"One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

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 which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for 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 as 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, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths." Rev 9:12-14 (KJV)

The sound of the sixth trumpet ushers in the next "woe" - and this woe actually spans the rest of Chapter 9, 10, and concludes in Chap 11 - where we see it called out explicitly. ("The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly." Rev 11:14) This is a bigger woe than the one that precedes it, and actually can be considered to be the result of answered prayer.

Note that the angel blows, and there is a voice from the horns (most manuscripts omit the word four) of the golden altar that is before the throne of God. Recall Rev 8:3,4 where, after the seventh seal was opened, the prayers of the saints were offered with incense upon the golden altar. We now hear a voice from that same altar instructing the angel to perform a task after he has finished sounding. The martyrs had cried out for justice when the fifth seal was opened ( we will see their cry addressed in Rev 16:4-7 when the second Bowl turns all water to blood, and their voices acknowledge the righteousness of His judgements - [check it out!]), but these are not the prayers in view. These prayers are from saints of all ages praying that God would judge the wicked.

4 bound angels are loosed from the River Euphrates. We have seen 4 angels that are restrained alluded to earlier (Rev 7:1), but these do not seem to be the same ones. The fact that they are bound, and have been prepared for this mission for this very specific time (year, month, day) indicates that they are probably different from them, and evil to boot.

God has his timing. The book of Genesis dates the time of the Flood to a precise day - "In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month" (Gen 7:11). Christ's "hour" on the cross was something He was always aware of, and He anticipates the day and hour of His return, which is another event that is the counsel of the Father alone.

There is another reference to Genesis here - the river Euphrates. It is mentioned (Gen 2:13-14) as one of the rivers marking the boundary of Eden, and it is also the easternmost boundary of the land promised to Abraham (Gen 15:18), only once actually possessed by Israel (in King Solomons time - 1 King 4:21). Coincidence? We think not. God's plan is from everlasting to everlasting!

4 angels are loosed, but the next verse talks about an army of "horsemen". Huh? Where did they come from? These are probably under the influence of the angels. [We have another example of evil spirits gathering countries to do battle in Rev 16:13,14] Most manuscripts cite the number of them as "a murias of murias" others "duo murias of murias" - murias - translated myriad or 10,000 -- so we have 10,000 x 10,000 or 2 x 10,000 x 10,000 - or a 100/200 million. The word is different from "chilias" which means a thousand (think 144,000 that were sealed). The apostle says he heard the number of them.Commentators are divided in their opinions as to whether this is a physical or spiritual army under the control of the 4 angels.

If physical, consider the current estimated total numbers (according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies citied in Wikipedia) of active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel of the following countries - S Korea 8.1M, N Korea 7.6M, Vietnam 5.5 M, India 4.9M, Russia 4.2M, China 3.3 M, US 2.2 M.... that gets us to approximately 35M (give or take a few). A 100 or 200 M strong army would be unstoppable! The color of the breastplates of the horsemen may provide some clues - Red, Yellow, and either Purple(Jacinth stone) or Dark Blue(Greek Hyacintheous). Red, Yellow and Blue are commonly found in Communist flags (e.g Russia, China, Vietnam, N Korea, S Korea), with red and blue dominating european nations (e.g. EU is all blue). Arab, and African countries are predominantly green, gold, black. There are exceptions and variations of course, but its a fascinating study!

A conflict on this scale, which kills a third of the earths population, is a World War like we have never witnessed, and PROBABLY... the result of a coalition of 10 Kings/Countries that will give the last one-world ruler his empire - one which will promise lasting peace to a world that is fed up with conflict.The 10 toes of Daniels vision (Dan 2:31-45), and the 10 horns of the beast (Dan 7:7, Rev 13:1) We cannot be sure, but this SEEMS to line up with everything prophesied now and later.

There is case to made for the fact that these armies could be spiritual beings. They are unleashed and controlled by a spiritual force, and though horsemen are mentioned, the men are actually killed by the fire, smoke, and brimstone (shades of Sodom and Gomorrah) that issues from the mouths of the horses, and injured by their tails, which are "like" snakes and have heads too. They are also referred to as a "plague" (Rev 9:20). People have speculated that this refers to tanks of some kind, but it is not necessary (though it may seem logical to us) that this be the case.

Verses 20, 21 are the most tragic of all. The rest of humanity is unrepentant and continues to sin against God (worship works of their hands, devils and idols) and man (murders, sorceries, sexual immoralities, thefts). 7 sins are listed to indicate that their wickedness and depravity is complete.

The woe does not end here. As we have said, it continues, and we shall see what further form it takes next week! (If you want to peek ahead - we highly encourage it!! :-) - go read your Bible!)
Have a blessed week!