A Journey through Revelation, Part 24: The Sixth Trumpet: The Army from the East (Revelation 9:13-21)

With the sixth trumpet, the severity of the judgments increases to yet another level. Let’s take a look at verses 13-21.

           

v.13, “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God”:

·     John hears the sixth angel blow his horn:

o   Then he hears a voice from the golden altar.

o   He tells us that the voice came from the “four horns of the golden altar.”

o   The question is, “Whose voice is it that speaks?”

o   Some say it’s Jesus, but that doesn’t fit in this context.

o   Some believe it’s the voice of the altar itself:

Ø  But Revelation never explicitly says that inanimate objects speak. 

 

o   Others believe that this is the unified voice of the prayers of the saints that are associated with the golden altar:

Ø  But the saints nowhere else issue a command to an angel.

Ø  Also the word "voice" is singular, which means it can’t be the voices (plural) of the martyrs.

 

·     Its best to take this as the angel of the golden altar that we saw back in 8:3:

o   “And another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.”

 

·     Here in 9:13, it literally reads, “this is the altar, the golden one, the one before God.”

 

·     There are four horns on the altar, one at each corner.

 

·     So the voice is coming from “from the four horns of the golden altar,” implies "from the midst of" them.

 

v.14, “one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ’Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates’”:

·     The instructions to the sixth angel are from the angel of the altar and they are clear, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

 

·     The article "the" in the phrase "the four angels," indicates that these four angels are familiar figures, but the reason for their familiarity is still unknown to us:

o   They appear nowhere else in the Scriptures.

o   They apparently serve as leaders of the invading army.

o   Some have seen them as good angels because of their resemblance to the angels of 7:1:

Ø  But those angels are at the four corners of the earth.

Ø  And they’re not bound at the river Euphrates.

 

o   Good angels are never bound.

 

·     These are fallen angels who are kept bound until the divinely appointed time for them to perform as agents of God's wrath.

 

·     The "great river" is a well known description for the Euphrates in the Old Testament:

o   The Euphrates forms one of the borders of the land promised to Abraham and is the river that the enemies of God will cross, prior to the last conflict before the Millennium. 

o   Its headwaters are in the mountains of Armenia, and it joins the Tigress River in lower Babylon.

o   The two rivers combining for length of 1800 miles. 

o   The Euphrates separated Israel from her two chief enemies:  Assyria and Babylon. 

o   The area beyond the Euphrates to the east is traditionally the source from which in the attacks came against Israel. 

o   Some have tried to see this "Euphrates" in a symbolic way, but there is no contextual reason to do so:

Ø  And its Old Testament context pretty much requires that it be literal.

 

v.15, “And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they might kill a third of mankind”:

·     These four angels have been in a state of readiness, waiting for the appointed time to swing into action.

 

·     Though they had fallen from Divine favor, they had still prepared for their evil task:

o   God will use them to pour out His wrath on rebellious mankind.

 

·     The phrase "the hour and day and month and year" has been the basis for chronological calculations, people using this phrase to try to figure out God’s time-table:

o   But the article "the" shows that a duration of time is not in view, but the occasion of each one of the time designations is one and the same.

o   In other words, the appointed hour occurs on the appointed day, in the appointed month, and in the appointed year.

o   This is a fixed point in future time, an hour, day, month, and year when God will act.

o   These four angels await the signal that this particular hour has arrived.

 

·     Once again, this shows us the Divine providence that recurs so often in Revelation:

o   God's actions are not accidental, but planned and precise in time.

o   The point of a fixed hour, of a fixed day, of a fixed month, of a fixed year.

o   All the forces of history are under God’s Sovereign control.

 

·     The purpose of the angelic preparation is "so that they might kill a third of mankind.”

