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In Chapter 8
we saw God selectively using natural calamities and their resultant
consequences to inflict His judgment on the enemies of
righteousness. The fifth woe is a little different. The
consequences here are applied directly to the unrighteous with the
faithful Christians being excused from the torment. This is a lot
more selective and specific than using an earthquake to devastate an
entire region where Christians almost certainly lived and had to be
affected in some way.
Looking at the figurative
language it is easy to see that interpretations of the following
chapter have been diverse and often times unsatisfactory when it
involves literalizing such amazing creatures as we see depicted
here. As with the rest of the visions, we must look at the overall
picture and try and pick out what the activities are and who is
involved in order to properly understand it. We must also keep in
mind that the message of Revelation is "signified" as indicated in
the first verse of the first chapter so we cannot expect these
creatures to be real. In fact, they are so incredibly unreal that
one would almost certainly be aware of the fact that they are
symbolic from the sheer degree of the abnormality in the
characteristics they are described with. We must focus on
activities more than actors and on the characteristics more than the
characters. In short, we have to look more at the forest and less at
the trees. Once we have discerned the forest, then we can go back
and look at the individual trees and use them to compliment and
complete the image of the forest.
First of all, who are the ones
being punished here. Verse 4 reads, "but only such men as have
not the seal of God on their foreheads." Those who have the “seal
of God on their foreheads” is a figurative term for "the
servants of our God" identified in Revelation 7:3. Those who
are not the servants of God are then going to be the only recipients
of this divine punishment. We have just effectively eliminated a
whole host of millennial beliefs about this chapter that put these
fantastic creatures at war with Christians. The millennialists have
it backwards. Whatever these creatures represent, according to
God's command, they are no threat whatsoever to the faithful
servants of God. Faithful Christians have nothing whatsoever to
fear from this plague, it being directed solely on the unrighteous.
This is a key element in trying to figure out specifically what is
being represented in this scene of the vision so let's keep that in
mind as we move forward.
The next key component is the
realization that the plague of the fifth trumpet would not kill the
enemies of righteousness. This is not the case with the sixth but
for now, we have a valuable clue to help us determine what the
plague announced by the fifth trumpet represents. This plague
represented by some pretty fantastic looking locusts is not fatal to
all the enemies of righteousness. In fact, verse 6 says the
afflicted will be so miserable they will desire to die but they
can't. So what we have so far is a plague represented by locusts,
which is going to afflict only those who are not faithful Christians
and will severely torment them but not be fatal.
The next key component is seen
in verse 10, "And they have tails like unto scorpions, and
stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months."
The number 5 is representative of human incompleteness or
limited power. This is not a literal period of 5 months rather is
representative of an incomplete or relatively short period of time
as opposed to a complete destruction or a permanent affliction. In
short, this was something the enemies of righteousness would recover
from over time. By now it is fairly apparent that the fifth woe was
some sort of terrible non-fatal disease. But what kind of disease
would afflict only those who are unfaithful to God?
The next clue is that the
power of the locusts to afflict the non-Christians is found in their
tails. The Roman Empire was known for its decadence and sexual
immorality. With sexual immorality come diseases of all sorts.
Diseases that a faithful Christian who lives righteously would never
ever have to worry about because they would not be participating in
the activities that promote the spread of such diseases. Some of
these diseases are painful in the extreme, especially in a society
with no knowledge of antibiotics or other effective treatments for
such maladies. They would simply have to live with these diseases
until they ran their course. History records that sexually
transmitted diseases were rampant in the Roman Empire. With all of
the pagan worship to manmade gods, many of which included wild
orgiastic rituals, it is not at all surprising. The practice of
homosexuality was also extremely prevalent in this culture which
further promotes the potential for disease. With the announcement
of the 5th woe we see the Roman Empire becoming the victims of the
consequences of their own decadent sexually unrestrained society.
Now looking back at the locusts with the power to harm contained
within their tails, we need to associate those tails with the part
of the human anatomy involved in the carrying and transmission of a
plague that affects only those who practice a decadent lifestyle.
Now that we have a working
idea of what the overall vision represents, we can now look at the specifics.
Revelation 9:1
"And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven fallen
unto the earth: and there was given to him the key of the pit of the
abyss."
First, this star represents an individual of some sort. Notice
the keys were "given to him" and then in verse 2 it says "He
opened the pit". Commentators are divided on who this star
represents. Many able scholars and commentators believe this
star is representative of Satan while others contend that this is a
divine messenger from heaven such as the angel depicted in
Revelation 20:1 who bound satan and cast him into the bottomless
pit. There are difficulties associated with either view.
