We're going to be reading a passage which illustrates, I think, so well that the battle belongs to the Lord and some of the ways in which we have this tendency to compromise that belief. I'm going to be reading from the majority text version, which is on page 17 of your bulletins. So the third angel trumpeted, and a great star fell out of the sky, burning like a torch. And it fell upon a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. The name of the star is called Wormwood. So a third of the waters were turned into Wormwood. And many people died from the waters because they were made bitter." Amen. Father, we thank you for your word and we pray that as we dig into it you would keep us from error and that you would help us to glory in your awesome power, your awesome might, your grace, that you are the Lord over all of history, over all of life, and you have set your Holy Son upon His holy hill. to rule. May we never forget that. May we never live in fear, but may we live in the confidence that if you are for us, who can be against us? We pray for your blessing now as we continue to worship in response to your word. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. If you don't have one of these, I think it'll help the children to be able to follow along and understand some of the different symbols that are coming. There's a number of extra ones in the back. You can go back and get those. But in this chapter, we have been seeing how God has gradually and persistently been heating up the judgments on both Israel and Rome. And I think both as family and church, we can learn from his disciplines. He doesn't bring the harshest discipline right away. When there is no repentance, he keeps increasing the severity of the discipline, but there is always room for repentance. We also looked at the nature of God's judgments on Israel and Rome, and we saw that he used angels. humans, and even the very physical creation itself to bring his judgments. And we saw how they so well fit the crime. So far we have seen thunder, lightning, hail, fire, blood, asteroids, earthquakes, sea quakes, resulting tsunamis, fish kills, and red tides as a part of his weaponry. Now we also saw that God intended each of those historical events to be symbols of something warnings and symbols, but it is remarkable to see the detail with which each of those prophecies was fulfilled to a tee between the months of May and September of AD 66. But this week's and next week's trumpets are a bit tougher because there is virtually nothing written on these trumpets that's worthwhile. So I've had to do a lot of original research. And because it is original study, I will hold my conclusions with a lot more tentativeness. I'm convinced everything I'm going to give you is 100% accurate. You guys are going to have to be Bereans and see if you're convinced. But I think that this perfectly fits the time sequence in the passage, the language and grammar of the passage, the historical records that we have. The parallelism in the chiasm, uh, it fits everything. And you'll have to see if you're convinced of the same. Now, let me read those two verses again. Then I'm going to give you a summary statement of where we're heading. And then I'm going to dig into the details. Now I do need to dig a little bit more. into these details, first of all, because there's so little written on the subject, but also this sermon is going to serve as a historical background for some of the upcoming sermons that we're going to, especially in the second half of the book. John wrote, so the third angel trumpeted and a great star fell out of the sky, burning like a torch. And it fell upon a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. The name of the star is called Wormwood. So a third of the waters were turned into Wormwood and many people died from the waters because they were made better. Now here's what I believe happened in a nutshell. I believe that a literal meteorite fell into Lake Ram, which is located in the Golan Heights, way up northeast of Israel. And whether the meteorite created that lake or whether it fell into an already established lake is immaterial. We don't need to determine that this morning. I'm going to assume an establishment date and say that the lake was already there. The evidence seems to indicate that immediately after the meteorite hit the water, it penetrated the underground aquifer, poisoned the aquifer and all of the springs and the streams that flow from that aquifer. Now, just so happens. that this Jordan aquifer and its connected springs and streams accounts for exactly one third of Israel's water supply. So it doesn't take but a few minutes for God to bring disaster to all of the water streams, the main water streams that they're using. along the course that Sestius is traveling from north down to south. And it just shows you how vulnerable we can be to God's judgments. Now that's the literal fulfillment, but since John said that these historical events were intended by God to be symbols of something significant that's happening in terms of his judgments on kingdoms, His covenant judgments, I'm going to quickly explain what I believe was symbolized by that meteorite. Now the star was a well-known symbol of the high priestly office of the Sadducees and had been that sign for over 100 years. Very, very well-known symbol. And the fall of that star was a powerful symbol of the removal from office of the family of Ananus in late AD 66. And when John prophesied this, it probably seemed like an absolutely impossible thing to remove this mafioso family from their position. People had tried numerous times and been utterly unsuccessful. Rome had tried to remove them from office and had not been successful. But it happened. It happened because God decreed it to happen. The second half of the book will describe the tremendous power that Ananias, his five sons, his son-in-law Caiaphas, and his grandson Matthias wielded within Israel. In fact, many scholars, you may have a hard time believing this, but many scholars believe that the rich man and Lazarus story was actually a story about Ananus, who also happened to have five sons, just like the rich man, and that story had five sons. In fact, there is a number of parallels between the two. They think that that was a not so subtle reference to Ananus on the part of Jesus. But in any case, his family was an incredibly important family and the events of the third trumpet that happened in the weeks immediately following the