 

·     Try to grasp the magnitude of these judgments, and the depth of God’s wrath. Here’s some theoretical numbers (they are not exact) based upon today’s estimated world population:

o   Based on 8.5 billion estimated people alive today (est. 2025), one fourth would equal 2,050,000,000 (billion) people will die at the time of the fourth seal judgment.

o   Remember that physical death has already hit the world under the fourth seal judgment back in 6:7-8.

o   And during the third trumpet (8:10-11 “many died” of the wormwood waters). How many? We are not told.

o   With the estimated 8.5 billion people alive today, and 25% (2,050,000,000) who will be killed (6:7), that means that 6,150,000,000 would remain.

o   During the wormwood judgment “many men died from the waters” (8:11), how many died? Again, we don’t know for sure.

o   Here, one third of the remaining population will be killed by these “four angels.”

o   One-third of 6,150,000,000 is 2,050,000,000 (billion) people.

o   We don’t know the exact numbers of people who will perish, but we do know that death has not occurred to the extent that it will in a future time of God’s judgment.

 

·     The fifth trumpet brought torture in the physical sense (9:5):

o   The sixth trumpet supersedes it, bringing death in the physical sense.

o   It will affect "a third of men," meaning a third of those who dwell on the earth. 

o   This doesn’t include any who are in God’s service, who were excluded under the fifth trumpet.

o   The "one third" also seems to represent an increase in intensity over any judgment so far.

 

v.16, “And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them”:

·     Literally translated, it reads, "and the number of the armies of cavalry was 20 thousands of 10 thousands; and I heard the number of them."

 

·     There is no explanation to tell us the source of the armies:

o   The identity of the armies has raised questions. Are they men or are they demons?

 

·     The presence of the four angels in the area of the Euphrates River is a point in favor of these being men:

o   God used human armies of pagan nations, like Babylon, to fulfill His purposes in the Old Testament.

 

·     However, the fact that the horses, rather than the riders, are the destructive agents suggests that this combination of horse and rider is demonic.

 

·     The determining factor in favor of these being demons is the description of the horses:

o   They differ so greatly from any ordinary horses that these horses must be other than natural.

           

·     If we add to that the association with: (1) the four demonic angels of 9:14,  (2) the fire, smoke, and brimstone proceeding from their mouths, and (3) the nature of the visiting locusts under the fifth trumpet, a strong case can be made that these are fallen angels or demons.

 

·     The Greek word translated as “horsemen,” can literally be the word “cavalry”:

o   The armies resemble a force composed of mounted troops, like a cavalry.

 

·     Here, it’s the horses, rather than the horsemen, who are the attacking members of this group.

 

·     There are literally "20 thousands of 10 thousands" which = 200 million:

o   Some feel that the numbers too large to be literal.

o   It could be argued that rarely, if ever, has an army of men that large been assembled.

o   But these armies are demonic, not human, so the largeness of the number is not an obstacle.

 

·     John is careful to point out that he “heard the number of them": 

o   The figure came to him as part of this vision.

 

v.17, “And this is how I saw, in the vision, the horses and those who sat on them:  the riders [not in Greek text] they had breastplates the color [not in Greek text] of fire and of hyacinth and of  brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone”:

·     After hearing the number of the horsemen, John saw what they looked like:

o   Remember, the mention of horses in the Bible is usually in connection with warfare. 

o   The horses that John saw in his vision are no exception.

 

·     Literally, the verse reads, “and thus I saw the horses in the vision and those sitting upon them, having breastplates of fire and hyacinths and brimstone”:

o   Remember, “the riders” is not in Greek text, neither is “the color” in Greek text.

o   These are words put there to try to clarify the text.

 

·     The question is, did the riders alone have breastplates or the horses too?

 

·     By examining the Greek words and their order, there is a strong possibility that the horses and the those on them were wearing the breastplates:

o   For horses to wear such things is not unheard of in ancient times.

 

·     The riders, here, are in the lesser role:

o   It’s the horses that do the damage and kill the people.

 

·     It’s possible that these "breastplates of fire and hyacinths and brimstone" are actual materials which made up the breastplates:

o   But it is difficult, if not impossible, to consider solid objects made of these.

 

·     We know from the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament), that hyacinth was a dye the color of bluish smoke:

o   The color description fits better here as matching the "smoke" that proceeds from the horses’ mouths.

 

·     "of fire" probably represents a fiery red color.

