The third note is titled "Idols and Demons of man's own making and imagination." All spring from the same verse of chapter 9, is verse 20, and I shall break these notes into two portions also.
Revelation 9:20 The death of a third of the human race seemed to have had no effect on the rest of the peoples - they continued to create their own gods and demons of their imagination with any material they could afford whether it be gold, silver, bronze, stone or wood - it didn't matter to them that these images couldn't see or hear or move. (Dan. 5:23, You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the GOD in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.)
Paul's discourse at the Areopagus in Acts 17:23-29 speaks to these; "For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, "To an unknown god." What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The GOD who made the world and everything in it, being LORD of heaven and earth, does not live in shines made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And He made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek GOD, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him. Yet He is not far from each one of us; For "In Him we live and move and have our being;" As even some of your poets have said, "For we are indeed His offspring." Being then GOD'S offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man." (Paul reminds them of their own ancient writings and he quotes two of their well known philosophers: in 600 BC Epimenedes wrote a song saying, "We live and move and have our being in GOD" and Aratus wrote in 300 BC that we are indeed the offspring of GOD! Paul then announces to them that the GOD whom they worship in ignorance is not far from each one of us! He is not more Emmanuel to the Jew that what He is Emmanuel to the Gentile! Then, in the context of his Jewish background and personal encounter of the revelation of Jesus Christ Paul declares to them the Good News of humanity's redeemed innocence. "GOD has overlooked the times of ignorance and now is calling all of humanity everywhere to a radical mind-shift since he has prophetically fixed a day on which He would judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed, and of this [righteous judgment] He has given proof to all humanity by raising Him from the dead." In Paul's understanding, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead includes humanity's co-resurrection and seals their acquittal (reconciliation) and redeemed innocence.)
Psalm 135:15-18 "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of man's hands; They have mouths, but they say nothing; They have eyes, but they see nothing; They have ears, but they hear nothing; yea, there is no breath in their mouths. Those who make them are like them, everyone who is trusting in them."(The extreme graphic vision of judgment portrayed in the book of Revelation deals with layer after layer of humanity's hardened and stubborn resistance to see the completeness of their redemption from the lies they believed about themselves and GOD. In this specific account of the 200 million strong cavalry on a mission to slay the human race, there seems to be no chance for anyone to escape! yet two thirds of humanity remains totally indifferent to the judgment that fell on their fellows! They seem to be inseparably attached to worshipping a distorted image of themselves - which is what idolatry is all about - an image of their own imagination, projecting their ideas of the g.o.d. of their own making, with no mind-shift taking place - no understanding that their own worst fears of judgment was thoroughly dealt with in the crucified Lamb of GOD who died their death and went into their hell and was gloriously raised into the embrace of the Father of the human race! See Isaiah 54.)
Also Isaiah 40:18-21 To whom then will you liken GOD, or what likeness compares with Him? The idol? A workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains. He who is impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will not rot; He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an image that will not move. Have you not know? have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?! Gen. 1:26-27. (According to this statement, Demons too are the invention and idea of man's own making. The word translated demon, daimon, is from daio, to distribute fortunes. The Greeks gave the word daimon the same meaning as god. What they meant by the word; however, is still a conjecture. They may have related a demon with daemmonas, knowing or being experienced in a thing, or they may have derived the word from daimai, meaning to assign or award one's lot in life (diaitetai kai dioikemtai ton anthropon), the arbitrators or umpires and governors of humanity. They conceived of them as those who ruled and directed human affairs, not as a personality, but primarily as a destructive power. Thus they called the happy or lucky person eudaimon, one who is favored by this divine power. The adjective, daimonios, was used for one who demonstrated power irrespective of whether it was saving or destructive. The Tragic Poets used daimon to denote fortune or fate, frequently bad fortune, but also good fortune if the context represented it as such. Thus, daimon is associated with the idea of a gloomy and sad destiny independent of a person, coming upon and prevailing over them. Consequently, daimon and tuche, luck, are often combined, and the doctrine of demons developed into signifying either a beneficent or evil power in the lives of people. ---Zodhiates Complete Word Study Lexicon.) (The Mirror, with editing.)
In our next post the LORD willing we shall continue with the second part of verse 20's playing on man's imagination.
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