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. 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. Then from the smoke
came locusts on the earth,
and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. 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. 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. And in those days people will seek
death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from
them. Revelation 9:1-6
At this point all the preliminaries have been set in order.
Jesus has raptured His Church and has declared His legal right to redeem the earth
from Satan’s rule. The angels have sealed the 144,000 Jewish evangelists of the
tribulation and a vast multitude of Gentile believers have also been delivered
from the unprecedented evil and turmoil that is about to be unleashed upon the
unbelieving world. This is about 3 ½ years after the rapture of the Church. Now
comes the intensifying evil of demonic pressure upon the inhabitants of earth. The
fifth trumpet announces the first woe. The Greek word for “woe” means grief.
The “star” which had fallen from heaven to earth was an
angel. Not just any angel, but the one who was given permission to open the
abyss where the most malicious demons are held. They have been incarcerated
there for thousands of years, because of their extreme evil and because of the
crimes they committed against humanity and against the plan of God in the days of Noah. We have studied about these
fallen angels in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6. The story of their evil infiltration of
the human race is in Genesis 6. They are not running around raping and seducing
human women now, because they are locked “under chains of darkness” in this
abyss.
The demonic world knows all about this abyss, and when some
of them were confronted by Jesus in Luke 8:31, they begged Him not to send them there, so He sent them into a herd of swine. That didn’t end well for
the demons, either, but perhaps they escaped immediate imprisonment.
Demons are not omnipotent or omniscient, but they do have
super powers compared to us humans, and when they are let loose on the earth,
they are allowed to do damage to those living on the earth. God allows them
this time of mischief on the people of earth, but He is in control and they are
limited. The smoke from the pit is dark and engulfing. In this gloom, the
demons will torment unbelieving humans like scorpions do; not unto death, but with constant stinging pain. They will not harm any vegetation. The humans who are subjected
to their unrelenting harassment will wish to die, but cannot.
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, their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like
lions' teeth; 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. They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their
power to hurt people for five months is in
their tails. 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. Revelation 9:7-11
The demons out of the abyss were distinctive in appearance,
like armored horses with bright headgear. Their human-like faces indicate
intelligence, their woman-like hair is seductive (that’s what these demons are
best at). The teeth like lions’ show their viciousness. Reading the whole
description of the demons, it’s easy to envision battle-ready helicopters or
drones or other aircraft with sophisticated weaponry. I believe John was
describing exactly what he saw. Readers in 96 AD would have no frame of
reference for such visions, but we 21st century readers have no
problem believing such things exist, or will in the near future. The
super-demon with the key is their king. Abaddon means destruction. Apollyon
means destroyer. This is Lucifer.
The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to
come.
Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice
from the four horns of the
golden altar before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the
trumpet, “Release the four angels who
are bound at the great river
Euphrates.” 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. The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand
times ten thousand; I heard their
number. 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. By these
three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur
coming out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in
their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads,
and by means of them they wound.
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, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their
sexual immorality or their thefts. Revelation 9:12-21
Some of the most evil fallen angels are incarcerated in the
abyss, others are bound under water. God has interesting ways of keeping these
malevolent creatures under control. These four in the Euphrates are extremely
violent, even for powerful demons. They will be allowed to raise a huge army (demons?
men? demon-possessed men?). Whatever else they are, they are vicious killers with
impressive weaponry, and they are very efficient in using it.
Still, unbelieving mankind will not repent. They are
completely deluded by the paganism they love. Their life consists of worshipping
demons, which has led to their wickedness of murders, sorcery, fornication and
theft. The word “sorceries” is the root word for pharmacy, so of course there
is drug addiction involved. They are swallowed up in darkness. They can no
longer appreciate light.
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