When God Uses Evil to Judge Evil

REVELATION 9:13-19

Consider these challenging words from J. Boyd Nicholson:

The gospel is not a tranquilizer for worried weaklings to help them sleep at night. It is not a mass of dead dogmas, deep frozen in some ancient cathedral to be carried as a burden through life and thawed out five minutes before death. The gospel is not a list of religious rules and regulations to be strung around the soul like a lucky charm in case of accidents. No, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is a message—and what a message! It is a living message from the living God for living people, just like us, for people with sins just like us, for people with sorrows and heartaches just like us. It is the only message on the face of the earth with concrete promises and absolute assurances of an eternal inheritance that will withstand the impact of death and the collapse of the universe. (Uplook, 11)

Such a gospel is especially “good news” as we consider the seven angels with seven trumpets of Revelation. That is especially true when hell comes to earth at the sovereign direction and determination of God.

The sixth angel sounds its trumpet, and an unspecified voice speaks from the golden altar before God (9:13). Possibly this is the angel-priest of 8:3-5. He speaks to the sixth angel with a clear and precise word. The angel is told to “release the four angels bound at the great river Euphrates.” These angels, I believe, are demons. Good angels are never said to be bound. The Euphrates marked the boundary separating Rome from her primary enemies to the east. Historically these were the Parthians (Keener, Revelation, 270).

Verse 15 reveals that they had been prepared for the hour, day, month, and year. This is a precise time. There is also a precise purpose: to kill a third of mankind. Combined with Revelation 6:8, we discover that half of the earth’s population will die as a result of the seal and trumpet judgments. The carnage is unfathomable. Verse 16 tells us the enormity of the army bringing about this carnage: 200 million warriors. John says, “I heard their number.”

The 200 million-member army—is it composed of demons or humans? An either/or decision may not be necessary or even best. Some connect the army with the kings of the east in 16:12 and identify them with a human army. Time Magazine noted more than 50 years ago that China claimed an army of 200 million (May 21, 1965). It is certainly possible, even reasonable, to believe demons will work through human instrumentality in this day. Still the primary description before us is that of a massive number of demons. God directs this mind-boggling demonic activity. They can only do what He permits.

Verse 15 informs us the demons bring about the death of “a third of the human race” (see again 6:8, where “over a fourth of the earth” is killed). Verses 17-19 provide a vivid description of the demonic army that will arrive in the last days and carry out this destruction.

Only here in Revelation does John directly indicate the visionary nature of what he experienced (Mounce, Revelation, 196). Again the overall impression of the horses and their riders is more important than the details. What did John see in the vision? He saw riders with breastplates of fire and hyacinth (a dark blue) and sulfur yellow. According to Mounce, “The red, blue and yellow of the protective breastplates matches the fire, smoke and brimstone that comes out of the mouth of the horses” in verse 18 (ibid.). The heads of the horses are like the heads of lions, speaking to their ferocity, cruelty, and destructive strength and power.

The destructive forces of fire, smoke, and brimstone proceed from the mouths of these demons, and by these three plagues, one-third of mankind is killed. Verse 19 provides an additional descriptive word: there is also power in the horses’ tails, for they “resemble snakes, have heads, and they inflict injury with them.” With their mouths they kill and with their tails they harm. From either direction or both ends, they have the capacity to damage and destroy. Such a description supports the view that these are demonic hordes that are causing havoc on the earth. Fire-breathing monsters were common in ancient mythology. Fire-breathing demons will be a reality during the great tribulation. One cannot help but think back to Genesis 19 when fire and burning sulfur rained on Sodom and Gomorrah. Then it affected two cities. In the future much of the world will suffer (ibid., 197).

REVELATION 9:20-21

W. A. Criswell, the famous and faithful pastor of the FBC Dallas for more than 50 years, wisely noted,

One of the strangest things about human nature is that man has not changed because of punishment. . . . He may desist from evil because he is afraid, but his heart is still evil. He would do evil if he could get by with it. A man is really changed only by the Gospel of the grace of the Son of God. (Sermons, 3:192).

Criswell was right, and REVELATION 9:20-21 makes this tragically clear.

John Calvin said, “The mind begets an idol; the hand gives it birth” (Institutes, 1.11.8). His words ring true to Scripture. In both verses 20 and 21 we are informed that humanity does not repent in the face of God’s judgment. Verse 20 drives home the truth that idolatry is at the core of an unrepentant heart. “The rest of mankind” refers to unrepentant unbelievers who did not die from the seal (Rev 6) and trumpet judgments. They refuse to worship the God who created and made them, but they gladly worshiped the gods “of their hands” (Rom 1:18-25). And we must take note: idol worship and demon worship are close companions. Worshiping “idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which are not able to see, hear, or walk” is in concert with “worshiping demons.” To worship stuff is akin to worshiping Satan. Dead sinners worship dead gods of their own making. No wonder Romans 1:22 says, “Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” Idolatry robs God of His glory and rightful place in your life as demons take His place. Do not think such idolatry is reserved for faraway places around the world. It is down the street. It is next door. It is in your own home.

Four particular sins are additionally noted in verse 21. These sins, like those in verse 20, have afflicted humanity throughout history. It is possible they will be especially prevalent in the last days. “Murders” is the wanton taking of innocent human life. “Sorceries” is witchcraft, magic arts, occultic activity. It is the Greek word pharmakon and could indicate the use of drugs in divination practices. “Sexual immorality” is the Greek word porneia and refers to all forms of sexual sin that occurs outside the marriage relationship between a man and woman. “Thefts” is simply another word for stealing, taking what is not yours.

The sins of verses 20-21 involve a basic violation of the Ten Commandments (Exod 20; Deut 5). Idolatry violates commandments one and two. Murder violates the sixth, immorality the seventh, and theft the eighth. As it was in the days of the judges, it will be a time of unbridled and unrepentant evil, when “everyone did whatever he wanted” (Judg 21:25). Mounce makes a remarkable observation: “Once the heart is set in its hostility toward God, not even the scourge of death will lead people to repentance” (Revelation, 198). Amazingly, it appears it will only spur sinful humanity to sin even more. What an indictment of the depraved human heart!

Satan, demons, and evil are real. They are often powerfully real. But—and this is so critically important for us to understand—they are all on a divine leash! There are heavenly imposed limits on what they are allowed to do. Pastor-theologian Helmut Thielicke put it well in his book Man in God’s World:

But however great may be the leeway that the satanic power possesses in history [and who is not conscious of this today!], however strong may be the rebellion and the opposition, the fact still remains that in the ultimate reckoning even this opposition is included in God’s plan for the world and is being guided by God to a goal which the demons themselves never sought. Luther summed up this experience in the rather startling phrase that even the devil is still “God’s devil” and must be subservient to his higher goals because God is his Lord, too. When the apocalyptic horsemen storm across the earth, and the earth and the world shake beneath their hoof beats . . . and terror lays waste mankind, then we must remember that it is God who allows even those powers of destruction to ride [and the trumpets blow], that it is he who waves them on and he who can check them with a flick of his sovereign hand.

This is the hidden structure of providence and God’s government of the world, and it is there even when God has abandoned men to their own self-destruction and seems to be doing nothing but “letting things happen.” This is the ultimate comfort of the Christian faith in providence when God is silent and history grows murky and dark. (Man, 149)

Our God is there and He is working. The question for all of us is, are we listening? Will we repent? Will we worship the God who made us, or will we worship the gods we make?