The Fifth
Trumpet Judgment
(http://spiritualbiblestudies.com)
Chapter
Six - Verse Six
And in those days shall men seek death,
and shall not find it; and
shall desire to
die, and death shall flee from them.
(Revelation 9:6)
The Great Tribulation
carries with it one continuous distinction in Scripture and that is the
horrible fact that during this time there will be little or no salvation to be
obtained. There are many references or
hints in the Old Testament to this global time of distress and these come in
the form of historic parables; true Old Testament historic events that carry
within their descriptive verses a higher level of spiritual interpretation that
will not be realized until the latter days.
This period of time is also referenced many times by Christ in the New
Testament. One mention, in particular,
is the word night in which
Christ used to describe the spiritual darkness that would engulf the earth at
the end of time.
John 9:4 - I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the
night cometh, when no man can
work.
Christ stated to
His disciples that He was there to work the works of Him who sent Him, which is
actually saying that Christ Himself was to do the work that the Father of the
Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) had sent Him to do. This work is of course to proclaim the Gospel
of Salvation…this is the work that Christ came to do and it is the work
that believers will continue with until the last day.
So what really is
the work of God that Christ assigns all believers to? Are we damned if we don’t hand out Christian
tracts? If we don’t have a flock or
steady stream of people to preach to have we strayed from the works of
God? What really is the heart and soul
of our salvation? Christ gives us the
answer in the following verse:
John 6:29 - Jesus answered and said unto them, This
is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Be warned: This isn’t just some matter-of-fact belief
that anyone can acknowledge from time to time depending on their mood. No, this belief will require physical fruit
no matter who you are. Faith without
works is dead (James 2:20,26), however we cannot earn our salvation by our
works (Ephesians 2:8-9). A thankful and
repentant heart will show true belief.
The work of every true believer is to believe on Christ the Messiah whom
God has sent. But why did Christ state
that the night will come when no man can work?
It surely seems to be a clear indication of the time of the end of the
age when God’s saving grace will be pinched off from the world. There can be no greater tribulation than to
be in a world where there is no eternal hope.
The work of God for every believer is to truly believe in Christ not
only as the Son of God but as God Himself, the Anointed One - the Messiah for
Jews and Gentiles both.
This hope of
salvation is seen throughout Scripture as the only important factor in life
that God commands us to seek after.
MEN WILL
SEEK DEATH AND NOT FIND IT
I recently but
accidentally caught part of a sermon on television that was discussing
Revelation chapter nine. The minister
was speaking to a massive crowd of hundreds and who knows how many were
watching via television. People in his
audience appeared to be weeping as he attempted to describe the day-to-day
living conditions on this earth during the Great Tribulation. He described the locusts from the bottomless
pit as literally coming up out of the earth and these locusts, he said, will be
the size of horses with faces of men.
Their tails will sting those living on the earth and for a period of
five months these people will be in such physical agony, with boils and
blisters covering their bodies, they will not be able to sit or lie down. There will be massive suicide attempts but not
even one of them will be successful. It
will be a time when men will desire suicide but God will not allow any suicides
during this period. He continued on in
his science-fiction-like interpretation of the Scriptures. He went so far as to say that the smoke from
the bottomless pit would darken the earth to such an extent that the locusts
will not be seen among these dark clouds until they are upon you. On and on he continued with this non-sense
and yet the people in his audience seemed mesmerized by his theatrics. We are not bringing this to light in order to
poke fun at this minister. We are
discussing it because this is merely one isolated case among thousands probably
seen daily somewhere in the world. Those
poor souls listening to these potions of human concoctions need to ask
themselves where is the precious Gospel in all of this?
We shall first look
briefly at Habakkuk Chapter Two as we attempt to unravel the biblical phrase “…in
those days men shall seek death and not find it…” Let us recall that God gave Habakkuk a burden
and a vision concerning the Chaldeans, who would march through
Habakkuk Chapter two,
Verses One Through Seven
1
- I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to
see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
2
- And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain
upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
3 - For
the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak,
and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will
not tarry.
[The phrase “the
vision is yet for an appointed time” may not necessarily be strictly in regard
to the ancient destruction of
4
- Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just
shall live by his faith.
[It is within the
false congregations where the souls of the unrighteous are lifted up…but the
just shall live by faith. As we
quoted in the previous chapter…what is the wheat to the chaff?]
