Partial Judgement pt. 2

The second part of the judgement is happening throughout chapter 9 and that is what I am going to share with you. If you thought that the first part of the partial judgment was bad, the second is even worse.

There are two things that I hope and pray you are able to take from this post. The first way is to motivate you to commit your life to Christ so you don't have to experience the judgments. The second is thing is God's power and authority. There are things that happen in this chapter that God lets happen because he has the power to do to. In chapter 9 one-third of all people are killed. In Revelation 6, one-fourth of mankind was killed. That is over one-half of the people in the world killed by God's great judgements. Even more would have been killed if God had not set limits on the destruction. That can translate to the things that we go through in our lives everyday. No matter how bad things may seem, God will not let you break. He could have had everyone killed, but didn't.

The 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. When 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. And out of the smoke locusts came don on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They 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. During those days people would seek death but not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. (Revelation 9:1-6)

The locusts were symbols of destruction because they destroyed vegetation. Here, however, they symbolize an invasion of demons called to torture people who do not believe in God. The limitations placed on the demons show that they were under God's control.

Most likely these locusts were demons-evil spirits ruled by Satan who tempt people to sin. They were not created by Satan, because God is the Creator of all; rather, they are fallen angels who joined Satan in his rebellion. God limits what they can do and they can do nothing without God's permission. Their main purpose on earth is to prevent, distort, or destroy people's relationship with God.

The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden alter that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." And the four angels who had been let ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number. (Revelation 9:13-16)

This is where one-third of the people are killed. This was a huge army, led by the four demons, that was sent out to destroy one-third of the earth's population. But the judgment is still not complete.

One of the other things that blows my mind is that there were people who were not killed by these plagues but still didn't repent. These people were so hardhearted that even plagues did not drive them to God. People don't usually fall into immorality and evil suddenly-they slip into a little bit at a time until, hardly realizing what has happened, they are irrevocably mired in their wicked ways.

Temptation entertained today becomes sin tomorrow, then a habit the next day, then death and separation from God forever. To think that you could never become this evil is the first step toward a hard heart. Confess your sins to God.