1. Lesson One of the Book of Daniel, Introduction to the Book of Daniel

Our study for today will continue with the events announced by the trumpet call of the fifth angel of the opening of the seventh seal of the book of seven seals.

Remember the seventh seal includes within its opening the blasts of seven trumpets which are given to announce great events.

The first trumpet of the seventh seal announced the casting of hail and fire mingled with blood upon the earth which caused a third part of the trees to be burned and all green grass was burned up.

The second trumpet was sounded and John saw a great mountain burning with fire cast into the sea and a third of the sea became blood.

A third part of the sea’s creatures died and a third part of the ships were destroyed.

The third Trumpet announces untold damage and distress upon the earth for it brings forth a great star which appears to be a meteor burning as it were a lamp.

And because of the great star, one third of the rivers and fountains of waters are polluted and many people die as a result.

The fourth trumpet blasts and John is given to see heavenly changes for the sun, moon, and stars are now commanded to shine with greatly diminished light.

This fourth trumpet sets the stage for a dark age of light for it is a time of great Satanic activity on earth for Satan and one third of the angels will be cast to earth.

The last three trumpets, 5, 6 and 7, of the seventh seal have a special classification for they are denoted as Woes.

These trumpet announcements are so fearful they are given a prelude announcement of their own, namely warnings to those who inhabit the earth, warnings called Woe’s which are primary exclamations of great grief.

We are told the woes are sent to the inhabiters of the earth, those who have settled and invested their all on the earth.

Those who cling to this earth as their home and their dwelling place, as if they would abide here forever.

The woes are sent to those who believe: "You only go around once in this life, so you have to grab for all the gusto you can get.

They are sent to the eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die, crowd, for they have invested all they have in the temporaries of this life

They are the faithless, they are those who refuse to please God they are those who refuse to do his will.

To these faithless, to these self sufficient, to these who refuse to see the glory of God in the heavens, and the firmament God directs His Son to unlock the bottomless pit and to release terrible things which God has made to torment for five months.

This is announced by the fifth trumpet, described as the first woe.

In Revelation 9:7-12, we are given a picture of absolute terror when for five months God directed and God equipped locusts will roam the earth hurting all those on the earth who have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

The believer’s belief is challenged when reading this passage for what we read is beyond what we can imagine.

Not only what is to take place is absolute terror but even the appearance of these locusts will bring utter dismay.

God paints this picture: Shaped like horses with crowns of gold upon their heads with faces of men and hair of women, with teeth of lions, and breastplates of iron, and tails designed to sting and hurt all men, except the sealed servants of God, for five months.

These demons are released from a prison located in a bottomless pit on the earth, a pit opened by a star from heaven to whom was given the key.

In Revelation 1:18 John was told by Jesus Christ:

Is this star the Lord Jesus Christ sent by the Father to release these demons to torment the earth?

Perhaps, but there is no question that it is an act by God of judgment.

The opening of the pit which is translated from the Greek word abussos meaning abyss or deep, results in great billows of smoke that fills the air and darkens the sun.

From the smoke come forth hoards of locusts, not like any locusts we know but creatures, demon monstrosities.

Their size is not given.

Since God choose to use the word locusts perhaps that is an indication of their size.

They are designed to sting and as we know very little things that sting can cause great hurt.

And in such great hoards even the sound of tiny wings can bring noises similar to the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

The locusts of Egypt in Moses day were commanded to eat the residue of grain that was not destroyed by the hail but the locust type creatures of the Great Tribulation are not made to eat vegetation for they are forbidden to eat grass, trees or any green thing.

Their mission, their whole existence, is for the purpose of afflicting men, but not all men.

These demons are discriminating beings for they are only to afflict those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

The only people on earth who will be protected from their terrible onslaught will be the ones who bear in their foreheads the Seal of the God of Israel.

All others will be tormented but will not die.

We are given to see in this woe a period where death is absent at least from the sting of these demon like creatures.

Revelation 9:5-6, And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. ⁶And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

This is a punishment from God to those in inhabit the earth.

You place your trust in this world and you become an inhabiter instead of a pilgrim just passing through on your way to a better place.

God is sovereign and will not have any other gods before Him.

