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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Revelation 9:12 - 9:16
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The sounding of the sixth trumpet:
v. 12. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
v. 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
v. 14. saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
v. 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 art of men.
v. 16. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand; and I heard the number of them.
The apostle here inserts a remark which has a deep significance: The first woe has passed; behold, there come still two woes after this. There will never be a time of complete peace and rest for the true Church of God until the end of the world, and all dreams of the Chiliasts, or Millenialists, will come to naught. As disciples of Christ, we must bear His cross, both individually and collectively, until the great day of the revelation of His glory.
The apostle still has the picture of the heavenly temple before him as he describes the sixth trumpet blast: And the sixth angel sounded his trumpet; and I heard a single voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel that had the trumpet, Loosen the four angels that are bound on the great river Euphrates. The Euphrates, at one time the eastern boundary of the Jewish territory and of the people of God, was to be the starting-point of this new woe. It was the single voice of the Lord that sounded forth from the midst of the four horns of the altar of gold. He, to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth, is able to restrain the angels that are about to work destruction, but He is also able to give them leave, if men will not accept the Gospel and to send terrible woes upon the heretics and their followers.
This quartet of angels brought ruin immeasurable: And there were loosed the four angels that were prepared for that hour and day and month and year to kill the third part of men; and the number of their troops of cavalry was two hundred millions; I heard their number. The four angels of destruction had been kept for just this time, and such was their power that they were able to kill, to bring spiritual death, upon the third part of men. By means of an almost innumerable horde of horsemen the angels worked the ruin of which the seer speaks. This picture is so definite that few believing commentators hesitate about identifying the movement with that of Mohammedanism at the beginning of the seventh century. "The second woe is the sixth angel, the infamous Mohammed with his companions, the Saracens, who with doctrines and with the sword laid great plagues upon Christendom. " This false prophet, a descendant of Ishmael, set himself the task of finding a system of doctrines that would please all men. From the Jews he accepted circumcision and many other ceremonies; to the heathen he catered with his carnal license and polygamy; from the Arians he learned the little he knows about Christ; from other heretics he borrowed the doctrine of works by which men would merit heaven in the sight of God. At first the progress of this false prophet was slow, but after he had once gotten a foothold, his followers, in hordes of fanatics numbering countless thousands, overran large parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe.