November 18: GREAT BALL OF FIRE!
Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. Revelation 16:8
Many valuable lessons are enfolded in creation’s account. The sun was created on the fourth day, making a distinction between the light of the world – Jesus Himself, the Creator – and our sun, one of many lights in the firmament of the heavens (Genesis 1:14). The division between light and darkness is both spiritual and literal. The sun’s light, essential for life, is symbolic of the light that Jesus brings to our minds, essential for eternal life.
You will recall that the fourth trumpet plague brought a lessening (one-third) of light upon the earth. It was during this time that the policy of the established church was to keep God’s word from the people at large. Biblical illiteracy was widespread, and possession of the Bible was illegal. The Bible could be read in public only by priests, and not in the common languages of the people, for it was also a crime to translate it into the various languages spoken by the masses. The apostasy of the established church resembled the earlier apostasy of the Jewish leaders who rejected Christ. The church was creating a separation between His word and the people. Yet God still had millions of faithful believers in the world. Aided by the power of the Holy Spirit, they operated in the background, carefully sharing God’s word with spiritually hungry people as He provided opportunity. During this time, the wilderness church was living and growing (see Daniel 11:32-33; Revelation 12:6,14). Though many were poverty stricken, they were rich in faith. And though millions were executed by the church for their faith, more stepped up to the task.
The fourth trumpet plague’s partial effect did not prevent those who desired the light of life from receiving it. In today’s verse, we are shown the worldwide effect of the fourth of the final plagues: the greatly increased intensity of the sun’s heat. While the intense heat of this plague will be literal, it summarily represents the people’s preference for created things over the Lord Himself. The suddenness of this event will not be accompanied by explanation, for God has generously supplied that to us throughout previous millennia.
In Ezekiel 8, the Holy Spirit showed the prophet four actions on the part of His people that were highly offensive to Him, each successive act being more offensive than the previous one. The fourth offense in this series of divine grievances highlighted the acceptance of pagan sun worship in the house of the Lord (v.16). The worship of the sun is the summary symbol of counterfeit worship. Contained within counterfeit worship is a lack of love for the Creator and a love for things: idolatry! The breaking of God’s Law adversely affects one’s relationship with Him and with fellow humans. Because the archfiend is neither a creator nor creative, his efforts to gain worship for himself lie in deceptive counterfeiting, shifting, and contradicting, for he will accept any and all worship with one exception: that of the service of true obedience to God Almighty (see Revelation 12:17; 14:12; 22:14).
In the last seventeen centuries, our enemy has perpetrated a hoax upon the world in regard to the fourth commandment: altering it from the day that the Creator blessed. No Bible-believing follower of Christ should be surprised by this, yet it seems to have caught nearly everyone by surprise!
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11
Dig deeper. Compare these number fours: Daniel 2:40; 7:7,11; 8:11, 23-25; Revelation 2:18-29; 6:7-8; 8:12