“Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth” (Rev 8:13).
One hardly thinks of this as a petition, but it is. The word woe is an anglicized form of a Greek expression of grief, oo-ah’-ee! Can you hear it? It is a warning of coming wrath, mingled with sorrowful regret.
Boyd Nicholson writes: “For the opulent West, the summer is ending. Already we can see the decay in high places…Values are perverted. Vehicles worth billions travel in space, and the homeless, bereft, die in the streets. However, there may be a greater crisis coming for this earth…Think of it! On top of all the problems facing this world, suddenly millions will disappear in a moment from every country. The Church gone! Its influence against the darkness and the corruption of this world gone! Then will fall upon this planet such judgment as has never been known before…So unspeakable will be those terrors that a flying angel will cry, ‘Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth.’” Solemn reminder!