Revelation 9: The Fifth and Sixth Trumpet Plagues

Revelation 9: The Fifth and Sixth Trumpet Plague

How many of you have seen the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. It was the first of the “Indiana Jones” franchise movies. In one scene “Jones” played by Harrison Ford is looking into a pit and it looks like the floor is moving. They throw a torch into the pit and see that the floor is covered with snakes. Then suddenly “Jones” is pushed into the pit of snakes. He is able to keep the snakes at bay but then the woman of the movie is thrown in with him and she lands on the floor right in front of a cobra. As she stares at the cobra it strikes at her, but misses. It is all very suspenseful and you would figure that it was all done through the magic of Hollywood using animated snakes or layering of the film or something like that. But in reality the snakes were right there in the pit with the actors. The only thing that saved this woman from surely being bitten by the snake was a clear pane of tempered glass that protected her from certain death. Let’s pray.

We have seen six seals opened with the four horsemen of the apocalypse demonstrating the fallen nature of God’s creation. In those seals the judgment of God is demonstrated; military action, wars, rumors of wars, peace being taken from the world, mankind killing mankind, want and starvation with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, death from war and starvation due to the wars and general upheaval of society, believers being killed for their testimony, all manners of natural disasters with the people of the earth blaming God and refusing to repent. After those first six seals were revealed we were given the good news that those who are Christ’s are sealed making certain that the wrath of God’s judgment does not harm them even as the people of the earth, the lost are judged. When we got to the seventh seal there was silence in heaven as the prayers of the martyrs and the believers on the earth are heard. Then God begins to pour out His wrath. Then last week we look at the first four trumpet plagues with; the destruction of 1/3 of the trees and all the green grass; 1/3 of the sea turning to blood, 1/3 of the sea creatures killed and 1/3 of the ships destroyed; 1/3 of the rivers and springs made poisonous; 1/3 of the light of the sun, moon and stars are darkened. After all of that we hear this: Revelation 8:1313 And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”[1] All of this, even the Four Horsemen demonstrating the fallenness of God’s creation should be a call for mankind to repent and turn to their Creator. But as we saw last week and will see again this week that does not happen and to all of these calamities God is adding three “woes”. Just so we are clear here “woe” is an exclamation of deep grief, it is not what you say to your horse. Things are catastrophic and they are going to get worse and worse and worse. Today we will be looking at Revelation 9 to hear the fifth and sixth trumpet plague.

Let’s read Revelation 9:1-6 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. 2 And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. 3 Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

When we looked at the first four plagues I commented that each of those plagues could be natural disasters and people could theoretically discount the activity of God in them even though we know that if they were natural disasters they were still brought about by the Creator of that nature. But here in this plague there can be no mistaking it, this is a supernatural event brought about by our supernatural God.

We mentioned last week that most likely when John talks about ‘stars’ in the Revelation he is talking about angels or angelic beings. In this case the star/angel is given the key to the bottomless pit or the abyss. Some people believe that his angelic being is none other than Satan himself. He is called “the prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2 and the “prince of demons” in Mark 3:33. I don’t believe it is Satan because in Revelation 20 I think this same angel locks up Satan in the abyss. It really does not matter if this is Satan, some evil angel or some righteous angel he is still doing the bidding of God, he is an instrument of the Almighty Creator. When this angel unlocks the gate or door or whatever it is, what comes out along with the smoke of hell can only be described as demons and they have been in that abyss since they were locked up there when Satan rebelled against God. These are demons that followed Satan in his prideful rebellion. I am not going to get into demonology because I really don’t know much. But when Jesus cast the demons out of the Gadarene demoniac in Luke 8 they pleaded with Him not to cast them into the abyss before their time. Also in Jude 6 we read 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day.[2] Peter even talks about them being cast into darkness in chains reserved for judgment. Clearly some demons are active in the world even today and some are reserved for God’s use in judgment on the people of the earth. From the description we read in Revelation 9 these are not earthly creatures. John calls them locusts most likely because of their behavior. When we lived in South Texas each year during the dry season the grasshoppers would go on the prowl. They would move across the ground like an army and eat everything green in sight. It was almost as if the ground moved then they light upon a bush and strip it bare. In a day’s time everything green as far as you could see was gone, except the cactus. In Africa and the Middle East this is still a plague in some areas. This is what John is describing but these “locusts” did not bother anything green like real locusts do. These demons would attack people. All of the plagues before this had affected nature and indirectly affected man but this plague and the next will be aimed at the people of the earth; those who refused to repent and turn to God. These demons had power like scorpions and their sting was like that of a scorpion. I have only been stung by a scorpion three times. But I would rather have wasp stings or bee stings any day in comparison to a scorpion sting. We don’t have them around here but in South Texas we had them and in the Middle East they grow to over 6 inches long and can be deadly. These demons could not kill people, or at least people wouldn’t die, but due to their sting they could make those stung wish they were dead and even long for death but not be able to die. But notice that they do not harm those who are the sealed of God. We talked about that a few weeks back, God’s people who are sealed will not experience God’s judgment. The explanation for that is simple; Jesus already took our judgment.

