him, God removed his hand of protection over them resulting in the destruction of their kingdoms of both Israel and Judah.
God’s hand of protection is still strong on the behalf of our world today. However, the Revelation message is that there will be a time when God will remove His Holy Spirit, allowing demonic forces to unleash their hatred upon their subjects. It is this release of the evil spiritual world that is personified in the three woes. The first of these is described in Chapter 9:1-11 as the release of demonic forces upon those who placed their trust in them rather than in the LORD.
The remainder of Chapter 9 describes the heralding of the sixth trumpet, the second of the woes.
The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God.
We might recall that the throne of heaven is a metaphor for the One who sits in authority over heaven, and that authority is Jesus Christ. The horns represent that part of the body that has the power to exact punishment. If one were to face the horns of a raging bull without some defense, one might get an idea of the authority that the bull may express through those horns. So, the sixth trumpet of the seventh seal comes from the center of judgmental power, a message that is supremely powerful and without ambiguity.
It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."
If the world had ears to hear, or a heart to understand God’s plan and purpose, this phrase could be one of the most compelling in all of scripture. John writes that the eventual removal of God’s hand of protection from the wicked is a certainty. This will happen at some point in time. We do not see too much evidence today of God’s judgment upon the wicked, as God is still working to seek and save those who are lost. We may feel, like those in the first-century church that the world is not fair: the wicked prosper and the faithful are abused. But God is a fair God, and He will not strive with mankind forever (Gen. 6:3).
What will it be like when God’s hand of protection is removed from this world. We saw in the first trumpets how earth itself will show signs of crumbling, and with the woes we see how evil will be allowed to run unchecked. We were introduced to the four angels who are “bound at the great river Euphrates” back in chapter 6, verses 1-17, the four angels who ride the four horses, the white, red, black and pale horse. Each of these represents one of the consequences that will be experienced by mankind when God’s hand of protection are removed. It would be worth reviewing these four calamities:
White horse, Satan's Demonic Authority. This is the authority given to the evil powers of this world to bring judgment upon unrepentant mankind. To the world, this authority looks acceptable, but the world does not believe the one on the white horse will turn on them.
Red horse, Insurrection. This is the world-wide strife that will ensue when the Holy Spirit removes His protection. There will be world-wide rebellion and war that will consume a huge population.
Black horse, Anarchy. The black horse represents the death that will accompany the removal of God’s hand of protection when the world economy is destroyed by the warfare.
Pale horse, Pestilence. Finally, the pale horse represents the calamity of sickness that will accompany the removal of God’s hand of protection. All healing comes from the LORD, and the concept of the gravity of the plagues and pestilence that would result without it is hard to imagine. The strife and death from the Red and Black horses is enough to provide a catalyst for the diseases of the Pale horse.
We learned of these “horses” in the sixth chapter of the Revelation and were given the clear understanding that they were given the authority to fulfill their purpose, but they were not yet set free to do so. Up to this point they were like horses that are anxious to ride, stomping and blowing as they fight the rider’s restraints.
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.
One could probably argue that we live in the age of the restrained horses. We see some evidence of the work of each of these four fallen angels in our world today, but the characterization of their release and the world-wide destruction that this will bring has not yet been experienced. All of our major wars together have resulted in the death of a few million people. The release of the “four horsemen of the apocalypse” will result in a devastation a thousand times larger, depending upon how long the LORD tarries before the judgment.
What does it mean to lose a third of mankind to death? World population doubles every 41 years, an unarguable figure that comes from years of world-wide census data. At the time of this writing the world population is over 6.6 billion people. The loss of life would be approximately 2 billion people if the judgment took place today.
In the next 30 years the population is projected to rise to over 10 billion people. If the horsemen are released in 2037, the loss in life would be over three billion people.
The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.