 

·     "Brimstone" described something made of sulfur and also something with a sulfurous hue or light yellow color:

o   Brimstone was an accompaniment of God's wrath.

 

·     The combination of the three colors reminds us of the fate of the Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:24, 28.

 

·     The likeness of the horses heads to those of lions, suggests that this cavalry combines the swiftness of horses with the majesty and power of lions:

o   Lions elsewhere in Revelation represent terror (their roar in 10:3), ferocity (their teeth and 9:8), and destructiveness (their mouth in 13:2).

 

·     The most destructive part of the horses was their mouths, which release "fire and smoke and brimstone."

 

v.18, “A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths”:

·     It's through fire, smoke and brimstone that a third of mankind dies.

 

·     The word “plague” is the used to describe the destructiveness of the horses:

o   It’s the same word used in the Septuagint to name the plagues of Egypt.

o   The word “plague” will appear frequently from here on throughout the Revelation.

 

·     Notice the repeated use of the article “the” with each of the plagues:

o   The word, “the” indicates that each element is a separate part of the destruction.

o   “the fire,” “the smoke,” “the brimstone” each contribute to the destruction.

 

·     Fire, smoke and brimstone together will be responsible for the largest death toll in human history up to that point.

 

v.19, “For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads; and with them they do harm”:

·     The prophecy continues by revealing more about the power of these horses.

 

·     Out of their mouths come fire, smoke and brimstone, which we’ve already discussed.

 

·     The power of the horses also lies in their tails:

o   Their tails are “like” snakes, including the heads, which are capable of inflicting painful injury to their victims.

o   This detail would have been especially meaningful to the church at Pergamum, where there were temples in honor of the gods. Zeus and Asklepios emphasized the role of snakes in their worship.

 

·     The description of fire-breathing, demonic horses, with tails like snakes is frightening:

o   Some have chosen to interpret them as figurative references to the serpents on the pagan altars or to the customs of the Parthians in braiding their horses’ tales to look like serpents.

 

·     There have been lots of mystical meanings attached to the tails:

o   The word "like" gives us a basis for some figurative understanding of the tails.

o   The problem, however, is that most suggestions for symbolism ignore the power in their tails.

 

·     The tails are probably not actual serpents, but they function like serpents:

o   The power of the tails enables these horses to hurt people physically, like a snake- bite.

o   They torture with the pain of a snakebite just as the locusts of the previous trumpet did with a scorpion sting.

 

·     But, the locusts of the fifth trumpet only stung the people.

 

·     These demonic horses will kill a third of the rebellious people left on earth.

 

v.20,  “And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;”

·     In spite of the evidence of God's wrath all around them, those left alive continue in their rebellion toward God.

 

·     The text is clear in identifying "the rest" as those "who were not killed by these plagues":

o   These are the survivors of the demonic cavalry.

 

·     These survivors reject repentance: 

o   They will not turn away from the works of their hands.

o   They refuse to change their conduct, their beliefs, or their attitudes toward God.

o   After all these survivors have seen, they refuse to repent, to turn away from their wicked ways, which we would think would be the least they could do, in light of what the world had just been through.

 

·     It’s interesting to note that this is the first mention of “repentance” since 4:1:

o   In all cases in the book of Revelation, the response to repentance is negative, as it is here.

 

·     God's loving care for people is repeatedly evident, and He tries to get them to turn away from sin, but they still refuse.

 

·     The Greek word for “repent” has the idea of a change of mind:

o   A rejection of something that is anti-God.

o   A changing of one’s mind about the things of God.

 

·     What they failed to turn away from, here, was "the works of their hands”:

o   Throughout Scripture, the works of men's hands stands for idolatry (Deuteronomy, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Micah, Haggai, Acts).

o   Worshiping idols has been a long-standing problem for mankind and will continue to be into the future as this prophecy shows us.

 

·     Even something so great as the death of a huge portion of the world's population still won’t be enough to turn men from idolatry, even though God's servants will have warned them against it repeatedly.

 

·     To worship idols, any idol, is to rob God of the glory due Him alone:

o   It’s also to side with evil spirits who are very good at the corruption of man.