Let’s stop here for a second and put this all in perspective. In our life time we have seen some natural disasters, some political upheaval, riots, wars and disease. Who is not being affected in some way by the corona virus right now? We think we have seen some bad stuff but none of us have seen a 1/3 of God’s creation destroyed, land, sea, water supply and sky even though we have seen some destruction. But none of us have seen anything like these locusts/demons and John is going to give us a closer look.

John has been standing back describing this event but now he kind of zooms his camera in and gets a close-up view. Let’s read verses 7-117 The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. 8 They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. 10 They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. 11 And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

Like I said, we may have seen a lot of things in our lives but we have never seen anything like this because God has been holding these creatures in reserve for judgment. John does his best to describe these creatures of judgment and I’m not going to try to expand on that but there are folks who try to put a modern spin on these creatures and say that these are actually tanks or helicopters or some kind of modern war making weapons and equipment. I will tell you unequivocally that I do not agree with that interpretation. These are demons that God has directed to be released, given the key for their release and they are going to be tormenting all the people of the earth for 5 months. Even though his description is figurative there are some things that we can know for sure. These demon locusts have a purpose and they are prepared for that purpose just like horses prepared for battle. They will succeed in their purpose symbolized by the crown like gold. We know that they are cunning and intelligent because they have faces that resemble men and none of God’s creation is more cunning and intelligent. They are fierce as demonstrated with having teeth like lions. They strike fear in the heart of the people of the earth by the very noise they produce. They are most likely indestructible having bodies (breastplates) like iron. And they are not simply going about randomly, they only attack those who are not the sealed of God with their stings like scorpions. The last thing we know and I think it to be very important is that they have a leader directing their demonic activity. The name of this leader is Abaddon in Hebrew or Apollyon in Greek; the destroyer, the king of demons of the abyss. This king of demons is directing destruction across the face of the earth for five months.

Just to make a note here, I don’t know if the five months is a literal length of time or like Jesus telling the church at Smyrna that they would be persecuted for ten days indicating that it would be for a time but not a long time. But the fact is 5 months is the approximate lifespan of a real locust. Perhaps the five months is God’s method of letting the people of the earth know that He is still being merciful in placing a time limit on their torment in order for them to have time to repent.

12 One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things. There were three cries of mourning; cries of distress, woes and one had now been revealed. But there are two more to come. Let’s look at the second woe, the sixth trumpet plague.

Revelation 9:13-19 13 Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.

John is not very clear as to who told the angel with the trumpet to release the angels bound by the Euphrates. But he does say that the command came from the horns of the golden altar. Almost all ancient altars had on the top four corners some sort of projection symbolizing power or strength. This altar is the one that had the souls of the martyrs crying out for justice and the altar where the prayers of the saints on earth crying out for justice was being offered up to God. So from one perspective the voice coming from the horns of the altar could be the strength of the powers of the prayers of the saints petitioning God to judge the people of the earth and God saying “release the angels that I had prepared for just this moment.” The sixth angel with the trumpet obeys the command and the four angels are released.

There is a lot of conjecture as to who these four angels are. To the people of John’s time this was most likely believed to be the Parthians who were from the other side of the Euphrates. The Romans could not seem to subdue them and they were always a threat to the Romans and the people under Roman dominion. Their army was said to wear bright colors and their warriors wore long hair. But the Parthians never really did that much damage to the Roman Empire and definitely did not kill 1/3 of the people of the earth staying on their side of the Euphrates for the most part. Some people believe this vast army consists of four different Muslim countries that will attack Israel in the last days. You can imagine the fear that was rampant in the 60’s and 70’s with all the wars going on in that area then. And you know that I don’t read the headlines or the listen to the news and try to figure out what is going on in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. So I will tell you that I believe these 4 angels are evil angels bound by God until He was ready to use evil to judge evil. This is not the first time we have seen this. He used evil Assyria to judge evil Israel and He used evil Babylon to judge evil Judah. Then He judged Assyria and Babylon for being evil.