second trumpet were a tremendous judgment. It was a judgment that virtually everybody who lived in Israel believed was well deserved. Um, but God accomplished what man could not. That's the overview. Now let me dig into the text and a little bit more detail here. Verse 10 says, then the third angel sounded once again, angelic power guides things like meteorites, as well as the humans that those meteorites symbolize. They are under God's sovereign control and he puts them under the control of his servant angels. And we've already dealt with this subject quite a number of times, so I'm not going to belabor it, but here's the point. Why does John keep reminding us of the fact that these are good angels who are orchestrating these events? It's because when we live in the midst of these kinds of troubled times, We have this tendency to think that Satan is the one who governs planet earth and the bad guys are invincible. The trilateral commission will never overcome what they are doing. All of these conspiracies, they control world history and he has to keep reminding us and reminding us now. It's an angel who just does a simple thing and boom, he messes up their plans. Okay. So he reminds us of his sovereignty. Verse 11 goes on to say, and the great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch. There are two plausible interpretations of that falling star. One takes it as a large meteorite or a small asteroid that falls onto the mainland source of one third of Israel's waters. That's my interpretation. Another interpretation is that this star is a demon who falls from heaven like the demon in chapter nine. And there are actually some very good interpreters who take it that direction and honestly it doesn't matter which which of those two theories you take it's still going to point to the fall of the family of Ananas that had exercised a tight-fisted control over Israel since the time of Jesus. If the falling star was a demon and It spells the end of his influence over that mafioso type family. If it was a meteorite, as I believe, it symbolizes the fall of Matthias, the grandson, or of the whole house of Ananus out of control of that office. Or perhaps it also includes the demonic influence behind him. But let's examine each possibility. Uh, the interpretation that says that this was a demonic angel behind the high priestly Masio's mafioso family comes from chapter nine. Let's read a verses one through two of a chapter nine. So the fifth angel trumpeted and I saw a star that had fallen out of the sky to the earth and to him was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. So he opened the shaft of the abyss and smoke went up out of the shaft like the smoke of a burning furnace and the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the shaft. Now this star is obviously a personal being and most believe that it was a demon. Okay, this fallen angel in turn unleashes numerous demons from the pit. So the star in chapter nine is a demon. Angels are called morning stars in Job 38 verse seven. So the argument is that if the star of chapter nine is an angel, then the star in this verse should also be seen as a fallen angel. That's a fairly good argument. Second argument is that this star has a name, Wormwood. They say it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to be naming a meteorite, but it makes all the sense in the world to be naming a personal being. And on the surface, that theory makes sense. And if you want to run with that theory, It doesn't trouble me at all. It's not going to make a difference as to the ultimate applications of this, but let me give you several reasons why I and many commentaries are not convinced that this is a demon. And these commentaries that are, I agree with our pre meal, all meal and post-meal. I think the evidence strongly favors a literal meteorite. First, the star in chapter 8 verse 10 falls in AD 66. I think the Greek is crystal clear that whatever it is that falls in that verse falls after the events of trumpet number two. Not before, but after that. Well, that messes up just about anyone's timing of the fall of demons. It doesn't fit the sequence of a demon. Now the same is not true of the fall of the star in chapter nine. New King James is not super clear on that, but the Greek word for had fallen in chapter nine is in the perfect tense. And in the Greek, the perfect tense refers to something that had happened previously with an ongoing state. So previously this demon had fallen and he is in, in a continuing state of being fallen is the meaning of that term. So when did the fall of demons take place? There are two options. If you're talking about their spiritual fall, then it happens sometime around Genesis chapter 3. If you're talking about their fall out of heaven, they're being cast out of heaven, well, that happened in chapter 6, verses 12 through 16. And the Bible doesn't know of any other falls of demons. There was a spiritual fall in Genesis 3. There was a physical fall from heaven in May of 66. Well, those facts completely rule out the third trumpet describing the same fall as the fifth trumpet. Whatever thing falls in the third trumpet falls no later than September. I mean, no earlier than September and no later than November of 8066. Well, that didn't make any sense whatsoever if it's a demon. To say that a demon fell between the months of September and November in a spiritual sense is a theological error. To say that a demon was cast out of heaven between September and November is a timing error, okay, because that happened in chapter 6. So I think it's a very strong argument against this being a demon. Second, though chapter 9 does refer to a demon as a fallen star, the more immediate context of an asteroid in the second trumpet, which we clearly demonstrated was an asteroid, and that's the verse right before it, and the literal stars of the fourth trumpet, which are the verses immediately after it, Uh are a closer context. So the immediate context people always say, well, the context in chapter nine indicates it's a demon. And I say, well, no, the immediate context argues more strongly in favor of a meteorite than it does a demon. Um, the third argument in the third trumpet, the stars fall onto the waters is what makes the waters polluted. That doesn't make sense at all if it's referring to either the spiritual fall of demons or the physical fall of demons. It falls onto the waters and its fall pollutes the waters. That argues much more naturally in favor of a