Rev 9:1-12 | KingComments | STEP | . The star John sees when the fifth angel sounds is already on the earth. He does not see that star falling from heaven, but he knows that it has fallen to earth from it. Both in Revelation 8 and in this verse it is about a star from heaven on the earth. In both cases you see a power that once had been a recognized person of authority with a religious character, but now has fallen and has been degraded. It acts whether under satanic influence ( ) or as satan himself ( ). The star is given “the key of the bottomless pit”. The possession of a key means the possession of power over a territory to which the key gives access ( ). Here it is about “the bottomless pit”. The star has power over the dark forces of the bottomless pit. The star therefore seems to be a symbolic presentation of satan. The dark forces of the bottomless pit have satan as king ( ). The bottomless pit is the place where at this moment the evil is still being kept in control. When satan gets the keys he will let loose these evil forces, as the next verses show. When God has achieved His purpose with this loosening He will lock up all evil forces, including satan, for a thousand years ( ). . The star opens up the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit is the lowest, most depraved source of evil, from where the worst danger emanates. Up to this moment that pit had been closed, for the worst evil could not manifest itself yet. But once the pit has been opened, swarms of evil spirits are released and flood the earth. They wrap themselves in a “smoke” like “the smoke of a great furnace”. It is a black, dense smoke that causes an eclipse of the sun. Besides the light the smoke also takes away the warmth. The smokes works like a suffocating blanket and takes away all the oxygen. The smoke takes away everything that supplies light and warmth (the sun) and it defiles the spiritual atmosphere of the human society (the air). A spiritual darkness descends upon men, depriving them of all sight and insight of a healthy society. . That it is not about a usual smoke, even it is extremely dense and black, appears also from what comes out of it. The smoke that arises from the pit appears to be a means of transport of “locusts”. The locusts represent satanic powers ( ; ). These insects destroy everything they come across. The atmosphere of the thick smoke of the previous verse is a resort for powers that like locusts destroy all life and like scorpions hurt people. Someone who has been stung by a scorpion will be completely restless and driven to total insanity, as long as the poison is active. This will happen to the Jews as a result of their rejection of God in their Messiah ( ; ). . The powers of darkness will be released. They rise in swarms from the bottomless pit to do the only thing they can do: spread death and destruction. Yet they cannot go about their business undisturbed. They only can and are permitted to do what God wants to use them for. Therefore a limitation is imposed on them. The limitation is to such a great extent that only one purpose is left for them. They are allowed to carry out their pernicious work to “the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads”. This indication seems to show that this very judgment of the fifth trumpet, specifically strikes the wicked mass of the Jewish people. You have seen in Revelation 7 that out of Israel one hundred and forty-four thousand people were sealed. Now you see the purpose of it. It is a warranty against the deceptive and pernicious spirits from the bottomless pit. The apostate Jews are the object of the judgment because they have had more knowledge of God than other people, but have rejected that knowledge by their rejection of God’s Messiah. . Besides a limitation of the territory over which they can assert their wicked power, also a limitation is imposed on these spiritual forces for the practice of causing pain and for the duration of the practice of their power. This pain is extremely severe. It will make people desire to die. The duration is relatively short, namely five months. But you may know from experience how long a relatively short time can be when you are suffering extreme pains from moment to moment. It is remarkable that this duration is the same as the normal lifetime of the locusts, which is also five months. By the way, you can see a proof of God’s mercy in the fact that the apostates are not immediately killed. Due to this ‘delay’ the individual still gets the chance to repent. The fact that this chance is not taken shows how much man has hardened his heart. However severe the pain of the scorpion’s sting may be, man refuses to consider going to God and to beg Him for mercy ( ; ). . The sting of the scorpion is not a literal sting, just as the scorpion is not literal. Also the locusts are not literal locusts. It is about symbols of creatures that will operate in an extremely sadistic way. They have a satanic pleasure, according to their nature, in tormenting people in a way that these people will seek to die, for they