Revelation 9 reminds me of separating my shoulder in a wrestling tournament in college. Rather than allow the guy to turn me, I resisted and endured the pain. I heard teammates yelling to me to relent, but I would not listen. My season and career ended that day. Today’s lesson is about knowing when to stop resisting and listen. The apostle John continues his observation of the judgements of God in the last days: “The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.” As we will see, this is an angelic being. Many believe it to be Satan. We read: “The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss” and when he opened it, “smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.” It is important to note that hell is a place of torment. Satan desires to deceive every soul from receiving forgiveness, but he does not rule over hell. John writes: “out of the smoke locusts came” they were not allowed to harm grass or plants, “only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” John says they were not allowed to kill, they were only allowed to “torture them for five months.” He adds: “people will seek death but will not find it… death will elude them.” Please understand that each of these people stubbornly rejected God’s love, yet God never gives up on us. Some of us need to experience misery before we are willing to seek renewal. Some of them will still accept Christ after this time.
Next John depicts a scene that resembles modern warfare as described by a 1st century man. It has been said that “war is hell.” John writes: “The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle… their teeth were like lions’ teeth… breastplates like… iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses… tails with stingers.” Once again, we see that when God removes His hand of protection, we become vulnerable. “They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).” John inserts a commentary amid the despair: “two other woes are yet to come.” The destroyer only leads his troops into destruction.
John continues: “The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God.” These horns are where the blood of the sacrifice was placed in the Hebrew Temple. This voice seemingly condemns those that reject the atonement. “It said ‘Release the four angels who are bound’… kept ready for this very hour and day… to kill a third of mankind.” I wonder if those left behind heard the warning. Warnings always precede God’s Judgement, but we do not always listen. John continues: “The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand.” This is a massive army. John says in his vision: “The horses and riders… looked like this… out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur.” In the aftermath: “A third of mankind was killed.” Most of us cannot imagine unrestrained evil. And yet, even after witnessing unimaginable horror: “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent.” Are we so different today? We see the devastation of sin, and then blame God. The deceiver continues to divide and separate. The chapter closes with John describing the sad reality of those that will not accept God’s truth: “they did not stop worshiping demons… Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.” Friend, are you too stubborn to turn from the things that are causing harm? Everyone you know is wrestling with a problem today. Ephesians 4:32 tells us how the message of salvation might be heard through the noise: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”