NOTES for Rev 9:13-21
13 And 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 which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. |
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. |
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. |
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. |
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. |
19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. |
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: |
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. |
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As can be seen, the liberation of the dark powers from the restrictions that had held them back does not happen all at once. This is connected with the fact that the very nature of our world has been struck by the evil that sustains the world of the spirits of darkness, so that the two worlds are, unfortunately, connected quite closely. It is no accident that the passage mentions four angels whose release leads to people beginning to die on earth (vv. 13-15). These are the angels whom John had earlier seen standing at the four corners of the earth and holding back the four winds (Rev 7:1). Through their efforts the world does not turn into chaos; through them acts the power of God that reveals the Creator's presence in His creation.
And now the moment comes when this power, as it were, withdraws, leaving the world to its own fate. At first glance, such action, or rather inaction, by God can lead only to catastrophe. But at times it becomes the only possibility for transforming the world by completely freeing it from evil. Evidently, sin and its consequences have penetrated so deeply into the very flesh of creation that without separating that flesh into its constituent elements, neither cleansing nor transformation of the world has become possible.
And when this happens, the powers of evil temporarily receive nearly unlimited authority over the world, and people, first of all, of course, those who do not have firm relationships with God, feel it upon themselves in its fullness. It is no accident that after the sixth trumpet the "locusts" give way to a far more serious army, an army of darkness, which no longer merely torments but also kills the people over whom it manages to extend its power (vv. 16-19). In this case, of course, we are not dealing with punishment: these events have no corrective effect. People do not become better because of the disasters that fall upon them, which is no surprise: all who chose the Kingdom have already made their choice. The disasters fall upon people who rejected the Kingdom, and such rejection, if it is firm and conscious, is very hard to change, if it can be changed at all. That is why the sufferers do not turn to God, but continue to live their former life and by their former values, despite every disaster and cataclysm (vv. 20-21).
Other notes
For Rev 9:13-21
13 And 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 which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. |
15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. |
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. |
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. |
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. |
19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. |
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: |
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. |
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Readings for 8 December 2025
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