THE SIXTH TRUMPET: THE TWO HUNDRED MILLION ARMY (VERSES 13-21)

A Reading of Revelation 9:13-21

“Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.’ 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. [Many of the translations have “two times ten thousand times ten thousand.”] 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed — by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.

20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

The Four Angels Bound at the Euphrates (verses 13-15)

“Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.’ 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.”

Well, the sixth angel sounded, and here begins this second “woe,” which is actually a development of the first “woe.” It is, as one writer said, “The Story of the Locust, Phase 2.” This actually is the last appeal that will be made for people to renounce their evil ways and to turn their hearts to God. This “woe,” coming on close proximity to the final judgment (and we’re going to get to that eventually), could indicate that far greater sufferings and death than anything previously seen on the earth may come as the immediate prelude to the second coming and the final judgment.

Significantly, John does not—I repeat, does NOT—foretell of any wholesale conversion of the Jews or of anyone else. He does not foretell here the restoration of fleshly Israel. He does not speak about a “millennium,” so called, either pre- or post-, or any other of the “fanciful utopias” (as one writer referred to them), which people have sometimes imagined as taking place right before the end of time. No, as we read there in verse 21 of Revelation 9, they repented NOT. They DID NOT repent.

In each series, there are seven, and yet they are one. In other words, seven things mentioned are similar even to the point of being one. Any characteristic thought that appears in one may be carried through all of its members.

The second of the three “woes” begins with “a voice from the four horns of the golden altar….” Frequently in Revelation, we encounter the voice of authority, always indicating the Will of God Himself. In this instance, the voice is coming “from the four horns of the golden altar.” This is the “golden altar” that we saw back in Revelation, chapter 6, as John was seeing the vision of that scene in heaven [Revelation 6:9: “When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the Testimony which they held.”]. So, with the authority of God, this sixth angel, who had the trumpet, sounds it.

The instruction is “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates,” [verse 14]. I’ve done a good bit of reading (perhaps you have, as well), wondering about who these angels are and, perhaps, what they represent. It’s difficult to say. Are they angels of God who are doing God’s Will, like those four angels that we read about who were withholding the winds? Or, are these four angels mentioned here angels of Satan? Well, we don’t know; it isn’t clear, and it probably is not a significant point. But the point is this: the sixth angel is instructed by this voice of authority, by the sounding of this sixth trumpet, to release the four angels to allow these things to happen. This an indication that the four angels are operating with the permissive Will of God in full accord with God’s order of things. You mean that God directs this evil to happen? No, He doesn’t direct it, but He permits it; He allows it.

There is another puzzling thing that’s here in verse 14, and that is, the mention of the “river Euphrates.” I’ve read a number of different opinions about this and, perhaps, what it represented. Many of the opinions that you read about, not only here, but about many of these other things in John’s vision, attempt to make them literal, to attach things to particular events in history, either past, present, or, perhaps, future. One opinion that I thought was, perhaps, the best, in terms of what is represented here, indicated that the mention of the Euphrates, specifically the Euphrates Valley, is what we know as “The Cradle of Civilization.” Even scientists agree, I think, for the most part, that that is where the history of man began. Well, that is certainly consistent with the Scriptures, isn’t it? If we go back to Genesis, we see that the place of origin, that place that’s called the “Garden of Eden,” is in the general location of the Euphrates Valley. So, the implication here is that these things that are coming forth, these things that we read about—these forces of evil, and so on—have their origin with mankind. Yes, these evil forces are part of the work, part of the activity of, Satan in the world, but they are carried out by mankind. The Euphrates Valley is where mankind has his origin, his beginning. It is with mankind, then, that these evil forces, these evil influences, come forth and are carried out. It will be remembered that the locusts had faces of men. There may be significance in that.

The four angels go forth to kill men [“So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind, [verse 15]. One-third of mankind is slain. There is a lot of speculation about wars which have already taken place—the wars of the Parthenian hordes against Rome, the wars of Byzantine Empire against Constantinople and many others. There are people who would point to these and say, “Here. Here’s what John’s vision was about. Here’s what he was talking about.” Well, it would seem that none of these wars—specific, literal wars—can compare with what is being talked about here. This is a huge number of “two times ten thousand times ten thousand,” the largest number in the book, 200,000,000 (two hundred million).