Burunche’s Blog

Revelation 11:1 – 6 “Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers there. But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months. And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

These witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed. These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.“

This chapter starts with instructions that make us scratch our heads. Why measure the temple of God? Doesn’t God know how big his temple is? In the old days in America, when new land grants were opened up, sometimes people were allowed to claim all the land they could walk around in a day. Since most people have a stride that is roughly one yard, this would give a reasonably accurate idea of how much land they were claiming. Here John is given a measuring rod, traditionally a rod 9 feet long, and ordered to measure the temple and to count the number of worshipers in it. The idea is to symbolically seal those who truly worship God to protect them from future harm. Why was the outer court excluded? In the temple in Jerusalem, the outer court was called the Court of the Gentiles, and anybody could enter that area; however, no unbelieving Gentiles were allowed to proceed further on pain of death. Next was the Court of the Women, beyond which women could not come. Further in was the Court of the Israelite for ordinary men. Lastly, there was the Court of the Priests, which contained the Altar of the Burnt-Offering, made of brass, the Altar of Incense, made of gold, and the Holy Place; and into this court only the priests might come. The Court of the Gentiles is not measured because God is going to allow the nations to trample the holy city for 42 months.

The temple was completely destroyed in A.D. 70 when the Romans over ran Jerusalem. This temple is a vision given by God, not a physical temple. Of the time intervals mentioned, Barclay explains, “Its meaning is three and a half years. That is what forty-two months, and twelve hundred and sixty days–by Jewish reckoning–are. A time, times and half a time is equal to one year plus two years plus half a year.

The origin of the phrase comes from that most terrible time in Jewish history when Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria, tried to force Greek language, culture and worship upon the Jews and was met with the most violent and stubborn resistance. The roll of the martyrs was immense but the dreadful process was finally halted by the rising of Judas Maccabaeus. Judas and his heroic followers waged guerrilla warfare and won the most amazing victories. Finally Antiochus and his forces were driven out and the Temple was restored and cleansed. The point is that this dreadful period lasted from June 168 B.C. to December 165 B.C. (To this day the Jews celebrate in December the Festival of Hanukkah which commemorates the restoration and the cleansing of the Temple.) That is to say this dreadful time lasted almost exactly three and a half years. It was during that time that Daniel was written and the phrase was coined which ever afterwards was stamped on the Jewish mind as indicating a period of terror and suffering and martyrdom.

Who are the two witnesses? There are many theories, but it is most likely that the witnesses are Elijah and Moses. Barclay observes, “Elijah was held to be the greatest of the prophets, just as Moses was the supreme law-giver; and it was fitting that the two outstanding figures in the religious history of Israel should be God’s messengers at the last time. It was these two who appeared to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Further, the things said of them fit Moses and Elijah as they fit no one else. It is said (Revelation 11:6) that they have power to turn the water into blood and to smite the earth with all plagues, and that is what Moses did . It is said that fire proceeds out of their mouth and burns up their enemies, and that they can shut up the heavens so that the rain is withheld. That is what Elijah did with the company of soldiers sent to take him and when he prophesied to Ahab that there would be no rain upon the earth. We have already seen that Elijah was expected to return to herald the end; and it would not be difficult to regard God’s promise that he would raise up a prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:18) as a prophecy that Moses himself would return.”

Actually, the identity of the two witnesses is not as important as their mission. God is sending two of His mighty men to the earth one more time to try to persuade as many as possible to believe on Him and to be saved. God does not SEND people to hell! People turn away from God and in so doing, send themselves to hell.

