“The
Beginning of God’s Punishment on the Impenitent”
Revelation
9:1-21
April
14, 2024 YouTube
As we open the book of Revelation, again, let us remember,
Revelation was written to be a book of comfort and hope to the Christians
suffering under the persecution of Rome.
And the hope and comfort that it gives is for all Christians throughout
time and space as we have been promised by Jesus that we will be persecuted –
we will suffer varying degrees of persecution.
We
mentioned the overlapping of the seals, the trumpets, and the woes. We saw the seventh seal open the first
trumpet, and after the fourth trumpet blasts, three woes are associated with
them: the fifth trumpet is the first
woe, the sixth trumpet is the second woe, and the seventh trumpet is the third
woe. At the end of the fourth trumpet –
the end of chapter eight, we read:
“Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud
voice as it flew directly overhead, ‘Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the
earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to
blow!’” (Revelation: ESV).
As we look at chapter nine – the fifth and sixth trumpet
and first and second woe, again, remember that this is a book of comfort and
hope. Don’t hear the images and
panic. Notice that verses four, twenty,
and twenty-one say that the woes are against those who never receive the mark
of God on their heads – the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit Who is received
through salvation in Jesus Alone. True believers will know what is happening –
and see it – but the woes are against those who never repent and believe
savingly in Jesus.
As we look at the fifth trumpet which is the first woe, let
us understand that the devil, Satan, Lucifer, and all the damned angels – the
demons – are not able or authorized to do anything except what God commands or
allows. The demonic forces are impotent except when God commands them or allows
them to act.
Paul explains, using the imagery of the Roman centurion
armor, how to fight against the demonic forces, when God commands them or
allows them to engage us – true believers – those with the mark of God on their
foreheads. Paul writes:
“For
we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having
done all, to stand firm” (Ephesians 6:12-13, ESV).
Again,
this wrestling is only to the extent that God commands and allows. We will remember that Satan had to come to
God to get permission to take things away from Job and to tempt him to
sin. Satan does not have the authority
or ability to do what he wants on his own – God limits what he does. As we read:
“And
the LORD said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against
him do not stretch out your hand.’ So Satan went out from the presence of the
LORD” (Job 1:12, ESV).
With
this in mind, we turn to our text:
“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.”
A “star” fell from heaven to earth. We saw in chapter one of Revelation that a
star refers to a minister or an angel. Here, it refers to a specific angel. The pronoun that is used in the text for him indicates
a being – not a force.
And we are told who this is:
“How
you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to
the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will
ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will
sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend
above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But
you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit” (Isaiah 14:12-15,
ESV).
And Jude tells us that those who followed Lucifer – who
sought to be greater than God – and was punished by being thrown to earth – the
demons are under restraint – except as God commands or permits.
“And
the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left
their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness
until the judgment of the great day—" (Jude 6, ESV).
God
gave Satan the key to the bottomless pit (for a specific time and purpose).
“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.”
In
opening the bottomless pit, all of the demons are released. And we are given a terrifying picture of them
– but remember, if you have the mark of God on your forehead, you will not be
harmed.
“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.”
The
demons are like locusts with the power of scorpions. God says they are not to harm the Creation or
the people with the mark of God on their head – only those who do not have the
mark of God on their head. They are
allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them.
Why
five months? Because the average
lifespan of a locust is five months – they would have known that then.
Those
being tortured will want to die, but they will not be allowed to die. They will suffer horrific pain, but God will
not allow them to die.
“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.”
The
bottomless pit is the place where the demons and those who die without the mark
of God on their foreheads stay until the resurrection to the last day and the
final judgment. It is a horrific place
and the place before eternal condemnation in Hell.
We
see that even the demons don’t want to be in the bottomless pit due to the
suffering that is experienced there:
“When
Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had
demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house
but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him
and said with a loud voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the
Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.’
For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For
many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains
and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the
desert.) Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Legion,’ for
many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart
into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and
they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the
demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the
steep bank into the lake and drowned” (Luke 8:27-33, ESV).