meteorite. It's not just that an already fallen demon starts messing around with the water and it gets poisoned. No, the poisoning seems to be synchronized with the fall. But what about the name Wormwood? Doesn't that indicate that it is a person. Not necessarily Psalm 147 verse four says that God has numbered and named every star. And since the word star can refer to sons, to planets, to asteroids and to meteorites, uh, that would indicate God names all of the meteorites. Isaiah 40 verse 26 says that he not only numbers the stars, but everything that is in the created heavens. And he calls them all by name. Not one is missing. So there's two references to indicate that God has named even the asteroids and the the meteorites I mean NASA does it why wouldn't God I mean every rock that they have seen out there It's got a number and it's got a name. So why wouldn't God now? Let's turn that argument around verse 11 says the name of the star is called Wormwood The Greek word for is called is in the present tense. So that means that while John was writing that book and before the fall had happened, whatever fall verse 10 is talking about, that star already had the name Wormwood. Uh, it didn't get the name Wormwood after it poisoned these waters. So let's think about that. It doesn't make sense to say that the angel had the name Wormwood before it's spiritual fall, Genesis chapter three. That didn't make any sense at all. Why would God name a demon something evil while he was perfect, before he had fallen? What about the naming of it before it had been cast out of heaven? Now that's more possible. But while it's possible that a demon was named Wormwood because it had one role in life, to pollute waters in AD 66, it seems very, very unlikely it would receive that name for one event in its 4,000 year history. Remember that demons are, everything was created 4,000 BC, around that time. So is it likely that that demon You know, and in Genesis, a time of Genesis would be named Wormwood because it's got a destiny to, in AD 66, poison some waters. While it's possible, it doesn't seem very credible to me. But it is not at all hard to believe that God had prepared a poisonous meteorite whose only role in human history would be for this one event. Its whole goal was to poison these waters in precisely this measure. So God named it that so that angels would know of its purpose. You know, earlier the angels had been taking other meteorites and throwing them to the earth. And it comes to this meteorite and they know, oh, no, no, that's not one that we can use. That one is named Wormwood. It's got a very special purpose. We already know what that purpose is. And so even though it's not a definitive argument, I think it adds weight to the previous ones. Fifth, the waters take on the characteristic of the star. If the waters aren't literal, I don't see how they can take on the characteristic of a demon. They could be spiritually poisoned if you're talking to the non-literal waters, what they symbolize, but how do literal waters, which they clearly are, take on the characteristic of a demon? I don't know any way that they could. The star is wormwood, the waters become wormwood. So if the waters become wormwood, they are taking on some of the bitter components of the star. There appears to be a chemical transfer of properties from the star to the waters. And to me, that strongly leans in favor of a meteorite or a small asteroid. Six, many commentaries point out that there is a deliberate parallel between the wormwood being thrown into sweet water and making it undrinkable and Moses casting wood into bitter water and making that sweet. I mean, most commentators say is a very deliberate allusion to that. It's actually a reversal of what Moses did. Well, if that's the case, it too argues for something physical, a physical object being thrown into the water. And it's not a definitive argument. it favors that interpretation. Both were literal events that symbolized something. Seventh, the ancients frequently spoke of falling meteorites as falling stars and such a meteorite would naturally burn like a torch as it entered the earth's atmosphere. I've put a picture into your outlines of actually two pictures of meteorites flaming as they come into the atmosphere. Now, no one of these arguments together is absolutely definitive other than maybe the first one. But you take these seven together, and I think they make a pretty watertight case for this being a large meteorite or a small asteroid. Now, let me dig into the history and show how that fits history perfectly. Though the ancient historian Dion Cassius speaks about the waters being poisoned, he doesn't know how. He just blames it on the Jews. Somehow the Jews managed to poison these waters. But poisoning via a meteorite makes a lot more sense. First of all, there is evidence of more than one large meteorite that fell in AD 66, and so this is not at all an unreasonable interpretation. This was one of the heavenly signs that Josephus thought foreshadowed the fall of Israel. But could a meteorite or a small asteroid actually poison one-third of Israel's waters? A lot of people say there's no way. They've looked at lots of meteorites and they're made up of iron or other minerals. There's just no way that they could poison waters. My answer is yes, they could. There are two scenarios where this could work, and only one fits the first century evidence. The theory that doesn't fit very well, in my opinion, is that the waters could have been poisoned as a result of a very large asteroid bursting in the air, mixing with the hydrogen and the oxygen of the air to produce prodigious amounts of nitric acid rain. There is a premillennial website that describes the scientific evidence for this acid rain being able to be produced by an asteroid. It's a purely theoretical approach to this problem, but for it to have produced sufficient nitric acid to poison the waters, it would have had to have been a pretty big asteroid that explodes in the air. Now here's the problem. Based on a similar explosion that happened in the Tunguska region of Russia in 1908. It's just not credible that explosion literally flattened 770 acres 770 square miles of forest is just boom and all of these trees lay flat on the ground and And it created a great deal of damage way beyond that radius. Now, did it produce a lot of acid rain? It did, but here's the point. Such an explosion happening in Israel would have produced far more damage to Israel than the acid