PRAYER: Father God, as we continue to study, give us ears to hear and hearts to receive your truth. Let all who read this devotional put their trust in you, the one true living God. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Throughout history, many different religions have maintained the concept of a purely evil being fighting against God, who is considered to be good and righteous and holy. The Babylonians, the Persians, and numerous others all had as a central part of their religion the idea of the struggle between darkness and light. Christians have come to speak of the Antichrist as the embodiment of evil on earth. Barclay explains it this way: “We may lay it down as a general principle that Antichrist stands for the power in the universe which is against God. Just as the Christ is the Holy One and the Anointed King of God, so Antichrist is the Unholy One and the King of all evil. Just as the Christ is the incarnation of God and goodness, so Antichrist is the incarnation of the Devil and of evil….There is a sense in which the development of the idea of the Messiah made the development of the idea of Antichrist inevitable. The Messiah, God’s Anointed One, is bound to meet with opposition; and that opposition is entirely likely to crystallize into one supreme figure of evil. We must remember that Messiah and Christ mean the same thing, being the Hebrew and the Greek respectively for The Anointed One. Where there is the Christ, there will of necessity be the Antichrist, for so long as there is sin there will be opposition to God.”

In a few days, from December 10 – 18, Jews around the world will celebrate Hanukkah. Although Hanukkah is technically a minor holiday, its story is an important one. The story of Hanukkah involves a man who embodied evil as previously foretold by Daniel. Again, we turn to Barclay’s description: “But, so far as the later Jews were concerned, the peak of the manifestation of evil was connected with one terrible episode in their history. This is commemorated in Daniel’s picture of the little horn, which waxed great even against heaven, which stopped the daily sacrifice, which cast down the sanctuary (Daniel 8:9-12). The little horn stands for Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria. He determined to introduce Greek ways, language and Greek worship into Palestine, for he regarded himself as the missionary of Greek culture. The Jews resisted. Antiochus Epiphanes invaded Palestine and captured Jerusalem. It was said that eighty thousand Jews were either slaughtered or sold into slavery. To circumcise a child or to possess a copy of the Law was a crime punishable by death. History has seldom, or never, seen so deliberate an attempt to wipe out the religion of a whole people. He desecrated the Temple. He erected an altar to Olympian Zeus in the Holy Place and on it sacrificed swine’s flesh; and he turned the rooms of the Temple into public brothels. In the end the gallantry of the Maccabees restored the Temple and conquered Antiochus; but to the Jews Antiochus was the incarnation of all evil.”

History.com adds: Led by the Jewish priest Mattathias and his five sons, a large-scale rebellion broke out against Antiochus and the Seleucid monarchy. When Mattathias died in 166 B.C., his son Judah, known as Judah Maccabee (“the Hammer”), took the helm; within two years the Jews had successfully driven the Syrians out of Jerusalem, relying largely on guerilla warfare tactics. Judah called on his followers to cleanse the Second Temple, rebuild its altar and light its menorah—the gold candelabrum whose seven branches represented knowledge and creation and were meant to be kept burning every night. According to the Talmud, one of Judaism’s most central texts, Judah Maccabee and the other Jews who took part in the rededication of the Second Temple witnessed what they believed to be a miracle. Even though there was only enough untainted olive oil to keep the menorah’s candles burning for a single day, the flames continued flickering for eight nights, leaving them time to find a fresh supply. This wondrous event inspired the Jewish sages to proclaim a yearly eight-day festival. (The first Book of the Maccabees tells another version of the story, describing an eight-day celebration that followed the rededication but making no reference to the miracle of the oil.)

During Hanukkah, children play with a small clay top known as a dreidel, on which are written Hebrew letters. The Hebrew letters inscribed on a dreidel are a Nun, Gimel, Hey or Chai, and Shin. The letters form an acronym for the Hebrew saying Nes Gadol Hayah Sham, which can be translated to “a great miracle happened there,” referring to the miracle around which Hanukkah is centered.

WHY SHOULD HANUKKAH MATTER TO CHRISTIANS? Hanukkah celebrates a victory of God over evil, light over darkness. And when we enter Revelation Chapter 11, we will begin to learn the scope of that continuing battle.