These demons are described as a cross between soldiers and
chariots and locusts and scorpions. They
are hideous and terrifying. The king
over them, the fallen star, the angel of the bottomless pit is called “Abaddon”
and “Apollyon.” Both names mean
“Destroyer.”
The “woes” are due to the unforgiven sin of those who have
never believed. And their sin has
granted them to be found – at God’s instruction and with His permission – under
the torture of the Deastroyer.
“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.’”
The
altar in the Temple had four golden horns on it – one on each corner of the
altar. If someone was being sought after
for a true or false crime, that person could grab one of the horns of the altar
and be granted asylum.
Here,
the horns that are for the giving of asylum have a voice from them calling out
for the end of asylum for any who do not bear the mark of God on their forehead.
And the voice tells the sixth angel with the second woe to “release the four
angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” We have seen that the number
four can refer to completion, the whole, all that is – of course, it can also
refer to the number four.
The
four angels are, of course, demons. The Euphrates River is the boundary of
Israel against the Arab nations. The
four angels have been restrained up to this point to keep them from letting
loose military conflicts against Israel that will affect the whole world.
The
reason we think that four demons refer to more than four demons is this:
“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.”
The
four demons had been prepared for “the hour, the day, the month, and the year,
[to be] released to kill a third of mankind." These demons, according to
the Sovereign Will and purpose of God, carry out our Sovereign God’s divine
judgements against one third of those who do not have the mark of God on their
foreheads. God prepared these demons to go forth in military conflicts when and
according to the Will of God and to the extent that God allows them. The evil demons would have killed everyone,
including all those who have the mark of God on their forehead if God did not
put restrictions on how many of those who did not have the mark of God on their
heads they could kill. They can do
nothing except what God commands and permits.
The
four demons are (or command) troops of two hundred million horsemen. Which
represents the monstrous ugliness of war.
There is no place on earth where a two hundred million horse army could
stand. Rather, it represents the incredible evil of war.
We
will remember that the tension and evil in the Middle East is the product of
the sin of Abraham. He had his first
son, Ishmael, outside of the covenant of God, but God did not forget him. God said, “As for Ishmael, I have heard you;
behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly.
He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation”
(Genesis 17:20, ESV). And later we see
that the twelve princes of Ishmael become the Arab nations that surround Israel,
and Jacob – whose name God changes to Israel – is the father of those who
become the twelve tribes of Israel.
“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.”
We
remember the horsemen, do we not?
The
first horse, commanded by Jesus and leading the other three horses according to
His Will. The second horse – who is
given the power to take peace from the earth so the people of the earth will
kill each other. The third horse – who
upsets the world, and all that God has given – causing inflation in the prices
of all things on earth. And the fourth
horse – with Death and Hades – to whom are given authority to kill with the
sword in war, to kill with famine, and pestilence, and by the wild beasts of
the earth. (Revelation 6:1-9).
After
experiencing the greatest horrors of war, the attack of demons, and massive
death on earth, we read:
“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.”
Those
who lived through the greatest horrors seen on earth as of that time were
unimpressed. They did not repent. They continued to worship demons and
idols. They continue to commit murder
and take part in witchcraft, and sexual acts that God has forbidden, and in
theft. All these things that God brought
down upon them didn’t faze them. They remained impenitent and, on the way, to
be cast into the bottomless pit – and eventually the lake of fire.
Nothing
will cause the wicked to repent and believe except for God’s intervention.
For
all those who have the mark of God on our forehead, for we who have believed
savingly in Jesus and have received the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit,
there continues to be good news and comfort for us. We belong to Jesus, and He is bringing us
into Paradise to be with Him forever.
Let
us pray:
Almighty
God, we thank You for causing us to believe savingly in Jesus, for indwelling
us with God the Holy Spirit, and giving us the mark of God on our
foreheads. Thank You for the vision of
the first two woes and the horrifying truth that some will never believe, even
once they experience God’s divine judgment. Help us to be thankful and cause us
to pray for all those who do not believe that we would tell them Who Jesus is
and what He has done, and that You would be pleased to send the Holy Spirit to
bring many to faith and repentance. For
it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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