 

·     Repentance = changing one’s mind = would lead to a turning away from sinful practices:

o   Would lead to the abandoning of the worship of evil spirits and the idols that represent them.

 

·     But failure to repent, failure to change one’s mind, to turn away, does just the opposite:

o   It continues the worship of idols representing demons, whether made of gold, silver, brass, stone, or wood.

 

·     In Scripture, the word “idol” refers to any image that represents anything created, or a heathen god.

 

·     The apostle John could hardly forget the innumerable pagan shrines around him, where false priests and false prophets led their followers in bowing down before the false gods.

 

·     Sins of idolatry mostly characterized his Gentile readers, but the sin of immorality, in verse 21, affected the lives of both Jews and Gentiles.

 

·     Look back at v.20, “so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;”

o   John reminds his readers of the helplessness of these idols, “gold, silver, brass, stone and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk”:

Ø  A fact, which they undoubtedly already knew.

 

v.21, “And they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts”:

·     Not only are the people unrepentant of their sins against the first two commandments of God, not to worship other gods, but they also reject God’s moral law as well:

o   They are just as unwilling to repent of their social sins, sorcery, immorality, stealing, as they are of their idolatry. 

o   Three of the 10 commandments, the sixth, seventh, and eighth, explicitly prohibit three of the four sins listed: murder, fornication and theft.

o   The New Testament also condemns these sins. 

 

·     "Sorceries" can refer to poisons, good luck charms, drugs, magic spells, or any object that is supposed to possess holiness, excite lust, or be otherwise enchanting:

o   It can refer to witchcraft as well. 

o   Sometimes drugs were involved in such practices. 

o   If the drugs create magic spells, as practiced in Asia, to incite illicit lust, this is the equivalent of fornication. 

o   Sorceries were common in Asia and are still common today.

 

·     The Bible sternly denounces this form of sin (Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel, Acts).

 

·     Murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, are all on the list of those who will be excluded from the New Jerusalem in Rev. 21:8 and 22:15, because of their failure to repent.

           

Next time we’ll look at “the angel” and “the little book.”

 

May the Lord bless you as you continue to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord.

 

By His Grace,

Gary T. Dromi, Ph.D., D.Min.

 

"A Biblical Theology of the Chuch," General Editor, Mal Couch

My dear  brothers and sisters in Christ,

In a world where “feelings” and “emotions” tend to be the compasses by which many people and churches exist, now a resource emerges, once again, only in e-book format, that will be immensely helpful for true believers in Jesus Christ who want to do life and church according to the clear instructions found in the Bible. 

Back in 1999, Dr. Couch and the other contributors put together a volume that is essential to pastors and elder/deacon boards that will help them to “do church” the way that Scripture explains and not according to cultural preferences or secular demands.

A Biblical Theology of the Church, originally published in 1999, is now available in the popular e-book format on Amazon. As a young pastor in 2000, I read this book and was blessed to gain so many insights as to what the Church is and how our Lord designed it to be organized and lead.

 

It was privilege and an honor to be asked to edit, re-format and publish this outstanding work by Dr. Mal Couch and the other contributors.

 

I highly recommend it not only to those in full-time ministry, but to anyone who wants to know how a church should be functioning and lead.

 

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A Journey through Revelation, Part 23: The Fifth Trumpet, The Bottomless Pit

 

Revelation 9:1-12 

 

Introduction

Revelation 9 records the fifth and sixth trumpet judgments:  the first two "woes" that the eagle spoke of in 8:13.

 

The first four trumpet judgments had brought disaster upon nature:  the earth, trees, grass, sea, and rivers. 

 

With the fifth and sixth trumpets, demons are sent to attack the people of the earth and torment them.

 

Strangely enough, it appears that the demonic forces will destroy their own worshipers. They will be sent to torment those who don’t have the seal of God.

 

v.1, “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him.”

·     The fifth trumpet is very specific and independent of the sixth and seventh.

 

·     The description of fifth trumpet falls into two parts:

o   The effect of the locusts in vv.1-6.

o   The characteristics of the locusts vv.7-12.

