In today’s enlightening episode, we examine the grim realities and spiritual warfare detailed in Revelation chapter 9. Through conversations and teachings, understand why the demonic army from the East serves as a testament to the ultimate control and purpose orchestrated by the Divine. As we explore both historical and future implications, we see how prayer and spiritual preparedness play a crucial role in our response to these prophetic events. You won’t want to miss this compelling discussion.
all the demonic forces are under the control of god absolutely under his control now they can cause such terrible trouble but you know that god’s final joke on satan and his angels is he uses them for his purposes not the other way around and those demons that are causing you so much trouble god’s allowing it to happen you say well why what did i do don’t ask just be thankful it’s not worse it could be But what is he doing? Well, Peter tells us that the God of all grace, after you’ve suffered a while by demonic attack, the Bible tells us that he will strengthen us, settle us, establish us.
SPEAKER 01 :
Imagine this. The sound starts low, like a rumble on the horizon. At first, it’s distant, just a faint warning that something is out there. But moment by moment, it builds louder and stronger until the very ground trembles under the force of what’s coming. It’s not the sound of a storm or the rush of the wind. It’s something else, something that cannot be stopped, something that will change everything in its path. What does the Bible say about this moment? Well, the answer is found in Revelation chapter 9, verses 13 to 21. And today, Bible teacher David Hawking takes us there. This is Hope for Today. And coming up next, day two of David’s message, The Army from the East. It begins in mere moments. First, though, David’s son, Matt, is here, and he has an encouraging word for us.
SPEAKER 02 :
Matt? Hope for Today is all about sharing the life-saving, life-changing hope of the gospel with a world of darkness. We are passionate about equipping believers in these difficult days through the faithful teaching of God’s Word. and a vital part of sustaining this ministry is prayer. This is so important that I’m asking you to put a reminder on your phone or calendar to pray for Hope for Today as often as possible. And if you’re praying, send a note and let us know. Jim is going to share how to get in touch with us and become a part of Hope for Today’s ministry.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, Matt, it’s easy to get a hold of us here at Hope for Today to let us know you’re praying for this ministry. Remember, your prayers make you a part of this ministry. Folks can call 875-BIBLE in the U.S. or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. In Bible, by the numbers 24253. You can also send us a note on our website, davidhawking.org. Use the contact form. Again, davidhawking.org. And here’s David with day two of The Army from the East.
SPEAKER 04 :
Revelation chapter 9 and beginning at verse 13, down to the end of the chapter. And the sixth angel sounded. And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, who were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand, and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them having breastplates of fire and of jacinth and brimstone. And the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, by the smoke, and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails. For their tails were like serpents and had heads, and with them they do hurt. And the rest of the men who were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not. Of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. According to the Bible, God does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth. He does all according to his will. God is in control. Five things about that control. One is the playing of the trumpet, don’t ever forget, was under the direction of Almighty God. We read in verse 13, the sixth angel sounded. We’ll jump back to chapter 8 too and remind yourself of it. It says, I saw the seven angels who stood before God. And to them were given seven trumpets. God’s in control here. He’s going to tell them when to announce these judgments. The second thing I noticed, back to verse 13, is the proclamation of the voice. It comes from God. There’s no other choice. I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God.” The golden altar is mentioned seven times in the book of Revelation. It’s a part of the answer of God to the prayers of the saints who have been suffering all these years. Third, notice the place where the angels were bound. You talk about something that reveals the sovereign control of God Almighty. The voice says to the sixth angel, Loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates. Well, who are these angels that are bound? That sinned in a particular way that was so awful that God bound them up to save them for a day of judgment that’s in the future. These spirits who left their first estate and went like Sodom and Gomorrah after strange flesh or flesh of a different kind. When did angels sin in a like manner as the men of Sodom and Gomorrah who went after flesh that was another of a different kind than what God intended them to do? And God’s judgment of the great tribulation is always compared with the judgment of the flood. These stories are more related than we want to admit. Now according to this story, what made the world so awful and terrible, though every imagination of man’s heart was evil continually, is that something entered into the scene of human history that was awful. It was a demonic