What Old Testament passages parallel the themes found in Revelation 9:6? Setting the scene “In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.” – Revelation 9:6 Job’s laments – personal anguish that longs for death • Job 3:20-22 – “Why is light given to the weary… who long for death that does not come, and search for it more than for hidden treasure… who rejoice and greatly exult when they find the grave?” • Job 7:15-16 – “so that I prefer strangling and death over my bones. I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.” These cries match Revelation 9:6: overwhelming misery drives people to hunt for death, yet relief is withheld. Jeremiah’s prophecy – death preferred to life under judgment • Jeremiah 8:3 – “Then death will be preferred to life by all the survivors of this evil family who remain in all the places to which I have banished them,” declares the LORD of Hosts. National judgment leaves the remnant yearning for death—an Old-Testament preview of the torment pictured in the trumpet plague. Deuteronomy’s covenant curses – life hanging in doubt • Deuteronomy 28:65-67 – “Among those nations you will find no repose… Your life will hang in doubt before you; day and night you will live in dread… In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening, ‘If only it were morning!’” The curse foretells ceaseless dread and unrelieved fear, the very atmosphere conveyed when Revelation’s locusts sting but do not kill. Jonah and Elijah – godly men who begged to die • Jonah 4:3, 8 – Twice the prophet cries, “It is better for me to die than to live.” • 1 Kings 19:4 – Elijah prays, “Now, O LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” Although personal rather than corporate, these episodes show God restraining death until His purpose is fulfilled—just as He withholds it in Revelation 9:6. Shared themes to notice • Unbearable torment—physical, emotional, or spiritual. • A longing for death as perceived escape. • God’s sovereign refusal to grant that escape until His judgment or purpose is complete. Old-Testament sufferers tasted what Revelation 9:6 universalizes: when the Lord releases judgment, even death itself remains under His command. |
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