Free Bible Commentary
“Revelation 9:20-21”
Categories: Revelation“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”
---End of Scripture verses---
As discussed previously, these trumpet blasts signified God’s “partial” judgment, but His primary aim for them was to warn the wicked to turn from their evil ways. When God sends these “plagues” (verse 20) upon the earth, there are always casualties, but the people who are “not killed” should hear the warning sirens and see the flashing red lights, and “repent of the works of their hands”. Natural calamities, represented by the first for trumpet blasts, should serve as a wakeup call for the people who witness their devastation and are fortunate enough to walk away unscathed. Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, wildfires, and a host of other spectacular yet destructive phenomena, should arouse within us the sense of just how weak and vulnerable we are, and how unstable and uncertain life on earth truly is. When a disaster occurs, it should remind the survivors that worse things await the wayward, and prompt them to repent before eternal destruction is unavoidable (Luke 13:1-6)! They should turn us away from self and sin, and toward righteousness and God.
The same is true for the internal, moral decay (trumpet five) and the external, violent attacks (trumpet six). With the disintegration of common decency, and the moral threads of our society coming unraveled, the destructive consequences of sin should be obvious to all. Soaring divorce rates and pregnancies out of wedlock have produced generations of fatherless children who grow to be unruly, undisciplined, unrighteous, unscrupulous adults. The AIDS epidemic was a scourge which began in the homosexual community, and is now running rampant among untold numbers of drug addicts who share dirty needles. Our corrupted culture even teaches (from the grade school level!) that something as basic and obvious as a person’s hardwired, sexual gender is not determined at birth, leaving thousands of confused victims unsure whether they should use the men’s room or the women’s room. We are spiraling downward into the abyss of debauchery, and in dire need of a spiritual, moral, truth awakening! The frequency of the attacks from evil radicals will only increase because of our own, unrestrained wickedness!
No empire, nation, kingdom or person can avoid the destructive consequences of sinfulness left unchecked. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:24). “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8). The laws of cause and effect cannot be circumvented. That is true on the physical plane, and it is equally true on the spiritual stratum. But God’s judgment and punishment of wrongdoing is not merely a punitive action. Let us never lose sight of the fact that God’s love and mercy are the driving forces behind His correction and justice. It is in love that God warns us because He does not desire “any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
Drawing upon Romans 1:18-32, Homer Hailey wrote: “The first section of the two categories of sins which brought judgment was idolatry, a violation of all regard and respect for the God of heaven, the Creator and Ruler of all (v. 20). The second section (v. 21) involves man’s relationship to man. Moral depravity grows out of idolatry, which expresses a condition of heart (Mark 7:21). The order of the process which leads to this condition is (1) exchanging the truth of God for a lie; (2) worshiping the creature, whether the human intellect or the works of human hands; and (3) decay and depravity which sinks into the basest forms of conduct toward self and contempt for the life and rights of others. John emphasizes the result of this sinful condition by repeating the charge, ‘They repented not…they repented not.’” Which resulted in the last group of sevens to be let loose upon the Roman Empire—the seven bowls (vials) of God’s wrath (chapter 16).
Please read Revelation 10:1-7 for tomorrow.
Have a great day!
-Louie Taylor