rain would have produced. Okay. Uh, they would have been talking about the explosion and the deaths that resulted from that, not the acid rain. Uh, so I reject that interpretation out of hand. I think it had to have been a much smaller asteroid or a very large meteorite. The second theory is a much more targeted meteorite or small asteroid falling into one of three aquifers of Israel and polluting just that aquifer. I should define terms, shouldn't I? An aquifer is simply an underground body of water that you can drill wells down to and pump water up from. So an aquifer is underground water, okay? There are three main aquifers in Israel, and I cannot find any evidence whatsoever that there was a meteorite impact on two of those aquifers, but there is perfect evidence that this did indeed happen to the Jordan aquifer. That's the aquifer that Dion Cassius says was poisoned. The place of impact would have to have been, now this is the only place I can find in all of Israel's geography and north of it, would have had to have been the crater lake in Golan Heights called Lake Ram. And there's a picture of it in your outlines. Scientists really don't know how this crater lake was created or even when it was created. Some assume that it was a prehistoric volcanic crater. And the top was blown off. Others have assumed that it's a underground explosion of gases. Others have assumed that it was created by a meteorite. All seem to assume that this predates man by millions of years. Well, we know that can't be true because the earth isn't millions of years old, right? But let's assume that the lake was already there in 8066. The key point for our purposes this morning is that its underground springs are tightly connected to the Jordan aquifer, which, as I said earlier, represents exactly one third of Israel's rivers and springs. If a large meteorite hit the center of this lake, it could do that job. Now, there are no springs or streams leaving this lake. And it's only fed by the underground springs that come from the aquifer. So it would be the perfect spot to poison the whole Jordan aquifer without people even realizing that the water had been poisoned. And the reason for that is it's so far north. I mentioned earlier that some attribute the poisoning of waters in AD 66 to the Roman leader Cestius. They say that a demon, so they take the interpretation that the star is a demon. They say that a demon made Cestius poison the water. Now it is a credible interpretation and it may have been true, but it seems utterly inconsistent with Rome's honor code of not poisoning any of the water supplies in a land that they were conquering. That was just their honor code. Cestius was an old school soldier. And I think he would not have wanted to ruin the water supplies for himself or for his allies like Herod Agrippa. Dion Cassius tells us that the Romans had a hard time getting drinking water because it was poisoned. They would hardly have poisoned their own drinking water and then started complaining about it. It just doesn't, it's not a credible theory. It seems it was poisoned from another source. Now it's true that Rome did on occasion break their honor code. So I cannot be absolutely dogmatic that Cestius was not the guilty party for poisoning the Northern waters, which is exactly where he came down from, Calilee down into Judea, following exactly along this, this aquifer. But I have read a history, big old history, on the chemical warfare of the ancient world, including Rome's use of chemical warfare. And I think it speaks rather convincingly that Rome simply would not have done that, especially when Herod Agrippa was an ally who was fighting side by side with Cestius. He would have spoken vigorously against that tactic. So let's assume for a moment that this was caused just by a meteorite. This is where the huge objection comes in. And most people say, just can't be. And so they opt for things that aren't exegetically accurate. They say meteorites simply cannot poison water. So I want to answer that question. I've done a lot of research on this to try to figure out if this is possible or not. And the answer, again, is a definitive yes. I'll just use the 2007 meteorite that fell in Peru as one example that's been studied by quite a number of scientists. It's called the Carancas impact. You've got a picture of it right here on your outlines. Articles have been written about it by National Geographic, the Meteorological Society, Wikipedia, the Associated Press, and other organizations. There is a lot of information that you can look at. Let me summarize what happened. A meteorite was spotted blazing its way across the sky and landing in the Caracas region of Peru. And the descriptions of that blaze across the sky sound almost identical to what is being described in verse 10. like a flaming torch, you know, across the sky. The crater that was formed was only 15 feet deep and 43 feet wide. So it was actually a very small object on a very shallow trajectory. And yet, despite its size, it poisoned all of the underground waters as a result of this hit. In fact, It poisoned more than just the waters. The fumes that came off of it poisoned the people who came near. Almost immediately people showed up and they saw the water boiling from the heat of the asteroid that was down below. It gave off a foul odor and people immediately began getting headaches, started vomiting and developing skin lesions all over their bodies. And they developed other ailments as well. There were 600 villagers in that remote region that got sick. Animals lost their appetites, bled through their noses. Many of those animals died. All of the underground water sources were contaminated and authorities considered declaring a state of emergency. So can a meteorite poison waters? Absolutely yes. The Caroncus event is one very well documented example. I'm giving that information because you're going to, if you give that interpretation, people say, I've seen thousand fragments of meteorites and there's no way that those could poison the water and say well just look at the Caroncus event you'll see there's one example that did. But the unusual geography of Lake Ram makes it perfect for instantly contaminating all of the underground springs and streams that are connected to the Jordan aquifer and yet the damage would be restricted to that aquifer alone. And because of the nature of the chemical reaction, this would not be a long-term poisoning. It would only last for a period of time. As I