Chapter 22 -The Sixth Trumpet - A.D. 70 (9:12-21)
It has been seen that the Trumpet judgements were preceded by
the prayers of the saints - prayers, according to the parallel in Ezekiel, that
Jerusalem might be spared the horrors, which were hanging Over its head; but
these prayers were unheeded. Now come other prayers of the saints - “a
voice from the golden altar of incense.” It is not that the saints are
praying now for judgement on God’s city and people, but rather that such
prayers make judgement inevitable.
This Second Woe, aptly named, is a vision of a mighty army of
horses and horsemen bringing fire and smoke and brimstone (thrice mentioned),
both hurting and killing men.
“One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more
hereafter” (Revelation 9:12). These words have a certain resemblance to
the Septuagint Version of Ezekiel 7:23-26 (verse 26 in particular), which
describes God’s wrath against Israel on an earlier dreadful occasion.
Other verses in the same chapter continue the resemblance to Revelation,
especially v. 12 (=9: 15), 14, 15, 19, 20 (=9: 20, 21). Thus the student is
further encouraged to look for a primary fulfilment of the Trumpets in the A.D.
70 Fall of Jerusalem.
It is tempting to see in the four angels bound at Euphrates
the same four as those mentioned at the beginning of Revelation 7, especially
since they were bidden: “Hurt not,” and now these are specifically
sent forth to “hurt” unrepentant sinners (9:19, 20). The army, which
came against Jerusalem, was truly prepared by God for the hour and day
and month and year, i.e. for the precise time when this part of the
divine purpose was fully ripe. So far as one can judge, there is no prophetic
time period involved here - at least, not in this particular application of the
prophecy - but that this might be possible, by divine design, in some other
fulfilment of the prophecy is not questioned.
A MIGHTY ARMY
The number of the army - 200 millions - can hardly be taken
literally. At all ages in history this has been an impossible figure, until -
perhaps - the present day. But more on this anon. For the moment the number must
be read as indicating an exceptionally large army. By Roman numerical standards
this was actually the case in A.D. 70. Four Roman legions-out of 26 in the
entire Empire - were concentrated in this struggle for the suppression of Jewish
opposition; and their fighting strength was approximately doubled by the
contingents supplied, as acts of loyalty, by neighbouring eastern states. And
all of these-most of them cavalry, in accordance with the prophecy - were
concentrated in one of the smallest countries of the wide-spreading Roman Empire
(Josephus B.J.3.4.2 and 5.1.6).
Like the hordes of locusts in the preceding vision, this army
is described as being invisibly led and controlled by four angels, which are
“bound at the Euphrates.” These details find unexpected (?)
elucidation in the narrative of Josephus, who tells that most of the army
consisted of legions already stationed at the Euphrates in preparation for an
eastern campaign, and of cavalry supplied by four kings of that
region.
LEGIONS AND COHORTS
“But as for Titus, he sailed over from Achaia to
Alexandria, and that sooner than the winter season did usually permit; so he
took with him those forces he was sent for, and marching with great expedition,
he came suddenly to Ptolemais, and there finding his father (Vespasian),
together with the two legions the fifth and the tenth, which were the most
eminent legions of all, he joined them to the fifteenth legion which was with
his father; eighteen cohorts followed these legions; there came also five
cohorts from Caesarea, with one troop of horsemen, and five other troops of
horsemen from Syria. Now these ten cohorts had several thousand footmen, but the
other seven cohorts had no more than six hundred footman apiece, and a hundred
and twenty horsemen. There was also brought together a considerable number of
auxilaries that came from the kings Antiochus, and Agrippa, and Sohemus, each of
them contributing one thousand footmen that were archers, and a thousand
horsemen. Malchus also, a king of Arabia, sent a thousand horsemen, besides five
thousand footmen, the greatest part of whom were archers; so that the whole
army, including the auxiliaries sent by the kings, as well as horsemen and
footmen, when all were united together, amounted to sixty thousand”
(B.J.3.4.2).
COMPARISON WITH JEREMIAH AND ISAIAH
For the Old Testament counterpart to this invasion by a mighty
army, the horses of which, figuratively, have the stings of serpents in their
tails, the reader is referred to the detailed parallel set out at the end of
Chapter 20 indicating the close connection between Jeremiah 8 and Revelation 8,
9. “The snorting of his horses (Sixth Trumpet: “their power is in
their mouth”) ... behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices among you ...
and they shall bite you (“for their tails were like unto serpents”)
... Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with their
vanities (“idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and
wood”)?”
In this way the language of the prophet is harnessed to shew
that in this latest crisis of judgement God’s people had not changed. They
deserved and they suffered a like fate to that which came upon them in the time
of Nebuchadnezzar.
Isaiah has similar language which seems to have distinct
relevance to the Sixth Trumpet judgement: “Rejoice not thou ... because
the rod of him that smote thee is broken (the Jews scored big successes at first
against the Romans): for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth
a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery, flying serpent. And
the firstborn of the poor shall feed (the safety of the faithful), and the needy
shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall
slay thy remnant (“hurt only those men that have not the seal of God in
their foreheads”) ... there shall come from the north a smoke (the
Roman campaign began in the north), and none standeth aloof (R.V.) at his
appointed times (the hour and day and month and year) ... “ Yet this
prophecy ends reassuringly. God’s purpose with Israel shall not fail:
“What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord
hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it” (Isaiah
14:29-32).
