Day 153

“The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. ¹¹ The star is named Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the waters because they were made bitter. ¹² The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.” Rev 8: 10-12 NASB.

The trumpets are running the days of creation backward as this world moves to de-creation. The plagues of Egypt are also alluded to. We need to keep reminding ourselves that Revelation is talking about literal things in a symbolic, metaphorical, and conceptual way. The third and fourth trumpets portray heaven’s judgment against the apostasy of the Christian church in the Medieval period. But it was not God who “zapped” them from heaven, it was their apostasy that brought judgments upon themselves as God withdrew His protection, just as He did in the Old Testament with Israel.

The 9^th plague to strike Egypt was darkness (Ex 10:21). Their greatest god Ra was seen as a never-failing power. As the apostasy of the “dark Ages” increases so does the spiritual darkness. As mankind gets further from God the darkness of satan obscures the light.

The text here speaks about partial darkness, one that affects some people more than others, one that affects some parts of the day more than others. This is a good description of life as we experience it. The darkness of sin affects some people more than others.

Have you ever heard the saying, “In the land of the blind, one eye is king!” Well in the darkness of night a blind man has distinct advantages over a sighted person. When the darkness of sin comes over the world, those who follow God will have a great advantage, they will see with spiritual eyesight (cf. John 9:39-41).