Terror released from the Euphrates

Sermon for Midweek of Easter 3

Revelation 9:13-21

Last week, after the sounding of the fifth trumpet, we met the “angel of the abyss” who released thick smoke and a plague of locusts from the abyss. We suggested that this angel was either the devil himself or the devil’s right-hand man, the Antichrist, who, again, isn’t a single man in world history, but an institution within the Christian Church that outwardly seems to promote Christ, and yet subtly denies Him. That fits with the institution of the Roman papacy, which has unleashed all kinds of false doctrines among those who have failed to love the truth, causing torment to consciences with teachings that obscure the truth God’s Word and that turn people away from trusting in Christ alone for life and salvation.

This evening we hear the sixth angel sound his trumpet, and a similar kind of plague is introduced, though with important differences. In tonight’s reading from the second half of Revelation chapter 9, we hear of the terror that’s released from the region of the Euphrates River.

Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

The golden incense altar was already mentioned earlier, and we suggested that Christ Himself is the angel or messenger who stands at that altar, continually holding up His merits before God the Father and making believers acceptable to God. Here He commands the release of the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. Now, the Euphrates River is one of the most famous rivers in the world. It runs through most of what we call the Middle East. It originates in Turkey, flows through Syria and Iraq, and finally empties into the Persian Gulf. The previous trumpet-sounding released heresies that came straight out of hell. This time the evil is released from what appears to be a more earth-bound location.

Is the location meant to be understood literally or figurately? It could be either. That region around the Euphrates is where all the historic enemies of the Old Testament people of God came from: the Syrians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians. So the naming of the river could simply indicate that enemies of the New Testament people of God will be released. But there’s a literal understanding that’s also possible. We’ll come back to that in a minute.

The four angels who were bound there at the great river may be symbolic of four world powers, or they may simply be symbolic of the fact that this evil goes out in all directions, to the four corners of the earth, and that it’s released at God’s command, and only at the time predetermined by God, not before or after.

So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.

We’ve been talking about destruction in thirds throughout this vision of the seven trumpets. This “killing” of a third of mankind could be spiritual killing, but it could also be literal killing. The locusts, if you recall, were not allowed to kill, but to torture. So the heresies represented by the locusts, the false doctrines introduced by the Antichrist within the Church, primarily harmed the souls of those who do not love the truth, but not their bodies. But these angels and their armies are allowed to kill. The damage they do affects soul and body and appears to be a punishment that especially affects Christians.

If the location around the Euphrates is meant to be taken literally, and if history can guide us to an interpretation of this murderous evil that arises and goes out from there and affects a large percentage of mankind, then the false religion of Islam and the false prophet Mohammed would seem to fit.

Islam grew up in the 600’s AD and spread throughout the Middle East, around the Euphrates River, taking root in both in Syria and in Turkey, and eventually filling the whole world. It openly blasphemes the Lord Jesus Christ. It openly rejects the Holy Scriptures of the Bible. It sets up Mohammed as a greater prophet than Jesus and openly denies that Jesus is true God and that He died on the cross for our sins. And, as I think you know, Islam, as defined by its unholy book, the Koran, calls for holy war to be waged against the infidels, against those who do not accept the teachings of Islam. Now, that doesn’t mean that all Muslims, especially modern Muslims, are out to kill non-Muslims. But historically, the wars waged by Muslims against Christians and against much of the world are well-known, making war against the soul with their antichristian doctrine and against the body with their literal armies.

Those wars characterized much of world history, from the 7^th century onward, which may explain the enormous number of horsemen that John saw in his vision. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.

The colors on the breastplates that the riders wore are basically the same color as the three things that came out of the horses’ mouths: fire (red), smoke (blue), and brimstone or sulfur (yellow). All three, coming out of the mouth, are, again, symbols of destructive doctrines that are taught. The tails that are like serpents and that have mouths remind us of the ancient serpent by whose mouth Eve was tempted and sin came into the world, bringing death on the human race, both spiritual death and physical death.

So this sixth trumpet appears to foretell the coming of this religion that grew up, not out of the Christian Church, but out of the world, a religion that is openly against Christ, even as the fifth trumpet seems to foretell the coming of a heresy that looks more Christian on the outside but that is actually against Christ. This is why some Lutheran theologians will talk about a western Antichrist and an Eastern Antichrist, one who is secretly against Christ, namely, the Roman papacy, and one who is openly against Christ, namely the religion of Islam. I think that’s a very plausible interpretation of what we see in Revelation 9, and we’ll talk about it again in the coming chapters.

Still, for as destructive as these plagues in John’s vision were, they didn’t cause the rest of the world to turn to God in repentance. As John says:

But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

All the plagues God sent against Egypt didn’t cause the Egyptians to repent. Instead, they doubled down on their idolatry. So it is in these times, too. Unbelievers outside of the Church and hypocrites and false Christians within the Church ought to see all the terror and destruction both spiritual and physical that God is already punishing the world with, and they ought to repent. They ought to turn away from their idolatry, which is essentially the worship of demons, and from their murder and from their sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft. But they don’t. They double down on all these things, just as the Bible says they will. The world ought to see how the Christian Church has suffered in the world for the ways in which it has gone astray from God’s word—suffered both at the hand of Rome and at the hand of Islam—and the world should conclude, with St. Peter, that the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” Then they should turn to God in repentance and look to Him for mercy, and they would find it, but they don’t.

As for us, whether or not we understand all the details of this chapter of Revelation, a few things are crystal clear. We should see all the punishments and judgments that have come upon the world and upon the outward Christian Church, and it should certainly lead us to live each day in repentance, turning away from every form of idolatry, every form of murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft, and turning toward our merciful God to show us mercy for the sake of Christ Jesus. We should cling to God’s Word as to a light shining in a dark place, and then hold up that light for others to see by as well. We shouldn’t be afraid to confront false doctrine or to stand up for the truth revealed in the Bible, even if it means persecution or suffering here. Because, if God is for us, who can be against us? If God is for us, then no plague of locusts from hell and no armies from the Middle East can overcome us. This New Testament era has been and will be filled with all sorts of troubles, and so we are urged to pray all the more, Deliver us from evil! But the message of Revelation is that those who cling to Christ and His Word will overcome those troubles, will be delivered from evil, and will stand victorious in the end. Amen.