mentioned, Dion Cassius blamed the Jews, but this passage seems to indicate that Jesus had a third angel guide a meteorite that had been reserved for this very day to come burning through the atmosphere like a flaming torch. and hit the water of Lake Ram, penetrate the aquifers, boil the water with the heat, releasing poisons that, at least for a time, poisoned the waters of people who drank from it." Granted, no one else has come up with this theory. Or they've not come up with any other solution either. They just say they don't know. But I think it is the perfect explanation that explains every detail of the passage. So that was the literal event. But what did it symbolize? Well, Wormwood was a symbol of God's judgment on apostasy. Apostasy means abandoning the true faith. So this would make Israel the main focus of the trumpet. Now, it's true that the Romans got poisoned, too. In fact, in all of these judgments, it's both Israel and Rome who suffer as a result. But what is the focus? Rome is not the focus because Rome never had the true faith. They did not apostatize from the true faith. Israel did. And even dispensationalists like John Wolvard admit that every single one of the six times that the word Wormwood is used in the Bible, it is always, without exception, used as a symbol of God's judgment on apostasy. So we're going to be looking for a fulfillment of something related to apostasy in Israel. The name Wormwood would indicate that. So it's just one of several clues of what kind of historical figure we're looking at. Now what about the star? There is general agreement among commentaries that a star represents an important leader, whether that leader is a religious leader or a civic leader. Albert Barnes would be one who thinks it's a political leader. He didn't give any scripture to back it up, but that's what he says. He says, a star is a natural emblem of a prince, of a ruler, of one distinguished by rank or by talent. A star falling from heaven would be a natural symbol of one who had left a higher station or of one whose character and course would be like a meteor shooting through the sky. Now he arbitrarily applies it to Attila the Hun much later in history. But I think Matthew Henry, Geneva Bible, several other commentaries are much more accurate in saying always without exception it points to a religious leader. In Jude the star points to what? It points to false prophets. In Revelation 120 they point to pastors. In Numbers 24 it points to the Messiah. And there is abundant evidence that the Jews had two symbols for the Messiah. I should point out that the Jews They didn't understand how to reconcile all these passages, so instead of having one Messiah, they had two Messiahs. They had a political Messiah, a king, and his symbol was a scepter, and they had a pre-slave Messiah, they thought it was from the Aaronic priesthood, but they had a priestly Messiah and the symbol of that was the star from numbers chapter 24 and We know obviously that Jesus in one person Has both of those it's one Messiah to two offices of King and of priests now This is not referring to Jesus It is a reference to a false messianic leader who illegitimately was holding the office of high priesthood. Now since the chronology of revelation that we have been systematically carefully going through boxes us into the months of September through November of 1866, that forces us to one conclusion and one conclusion only. And that is that the family of Ananas got cast out of the office of high priest in the fall of 66. And I think anyone who was living in the first century who knew about current events would have immediately thought of this high priestly family when they saw a person being symbolized by a star. And so let me give you a little bit of history to back this up. I wouldn't have had to preach this long. If I was preaching in the first century, this would have just been a 15-minute sermon. But I've got to give you the background that you don't know, right? So that's why we're digging into this. And I want to point out why John would refer to the star as a great star. The Sadducees were simply the descendants of Zadok. Saddaki, Zadok, you know, that's where they get their name from, who was the first high priest of Solomon's temple. Initially there was nothing unusual or bad about the Sadducees. They were just the high priests. Another name for the high priestly lineage, okay? But the Sadducees became corrupted about a century before Christ was born and they began to steal temple money to enrich themselves and to control politics. Now it is hard, I think it is hard to overestimate the corruption and the power of the high priests in the decades leading up to the birth of Jesus and in the 70 years that followed. But where previous generations of this mafioso family were incredibly wealthy and powerful, the household of Ananus and Caiaphas had a stranglehold on the politics of the nation. One author said that the family of Ananus was more powerful than the mafia bosses of Russia and Sicily. Now that's saying a lot if you know anything about the mafiosi of those two countries. The wealth that this family siphoned out of the temple was enormous because literally trillions of dollars worth of gold and silver were flowing through the temple coffers. I told you before about how Caiaphas was treated by Jesus as a robber and the high priest as a den of robbers. And they did it in a number of different ways. made a monopoly. Caiaphas was the first one to make a monopoly on... you could only buy his temple sacrifices. He made a monopoly on money changing. It used to be you could change your money anywhere. But it wasn't just that. He introduced the practice of recycling the animals up to a thousand times. So you'd bring your bull to the temple and you'd think it was getting sacrificed. Oh no. They there were sacrifices sort of going on but they would bring the bull that you would sacrifice put it back into the pen sell it again a thousand times over And if you got a little bit suspicious and say what's going on and went to investigate their priests had police power You'd get beat up. You might have even died from the beating. Uh, josephus talks about how many people Who were not cooperating were beaten by these priests and so his profits were absolutely enormous by the time we get to 8066 That family consisted of numerous, what we would call today, billionaires. Okay? Ananis and his family used bribes to buy off opposition, and sometimes the bribes amounted to millions of dollars. Let me just give you one example. Earlier in the same year, 1866, April of 1866, there was a bribe of eight talents. How much is a talent? Well, according to the Jewish encyclopedia, the heavy common talent of the first century was 58.9 kilograms. That's the one that would be used in the temple. That's 130 pounds. That makes for 2,080 ounces per talent. Thus, eight talents are 16 kilograms. 