There remain difficulties in a number of details in this
remarkable vision. Yet the general correspondence between prophets, Apocalypse
and history is clear enough. Fundamentally the waywardness of Israel was
unchanged, and the time came when retribution was inevitable.
It is worth observing, in passing, that these identifications
with Old Testament prophecy pay a double dividend. They give firm assurance that
the Book of Revelation is in large degree concerned with God’s purpose
with Israel. They also supply excellent reasons for studying the Old Testament
prophets afresh with a conviction that whatever fulfilment their oracles may
have had already, they have a yet greater message for future days, the near
future.
GHASTLY HISTORICAL DETAILS
Josephus provides more than adequate commentary as to how men
were “hurt” and “plagued” by the invaders. His narrative
makes gruesome reading:
“Hereupon, some of the deserters, having no other way
leaped down from the wall immediately, while others of them went out of the city
with stones, as if they would fight them; but thereupon they fled away to the
Romans, but here a worse fate accompanied these than what they had found within
the city; and they met with a quicker despatch from the greater abundance among
the Romans, than they could have in the famine among the Jews; for when they
came first to the Romans, they were puffed up by the famine, and swelled like
men in a dropsy; after which they all on a sudden over-filled these bodies which
were before empty, and so burst asunder, excepting such only as were skilful
enough to restrain their appetites and by degrees took in their food into bodies
unaccustomed hereto. Yet did another plague seize upon them that were thus
preserved, for there was found among the Syrian deserters a certain person who
was caught gathering pieces of gold out of the excrements of the Jews’
bellies, for the deserters used to swallow such pieces of gold, as we told you
before, when they came out, and for these did the seditious search them all, for
there was a great quantity of gold in the city; insomuch that as much was now
sold in the Roman camp for twelve Attic drams, as was sold before for
twenty-five. But then this contrivance was discovered in one instance, the fame
of it filled their several camps that the deserters came to them full of gold.
So the multitude of them (Arabians and Syrians) cut up those that came as
supplicants, and searched their bellies. Nor does it seem to me, that any misery
befell the Jews that was more terrible than this, since in one night’s
time about 2,000 of these deserters were thus dissected”
(B.J.5.13.4).
With this ghastly picture compare: “They shall cast
their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed; their silver and
their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the
Lord: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels; because it
is the stumblingblock of their iniquity” (Ezekiel 7:19).
NO REPENTANCE
The vision concludes with the surprising statement that in
spite of those sufferings inflicted on themselves and their fellows, the
survivors repented not of their idolatry, “neither of their murders, nor
of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” The
worship of “demons (i.e. gods) of gold, silver, brass and stone,
the works of their own hands” is more than adequately explained by the
fanatical reverence which the Jews accorded to the endless sequence of false
prophets who rose up among them, and to their Temple - “the works of their
own hands,” even the disciples of Jesus were not immune: “Master,
see what manner of stones and what buildings are here” (Mark 13:1). Even
in the very last stages of the conflict, thousands of people perished through
foolishly following the exhortation of a false prophet to muster in a certain
part of the Temple that their Messiah might appear unto them. As to the rest,
once again Josephus is more than adequate commentator: “Now this Simon,
who was without the wall was a greater terror to the people than the Romans
themselves, as were the Zealots who were within it themselves more heavy than
both the others; and during this time did the mischievous contrivances and
courage of John corrupt the body of the Galileans; for these Galileans had
advanced this John, and made him very potent, who made them very suitable
requital from the authority he had obtained by their means, for he (John of
Gischala) permitted them to do all things that any of them desired to do, while
their inclination to plunder was insatiable; as was their zeal in searching the
houses of the rich; and for the murdering of men, and abusing of the women, it
was sport to them. They also devoured what spoils they had taken, together with
their blood, and indulged themselves in wantonness, without any disturbance,
till they were satiated therewith: while they decked their hair and put on
woman’s garments, and were besmeared over with ointments; and that they
might appear very comely they had paints under their eyes, and imitated, not
only the ornaments, but also the lusts of women, and were guilty of such
intolerable uncleanness that they invented unlawful pleasure of that sort; and
thus did they roll themselves up and down the city, as in a brothel house, and
defiled it entirely with their impure actions; nay, while their faces looked
like the faces of women, they killed with their right hands; and while their
gait was effeminate, they presently attacked men and became warriors, and drew
their swords from under their finely dyed cloaks, and ran everybody through who
they came upon. However, Simon waited for such as ran away from John, and was
the more bloody of the two; and he that escaped the tyrant within the wall, was
destroyed by the other that lay before the gates, so that all attempts of flying
and deserting to the Romans were cut off, if any had the mind so to do”
(B.J.4.9.10). Murders, sorceries, fornication, thefts!
Yet in spite of all these extremes of suffering the Jews were
utterly unrepentant. On the contrary, they merely became more and more fanatical
and unreasoning in their opposition to the Romans and in their stubborn refusal
to turn to the God of their fathers who was chastening them thus.
