“READ THROUGH THE NEW TESTAMENT + ISAIAH” (RTNTI) PROJECT
Today’s Reading: Revelation 9 (NIV) | (NLT) [click version to read]
[You can read/download the reading plan here.]
Date: 3 October 2013
Written By: Dr Conrade Yap
1The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. 6During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
7The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).
12The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.
13The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. 14It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15And 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. 16The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.
17The 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. 18A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19The 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.
20The rest of mankind who 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. 21Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
(Revelation 9:1-21)
The judgements continue. Upon unleashing the smoke locusts who have scorpion-like stings, readers will be curious to note that amid the judgment, the punishment remains very much a controlled one. More importantly, it is God who is still in control. The locusts are specifically told that they cannot touch the ones with a seal of God on their foreheads. They cannot kill, though they can torture. Not only that, they cannot torture people beyond 5 months. The rest of the chapter is on the woes of the suffering people and terrible signs.
It makes me wonder about how a loving God can allow people to suffer. Yet, when I think of it, any act of judgment must include a capacity to punish. Otherwise, what kind of a judgment is that? The Judge must be completely free to deal with the facts, consider all possible angles, match the consequences, and then decide on the best course of action. If we tie the hands of God and say that He can only decide on nice results, what kind of a judge will that be? Hey, if human judges can reward as well as punish, who are we to bind the hands of God to say what God can or cannot do?
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Time for Reflection: “Before the judgement seat of Christ my service will not be judged by how much I have done but by how much of me there is in it. No man gives at all until he has given all. No man gives anything acceptable to God until he has first given himself in love and sacrifice.” (A.W. Tozer)
conrade
This “Read Through the New Testament” project and commentary is sent to you from Theology@Work, a ministry that helps apply theology in our daily lives, and seeks to inculcate, faith, hope and love in our heads, hearts and hands. If you find this meditation helpful, forward it to friends or encourage them to subscribe here. You can contact me (conrade) at yapdates@aim.com.
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