Chapter 16: 8-16
“8Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. 9And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory. 10Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. 11They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.
“12Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. 13And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
“15Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.’ 16And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.”
Last week we looked at the first of the three bowl plagues, and saw the wrath of God on the people who had rejected Him and chose to follow the Beast and his cohorts. Just recently we see that the pope has stated the Muslim and Catholics are brothers and sisters. One has to have the same father to be a brother or sister. I have brothers and sisters in the Lord; that is because we have the same Heavenly Father. But, since Islam rejects the Jehovah of the Bible, rejects that Jesus is God and the only means of salvation, rejects Israel, and rejects the Bible, they cannot have the same Father. And as such, they cannot then be my brothers and sisters.
If then, as the pope claims, they are brothers and sisters, who then is their father? If it is not Jehovah, then the only other option is Satan. There are only two options: the Father of Truth or the Father of Lies. There you have it then; the pope, the head of the Catholic church – God certainly is not the head of it – has told us that Islam and Catholicism share the same father. That father is not the God of the Bible. What makes this important is that, with this brewing unity between the world’s largest religions on earth, there is the potential to already have control over about 2.5-2.7 billion people on earth. Let that sink in.
We have seen recently that there are those that have voted to kill babies right up to the event of their birth, and to withhold care from those that survive the attempted abortion. Men and women voting to murder children. How coldhearted and how far from God do people have to be to murder babies? Further, how far from God is the nation who elects them to office?
There is a great genocide coming to the USA and to North America as a whole. Canada will not be spared, I fear. Those of us who believe the truth, love the truth, and teach the truth will be the ones sacrificed in the name of tolerance and “unity.” Christian churches need to prepare the people for the potential for suffering. I am not a prophet; I am simply a very good observer of history. The only way to make a lie come to life and stay alive is to kill those that tell the truth. So, ask yourself this: if truth became a crime, would you be arrested?
Scorched Humans, verses 8-9
We have a bright and sunny day here in Southern Ontario. We have had simply crazy weather over the past weeks. Powerful wind storms, lots of snowfall and ice accumulations have simply wreaked havoc on our roads and our power lines, and people simply want the snow to stop. We are teased to have sunshine as there is still about a whole month of winter to go. But the sun is lovely; it is a sign of things to come in the not-too-distant future.
There will be no such joy with the sun in this occasion. There will be no colorful shorts, dollar-store flip-flops and no poolside bar-b-ques. The sun will scorch men with fire. Extreme heat will descend from the sun and scorch the earth. Remember, these plagues are compounding plagues. The two previous ones affected the water supply – no oceans and no fresh water. Evaporation will be affecting the air quality and maybe change the way the ozone filters the sunlight, maybe even magnifying it. But not long after the water is deemed as useless, the sun will simply get hotter. The people and the livestock on the ground will grow more and more thirsty. We find this prophecy in Joel 1:15-20:
“Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty. Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed shrivels under the clods, storehouses are in shambles; barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment. O Lord, to You I cry out; for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry out to You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the open pastures.”
Yes, the day of the Lord has shown up, and there is so much pain and suffering. Sad reality. In stark contrast to what is happening, the Lord offers this promise to the nation of Israel in Psalm 121:5-6:
“The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.”
Israel will have rebelled against the Anti-Christ once he had defiled the Temple in Jerusalem. They would have immediately begun to look for the Messiah—the real one. The One that they had rejected some 2,000 years ago will show up to save them. Unlike the Jews who will be looking for their Messiah, the rest of the people who are suffering will blaspheme God. The word blaspheme is defined in part as irreverence, cursing, profanity with reference to speaking to and about the Lord God.
I see this today in the words of many atheists. They swear against God, and they make fun of God’s people and the Holy Bible. They call into question the character of God and certainly show no respect for Him. These people are not true atheists. True atheists are few and far between. What these people truly are is hardhearted like Pharaoh was in Egypt.
In Exodus 5:2, Pharaoh asks a question: “Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?” Herein lies the rub; most atheists are just rebellious men and women who refuse to submit to God; and as such, it is easier in their minds to say He does not exist. They became hardened to God, and even in the midst of an obvious display of His unmatched power, they curse Him rather than be humbled and obedient.
Darkness in the Dark Kingdom, verses 10-11
Have you ever been to somewhere that is so dark it is almost as if you can feel it? Well, the Anti-Christ is about to feel that. God will cover the Prince of Darkness in darkness. The irony is almost funny. In Exodus 10:21-22, we see the plague of darkness that God sent to Egypt:
“And the LORD said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.”