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for your great mercy! Thank you that you are all goodness and that your light has shone in the darkness and that the darkness has NOT overcome it! Help us to learn to love you even more as we continue to study your word. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Lamentations 3:22 – 26 “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. ²³ They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴ I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him.” ²⁵ The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; ²⁶ it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

During Jeremiah’s forty years of ministry as a prophet, he witnessed the devastation of Jerusalem and was carried off into exile in Egypt by people who refused to listen to him when he warned that the Babylonians would invade Egypt also. The very people who had refused to listen to Jeremiah now bombarded him with complaints; meanwhile, it was their sins and the sins of their fathers that had caused God to finally allow their country to be overrun. Jeremiah had every reason to become bitter at people and at God, but he chose to respond differently. Throughout all of these sufferings, Jeremiah never lost his faith in the goodness of God. Here Jeremiah was pointing out to anybody who would listen that they were only alive because of the goodness of God.

People in an earlier generation were fond of saying that “where there’s life, there is hope.” (I tried to identify the original source of this quote but I failed.) As long as we are alive, there is the potential for change, for growth, and for unexpected wonderful things to happen.

You may feel that there is little or no hope in your situation and that nothing is going to change. But as long as you are alive, you have one golden opportunity: you can help encourage others and help others. In the stress of the holiday season, your smile and kind words may be the brightest part of the day for an overworked clerk at a convenience store. It doesn’t cost lots of money to be a Salvation Army bell ringer, and the money you help raise can do a great deal. If you have clothing, is there a warm coat or gloves or mittens that you could share with someone else? Do you have an extra blanket that would protect someone at the local homeless shelter? Can you help babysit your neighbor’s children so that they can leave to do Christmas shopping? Perhaps this is the year when you need to teach your kids that Christmas is not merely about getting but more about giving. Are there toys that your kids no longer play with that could be given to a homeless shelter for kids there? If you are looking for God to guide you, remember that an object at rest tends to remain at rest. You can’t guide a stationary object because it has no momentum. Helping others produces momentum and helps you.

7 Scientific Benefits of Helping Others https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71964/7-scientific-benefits-helping-others

 HELPING OTHERS CAN HELP YOU LIVE LONGER.

 ALTRUISM (Thinking of others) IS CONTAGIOUS.

 HELPING OTHERS MAKES US HAPPY.

 HELPING OTHERS MAY HELP WITH CHRONIC PAIN.

 HELPING OTHERS LOWERS BLOOD PRESSURE.

 HELPING OTHERS PROMOTES POSITIVE BEHAVIORS IN TEENS.

 HELPING OTHERS GIVES US A SENSE OF PURPOSE AND SATISFACTION.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank you that your mercies are new every morning and that you are a faithful God. Thank you that even though our situations may appear bleak, you are still with us. Help us to reach out and help those around us. Enlighten our darkness, and give us hope. In the Name of your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

Revelation 10:10:8-11 And I heard the voice which I had heard from heaven speaking again to me and saying: “Go, take the little roll which lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” And I went away to the angel and asked him to give me the little roll. He said to me: “Take it and eat it. It will be bitter to your stomach but it will be as sweet as honey to your mouth.” And I took the little roll from the hand of the angel and ate it; and it was as sweet as honey to my mouth and, when I ate it, it was bitter to my stomach. And they said to me: “You must prophesy in regard to many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

Although John has been forbidden from writing down the message spoken by the seven thunder, he is now being given the opportunity to prophesy about the things that are about to happen all over the earth. Twice John is ordered to take the small roll (scroll) and he has to ask the angel before the angel gives it to him. God does not force Himself on anyone, neither is revelation forced on anyone. The whole universe tilts on the axis of free will; God has given men freedom to choose good from evil and to move toward Him or away from Him. Witchcraft and sorcery, on the other hand, have at their root the desire to control – to control people, demons, circumstances, the weather, nations, etc.

John is told to take the scroll and to eat it. The idea is that this prophesy will become an integral part of John’s body, something that he cannot possibly deny. In a sense, John will become a walking prophecy. The prophet Ezekiel had a similar experience that he described in Ezekiel 3 when he was fed a scroll. In both cases, the scroll is described as being as sweet as honey. Traditionally, when Jewish boys were learning to read, they were given sweet things as a reward for learning. The idea was to impress the boy that knowledge was sweet. Since John came from an observant Jewish background and was obviously literate, he might have had a similar experience when he was a child.