think that in that way they can escape the tormenting pains. But death, the last weapon of satan, withdraws itself from them, so that the torments remain. The torment that is caused consists of hellish teachings that will torment people in their heart and conscience from which they cannot escape. The control of demonic influences is a result of having opened themselves for occultism, spiritualism, sorcery and fortune-telling. These movements find more and more followers. People who surrender themselves to it will be struck with insanity. They will try to commit suicide to escape, but they will not succeed. . Then a description of these demonic powers follows. From this description it appears that they love war and are aggressive. Horses are a good symbol for that. In some countries locusts are called ‘little horses’ because of the similarity of their head to that of a horse (cf. ). They are also unstoppable, but they move on triumphantly, which you can derive from what you see on their heads on which something “appeared to be crowns like gold”. It also indicates that they claim royal dignity. That “their faces were like the faces of men”, means that they operate with insight. This insight they gained through many centuries of dealing with people. They present their pernicious, unbearable pain-inducing teachings plausibly, humanly, as human rights, rights of the child, right to privacy, but it is to dethrone God. Behind this ‘human face’ demonic powers are hidden who cover their true nature. . Another characteristic of them is that they have “hair like the hair of women”. There is no doubt that it is about long hair. The ‘material’ is, after all, not different from that of man. If you look at what is written about the long hair of the woman in 1 Corinthians 11 ( ), you can discover in relation to this remark two aspects in the performance of these creatures. In the first place their performance is charming, attractive, as long hair is the woman’s adornment, her attractiveness. In the second place about it shows that they are not independent powers, operating on their own, but that they are in reality subject to their superior, satan. That they are subject to satan, is expressed by “their teeth were like [the teeth] of lions”, which indicates that their performance has the savage, cruel and tearing power of lions. . In their relentless cruelty, they are also untouchable to any resistance. Their iron harness shows their invulnerability. It also shows their insensitiveness, their heartlessness, the total absence of mercy. A conscience they do not have or it is seared. The noise of their appearance is frightening ( ). Their goal is war without compassion. They are whipped up by satan, while causing terror and fear to their victims. . The description closes with indicating once again that the main thing for them is to harm people and that they have a limited period of time for that. The sting is in the tail. That is evident here. The tail represents false teachings ( ). They cause spiritual damage by spreading false teachings, which cause an enormous torment. The sting comes from the pit. Dogmas, doctrines and principles that come from the bottomless pit are accepted by the apostate part of Israel and cause unbearable agonies in their souls and consciences. . This verse shows that they are under a leader and do not act independently and at their own discretion. “The angel of the abyss” is their “king”. They are under his dominion. He is the controlling intelligence and the hidden organizer of these pernicious battle orders. His name is written in both Hebrew and Greek. Possibly his Hebrew name points to the antichrist’s connection with the apostate Jewish people and his Greek to the antichrist’s connection with apostate Christianity. The names have the same meaning: Abaddon means ‘destruction’ and refers more to the result of his work. Apollyon means ‘destroyer’ and refers more to the person himself. No one else than satan can be meant here ( ). He is the angel of the bottomless pit, represented in the star (cf. ) which fell down from heaven ( ). The antichrist and the beast are animated by him. . An end has come to the first woe, the fifth trumpet. Actually, the disasters that were caused by the locusts from the bottomless pit would last for just five months. It is possible that there is a short break before the next ‘woe’ sounds. Thereafter a third ‘woe’ must come. That only happens in Revelation 11 when the seventh angel sounds the trumpet ( ). With the exclamation “behold” attention is drawn to the two more ‘woes’ after this. How terrible the first ‘woe’ has been, both other woes are yet coming. The second ‘woe’ is the sixth trumpet and again refers to the Roman empire, which is connected to the second (the Greek) name of the previous verse. After the judgment on the apostate Jews under the first ‘woe’ follows the judgment under the second ‘woe’ on the apostate Christians. Now read Revelation 9:1-12 again. Reflection: Do you already observe the destructive influences in your environment? How can you recognize them?

