Revelation Series: Chapters 8 & 9 - "The Trumpet Judgements"

The Lamb breaks the seventh seal, and the seven Trumpet Judgements ensue. Dark times are illustrated in John's account of what he sees, hears, and experiences.

Transcript

good morning good afternoon or good evening wherever or whenever you're listening to us right now and welcome to this bonus episode of the Churchosity podcast my name is Heath Brady and I'm Andrea Brady and we are your Churchosity podcast Personnel these are the types of episodes that we like to call the Post scripts because these are the things that we think and talk about when the record button is off so thank you for listening and welcome to the Inner

Circle how's it going Andy it's great it's great yep great is good great is good you excited to continue on in our study of this Fantastical Book of Revelation yes absolutely yeah we are kneed deep into some troubling Waters in the world of eschatology or study of all thing you know study of all the end things mhm we're going to tackle two chapters on this episode Revelation chapters 8 and N okay which takes us through six of the seven trumpet judgments that sounds like a lofty goal it is a lofty goal eight and nine all right you know the more thought about it I I didn't want to separate the two okay and it'll make sense why we kept them together when we get to chapter 9 because the shift is really crucial to catch okay but uh the reason why these are murky Waters is because I think that aside from chapter 12 17 and 21 mhm chapters 8 and N9 cause a lot of Confusion And even division oh amongst Scholars and theologians and just general folk that are interested in Prophecy type stuff okay because there's many many schools of thought and we you and I together we've had lots of lengthy conversations about the contents of chapters 8 and n and every everything that you and I have discussed yeah it seems like it always come back comes back to that rule that we're continuing to follow which is O oo ooh oo oo I know I know what is it is it the law first mentioned no oh but that's one of them that's one of the most important yes okay but it is the expositional consistency okay expositional consistency and that's really going to be important with our conversation on this episode okay so without further Ado yes let us dive in all right so leading up to chapter 8 verse1 we have gone through six seals and this pause and now we are about to break the seventh seal so remember there's this pattern there's six judg J ments and then a pause and then the seventh judgment contains the next set of seven okay so now we are going to break the seventh seal which contains the seven trumpets does that make sense okay patterns okay all right Revelation 8:1 when the lamb broke the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour unfortunately we have to stop already already for about a half hour for about a half an hour right for what seemed like a half an hour yeah so let's talk about this just briefly obviously the lamb is Christ yes he's the one who uh was worthy to take the scroll and break it remember the seven sealed scroll so he the only one only one so now he is he breaks the seventh seal and then there's SE there's silence in heaven for about half an hour and many many many many many scholars have looked at this and been like okay so what does silence in heaven for about half an hour look like or sound like or not sound like wow yeah and without creeping people out too much the more that we continue in this study of Revelation the more I am continuing to go back and probably controversially suspect that there are several different timelines all going on at the same time while John is writing this book okay because remember it's roughly 95 ad that John is writing and experiencing all of this mhm and up until chapter 4 verse1 it's real time John's writing about the things which he had already seen which was the vision of the resurrected Christ in chapter 1 he's already written about the things which presently existed which was those seven churches that this book is written to right and then chapter 4:1 there's this door in heaven that is open and John gets on the metaphorical helicopter and is transported somewhere and somewh else into heaven and he begins in ch 4:1 to write down the things that he is seeing hearing and experiencing not just on that side of Eternity like the Eternal side of Eternity but also what he's seeing happened on earth now you mentioned a metaphorical helicopter do you want to remind everyone what you mean by that right so I gave the analogy several epodes ago of what time is like for humans compared to to God and we gave the analogy of a parade that time for us is linear it's a sequence of events so it's like we're sitting on the curb on our recliner chairs cracking open a Dr Pepper or a Diet Pepsi and watching the sequence of events come by and pass Us in the parade that's time for us right we can't see the beginning or formation of the parade we can't see the ending or conclusion of the parade unless we're literally sitting in front of the beginning or the end true but if you're in a helicopter above the parade like a newscaster covering the event you can see all of the events in the parade and you can see the beginning and you can see the end all at the same time true yes so clumsily that is the best you can an analogy of how I can try to explain best what the difference is in what in how humans experience time that it's a physical property it's linear and it's absolute but on God's side of Eternity he is out completely outside of our physical domain of time because as scripture says he alone knows the end from the beginning he alone inhabits eternity right right it all makes sense to me I like your analogy thank so when I talk about