The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. Rev 9.

 

When I was a child watching cartoons on the television, the announcer, in some silly voice, would say, “When we last saw our hero, Dudley Dooright, he was trying to save Nel." At this point, they would show you Nel tied to the railroad tracks. Well, it is easy to lose your focus on who the hero is when everywhere you look in the Revelation there is death and destruction.

In short, God is trying to get the attention of the Jews who rejected Him; and, He is trying to get the attention of those people who are called the nations/Gentiles. To the Jews, this is everyone outside of the Jewish faith. If you were not born and raised a Jew, and, you accepted Christ into your life, you are adopted into the family and no longer thought of as part of the nations.

Look around you, what are the nations doing? Bombing, shooting and generally causing mayhem. Sadly, this is happening everywhere.

When we last look at Revelation 9 someone unidentified, has said to the sixth, trumpet-blowing angel, release the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates.

Revelation 9:14 NASB "one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."

Ponder this for a moment.

• Angels who are bound.

  There has to be a reason for this, and it cannot be good. The logical assumption is that they are dangerous, and we see the evidence for this, as they proceed to kill off one-third of the earth's population.

• If angels are God's created beings, then who would be the one to bind them?

  God/Jesus.

• One last thing. It only took one angel to kill all the unprotected firstborn in Egypt that night of the first Passover, so how much damage can these four pull off?

  The short answer, they kill off a third of humanity.

  • Why did I mention the unprotected? Because Moses made the declaration with the instructions that “God's people” were to put the blood of the Lamb upon their doorposts (there were a few other things they had to do – all of which were part of a training process necessary because these people, that were to be called Israel was effectively Egyptians.) Because we are selfish humans, you have to know that there were some that did not comply and they found out the hard way that God should not be challenged.

    At the opposite end of the spectrum, there had to be some Egyptian individuals and families that took shelter in the homes of the Jews. In case you did not know, Caleb was a Kenizzite and not a Jew, and yet we come to learn that he and his kinfolk made it out of Egypt after that night; and, Caleb was one of the 12 spies that went into Canaan to spy out the land. He, along with Joshua, came back with a good report about the land, while the other ten whined.

Revelation 9:15 NASB And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released so that they would kill a third of mankind.

I want you to hold to a thought, “they, (the four), will kill a third of mankind. I am asking you to hold this thought because the next few verses may confound you. I tell you this because, if a church leader was brave enough to teach on this portion of the Revelation, they typically attributed the 2 million troops to the Chinese. Much like getting us focused on Gorbachev, the then president of Russia, with his red birthmark on his forehead, from in the early '80s, this misleading information about the Chinese enforced the idea that no one could understand the Revelation.

So, focus on what we do know.

We just saw that four, presumably, angry angels were released from the Euphrates, for the express purpose of wreaking havoc upon the earth.

Revelation 9:14 NASB ... "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."

All doubts about their mission was eliminated when we saw that the outcome of their work kills off one-third of humanity.

Revelation 9:15 NASB And the four angels, ... were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind.

If I went no further, I would say, I got it, but suddenly someone hit the pause button for a second, and when they came back they decided we need a full and detailed description of what these four angels are capable of dispatching.

Revelation 9:16-19 ERV I heard how many troops on horses were in their army. There were 200,000,000. (17) In my vision, I saw the horses and the riders on the horses. They looked like this: They had breastplates that were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow like sulfur. The heads of the horses looked like heads of lions. The horses had fire, smoke, and sulfur coming out of their mouths. (18) A third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues coming out of the horses' mouths: the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur. (19) The horses' power was in their mouths and also in their tails. Their tails were like snakes that have heads to bite and hurt people.

• Two million troops on horses and they looked like this:

• They had breastplates that were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow like sulfur.

• The heads of the horses looked like heads of lions.

• The horses had fire, smoke, and sulfur coming out of their mouths

• A third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues coming out of the horses' mouths.

  • The three plagues coming out of the horses' mouths: the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur.

We have nothing in the context that explains how we went from angels to two million troops on something similar to a horse.