5
- ¶Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who
enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but
gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:
[Many commentaries
interpret this verse as teaching against those who get drunk through the
drinking of wine. However, the invading
Babylonian army of those ancient days seems to be depicting a spiritual
invasion of the true Word of God housed by the Israel of God, or as we
generally call it…the worldwide church.
The invaders “transgress by
wine” as verse five states. Wine
is a symbol for God’s Word and Christ Himself; thus it would appear that the
invaders abuse the true wine, and we know this to be a sign of what we see in
today’s corporate church. Verse five
continues on by declaring them to be proud. It seems to me that the more I see of men
abusing Holy Scripture the more I notice the hidden pride in their souls. Their ambitions grow with every compliment
they acquire from deceived listeners and followers…“neither keepeth at home,
who enlargeth his desire as hell.”
Verse five concludes with what I believe God seems to be saying in that
these people are as death with self-promoting appetites that would encompass
all nations to hear their delusions and false teachings. That is how large
their ambitions are.]
6
- Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting
proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his!
how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!
[Unsaved man is
liken to clay: Isaiah 45:9 “Woe unto him that striveth with his
Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth
it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?” These self-appointed ministers, pastors,
clergy, etc. are all laden with thick clay; they are covered with man’s fallen
motives and ideals.]
7
- Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt
be for booties unto them?
[God seems to be
speaking not merely to Habakkuk nor to Old Testament
“Thus saith the LORD
concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite [sting] with their teeth,
and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare
war against him.”]
Jeremiah 8:17 - For, behold, I will send serpents,
cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite [sting] you, saith the
LORD.
[The same word is
translated as bite here. That fact that
God sent serpents and cockatrices among Old Testament
When the children
of
[The above word bit
is the same Hebrew word used as bite in Habakkuk 2:7 meaning to
sting. There are many references in the
Old Testament that give literal accounts of locusts, serpents, or scorpions
biting or stinging those among the rebellious House of Israel. These all seem to be telling us something
about the time in which we live. God
will not stand for rebellion in His New Testament Temple as well. These spiritual bites are not deadly in any
physical sense of the imagination; worse off is the fact that they are deadly
in the most eternal way, they bring about eternal death.]
The getting of treasures by
a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death. (Proverbs
21:6)
Who are these here
in Proverbs 21:6 who seek death? Are
they consciously seeking death? One can assume
that God is speaking about those who lie for the sake of personal gain. For example, suppose I lied to a perspective
buyer of my car; I told him it had never been in an accident when in fact it
had undergone body work and a new paint job after the accident. Would this qualify for the getting of
treasures by a lying tongue? Perhaps,
but not in the real sense. The treasures
that Scripture mentions usually point to or signify God’s spiritual treasures,
which would be to understand much of the Word of God. Therefore it seems more reasonable to assume
that this verse and others like it are speaking of a more serious matter than
physical treasures.
Isaiah 45:3 - And I will give thee the treasures
of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know
that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
Matthew 6:20 - But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break
through nor steal:
Our treasure in
this life is meant to be the things of God:
His promise of eternal life; the doctrines of salvation; the hidden
things He has revealed to us in His Word.
Man cannot begin to know what all is covered in God’s treasures that He
has granted to His elect. The above
verse in Proverbs seems more aligned with Scripture by being understood in a
religious or spiritual manner. The
getting of treasures by a lying tongue seems to imply a false and careless
declaration of God’s Word by those who seek death. Multitudes unknowingly seek death by
abusing God’s Word; that is by adding their own words or self-declared visions
or by omitting sections of God’s Word. To
follow this careless path is to seek
spiritual death, no less.
And in those days
shall men seek death, and
shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from
them. (Revelation 9:6)
There are several
reasons why those who seek death in the above verse are not the same as
those who seek death in the Proverbs twenty-one verse. These are the only two verses in Scripture
that speak of seeking death. Those in
the Proverbs verse appear to represent all who carelessly invent their own
version of God’s Word with no concern for their eternal souls. They are seeking eternal death by their very
lying words and deeds.
On the other hand,
those in Revelation who are seeking death are doing so not knowing that there
is no longer any death to seek. Let us
explain:
Satan will be
victorious, but only temporarily, in causing the Word of God to become
non-effective near the end of this present age.