But the angel warns John that once John eats the scroll, it will give him indigestion! The words of the scroll are sweet because they are coming from God, but the prophecies John will be making are fearful ones. Remember that John lived in a time of great uncertainty. Armies such as the Parthians could suddenly appear on the horizon, bringing bloodshed and havoc. The Romans might decide that someone posed a threat to the Pax Romanus, the Roman Peace, and crucify them. Jesus was by no means the first person or the only person to be crucified by the Romans; crucifixion was a common form of capital punishment. About the time of Jesus, there was a rebellion and 400 of the rebels were crucified. And John has already glimpsed some of the horrors that will come upon the earth during the end times. No wonder that the scroll gave John abdominal pains!

What are we to learn from these few verses? Today there are many men and women who claim to be prophets but who are fakes and charlatans. Prophecy is not a mantle to be lightly assumed but a high and holy calling that demands everything the prophet can give. If you study the lives of the prophets in the Bible, you find that most of them suffered a great deal and many also died gruesome deaths. Haggai married an unfaithful prostitute upon God’s orders. Isaiah might have been sawed in two. Jeremiah was thrown into prison and at one point was dumped into a well full of muck, into which he was sinking when one of the king’s servants saved him. No! Prophecy is not merely a career; it is a calling, and one that you had better be sure of.

At the same time, remember that John was the disciple closest to Jesus. It was John of all the disciples who lived to an old age and who was granted the incredible privilege of receiving the vision that we know as the Book of Revelation. What a gift! But also remember that John was sitting on a bare rocky island as a prisoner when he had that vision. None of us can escape suffering; it is a part of life. But if we are faithful to follow God, He will give us visions of glory that will make the suffering worthwhile.

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for loving us so much that you sent Jesus to die for our sins. Thank you that you have made a way for us to be with you forever, if we will only believe in you and in what Jesus has done for us. Thank you for loving us even though we are sinners and thank you that if we confess our sins, you rare faithful and just to forgive our sins. Help us to learn the lessons you have for us in Revelation. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Ezekiel 40:1-5 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city—on that very day the hand of the Lord was on me and he took me there. ² In visions of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain, on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. ³ He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze; he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. ⁴ The man said to me, “Son of man, look carefully and listen closely and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the people of Israel everything you see.”

The Jews were in exile in Babylon, and had been there for many years. As far as anybody could tell, they were stuck in Babylon forever. There appeared to be no hope for change or improvement. Those who had gone into exile quoted a proverb that said, “”The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” (Ezekiel 18:2) The exiles were alive and no longer suffering as they had been; however, they were busy blaming their fathers and forefathers, conveniently ignoring the effect of their own sins. Blaming someone else for our problems is a very human thing and a hellishly easy habit to fall into. If we can only assign blame to someone else, then we don’t have to face up to our own contributions to our problems. And self – pity feels SO comforting! Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost for His Highest” says that “self – pity is of the devil.” And it is in that setting that God gives Ezekiel a vision of a brand – new temple, a new Jerusalem, and a restored land of Israel.

Perhaps today you feel that you have lost everything. The job you once held has evaporated. You may have had to allow your house or car to go back to the bank because you could no longer make payments. While others are singing, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas,” you are cringing and thinking “I’m dreaming of a bleak Christmas.” If this is your situation, God wants you to know two things: you have a hope and a future, and God has magnificent plans for your life. But you must be on the lookout for divine provision because it can appear in strange ways. Sometimes God may bless you with selective poverty so that you don’t sink money into something that may turn out to be a disaster. The fancy car you have had to give up might have a fatal flaw that could cause an accident.

The last few chapters of Ezekiel make very heavy reading because they are mostly descriptions and measurements for a new temple and for the division of Israel when the Jews were to return to it. But the very precision of these descriptions meant that God was not joking and that in His time the Jews would return to Israel. God has not taken His Hand off your life any more than He did for the Jews in exile. The message of Advent is a message of hope.