1,640 ounces of gold. Well at this past Tuesday's price for gold of $1,322.90 that amounts to a bribe of over 22 million dollars. Man that's a pretty hefty bribe to be going to one person but that wasn't enough for Flores. Flores The bribe money had been going back and forth so fast and furious that Flores knew that there was a lot more to be had. And so he demanded an additional 17 talents of gold. Now converted to modern currency for this week, that would be a demand of almost $47 million more from the temple coffers, okay? The high priests weren't too thrilled with the fact that Florus was now asserting control rather than continuing to be manipulated, so they began maneuvering behind the scenes to remove Florus from office. And they had connections to do that in Rome. They were the ones who recommended he get into the office in the first place. Okay? So money flowed in all directions. They had connections everywhere. And those two examples of bribery at least give you a tiny hint of the enormous wealth that the high priestly family had. We'll have a whole lot more to say about them in the second half of the book, because as we'll see, they controlled the banking cartels of Rome. of the empire. They controlled the banking cartels. With that control came enormous influence over the emperors themselves. And we'll see what kind of control they had over the Roman emperors. So we're not talking about a petty person falling out of office. God symbolizes him as being a great star, a great light. We're talking about an enormous hit to the Jewish mafioso. But to see how this language would have instantly and powerfully connected with the high priesthood, that symbol in their minds would have connected that. Let me tell you about how the Sadducees first co-opted the star symbol as their own symbol. The Sadducees and the Pharisees had been at each other's throats for over a hundred years previous to Christ's birth. The Sadducean mafia family started with Alexander Janais. He was the start of it all. He lived from 103 BC to 76 BC. He was the first high priest to claim also the title, not just of high priest, but of the king of the nation. Well, the Pharisees instantly reacted and they said, you can't do that. The Bible says only a person who is a descendant of David can be the high priest. And he said, no, tough, I'm going to do it anyway. And so there was battles that went on. Janius won. And at the end of the battle, he rounded up 800 Pharisaic leaders and had them crucified. And while they were hanging on the crosses, and it takes a long time to die, he had their wives and their children systematically, slowly having their necks slit in front of these crucified Pharisees. And just to show you the demonic depravity of this man, He watched that as entertainment while he was eating a banquet with his concubines. This guy was a ruthless and a vicious leader. Nevertheless, he usually had a facade of spirituality, pretended to be the spiritual leader of Israel who had Israel's best interests in mind. He called himself the Messiah. He minted a coin that had a star surrounded by a diadem and made the claim that he was the messianic fulfillment of the star of Numbers 24. And actually he justified his slaughter of the Pharisees based on that passage. It's an interesting story I won't get into. But this star and that coin represents his high priesthood and the diadem around it represents his kingly office. Now from that time on the Sadducees entrenched their power in every way possible. They almost immediately lost the ability to call themselves king. They did back down on that. But they used the high priesthood to at least control the kings like Herod and like Festus and others. They used the vast wealth of the temple to hire hitmen, to hire priests, to be the police enforcers. And they regularly beat up people who didn't cooperate, to blackmail, to bribe, and to influence. And they were incredibly effective. They got away with literal murder. You read Josephus, and he gives fascinating accounts of various ways that the high priests would either intimidate or bribe the opposition. And if that didn't work, hey, they just got their servants to get the revolutionaries who were out in the countryside to, you know, just bandits. They never put it on themselves, but they would get these people assassinated if they did not go along with what they wanted. So it's a sordid tale. And the family of Ananus had perfected the power of this mafioso family to a high degree. By the way, ananus can also sometimes be in the literature spelled as ananias or anus. But anyway, he was feared by everybody. He had a network of spies that was huge. His financial empire was huge. His ability to assassinate opposition was well known. Jesus was first tried by Ananus in John 18, 19 through 23, then before his son-in-law Caiaphas in John 18, 24, whom Rome had put into the priesthood. By the way, when you got The title of when you got into the high priesthood, even if you came out of that, you retained your title of high priesthood. So there were numerous high priests as the Gospel of John shows so well. And I should point out that Rome appointed all of the high priests of the temples. One of the reasons Israel came under judgment is because the way that they were in bed, with Rome. And when Rome would get frustrated with their criminal activity and these Sadducees' interventions in Roman politics, which they were regularly involved in, occasionally a high priest would get deposed. For example, the procurator Gratis deposed Ananus in AD 15 and It appears that Gratis was slapped down by some higher-ups because immediately he put Ananus' son into the high priesthood. Why would he put his son? Because there's just this constant flow of money. It doesn't matter how many times somebody from this family was deposed, one of his sons got back in. There were a few, for just a few months, there were other people who got from other Sadduceean families who got in. But Ananus was behind it all. Behind the scenes constantly lay the hand of this godfather, mafioso Ananus. One author said, Through