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The Four Angels Bound at the Euphrates
Exactly how they are bound there is a mystery, of course. How anything--particularly disembodied spirits--could be chained for four thousand years in a flowing river is unknown, to say the least. . . . No doubt God is equal to the needs of the occasion, however, and can bind them in some quite appropriate and effective manner. . . . 7
"The Euphrates is linked with the most important events in ancient history. On its banks stood the city of Babylon; the army of Necho was defeated on its banks by Nebuchadnezzar; Cyrus the Younger and Crassus perished after crossing it; Alexander crossed it, and Trajan and Severus descended it." -- Appleton's Cyclopedia8
It was near the Euphrates that sin began, the first lie was told, the first murder was committed, and the tower of Babel (the origin of an entire complex of false religions that spread across the world) was built. The Euphrates was the eastern boundary of the Promised Land (Gen. [[15:18|bible.1.15.18]]; Ex. [[23:31|bible.2.23.31]]; Deu. [[11:24|bible.5.11.24]]), and Israel's influence extended to the Euphrates during the reigns of David (1Chr. [[18:3|bible.13.18.3]]) and Solomon ([[2|bible.22.2.1]]Chr. 9:26). The region near the Euphrates was the central location of three world powers that oppressed Israel: Assyria, Babylon, and Medo-Persia. It was on the banks of the Euphrates that Israel endured seventy long, bitter, wearisome years of captivity (cf. Ps. [[137:1-4|bible.19.137.1-19.137.4]]). It is the river over which the enemies of God will cross to engage in the battle of Armageddon (Rev. [[16:12-16|bible.87.16.12-87.16.16]]+).9
Attention has been abundantly called by commentators to the region of the Euphrates as that place where human sin began and also Satan's empire over man; where the first murder was committed; where the first war confederacy was made (Genesis [[14|bible.1.14.1]]); and back of this it is where Nimrod began to be "a mighty one in the earth," and where the vast system of Babylonian idolatry, with its trinity of evil--"father, mother and son" originated, to deceive the whole world by the Satanic fable of "the queen of heaven." Here, moreover, as we saw in Zechariah [[5|bible.38.5.1]], iniquity is to have its last stage on earth (see Revelation [[18|bible.87.18.1]]+ also).10
Notes
1 Albrecht Durer (1471 - 1528). Image courtesy of the Connecticut College Wetmore Print Collection.
2 E. W. Bullinger, Commentary On Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1984, 1935), Rev. 9:15.
3 Donald Grey Barnhouse, Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1971), 175.
4 John MacArthur, Revelation 1-11 : The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1999), Rev. 9:14.
5 Unless we allow ourselves the luxury of departing from the text and imagining it to describe helicopter gunships and other modern weapons--thus falling into a trap similar to that of the Historicist Interpretation.
6 "There is another intriguing possibility, of course. Maybe the Euphrates mentioned here is the antediluvian Euphrates rather than the Babylonian Euphrates. It is barely possible that, deep in the earth, remains the underground storage chamber which controlled the primeval flow into the garden of Eden. Though most of these caverns broke up with their fountains (controlled exit conduits) erupted to help produce the Flood, or at least in the earth's isostatic readjustments after the Flood, it must may be that the primeval source of Eden's rivers is still intact." -- Henry Morris, The Revelation Record (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1983), Rev. 9:14.
7 Morris, The Revelation Record, Rev. 9:14.
8 William Smith, Smith's Bible Dictionary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1997), s.v. "Euphrates."
9 MacArthur, Revelation 1-11 : The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Rev. 9:14.
10 William R. Newell, Revelation: Chapter by Chapter (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1994,c1935), Rev. 9:14.
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