this helicopter John gets in the helicopter cuz Jesus says you know he hears this voice come up here come up here yeah so he's taken in this helicopter ride and he's he's taken to this whole new dimension yeah and he sees all of these crazy wild things and he writes about what he sees what he hears and what he experiences and some of those things that he sees and hears and experiences are happening on the earth okay but they're not happening in 955 ad right some of them are happening in 70 AD and we're going to discover the further we get into the Book of Revelation I.E chapter 12 that he's going to be looking at events that took place in the Garden of Eden oh my and then he's going to be taking a look at things that happen at the end of all things right all from the vantage point of Heaven's throne room okay IE helicopter helicopter so all of that to say I do not believe that John is experiencing silence in heaven for literally about a half an hour because remember these all of these things were rendered unto him through signs and wonders okay so in John's human finite brain while he's on the eternity side of Eternity what felt like about a half an hour to him could have been thousands of years that's true we just don't know but to him in his experience it was silent in heaven for about a half an hour now not to digress but I've mentioned this once before that it is shocking to me the similarities between the Book of Revelation and the Book of Joshua okay and why that's interesting to me now is that when you go back and read the story of Joshua specifically in Joshua chapter 6 which is how the actual conquest of Jericho goes down mhm in chapter 6:1 Joshua it says that Joshua commanded the people saying you shall not shout nor let your voice be heard nor nor let a word proceed out of your mouth until the day I tell you shout then you shall shout huh now what's interesting and I encourage all of our listeners if you're not well versed in the story of this Battle of Jericho which really wasn't a battle they marched around the city of Jericho one time for 6 days one time day for 6 days and they were silent the whole entire time okay but on the seventh day they March seven times and then Shout with a mighty Roar and then the walls come tumbling down so is there some sort of a correlation between the silence before the trumpets are blown in Joshua and the walls come down and the silence in heaven for about half an hour and then the trumpet judgments begin interesting it gets a little even creepier uhhuh you see the story of the Book of Joshua is fascinating to me because the events in the Book of Joshua precede the establishment of a new monarchy oh okay yeah just like the events in Revelation H it inaugurates what's known as has the Jubilee year in Joshua you see the Jubilee year for the Israelites did not exist until after Joshua conquered the land now what is a jubilee year I'm glad you asked what is a jubilee year so so there's lots of sevens okay in in Hebrew history right you've got uh work on work six days rest on the seventh so that's your Sabbath day you've got work six years rest on the seventh year that's the sabatical year right and we've talked about that in the past mhm that for 490 years the nation of Israel did not honor the sabatical year so they owed the Lord 70 years which is how long they were in slave to Babylon yes okay okay so when you get into those sabatical years then you have what's called called The Jubilee year so you go through you go through seven sets of sabatical years so 49 years go by yes you with me uh-huh uhhuh uh and in that 50th year the beginning of that 50th year you don't go back to work and start all over again you have what's called a jubilee year woohoo which began after Joshua's Victory now here's what's interesting about a year okay during the entire Jubilee Year all debts are forgiven oh all land is returned to its original owner interesting all slaves Go free and it's quite possible that this is what is referred to in Acts 3: 21 as the quote time of restitution H but here's what's interesting m it doesn't start on the Jewish New Year this Jubilee year in the 50th year it actually starts two weeks before Oh on yam Kapur okay which is the day of atonement oh when all of Israel's sins M are sacrificed for and then the celebration begins you see see a pattern there yeah okay all of that to say it's really continuously creepy to me especially now that we're going to get into the trumpet judgments creepy in a good way yes the parallels between Joshua and Revelation now it just creeps me out in a fun and exciting way okay all right verse two back in Revelation chapter 8 we're making progress and I saw these seven angels definite article that's important I saw these seven Angels who stand before God these are a specific set of seven angels mhm these are the same seven angels that are going to pour out the bowls later on by the way oh and I saw the seven angels who stand before God and seven trumpets were given to them verse three and another angel came and stood at the altar holding a golden sensor and much incense was given to him so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was Before the Throne now this in verse three this another it's it's a curious word in the Greek in the Greek there are two different words that translate into the English word another H one of them is heteros which is a different form of another so like if I was to say I need I need a snack I would like an apple please right and then Andy you were to say well I would like another stack another snack could I have a peanut butter sandwich something else so it's another snack but it's something completely different other than the first one right well the Greek word here is alos which means same or similar okay so it