Revelation 9
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Important messages
Chapter
9
1. And
the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth,
and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
2.
He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the
smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke
from the shaft.
3.
Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like
the power of scorpions of the earth.
4.
They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any
tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
5.
They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and
their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.
6.
And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long
to die, but death will flee from them.
7.
In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads
were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,
8.
their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth;
9.
they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings
was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.
10.
They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for
five months is in their tails.
11.
They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew
is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
The
“woe” trumpets
The
prominence of sinister spiritual activity
becomes very evident in this last set of three trumpets. These are demonic manifestations, as great hordes of evil are released upon the earth in the last days. They are like– obviously a
depiction of things which have not been seen by human beings.
The fifth trumpet (v.1-12): After the third
trumpet, a star fell from heaven and we noticed that it was given a proper
name… Wormwood. We noted that stars sometimes symbolize spiritual
personalities, who have been given authority. The blast of the fifth trumpet
summons a fallen star and the verb tense indicates that it had already fallen,
before John saw it, and was already upon the earth. This one obviously has
personality, as he is given a key to the bottomless pit and he opens it (v.1).
Satan will be bound and kept in this bottomless pit, during the thousand
years, in which Christ reigns upon the earth (20:1-3). At this present time,
there are armies of demons, who are kept in the pit, until the time that they
will be released in the last days. The demons in the Gadarene demoniac “begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss” (Lk.8:31).
In Daniel’s 70th Week, the reality of the spiritual world
will be powerfully observed upon the earth. There is a literal abyss and it is
inhabited by imprisoned, literal, spiritual beings. When the ‘fallen star’
opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, billows of smoke polluted the earth, already
affected by the pollution from the judgment of the fourth trumpet (v.2).
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I want to assure you that this is not symbolism; it is an invasion of a
force, seen by John and described to us. He first describes the venomous nature
of these creatures and the duration of the effects of their sting. The sting is
not fatal, but carries the potency of a scorpion and the torment continues for
five literal months (v.5). This is a fate worse than death and the torment will
drive people to unsuccessful suicide attempts. The text relates, “They will long to die, but death will flee
from them”. Every means of escape will be cut off “in those days”… throughout the five months (v.6).
Eight times, the word like is
used by John in his description of the attackers, from verse 7 through 10,
showing that these creatures do not exist in our natural world, but are
unearthly, demonic personalities. We can try to imagine them, if we’d like, but
I’m afraid that without the personal presence that John experienced, we will
not be able to capture their appearance, exactly as he saw them. They were like horses, had what looked like golden crowns; they had faces like humans, had hair like women, teeth like lions, and breastplates like
iron. Their wings sounded like many
chariots, and they had tails, from which the sting and venom like scorpions hurt people for five
months.
There are ranks among demons: “We
do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against 1) the rulers, against 2) the
authorities, against 3) the cosmic
powers over this present darkness, against 4) the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph.6:12). We
had better have some spiritual wrestling coaching, if we intend to overthrow
the kingdom of darkness! I have been getting a renewed conviction in these last
weeks that God will raise up people, who will learn to battle in prayer. I am
also impressed that God will pour out rivers of living water, with
righteousness and peace kissing, in order that grace and love will be shed upon
a guilty world.
This army of demons has a king over them, named in Hebrew, Abaddon, and
translated Apollyon in Greek (v.11). The name means a destroyer, both in Hebrew and Greek, and may be Satan himself
or, if not, one of his most powerful generals. We are learning about fallen stars, spiritual authorities being cast
upon earth. Let us remember what Jesus said concerning the prince of darkness: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from
heaven” (Lk.10:18), and Isaiah already knew of this event: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day
Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations
low!” (Is.14:12). In Ezekiel 28:16 God states: “I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God.” In Revelation
12, we will study another devastating defeat of the devil. I believe, he hates
this book, which so graphically describes his loss and condemnation and he tries to keep people from learning about it.
12.
The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.
13.
Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns
of the golden altar before God,
14.
saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are
bound at the great river Euphrates.”
15.
So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and
the year, were released to kill a third of mankind.
16.
The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard
their number.
17.
And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they
wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the
heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came
out of their mouths.
18.
By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and
sulfur coming out of their mouths.
19.
For the power of the horses in in their mouths and in their tails, for their
tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.
20.
The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of
the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and
silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,
21.
nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual
immorality or their thefts.
The
second woe
The
sixth trumpet (v.12-21): What follows the sixth trumpet blast is
a second demonic attack upon the population of the world (v.12). Moses’ altar
was made in the similitude of the heavenly altar with four small protrusions called horns (Ex.30:2). A voice from the four horns commands the angel of the sixth trumpet
to free four evil angels, bound at the Euphrates River (v.13). God’s angels are
not bound, so we can be sure that these are fallen beings. We see the sovereign
hand of God overruling even the most potent forces and plans in the kingdom of
darkness.
