Okay…so this is strange. Maybe I should say, “This is getting stranger.” So I read Revelation 9 & 10 this morning. Chapter 8 (yesterday’s post) included the first 4 trumpets. Chapter 9 included trumpets #5 and 6. I read chapter 10 thinking Trumpet #7 would be there. Nope.
Chapter 8 seems to continue the ecological disaster from the previous chapter and the first 4 trumpets. The big difference was who was doing the destroying. It starts in an abyss and out of the abyss comes a swarm of locusts. Not just locusts-which are bad enough-but a swarm of the ugliest, meanest, weirdest-looking locusts anyone could have ever seen. Their description is in verses 7-10. But the big reveal is their leader: Abaddon (Hebrew) or Apollyon (Greek) . Translated: Satan. I guess the clue should have been where they came from: the abyss. (Sounds like a scene from Lord of the Rings)
With the 6th trumpet comes more devastation. An angel (trumpet) releases an army that rains down devastation on the earth. But a change occurs in the narrative. Devastation and destruction rain down on the earth but this time people are included, not just the environment. Sinful people. Those who refused to repent (verses 20-21).
I’ll save chapter 10 for tomorrow.
What does all this mean? Got me. Hmmm. Perhaps the answer is two-fold. One, devastation is coming for sure. Two, maybe a clue is found in 10:4- “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken, and do not write them.” Perhaps we are not to know?
“Father, Your Word is sometimes too complex for me. But I trust it because I trust You and You are its author. I do not and can not know it all. Give me faith to trust You and Your Word.”
I think there will always be mysteries and truth to uncover any time we open the Word and our hearts and minds to be receptive to it’s teaching. There is a reason it is called the Living Word… It continues to grow and develop our minds, not specifically for the knowledge or wisdom that can be gleaned from it… But more importantly, to reveal God’s unending, undeserving, and unearned Love. That is the primary purpose. God’s only hope is that the Love He gives us is reciprocated back to Him. Understanding Revelation, though it is important or it would not have been written, is secondary to embracing and dispensing God’s love.
WOW Ryan! that is so well said and so truthful! Thanks for the words of wisdom. That last sentence is a gold mine.
We could never hope to know all of God’s ways, Bill, but like you, I trust Him because of who he is.
Blessings!
True that Martha. I will trust Him. Thanks
Revelation’s is way over my head. I do not have to understand all of it, but I do need to love and trust the Lord, with all my heart. I think Ryan summed up things pretty well, I will just stick with the ditto that.
I’m with you on all counts Gail! Ditto and ditto. 🙂