would be like me saying I want a snack could I please have an apple and then Andy you said I would have another snack I would like a banana they're both fruits or if you ate an apple and then wanted another Apple sure okay either or Y it's also important to point out here that this imagery of the throne room in heaven is the Eternal perfect version of the temple that was on Earth preceded by the Tabernacle right mhm and in that structure there were actually two altars there was the Brazen altar which is outside of the Holy place and there is the golden altar which is outside of the veil of the holy of holies and both of those altars had different usages they were they were they were used for uh two completely different reasons oh so this altar here which is Before the Throne this is the golden altar H this is where the high priest would stand outside of the veil of the of the Holy holy of holies and the prayers that there's a bowl where they would burn incense and pray it's a purification it's part of the purification for the high priest to go through that Veil alone into the holy of holies mhm so this is the heavenly perfect example of what that looked like in the temple and in the Tabernacle so this is a pretty important Angel because it's coming before this golden Altar and it's holding a sensor an incense is given so that he can add it to the prayers of all the saints so the prayers of all the saints that's all of God's people throughout all of time who pray and it's comforting to know that the imagery here that John is using of this large bowl on the golden altar outside the holy of holies Before the Throne of God that that smoke goes right up to his nostrils H cuz it says in verse 4 and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God and out of the Angel's hand interesting that's pretty cool huh yeah that is cool but this is all part of that silence because the trumpets are coming verse 5 then the angel took the sensor and filled it with the fire of the Altar and threw it to the Earth and there followed peels of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake yikes yeah uh in my humble opinion and this is just my humble opinion uhhuh this is the heavenly perfect equivalent of the noise that happened in Jericho when Joshua gave the command to shout and then the walls came tumbling down after the trumpets blew pretty amazing huh yeah I there's such a cool parallel here by the way verse 5 mhm Begins the answer to the prayers of the Saints from chapter 6 how long oh Lord until you avenge our blood remember oh those who had come out of the Great Tribulation yes God's about to answer okay verse 6 and these seven angels who had these seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them here it comes verse 7 the first sounded and there came hail and fire mixed with blood and they were thrown to the Earth and a third of the Earth was burned up and a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up now a lot of people especially on the liberal side of theology want to say that this is imagery of global warming of sudden type oh uh-huh I look at this in figurative literal I can't tell you if it if it's literally hail and fire mixed with literal blood I don't know what I do know is that this is signs that JN saw and this is what they look like to him but there's no simile here and it doesn't even allude to a metaphor so I'm almost half tempted to lean more towards maybe this is literally hail and fire mixed with blood I don't know H okay but I want to draw our attention to something interesting honey we've talked about Earth yes being idiomatic of Israel okay now it's I can't build Doctrine on that but it is it is a very consistent idiom with patterns that that all the way back to the Old Testament so just something to think about here that maybe this is something that is a direct judgment towards a third of things that have to do with God's chosen race okay I don't know ooh but what is more provocative to me is that it's just a third and see these first trumpet judgments are what's known classically as the Judgment of thirds because it's only a third of a thing that is judged and essentially destroyed and what you have here in this first trumpet judgment is oneir of vegetation so think about things that produce fruit on the earth yes but okay both literally and spiritually oh right h verse eight the second Angel sounded and something like a great Mountain so there's a simil there's the word like yep something like a great Mountain burning with fire so again it's fire now remember scripture says After the flood in Noah's time the Lord promised that he would never destroy the Earth again in the same way true but that at the end the world will be judged with fire m we got some fire here the second Angel sounded and something like a great Mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea now just as Earth is idiomatic of Israel sea is idiomatic of Gentiles that's true I remember that yeah and a third of the sea became blood and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died and a third of the the ships were destroyed so here's another Judgment of thirds it's it's a third of sea life and Naval Commerce it's Oceanic life and Naval Commerce that is destroyed is essentially what John is looking at M or could it be something deeper because of that idiom of the sea being Gentiles H I don't know just something to think about verse 10 the third Angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the Springs of waters verse 11 the name of the star is called wormwood and a third of the waters became wormwood and many men died from the waters because they were made bitter so you like the water was undrinkable so yeah the drinkable water is polluted somehow okay now the word wormwood literally means