Ananus, the elder, and five sons, Eleazar, Jonathan, Theophilus, Matthias, Ananus, one son-in-law, Joseph Caiaphas, and one grandson, Mattathias, son of Theophilus, the power of Ananus and the house of Ananus extended clear to 66 CE and the start of the revolt with Rome. It was this family, the house of Ananas, that put Peter and John in prison, captured Peter and many apostles, imprisoned and flogged them. They put Stephen the deacon to death by stoning and cited King Agrippa I to behead James, the brother of John, and captured to kill the apostle Peter. Then they stone beat and killed James the just, the brother of Jesus, who was the leader for 32 years over the Hebrew Nazarene ecclesia in Jerusalem. And I'm giving this background not only to show that the family was indeed powerful enough to warrant special mention here, but because you really need to understand this history, this background to appreciate some of the things that are going on in the second half of the book. And yet, This family propagandized brilliantly to give the illusion of being the conservative protectors of the nation. And the Star of Numbers was one of those propaganda symbols of nationalism, conservative patriotism, Davidic legitimacy that they constantly used. If you look at your outline there, you can see it on the temple coins. Temple coins have the star of the high priesthood on them. Even the coins minted in the Bar Kokhba rebellion have a temple with a rising star over it and symbolize the desire for a restored temple, a restored high priesthood. You can see the star on the 12 ossuaries at the bottom there that were recently discovered in Israel. There was a tomb that was opened up. And 12 ossuaries, those are bone boxes, were found in the Talpiot region of Jerusalem. And it's now known as the Caiaphas collection. Why? Because one of those ossuaries has written right on it that these are the bone, you know, this belongs to Caiaphas the high priest. And there's another one that belongs to another relative of the high priest. And so it appears that every one of these 12 ossuary in this tomb belong to one high priestly family. But for our purposes this morning, what's the symbol that's on those ossuary? It's the star. It's the star of the high priesthood. They claim to be David's rising star, and God is saying, no way. This star is going down in flames. And I'll try to get all of these and more pictures up on the website. But I think the first thing that would come into any Jewish reader's mind in the first century when he read these would have been that Mafioso family. Matthias, the grandson of Ananas, was the last high priest who actually came from the high priestly lineage. His fall from office in 1866 did not end the influence of his family. but it ended their high priesthood and their ability. That's the most important thing. It hindered their ability to rob money from the temple. When there were complaints that the temple needed a high priest, the revolutionaries mocked the Sadducees by placing a common peasant into that position, a man who didn't have a clue on how to do anything. He had to be instructed on what to do in the temple. His name was Phanius Ben Samuel. Josephus said that it was the greatest insult that the revolutionaries could have made because it was a deliberate violation of biblical law, deliberate rejection of the mafioso, a rejection of aristocracy in favor of the common man, and a declaration of independence because Rome did not appoint Phanius. Rome had appointed all of the other high priests, and they said, we don't care about Rome anymore. We're doing this on our own. And the evidence fits perfectly. Now, I do want you to notice that the star poisons the waters after it falls, continues to poison it. This shows that there was a continuing influence of the Mafioso family after it fell from office, and this continuing influence was felt under the leadership of Eleazar. What are the waters symbolized? Well, it depends on which waters you're talking about. When the Bible uses the Mediterranean, It's always referring to all of the Gentile nations. But streams and springs are a much smaller amount, and they're individual amounts of water. And in the scripture, those symbolize groupings within Israel. And specifically, this Mafioso family would control one-third of the population of Israel. Verse 11 says that a third of the waters were turned into wormwood. Now obviously it's referring to a third of the literal waters, but those stand as a symbol for the third of the people. So the outline summarizes by saying, when the family of Ananas fell from power, they controlled one of three factions in Jerusalem, poisoning them with hatred for the other two factions and resulting in the death of many. Though no member of Ananas' family remained in office, this Mafioso family did everything they could to try to regain that power over Jerusalem and over Israel. And of course, the other two factions didn't want them to have it, so they were fighting with each other and killing each other. In fact, Josephus says they ended up killing more Jews, more of each other, than the Roman soldiers did. It was just an absolutely devastating disaster. But I think that anyone who would live through those times would have instantly recognized what these verses were symbolizing, but would have also found incredibly incredible comfort from what they taught. And that's what I want to conclude with. the practical take-homes that would have been comforting for the first century readers. Now I've already mentioned the comfort of God's sovereignty. We need not fear Satan. I've already mentioned God's patience and discipline. We can learn from that. But there are three additional take-homes I want you to think about. The first is you aren't the first generation to face corruption in politics. You might complain about how the Democratic Party and the Republican conventions, you know, seem to be manipulated and controlled and bought off or blackmailed. But if you read first century history, you'll see it was all there and more. You'll realize there was a lot of corruption. You see, here's the issue. Satan goes after the robes of politics. And he seeks to use those robes to cause trouble for the church. And I think we've got to get used to looking at politics through spiritual eyes. We need to realize so many Christians fall into line with the Jezebel spirit when they try to manipulate voting through pragmatism. It seems to be the spirit of the age. Now, when first