seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Revelation 9:1 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. 6 During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8 Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11 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).
12 The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.
13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.
17 The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. 18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19 The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.
20 The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
This is from the easy English site.John saw a star. It had just fallen from the sky. The star came to the earth.
The star had fallen. This fact shows us that something terrible had happened. Stars belong in the sky. They should not fall. Isaiah uses a similar description in Isaiah 14:12-15. Isaiah seems to be referring to the events when the devil decided to oppose God.
This ‘star’ was really a person or an evil angel. (In fact, John explains who the ‘star’ was in verse 11.) The ‘star’ had received a key. This key shows that the ‘star’ had authority. The key could open the hole, whose depth has no end. This is a description of hell.
This person (called the ‘star’) opened the door to the hole. Great clouds of smoke came out of the hole. As the smoke rose, it made the sky black. The light of the sun could not shine through the cloud.
The hole was the place where evil devils lived. They were in prison. The angels who fell went there. It was a terrible place. The Lord will send Satan there when Jesus comes back again.
Out of the smoke, there came strange animals that seemed like locusts. There was a great mass of them. Locusts are insects. They fly together like great clouds. They destroy all the crops that they can find.
These locusts were like scorpions in the way that they sting. Scorpions are insects that have poison in their tails. It is painful when they sting with their tails.
Unlike natural locusts, these locusts did not eat the grass or the trees. They must not damage any plants. But they had power to hurt people. However, these locusts could not kill anyone. But the locusts had to sting all those who did not have God’s mark on them.
These locusts were evil. They came from the place of evil devils. But God would not allow them to hurt his people. God is in control. He sets limits on the power of evil things. Evil things cannot do anything that God does not permit them to do.
The locusts came to hurt people. For a period of five months, they stung the people. The stings caused terrible pain. The pain was like a scorpion sting. There was no way to ease the pain. But the locusts could not kill.
The pain was so bad that people wanted to die. Death would be a freedom from the pain. They wished for death but it did not happen.
There was no way to kill these locusts. What seemed to be iron shirts protected them. No sword or arrow could cut the shirts.
As they flew, they made a terrible noise. The sound was like the sound of a great army. The sound was like many horses and carts during a battle. The sound frightened people.
The army of locusts had a king. He was the angel of the great hole. This angel was not a servant of God. In fact, this angel was a servant of the devil. Or perhaps, he was the devil himself. This evil angel was the leader of the locusts. He led them as a king leads his army.
His name in the Hebrew language was Abaddon. He was the ruler of the world of the wicked devils. In the Greek language, his name is Apollyon. His name means ‘the destroyer’.
This was only the first of the three troubles. There were two more trumpets still to come.
When the sixth (6th) angel sounded his trumpet, John heard a voice. It came from the gold altar.
There were four (4) angels at the river Euphrates. They had control over a vast army from the east. Until now, that army could not cross the river. The voice told the angel with the sixth trumpet to free the four angels.
We think that these four angels were evil angels. They wanted to send the army across the river. But God would not let them do it. They could not do their evil work until the time had come.
The four angels were ready for the task that God would give them. They had to wait until the exact moment that God had chosen. They could not do anything until the exact time in God’s plan. Then they would lead their army to kill a third of the people.
At the time that John was writing, an army of this size was not possible. Since that time, there has been an increase in the number of people on earth. There could now be an army of this size east of the river Euphrates.
Such an army would spread out as far as the eye could see.
John describes what he saw. This vast army was of riders on horses. Each soldier wore an iron shirt. The colour of these shirts was red, dark blue and yellow. These matched the fire, the smoke and the sulphur. (Sulphur is yellow. When it burns, the smoke is blue. But the flames are red.)
The horses were not normal horses. Their heads were like lion’s heads. They were fierce and cruel. Fire, smoke and sulphur came from their mouths.
The riders did not kill people. The horses killed a third of the people. They breathed out fire with smoke and sulphur.
The power of the horses to kill was in their mouths. But like the locusts, they had power to hurt in their tails. The tails were like snakes and they had heads. The horses could bite with their tails. When they did, it was like the bite of poisonous snakes. These bites were painful but they did not kill.
God’s purpose in these troubles was that people should repent. The awful things that happened should have caused them to turn to God. But the people still did not repent. They still trusted in the things that they had made rather than in God.
The site for bible_studys.org has a lot on this chapter. I figure the odd looking locusts and endless army riding horses with tails that kill is intriguing to people.... but they don't change.... they use the locust and the wild looking horses as a reason not to believe.Hubby and I watch a lot of television. I've been in quarantine since the beginning. I do crochet and sew but the majority of our days is spent watching television with a hook and yarn in my lap. Yesterday we watched a series on Disney+ about the caldera in the Grand Canyon. It's a huge volcano.... the caldera is 32 miles wide. This caldera is a hole in the middle of a plate that floats on molten rock at the core of the earth. The scientists were saying, on this show, that when this blows... it will be so destructive it will kill most of the inhabitants of earth. According to the scientists.... this has already happened three times in history..
Hubby and I were talking about it. I have been sharing these Bible studies with him. Anyway.... I now understand the caldera has erupted three times.... the first might have been when God was getting everything ready for human habitation.... creation type stuff.... then it went off again.... was that what brought on the flood?, or was that when God ran Adam out of the garden? I figure one time would have probably been when Sodom was destroyed. Anyway.... the next time it happens..... I figure that is when this part of the vision would come about. Anyway.... there is a huge network of noxious fumes and hibernating creatures that will be released when the caldera blows...according to the scientists.... before the volcano blows... creatures and noxious fumes will be released.... that's when the mountains and the islands will shift yet again.... but before they do..... fire, steam, creatures,,,, are going to spew and that reminds me of this chapter.
I read the Left Behind series. The Apollyon stuck with me. The threat of being bitten so badly that I wish I could die but can't.... well that reminds me of cancer. But I know it's not... this is a sting.... not a disease.... this is a sting that causes excruciating pain. That was only the fifth trumpet.... there are three woes... this was only the first.... people will be alive.... but begging to die...
Then comes the second army... this one could kill people. It will kill another third of the humans on earth. There aren't as many people on earth as there were back when this all started. A third were already killed during the opening of the first six seals. Before the seventh seal can be broken.... the earth has to endure seven trumpets.... and this chapter is about two of the worst trumpets to come. Tomorrow the third woe will hit... and the last trumpet will be sounded. Today.... humans have endured an earthquake of Biblical proportion and now.... they have endured creatures that will bite and put humans in excruciating pain.... and they have endured the bite of the tail of a horse that is part of a massive army bent on destroying a third of the human population.
The last verse is most telling.... those humans were so hardheaded.... they still would not repent.