bitterness it m it implies that it makes the water undrinkable without harm that's what the word means in the Greek but here you have many men dying because they are because the waters are made bitter so it's something more powerful than natural is what I'm getting at here okay uhhuh now up in verse 10 the third Angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven well guess what what this is the same Greek word for star from chapter one do you remember what the stars in chapter 1 were I don't cuz Jesus told John I forget the stars are the Angels of the seven churches oh okay this is an angel this is a supernatural thing that's going on here this is a being so it's the same word that was used great star a great okay I would argue it's a cherub who is falling from Heaven burning like a torch could this be

Satan because we all know that Satan is kicked out of heaven at some point in time the libraries are full of the debate over when that did or will happen I see trust me and I won't derail our conversation now to give you and explain what all of those different arguments are right I don't think anybody's right because we're dealing with time that's true and time is different for us than it is for God remember right well we do know based on the Bible that Satan has access to the throne room yes because eventually Satan will lose his access to heaven right you can you can contrast Job chapter 1 where where Satan and the sons of God are in the throne room in heaven having a conversation about God's servant job uhhuh with what happens in Revelation 12 which we'll unpack when we get there okay but just as a side note many great competent Scholars and I pretty much agree with these folks would look at two passages of scripture as to the origin and fall of Lucifer mhm one of them is in Isaiah 14 and the other one is in Ezekiel 28 it's pretty easy to remember Isaiah 14 Ezekiel 28 the 1 and 14 is a little bit is is pretty long but if I just pick it up in verse 12 this is this is uh the prophet Isaiah speaking mhm how you have fallen from Heaven oh star of the morning and that Hebrew word there for star is halel which literally means shining one oh Lucifer in the Hebrew is Nash which means The Shining one so it says how you have fallen from Heaven oh star of the morning son of the Dawn you have been cut down to the Earth you you who have weakened the Nations but you said in your heart I will Ascend to Heaven I will raise my throne above the stars of God and I will sit on the Mount of assembly in the recesses of the north I will Ascend above the heights of the clouds I will make myself like the most high nevertheless you will be thrust down to shol to the recesses of the pit and I'll just stop there mhm that's Isaiah 14 some of it but listen to Ezekiel 28 okay now this one's interesting because God tells the prophet Ezekiel to take up a lamentation to lament to write about something that is extremely saddening and disheartening about the king of Tyre so this is this is an utterance a judgment towards the king of t mhm or is it something deeper than that H thus says the this is beginning in verse 12 of Ezekiel 28 thus says the Lord God you had the Seal of perfection full of wisdom and perfect in Beauty you were in Eden the Garden of God well now wait a minute was the king of Ty in Eden the Garden of God no so obviously this is something deeper than that every precious stone was your covering the Ruby the topaz the diamond the barrel the Onyx The Jasper the lapis lazuli the turquoise and the emerald now this is Priestly vestments right right and the gold and workmanship of your settings and sockets was in you on the day that you were created they were prepared so this is something Supernatural a power behind the king of tire this is not a physical person who was in Eden the Garden of God and they're covered in all of these Jewels which makes them a being of light shining it gets even deeper verse 14 you were the anointed cherub who covers there you have it oh and I placed you there you were on the Holy Mountain of God you walked in the midst of the stones of fire you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created and the worst most devastating word in the English Bible until until mhm unrighteousness was found in you and then he goes on from there so just two passages as a side study Isaiah 14 Ezekiel 28 that most competent Scholars and I tend to agree with them explains the origin and Destiny of Lucifer who becomes the serpent if you will why that's important for us right now we shall continue okay so we we've just read uh verses 10 and 11 in Revelation 8 a third of the drinkable water is polluted in verse 10 there is this great star this Super Angel this cherub burning like a torch that falls from the earth falls from heaven to the earth and its name is wormwood capital W like the source of bitterness you follow me yep that causes men to die all right the fourth Angel sounded and a third of the sun and a third of the Moon and a third of the stars were struck so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not Shine for a third of it and the night in the same way so you've got this apparent Cosmic blockage taking place mhm but only a partial blockage a third of all things are darkened H is it literal is it physical is it spiritual could be all of those things this is just what John saw okay verse 13 then I looked and I heard an eagle literally one eagle flying in mid in mid Heaven saying with a loud voice wo wo wo to those who dwell on the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the Three Angels who are about to sound this is known as the three woses cuz four trumpets have blown yeah as if to say you thought this was bad just wait just wait till what comes next because only a third of all things has been affected mhm with these first four trumpets now just as a side note what I found kind of peculiar is that it's an eagle that John hears okay we've seen an eagle before we have okay but when we were looking at the ceiling of the 144,000 yeah you remember there were two tribes who weren't mentioned right there was ephra who's actually there but he's not because he's covered under Joseph but Dan is missing okay completely Andy do you happen to remember remember what the standard of Dan was well is it an eagle it's an eagle so is it possible that this is Dan uttering the three woses could be it's a little Sensational I just thought that it was interesting that of all the things that John could have heard screaming with a loud voice it was an eagle interesting Yeah just something to chew on uh-huh but but notice something that's way more important than that what it says woe wo wo to who those who dwell on the earth okay the Earth dwellers those who make the Earth their home we're talking about a specific status of humanity now it's not just a third it's all of those human beings who Pride themselves on being dwellers of the earth that are now going to experience the remaining three trumpets kind of scary huh yeah so we continue to Revelation 9 you ready yes verse one then the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star same word okay fall from Heaven H which had fallen to the Earth mhm well now wait a minute this is a star that fell from heaven which had already fallen to the Earth okay which star was that wormwood it was wormwood okay okay and I propose that could this be Satan uhhuh well let's read on and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him ooh

