Lesson Four

Chapter 8:13 - 9:12

Demonic Woes

- This is where people will be directly subjected to the source of the Abyss.

- Previous plagues have been called forth by angelic beings, but these woes are announced by a bird of prey hovering overhead.

- The eagle/vulture (2 Bar. 77:17-26; Hab. 1:8) hovers in midair so as to be seen by all and cries out in a loud voice so that all will hear, “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth.” Each “Woe” (3x) represents the three last trumpets.

- Unlike the first four trumpets which affected the source of people’s life, the last three fall upon people themselves.

- The first two woes are in chapter 9 and the last woe is after chapter 10 interlude in chapter 11:12-15. We do not immediately learn of the nature of the third Woe, instead there is a scene of heavenly adulation (11:15-19).

- One group takes 12:7-12 to be the third woe and others take chapter 16 to be the third woe. The latter is the unfavorable view.

- John took six verses to talk about the first four plagues but now he is about to take three times the amount of space to talk about the next two plagues. This emphasizes the seriousness of the calamities that are to follow. People who earlier were merely discomforted by judgments upon the world of nature are not directly subjected to the moments that arise from the underworld.