‏ Revelation of John 9:1-12

The Fifth Trumpet

Rev 9:1. The star John sees when the fifth angel sounds is already on the earth. He does not see that star falling from heaven, but he knows that it has fallen to earth from it. Both in Revelation 8 and in this verse it is about a star from heaven on the earth. In both cases you see a power that once had been a recognized person of authority with a religious character, but now has fallen and has been degraded. It acts whether under satanic influence (Rev 8:10) or as satan himself (Rev 9:1).

The star is given “the key of the bottomless pit”. The possession of a key means the possession of power over a territory to which the key gives access (Rev 1:18 ; Rev 3:7). Here it is about “the bottomless pit”. The star has power over the dark forces of the bottomless pit. The star therefore seems to be a symbolic presentation of satan. The dark forces of the bottomless pit have satan as king (Rev 9:11). The bottomless pit is the place where at this moment the evil is still being kept in control. When satan gets the keys he will let loose these evil forces, as the next verses show. When God has achieved His purpose with this loosening He will lock up all evil forces, including satan, for a thousand years (Rev 20:1-3).

Rev 9:2. The star opens up the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit is the lowest, most depraved source of evil, from where the worst danger emanates. Up to this moment that pit had been closed, for the worst evil could not manifest itself yet. But once the pit has been opened, swarms of evil spirits are released and flood the earth. They wrap themselves in a “smoke” like “the smoke of a great furnace”.

It is a black, dense smoke that causes an eclipse of the sun. Besides the light the smoke also takes away the warmth. The smokes works like a suffocating blanket and takes away all the oxygen. The smoke takes away everything that supplies light and warmth (the sun) and it defiles the spiritual atmosphere of the human society (the air). A spiritual darkness descends upon men, depriving them of all sight and insight of a healthy society.

Rev 9:3. That it is not about a usual smoke, even it is extremely dense and black, appears also from what comes out of it. The smoke that arises from the pit appears to be a means of transport of “locusts”. The locusts represent satanic powers (Exo 10:12-20; Joel 1:4-7). These insects destroy everything they come across.

The atmosphere of the thick smoke of the previous verse is a resort for powers that like locusts destroy all life and like scorpions hurt people. Someone who has been stung by a scorpion will be completely restless and driven to total insanity, as long as the poison is active. This will happen to the Jews as a result of their rejection of God in their Messiah (Deu 28:28 ; 65; Mt 12:43-45).

Rev 9:4. The powers of darkness will be released. They rise in swarms from the bottomless pit to do the only thing they can do: spread death and destruction. Yet they cannot go about their business undisturbed. They only can and are permitted to do what God wants to use them for. Therefore a limitation is imposed on them. The limitation is to such a great extent that only one purpose is left for them. They are allowed to carry out their pernicious work to “the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads”.

This indication seems to show that this very judgment of the fifth trumpet, specifically strikes the wicked mass of the Jewish people. You have seen in Revelation 7 that out of Israel one hundred and forty-four thousand people were sealed. Now you see the purpose of it. It is a warranty against the deceptive and pernicious spirits from the bottomless pit. The apostate Jews are the object of the judgment because they have had more knowledge of God than other people, but have rejected that knowledge by their rejection of God’s Messiah.

Rev 9:5. Besides a limitation of the territory over which they can assert their wicked power, also a limitation is imposed on these spiritual forces for the practice of causing pain and for the duration of the practice of their power. This pain is extremely severe. It will make people desire to die. The duration is relatively short, namely five months. But you may know from experience how long a relatively short time can be when you are suffering extreme pains from moment to moment. It is remarkable that this duration is the same as the normal lifetime of the locusts, which is also five months.

By the way, you can see a proof of God’s mercy in the fact that the apostates are not immediately killed. Due to this ‘delay’ the individual still gets the chance to repent. The fact that this chance is not taken shows how much man has hardened his heart. However severe the pain of the scorpion’s sting may be, man refuses to consider going to God and to beg Him for mercy (Rev 9:20; Rev 16:9).

Rev 9:6. The sting of the scorpion is not a literal sting, just as the scorpion is not literal. Also the locusts are not literal locusts. It is about symbols of creatures that will operate in an extremely sadistic way. They have a satanic pleasure, according to their nature, in tormenting people in a way that these people will seek to die, for they think that in that way they can escape the tormenting pains. But death, the last weapon of satan, withdraws itself from them, so that the torments remain.