he notice that he's given the key yeah he doesn't just have open access to it mhm whatever this star is I assume that it's the devil doesn't have permission to just come and go as he pleases to this bottomless pit this Abyss if you will he must be given access h now it doesn't say who gave him the key but the more the most important thing is is that the key was given to him which means he didn't have it until this point okay verse two he opened the bottomless pit and smoke went up and out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace and the Sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit wow verse three then out of the smoke came locusts upon the Earth and power was given to them again power given not power assumed power was given to these locusts as the Scorpions of the Earth have power so you have some sort of locust thing that's coming out of this bottomless pit right this Abyss it's not literal locusts because they have power like Scorpions so locusts don't have the power of scorpions real Locust don't no they don't so obviously this is is something more than that so you have to remember John is looking through that open door in heaven on The Eternity side trying to write down what he's seen right and using metaphors and similes and imagery and analogies and idioms to explain in first century vernacular what he's looking at mhm so he sees smoke come out of this bottomless pit and out of the smoke comes these things that are like locusts and have power like scorpions who sting and cause a lot of pain right right but here's where it gets interesting verse four ooh I just read it they were told so again they don't have free reain they were told not to hurt the grass of the Earth Earth is an idiom of Israel okay okay not to hurt the grass of the earth nor any green thing nor any tree but only the men who did not have the Seal of God on their foreheads in my humble opinion this verse right here is very Jewish yeah because who specifically were sealed the 14 4,000 yes and who were the 144,000 the 12 tribes of Israel right in my opinion this is a command to these I'm just going to say it demonic Locust things to not harm anyone of Israel that is sealed you follow me yeah verse five and they were not permitted to kill anyone boy this sounds a lot like Job chapter 1 H they were not permitted to kill anyone but to torment for five months and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man there's a beautiful simile there for you wow these are locusts who behave like Scorpions so they're not literal locusts You Follow Me Right but it's interesting they were per they were not permitted to kill anyone but only to torment for 5 months 5 months now what I find provocative about that is that in Genesis chapter 6 we have the flood of Noah yeah Genesis chapter 7 is the aftermath of when the rain stopped and everything mhm the very last verse of chapter 7 of Genesis verse 24 says the water prevailed upon the Earth 150 days guess how long 150 days is five months five months okay just food for thought I'm just trying to stir up a little trouble here that's

all they were not permitted to kill anyone but to torment for 5 months and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man verse 6 and in those days men will seek death and not find it I cannot even begin to Fathom what that looks like or feels like H to want to die but not be able to find Death this is some sort of real like Supernatural like forbiddance of death H so that they're tormented for five months H it says they will long to die and death flees from them now I don't know if this is literal death or if this is spiritual death or both or something else whatever is going on here whatever it is that these demonic Locust scorpion things are doing to the Earth dwellers it's got to be horrendous yeah verse 7 the appearance of the locusts literally the likeness of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle and on their heads appeared to be crowns of gold Stefanos by the way Victor's Crown appeared to be so they're like horses prepared for battle and on their heads appears to be crowns like gold and their faces are like the faces of men verse 8 they had hair like the hair of women and their teeth were like the teeth of lions wow verse 9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron and the sound of their wings was like the sounds of Chariots of many horses rushing to battle verse 10 they have tals like scorpions and stings and in their tails is their power to hurt men for 5 months that's the only definite descriptor of those several verses that John gives about something you can Bank on and it's the second time that he mentions 5 months right so I lean towards it's possible that it's could be a literal 5mon period 150 days I don't know but the way John describes them is all of these

