October 27: COMMANDING AUTHORITY
And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. Revelation 9:5 NKJV
We are here given more details of the Islamic hordes that swept over Roman provinces from east to west, where the false church had forcefully established itself. The Arab commanders gave explicit instructions. One historian wrote: “Their constant incursions into the Roman territory, and frequent assaults on Constantinople itself, were an unceasing torment throughout the empire… they continued, by unremitting attacks, grievously to afflict an idolatrous church, of which the pope was the head… Their charge was to torment, and then to hurt, but not to kill, or utterly destroy. The marvel was that they did not [utterly destroy].” Alexander Keith
The heart of the Commander over the worldly commanders – Almighty God – was, of course, to steer the institutional church, far sunk in error, onto a right course. Regarding five months—the duration of the period to inflict pain without killing—the day/year principle of biblical prophecy applies (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6; Luke 13:32). Therefore, five months (5x30 days) represents 150 literal years. The first such incursion occurred in the summer of 1299 and continued until 1449, at which point a change occurred (more on this in the next trumpet). In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them (v.6). The historian continues: “Men were weary of life, when life was spared only for a renewal of woe, and when all that they counted sacred was violated, and all that they held dear constantly endangered; the savage Saracens domineered over them, or left them only to a momentary repose, ever liable to be suddenly or violently interrupted, as if by the sting of a scorpion.”
The simile like… a scorpion references the character and nature of the locusts. They would strike unexpectedly, suddenly, and without warning. Such a pattern had the effect of eradicating peace. Those who had no trust in God were rendered unable to enjoy even a moment’s peace. By contrast, Jesus taught His followers that the peace He gives is not as the world gives (John 14:27). The Savior also taught His followers: “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). The pain of a scorpion’s sting is extreme, but generally not deadly. Trust in God goes hand-in-hand with mental health, spiritual hope, and self-control to refrain from suicide. Moses, Elijah, and Job* experienced a desire to die (Exodus 32:32; 1 Kings 19:4), yet left it to God.
A pillar of error in the Roman church can be traced all the way back to the devil’s lie to Eve in the Garden of Eden: “You will not surely die.” (Genesis 3:4) This teaching spawned the false doctrine of inherent immortality, intended by Satan to make God a liar, dim Christ’s glory, and negate the essential necessity of His resurrection power to defeat both sin and death. This error led the wayward church to invent Purgatory, sort of a halfway house for souls who weren’t “good enough” to go to heaven or “bad enough” to go to hell. The tormented Roman Catholics were in utter misery under the locusts’ attacks. Suicide, it was taught, would cause a soul to “bypass Purgatory” and go straight into “the fiery, eternal pit of torment.” In despair, Job asked:
*“Why is light given to him who is in misery, And life to the bitter of soul, Who long for death, but it does not come, And search for it more than hidden treasures[?]” Job 3:20-21 (see also v.13)