plague, in my opinion, exactly the way it is described in Revelation 9. Look, please, at verse 1 of chapter 6 of Genesis. It came to pass when men began to multiply in the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them. When it says multiply, it means that the sons of God, now in the New Testament, sons of God are believers, but not so in the Old Testament. They’re all angels, right? The sons of God saw the daughters of men. Well, what are the daughters of men? Exactly what you read, daughters of men. Well, why aren’t the sons of God exactly what you read? Sons of God, believers. Some people believe that. What they think here is that believers married unbelievers and God got mad and destroyed the world with a flood. No, I think it’s far more serious than that. I believe the sons of God, in its normal usage in Hebrew in the Old Testament, referring to angels, is talking about a group of angels, spirits, who literally invaded the human race. They saw they were fair, and they took them. The word took is not talking about a nice marriage ceremony. It’s talking about violence. They took women who were already married to somebody else. We’re talking sexual sin here exactly the way Jude 6 and 7. They went after strange flesh. Well, the point is these demonic spirits are going after that which is not the same as them. They don’t procreate. They don’t have marriage. But they are, by their evil intentions, inhabiting the bodies of people and literally are causing a violent, immoral society because of the demonic activity. And the Bible says that God is just fed up with this. The Bible, in fact, says in verse 5, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every imagination and thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. He repented the Lord. He made man of the earth and grieved him in his heart. And he said, I will destroy man whom I’ve created from the face of the earth. Except for Noah and his sons and their wives. We read in verse 11, the earth was corrupt before God. The earth was filled with violence. It’s corrupt. Verse 12, all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. Verse 13, the earth is filled with violence. Behold, I will destroy them. You know, this is strong language. So you’re comparing that with Jude 6 and 7. What we have here are angels who sin, left their first estate, their habitation with God, and probably fell in the moral fall with Satan. And these demonic spirits literally are causing havoc in the world. Now that’s what Revelation 9 says is going to happen in the tribulation. Well, it’s not the first time. It happened once before in a dramatic, unbelievable attack of the demonic world. And because of what they did, God took those evil spirits who were involved in that, however many of them we don’t know, and he bound them and kept them in everlasting chains as a reminder to all of the demonic world of what will be the final destiny of all of them. And he keeps them in chains, reserved under the judgment of the great day, which is in the tribulation period, the day of God Almighty, when God will use them to bring havoc against the unbelievers of this world. And then we’ll cast them all into hell. It’s quite a story, isn’t it? Back to Revelation chapter 9. Now, according to the Bible, these particular four angels are bound in the great river Euphrates. Now, that’s interesting. Euphrates is mentioned 21 times in the Bible, and it is connected with the city of Babylon, which is a metaphor and symbolism as well as a historical city. Babylon is a metaphor for all of that which is evil and pagan and wicked. Babylon itself is mentioned 286 times in the Bible. So we believe the river Euphrates, and the note of this may be an actual physical location because of the final events happening in the Middle East. By the way, in case you’re not up on your geography, Euphrates River throughout all history is the dividing point between the East and the West. I don’t know if you know that or not. What do we call the area immediately to the west of it? We’ve called it the Middle East just to separate it from western countries and cultures. But the truth is there was only west and east in the ancient world and the Euphrates River is a dividing line. Some people believe that the angels are loosed here because this will match with what is said in Revelation 16. which we’ll take a look at in a moment, but I don’t want you to turn there right now. They think the river Euphrates, which is the dividing point, and by the way, the natural boundary to any land troops that would come from the east, that it’s going to have to be dried up to prepare the way for this great army that’s coming from the east. That’s one view. Another view is that the Euphrates is picturing Babylon, its ancient pagan system, a place of the occult, a place, a habitation of demons, the Bible says. And it’s a metaphor which is used in the book of Revelation, chapter 17. Mystery, Babylon, the great mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. That it represents far more than the ancient city that sits on the Euphrates River. Turn to Isaiah chapter 13 for a moment. I think there’s a lot of imagery here that we need to understand. For instance, in Isaiah 13, verse 19, it says, And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelled in from generation to generation, neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there, but wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, their houses shall be full of doleful creatures.” and owls or ostriches shall dwell there, and satyrs or he goats shall dance there, and the wild beasts of the islands or