God will have previously sealed all who are heirs of salvation (Hebrews
1:14) to endure this spiritual slaughter. As Luke 4:25 refers back to the days
of Isaiah and the shutting of the heavens, when no rain was upon the land,
likewise this is picturing the shutting off of the spiritual rain: the waters
of the Gospel; the fountains of living waters; the rivers of living waters; the
watering of the parch land and the springs of waters upon the thirsty
land. This seems to be picturing the
great famine when men shall seek to enter into the kingdom, but will not
be able to.
No Strength to Bring the
Children to Birth -
God reveals the
spiritual condition of the time of the end through certain inklings or clues
and whispers of indicators by and through the use of prefigures and foreshadows
among Old Testament stories. For
example, in Isaiah chapters thirty-six and thirty-seven we read of the siege of
King Sannacherib
comes into
Finally we read
this statement in Isaiah 37:3:
“…This day is a day
of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy; for the children are come to
the birth, and there is not strength
to bring forth.”
The children are
ready for birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. When a person first comes to Christ, he is
referred to as a babe or a child in Christ.
When a person comes to Christ, he is perceived in Scripture as partaking
in the “new birth,” or being “born again,” (John 3:7). There will be, during this time, those “would
be” babes in Christ who will never become born-again. God will have ended His “day of salvation”;
there will be no strength within the congregations to bring forth the fruits
unto salvation. Of course salvation is
of God and the church, no matter how faithful it is, cannot bring one into
salvation. However, God has used the
churches throughout the ages to proclaim His truth. Once this truth is eliminated within the
congregations, they then will have become so corrupted that they will be
totally ineffective as far as having the ability and desire to preach the true
and narrow way of salvation. Repentance
and other crucial doctrines that are pertinent to the Christian experience will
no longer be embraced nor taught by most; therefore there will be no strength left
to bring the children to birth. That is
to say that there will be little or no strength to come to the birth (the Holy
Spirit will have been removed, in as far as salvation is concerned, (see 2
Thessalonians 2:7).
The
Genesis 7:15-16-
15 - And they
went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath
of life.
16 - And they
that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him:
and the LORD shut him
in.
Once God shut the
door to Noah’s
God Shuts the Door
Luke 13:23-25 -
23
- Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said
unto them,
24
- Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will
seek to enter in, and shall
not be able.
25
- When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand
without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he
shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:
In the above
passages Christ answers the question…will many be saved? In doing so He urges His disciples to enter
in at the strait gate and then states that many will seek to enter in and will
not be able to. We aren’t too surprised
with this answer, after all we know that Scripture teaches that “many are
called but few are chosen.” This then
isn’t a surprising statement that many will not be able to enter into the
straight and narrow way.
Matthew 7:13 - Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way,
that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
However, the above
three verses in the Luke 13 account seem to span from the Gospel Age to the end
of time when God closes the door to salvation.
Christ speaks of the door to heaven begin shut in verse twenty-five. It appears from that point onward there is no
salvation to be offered. The question
is…at what point in time will this door be shut? Will it be closed at the very last day or
will it be shut months or years before the actual appearing and return of
Christ? It would seem that at the point
where God’s servants are sealed and prepared to go through the Great
Tribulation - that also is the time wherein God will shut to door to salvation.
Revelation 7:1-3
1
- And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of
the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the
sea, nor on any tree.
[This wind seems to be symbolic for
the Gospel as a mighty rushing wind
at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Upper Room, (Acts 2:1-4).]
2
- And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the
living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was
given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3
- Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants
of our God in their foreheads.
[Before God will
allow the wind or His Holy Spirit to be removed from the earth, He first seals
all true believers living upon the earth.
These are the servants of God and this reference seems to clearly
indicate that there will be no more salvation once God has sealed His
servants.]
At the Threshold But No
Further -
It is in the Book
of Judges and chapter nineteen that we find another clue indicating that men
will seek salvation during the Great Tribulation, but salvation will no
longer be possible. As the concubine
played the whore against her master in this chapter, spiritual insights suggest
clues to the dark times of the tribulation period. As the harlot would portray the corporate
church (the harlot of Revelation chapter seventeen and eighteen), she is seen
abusing herself with mankind during the night,
which is probably an indicator for the Great Tribulation (night cometh when no
man can work). However, before this
night ends, this harlot tries to return to the safety of her master’s house,
but is found lying dead at the door of his house, with her hands sprawled
upon the threshold!