This darkness will cause pain and suffering so much so that the people afflicted by it will feel pain and gnaw their tongues. It could be the loneliness that they are feeling. It could be the terrors of the night. Imagine what the drastic change will be from the scorching heart of the sun to tangible darkness. The temperature drop may be significant, and there may be pain associated with this. One commentator mentioned that the loneliness may offer to them a glimpse of what Hell will be like. There will be no partying in Hell no matter what the songsters of Satan have made it out to be.
Remember that these men who serve the Beast are still ailed by a putrid sore that is very, very painful. For some time, there has not been water to wash and clean the sore. Compounded by that, the sun was scorching them and now darkness. God is displaying His awesome power, and they know that it is God. Make no mistake; the Anti-Christ, the Beast and the inner circle of their power know exactly who is doing this. They are powerless to stop it and made to look like fools for defying the King of the Universe. But they will not repent; they will continue to blaspheme God. Satan knows his fate, and he simply wants to take as many humans as possible with him. That is his end game.
Frog Spirits to the Deception, verses 12-14
Egypt also had a plague of frogs. The Romans regarded the Euphrates as a barrier between them and the invading armies of the east. But with the Euphrates dried up, the armies of the east like China and India can now move west and invade. The dry riverbed of the Euphrates gives them about 1,800 miles of dry land to move west with. Then the ‘frog’ spirits go out to deceive the nations into fighting Israel—and really fighting God.
Imagine that God has protected Israel like He did during the days of Pharaoh? The hot sun has not scorched them, their livestock eat in lush green pastures fed by God, there is no darkness there in Israel, and now their enemies are jealous and angry. These ‘frog’ spirits go out to put on a show for the kings of the earth and convince them to join the Anti-Christ in war against Israel.
A long time ago, another king named Ahab had a similar situation. The Lord was done with him; he had exhausted the Lord’s kindness and patience along with his wife Jezebel. We find this account in 1 Kings 22: 19-23:
“And he said, hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the LORD said, who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.”
Ahab ended up going into battle, and he did not even wear his kingly robes; he was dressed as a normal soldier. An archer shot an arrow but did not aim it at Ahab, and that arrow hit Ahab, who died from the wounds. God is using these lying ‘frog’ spirits to set up the final war at Armageddon. Somehow these spirits will get the armies to join the Anti-Christ to invade the sacred land of Israel. God’s land. Please make note that it is God who is drawing them to the battle. He is the one in complete control, just like He was in control of the arrow that struck Ahab.
Now in verse 15, God tells the Jews as they see this brewing fight – this invading and marauding army of millions – that they (the Jews) are to be assured that He is coming; they will not be abandoned by their loving King to be razed by this ungodly brood of reprobates who dare challenge the Almighty God. He is coming, as far as the invading armies are concerned, like as a thief in the night. The Anti-Christ and his armies do not expect that Jesus will show up and fight for the Holy Land. But Jesus’ return will no longer be a surprise to the Jews; He has told them He is coming back. They are now looking for Him ever since the Anti-Christ defiled the new Temple.
It is to the rebellious masses that Jesus will appear to be a thief who steals victory from them, surprising them when His armies split the eastern sky over Israel; and they will realize that they have pushed God too far, and He is coming to engage them in an unwinnable war ‘face to face.’
In Matthew 24:15-28, Jesus specifically warned the Jews not to be looking for Christ in physical places, and don’t follow anyone who says He is in the room or out somewhere. He knows that, once the Temple is defiled, they will be actively looking for the Messiah to come back. He promises them that He will be back; and as such, His return will not be a surprise for them. It will be a surprise for their enemies.
The Right Garments, verse 15
One must have the right garments to be accepted by the Lord. No, this is not about pants, skirts and ties. It is about salvation. One must have the garment of Jesus’ righteousness covering our/your sins, and then God will accept you. If you try like Adam and Eve to make your own garments, you will be found naked and thus rejected by God. Whether Jew or Gentile, Jesus is the ONLY WAY. In Ephesians 4:20-24, we see these words:
“But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Notice the use of the words “put off” the old man and be renewed; “put on” the new man. We cannot cover our sins with human effort and ingenuity; you must have Jesus. From Adam to the last man to walk the planet, the answer is Jesus, Jesus and Jesus. All else is nakedness and being rejected by God.
Are you clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ? If yes, then rejoice. If not, repent; Jesus is coming soon.
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