‘And the rest of mankind who were not killed with these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk, and they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.'
The purpose of all God's judgments before the end is to bring men to repentance. All these troubles which come on mankind are intended to make them consider their ways and repent. But in spite of the wholesale slaughter, they have hardened their hearts and will not do so. This is not to deny that some repent. It is an overall generalisation. It is saying that as a whole this was true of the rest of mankind. The description of idolatry is taken mainly from Daniel 5:23, where it is emphasised that it prevents men from glorifying ‘the God Who gave them breath and in Whose hands are all their ways'. So anything that prevents men from this may be included within the description. Paul pointed out that ‘the things which the Gentiles sacrifice (to idols) they sacrifice to demons and not to God (1 Corinthians 10:20). John agrees.
In our day when sorcery, magic, ouija boards, planchettes, crystal gazing, contacts with spirits, witchcraft, etc. are on the increase these words are very apposite. Note that ‘demon worship' comes first in the condemnation. The very evil spirits that men seek to contact and honour will be their destroyers. The sad thing is that the modern penchant for books on magic and sorcery, seemingly harmless in itself, is preparing the foundation for a further increase in this kind of thing, and it is thus unwise to participate in it, and it can even, for that reason, be considered evil. But we note that sexual misbehaviour and theft are also included in the denunciation. However man hurts his fellowman, for that he will be judged.
There is now a break in the text before the sounding of the seventh trumpet so that further explanation of what is going on can be introduced. As we have seen most of what has been described happened, at least to some extent, in John's day and has happened again and again in history. Man's repeated sinfulness results in repeated problems. Every generation is a reminder that Christ is coming. It may be that they will reoccur in greater measure as the end of the age approaches, for man has not changed and has more and more terrible weapons at his disposal. Atomic, bacterial and chemical warfare could produce much of what is described here on a huge scale, and the time may be soon. There are already nations building up reserves of these weapons and many are centred around the Euphrates.