The torment that is caused consists of hellish teachings that will torment people in their heart and conscience from which they cannot escape. The control of demonic influences is a result of having opened themselves for occultism, spiritualism, sorcery and fortune-telling. These movements find more and more followers. People who surrender themselves to it will be struck with insanity. They will try to commit suicide to escape, but they will not succeed.

Rev 9:7. Then a description of these demonic powers follows. From this description it appears that they love war and are aggressive. Horses are a good symbol for that. In some countries locusts are called ‘little horses’ because of the similarity of their head to that of a horse (cf. Job 39:23). They are also unstoppable, but they move on triumphantly, which you can derive from what you see on their heads on which something “appeared to be crowns like gold”. It also indicates that they claim royal dignity.

That “their faces were like the faces of men”, means that they operate with insight. This insight they gained through many centuries of dealing with people. They present their pernicious, unbearable pain-inducing teachings plausibly, humanly, as human rights, rights of the child, right to privacy, but it is to dethrone God. Behind this ‘human face’ demonic powers are hidden who cover their true nature.

Rev 9:8. Another characteristic of them is that they have “hair like the hair of women”. There is no doubt that it is about long hair. The ‘material’ is, after all, not different from that of man. If you look at what is written about the long hair of the woman in 1 Corinthians 11 (1Cor 11:4-16), you can discover in relation to this remark two aspects in the performance of these creatures.

In the first place their performance is charming, attractive, as long hair is the woman’s adornment, her attractiveness. In the second place about it shows that they are not independent powers, operating on their own, but that they are in reality subject to their superior, satan. That they are subject to satan, is expressed by “their teeth were like [the teeth] of lions”, which indicates that their performance has the savage, cruel and tearing power of lions.

Rev 9:9. In their relentless cruelty, they are also untouchable to any resistance. Their iron harness shows their invulnerability. It also shows their insensitiveness, their heartlessness, the total absence of mercy. A conscience they do not have or it is seared. The noise of their appearance is frightening (Joel 2:4-6). Their goal is war without compassion. They are whipped up by satan, while causing terror and fear to their victims.

Rev 9:10. The description closes with indicating once again that the main thing for them is to harm people and that they have a limited period of time for that. The sting is in the tail. That is evident here. The tail represents false teachings (Isa 9:15). They cause spiritual damage by spreading false teachings, which cause an enormous torment. The sting comes from the pit. Dogmas, doctrines and principles that come from the bottomless pit are accepted by the apostate part of Israel and cause unbearable agonies in their souls and consciences.

Rev 9:11. This verse shows that they are under a leader and do not act independently and at their own discretion. “The angel of the abyss” is their “king”. They are under his dominion. He is the controlling intelligence and the hidden organizer of these pernicious battle orders. His name is written in both Hebrew and Greek. Possibly his Hebrew name points to the antichrist’s connection with the apostate Jewish people and his Greek to the antichrist’s connection with apostate Christianity.

The names have the same meaning: Abaddon means ‘destruction’ and refers more to the result of his work. Apollyon means ‘destroyer’ and refers more to the person himself. No one else than satan can be meant here (Jn 8:44). He is the angel of the bottomless pit, represented in the star (cf. Isa 14:12) which fell down from heaven (Rev 9:1). The antichrist and the beast are animated by him.

Rev 9:12. An end has come to the first woe, the fifth trumpet. Actually, the disasters that were caused by the locusts from the bottomless pit would last for just five months. It is possible that there is a short break before the next ‘woe’ sounds. Thereafter a third ‘woe’ must come. That only happens in Revelation 11 when the seventh angel sounds the trumpet (Rev 11:15-18).

With the exclamation “behold” attention is drawn to the two more ‘woes’ after this. How terrible the first ‘woe’ has been, both other woes are yet coming. The second ‘woe’ is the sixth trumpet and again refers to the Roman empire, which is connected to the second (the Greek) name of the previous verse. After the judgment on the apostate Jews under the first ‘woe’ follows the judgment under the second ‘woe’ on the apostate Christians.

Now read Revelation 9:1-12 again.

Reflection: Do you already observe the destructive influences in your environment? How can you recognize them?