06 - The Most Important Building In The World 2009

1”The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. “

Two things about this star. First, it is a star that has ALREADY FALLEN. John is not watching it fall, but is noting it was already fallen. Second, the language places this star in the masculine gender. So it is not an “it” but is a “he.” Obviously, this star is Satan himself.

John goes on to say about him:

“The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2When 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.”

Having been given the key to the bottomless pit, Satan opens it. The BOTTOMLESS PIT is the abode of demons according to Luke 8:31.

“The demons kept begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit.”

Antichrist also comes out of the bottomless pit.

Rev. 11:7 “When they (God’s 2 witnesses) complete their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit will declare war against them, and he will conquer them and kill them.”

So, the opening verse of chapter 9 presents Satan as having the key to the pit of the abyss with power to release those who are confined there. And look what comes out of it!!

Locust Creatures

3And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4They 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. 5They were not given power 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 a man.”

As soon as the mouth of the pit is opened, a thick blackness issues from it like the black smoke of a great furnace. This blackness fills the air and obscures the sun.

Out of the smoky blackness emerge creatures never before seen on earth; horrible in shape, evil in character, and armed with power to torment men’s bodies without killing them. Their description is bizarre:

7 “The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces. 8 They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion. 9 They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people.”

The symbology in John’s description:

Locusts: unrelenting destruction and ruin

Horses: strong, powerful, fearful in combat

Crowns of Gold: attractive and possessing authority

Faces of Men: intelligent, willful beings

Hair of Women: attractive, disarming

Teeth of a lion: ability to overpower and destroy

Breastplates of Iron: indestructible

Sound of Chariots in Battle: frightening, overpowering

Tails of Scorpions: inflicting massive, painful torment

John calls these creatures locusts but they are supernatural. Unlike the former plagues that decimate the earth’s ecology, these diabolical creatures only afflict men.

11 Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer.”

How bad will this trumpet judgment be?

“During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.”

But it’s not over. “One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.”

THE SIXTH TRUMPET

Four angels at the Euphrates River

13 “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, ‘Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.’”

Now remember that we said that the events in Revelations are chronological. It goes from 7 seals to 7 trumpets to 7 bowls.

But from time to time John will jump forward or go backward in order to focus on a particular event.

For instance, Jesus is born in Ch.12, is exalted in Ch. 5, and is walking in the midst of His churches in Ch.1.

The beast who attacks God’s 2 witnesses in Ch.11 is not brought into existence till Ch. 13. John wrote as it came to him.

In Revelations Chapter 9, he jumps forward and talks about the Euphrates River, giving us a prelude to the full story that is covered again in Chapter 16.

So keep in mind that what John begins in Chapter 9 he will pick up on again in Chapters 15 and 16.

The altar and 4 horns

Now, in verse 13 we’re shown an altar with 4 horns constructed on its corners. A horn is always a sign of power.

Recall that the altar is the place where the prayers of martyred saints are going up to God and they have power with God. God responds by releasing further destruction.

John sees 4 angels bound at the Euphrates River who have been prepared for an hour, a day, a month and a year…

Stop and think about this. What a sovereign God we serve! If we were standing right now at the Euphrates River and could peer into the spirit world, we would see these mighty four angels awaiting their command from God!

The Euphrates River has always been a physical and psychological boundary between east and west. It is 30-40 feet wide and 20 feet deep. But John says that these 4 angels will dry it up, making way for the 200 million man army to cross from the Far East.

Interestingly, the gov’t of Turkey in 1989 built the gigantic Ataturk Dam to control the Euphrates River. It can now be dried up at the push of a button.

Who will the army be comprised of?

No doubt the hordes of China and India, which are “beyond the River Euphrates to the East.” And we cannot omit the “Muslim” nations of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and newly freed former countries within the old defunct Soviet Union, such as Kazakhstan.

John goes on to tell the extent of human slaughter:

15 “And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.”

When the 6th trumpet sounds, a third of human life will be destroyed. John describes the warriors this way:

“17And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.”

COLOR OF FIRE is red

JACINTH or HYACINTH is dull, dark blue

BRIMSTONE is earth yellow

With some adjustment and mixture these are the colors used in desert camouflage.

 18By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

 19For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.”

Again, this is a first century man seeing 21st century things. John’s description may depict cavalry weaponry, using fiery weapons of destruction, poison gas (smoke), and “brimstone,” which can be a description of colossal explosive power, such as nuclear bombs. Many of the countries identified by Scripture now possess nuclear capability and the unleashing of it on the Asian continent could end in the slaughter of over a billion people.

We next encounter one of the most amazing and sad sights in all of the Word of God. Even in spite of all the calamity, all of the obvious judgments of God, all of the terror and uncertainty, men still refuse to repent!

20 “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

 21Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”

SORCERIES: Pharmakia—drugs or use of drugs

IDOLS: of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk. We tend to think of idolatry as an O.T. thing, but it’s not. John saw it as extremely prevalent at the end of time.

FACT: One half of the world at least is idolatrous. All of India, three-quarters of Africa, great pockets of South and Central America, all of Asia including Japan are practitioners of idolatry.