That is the bottom line.

God is jealous of any glory directed in any direction other than Him.

We live in the age of God’s long suffering where He is not willing that any should perish and in so doing it is easy to forget the nature of God for God will not have any other gods before Him.

This is an absolute and God’s patience will have run out bringing in God’s judgment on all who reject His authority.

So this woe of the seventh seal and its fifth trumpet tells us that God’s long suffering also has a season.

We live in the season for long suffering but there comes a season for judgment.

These who seek death but cannot find it, are those who have rejected God’s long suffering and for them there is no remedy but judgment.

God by His grace has provided the ultimate remedy in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is nothing else that can come other than judgment for God will not abide sin forever.

So God releases that judgment, declaring the first Woe, and as obedient servants these locust type creatures fill the earth for five months to do God’s bidding.

Revelation 9:11, And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Abaddon and Apollyon mean the destroyer.

He is the king of the bottomless pit and is leader over all those sent to torment.

Most likely this is Satan in angelic form directed to lead his army of destroyers.

Revelation 9:12, One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

Now the first woe is very difficult to for the mind to grasp.

But the second woe is a woe that tops the first woe.

For its sting of death on human kind on such a massive scale has never before been felt.

Revelation 9:13-18,  And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, ¹⁴Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. ¹⁵And 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. ¹⁶And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. ¹⁷And 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. ¹⁸By 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.

Again we are given the fractional number - one third.

The first woe brought five months of the stings of locust type creatures sent to torment.

The second woe creatures are identified as horses, but horses with descriptions that we know nothing about, nor has this world ever seen anything like this.

These second woe creatures have not come to sting but to kill.

The events that occur at the second woe are so catastrophic that nothing we know of can adequately describe them.

The record of the sixth trumpet which announces the second woe begins in Revelation 9:12 and continues through chapter 10 and ends at Revelation 11:14.

There are three main events that occur during the second woe and I believe these events are concurrent, that is they happen during the same time period.

The three main events scheduled to occur at the 2nd Woe (the 6^th Trumpet) are as follows:

The four angels in charge of the 200 million horsemen riding horses described in terms which reveal that they are not horses of this world, have the mission of slaying one third of the population of the world.

In the year 1500 the world's population stood at around 500 million.

By the year 1800, just 300 years later, it had doubled and topped the 1000 million mark, or one billion.

By the year 1930, a mere 130 years later, it had doubled again and stood at 2,000 million, or 2 billion.

Now 82 years later the population of the earth stands at 7000 million or 7 billion

This prophecy states that at the 2nd Woe, one third of mankind will be slain.

This amounts to 2,333 million or 2 and one third billion souls would be slain by this army of horsemen if it occurred now.

Each horseman will kill an average of 12 souls so it would seem this plague of death will be very quick.

People in amounts equal to the populations of India and China, or the combined populations of all of Europe, the USA, Canada, Russian, Japan and several other nations will die in this second woe.

How this coming holocaust like no other will be brought about is not fully explained; but it is going to happen for God will fulfill His word to the letter.

Men today will laugh at such things but we who believe know that God is true and God will bring such things to pass for such things are simply the pruning and purging of this world in preparation for the 1000 year Kingdom of God’s son.

What takes place with the remaining two thirds of mankind is astounding for the loss of one third of mankind does not change the heart.

We are told in Revelation 9 at that time people will still be unrepentant and will continue in their witchcraft, idolatry, deception and blasphemy.

Revelation 9:18-21,  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 (horses) mouths. ¹⁹For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. ²⁰And the rest of the men which 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 of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: ²¹Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Men love darkness and run from light.

Proverb 16:18 tells us:  Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

This proverb is demonstrated in this passage for destruction and falls do not bring repentance to the proud and the haughty.

The proud and the haughty will continue in their pride and haughty-ness in spite of impending destruction.

It is God who opens blind eyes and we see here in this woe that a world wide holocaust will not change the heart of men.

It is spiritual blindness at its worst.

Moving into chapter 10 we are still in the period of the second woe for this period continues until Revelation 11:14.

Revelation 10, And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: ²And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, ³And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. ⁴And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. ⁵And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, ⁶And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: ⁷But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.