Some Still Will Not Repent
Today’s passage: Revelation 9
Focus verse: The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands. (Revelation 9:20)
After the opening of the scroll’s seventh and final seal, seven angels receive seven trumpets. The first four have already blown their instruments, which resulted in affliction for much of the earth.
Three trumpets remain, accompanied by three woes.
The fifth angel sounds his trumpet. The star that fell to earth when the third angel blew his horn holds the key to the Abyss.
He now unlocks and opens it. Smoke, as if from a giant furnace, bellows forth, darkening the sun and sky. Locusts emerge from the smoke.
These insects have scorpion-like power. But God only allows them to afflict those who do not have his seal on their foreheads; those with his mark are safe.
The locusts torture, but cannot kill, the people who lack God’s seal. The agony of these people is so great that they long to die, but they cannot.
The locusts go out as an army—led by their king, called Destroyer—to torment the people for five months.
What an agonizing time for those who don’t carry God’s seal upon them.
This is the first woe. Two more are to come.
The sixth angel blows his trumpet. A voice comes from the four horns of God’s altar. It tells the angel to release four other angels waiting for this day at the Euphrates River.
These angels have been kept at the ready for this final hour and now go out to kill one third of all the people.
They lead a formidable cavalry of two hundred million soldiers. A terrifying killing machine, they wipe out one third of the people.
This is the second woe.
Given all that’s happened to the remaining people, we’d think that they’d receive all this affliction as a warning from God to turn from their evil ways and repent. They don’t.
They persist in doing what they’ve always done: the actions God views as sin and of missing his mark. They continue their worship of demons and other hand-made idols that can’t see, hear, or walk.
They do not repent of committing murder, of using magic arts, of sexual immorality, or of theft.
There’s still more to come before we get to the seventh angel and his trumpet in Revelation 11.
Questions:
- What do we need to repent from?
- Do we take comfort knowing that the seal of God will protect us from these woes?
- What do our idols look like today?
- Though we don’t live in this end-time situation, which behaviors should we change?
- How should we respond to those who refuse to follow Jesus?
[Discover more about the need to repent, which occurs more in John’s vision than in any other book in the Bible, in Revelation 2:5, 2:16, 2:21–22, 3:3, 3:19, 9:20–21, and 16:9–11.]
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Read more in Revelation Bible Study: Discover Practical Insights from John’s Epic Vision.
Discover practical, understandable insights from the book of Revelation.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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