Revelation Chapter 9 THE 5TH TRUMPET A PREVIEW OF HELL: ENDLESS DARKNESS (9:1-2)
THE 5TH TRUMPET A PREVIEW OF HELL:
ENDLESS DARKNESS 9:1-2
1 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.
2 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.
As chapter 9 opens we find John introduces us to the dreadful realm of the fallen spirits and their abode: the abyss.
This bottomless pit is often mentioned in God’s Word (9:1-2, 11; 11:7; 20:1,3) as the holding tank of punishment for
the fallen angels, demons, the beast, the false prophet and Satan. Every time the Bible describes it the location is
at the center of the Earth. If all of these are taken literally then God has designed an impregnable fortress holding
the most fearsome creatures existing anywhere in the universe. These spirit beings of the highest magnitude of evil
are leftover from Satan’s rebellion. Jude tells us some were trying to corrupt the human race so the promised seed
of the woman (Jesus Gen. 3:15) could never come. Others seem to be key leaders of Satan’s forces and they are held
back until now. This abyss or bottomless pit is only an intermediate step before the final abode of the Prince of
Darkness and all his followers. In chapter 20 the final place or terror is the Lake of Fire of Gehenna Jesus spoke
of so often in His warnings scattered throughout the Gospels. The fallen Lucifer is given permission to open the
dungeon of demons and loose the legions of terrors.
A PREVIEW OF HELL: RELENTLESS TERROR
(9:3-12)
3 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.
4 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.
5 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.
6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall
flee from them.
7 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.
8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
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 running to battle.
10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to
hurt men five months.
11 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.
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
As the shaft leading downward is unlocked the infernal smoke of the pit billows out of the darkness unleashing
the pent up fury of Hell. With the most destructive imagery known to man John describes them as locusts.
No plague was more fearsome in the ancient world. Truly the Day of the Lord, portrayed in this short prophetic
oracle’s revelation through God’s Spirit, is a day that is to be heeded. God clearly demonstrates the need of
repentance and the physical disaster that must follow moral disintegration.
Three times God uses Locusts as a vehicle of judgment. Each is a plague of horrible proportions.
1. In Exodus 10:4, 12-14 and 19, Moses unleashes an 8th plague -locusts that HORRIBLY DEVOUR.
2. In Joel 1 and 2 God sends a plague of locusts that HORRIBLY DESTROY.
3. In Revelation 9:3 and 7, the 5th trumpet sounds the release of HORRIBLE DEMONIC HORDES like locusts from
the Abyss
Today, few readers of the Book of Joel are likely to experience a locust plague, because with current eradication
methods, a locust swarm in modem Israel is indeed a rare phenomenon. In ancient times, however, the land of Israel
was frequently subject to invasions by the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria. In 1915 a journalist
in Jerusalem, John D. Whiting, standing in almost the same place Joel stood more than 2,000 years before,
witnessed a similar event:
“Sudden darkening of the bright sunshine … clouds… so dense as to appear quite black…. In an inconceivably
short time every leaf is consumed, leaving bare and barked twigs only … It seemed as if the entire surface of
the ground moved, producing a most curious effect upon one’s vision and causing dizziness…. Up and up the city
walls and the castle they climbed to their very heights .
Exodus 10:1-20
describes the locust as perhaps nature’s most awesome example of the collective destructive power
of a species. An adult locust weighs a maximum of two grams, and yet its combined destructive force can leave
thousands of people in famine for years. The locust plagues were very much feared in ancient Egypt. So much so
that the peasants were in the habit of praying to the locust god. [Satan likes to keep superstitious peoples
enslaved to his demonic horde’s evil powers.] No one who has ever seen the locust at work accuses the Bible of
hyperbole. In 1926 and 1927, small swarms of the African migratory locusts were spotted in an area 50 by 120
miles on the plains of the river Niger near Timbuktu. The next year swarms invaded Senegal and Sierra Leone.
By 1930 the whole of West Africa was flailing away at the pests with everything movable. But the locusts didn’t
seem to notice; swarms reached Khartoum, more than 2,000 miles to the east of Timbuktu, then turned south,
spreading across Ethiopia, Kenya, the Belgian Congo, and in 1932, striking into the lush farm land of Angola
and Rhodesia. Before the plague finally sputtered out fourteen years after it began, it affected five million
square miles of Africa, an area nearly double the size of the United States . A locust is capable of eating its
own weight daily. One square mile of a swarm will normally contain from 100,000,000 to 200,000,000 of the creatures.
It is unusual, however, for such plagues to occupy an area of only one square mile. Swarms covering more than
400 square miles have been recorded.
A swarm can contain over a billion creatures that, all together, can weigh more than three million pounds. One
locust with his colleagues form gregarious marching bands up to ten miles wide and ten miles long. The marching
bands move forward at a slow cadence, perhaps no more than 250 feet per hour, and may travel no farther than 15
miles from their staging area. But within their path the hoppers may consume virtually every tender blade of grass
or legume. The extraordinary appearance of this marching band with its mass of tiny pullulating bodies can be
unnerving, to say the least. In the words of Joel, “Before them earth trembles, Heaven shakes . . .” (Joel 2:10).
The marching bands are oblivious to obstacles: “They rush up the wall, they dash about in the city; They climb into
the houses, They enter like thieves by way of the windows” (Joel 2:9).
THE FEARSOME SYMBOL OF THE LOCUST
Even the Hebrew vocabulary used to describe locusts is fearsome. There are six different Hebrew words for locust;
each is sobering. These words are:
1. Gazam or SHEARERS, WHICH PORTRAYS THE MACHINE, like destructive path or sheared off living plants in the wake
of these monsters.
2. Arbel or SWARMER is a reference to the innumerable hordes that darken the sky as a black cloud.
3. Hasil or FINISHER is the devastating aftermath or all green plants finished off by the army that passes.
4. Solam or ANNIHILATOR is another glimpse of how those who saw these hordes described their work.
5. Hargol or GALLOPER notes the incredible speed of the destruction as they pour out unstoppable destruction
across the face of the earth.
6. Tzelatzel or CREAKER that reminds us that locusts are ominously heard creaking toward you long before they
are seen.
Revelation 9:5-6
The time limit God gives these creatures is the same as the normal life cycle of a physical locust, 5 months.
It is also interesting that this plague flooding the Earth with these horrible creatures lasts the same duration
as the flood waters of Genesis 8:1. Then they are swept back, presumably where they came from, the Pit. Do any of
Earth’s tormented inhabitants turn in sorrow to their Creator? It is not clear, but God awaits any to join the
white robed multitude.
Revelation 9:7-10
John is grasping for any words to describe demon monsters. They can fly like locusts, they gallop around
like horses, they carry a venomous sting like scorpions, they look somewhat human with hair, and they bite with
sharpness like a lion. Horrible and ghastly they do great damage to humanity.
Revelation 9:11 At the front of the army stands Apollyon (in Greek Destroyer) and in Hebrew Abaddon or Destruction.
Thus leading the most horrible assault on mankind ever launched is the destroyer himself, who defected from the very
holy presence of God to decay into the murderous liar and hater of truth the chief officer of the Devil or perhaps
even the old Dragon, Satan himself. Most likely this is one of the arch-fallen angels. As Jesus said Satan only
wants to steal God’s blessings. The absolute contrast is seen between Jesus and the devil John 10:10 “The thief
does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they
may have it more abundantly.
Revelation Chapter 9 THE 5TH TRUMPET A PREVIEW OF HELL: ENDLESS DARKNESS