These four angels are, I believe, much like Abaddon or Apollyon and were leaders of a demon army that will be released to kill 1/3 of the people of the earth with three great plagues: fire, smoke and brimstone or sulfur. I cannot tell you how this works, these horses with heads like lions and tails like snakes are clearly, like the demonic locusts, supernatural creatures. Out of the horses mouths come the killing power and out of the tail comes pain and sorrow or injury. As I said some people believe this is a vast army of men from nations across the Euphrates coming to destroy Israel. Back in the 1970’s when China boasted of having an army of 200 million men many people were convinced that China was this army. But the Greek used to interpret the 200 million is very vague. It literally means 2 myriads of myriads which simply means an innumerable amount. Is there a 200 million man army or is there a 200 million demon army? I think it is an innumerable number of demons who are under the command of four powerful demon/angels sent to kill 1/3 of the world and injure many more. But they are limited by God to 1/3. God is still in control of His judgment on the people of the earth. And the people of God are still sealed; safe from God’s judgment on the people of the earth.

What effect does this have on the people of the earth? Let’s read verses 20-21. 20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.[3] Even though the people of the earth experience the hoard of demon locusts with their stings that cause them to want to die and even though they see 1/3 of the rest of the people of the earth are killed and many are hurt they refuse to worship God as God and they refuse to love their neighbors. They still worship false gods and murder one another, continue to use drugs (sorceries), they continue to use one another for their own sexual gratification and to steal from one another. Remember we talked about this last week God’s judgment is an opportunity for believers to be conformed into the image of Christ and an opportunity for the lost to repent.

Many people read the newspapers or watch the news and then turn to the Revelation and interpret the Word of God by what is going on, especially in the Middle East. Folks, I cannot and will not do that. The Word of God stands alone. The truth is all of the calamities of the first six seals are taking place today and we can expect them to get worse as time goes on. The prayers of the saints in the seventh seal are ascending to God even now and will continue until our God begins the judgment of the people of the earth. All of these should be calling the lost to repentance and the redeemed to seek to be like their Redeemer. Someday God will seal all those who are His in that they will be protected from His judgments, then the first 4 trumpets will bring natural disasters of “literal” biblical proportions. Then God will send an angel to open the abyss releasing demon locusts to torment men for a time that is designated as 5 months. Then God will order the release of 4 angels that He had refused to let loose on the earth until it was the exact moment of His choice. These four angels will direct an innumerable army of blood thirsty demons to kill 1/3 of the people of the earth and injure many others, while His people are protected from His judgment.

We know what that would have to do with us if we are the last generation when God’s people are sealed and His judgment is poured out on the people of the earth. But what does it have to do with us today, before God’s judgment begins? First: We need to be aware that the fierce power of the demonic powers, and Satan for that matter but not have an overemphasis on their power. C.S. Lewis in his book “Scewtape Letters” said: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight”[4]This chapter of Revelation makes it clear that demons are real and powerful. But Jesus is reality and He is more powerful. Those who are His are His sheep and the Good Shepherd takes care of His sheep. Second: The forces of spiritual evil are well organized. Ephesians 6:12 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.[5] Obviously they have a command structure and a vast host of soldiers. But we are given the weapon to fight against this vast army. Ephesians 6:13 13 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.[6] We have the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit (God’s word), and above all prayer to the God who saved us. And we know from Romans 8 that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Third and most importantly: Remember the snakes and the pane of glass in the opening of the sermon? We see in this passage this morning that God released both of these demon armies at His appointed time with limits put on them as to what they could and could not do and to who they could and could not do it to. Plainly we can see that even in the worst of situations, even when the world seems to be falling down around us, in the midst of a pandemic and even if the worst of the worst is elected president of these United States; God is still in control. And back to Romans 8, if God is for us who can stand against us? Let’s pray.

[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 8:13). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[2] The New King James Version. (1982). (Jud 6). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[3] The New King James Version. (1982). (Re 9:1–21). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[4] Easley, K. H. (1998). Revelation (Vol. 12, p. 164). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.

[5] The New King James Version. (1982). (Eph 6:12). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[6] The New King James Version. (1982). (Eph 6:13). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.