"I set all men every one against his neighbour"
(Zec 8:10)
In this chapter we will see the effects of this sin and madness; How they involve the very things described under the coming of the red horse rider.
God Sets One Against Another
"When they blew 300 trumpets, the Lord set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. " (Judges 7: 22)
On this verse Dr. Gill wrote:
"and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow throughout the host; and so slew one another; either suspecting treachery, as Grotius, and so in revenge, wrath, and indignation, drew their swords on each other; or through the terror and amazement they were in at the sounds they heard, and the blazing torches dazzling their eyes, they knew not what they did, or who they fell upon, taking their friends for foes, supposing the Israelites were got into their camp; and the rather they might be led into this mistake, since there were people of different languages among them, as Josephus observes; but the thing was of God, it was he that took away their reason and judgment from them, and infatuated them, and filled their imaginations with such strange apprehensions of things; and threw into their minds such terror and amazement, and directed them to point their swords at one another."
This is what we will see happen under the red horse rider; Striking the evil masses with madness so that they will begin to kill one another. The madness is in the psychology and reflects the "taking of peace" from the mind. This helps to bring the "taking of peace" externally in social relations, or in groups. When the individual psychology goes haywire then so do the groups in which the individual is a member. Individual psychology affects social psychology (and vise versa). It affects both macro and micro sociological institutions.
In the instance above, in one of the wars of the Jews against the idolatrous nations of Canaan, the Israelites were spared any of the fighting. The Lord sent a madness into "the armies of the aliens" (Heb. 11: 34), and these enemies of God and his people began in mass confusion and tumult to kill each other. God "took away their reason and judgment." We can speculate all we want (as many commentators do) about the immediate reason for these enemies to kill each other (in the case here in Judges), but it matters not. The fact is, the madness sent by God was the cause.
Think of a world under the red horse rider (the beginning of woes or travail) when people lose their sanity, their reason and judgment, and where every man is filled with fear and rage, and where no one trusts anyone, and where neighbor murders neighbor! A nightmare indeed. But, it is all what the final generation of sinners will fully deserve.
What the Lord caused to happen in the above instance (Judges) was on a small scale, involving only thousands of people going mad, but in the time of the red horse rider it will be on a global scale. Recall how we have already observed how this madness will bring about a condition where men are, with few exceptions, like Ishmael, who was a "wild man" whose "hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him." (Gen. 16: 12)
Another example of the Lord causing mutual slaughter is found in these words:
"While Saul talked to the priest, the commotion [hamown, commotion, riot] in the camp of the Philistines continued and increased; so Saul said to the priest, "Withdraw your hand." Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and came to the battle; and behold, every man's sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion [mehumah]. " (1 Samuel 14: 19-20)
Here the Lord does again what he did in the Judges text above. There was commotion and rioting, sent no doubt from the Lord as his weapons of war. This "great confusion" among the Yahweh rejecters, who were attempting to destroy God's chosen people, led them to kill each other. Again, this is what we will see on a global scale under the red horse rider.
On this instance in I Samuel Dr. Gill wrote:
"and, behold, every man's sword was against his fellow; taking one another for Hebrews, or treacherous and disaffected persons; so that, though the Israelites had neither swords nor spears, they needed none, for the Philistines destroyed one another with their own swords; and there was a very great discomfiture; noise, tumult, confusion, slaughter, and destruction." (Commentary)
Here are other examples:
"And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom." (Isa. 19: 2)
"And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable." (Isa. 3: 3-4 kjv)
"And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother." (Eze 38:21)
"For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbour." (Zec 8:10)
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour." (Zechariah 14:13)
"Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders. And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity." (Jer 9: 4-5)
“I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, everyone by the sword of another.” (Haggai 2: 22)
What an avalanche of testimony as to how and why people will kill each other under the coming of the red horse rider!
"In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. “Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled [mehumah] them with every kind of distress.” (2 Chronicles 15:3-6)
That is what we see "in those times" when the red horse rider comes with the opening of the second seal of that mysterious scroll.
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