Why Wait?

When the sixth trumpet sounds, a voice commands the trumpet angel to let the four angels at the corners of the land go (Revelation 9:13-14). The following lines are a neatly parallel command-and-response.

First the command:

a. Loose

b. the four angels

c. who are bound

d. at the river, the great Euphrates.

Then the fulfillment of the command:

a’. And were loosed

b’. the four angels

c’. who were prepared

d’. for the hour and day and month and year

e. in order that they might kill a third of men.

The strict parallel of ab with a’b’ encourages us to suspect that cd will be similarly linked with c’d’. That implies that the being-bound at the river is not simply a matter of delay or waiting but is part of the preparation for the specific time when the army is released. The angelic army that crosses the river is Israel entering the land to conquer, the returning exiles re-taking the holy land. And the time of waiting has been boot camp, a time of preparation until the sixth trumpet sounds the charge.

Waiting is never simply waiting. Israel was “bound” to the law as children, so they could become full sons and heirs at the coming of the Son. Waiting is always preparation.