similes an end times prophecy people have a field day with these verses they like to say oh well this is like helicopters or this is tanks or this you know stuff like that right yeah I mean it does kind of sound like it listeners if you've heard nothing in this entire Revelation series hear me now the biggest mistake that anyone can make in trying trying to understand the Book of Revelation is a not understand it through the rest of scripture m and b try to understand it through your newspaper right because you're probably going to get yourself into a lot of trouble and most likely be wrong mhm full disclosure I used to be one of those guys oh yeah yeah because it's Sensational and it's exciting and you can sit around the water cooler or around your table and be like oh my gosh did you hear about this and bl and yeah that's totally Revelation chapter n and yet it's probably

not right all right here's where it gets fun you ready okay verse 11 they have as a king over them this is these locusts Locust things mhm they have a king over them the angel of the Abyss well who's that oh that's the star that fell from heaven which had already fallen to the Earth whose name was first W wormwood that had the key to the abyss that's the king you with me yes his name in Hebrew is abadin and in the Greek he has the name apolon both those names in the Hebrew and the Greek mean Destroyer o

now time to stir up a little bit of trouble okay it's interesting to me that John makes sure that we know that these locusts have a king that is kind of interesting especially when you look at Proverbs Chapter 30 verse 27 which says the locusts have no King [Laughter] yet all of them go out in ranks but these locusts do but these Locust do there's a really interesting verse in the Book of Amos many of us are probably never even heard of The Book of Amos The Book of Amos 7 verse 1 says thus the Lord God showed me and behold he was forming a locust swarm when the spring crop began to sprout and behold the spring crop was after the king's mowing that's the verse all right now because that's such a weird obscure verse yeah that causes many Bible scholars many theologians many eschatological Fanatics like myself like you used to be like I used to be and you know I I want to understand the Bible right so I'm looking at that and I'm like okay there's got to be an obvious reason why this verse is here I don't believe that even yachts and titles are there by accident in the scripture mhm mhm so I looked at this verse in the Septuagint which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament okay now remember that's a that's a real translation of the Old Testament that was ordered uh some 300 years before Christ was born so that the Jews of the time could actually hear and understand their Old Testament scriptures in Greek oh neat and it's and it's the sepagan translation that much if not much maybe not all of the Old Testament in The New American Standard is translated from mhm so I looked at the