The important and historic Euphrates has been flowing since
creation and it is a boundary line, which these four potentates have not been allowed
to cross, particularly warding off potential attacks against the Holy Land (v.14). It
would seem that they have been in training, over history, in charge of a
different kind of demonic army, than that which we have studied earlier in this
chapter. The army of locust-like demons tormented for five months, but this new
plague will be fatal. These four evil angels have been given a specific mission
for a specific time, down to the exact hour (v.15).
Spiritual events and those who play a part in them are on time
schedules. Jesus spoke much about being subject to His Father´s time agenda and
at the time of His trial, He said to the arresting mob of temple officers and
Roman soldiers, “This is your hour, and the
power of darkness” (Lk.22:53). They were only acting out their role in the
divine chain of events. This is a truth that should comfort believers in the
worst of times. The Lord God reigns from heaven and is always in control!
It
is the sixth trumpet-blowing angel, who actually releases the demonic generals
for this specific time. The four are over an enormous mounted troop, their
number is very specific and John heard the literal number. I often say
that the Bible student must be willing to tackle any number of subjects
presented in the Word of God, because our Lord is involved in history,
geography and even mathematics. This is a relatively simple math problem: 10,000
x 10,000 x 2 = 200,000,000 (v.16). Of all that we have studied so far of seals
and trumpets this is the most devastating. It will kill a third of mankind. Since
a fourth of the population has already been destroyed by the seals, their
combined judgments will reduce the number of people on the earth to less than
half.
John explains that his Revelation comes to him by supernatural
vision. He will try to define this last cavalry-like army that he saw to us. The
breastplates of the riders seemed to be ablaze with fiery colors of red, purple
and yellow. The horse-like animals that they mounted had heads like lions, and
fire, smoke and sulfur spewed from their mouths as dragons are pictured to do
(v.17).
When these three poisons came in contact with people, the result
was fatal, and so one third of the population succumbed to the attack (v.18). The
deadly weapons of the mounted troop come out of the mouths of the lion-headed
horses. The tails are also weapons and are like serpents with heads (notice
again the word like, because there is
nothing earthly, which gives an exact picture), which wound their victims
(v.19).
The remaining one half of the world’s population, roughly, did
not repent. The magnitude of judgment only accentuates the awfulness of sin.
The hard-heartedness of human kind is best seen in the book of Revelation,
where we will see worse judgments still fall, and people will remain
unrepentant. This, my friend, is one of the reasons why God created hell. There
simply was nothing else that could be done for this race of mutinous rebels. They
turned their backs on God’s kind rule and refused to receive His Son. They gave
their consent to His sacrificial torture and death, and despised His attempt to
save them by it. They have rejected or ignored the signs of the last days and
the warnings of judgment to come. Now they are in the throes of judgment that
is decimating their numbers and still they refuse to repent.
Man will be destroyed by the gods that he worships. Idolatry
points to satanic worship and people are and will continue to be idolatrous.
They worship the works of their hands, making themselves to be gods over their
own idols. Fallen man is egocentric, forms idols in his own proud imagination,
and is quickly joined by evil spirits, who inspire and bewitch his twisted
mind.
The idolatry takes many forms and the computer age has added
many cyber and e-images to add to the ancient forms of gold, silver, bronze,
stone and wood (v.20). With all the technical advances, the images still cannot
see, hear or walk. As God’s Word informs us in this chapter, in the end, the
gods behind the images will destroy their worshipers.
Besides idolatry, all forms of lawlessness will increase in the
end times. There has never been more murderous times, like we see them today.
Millions upon millions of little human lives are cut off in their mothers’ wombs.
Doctors and nurses are the assassins these days and parents give their assent
to the murder. Legislators legalize infanticide and provide instruments and
funds to further the cult.
It will only worsen in Daniel’s 70th Week. So will witchcraft,
fornication outside of wedlock and adulterous relationships. Thievery is common
practice in what we might call normal business
relationships (v.21). As the days go by, hearts become accustomed and hardened to
these evil practices. Joni Earickson Tada said, "Gradually, although no one remembers exactly how it happened, the unthinkable becomes tolerable. And then acceptable. And then legal. And then applaudable." Because the heart is hardened, it becomes increasingly rare to see deep soul repentance
in our day. Christian friend, don’t you think it is time for a desperate cry to
go up to God’s throne room, while there is still opportunity for men to repent?
Plead with Him for a last-day awakening and revival in the church and an ingathering of
souls.
We are taking these accounts in order, verse by verse, and
chapter by chapter. The seventh trumpet or the third “woe” will occur later and
when it occurs, we will attempt to cover it. There will be some preceding
events in chapters 10 and 11, before the seventh trumpet sounds in 11:15. It is
also mentioned in 10:7.
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