PRAYER: Father thank you that even though life may look bleak for us right now, you are still our Provider. Help us not to fall into self – pity but to trust that you do have a plan for our lives and that you can work things out for our good. Please give us the faith to trust where we cannot see, and to look for the ways you are already working in our lives. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Revelation 10:1 – 7 “Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He held in his hand a small scroll, which lay open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. Then he cried out in a loud voice like the roar of a lion. And when he cried out, the seven thunders sounded their voices.

When the seven thunders had spoken, I was about to put it in writing. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven. And he swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it: “There will be no more delay! But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, just as He proclaimed to His servants, the prophets.”

John has been watching with horror as demons have swarmed over the earth, but now God is sending His messenger angel. Who is this messenger? All that we know is that this is one of God’s trusted couriers; this angel must be very close to God. The rainbow is part of the throne of God. Ezekiel described God this way: “Above the expanse over their heads was the likeness of a throne with the appearance of sapphire, and on the throne high above was a figure like that of a man. From what seemed to be His waist up, I saw a gleam like amber, with what looked like fire within it all around. And from what seemed to be His waist down, I saw what looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded Him. The appearance of the brilliant light all around Him was like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.”

This angel has one foot on the sea and the other on the land, indicating that God is sovereign over all creation. The angel’s voice is like the roar of a lion and when he speaks, the seven thunders cry out. John, who is listening to all this, immediately wants to write down the messages the seven thunders are speaking, but a voice from heaven tells John to seal up what the seven thunders have said and not to write it down. Not every revelation is to be shared as soon as it has been given! There are visions and messages that are given years in advance; this does not mean that the person who has the vision should run out and share it. This is the age of social media, and some people are willing to share all their intimate details, including their meals, complete with photos. But timing is vitally important. God told the prophet Habakkuk when he was complaining about not seeing results as quickly as he wished, “For the vision awaits an appointed time; it testifies of the end, and will not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it, since it will surely come and not delay.” Habakkuk 2:3

The angelic messenger reassures John, “And he swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it: “There will be no more delay! But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, just as He proclaimed to His servants, the prophets.” God is still on His throne and His timing is perfect.

William Barclay comments, “The meaning is that the whole purpose of God in human history will stand revealed. Much in life is difficult to understand; wickedness seems to hold sway. But, as John saw it, there is going to be a final show-down. God and Antichrist, good and evil, will face each other; final and total victory will be won, the questions will find their answers and the wrongs will be righted. Beyond all the strangeness of the picture stands the truth that history is moving towards the inevitable triumph of God and that, though evil may flourish, it cannot in the end be triumphant.”

Why do so many of us love to watch old Western movies? We watch in anticipation that sooner or later, the good guys in the white hats are going to show up and right all the wrongs, rescue the captives, and clean up all the messes. Unrealistic as those movies are, there is one thing that is true about those plots: There is a God of the universe whose nature encompasses all goodness, righteousness, truthfulness, faithfulness, and every other virtue. The One True Living God is all-powerful and all-loving. And one day, God IS going to come in and finally settle all the messes! On that day, what color hat will each of us be wearing? Will we be wearing white hats, indicating that we are on God’s side, or will we be wearing black hats? Spoiler Alert: better be sure you are found serving God and wearing a white hat!

PRAYER: Father God, thank you for these scriptures, even though they are sometimes hard to understand. Thank you that you ARE a God of Justice and that you WILL make everything right! Help us to love you and to serve you all the days of our lives. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Ezekiel 36: 8-11

⁸ But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people Israel, for they are about to come. ⁹ For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. ¹⁰ I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. ¹¹ I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and ^[d]bear young; I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.