7:1 and this is what it actually says in the septu agent you ready for this okay the Lord hath shown me and behold a swarm of locusts were coming and behold one of the youngest devastating locusts was Gog the king huh now all the dispensational folks have access to this as well this this isn't an idea aide that I came up with on my own I've actually heard this idea before and it makes more sense to me now than it did before but this is very Ezekiel 37 and 38 and 39 language here when you bring up Gog the king because when you look at Ezekiel 38 and 39 you have this massive Invasion against the nation of Israel that's led by Gog and Magog Magog is the person and Gog is like the power behind him if you will got it but that's the only place in all of the scriptures where the name Gog is mentioned except here in the sepagan version of Amos 7:1 all of that to say the spiritual power behind Magog and all of the surrounding Nations coming against Israel yeah that's Gog which is spiritual which is Supernatural which is evil mhm and and I lean towards that being another rendering of the Hebrew Destroyer so essentially all of that to say Gog is the king of the locusts in the vision that Amos has and Destroyer is the king of the locusts that John sees in his vision here in Revelation chapter 9 same guy yeah is essentially what I'm trying to get out here uhhuh verse 12 the first woe is passed behold two woes still coming after these as if that wasn't bad enough right five months of torture by these demonic Locust things who are commanded literally by the Devil Himself verse 13 then the sixth Angel sounded and I Heard a Voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God that would be the Ark of the Covenant the lid you know the four hores that come out of it mhm one saying to the sixth Angel who had the trumpet release the Four Angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates all right are you ready to have some fun here Mrs Bri yep very specific Angels yes the Four Angels the Four Angels mhm which Four Angels the four who were bound at the great river Euphrates bound at the river great river Euphrates and don't think of bound in the sense of tied up and gagged and in a box somewhere think of it more as assigned because like on duty on duty right because in all of my years of studying theology specifically angelology mhm both good and bad Angels by the way it is beyond a shadow of a doubt obvious that angels are territorial they're given territories oh yeah and you see that all through scripture there's and we're talking about angels these are four specific Angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates and the Four Angels verse 15 who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released so that they would kill a third of mankind oh wow so these are four specific Angels now lots of Bible scholars want to say that these are demonic angels that these are Fallen Angels if you will but there's an interesting identifier here that John is given and he writes you see if you just let the Bible speak for itself a lot of this stuff just naturally makes sense okay what do we know about the Euphrates River Andy well you know didn't it go through the Garden of Eden yep there were four there were four rivers that flowed through Eden the other two I don't remember the names off the top of my head but I do know the tigress and the Euphrates mm those are a lot more popular especially because of a lot of things that have happened happened in world events especially within our lifetime in that region where the Tigris River and the Euphrates River exist cuz it's in the Middle East right the Euphrates River besides being one of the four rivers that was in the that was in Eden was also historically known as the eastern boundary of Israel you can look at Genesis 15 and compare that to Deuteronomy 1:7 you can look at Joshua 1:4 you can look at First Kings 4: 21 and 24 it was also known as the quote unquote traditional boundary of east and west the entire time that the Roman Empire existed they lived in constant fear of the parthan Empire who lived on the other side of the Euphrates River H even though they were much smaller there was something terrifying about that army that was on the other side of the Euphrates River now these are references obviously that date all the way back to Eden because he mentions the great river Euphrates so you ask the question where was the Garden well the scripture says that the garden was East of Eden okay so that means that Eden is west of the garden I know that sounds redundant but but I just want to kind of mansplain the obvious here right you have Eden on the west and the garden is east of it okay okay and we know that the chunk of land where Eden was is known as Mesopotamia which literally means between two rivers so Eden was between the Tigers and the Euphrates what's west of Mesopotamia Israel mhm and when it comes to the nation of Israel who owns the title deed to that chunk of real estate in all of the universe God does right so think about that every time our foreign policies deal with Israel because it runs the risk of poking a big huge finger in the eyes of God so we're obviously talking about something that that relates all the way back to the Garden of Eden here and four specific Angels who have been on duty there right guarding guarding what does this sound like who does this sound like Andy well it sounds like the angels that were assigned to keep everyone out of Eden after Adam and Eve had been banished from there that is exactly correct now I've I I've been a victim of my own Sunday school coloring books when I was a child right you know this this like large bony finger pointing uh out from the garden and Adam and Eve cowering in in despair as they're being kicked out of the garden and then this flaming sword in front of the tree and two large super Angels standing there guarding the way so that Adam and Eve can't get back right you want to know something interesting H nowhere in scripture does it say that there were two cherubim put there got it okay but rather in Genesis CH 3: 24 uhhuh it says this so he drove the man out he being God he drove the man out and at the east of the Garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim okay he stationed the cherubim doesn't say how many and the Flaming sword which turned in every direction read that north south east west to guard the way to the Tree of Life in other words words the way to get back to the tree of life was guarded in all four directions yeah so maybe four Angels maybe four Angels that's interesting who were at the great river Euphrates on duty yep prepared for this specific moment remember this chunk of real estate where the Garden of Eden was where the river Euphrates references this is where sin began the first murder was committed here Genesis 4 the first world Rebellion Genesis 10: 11 remember the the Tower of Babel yes which later becomes Babylon this is your first indirect reference to Babylon and the the leader of Babel his name was Nimrod whose name literally means we shall Rebel Babylon when was the origin of idolatry and false worship we're literally talking about root cause stuff here ladies and gentlemen so this is Four Angels who have been prepared for this specific moment in time to kill a third of humanity wow but then it's

