Revelation 9:15; The Appointed Time

Revelation 9:15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. 

The hour and day and month and year had been the basis for various chronological calculations as though the article “the” were not present or as though it appeared with each noun. (Lee)

One article governing all four nouns shows that the duration is not in view, but that the occasion of each one of the time designations is one and the same: the appointed hour occurs on the appointed day in the appointed month and in the appointed year. The four angels await the signal that this hour has arrived. [Vincent, Word Pictures, 1:616, Alford, Greek Testament, 4:645; Sweet, Apocalypse, p. 122; Charles, Revelation, 1:252; Bullinger, Apocalypse, p. 329; Robertson, Word Pictures, 6:367]

Robert L. Thomas said well, “God’s actions are not accidental, but planned and precise in time, to the point of the fixed hour of a fixed day of a fixed month of a fixed year. [Johnson]. All the forces of history are under His sovereign control (Mounce).”

He further observes insightfully, “The fractional “one-third” represents an increase in intensity over any plague so far. One-quarter of earth’s population earlier met the same fate under the four seal, so this trumpet signals the nearing of the climax of the period of wrath. Perhaps the one-third mortality will not be numerically much larger than the one-quarteralready slain, but proportionately it will be significantly larger percentage than any death-toll before it.”

Luke 19:13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

Amen.