Revelation 9:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Revelation 9:7

Comments

Much of the language of these verses is taken from the prophecy of Joel, chapter 1 and 2. There too God threatens to send a great plague of locusts upon a rebellious people. The description of the locusts is similarly dreadful. Joel’s language has its first application in a literal plague of locusts and he describes the destructiveness of a real plague of locusts. But there is more to his prophecy than literal locusts. Revelation shows us what was always present in Joel. It does not arbitrarily employ his illustration for its own purposes, but clarifies the true significance of the prophecy. Ultimately this plague of locusts is the Lord’s description of the hosts of hell. They will be particularly active at the end of the age when they will bring great torment on those who obey not the truth. Their appearance is as horses ready for battle. This is an offensive army. They go forth to maim, hurt and destroy. Like horses they go fearlessly to battle plunging into the thickest part of the fight and using their great strength and weight to overpower their opponents. This is the third animal used in this passage to illustrate these demons and a fourth follows. ‘And their faces were as the faces of men’ – they have great cunning and craftiness; they are highly skilled in debate and presentation. ‘And they had hair as the hair of women.’ Some people say it means that they have a very seductive side as well as a militant side. Possibly it has a meaning along those lines. ‘And their teeth were as the teeth of lions’ – invincible among the animals. They may allure like women, but they devour like lions. It would be better for men to see them for what they are than to get so close that they are within range of those jaws.

Application

The demons of darkness are relentless: propagating false religion, propagating atheism, propagating harmful ideas that ultimately hurt, and turn people’s lives into misery. Their desire is to mislead, to confuse, to lie to, and to bring people down. They assume every right to command attention and to propagate their views, to dominate society, and to claim a place which sets them on the same level as values that have guided humanity for centuries.

The ideas that Satan and his hosts will spread at the very end of time will be so militantly projected. There will be movements in the world promoting all these things – the alternative morality, unbelief and atheism – that are so militant that people will fear them. You can see that now. You can see things which would have been regarded by everyone as abhorrence fifty years ago. Now they are introduced on the public media, and in entertainment, and in every possible sphere of life, and everybody is terrified to raise a word against them, and the press are terrified to oppose it even if they wanted to. Everybody gives it a pass.

How rich is the lot of the believer! How thankful we must be that God has opened our eyes, delivered us from the foolishness of our past lives, and the addictions to the things of this world, and the love of sin, and the love of unbelief. How grateful we should be that our hope is altogether higher in glory, in heaven, and that we have Christ with us.

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Revelation 9:7 Commentary and Bible Study