Ezekiel might be able to demonstrate the prophetic pattern, as it speaks of similarly attired horsemen.

Ezekiel 38:3-4 ERV Tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Gog, you are the most important leader of the nations of Meshech and Tubal, but I am against you. (4) I will capture you and bring you back. I will bring back all the men in your army, all the horses, and horse soldiers. I will put hooks in your mouths, and I will bring all of you back. All the soldiers will be wearing their uniforms with all their shields and swords.

• Does Revelation 9:16-19 compare well with Ezekiel 38:3-4?

  Not exactly; they both have horsemen with breastplates, riding horses, but we do not see the riders of Ezekiel killing off a third of humanity.

  The horses in the Revelation have fire, smoke, and sulfur coming out of their nostrils, we do not see that in Ezekiel. If it proves anything, it proves that God has a theme and plausible means to accomplish and end result.

  Think about the practical side of a mounted Calvary; do you see anyone attacking on horseback? What you do see are artillery units, missiles, and unmanned drones.

• Revelation 9:7-10 tells us that “The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle.”

  We are comparing apples to oranges, so this is not the answer.

• While there is no contrast in the Psalms it does tell us that He punishes the wicked with fire and brimstone.

  Psalms 11:6 NASB Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone ...

It is clear that God is using these angels to bring about some of His wrath; and, it is defined that the angels have enlisted a two million man Calvary of demonic horses and horsemen. These are NOT human by any stretch.

By the time we hit this point in the chronological rendering of the Revelation, we might assume that we are dealing with some point within the last three years of the time of wrath.

Wow, many might breathe a sigh of relief just knowing that you do not have to contend with the four angels. I, on the other hand, pity the fool, as Mr. T used to say, who has to endure this hellish pain and death. I can implore you, as so many do, to accept Christ into your life, so that you can come to the wedding supper of the Lamb. But I cannot make you do it. 

Notice how chapter nine finishes out.

Revelation 9:20-21 NASB (20) The 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; (21) and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.

• “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, … and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

We are made aware of four terms: 

• murders
• The word takes on a whole new meaning when you come to realize that it also means slaughter. We have nothing in our Bibles that defines the Islamic prophecies of how the same man we call the false prophet becomes the enforcer of Sharia. Under this man's leadership, he mandates that everyone bows to Allah or loses their head. Is this concept found in scripture? Absolutely, as Jesus, in Matthew 24, describes how God has to cut the time short or NO ONE would live.
• sorceries
• This is the Greek word pharmekia (sound familiar?) Look at what it means: employment of drugs for any purpose. Open your eyes. Many of you are voluntarily submitting to a "vaccine" (an illegitimate term for a concoction approved for emergency usage. It would have had to go through lengthy trials to gain the name vaccine, but by having it approved for emergency usage the drug companies got to bypass the trials, and those of you who have accepted this "vaccine" have become the lab rats.) Are you aware that this so-called vaccine failed miserably in lab animals, to the point that they were about to give up on it?
• immorality
• The Greek word is porneia. What a shock heh? The Word Study Dictionary states that " Symbolically it stands for idolatry, the forsaking of the true God in order to worship idols." However, it has most recently come to describe a vast number of acceptable self-driven perversions. Take for example the word illicit. Illicit means: That which was not permitted or allowed; prohibited; unlawful; as an illicit trade; illicit intercourse or connection. It was not permitted, but now it is.
• thefts
• This is the Greek word klemma and means a thing stolen or the act of theft. Oh my, where do I begin. We had church stolen from us, along with our health due to a manmade disease. How about our moral base, our nation, our safety, etc...

Isn't it obvious that a shred of these fools that have stolen our lives, health, and liberty, have survived to this point?

So many have died up to this point that it is hard to say how many are left. One thing is for sure, those who are left seem to be hell-bent on murder.

How would you like that on your tombstone?

The letter I wish I had received.

One of the things I am doing to better myself and find a place of normalcy inside my head, is to be involved in a book study with some of the guys from church. There are only three of us in this group, and I know both of them well enough but we are getting to know each other better with each meeting. As you might imagine a small group allows for relationship building, the whole idea. The book we are reading, again, is, Wild At Heart, by John Eldredge. 

