Repentance

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

REPENTANCE

Rev 9:12-21

12 The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.

13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." 15 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. 16 The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number. 17 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. 18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19 The 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. 20 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. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

NIV

This is the sixth angel with the second woe which we are seeing now having a great destructive power over mankind. It is imperative for us to note once again this could not have already happened as some scholars continue to hold to that opinion. One third of mankind has not ever been killed nor has there ever been amassed such an army of two hundred million who ride upon horses. It could be said John is seeing a cavalry with cannons waging war upon a third of mankind, or at least on Israel because of the reference to the four angels who were bound at the great river Euphrates. With the complete description of the horses it is more likely John saw what appears to look more like a dragon than a horse. Dragons breathe fire and have great tails that can inflict pain. But of course dragons are only a legend and are not nor have been real. We could spend much time trying to determine if this is symbolism at work or it is what it is. But what we do know is this would only serve to prove this is not a natural event of man waging war upon man, but rather a supernatural event from the command of God. If we move to the end commentary we see what we have been thinking all along is the truth of all these trumpets causing chaos, havoc, and the subsequent death of so many people. Although this trumpet let loose a great destructive power killing many people, we are told the rest of mankind who were still alive did not repent. It is true that all this was to bring men to repentance and turn to God, but they still continue to love their wicked way of life rather than God. We saw how Pharaoh kept refusing to accept God even after all the plagues that were inflicted on Egypt. This is the same sort of response we are seeing here. Plague after plague and the people of this earth would rather serve the work of their own hands rather than God. What a lesson even for the people of the church, for us. Although we must believe we are not here on earth at this time, for we are part of the great multitude in white robes before the thorn of God, we still have this lesson we should consider while we are still here. We have to be sure we are not entrapped by the desire of all the works of our hands. That is what is described here is as gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood, or in other words, wealth and or material goods. These are no doubt idols of many in this world. We cannot be caught up in that sort of life. It comes down to either one or the other. We are told we cannot serve two masters, we cannot love money and God. We will either love one and hate or despise the other. We can see this kind of mentality has infiltrated the church today. Some believers would try to use the scriptures to prove we should be good stewards and store up as much wealth for their older years as possible, disregarding all the teaching to the contrary. We must not allow that kind of thinking to impact ours.  But wealth, the works of their own hands is not the only thing these people did not repent of. We are told they did not repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality and their thefts. This certainly does not describe the people of God for we surely are not involved in that sort of lifestyle. But maybe we might see it in a different light, the light of Christ. Jesus taught us that if we are angry with our bother it brings the same judgement as murder. As far as the magic arts goes, surely the believers in God would not be involved. It is interesting that this Greek word is the root word for self-giving potion, a druggist or pharmacist, a poisoner. This could simply refer to the drug industry, taking prescriptions, but that would not serve the truth. If we take this word at face value we could see the magic arts as seeing the scriptures in a self-giving truth, that is to serve our own purpose rather than the purpose of God, and to make matters worse we could be poisoning other believers with that same kind of thinking. The scriptures teach us to think like God thinks, to live to please him. If we teach anything other than the truth, we poison the spiritual health of others. When it comes to sexual immorality we know the church has its sinners. This is not inclusive of one denomination nor of the simple believer for we have seen the more famous men of God exposed for such behavior. We would have to conclude this is true throughout the church in one way or another. Jesus taught us that if we look at a women with lust in our hearts we have committed adultery. But this could also been seen as sexual immorality in another sense of committing adultery with the world. Because we love God and are his people, if we love the things of this world we have committed adultery against God. We should be sure we need to be careful concerning the lust of our eyes and thus our heart. When we get the not repenting of thefts we surely do not steal so this could not apply to us, could it? This description certainly is played out in the world of the unbelievers, but how could we ever steal. Perhaps it could apply to how some would steal the truth, or attempt to steal the people of God from one congregation to being their followers, stealing the tithes and offerings for their own lavish lifestyles. But what about us common believers, how could we steal. Maybe we could steal another person’s joy. Maybe we could steal the truth from them by influencing them with false doctrine. There are so many ways we could see ourselves being involved in some form of theft, so we need to be careful not to allow that into our thinking. A life lesson for us to consider. Yes, these plagues are coming to a theater near us, these angels are real and the disaster is real, but we still can learn that we are in constant need of repentance.