century Jews got frustrated with the Roman procurator, who had indeed been tremendously tyrannical and murderous, they turned to a hot-headed Eleazar, who was a rash young son of a high priest who made speeches of freedom and making Israel great again that resonated with the people. And many followed him. When he became tyrannical, many people switched allegiance to others like John of Gishola or Minaham. Minaham is actually a very interesting character because he was not a part of the political system at all. He was completely out of the establishment. He was a commoner but incredibly mighty soldier. His speeches against the Sadducees and against the establishment resonated with the people just like the non-establishment Trump's critiques of the establishment resonate with people today. He was a commoner who fought against the Roman sympathizers for liberty and distinguished himself as a politician for the common people. But when he almost immediately became a pompous I won't say that, a pompous king. He became a pompous king who surrounded himself with bullies. People got frustrated. And when he killed the high priest Ananias the Younger without a trial, he was killed by Eleazar, Ananias' son, who was a part of the establishment. Then other politicians arose who made promises, and it finally settled into three main factions, but all of them had their own corrupt reasons for fighting power. Nothing is new under the sun. The second thing that I have as a take-home is that none of these men were their savior. Saviors turn into devils when they are given enough power. What's the old maxim? Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. You read Josephus' account of those days and you will realize that maxim just beautifully describes their situation. Each political deliverer ended up creating far more trouble for Israel and the second half of the book shows why. They're unbelievers. They're totally under the thumb of Satan. Satan can manipulate them, use them any way that he pleases. And so scripture warns us today, even as it warned back then, do not put your trust in princes. Whether you sided with Eliezer, who was the establishment, or with John of Gishalah, who was a breakaway, or with Menahem, the politician of the people, you ended up getting burned. And back then, you deserved to get burned if you were trying to decide which of the lesser of three evils you would side with because none of them, none of them were qualified to rule. Christians didn't support any of the three. Third, God knows how to use humanism against humanism to destroy humanism's pretensions. He's done that ever since the Tower of Babel. We don't have to side with a milder version of humanism to watch them destroy each other. This book calls us to be faithful to God in politics and watch him deal with the messianic state in his own way, and that Jesus is indeed involved in frustrating politicians can be seen from the fact that he was the one who opened the seventh seal, which ushered in the seven trumpets. And each one of these seven trumpets is being blown by an angel who heads up his regiments of angels, right? We need to look at it spiritually. When the third angel sounds his trumpet in verse 10, he starts a chain reaction of events in nature and in human relations that will ultimately serve God's purposes. These are events that no one human can control, but they're perfectly under the control of God and his angels, and that should comfort us. We live in a time when politicians promise to be the star of David. They promise to fix America and make America great again. And if your only guiding principle is a pragmatic outcome, you can justify voting for any of them. You can justify it for Eliezer, for Menahem, You can justify it for any of them, but the Bible gives absolute minimum qualifications for a candidate. It's not perfectionistic. God approved of people who did not meet the ideal qualifications, but God never approves of support for any candidate who does not meet the minimum. In 2 Samuel 23, verse 3, he who rules among men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. Nothing is new under the sun and it's important that we not get frustrated and fearful with modern politics for sure. Do not stoop to voting for the lesser of two evils unless those two evils meet the minimum biblical qualifications that the scripture lays out. If they're evil, beyond that, turn them over to God for judgment. But make sure that you vote with integrity and you live before God with integrity. I don't think we can honestly complain to God about the compromises of politicians if our own political votes are compromised. By doing that, we are modeling to the politicians that it's okay to violate the Constitution. Why? Because even Christians violate the Constitution when they vote. They vote for people who fully intend to perjure themselves and violate the Constitution. This passage gives us comfort that we can be faithful and trust God to handle those who are not faithful. God can make the political cronies of D.C., of our state, of our county fall like a blazing star. And it's my prayer that Christians will have the worldview and the courage to stand in the gap when that happens. May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen. Father God, we thank you for your Word and the challenge that it gives to us. History keeps repeating itself. We keep repeating the same mistakes that people have made in the past. But I pray that we would learn from Revelation that it's so important to keep a God-centered perspective and to realize that there are demonic hosts behind the scenes that chapter 9 talks about that we must deal with. Help the Church of Jesus Christ, Father, to enter into these battles with spiritual weapons which are mighty in God for the tearing down of strongholds and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of you. Help us not to live like the world. Help us not to enter into the manipulations and the compromises and the pragmatism of the Jezebel spirit. Help us, Father, to be men of faith and women of faith who stand upon the sure promises of Your Scripture, who do not fear what Satan and the world might throw at us, knowing that You are the God who handles asteroids and meteors and kings. You seat them. You unseat them. And Father, we trust You to be able to do the same in our own country. I pray that You would bless this Your people with Your peace and with a faith to trust You. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.