 

First, The Impact of the Locusts:

·     With the sounding of the fifth trumpet, John sees another “fallen star”:

o   This “star” is different from those under the sixth seal and the third trumpet.

o   This “star” receives and uses “the key of the bottomless pit.”

o   This tells us this is an intelligent being, not a meteor.

 

·     There are many interpretation of who this intelligent being is:

o   Some say this “star” could be any number of persons throughout history.

o   Some believe that this is the antichrist, but there is very little supporting evidence.

o   Some believe that this could be Mohammed or another false prophet:

§  But that would mean that this man had a heavenly origin.

 

·     Conservative scholars believe this could only be an angel, sent by God.

 

·     Some have argued that this must be either Satan or an unidentified evil angel:

o   But in the greater context of Revelation, this “star” must be an angel, sent from heaven on a Divine mission to move to the next stage of judgments.

 

·     Where did this “key” come from?

o   God has to give it to him for use on this special occasion, “the key of the bottomless pit was given to him.”

 

·     The term "abyss" comes from two Greek words, a-bythos. The “a” in front makes this a negative. And bythos, which means “depth.” Used together, it means, without depth, or “bottomless”:

o   Here, it’s a picture of a subterranean cavern connected to the earth's surface by a "shaft" or literally a deep well, whose opening has a secured lid of some type. 

o   Its inhabitants include the demonic prince of 9:11 and the beast from the abyss, mentioned in 11:7 and 17:8, which we’ll see later in our study.

 

v.2, “And he opened the bottomless pit; and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit”:

·     The angel proceeds with his mission of releasing those who are held captive in the abyss:

o   The angel uses the key to unlock the shaft that leads to the underground chamber.

 

·     When he did so, smoke rose from the shaft as from an erupting volcano, but this was no volcano:

o   This was literal smoke that John saw, not a figurative representation of deceptions and errors sent forth by Satan, as some believe. 

o   Remember, we take the words in their plain sense unless told otherwise.

 

·     In Revelation, we’ve seen smoke related to holy thanks in 8:4:

o   But most of the time it’s in connection with judgment, doom, and torment.

o   The smoke is a reminder of Divine judgment at Sodom (Gen. 19:28), and Mount Sinai (Ex. 19:18). 

o   The volume of smoke compares to that produced by a large smelting furnace, used for purifying metals. 

o   The volume of smoke is so great that it darkens the light of the sun and the air.

 

v.3, “And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power”:

·     From the cloud of smoke comes a swarm of locusts.

 

·     Some believe that this trumpet resembles the eighth Egyptian plague in Ex. 10:12-20, but these locusts are not ordinary locusts:

o   They have a leader, unlike the locusts of the earth.

o   And unlike regular locusts, their power to hurt is in their scorpion-like tails. 

o   These locusts are different and we need establish their identity.

 

·     It’s important for us to see that the passage contains no hint of symbolism:

o   Ordinary locusts don’t breed in the center of the earth, which is where these locusts come from.

o   These locusts do not eat grass like regular ones. So, they’re not like the locusts of the eighth Egyptian plague.

 

·     The text favors the identification of these locusts as demons, or fallen angels, who assume a locust-like form:

o   They have an angel as their leader (9:11).

o   They come from the abyss where evil spirits are held captive.

o   That they attack men, rather than consuming green vegetation, which points to their demonic nature.

o   They have a form such as no human being has ever seen.

o   The ability of demons to assume an assortment of material forms will be shown later Rev. 16:13, where three demons appear as frogs.

 

·     What comes out of the abyss to afflict rebellious mankind is a band of supernatural creatures intent on spreading as much misery as possible:

o   Remember, it’s only God’s Divine permission that gives them the stinging power of scorpions’ tails to afflict their agony.

 

v.4, “And they were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads”:

·     The locusts have strict limitations:  they are not to hurt any green thing or tree.

 

·     The one giving them these restrictions isn’t named, but we can be pretty certain that it’s God Himself.  Why?

o   Because God exercises sovereign control over all the judgments.

o   The demons can go only as far as He permits (remember Job?).

o   In this case, men, not the earth, are the direct object of judgment.

