Revelation 9:16

Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.

• ·         Is this number literal or symbolic? “It is possible that the number is not to be taken literally, but simply suggests an army that is impossible to count and is greater than anything mankind has ever seen.” (Hocking)

Psalm 68:17    The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands; the Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place.

Daniel 7:10  A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him, a thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.  The court was seated, and the books were opened.

Revelation 9:15

So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.

1. ·        The time of their military operations is limited (MH)

• ·        The Euphrates was a landmark of ancient Babylon. It was the frontier of the Israel’s land as fully promised by God (Genesis 15:17-21). It was also the boundary of the old Roman Empire, which will be revived under the Antichrist. (DG)

• ·        The Euphrates is also associated with the first sin (Genesis 2:10-14), the first murder (Genesis 4:16), the first organized revolt against God (Genesis 11:1-9), the first war confederation (Genesis 14:1), and the first dictatorship (Genesis 10:8-10). (DG)

Psalm 7:13  He also prepares for Himself instruments of death;  He makes His arrows into fiery shafts.

Daniel 5:5  In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared …..

Revelation 9:13-14

Then 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 who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

• ·        When nations are ripe for punishment, those instruments of God’s anger that were before restrained are let loose upon them (MH)

• ·        They are angels especially “prepared” for a specific work of judgment in the end-times. (CS)

Ezekiel 43:15  The altar hearth is four cubits high, with four horns extending upward from the hearth.

Jeremiah 13:5  So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.