John hears a voice from the horns of the golden altar of incense that is before the throne. This alarm is the climax of the five-month siege. It said, “Loose the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates.” This river was the eastern boundary between Rome and the Parthians. Rome had launched an unprovoked attack against Parthia in 55 BCE and lost 30,000 soldiers, and lost many more into captivity. At last, the four angels were loosed to kill the third part of men. This indicates that the judgment was a partial judgment, rather than a universal judgment of all men. Josephus tells us that when Titus moved against Jerusalem, he was followed by three thousand guardsmen from the Euphrates. John heard the number of the armies of the horsemen, which was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. Rome maintained 25 legions, three in Britain, seven along the Rhine, six on the Danube, and nine in Syria. The number computes to 200 million. The reality is that the whole world demanded Israel’s end. Rome had declined Parthian assistance of 40 thousand cavalrymen. They already had so much help that they didn’t need them.
John sees the horses in the vision (the four horsemen of chapter 6), and those that sat on them. 1. Breastplates as of fire, hyacinth, and brimstone; 2. Heads of the horses were as the heads of lions 3. Out of their mouths proceeds fire, smoke, and brimstone
Jerusalem was to be utterly burned with fire (Rev. 18:8) and was the result of the war-horses of the Romans that seemed fierce as lions. The war-horses are used as a symbol of their power. They are compared to locusts (v. 7, cf. Joel 2:3). However, Josephus claimed that the seditious Jews started more fires than the Romans (Wars, VI, vii, 3). The third part of men was killed by the fire, smoke, and brimstone that came out of their mouths (v. 18). People in the city died by fire (fire, smoke, and brimstone), famine, or by the sword.
Idolatry was common in the Graeco-Roman world. Those not killed by the plague did not repent of the works of their hands, not worship demons, idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood which can neither see, hear or walk (cf. Ps. 115:1-8). While the Jews were quick to condemn them, they practiced the same things in principle (Rom. 2:1-16). The leader of the seditious Jews was John of Gishala. He is the one referred to as the “beast” in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. John had an image he placed in the temple that he compelled the Jews to worship (Rev. 13:14-15). Idolatry has many different forms, but it occurs anytime one turns from the Living God to serve corruptible and inanimate things of this life. Materialism is the great idol of American life.
The refusal to repent describes the stubbornness of the seditious Jews. They repented not of their murders, sorceries, fornication, nor their thefts. Josephus records so many such actions that it would be hard to find one law that wasn’t violated. The law’s purpose to restrain and the priests’ purpose to enforce accountability was removed in the city of Jerusalem with the death of the High Priests. They could not overlook the power and judgment of the Lamb who will hold them accountable. The lake of fire is prepared for the Devil and his angels and His execution of that confinement was soon to take place.