 

·     Ironically, it’s a group of people in rebellion against God who are victims of demons who themselves are in rebellion against God:

o   We would think that they should have formed an alliance with one another.

o   The demons may not afflict all humans, however, only "such ones as do not have the seal of god upon their foreheads."

o   Those whose foreheads lack the seal of God will receive the torment.

o   Those with the seal, the ones granted earlier to 144,000 in 7:4-8, are secure against this physical pain and those who have received Christ in that day. 

o   Just as Israel, while in Egypt, escaped the plagues that punished the Egyptians, the servants of God will be exempt from the attack of the locusts.

 

v.5, “And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man”:

·     The demons receive further limitations here in v.5:

o   They have permission to torment, but not to kill. 

o   If you remember, under the third trumpet, wormwood, death was possible, but not here.

 

·     The Greek word, “basanizo,” means torment or pain, either physical, mental:

o   The duration of the torment is five months.

o   This corresponds to the normal season of ordinary locusts, beginning in May and extending through September.

 

·     Most views search for a hidden or figurative meaning:

o   Some believe that this signifies an indefinite long period of time.

o   Some see a hint to a limited or brief period of time. 

o   Some understand the five months figuratively with no real reference to time.

o   But, again, there is no indication in the text that this is to be taken in a non-literal way.

 

·     Accepting the text’s plain meaning is perfectly fine:

o   There is no good reason for changing the normal meaning of the time reference.

·     Some object that normal locusts don’t remain stationary and don’t wreak havoc continuously for the stated length of time. But that’s not a valid argument:

o   The torment of this plague could be intermittent and can move from place to place too.

o   Ultimately, this judgment is designed and sent from God Himself.

 

·     Such torture may be offensive to some modern minds but this is a Divinely appointed method of punishing sin.

 

v.6, “And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; and they will long to die and death flees from them”:

·     The painfulness of the scorpion’s sting brings men to desperation.

 

·     The words "and in those days, men will seek" mark a change of style from a witness of visions to a prophet predicting the future:

o   John has been a reporter, but now he switches to be a direct conduit of the Spirit.

o   "in those days," that is, in the five-month period.

 

·     Hopefully, the scorpions’ sting would bring repentance, but instead it evokes a desire for death.

 

·     Physical pain, not depression, is the reason for them seeking death, but death will escape them:

o   Their reason for wanting to die is quite different from Paul's desire to die, so as to be with Christ and Phil.  1:23.

o   This is to escape the misery on this side of death.

o   For Christian's death is gain because of what is on the other side of death, eternal life with Jesus our Savior!

 

·     The meaning of "will flee" emphasizes the elusiveness of death:

o   Death will not just be hard to find, it will run away from those trying to catch it.

 

v.7, “And the appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads, as it were, crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.”

·     In his description of the locusts, John uses the words "as" and "like" nine times to convey a picture of the demonic locusts:

o   He begins with the head and moves progressively toward the tail of the creatures.

 

·     Broadly speaking, there are three views of what the locusts are:

o   A natural swarm of locusts.

o   A picture of an army of men.

o   Or a representation of the demonic locusts, which will torture men for five months.

 

·     Viewing these as demonic locusts is best because it partially explains the unusual features of the locusts:

o   They're like locusts, but their supernaturalness adds a degree of horror to their appearance.

o   The resemblance between actual locusts, and horses, (particularly those wearing armor), is the description behind the words "similar to horses prepared for battle”:

 

§  There is no reason to think that John had in mind the mythical monsters called “centaurs,” whose upper bodies were like human beings or parts like horses.

 

·     The creatures also had something like gold crowns on their heads:

o   Symbolic meanings of these have included:

§  The yellow tipped antlers of a natural locus.

§  The gold turbans of the Muslim hordes.

§  The bronze helmets of the Roman legionnaires.

§  And a feature distinctive only to these demonic locusts.

 

·     It's best to see these gold crowns as a feature distinctive only to these demonic locusts, where the crown represents success to be enjoyed by them throughout the five-months of torture.

 

·     Their victory is implied from the Greek word, “stephanos,” means a “crown" or "wreath."

