For this very hour

“And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.” Revelation 9:15
We alluded to this verse when discussing the fourth horseman, representing Death through the sword, famine and plague. Then (the fourth seal), a quarter of the earth’s population will be killed. Here, at the sixth trumpet, the destroying angels are released to kill a further third of mankind, leaving only half of the world’s population.
These angels were among those that fell with Satan, because they are bound. They have a set mission: to slay a third of mankind. And they also have a set time: a set hour, day, month and year. We are not told when this will be, much as we are not told the time of the Rapture. But we are told one thing: it is a set time, and God knows when.
Jesus told us, referring to the rapture of the church: “No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32). It’s probably safe to say that these angels that are bound at the River Euphrates, likewise do not know the hour when they will be required. Once these events start to happen, the timing of the rest of the Tribulation has been foretold: it will be exactly 7 years from Antichrist’s covenant with Israel (Dan. 9:27), and exactly 3 1/2 years from the day he forsakes that covenant and stands in the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, demanding to be worshipped as God, until the Second Coming of Christ. Satan knows all this; he knows that when these things happen that his time is short (Rev. 12:12). In all of this, we can take comfort that God knows when the appointed time is. He will bring these things to pass when the time is right – not too soon, and not too late.