coastlands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons or jackals in their pleasant palaces, and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged. Speaking about the judgment of ancient Babylon, but predicting that that ancient site on the river Euphrates will not be inhabited again. And it hasn’t, in spite of efforts to be rebuilt. It really hasn’t yet. And all this is going to become a habitation of wild, occultic-like descriptions of animals out of control that are often symbols in the occultic world for demonic forces. I’m not trying to stretch anything beyond the Bible here. Turn to Revelation chapter 18 and look at verse 2. Revelation 17 and 18 describes the judgment of Babylon the greatest mystery. And in chapter 18, when it discusses the fall, it says, verse 2, he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. Now watch this. This is a quote from Isaiah 13. It’s become the habitation of devils. Demons. Where were these devils bound? River Euphrates. Babylon on the River Euphrates. When Babylon, whatever this Babylon means in the future that falls and collapses, it is the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. All those are occultic symbolisms for demonic forces. And God takes all of that and uses it and says, you got it right this time because there are demons that are part of this terrible, tragic, prophetic fulfillment of God’s judgment on a world that’s turned their back on him. I know it sounds weird. But I believe that God literally has bound some angels who are a part of the sinful corruption at the time of the flood. And he is going to unleash them in the day of his judgment on the world in the great tribulation and eventually put them all into everlasting fire to suffer his vengeance. The Bible says that the lake of fire was prepared for the devil and his angels. Now back to Revelation chapter 9. I don’t know if you’re still with me or not. What we’re talking about is the control of this unbelievable attacking army from the east of demonic forces. And we mentioned the control is seen by, first of all, the playing of the trumpet. That was all under the control of God. They stood before him and waited for instructions to play the trumpet. We also saw the proclamation of God’s voice from the golden altar. He is in charge. He’s telling them what to do. The place then where the angels were bound, because they are bound, points to God’s sovereign control. By the way, God’s going to do that to Satan during the millennial reign of Christ, according to Revelation 20 that we’ll study later. Now, the fourth thing I’d like you to see under the control of this army is that the preparation of these angels was for a particular time under the sovereign control of God. We read in chapter 9, again, of Revelation… concerning their preparation, verse 15, the four angels were loosed who were prepared for an hour, a day, a month, and a year. And the point of that is there is a particular set time for God to loose them. The book of Revelation is happening in chronological sequential order exactly the way God wants it. And at the proper time, at the moment he has prepared from all of history, they are unleashed. And we see this awful attack. Friends, listen to me. Every event, every circumstance of human history is under the direct control of Almighty God. He makes us live a day at a time. But how interesting that he would tell us about this horrible, awful attack and say, oh, by the way, it was prepared for that moment. Well, I’ll tell you, I get a real blessing out of this because that means that all the demonic forces are under the control of God. absolutely under his control now they can cause such terrible trouble but you know that god’s final joke on satan and his angels is he uses them for his purposes not the other way around and those demons that are causing you so much trouble god’s allowing it to happen you say well why what did i do don’t ask just be thankful it’s not worse it could be But what is he doing? Well, Peter tells us that the God of all grace, after you’ve suffered a while by demonic attack, the Bible tells us that he will strengthen us, settle us, establish us. What a wonderful thing to say. God’s going to use satanic attacks against us to make us stronger in the Lord, even though it looks like sometimes we’re going to get wiped out. We aren’t going to be wiped out. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. So cheer up. Things are going to get worse. But God is in control. We got nothing to worry about. Amen? We don’t have anything to worry about at all. It’s all under divine preparation. One more thing about the control of this army and this terrible thing that’s going to happen is the purpose of this event to me suggests the control of God. Because it says in verse 15, to slay the third part of men. You say, well, why would you say that? Because that’s the only way you can avenge the blood of the martyrs. Back in chapter 6, verse 8, we already looked at it. A fourth of the earth was killed with sword, hunger, death, and beasts of the earth, something that was predicted in the book of Leviticus as God’s form of judgment and how he’s going to do it. But we read in chapter 6 and verse 10 again that he’s going to avenge the blood of the martyrs. That’s what it says. So when we read in Revelation chapter 9 that he slays a third part of men, the very purpose of this event, which was under divine preparation, suggests again the control of God, that he is going to avenge the blood of his martyrs. He’s going to do it. Literally. By what? Causing their blood to flow. And we’ll read more about that in chapter 18 even. God is in control.
