Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

8:12
13 And I looked, and I heard an Eagle flying in midheaven,
saying with a loud voice, Woe; Woe; Woe to those who
dwell on the Land, because of the remaining blasts of
the Trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!
12 Like the ninth Egyptian plague of “thick darkness”
(Ex. 10:21-23), the curse brought by the fourth angel
strikes the light-bearers, the sun, moon, and stars, so
that a third of them might be darkened. The imagery
here was long used in the prophets to depict the fall of
nations and national rulers (cf. Isa. 13:9-11, 19; 24:19-
23; 34:4-5; Ezek. 32:7-8, 11-12; Joel 2:10, 28-32; Acts
2:16-21). In fulfillment of this, Farrar observes, “ruler
after ruler, chieftain after chieftain of the Roman
Empire and the Jewish nation was assassinated and
ruined. Gaius, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius,
all died by murder or suicide; Herod the Great, Herod
Antipas, Herod Agrippa, and most of the Herodian
Princes, together with not a few of the leading High
Priests of Jerusalem, perished in disgrace, or in exile, or
by violent hands. All these were quenched suns and
darkened stars.” 17
13 The flying Eagle-cherub (4:7) rules the Trumpets
section of the Revelation (cf. Hos. 8:1), and it is
appropriate that St. John now sees an Eagle flying in
midheaven, warning of wrath to come. The Eagle, like
many other covenantal symbols, has a dual nature. On
one side, he signifies the salvation God provided for
Israel:
For the LORD’s portion is His people;
Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance.
He found him in a desert land,
And in the howling waste of a wilderness;
He encircled him, He cared for him,
He guarded him as the pupil of His eye.
Like an Eagle that stirs up its nest,
That hovers over its young,
He spread His wings and caught them,
He carried them on His pinions.
(Deut. 32:9-11; cf. Ex. 19:4)
But the Eagle is also a fearsome bird of prey, associated
with blood and death and rotting flesh:
His young ones also suck up blood; And where the slain
are, there is he. (Job 39:30)
The prophetic warnings of Israel’s destruction are often
couched in terms of eagles descending upon carrion
(Deut. 28:49; Jer. 4:13; Lam. 4:19; Hos. 8:1; Hab. 1:8;
Matt. 24:28). Indeed, a basic aspect of the covenantal
curse is that of being devoured by the birds of the air
(Gen. 15:9-12; Deut. 28:26, 49; Prov. 30:17; Jer. 7:33-
34; 16:3-4; 19:7; 34:18-20; Ezek. 39:17-20; Rev. 19:17-
18). The Eagle-cherub will reappear in this section of
Revelation as an image of salvation (12:14), and at the
end will be replaced by (or seen again as) an angel
flying in midheaven proclaiming the Gospel to those
who dwell on the Land (14:6), for his mission is
ultimately redemptive in its scope. But the salvation of
the world will come about through Israel’s fall (Rom.
11:11-15, 25). So the Eagle begins his message with
wrath, proclaiming three Woes that are to come upon
those who dwell on the Land.
Like the original plagues on Egypt, the curses are
becoming intensified, and more precise in their
application. St. John is building up to a crescendo,
using the three woes of the Eagle (corresponding to the
fifth, sixth, and seventh blasts of the Trumpet; cf. 9:12;
11:14-15) to dramatize the increasing disasters being
visited upon the Land of Israel. After many delays and
much longsuffering by the jealous and holy Lord of
Hosts, the awful sanctions of the Law are finally
unleashed against the Covenant-breakers, so that Jesus
Christ may inherit the kingdoms of the world and bring
them into His Temple (11:15-19; 21:22-27).
9
ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE
The Fifth Trumpet (9:1-12)
1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven
which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the well of
the Abyss was given to him.
2 And he opened the well of the Abyss; and smoke went up
out of the well, like the smoke of a burning furnace; and
the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the
well.
3 And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth;
and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth
have power.
4 And they were told that they should not hurt the grass of
the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the
men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
5 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but that
they should be tormented for five months; and their
torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings
a man.
6 And in those days men will seek death and will not find
it; and they will long to die and death shall flee from
them.
7 And the appearance of the locusts was like horses
prepared for battle; and on their heads, as it were, crowns
like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.
8 And they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth
were like the teeth of lions.
17. F. W. Farrar, The Early Days of Christianity (Chicago: Belford, Clarke and Co., Publishers, 1882), p. 519.
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