Chapter Twenty-Three-The Second Woe - Armies of Calvary

FROM 1919 onward, the symbolic locusts' invasion of Christendom has caused the clergy much discomfort.  They have tried to stamp out the locusts, but these have kept coming on stronger than ever.  (Revelation 9:7)  And that is not all!  John writes:  "The one woe is past.  Look! Two more woes are coming after these things."  (Revelation 9:12) Further tormenting plagues are in store for Christendom.  

What is the source of the second woe?  John writes:  "And the sixth angel blew his trumpet. And I heard one voice out of the horns of the golden altar that is before God say to the sixth angel, who had the trumpet:  'Unite the four angles that are bound a the great river Euphrates.' "  (Revelation 9:13, 14) The angels' release is in answer to the voice that comes from the horns of the golden altar, and twice previously the incense of the golden bowls from this altar has been associated with  the prayers of the holy ones. (Revelation 5:8; 8:3, 4)  Therefore, this one voice represents the united prayers of the holy ones on earth.  They petition that they themselves be delivered for further energetic service as Jehovah's "messengers," this being the basic meaning of the Greek word here translated "angels."  Why are there four angels?  This symbolic number seems to indicate that they would be so organized as to cover the earth in its entirety. -Compare Revelation 7:1; 20:8. 

How had those angels been "bound at the great river Euphrates? The river Euphrates in ancient times was the northeastern border  of the land that Jehovah promised  to Abraham.  (Genesis 15:19; Deuteronomy 11:24)  Apparently, the angels had been restrained a the border of their God-given land, or earthly  realm of activity, held back from entering fully into the service that Jehovah had prepared for them.  The Euphrates was also prominently associated with the city of Babylon , and after the fall of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., fleshly Israelites spent 70 years  there in captivity, "bound at the great River Euphrates."  (Psalm 137:1)  The year 1919 found the spiritual Israelites bound in a similar restraint, disconsolate and asking Jehovah for guidance.

Happily, John can report:  "And the four angels were united, who have been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, to kill a third of the men."  (Revelation 9:15)   Jehovah is a precise Timekeeper. He has a timetable and is keeping to it. Hence, these messengers are released exactly on schedule and in time to accomplish what they have to do. Imagine  their joy in coming forth from bondage. In 1919, ready for work! Thy have a commission not only torment but finally "to kill a third of the men."  This is related to the plagues heralded by the first four trumpet blasts, which afflicted a third of the earth, the sea, the creatures in the sea, the fountains and rivers, and the heavenly light sources.   (Revelation 8:7-12)  The four angels go further. They "kill," exposing to a completion Christendom's spiritually dead condition.  Trumpeted  pronouncements, made from 1922 onward and continuing to the present time, have accomplished this. 

Next time: Twenty-Three - The Second Woe - Armies of Cavalry 

From the book of Revelations