interesting there's Horsemen mhm the number of the armies of the horsemen was 200 million I heard the number of them now again these sensationalistic people want to say well this is like an great Army coming from China 200 million people in tanks and helicopters and whatever no it doesn't say that but verse 17 might be why they get into this trap and this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them the Riders had breastplates the color of fire and hent and of Brimstone and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions and out of their mouths proceeded fire and smoke and brimstone a third of mankind was killed by these three plagues by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths so now you have a debate here is it plagues is it things that that that infested Earth dwellers fire smoke and brimstone or is it armies from the East that dispense fire smoke and brimstone oh interesting you see what I'm saying yeah verse 19 for the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails for their tails are like serpents and have heads and with them they do harm so that negates the possibility that any of these things are really horses and really R and real Riders because real horses don't have tals that look like serpents with heads you know what I'm saying mhm that's true so this is idiomatic language here and I think what's the most important thing to draw out of this chunk of verses is that there are four Four Angels who were assigned to the river Euphrates until this point in history and they are released and they bring with them this large army of 200 million horse riders that plague the Earth dwellers with judgments of fire smoke and brimstone that come out of their mouths and that can mean anything right verse 20 the rest of men mankind who were not killed by these plagues so whoever's left after after these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands so as to not worship demons and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk you mean to tell me that all of these people who survived they still won't repent wow and you know what's interesting Andy what throughout the entire Book of Revelation not once do the quote unquote Earth dwellers ever repent okay they love their lives and the pride of it so much that they that they still won't repent and turn from their wickedness and serve God rather than themselves right verse 21 and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts John specifically categorizes four different types of non-rep four areas four specific areas that the remaining Earth dwellers refuse to repent from the first one is murder H H I'll leave it to our listen ERS to unpack just how dark and demented the Earth's obsession with murder is yeah in the 21st century yeah that's true the second one sorceries now don't misunderstand this is not Sorcerers like you know the Greek word here for sorcery is phakia where we get Pharmaceuticals or Pharmacy this is drug use oh now at the risk of translating The Book of Revelation out of our newspapers I'm sure that like myself many of our listeners have a lot of images going through their heads right now of what things look like in the world in regards to drug use and drug abuse right but what's fascinating to me is that in the United States of America the drug industry and it is an industry mhm the drug industry has the largest number of constituents in our national government out of all of the industries out of all of the opportunities for our national government to be pouring money into the drug industry is the number one huh interesting the third one fornication well suffice it to say our culture is completely preoccupied with that that's true and then the fourth one is theft not just individual but also institutional oh yeah and that's how chapter nine

ends pretty Grim stuff if you ask me yeah so we've gone through six of those seven trumpets okay now I'm not one of those people that wants to s sensationalize any of this and take it incredibly plain literally because obviously the Earth's population has not been reduced by a third in fact it's grown exponentially right mhm a lot of this imagery reminds me of Romans chapter 1 oh when the people of Earth who rebelled against God God turned turn them over yes to their rebellious hearts and they worship the creation rather than the Creator Etc very similar kind of imagery to me Paul's is more literal in Romans 1 than John's is here in Revelation [Music] mhm remember what the Book of Revelation is about it's not about these specific Visions it's not about these specific plagues or trying to figure out peoples or rulers or whatever right what is the Book of Revelation really about Andy the unveiling the unveiling of Jesus Christ and this is how God the father chose and is choosing and will choose to unveil his son to the world in all of his glory and all of his

Splendor these are very dark chapters I'm reminded of Matthew chap 24 where Jesus is talking about the end stuff to his disciples we've referenced Matthew 24 Mark 13 and Luke 21 several times but in Mark 24 starting in verse 4 Jesus tells his disciples see to it that no one misleads you for many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will mislead many I am the Messiah I am the king you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars see to it that you are not frightened for those things must take place but that is not yet the end for nation will rise against nation and Kingdom against Kingdom and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes it sounds like Revelation 6-9 it does to me yeah but then catch this all these things are merely the beginning of birth PS wow now not to sound crass or callous or even flippant or sarcastic even in the slightest way Andy mhm but I know that when labor begins and those contractions start yeah over time those contractions get more intense and more frequent it's true and what we have witnessed is a huge jump in severity and frequency of judgments from chapter 6 through chapter N9 what is the takeaway because I always I I'm an application Christian yes and as dark and dreary and judgmental on the Earth dwellers and as all of this is the imagery everything about it is so devastating and it just absolutely breaks my heart just like the Prophet Daniel who knew that the end of captivity was nigh we as Christians as followers of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ should pray we should be praying not just just for those that we don't want to be Earth dwellers any longer but also for the Lord to come that's come Lord Jesus right right if anything these two chapters stir up in me this sense of urgency to put Christ and his gospel on display for the people that I love most for the people that I'm around the most and to live out my Christian faith daily so that Christ and the gospel are attractional to those who right here and now are Earth dwellers because there are dark days ahead and it's just the beginning of birth pays right and I would argue that these types of judgments have been going on since since Christ's Ascension to the father because remember the the scroll gets broken after the Ascension so on Earth's timetable I would argue that these have been getting these judgments have been occurring and the intensity level and the interval level has been increasing and getting faster and more and more difficult this is not a gloom and doom message this is a reality message right God is still on his throne his son Jesus Christ is going to come back for his church and every day that he terries is both dark and dreary for the Earth dwellers but opportunistic for those of us who are part of God's kingdom mhm pray pray hard pray often amen and that's all we have to say about that! 
Thank you for listening to the Churchosity podcast the post scripts on our next episode we'll be looking at Revelation chapter 10 and some of chapter 11 we're going to touch on the two witnesses but until next time this is the Churchosity podcast Personnel saying peace [Music]