Yes, those hundreds
of thousands within the so called “religious community,” yet not truly sold out
for Christ and thus not being born-again, will merely continue with lip service
to Christ while their hearts will remain far from Him. In the end, their hands will have only
reached this threshold to the Kingdom, but sadly they will have fallen short
upon the door to heaven.
“I am the DOOR; by
me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find
pasture,” John 10:9.
“…many, I say unto
you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able,” Luke 13:24.
“…men shall seek death,
and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from
them,” Revelation 9:6.
Amos 8:11-12 -
11
- ¶Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a
famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of
the LORD:
[Here God is not
using parables or metaphors, He is telling us in a straight forward way what He
means…God is saying that there is coming a time of spiritual famine when the
true Word of God will not be heard. Yes,
there have been spiritual famines in the past but in the famine of the Great
Tribulation will be unlike anything this world has ever seen before.]
12
- And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the
east, they shall run to and fro to seek
the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
[Revelation 9:6 -
In those days men shall seek
death and shall not find it.]
THE DEAD
IN CHRIST
Let us now examine
Scripture to determine the meaning of this “death” that will still be somewhat
desired and sought after during the time of the end. We read in three different references in the
Book of Revelation that men “repented not” of their sins as these judgments
fall upon the earth. People will still
desire salvation, but they will not truly desire salvation God’s way. To be a true Christian and a true child of
God requires one being spiritually baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. God will do a true miracle in one’s life,
whereby causing him to become a new creature in Christ. One must receive this spiritual cleansing of
a new heart in order to be acceptable to Christ. It is not our doing, of course, but the
spirit of God causes some to truly seek out the God of the Bible. Christ Himself said, “No man can come to me,
except the Father which hath send me draw him: and I will raise him up at the
last day,” (John 6:44). When God truly
draws a person into salvation, He puts His spirit within him, otherwise man
would never come to God on his own free will; man would never strive to possess
the spirit of God within him. For one to
become a child of God one must become a “new creature in Christ,” (2
Corinthians 5:17). Christ told the
Pharisee, Nicodemus, “ye must be born again.”
He goes on to explain in John 3:8 the following: “The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not
tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of
the Spirit.” Once God plants His Spirit
within the believer, our desire is to become DEAD to this sin cursed world and ALIVE to Christ and His
eternal promises. The following passages
confirm the fact that the true Christian must become DEAD to himself and to
this world:
Colossians 3:3 -
For ye are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God.
2 Timothy 2:11 - It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also
live with him:
Romans 6:2 - God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer
therein?
Romans 6: 8 - Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Romans 6: 11 - Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:4-5
4
- Therefore we are buried
with him by baptism into death:
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5
- For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6
- Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of
sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 5:24 - And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with
the affections and lusts.
Galatians 6:14 - But God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I unto the world.
Yes, to desire what
is good and righteous in God’s eyes is to spiritually desire to die from our old nature; to be crucified with
Christ, to be spiritually renewed and regenerated into the spiritual new birth
of a true child of God. We are still
sinners in our physical bodies, we will continue to sin until the day we are
given our resurrection bodies. However,
we are to strive to crucify our flesh and to seek the death of Christ, that we
will receive His resurrection unto us at the last day.
Christ says that His spirit will not always
dwell with man. Likewise, Romans chapter one tells us that
God, in dealing with the wickedness of mankind, will give them over to a
reprobate mind, meaning perverted, degenerate or condemned. God will indeed give them over to these vile
affections. Much more so during the
time of the end when the transgressors have come to full (Daniel 8:23) and
Satan shall be loosed. Scripture seems
to indicate that this is the time wherein men will seek the spiritual DEATH of
salvation but God’s saving grace will flee from them!
Men
will seek death [the death of
the cross], and shall not find it
[God will have already sealed the fate of those living upon the earth at this
time]; and shall desire to die [desire the death of the cross], and death shall flee from them [God’s
Holy Spirit at that time will have been taken out of the way (2 Thessalonians
2:7)].
This
is what Revelation Chapter Nine appears to be teaching.
End of Chapter Six