I have been through two “boot camps” based upon this book and participated in a book study with this book before, but this time I think I am getting it. What changed? Me! And our leader said, “We all have the field manual that goes along with this book, so let's answer those questions and come back each week prepared to talk about what we wrote.” Now consider that I have already been in a recovery group for nine months at this point. And I, with a little prompting, decided to answer the recovery questions that our manuals ask us with all the honesty I could muster. As you can imagine that was at first very difficult because you have to battle through a slew of emotions, especially when you have no self esteem, and you trust no one.

Recently, I had scrambled to get the questions answered for chapter four of the manual but could not get them all. Wouldn't you know it, the last thing he asked as he skipped around some of the questions was the last one. I had not made it that far and had not even looked at it. Just looking at the question made my heart sink. With the premise that dad is now dead and going through his effects, you find this letter addressed to you. The question started off with, “What would you have loved to hear from your father? … what would you long for it to say? Is there an apology? An affirmation? Then Eldredge asked us to write that letter. I could hardly speak. I could not do the question justice by improvising at that moment.

I took some time, finished the other questions, sat myself in the backyard and wrote that letter, sobbing most of the way through it. It seemed that as I wrote about various aspects of my youth, the very things that created this person I became, seemed to drain away. I cannot remember anything so freeing. 

I have had to do some difficult things in recovery such as: writing and reading amends letters to people that I needed to say sorry too. This is especially hard when these same people created such havoc in me. But amends is not about the pain, or how they react to my amends; it has everything to do with my healing and relationship with God. One of those letters was to me, forgiving myself; I wrote it and read it to my sponsor, thinking that I would obtain a great release from the anguish I felt, but I felt very little. My sponsor suggested strongly that I go to the park, find a quiet place there, read it to God like a prayer, and then burn it; the silly thing resisted burning. Thinking back on my persistence at getting that paper to burn, perhaps there is a slow, gradual healing from it and I do not see it yet, and the idea that this paper resisted burning could be symbolic in many ways; one being the enemies resistance to release us from his grip.

Writing this letter from dad to myself was very emotional, and I think healing in many ways. I was so excited about what this started in me that I have been telling anyone that will listen what I did. Finally I am sensing some relief from the pains inside. 

So, with that I am going to share this letter that I wrote with you.

The Letter I wish I had received.

Dear Oz,

I failed you and I am so sorry.

When you were young I failed to understand or care about why you were struggling in school. I wish I had pursued every avenue on your behalf. I had no idea how great the humiliation was going to be for you and how that would have effected you. I have been reading your writings since you began, and I see now that you would have been great for you do have a good mind and you could have done anything you wanted in life. 

I am so sorry that I did not show you respect by not listening to what you had to say. Instead I believed the lies your brother told me and beat you for it. If only I had listened to you; you were trying to tell me so many things, and I refused to listen.

I failed you as a father by not coming to your aid when that thug slugged you in the face, and I humiliated you by locking you in the car with all my friends looking on. Son, please, I beg of you to forgive me for that. 

Son, please forgive me for stepping aside as mom mentally emasculated you. I deeply regret not encouraging you to defend yourself, not only with your hands but with your words also. I can see how the damage carried carried all the way into manhood. I now know that if I had been the father you needed you would not have lived in fear, especially a fear of me. I would have worked with you as you learned to stand your ground. I did not know how to do this well, so we both would have learned.

Son, I would have had those talks with you about sexuality. Again, we both needed to learn something, but the biggest area effecting both of us, would have been the lesson on boundaries and how not to cross them. I am so sorry for I crossed yours all the time, and I did not prevent mom from crossing your boundaries either.

Given the chance to do it over we could have practiced communication skills; I by listening to you. Again, please forgive me. If I had known I would have done things so differently. 

Son, it is never to late to say I love you, and I do. A lesson that I have learned to late is that a real man is not ashamed to show his love to his son, especially his first born. 

I love you

Dad.