Israel had already gone into captivity, and soon Jerusalem would be completely destroyed. Only those in extreme denial could possibly believe that Babylon was not going to overrun Jerusalem. And from Babylon, where he was already with other exiles, Ezekiel had been sending extreme warning messages. But now in Chapter 36 Ezekiel does a 180 – degree shift and begins to prophecy wonderful things for the Children of Israel. Now Ezekiel’s messages are of healing and restoration and hope. In fact, these prophecies did come true. Israel was re – settled, and by the time of Jesus, it was heavily populated with the land under intense cultivation. In modern – day Israel there are lots of olive trees that have survived since the time of Jesus, many of them still bearing fruit.

Perhaps today you feel that all your hopes and dreams lie trampled in the dust. Circumstances beyond your control have overtaken you and you feel crushed. For you, the commercialism of the Christmas advertisements merely serves to underscore the fact that your family’s stockings will not be bulging with small gifts and candy on Christmas morning. At this point, your choices may have been reduced to purchasing a “Charlie Brown” type Christmas tree that nobody else wants or feeding your family. You really are losing all hope.

If this description fits your current situation, do not despair! God is still on the throne, and He still can provide. We have always served with “faith missions,” depending totally on donations for our income. For more than 31 years God has continued to supply our needs in this fashion. In the summer of 1993, my husband and I drove the hospital Land Cruiser to Accra to purchase drugs and other supplies. As we parked the vehicle on a main street in Accra, we suddenly heard hissing sounds coming from all four tires! Inspection confirmed it; all of the tires on the vehicle were spoiled! Even in those days, tires for an SUV were expensive, and the hospital had no funds for replacing them. And this was well before the days of cell phones, e – mail, WhatsApp, etc. In those days, we had to make arrangements before we could call the U.S. But two months earlier, someone had made a totally unexpected donation to our mission group. Somehow, we not only found out about this donation, but the mission was also able to wire the money so that we could purchase five new tires and a rim, giving us two spare tires. (One year later, Bob was returning from Yendi during the Northern Ethnic Conflict when both tires on the right – hand side of the vehicle spoiled. Those two spare tires came in very handy at that point!)

One of our old – time missionary friends was fond of saying that “God supplies our needs, but not necessarily our wants.” Look around you! God is no respecter of persons; He doesn’t play favorites. St. Paul could real off a long list of sufferings, but he also could advise in Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

PRAYER: Father, today many of us are anxious! We aren’t sure how we are going to handle our bills. Our families are in need. Our children are complaining. Frankly, Father, we are at our wits’ end! But you have promised to care for us and to bring restoration and hope. Father, help us! And also help us to recognize that assistance may come from a totally unexpected direction, and that You have better plans for us than we do for ourselves. In the matchless Name of Jesus, Amen.

Revelation 9:13-21 “The sixth angel sounded a blast on his trumpet and I heard a voice from the four horns of the altar saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet: “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” So there came the four angels who were prepared for that hour and day and month and year, to kill a third part of the human race. The number of the armed forces of cavalry was twenty thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number, and this was how I saw in appearance the horses and those who were seated on them. They had breastplates of fiery red, and smoky blue, and sulfurous yellow. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and from their mouths there issued fire and smoke and brimstone. With these three plagues they killed a third part of the human race, with the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which were issuing from their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like snakes with heads, and with them they inflict their hurt. The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, even in spite of this did not repent of the deeds of their hands, so as to cease to worship demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which can neither hear nor see nor move; nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their immorality or their thefts.”

The demonic locusts have attacked everyone in the human race who does not have the seal of God on their foreheads, but the locusts were only able to sting for 5 months, the life span of the average locust. But now new horrors are arising! At the blast of the sixth trumpet, four powerful angels are released and now hell is really going to break loose. One third of the human race are about to die!

Who are these angels and what is the significance of the River Euphrates? There are many suggestions. Barclay says, “The Euphrates was the ideal boundary of the territory of Israel. It was God’s promise to Abraham: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates”. The angels, therefore, came from the distant lands, from the alien and hostile places from which the Assyrians and the Babylonians had in time past descended with destruction upon Israel.”

