The Three Woes

How many times have you heard the expression "woe is me"? "Woe" in the dictionary means a condition of deep suffering from misfortune, affliction, ruinous trouble, calamity. I would say magnify that by ten thousand and you might get a glimpse of what we are reading in today's chapters.

The First Woe A star from heaven (an angel) was given the key to the bottomless pit and when it opened demonic locusts came upon the earth. They were to hurt men that do not have the seal of God upon their foreheads for five months. These locusts were more like scorpions. I remember when we lived in the country we had a brick wall near our back deck, and there were a lot of scorpions there. Once one got into the house, and I unknowingly stepped on it. It was like the sting of a hornet. I about had a "hissy fit," and it gives me chills now to think about it. Can you imagine the horror these locusts brought? The king of these locusts is called in Greek and Hebrew - the Destroyer.

The Second Woe Four angels are loosed, and an army of horsemen of two hundred million (beyond numbering) kill a third of the human race. These weren't regular horses, like Mindy's though, they had heads of lions - fire, smoke and brimstone came from their mouths. Their tails were like snakes. Horror upon horror - but the people did not repent.

Then John sees a mighty angel holding a small open scroll. He announces that time shall be no more or as one commentary says, Time as we know it is about to be ended . . . that there is to be no further delay that Antichrist is about to burst upon the scene." There will be a final showdown between good and evil - and the final victory will be won.

He tells John to take and eat the scroll. It is sweet to his mouth, but bitter in his stomach. William Barclay says, This may mean that a message of God may be to a servant of God at once sweet and bitter - sweet because it is a great thing to be chosen as the messenger of God; but the message itself may be a foretelling of doom, and therefore, a bitter thing."

John is told to measure the temple which shows that persecution will come, but God will protect his faithful ones from the demonic terrors that come to the earth.

Now appear Two Witnesses sent from God to preach and witness for 3 1/2 years (most commentaries say they are Elijah and Moses because they bear a strong resemblance to these two prophets). They will be hated and cruelly slain, and then taken up to heaven after their unburied bodies lay in the street for 3 1/2 days.

The Third Woe The seventh trumpet sounds and introduces earthquakes, lightning, thunder and voices, showing that the end of time has come. The heavenly chorus sings The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ, and He will reign forever and ever." Yet here John is not ready to describe the actual coming of the King of Kings.

A side note: This brought to my mind the beautiful music of what we call The Messiah. The words to the Messiah were actually written by Charles Jennens taken from the Psalms and the Book of Common Prayer and sent to Handel in 1741. Handel immediately realized that a great work of music could be made from Jennens' words. Upon George Frideric Handel's reading of God's word, he was overcome in his spirit by its power and began to compose this beautiful work in his home in England in 1741. Several sources close to him record that Handel was so caught up in God's Spirit during the 24 days it took him to write Messiah that he actually locked himself within his study, refusing food, writing music among periods of crying and moaning in that same Spirit.

One of his servant's testimony is that at the end of this three week period Handel burst out of his study with tears in his eyes and the Messiah script in his hand declaring, I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne, with his Company of Angels. At the end of his manuscript Handel wrote the letters SDG - Soli Deo Gloria, - To God alone the Glory.

The first London performance of the Messiah took place on March 23, 1743, in the presence of King George II. When he heard the words, 'The kingdom of this world . . .' the King rose to his feet and remained standing until the end of the number. That is why today when the music is played, people rise and remain standing.

There is one more thing to relate from these chapters: A woman (Israel) brings forth a child (Christ) and the great dragon seeks to destroy the woman and her child. The Child is caught up to heaven and the woman flees to the dessert, where God has prepared a place for her. There is then war in heaven in which Michael and his angels fight with the great dragon and his angels. The dragon is defeated, the accuser and deceiver of men, and is thrown down to earth. Evil never gives up, and so pursues the woman, but she escapes on the two wings of a great eagle - the symbol of God's everlasting arms.

Note: William Barclay relates that when men came to allegorize Scripture, Hippolytus saw in the eagles' wings the symbol of the "two holy arms of Christ outstretched upon the Cross." Amen.