The former places Satan with a key or the ability to open a door out
of the bottomless pit with the ability to inflict suffering on the
non-Christians in this instance. The image of Satan being
pictured as a star in Revelation and in possession of a key to the
bottomless pit he is ultimately going to be thrown into forever is
difficult. However Satan is pictured by Jesus as falling from heaven
like lightning and in Revelation 12:7-9 Satan is said to have been
cast out of heaven into the earth. Noting the text of 9:1
which reads "fallen unto the earth"; this star whoever
it may represent is a fallen individual whose destination was the earth.
It is difficult to picture Satan as a star in any form, even a
fallen one in a series of visions where he is so often depicted as
the devil, a serpent or the dragon.
Other commentators associate
the fallen star with the angel pictured in Revelation 20:1 who
descended from heaven and bound Satan and cast him into the
bottomless pit. The immediate difficulty with this
interpretation is that we cannot discount the fact that the star had
fallen to the earth. There is not one single account anywhere
in scripture that I have ever seen that visualizes one of God's
favored angels, carrying out their duties in His service as having
fallen from heaven to the earth. Satan having fallen to the
earth is supported in scripture and as uncomfortable as I am with
visualizing Satan with a key to the bottomless pit, I am forced to
go where the preponderance of evidence leads.
With this said, let's look to
what Satan's authority was on earth at the time and associate it
with this key. In Revelation 13 we have the vision of the
great beast rising up out of the sea. In verse 4 we read, "And
they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast".
The dragon pictured in Revelation is always in reference to Satan so
we see here that Satan was indeed given a considerable amount of
power and authority and this could only come from God. Satan
is depicted elsewhere in scripture as the prince of this world in
John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11, the god of this world in 2 Corinthians 4:4
and of significance to this vision, Satan is described as a "ruler
of the darkness of this world" in Ephesians 6:12. Since
Satan is described as the ruler of this world and the darkness in
it, he must be in possession of the ability to darken and rule it.
And the source of this darkness can be none other than the
bottomless pit from whence he rules. So in this way, Satan
does indeed have a key to the bottomless pit from which he can
release the influences of darkness and following in verse 2 we see
that what was released from the bottomless pit was smoke and
darkness that covered the earth. The only thing that the key
opened from the abyss was the ability to send smoke or deception
forth which obscured the light and darkened the earth. The key
Satan possessed had limited capability.
Revelation 9:2
"And he opened the pit of the abyss; and there went up 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."
The fallen star released smoke out of the bottomless pit.
Smoke obscures the path and dims the light. And this smoke was
so thick it darkened the air and the sun. This language is
figurative of the the evil influence and temptation that Satan
releases on the earth. Evil is always described as
darkness and righteousness is always described as light. The
smoke which caused the darkness would be those things which are at
Satan's disposal to tempt mankind with. The darkness which
overspread the sun and the sky would be then be representative of the
success of Satan's temptation as the majority of mankind was led
away from the light of righteousness thus allowing the darkness of
sin to prevail on the earth.
It is significant to note here that the key
in possession of the fallen star from heaven released only
temptation from the bowels of the bottomless pit. Satan is not
allowed to force mankind to sin. Mankind either chooses the
light of righteousness or the darkness of sin of his own free will.
God never forces man against his will, neither does He permit Satan
to force man to sin against his will or to tempt man beyond what he
is able to endure (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Revelation 9:3
"And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and
power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power."
Locusts were one of the well known plagues of Egypt as written in
Exodus 10:4-20. To God's own people He later said that if they would
turn away from Him and commit sin, He would bring locusts upon them
to destroy their land (Deuteronomy 28:38). Locusts were used
by God as written in Joel 1-2 to bring God's wayward people back to
Himself. The locusts in this vision are therefore
certainly representative of a
plague. 1 Kings 8:35-37 teaches us that
God sent natural pestilences and famine on the unrighteous in order
to bring them to repentance, "When heaven is shut up, and
there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they
pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their
sin, when thou dost afflict them: then hear thou in heaven, and
forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou
teachest them the good way wherein they should walk; and send rain
upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an
inheritance. If there be in the land famine, if there be
pestilence, if there be blasting (or) mildew, locust (or)
caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their
cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be".
Notice that the plague came out of the
smoke and not directly from the fallen star. Satan, the fallen star sends the smoky darkness of sin to cover the
light and from this darkness is spawned all the ravages, ruin,
sickness and destruction which afflicted the unrighteous.
Retribution does not come directly from Satan, rather it comes from
God as a consequence of sin.
Power was given to this plague represented
by locusts similar to the power of a scorpion. A scorpion's
power is in his tail to sting and to cause pain and suffering.