Throughout the world, there are territorial demons who attempt to control the evil done in their areas. In Daniel 10: 19-21 an angel comes to give Daniel an interpretation for a vision he has had. Daniel 10:19 “As he spoke with me, I was strengthened and said, “Speak, my lord, for you have strengthened me.” “Do you know why I have come to you?” he said. “I must return at once to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I have gone forth, behold, the prince of Greece will come. But first I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth. Yet no one has the courage to support me against these, except Michael, your prince.” The prince of Persia referred to here is undoubtedly the territorial demon assigned to Persia, and the prince of Greece is the territorial demon assigned to Greece. These angels at the River Euphrates were bound; i.e., they were chained there. Only evil disobedient angels would require being bound, so these are evil angels. It is a horrible mistake to assume that all angels are good; one third of the angels accompanied Satan when he fell from heaven. It is also vital to remember that Satan can masquerade as an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14)

In the time of John, the Parthian cavalry was the most feared cavalry in the world. In World War II, the Germans used the term “blitzkrieg” or “lightning war.” The Parthians specialized in lightning – fast destruction, and God might have used John’s knowledge of the Parthians to help him describe what he was seeing in the vision. Some Bible teachers speak as if John was making all of this up; I feel John was trying to describe the vision as honestly as he could.

Revelation 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, even in spite of this did not repent of the deeds of their hands, so as to cease to worship demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which can neither hear nor see nor move; nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their immorality or their thefts.”

What is the significance of the number of the hellish cavalry? The numbers mentioned here simply indicate that the number was countless and beyond all reckoning. Are these demonic horses fighter planes or some other kind of aircraft?Those details are not important! What is important is that one third of the human race dies in these attacks. Despite the fact that God is giving the survivors of these attacks one last chance to turn to Him, the remaining two thirds persist in pursuing their substitute gods and in murder, sorcery, immorality, and thefts.

As we read these passages, the question we must answer is this: what are we worshiping? If you are worshiping anything less than the One True Living God, today is your opportunity to change! Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow!

PRAYER: Father God, let us turn our hearts to you! Let us stop fixating and obsessing on careers, on houses, on relationships, on wealth, or on anything else that we have made into an idol. Let all who read these words truly come to know your Son Jesus as Savior and Lord and Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Jeremiah 1:5 New American Standard Bible (NASB) ⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Wow! This is the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry and God tells him that God had already set Jeremiah apart for a special ministry, even before Jeremiah was a fetus! What an endorsement! How you can beat that vote of confidence? If a young person heard that kind of a prophecy today, they would be having visions of TV shows with lots of special effects. But hold on! Because God has something totally different in mind. From the beginning, God knew that His Chosen People were going to misbehave, despite all of his warnings. (Check out Deuteronomy 32 for God’s warnings to Israel. He doesn’t mince any words!) And now, guess who gets chosen to inform the nation that it’s payback time for abandoning the God of their salvation?

^17 “Now, gird up your loins and arise, and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, or I will dismay you before them. ¹⁸ Now behold, I have made you today as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the people of the land. ¹⁹ They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord.

We live in an age in which doing the right thing us may cause us to get sued, to lose business, lose jobs, lose all our possessions, or even be killed if we try to report the truth about a prominent political figure. The temptation to just keep quiet, to go along to get along, can be incredibly strong! How can we risk our family’s health and well – being? Many times, we feel like Tevia, the Milkman, in “Fiddler on the Roof,” “God, I know we are your chosen people, but couldn’t you choose someone else for a change?” And Jeremiah must have felt the same way. Jeremiah was a priest, for goodness’ sake! All he had to do was to just mouth nice platitudes and everybody would have approved. But denying the Word of the Lord was an impossibility for Jeremiah. “But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” Jeremiah 20:9. So Jeremiah followed the Lord, even when it meant accompanying the exiles from Jerusalem into Egypt, even though God had warned them never to go back to Egypt. Many times Jeremiah must have rolled his eyes heavenward and muttered the Aramaic equivalent of “Oi weh!” (Yiddish for “Oh misery!”)

