February 19 - The Sixth Angel (pt. 2)

February 19 – The Sixth Angel (pt. 2)
Revelation 9:17-21

“The 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. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. The 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.” (Rev. 9:17-19)

The horses are the focus this time – not the riders. In Rev. 9:17, we see that there are three colors making up their breastplates – red, blue and yellow. From their mouths come fire, smoke and sulfur.

This is almost like a volcanic eruption. John set the pattern before us – red = fire, blue = smoke, yellow = brimstone/sulfur. The people see the warning in the breastplates and immediately experience the plagues.

After all of this, we come to the saddest verses in this chapter.

“The rest of mankind that 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. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.” (Rev. 9:20-21)

It’s easy to imagine that we don’t worship idols, but I would have to disagree. We idolize our jobs, our home and lawn, our stuff, our vacations. Anything that we worship outside of God or set before Him is an idol.

In Rev. 9:21 there is a word that the NIV translates as ‘magic arts’ while others translate it as ‘sorcery.’ The original Greek word is “Pharmakeion.” Drugs. John had no idea the dependence we would place on drugs to get us through our lives, whether prescription or illegal. Anything to numb our minds and bodies to the pain and stress that we live through daily.

Even after seeing all of this destruction, mankind continued to rebel against God.