1Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. 2When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke.
3Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions. 4They were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5They were told not to kill them but to torture them for five months with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting. 6In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them!
7The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces. 8They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion. 9They wore armour made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle. 10They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people. 11Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer.
12The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!
Revelation 9:1-12
Now we come to the fifth trumpeted judgement or the first of what have been called the terrors. If you still remember, the end of Chapter 8 of Revelation closes with :
Then I looked, and I heard a single eagle crying loudly as it flew through the air, “Terror, terror, terror to all who belong to this world because of what will happen when the last three angels blow their trumpets.”
Revelation 8:13
I have told you before, the 7 trumpets are grouped like the seals were: 4 : 2 : 1. The first four were considerably shorter in terms of content or description, while the next two were longer in the detail described. All building toward the mystery or the importance of the seventh example we are waiting on. The same is true for the pattern in the trumpeted judgements. I assume you have noticed the fifth judgement is sandwiched between verse 13 of the previous chapter and verse 12 of Chapter 9.
‘The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!’
Revelation 9:12
What makes this fifth trumpet judgement so terrible? Let’s examine it.
The Fifth Trumpet Judgement
A star had already fallen at the opening of the fifth trumpet judgement. There is much debate over the fact that the verb ‘had fallen’ is in the perfect tense – action in the past which has on-going significance in the present, or in this case, the future. The star is personified but who is the person, human or angel the star represents? Various names have been posited as the one in focus. Nero, a fallen angel, a chief demon, some even think Satan himself. But that seems premature in the context of Revelation, for Satan’s appearance is reserved for 12:9. Others suggest the perfect tense of the opening verse of this chapter is because this fallen angel had fallen to earth long ago. The suggestion being that the focus of these opening verses is on “when he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit”. We are given a clue in verse 11 that the leader (king) of the demons from the bottomless pit is called Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek — in both languages the meaning is ‘the Destroyer’. The names are often translated as Sheol, Hell or the Grave.
What makes this fifth trumpet judgement so terrible? Surely it’s the entry point of the demonic into the terrors on earth. We are told very clearly that this personified fallen angel is given the key or authority to open ‘the shaft of the bottomless pit‘. To open the [φρέαρ] phrear the “well”, “pit”, “shaft” of the [abussos], or the abyss. The malevolent character released unleashes harmful agents of judgement on the earth. Permission it seems has been given by God to judge in this way. Some ask, why does God allow this to happen? It is to shock those, who are not yet counted among God’s people, to repent and change their ways. The smoke and darkness or blackness of the moment blocks the sunlight and turns even the air dark from the smoke. While this is apocalyptic language, it was relevant to the people of John’s time as they only had to think back a decade or so to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD as a reference point.
However, Christians and Jews have another source for a similar description in the book of Joel 1 and 2.
After the cutting locusts finished eating the crops, the swarming locusts took what was left! After them came the hopping locusts, and then the stripping locusts, too! 1:4 . . . A vast army of locusts has invaded my land, a terrible army too numerous to count. Its teeth are like lions’ teeth, its fangs like those of a lioness. 1:6
Joel 1:4, 6
It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds and deep blackness. Suddenly, like dawn spreading across the mountains, a great and mighty army appears. Nothing like it has been seen before or will ever be seen again. 2:2 Fire burns in front of them, and flames follow after them 2:3 . . . Behind them is nothing but desolation; not one thing escapes 2:4 . . . They look like horses; they charge forward like warhorses 2:4 . . . Look at them as they leap along the mountaintops. Listen to the noise they make—like the rumbling of chariots, like the roar of fire sweeping across a field of stubble, or like a mighty army moving into battle. 2:5 . . . Fear grips all the people; every face grows pale with terror. 2:6 . . . They swarm over the city and run along its walls. They enter all the houses, climbing like thieves through the windows. 2:9
Joel 2:2-9
And I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth—blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and terrible day of the LORD arrives. But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved, for some on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will escape, just as the LORD has said. These will be among the survivors whom the LORD has called.
Joel 2:30-32
Joel and John could well have seen the same vision. In John’s vision here in Revelation 9, he sees locusts which looked like horses, dressed for battle, clad in armour, but with human faces and with the sting of the scorpion in their tails. The visual image of gold crowns, like the hair of women conjures up the idea of the appearance of the Barbarian hordes from the North. The vision John described is not as way out as it may seem to us. It is certainly something which would connect with the inhabitants of the area of 7 churches at the end of the first century. These images would have related to subsequent generations living in the area of the Roman Province of Asia after the Roman Empire had fallen.
Some of you have asked about the significance of ‘the five month limit’ on the torment to the those suffering in this way. I have come across a number of references to the fact that the life-span of a locust from birth, through the larva stage, to death, is five months. My hunch is that the inhabitants of this area of the world would have been well aware of the duration of a locust plague, having experienced many of them. This match to five months would have reassured them this attack was for a short period.
John made it very clear in his description of this fifth trumpet judgement that these demonic warrior locusts were only to harm (torment) and not kill the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads (Verse 4). They were told not to harm the grass, plants or trees, but only torment the people without God’s mark of ownership. Now that is unusual, isn’t it? Locusts being told not to eat their normal diet! But these locusts are only to bite, sting or torment the people who belong to this world. Did you notice something else which was spelled out very clearly?
In those days people will seek death but will not find it.
They will long to die, but death will flee from them!
Revelation 9:6
This statement is written in poetic parallelism which repeats the same idea twice in both lines of poetry. The meaning is the people who are being tormented will seek [zeteo] death but they will not be able to find [heuriskō] it. They will seek, search, desiring to find a way to die, to get them out of this torment. Not only will they not find it, but death itself, Hades, Abaddon and Apollyon will not just hide from them, as in a game of hide and seek, but rather they will flee [φεύγω] pheugō from those who want to die. That is, you will not be successful in your quest for death. You will have to suffer until the next trumpeted judgement to come. Knowing:
“Terror, terror, terror to all who belong to this world because of what will happen when the last three angels blow their trumpets.”
Revelation 8:13
The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!
Revelation 9:12
Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.
C S Lewis
“Be yourself” is terrible advice. Some people are terrible human beings. Rather evaluate yourself and work on improvement.”
Rick Godwin
Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
James 4:4