 

·     That their faces “were as faces a men” suggests these creatures have intelligence like human beings, not just that of insects:

o   Because of this comparison, some have concluded they are literal men,

o   But the whole imagery goes against the picture of men afflicting other men.

 

·     These creatures are not a product of nature, but are creatures of demonic evil.

 

v.8, “And they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions”:

·     v.8 adds two more attributes of locusts appearance:

o   They had hair “like the hair of women,” and their teeth were “like those of lions.”

 

·     Some see this “hair” as their antenna:

o   The reason why the “hair” of the creatures cannot refer to antenna is that antennas can hardly be called hair.

o   This must be another feature that differentiates these creatures from natural insects.

o   It also adds to the hideousness of this demonic army.

 

·     Ordinary locusts had teeth, but not like the powerful teeth of these creatures:

o   These lion-like teeth symbolize fierceness.

o   Yet, in spite of their fierceness, these demons do not tear their victims apart.

 

v.9, “And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle”:

·     Two additional characteristics resemble Roman soldiers on the battlefield:

o   One was their iron breastplates:

§  The material of which it was made, iron, suggests of the invincibility of these demonic locusts.

 

o   The other battlefield resemblance lies in the sound made by the wings of these demonic locusts:

§  The loud rushing sound of the swarm creates a terrible psychological problem that implies the hopelessness of resisting them.

§  The prophet Joel compares the noise of locusts’ wings to the sound of chariot wheels and hoof-beat of horses moving swiftly to battle (Joel 2:4-5).

 

v.10, “And they have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months”:

·     As awesome to the eye and ear as these locusts are, it’s their tails that cause all the damage:

o   The power to inflict torture lies in their scorpion-like tails with sting's:

§  Which are not found on normal locusts.

 

o   The Greek word, “kentron,” translated as "stings," comes from the word meaning "I prick" or “I sting."

o   What was referred to as torment in v.5, becomes the power to hurt in v.10 for five months.

 

v.11, “They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon”:

·     Another characteristic of this swarm of locusts is that they have a leader: 

o   Yet another indication that these are no ordinary locusts.

 

·     They have over them, the angel of the abyss as king, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek he has the name Apollyon:

o   “Abaddon,” in Hebrew means destruction.

 

o   “Apollyon,” in Greek means destroyer.

 

·     These locusts resemble an advancing army with a commander to coordinate the battle plan:

o   Some see this king as a symbol of John’s imagination. But the text gives the leader a name (two, in fact):  Abaddon and Apollyon: 

§  The text calls him “an angel”.

§  The text assigns him a role as “king” of the demonic locusts. 

§  We can’t just disregard him as part of John’s imagination because there’s no evidence for that.

 

·     Another idea is that he is Satan:

o   But nowhere does Satan have a connection with the abyss until he is cast into it later in Revelation 20:1-3.

 

·     Our best interpretation is that this king is an unknown fallen angel, who, appears to be in charge of the abyss:

o   Satan has leaders and sub-leaders under his command. So this could easily be one of those sub-leaders.

o   The angel’s title of “king” insures that the locusts will obey his orders.

 

·     So it appears that this is a fallen angel whose name and responsibility are revealed to us.

 

v.12, “The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things”:

·     With the completion of the fifth trumpet, the announcement of the completion of the first woe and anticipation of the remaining two are in order.

 

·     Mankind will welcome the passing of the first woe, but it’s too soon to breathe a sigh of relief, as two more judgments are yet to come.

 

·     When John writes "has passed", he means in this future time of fulfillment:

o   This “woe” had not been completed at the time Revelation was written.

o   Remember, John is now writing prophecy, future events that have not happened yet.

 

·     The second “woe” of 8:13, the sixth trumpet, starts at the end of this announcement:

o   It continues until Revelation 11:14, with another angel, a little book and the two witnesses.

o   This all takes place in 10:1 -11:13.

 

·     We’ll take a look at these passages in the next article.

 

May the Lord bless you and keep you as you continue to grow in His grace and truth.

 

By His Grace,

Gary T. Dromi, Ph.D., D.Min.