Now we’re ready to look at the 6th trumpet (or second woe) described in Revelation 9:13-21. The last trumpet involved demon locusts; this one has demon horsemen. We’ll break this down into four sections: where they come from and how many there are, what they look like, what they do and then, what man’s response is to this horrific judgment.
“Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming out from the four horns of the golden altar that stands before God, saying to the angel, Free the four angels that are being held in the great river Euphrates. So, the four angels that had been prepared for this specific time were set free so they could kill a third of mankind. And the number of the army of horsemen was two times ten thousand times ten thousand and I heard what their number was.” (Verses 13-16)
So, first we see four angels set free from the river Euphrates. These are, of course, fallen angels, since they had been held captive. The original text says they “had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year”. This is a phrase used to describe a specific time that had been planned in the past, but is now arrived. Here, John sees these four fallen angels loosed from the great river Euphrates. The Euphrates plays a prominent role in the final events of the tribulation, as it is dried up to become the highway for the armies to gather for their utter destruction at Armageddon in Revelation 16:12-16. I’ll talk about this in more detail later.
Then, without any further information being given, John sees two hundred million horsemen. Of course he cannot count them as he witnesses the scene, but tells us that he hears the number. There is some dispute about the number, as the word myriad is often used to describe an innumerable host. However, it is also used to describe a specific number, that is, ten thousand, in Acts 19:19, Jude 14 and Revelation 5:11. Here, John says he heard the number, that is, a specific number. The text has dismuriades muriadon, literally, “twice ten thousand times ten thousand (or, two hundred million).
In the next verse he begins to describe what this army of horsemen look like, without telling us where they came from. We can only assume the principle of precedence is in play here. Since John does not say where they came from, we have to rely on the previous information given. In the 5th trumpet judgment the demon locusts came out of the abyss. Some have suggested that these demons may have come out of the Euphrates with the four angels, but even my limited experience with the Scriptures tells me if this was the case; the Holy Spirit for the sake of clarity would have included this new information.
In verses 17-19 we see both what they look like and what they do. So first let’s see what they look like. Again, these are created spirit beings, in this case, horses and riders. “And in my vision the horses and their riders looked like this, having breastplates of fire and jacinth and brimstone.” The riders are only described as having breastplates of red (fire), deep blue (jacinth, huakinthos, or hyacinth, a deep blue) and yellow (brimstone or sulfur). John’s vision of the horses is a little more descriptive. The heads of the horses were like lion’s heads. And they had tails that looked like serpents with multiple heads. The literal translation of the original text should read something like “for the tails of them are like to serpents, having heads (plural)”.
Now, what do they do? There are two things. In verse 18 John says they kill a third part of men (not just men, but the word is anthropos, a generic word for mankind with no distinction as to sex or age). And, I suppose we should try to get our heads around just what this means in terms of how this is done and how many people are involved. The four angels that are freed from the Euphrates probably command one-fourth of the army of horsemen (50,000,000 for each angel). The number four usually indicates four directions. So, from the Euphrates they probably fan out in four directions to cover the territory of the revised Roman Empire to carry out their purpose. If you calculate the population of this area today, then take one third of it and you’ll easily come up with well over 100,000,000 people killed. Depending on when this actually happens, given the current explosion of the Islamic population in this area, add to this the fact that the people killed are not all Muslim, but may also include those either sympathetic to their cause (to destroy Israel) or those unwittingly aiding their cause, it could be much more.
To get a better idea of the devastation and panic caused by this judgment you have to remember the significance of the phrase found in verse 15, that they were prepared for “the hour and day and month and year”. This refers to a fixed point in time, not a period of time. This demonic army will kill one-third of the population at a pre-determined hour, just like all the first-born in Egypt were killed at midnight in Exodus 12:29-30! This will be unprecedented in history. Well over one hundred million people are killed in one hour. The world will be stunned and this particular area will be thrown into a panic.
And how are they killed? Verse 18 says, “By these three things are the third of mankind killed”. The three things are listed in verse 17, “and out of their (the horses) mouths poured fire and smoke and brimstone”. They are burned to death in fire, suffocated by smoke or suffer a painful death from inhaling sulfurous smoke (probably sulfur dioxide, which naturally occurs from the combination of fire and sulfur).
We’re not finished yet. Verse 19, “For their power is in their (the horses) mouth, but also in their tails. Their tails are like serpents with multiple heads. And with these they are able to injure people.” The purpose of the tails is described by the word adikeo, and means, “to hurt or injure”. In addition to millions of people dying in one hour, many millions more are injured.
Can you imagine the scenes that will be shown on the evening news? Here’s a fourth part of the world devastated by war. People are starving to death. Others are dying of disease. The whole area has been reduced to ruin by a huge earthquake and meteor shower. There have been obvious and frightening supernatural occurrences in this part of the world not seen anywhere else. Not only is food scarce, fresh water is, as well. People are dying because they’re forced to use water that has been poisoned. They’ve been tortured for five months by demon locusts they can’t kill, and it’s so painful they want to die. Now a third of the population has just been killed by a demonic firestorm and many more have been injured. The devastation is, in fact, unimaginable. Corpses are rotting in the streets; millions of injured are in need of medical attention that doesn’t exist. I wonder if I can still book a nice Mediterranean vacation, maybe the French Riviera?
This brings us to what I think is one of the most amazing passages found in Scripture. “And the rest of the people not killed by these plagues (all the previous seal and trumpet judgments), even after all this, would not repent and cease the worship of the works of their own hands (their false, man-made religion), and would not stop worshipping demons and their idols made of gold, silver, brass, stone or wood that cannot see or hear or walk. And they would not repent of their murders, or of their practice of being led by demons, or their sexual sin or their thefts.” After all that has happened to this point, even after this population dominated by Islam and dedicated to the destruction of Israel has realized their dream of world domination cannot happen, after they have been forced to acknowledge that the God of Israel is responsible for all they have suffered (remember Revelation 6:15-17), after they have been tortured and have witnessed the utter destruction of their lands, after they have watched as millions have died and they have been injured – they are still defiant towards God!
In the next lesson we see the beginning of the last half of the 7-year tribulation period. There are several parenthetical passages and the 7th trumpet is not announced until Revelation 11:15 and then not actually described until 12:13. And in between these and before we get to the last series of judgments (the vials), John will describe several important and interesting events.