Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Revelation 9:20 - 9:21
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev_9:20-21
20The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; 21and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.
Rev_9:20 "The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands" This is a clear, unambiguous statement of the redemptive purposes of these plagues (cf. Rev_9:21; Rev_14:6-7; Rev_16:9; Rev_16:11; Rev_21:7; Rev_22:17).
As God used the plagues on Egypt as a motivation for (1) Egyptians to believe and serve Him and (2) Israel to stay faithful and serve Him (cf. Deuteronomy 27-28), so these similar plagues were meant to turn unbelieving mankind back to their creator, but they refused. Their stubborn unbelief had become a settled state of rebellion (cf. Rom_1:24; Rom_1:26).
▣ "the works of their hands" This an allusion to idolatry (i.e., the worship of demons, cf. Deu_32:17; Psa_106:37; 1Co_10:20) mentioned so often in the OT (cf. Deu_4:28; Deu_28:36; Deu_28:64; Deu_29:17; Deu_32:17; Psa_115:4-8; Psa_135:15-18; Isa_2:8; Isa_37:19; Isa_40:19-20; Isa_44:17; Jer_1:16; Jer_10:3-5; Dan_5:23; Mic_5:13). Notice in the NT that idolatry is linked to the demonic (cf. Rev_16:14; 1Co_10:20; 1Ti_4:1).
Rev_9:21 These four things (idolatry, murder, sorceries, immorality) are condemned in the OT (cf. Deu_18:10-11; Deu_18:14; Deu_18:20; Exo_22:18; Lev_20:6) and they characterize the immoral lifestyle of the unbelievers (cf. Romans 1-2; 1Ti_4:1; Rev_18:23). This same inclusive group of unrepentant unbelievers is mentioned in Rev_13:15-17; Rev_14:9; Rev_16:2; Rev_16:9; Rev_16:11.
NASB, NKJV,
NRSV "sorceries"
TEV "magic"
NJB "witchcraft"
We get the English term "pharmacy" from this Greek word for sorceries (pharmakeia, cf. Gal_5:20). This may have been a reference to magical potions or poisoning, like the wormwood mentioned earlier (cf. Rev_8:11). In the ancient world drugs were often used to induce "religious" experience.
Copyright © 2013 hyperlink