Commentators on the Second Woe

Burkitt's Expository Notes with Pratical Observations on the New Testament

Verse 12

Note here, 1. From these words, One woe is past, and two more are to come, that God has a storehouse of judgments, as well as a treasury of mercy, and when one judgment will not do, he has more to inflict.

Note, 2. The golden altar, which is here said to be before God, signifies our Lord Jesus Christ, his purity and excellency, and his appearing continually in the presence of his Father for us, as our intercessor and mediator.

Note, 3. That this vast army of horsemen, consisting of two hundred thousand thousand, is expounded generally of Turks and Arabians, who have vast armies beyond all nations, whom God makes the executioner of his vengeance at his pleasure.

Note, 4. Whereas it is said, that the four angels were bound in the great river Eurphrates, and, till loosed by God's command, could never hurt nor stir,--it teaches us that the Lord has Satan, and all his instruments, in his own power, to loose them for our sins, and to bind them again upon our repentance: though their malice by infinite, yet their power is bounded; they cannot do all the mischief they would, and they shall not do all they can.

Note, 5. That when these destroying angels were loosed, their time of hurting was limited to a year, and a month and a day: showing, that the set and determinate time of the wicked's insolency is appointed by God to be either shorter or longer, as he thinks fit: yea, they execute nothing but with a divine permission; nay, nothing without a special warrant and commission from God. I heard a voice saying, Loose the four angels which are bound in the river Euphrates; and they were loosed for an hour, &c.

This is matter of singular consolation to us, that evil angels and wicked men are limited powers; they cannot move, much less hurt, until God loose them: A voice said, Loose the four angels.

Verse 17

St. John proceeds here in describing this vast army of Turks and Arabians, that with incredible swiftness did overrun and ruin the eastern churches; all these expressions of fire, and brimstone, and smoke, denote that cruel devastation and destruction which was occasioned by the Turks and Mahometans.

Behold here the instruments of Satan, how his own cruel and destructive nature is discovered, how exceedingly he is delighted in the perdition of mankind, having been a murderer from the beginning.

In the last two verses St. John declares, 1. What were the sins which produced so great a plague, namely, idolatry and the worshipping the works of their own hands, a sin very odious to God, and for which God suffered the Turks to be so severe a scourge to Christendom; what little reason had the Christians then to call their wars against the Turks the holy wars, when idolatry, the cause of it was not repented of? What success could they expect as long as the idoltry of Christians, and their other provoking sins, were so many?

Observe farther, What was the end God aimed at by such strong physic, by such terrible judgments as he then brought upon the world? It was to bring them to repentance? but so mad was antichristian world upon their idols, that they would not be reformed by the judgment with a sinful people, he will follow them with a variety and succession of plagues and judgments one upon another, till he has either brought them to himself, or brought them to nothing.