SPEAKER 01 :
Amen. God indeed is in control. That’s Bible teacher and author David Hawking, and you’re listening to Hope for Today. David’s back in just a moment to close out our time in the Word, so do stay right there. First, Matt’s here, and we want to share a powerful resource, a powerful Bible prophecy resource that might just be the perfect addition to your home Bible study library.
SPEAKER 02 :
You may not know what you’re missing in the book of Zechariah until you open up our book, Visions of the Future.
SPEAKER 01 :
Inside, your dad, David Hawking, applies his in-depth Bible study regimen to reveal the powerful historical significance of Zechariah and to detail and explain its prophecies for the past, present, and future.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, and Visions of the Future is a dynamic study of Zechariah chapters 1 through 14. Part one is titled The Eight Night Visions and reveals marvelous prophecies showing the role and ministry of the Messiah in his first coming and the future second advent that will mark the beginning of the messianic age and millennial reign of Christ. And your dad refers to Zechariah as the gospel of the Old Testament. Amen. Well, part two. Covering Zechariah 7 and 8 has four essential messages to God’s people on rebuke, repentance, restoration, and rejoicing.
SPEAKER 01 :
And then in part three, your dad investigates the prophecies given to Zechariah, revealing two burdens for the future, the rejection of the anointed king
SPEAKER 02 :
and the return and reign of the king. And also in this section, we see teaching on the judgment of Israel’s enemies, mourning for the one they pierced, cleansing from sin, the second coming, and more.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, discover some outstanding treasures, outstanding treasures in Zechariah with David’s book, Visions of the Future, our featured resource for August. And Matt, how much is it? Just $15. You can purchase it at davidhawking.org or when you call. And consider adding a donation to your order to help us continue this ministry or become a regular monthly supporter. And join with us in ministry. The numbers to call for this powerful book by David, Visions of the Future, are 1-800-75-BIBLE in the U.S. and 1-888-75-BIBLE in Canada. And Bible is 24253. By the way, when you call, let us know that you’re praying for us and tell us how we can pray for you as well. And if God is putting it on your heart to make a special donation, now this is above and beyond the cost of your resource order. Perhaps it’s a donation all by itself. Well, we want you to know how your gifts are used. Every dollar goes directly into keeping Hope for Today on the air, online, streaming Bible teaching, and providing free resources that help people grow in their faith. A number of free resources on our website. including our daily devotionals, video messages, study materials, and downloadable books on our homepage. And David’s booklet, What is Christianity for New Believers or Those That Don’t Yet Know Christ, all made possible because of friends like you. Your support helps us put the Word of God into hearts and homes that might otherwise never hear it. Call 1-800-75-BIBLE in the U.S. or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada to make a donation. You can also contribute online at davidhawking.org. And for folks that prefer to send a gift by mail, write to Hope for Today, Box 3927. Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO, Seven Oaks, Abbotsford, BC, V2S, 8P1. And let’s go back to David.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thanks for listening to our broadcast, folks. We appreciate every one of you. Thank you for your support, your prayers for us. Thank you for every little bit that you’re able to help us to stay on the air. We have no organization or church behind us. We depend upon the listeners in every broadcast area. Well, we’re in chapter 9, as you know, and it is really amazing. These armies that are being described here are quite unusual. The heads of the horses appear like the heads of lions and out of their mouths pass fire, smoke, and brimstone. Well, that’s just probably discussing the weapons that they will use. But a third part of men are going to be killed by the fire, smoke, and brimstone that comes out of their mouths. Wow. To say this is unusual is like the underestimated statement of the year. The opening verses of chapter 9 really focused on demonic activity and the devil himself. whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, in Greek Apollyon. He’s the destroyer and the deceiver of the world. And the demons of hell are being released, and perhaps that’s what we see also in this huge army that’s going to attack, coming from the east and crossing the river Euphrates. Well, we’re going to need to get into this a little bit more next time. God bless you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, thank you, David. And like David said, we’ll be back to wrap up our look at Revelation chapter 9. This is a passage that speaks directly to the days ahead. And it’s something everyone, including you and me, need to hear. So make sure you join us and invite a friend or family member to listen along with you. They need to know what God’s Word says about the future, why His judgment is righteous, and how His mercy is still available through Jesus Christ. Don’t miss it next time, right here on Hope for Today.
