How will unbelievers react to the devastation that accompanies the coming of Christ? For there can be no doubt that the sixth trumpet describes a terrible war that will take place at the end of history. In Old Testament times, the enemies of God’s people, the Assyrians and the Babylonians, invaded the Promised Land from the north and east, from the place where the Euphrates River runs. So it’s no accident that John sees a demonic army coming from that direction in impossibly high numbers (v. 16), wielding the sort of power that destroyed ancient Sodom – fire, smoke and sulfer (v. 17).

Ah, but Who was it Who rained so much sulfur and fire on Sodom that the smoke from its rubble rose as if from a furnace (Genesis 19:27)? The Lord did. And Who was it Who specifically authorized the destroying angels to unleash that demonic army on the earth? The voice from the altar – the Lord Himself (Revelation 9:13). Yes, even when Satan unleashes his worst on the earth, God remains completely and firmly in charge. Satan remains on God’s leash, doing only what God allows Him to do.

So, what will happen on the day that the truth of God’s prophecies can no longer be denied? What will happen when Satan lifts the veil of his attractive lies, revealing the brutal force and violence inherent in his rebellion against God’s perfect law of love? The sad truth is that some people are so far gone that even seeing the demons unmasked will not deter them from idolizing those same Satanic forces. The sad truth is that even an unmistakable display of God’s sovereign power will not bring some to their knees, will not persuade them to turn away from their sin in repentance and to receive God’s grace in Christ.

We’ve all seen addicts cling to their bottles and needles even as those drugs slowly kill them. We’ve all wondered how so many modern Muslims hold fast to their faith in spite of the poverty, oppression and ruin their zealots have brought on places like Syria and Afghanistan. But on the great Day of Judgment, the sad truth is that many will keep on clinging to their idols even as they melt. Many will go on trying to justify their murders and thefts, even when there’s no one left to kill and nothing left to steal. Many will keep looking to magic or sex for meaning and fulfillment in life even as the skies are rolling up like a scroll (Revelation 9:20-21; 6:14), even when they can no longer deny the sovereign power of God.

Yes, just as God rescued Lot before raining fire and sulfur on Sodom, God will not allow the four angels to unleash their devastation until all His servants have been sealed, have been saved (Revelation 7:3; 9:14). But shouldn’t the horrible fate of the lost move us to urge them to repent, before they become too hardened, before the demons they worship turn on them?

Genesis 19:23-29 (ESV)

23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.
25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Revelation 9:13-21 (ESV)

13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God,
14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind.
16 The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number.
17 And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths.
18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths.
19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,
21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.