As we
continue our stroll through John’s prophecy, we have come to the last three
trumpet judgments. These judgments are
preceded by the special appearance of an angel crying out a warning to the
people on planet earth.
Revelation 8:13 “And I beheld, and
heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice,
Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of
the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”
I believe this is an act of mercy urging
men to gather their wits and realize that God is trying to get their attention
to turn to Him for deliverance. The three woes correspond to trumpets
5-7.
Revelation 9:1-6 “And the fifth
angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was
given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and
there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the
sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came
out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the
scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should
not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but
only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them
it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented
five months: and their torment was
as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall
men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall
flee from them.”
When the
fifth trumpet is sounded, John sees a “star” fall from heaven, and to “him” was
given the key to the bottomless pit. Note
that right in the context of the scripture we are told that this “star” is a
being that is performing an assigned duty;
“he” is given the key to the bottomless pit. When we reach Revelation 12, John will use
this same term in reference to the angels of God that chose to follow Satan in
rebellion against God.
Revelation
12:3–4 & 9 “And
there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having
seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew
the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth…. And the
great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which
deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were
cast out with him.”
The bottomless pit (“abussos” in the Greek) is the
place to which a legion of demons begged Jesus not to send them.
Luke
8:30–31 And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion:
because many devils were entered into him. And they besought him that he would
not command them to go out into the deep.
Since he falls to earth, I would assume the
bottomless pit to be in the center of the earth, a sphere, a place with no
“bottom.”
My notes indicate that the word “fall”
is past tense in the original Greek. Could this indicate that this fallen
star is a reference to Satan or one of the other fallen angels?
The angel evidently unlocks the pit, which implies that the beings
in residence there have been deliberately imprisoned until this time.
When these beings escape from the pit, there are so many that they look like
smoke coming from a big furnace. There are so many that “the smoke”
darkens the sun and the air.
Creatures that John calls locusts
emerge from the smoke. The following verses will prove that these are
obviously not normal locusts. These locusts are given power to pierce and
sting like a scorpion, but their power is limited. They cannot hurt the
grass of the earth, any green thing, or any tree. They can only torture
and inflict pain on those men who do not have the seal of God in their
foreheads. They are not allowed to kill men; they are only allowed to
torment them for five months. Men will seek to die for relief from the
pain, but they will not be allowed to die. Again, this is another
opportunity for men to turn to God in faith and obedience.
In my research I found this note in an article,
“Iran in Bible Prophecy,” by Darrell Young of Focus on Jerusalem Prophecy
Ministry. It will reference Amos 7:1 (shown preceding quote).
Amos 7:1 “Thus
hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the
beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter
growth after the king’s mowings.”
“…an earlier translation of the Old Testament into
Greek, known as the Septuagint, embodies a different rending of Amos 7:1, “thus
the Lord showed me, and behold a swarm of locusts were coming and behold one of
the young devastating locusts was Gog, the King.”
This fits in with my belief that these locusts are
part of the legions of Satan. It also connects the demon Gog referenced
in Ezekiel 38-39 and Revelation 20 to Abaddon/Apollyon identified in the
following verses as the king of the locusts.
This brings up the question of the men with the
seal of God in their foreheads. Up to this point we have only been told
of 144,000 that are sealed by God in their foreheads (Rev. 7:4). The
number of those sealed and the time of the sealing were specific. You
would like to think that anyone that turned to Jesus in faith during this
terrible time would also be sealed, but I don’t think you can find proof for
that in the revelation given to John.
Who is giving power to the locusts?
Obviously, the one who is in control of the judgments befalling the inhabitants
of earth—Jesus, the righteous Judge.
Revelation 9:7-11 “And the shapes of
the locusts were like unto
horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they
had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were
breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails:
and their power was to hurt men
five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the
Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but
in the Greek tongue hath his
name Apollyon.”
John tries to describe these locusts. They
were shaped like horses prepared for battle. On their heads was something
that looked like a crown of gold. Their faces resembled that of
man. They had long hair like a woman, and their teeth were similar to
those of a lion. They had breastplates that looked like they were made of
iron. The movement of their wings sounded
like many chariots and horses running to battle. Their tails looked like
a scorpion’s and their sting came from their tail. They had the power to
hurt men for five months.
I believe this is a very specific group of demons
that were imprisoned by God. Maybe they are the angels that are
referenced in Jude 6—“And the angels
which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath
reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great
day.” Peter seems to confirm this to be the case.
2Peter
2:4 “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell,
and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment….”
The wording used by Jude and Peter is practically
identical, and I am convinced they are referencing the same group of beings. I believe these are the angels that cohabited
with women to produce the “nephilim” or fallen ones that became giants in the
earth preceding the time of the flood.
Their purpose was to try to contaminate humanity and prevent the birth
of the “seed of the woman” promised in Genesis.
Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
The “seed of the woman” was the first promise of
the coming Messiah who would redeem mankind from sin and effect the final
destruction of Satan and his legions.
It is hard to imagine that many fallen angels
engaged in intimacy with the women and producing offspring that were not fully
human. Evidently, the numbers were huge if Noah was the only man who
found grace in the eyes of the Lord and who was “perfect” in his generations.
Genesis
6:8-9 “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations
of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked
with God.”
The word for “perfect” means without blemish,
complete, without spot, undefiled. In other words, Satan almost succeeded
in destroying the line of descent necessary for the Messiah by corrupting human
DNA. Isn’t it interesting that we are once again on the road to
corrupting the DNA of man through genetic engineering? It sort of casts a
new light on Jesus’ statement comparing end times to the days of Noah.
Matthew
24:37 “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man
be.”
John
next informs us that these beings have a king whose name is Abaddon, Apollyon
in Greek, both of which reference a destroyer, a fitting title of Satan and any
who follow him. This also affirms that these are not normal locusts since
scripture informs us that they have no king.
Proverbs
30:27 “The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands….”
The king is the undisputed ruler of these demons
(which lends more credence to him being Satan).
I’ve printed out a portion of Joel 2 below to show
the similarities between that passage and this one in Revelation. There
are enough similarities to make one try to tie them together, but I am still
not sure that this is the right thing to do. Verse 3 gives me the most
problem in this respect. The “locusts” in Revelation have as their
purpose to harm men—not the land; they are only to harm—not destroy.
Joel
2:1-11 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let
all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it
is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of
thick darkness, (cf 9:2) as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great
people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any
more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth
before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden
before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall
escape them. The appearance of
them is as the appearance of horses; (cf 9:7) and as horsemen, so shall
they run. Like the noise of
chariots on the tops of mountains (cf 9:9) shall they leap, like the
noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in
battle array. Before their face
the people shall be much pained (cf 9:6): all faces shall gather
blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men
of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break
their ranks: Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his
path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They
shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall
climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the
stars shall withdraw their shining: (cf 9:2) And the LORD shall utter
his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that
executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who
can abide it?
Note: Verse 8 indicates that these beings
are different from man as are the locusts from the bottomless pit with the
phrase “when they fall upon the sword,
they shall not be wounded.”
(to be continued…)
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