We will see more of this power in the tail of scorpion in verse 5
and again in verse 10.
Revelation 9:4
"And it was said unto them that they should not hurt the grass of
the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only such
men as have not the seal of God on their foreheads."
This plague represented by locusts is said to
cause no harm to grass or trees or anything with vegetation.
This is all the evidence we need to determine that these are not
literal locusts in view here. Literal locusts destroy nothing
but vegetation as they sweep across a land eating the leaves off of
nearly every plant in their wake. These locusts are different
from literal locusts and they are told to afflict only the people
who "have not the seal of God on their foreheads".
As seen earlier those who bear the figurative seal of God on their
foreheads are identified as servants of God in Revelation 7:3, so
this plague is specifically targeted at the unrighteous.
Revelation 9:5
"And it was given them 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 it striketh a man."
This plague was not completely fatal to all
that were afflicted by it. The number 5 is half of 10 and
represented human incompleteness or limited power, therefore this
plague was limited in its ability to kill. People afflicted by
this plague would be able to get over it and survive.
The torment of this plague was said to be
like being stung by a scorpion when it strikes. Again we see a
picture of the scorpion's tail. So what we have here is a
plague which is generally non-fatal and afflicts people for a
limited period of time stretching into months and is associated with
the stinging tail or the hinder parts of a scorpion.
Revelation 9:6
"And in those days men shall seek death, and shall in no wise
find it; and they shall desire to die, and death fleeth from them."
This plague is going to be so miserable that those who are
afflicted with it are going to wish they were dead. However,
death is not going to be found. The afflicted are going to be
forced to bear the pain and torment as a consequence of their sin
until they get over it.
Revelation 9:7
"And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for
war; and upon their heads as it were crowns like unto gold, and
their faces were as men's faces."
John is giving us a description of the plague. With figurative
language it is important to focus on the characteristics and not the
characters. These locusts are not literal locusts, rather they
are representative of a plague. The characters used to depict
this plague are not any more literal than the locusts are.
This plague is not a horse prepared for war. It is like a
horse prepared for war. Looking into the old testament we see
the plagues of locusts as prophesied by Joel in chapters 1 and 2.
In chapter 2:4-6 we read: "The appearance of them is as the
appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so do they run. Like
the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap,
like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a
strong people set in battle array. At their presence the
peoples are in anguish; all faces are waxed pale."
Christians familiar with old testament teachings are not going to
associate these horses prepared for war as anything good. This
plague is going to overrun the unrighteous with such force and power
that it's going to be like an army of warhorses sweeping over them.
The crowns of gold are the crowns of
conquest. This plague is going to conquer the unrighteous but
from earlier text we know that this is not a permanent conquest and
that the afflicted are going to survive. The men's faces indicate
that this plague is associated with men or mankind in general.
The face or its features is a primary means of identification for
people. When the first readers looked at the characteristics
of this plague, they saw in its face the faces of men. This plague
is not associated with the earth by floods, earthquakes or other
natural disasters. It is associated and identified with
mankind as a consequence of their own corrupt and immoral
lifestyles.
Revelation 9:8
"And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as
(teeth) of lions."
With the face of mankind and hair of women. This plague had an
alluring tempting characteristic to it. It was appealing and
beautiful but with all its beauty it carried with it the
characteristic of lions teeth rending and tearing. This plague
was deceptive giving out the appearance of beauty but having the
rending savage bite of lion's teeth hidden within. Such it is
with all sin. Satan successfully disguises sin from being the
ugly dangerous thing it is, masking its true appearance in ways that
are appealing to the senses. James teaches us in chapter 1
starting in verse 14; "but each man is tempted, when he is drawn
away by his own lust, and enticed. Then the lust, when it hath
conceived, beareth sin: and the sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth
forth death". The plague in Revelation which came from the
darkness was no different than any sin which looks good on the
surface but underneath is the way of death.
Revelation 9:9
"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 rushing to war."
This plague did not have literal breastplates of iron, rather this
imagery illustrates the power and resistance of the plague.
It's resilient, strong and hard to overcome. Again we see
similar imagery to what was written in Joel regarding the plagues
God sent during that time. They were like a conquering army
sweeping across the land like an army of horses would sweep across
the landscape. Unstoppable, powerful, relentless and without
mercy, striking down all who are unrighteous and participate in the
immoral and decadent activities which were prevalent in this
society. Keeping in mind that this plague was targeted
specifically toward the unrighteous. The righteous had
nothing to fear from this plague but to the unrighteous, this plague
was armor plated.
Revelation 9:10
"And they have tails like unto scorpions, and stings; and in
their tails is their power to hurt men five months."