Imagine the loosening of a demonic army with two hundred million troops, each armed for battle using weapons against which no man can stand. Some (e.g. Walvrood) have attempted to take this passage literally and declare that John is now seeing a literal army of 200,000,000 troops made up of those in a huge world war that is promoted by the demonic forces of the White Horse. It is unlikely that John would so dramatically switch from a metaphor to a literal figure, but either way, the devastation upon the world would be enormous.
A preferred reading may be to retain the flow of metaphor and regard this army as that of the demonic forces of the rider on the White Horse, the battery of demons that are loosed upon the wicked of the earth.
The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. 18A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19The 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.
One who is tempted to fall into a literal interpretation can argue that John could not have the vocabulary to describe warfare technology of a 21st or later century war. If we were to introduce someone from an ancient tribe to the witness of a helicopter strafing an area with high-speed machine gun fire and napalm, that individual might record what he saw in words similar to that which John writes. During the Vietnam War many writers tried to make this connection, leading to terms such as “Apocalypse Now” and others.
If we appreciate the nature and the scale of the destruction that we find in John’s Revelation, we are driven home to John’s metaphoric description of demonic activity. By today’s scale, in order to amass a human army that could kill one third of the earth’s population is simply far beyond any possibility. This type of mass death could be generated by a nuclear war that deployed ten thousand times more weapons than currently exist. Such a war would not be waged by an army of two-hundred million “riders.” However, this is quite reasonable if we avoid the pitfall of leaving the metaphor and stay with John’s metaphoric narrative of a demonic war. Continuing with the metaphor, we find a close relationship between the character of the troops and the four horsemen who are their champions.
We find the color (or character) of the riders described as red, dark blue, and yellow. These three colors are consistent with the three plagues that come from the mouths of their horses, fire, smoke, and sulfur. Note that the troops and their horses use these three weapons to kill a third of mankind, the same judgment that is meted out by the last three of the four horsemen of Chapter 6. Their three weapons that destroy a third of mankind are war, the destruction of the world economy, and the resulting plagues and pestilences that accompany the breakdown of government services. The three colors also match the three characters of these three horsemen of Chapter 6.
The troops’ power to kill is in their mouths and in their tails. Out of the mouth come words. Mankind is deceived by evil’s lies and deceit, often to the point of mass murder. Our current battle with terrorists is with a genre that believes the lie that their mass murder of non-Muslims is blessed by God. Satan can use words to kill. The tail refers to that which is hidden. When you face the enemy you cannot see its back, and hidden there are all manner of deceits. Satan’s lies and deceits can lead nations to war and can lead civilization to the brink of destruction. We can see that with God’s hand of protection removed, the consequence of the release of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, meted out by their immense demonic army is both devastating, and consistent with the character and purpose of the horsemen as John describes in Chapter 6.
The rest of mankind that 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. 21Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Finally, we can see that the release of the Four Horsemen is not without God’s redemptive purpose. We see in this description a condition of man that is not unlike the condition of the nation of Israel after the period of the Judges. During the rule of the Judges the people would turn away from God and then experience a cataclysm that came from the removal of God’s hand of protection. However, God would raise up a Judge who would show the people their sin and its consequence, leading them to repentance and restoration. Several cycles of this pattern took place during that era. However, during the period of the kings, Israel would never return. Despite their continual losses they did not repent from the work of their hands, stop worshiping demons, idols, etc. They did not repent of their murders, magic arts, sexual immorality, or thefts. Eventually God took away His hand of protection and Israel was destroyed as a nation.
Still, God calls for repentance. God calls for people to repent of the work of their own hands, to stop worshiping demons and idols, repent of their murderous ways, magic arts, sexual immorality, and thefts. Even at this point of the Apocalypse, while the Four Horses are raging, God calls for repentance, promising salvation to those who will turn to Him. The message of Chapter nine is not that the world will be destroyed through insurrection, anarchy and pestilence. The message of Chapter nine is that God is still faithful to save those who will turn to Him in faith, even in this time of fire, smoke, and sulfur.