Perhaps today you find yourself in the same position as Jeremiah. You took a stand for righteousness and now everything has fallen apart. The people you thought were your friends have abandoned you. Your name is being trashed on social media. Your teenagers are getting bullied at school. And you are left wondering why you couldn’t have just kept quiet. But remember, God sees. God knows. Your struggles have not been in vain, and God still has His hand on your life.

Lamentations 3:20 – 25 Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. ²¹ This I recall to my mind, and therefore I have hope. ²² The Lord’s lovingkindnesses ^[a]indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. ²³ They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. ²⁴ “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” ²⁵ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the ^[b]person who seeks Him.”

PRAYER: Father, today there are many of us who are suffering for righteousness’ sake, and it is terribly hard! We see no hope in our situation. But you are a God of infinite resources, and you have promised to honor those who honor you. Come into our situations and light the darkness. Provide the things that are needful! And above all else, Father, give us hope! In the matchless name of your Son our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Revelation 9:9:1,2 “The fifth angel sounded a blast on his trumpet, and I saw a star failing from heaven on the earth, and to him there was given the key of the shaft of the bottomless abyss; and he opened the shaft of the abyss; and smoke went up from the shaft like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the abyss.”

How could a star receive a key? In traditional Jewish thought, stars were divine beings who could become disobedient or even evil. C. S. Lewis in his book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader uses this concept with great effect. Evidently, this star has been found faithful and true because he is given the key of the shaft of the bottomless abyss, to open it.

What is the abyss? Here, we again turn to William Barclay: The abyss is the intermediate place of punishment of the fallen angels, the demons, the beast, the false prophet and of Satan. Their final place of punishment is the lake of burning fire and brimstone. To complete the picture of these terrors we may add that Gehenna–which is not mentioned in the Revelation–is the place of punishment for evil men.

In the beginning it (the abyss)was the place of the imprisoned waters…The second step was that the abyss became the abode of the enemies of God, although even there they were not beyond his power and control. Next the abyss came to be thought of as a great chasm in the earth. The Apocryphal Book of Enoch contains grim descriptions of it. It has no firmament above and no firm earth beneath; it has no water; it has no birds; it is a waste and horrible place, the end of heaven and earth. It is chaotic. There is a fire which blazes and a cleft into the abyss whose magnitude passes all conjecture….

Will this vision come to pass literally? My personal response is “Why not?” But the important thing is that no matter what we think, the opening of the abyss will herald the advent of demonic forces previously beyond all imagination.

Revelation 9:3-12 From the smoke locusts came forth upon the earth, and they were given power like the power of the scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only such men as had not the seal of God upon their forehead. They were not permitted to kill them, but to torture them for five months. Their torture was like the torture of a scorpion when it strikes a man; and in those days men will seek for death and not be able to find it; and they will long to die but death flees from them. In likeness the locusts were like horses prepared for battle; on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold. Their faces were like human faces and they had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. They had scales like iron breastplates, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of many chariots with horses running to battle. They have tails like scorpions with stings, and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months. As king over them they have the angel of the bottomless abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek Appolyon. The first woe has passed. Behold, there are still two woes to follow it.

Nobody who has ever had a scorpion sting forgets it! The scorpion venom feels like fire – a burning pain that can drive someone crazy. And God is allowing these locusts to sting for five months… but notice something. The only people the locusts are allowed to attack are those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. What does this mean?The Book of Revelation has caused all kinds of arguments; however, it is obvious that even in this time when demonic powers have been released to trouble the earth and its inhabitants, there are still those who serve the one true living God and have His seal of approval.

We will speak more about these horrors tomorrow, but remember this: throughout all of these trials and torments, God is still on the throne and He still knows those who are His. The question each of us must face is this: do we belong to God? Do we have His seal on our foreheads?

PRAYER: Father God, please help everyone who reads this devotional to understand that these are NOT fairy tales and that you have meant every word! Help all who read this to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It’s in His mighty Name that we pray. Amen.