This is almost a repeat of verse 5 except that in verse 5 we learned
that this plague was non-lethal. In verse 5 the tail of the
scorpion as the source of the torment is alluded to in vague terms,
however here it is specifically mentioned in this capacity.
The power of this plague is found in the tail and it torments for a
limited period of time. As mentioned earlier, diseases brought
about by a sexually prolific society were rampant in the Roman
Empire. Their society was noted for unrestrained
homosexuality, orgiastic behavior associated with worship to sexual
pagan Gods and widespread prostitution especially towards the Roman
soldiers. The Roman soldiers carrying these various diseases
and visiting the houses of prostitution in each town
spread them all over the empire as they traveled from city to city.
History records that sexually transmitted diseases of all kinds were
of epidemic proportions and caused all kinds of misery and torment
for the ones afflicted.
A faithful Christian, abiding faithfully
under the rule of Christ would never ever have to worry this plague.
These locusts with the faces of men, hair of women, teeth of lions
and tails like scorpions would have no effect on a faithful
Christian. Even today we know that the best defense against
these kinds of diseases is to refrain totally from these kinds of
activities. With our technology today we have things like
blood transfusions which can infect the innocent, but these kinds of
things were not possible in the Roman Empire. Faithful
Christians living in the Roman Empire who practiced celibacy for the
unmarried and monogamy for the married had nothing to fear from
sexually transmitted diseases and with extremely rare exceptions
this holds true today. In the 21st century we have a plague
worse than the Roman Empire ever faced. We have one today that
kills and can be transmitted from the pregnant mother to her unborn
child. This disease is a direct consequence of homosexual
activity. The Roman Empire never faced AIDS but we do today.
And sadly, the cure for the spread of this epidemic is the same as it was for the
Romans. The Christian life, faithfully lived would eventually
end the spread of this and all such diseases associated with this
immoral type of lifestyle.
In the very first chapter of Paul's letter
to the Romans, he alluded specifically to the consequences of this
kind of immoral lifestyle. It is obvious from the tone of
Paul's language that this sort of thing was widespread among the
Romans and in his letter he said that, "God gave them up in the
lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be
dishonored among themselves: for that they exchanged the truth of
God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than
the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God
gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural
use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the
men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one
toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in
themselves that recompense of their error which was due" (Romans
1:24-27).
Revelation 9:11
"They have over them as king the angel of the abyss: his name in
Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek (tongue) he hath the name
Apollyon."
We know who the angel of the abyss is. This is none other than
Satan himself, the deceiver, the Devil, the great red dragon.
Abaddon means "destroying angel", and Apollyon means a "destroyer".
Jesus is recorded as seeing Satan fall from heaven like lightning,
(Luke 10:18). Satan is pictured in Revelation 12:3 as the
great red dragon having seven diadems with seven crowns as ruling
over those who are at war with God and His purpose. Satan is
the source of all that is evil and from that comes the manifestation
of all the consequences of evil, both on earth and in eternity
hereafter.
Revelation 9:12
"The first Woe is past: behold, there come yet two Woes hereafter."
This again tells us that this woe is temporary and it isn't over
yet. There is more heartache in store for the evil Roman
Empire.
Summary Paraphrase:
Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and
I saw one who was once a great power in heaven but had fallen from the sky to the earth; and to him
was given a key to the bottomless pit. Then he opened the
abyss and darkness like the smoke of a huge furnace came out of the
opening and was so great that it darkened the sun and the
sky.
Then out of the darkness came forth a great plague like swarms of
locusts on
the earth, and power was granted to it as the power the earth's
scorpions have. They were told not to eat the vegetation of the
earth nor any green thing nor any tree, but only to attack the
people who are not living faithfully before God. They were not
permitted to kill the unrighteous, but only to torment them for a
period of time. And this torment was like the pain caused
by a scorpion's sting. And when this plague strikes, the
afflicted will crave death but it will flee from them.
This plague in the vision was like a thundering stampede
of horses trampling everything in its path. It was identified
with the faces of men wearing golden crowns. Long beautiful
women's hair make it look appealing but the outward beauty only
concealed the ravaging teeth of lions behind it. This
plague is so hard to get over it seemed to be plated with armor and
swiftly overtook the unrighteous like a vast
number of horse drawn chariots going to war. This plague
tormented the unrighteous for months at a time and it came from
within the tail of the locusts and its affliction was like the sting
of scorpions. And Satan, the angel of the abyss, also known as
the destroyer of righteousness rules over the plague like a king.
This plague when it is finished is not the
end of things for there are two more woes yet to come upon the
enemies of righteousness.
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