"Woe! Woe! Woe! to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels." (Revelation 8:13) Woe unto me if I should have to face any of the 3 woes contained here in Revelation 8 or any of the 7 woes of Matthew 23. Trusting in my own righteousness, that is all I would merit. But, "Nothing of myself I bring, only to Thy cross I cling." "O Jesus Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee, for Thou in Thine atonement, didst give Thyself for me. I owe no other Master, my heart shall be Thy throne, my live I give henceforth to live, O Christ for Thee alone." "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Because of Christ, the wrath of God is not our portion. So it is that "in Christ" and from that exalted perspective, we view these three woes which befall those who still inhabit the earth. In quick order, the fifth trumpet is blown and a star falls from heaven. We know that this is allegorical language, because the star is given a key to the shaft of the Abyss (Revelation 9:1). This is reminiscent of Jesus words, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18). Thus the star here in Revelation 9:1 is probably Satan, although it could be some other angel sent to do God's bidding. Smoke from the Abyss darken the light of the sun and out of the smoke appear locusts, who can sting like scorpions, and who look like armor-plated horses, and who, unlike natural locusts (see Proverbs 30:27) have a king over them, named "Destroyer." His name is given in both Hebrew and Greek, indicating that both ungodly Jew and Gentile are subject to them. The locust sting and torment men, but do not kill them, for five months. From this, we know that no matter how rapidly the trumpet and bowl judgments are meted out, the Day of the Lord's wrath lasts at least five months. There is nothing to say that this tormenting judgment does not overlay all the rest of the trumpet and bowl judgments.
The sixth trumpet is now blown and a voice speaks to the angel with the 6th trumpet telling him to release the 4 angels who have been bound at the great river Euphrates for this very moment in time. (Revelation 9:15). They are released to kill 1/3 of the remaining humans on the planet, by means of a huge army, 200,000,000 strong. It is obvious that the army moves from the east, towards the holy City, and that the Euphrates River factors greatly into the troop movements. Look at a map of the Middle East and this becomes clear. What follows next is a man who lived 1900+ years ago trying to describe modern, even limited nuclear, warfare. The details of the battle are not nearly as important as is the following description of people at this time. I hope this does away with the romantic myth of some huge tribulation force developing on the earth after the Rapture of the church. Listen carefully.
"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. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts" (Revelation 9:20-21). At this point, just before the seventh trumpet is blown (which contains the totality of the 7 bowl judgments) there is a significant interlude and backflash in the order of events, which will prove significant.....so stay tuned until next time.
Be encouraged. Although things will get much worse on planet Earth, especially in the west, they will not get so bad that in Christ they cannot be endured. Go to Voice of the Martyrs website (http://www.persecution,com/) and see how Christians endure in North Korea, China, Etruria, et al. They know the sufficiency of Christ. They know that to live is Christ and that to die is gain. They know experientially that, "No temptation [test, trial] has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted [tested, tried] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted [tested, tried] He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it" (1 Corinthians 10:13)
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