Fifth and Sixth Trumpets
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Fallen Star
Fallen Star
1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.
3 Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth.
4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
5 They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.
6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
Fifth angel blew trumpet and a star fell from heaven to earth - when we look at the rest of this sentence “and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit” it makes us recognize this was a person - instead of an actual star or meteor.
Who (most likely) is this star?
Greek as-tare’ star - singular, masculine noun
Most likely Satan himself.
Isaiah 14:12–17 (ESV)
12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?’
18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
This is probably a description of Satan being cast out of heaven at the beginning of the Great Tribulation.
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
When we evaluate the bottomless pit, or the Abyss, the AByss is the dwelling place of the demons.
(The following verse describes the demons possessing Legion)
31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
What future event does this most likely describe?
This is the preparation for Satan to be confined for 1,000 years during Christ’s reign on earth, but until that time he set loose all the demons kept within.
Great Smoke - visual appearance of the rising of the demons. There were so many it darkened the sky and the sun, and there were locusts with the deadly sting of a scorpion. They were coming to claim the lives of those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Remember back in Chapter 7 where the 144,000 had been SEALED and their converts would be protected from the plague, the would not be harmed. All others on the earth would be tormented for a period of five moths.
These locust - evil spirits, the demons from the bottomless pit, will be loosed and given scorpion-like power to afflict the ungodly and evil of this world. However, God limits their power: they do not kill people; they mercilessly afflict and torment people. They would be tormented so bad the would welcome death as a relief. But note: this is a judgment from God. It is not something man brings on himself. God may allow the evil spirits to use something man has developed, but God’s judgment will be behind it all.
Locust
Locust
7 In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces,
8 their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth;
9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle.
10 They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.
11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
12 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.
What do these descriptions tell us?
Horses prepared for battle
Golden crown
Human faces
Women’s hair
Lions teeth
The description used of the demonic locusts compared to horses prepared for battle, with human faces, women’s hair, lions teeth, and what appeared to be golden crowns on their heads. Danny Aiken in Christ Centered Exposition commentary makes these correlations:
Horses prepared for battle - they are prepared for war against God and His people.
Gold crowns - point to authority and power.
Faces like men’s faces - have the appearance of humans and speaks of being rational/intelligent. Cunning, cruel, wise, and wicked.
Hair like women’s hair - may indicate the antennae of locust, alluring and enticing like women’s hair.
Teeth like lions - ferociousness and lethal power.
Could you imagine this image? Now remember the plagues of Egypt, the destruction that would occur to the plants and trees in the eighth plague. Now, we see a picture much more grim and gruesome. Not only were they human-like in appearance, but they were dressed for battle with breastplates of iron - they would be invulnerable to mankind’s attack. There were so many, their wings sounded like horse drawn chariots racing to battle. Obviously, John could only describe what he was seeing as a whole, not in specific detail, however we know that these locust demons were coming for destruction and death.
What does this description say about the mission of these locust like scorpion demons?
They were coming in force, in power, and might. Ready to attack, as conquerors, ready to do whatever they must to devour and destroy.
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
This goes back to enforce what was described in Matthew 24:21.
21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.
They are ruled by the king of the demonic locusts - he is an angel of the bottomless pit - the fallen angel. Once an angel of heaven, a servant of God, he is fallen out of God’s grace, turned from God and looking to himself. He rules over the power of darkness, and both the Greek and Hebrew name used to describe him means DESTRUCTION. In my mind this describes Satan himself or possibly one of his commanding demons.
The first woe (condemnation and judgement from God) has passed - but there are two more coming.
4 Angels Released
4 Angels Released
13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar 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, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind.
There are the four fallen angels set loose.
What three things are given to us about the 4 fallen angels who are released?
1. They are set loose by a command coming from the golden altar. This is the altar of incense where the prayers of God’s people are kept (see Re. 6:9–10; 8:3–4). Normally a place of mercy; as God responds to His people’s prayers, the altar will resound with a cry for vengeance. This symbolizes a significant fact: God launches this judgment especially to vindicate the millions who will be slaughtered by the antichrist. God is going to be perfectly just. He is going to execute perfect justice against the antichrist and his followers who have slaughtered millions. They too shall be slain by the judgment of God. The very prayers of the golden altar cry out for the name of God to be vindicated against those who laughed, mocked, rejected, denied, disbelieved, disobeyed, and cursed God. God is going to hear these prayers.
2. The four released angels are bound at the great river Euphrates. Note the definite article used: the. The four fallen angels are four specific angels. One never finds holy angels being bound in scripture, so we can surmise these are fallen angels. As will be seen in a few moments, they will be of high military rank.
Why would the angels come from the Euphrates? Scripture does not say, but two reasons seem likely.
⇒ The head or spring of the Euphrates river flowed out of the garden of Eden and was one of for rivers that flowed through Eden. It was there, of course, where Satan first tempted and overthrew man. The first sin that resulted in the fallen human race took place at the head of the Euphrates river. It was also there that the first murder took place and it was in the region of the Euphrates that the first organized rebellion against God took place. (All this is pointed out by the excellent Bible expositor, Lehman Strauss. The Book of the Revelation, p.194). John MacArthur also states “Starting with Babel, this region has spawned many of the world’s pagan religions.
⇒ The Euphrates was the western boundary of the promised land that God promised to Abraham.
Therefore, beyond the Euphrates can be looked upon as the outer reaches of the earth, as the place where the spiritual enemies of man are kept. As William Barclay says:
The angels, therefore, come from the distant lands, from the strange and alien and hostile places, from these very parts of the world from which the Assyrians and the Babylonians had in time past descended with destruction upon Israel. So, then, the angels come from the quarter from which disaster had in ancient times come upon God’s people Israel.… The four angels are Angels of Punishment; they come from the part of the world from which death and disaster and slavery had so often come (The Revelation of John, Vol.2, p.64).
3. The four fallen angels were loosed and they prepared to execute a judgment upon the earth: the judgment of slaying one third of the ungodly and evil population of the world. Remember why: because the billions upon earth will follow and give their total allegiance and support to the antichrist and the policies of his government. One of the major policies will be the holocaust launched against the believers of the world. Literally millions will be slaughtered. Simply stated, God will not be able to take the diabolical evil of ungodly people any more. He will allow His justice to finally be executed and demonstrated: the diabolical, the ungodly and evil, shall reap the slaughter they have inflicted upon others.
Note one other fact: God has already set the time for this judgment. There is an exact year, month, day, and even hour that this judgment is to fall upon the ungodly and evil. The hour is already fixed and only HE knows when it will be.
16 The number of mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand; I heard their number.
17 And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were like lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths.
18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths.
19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.
There are the military horsemen and their demonic horses. Five things are said about this demonic horde.
How many demons will be released?
1. There will be an army of two hundred million. Imagine an army of two hundred million demonic spirits let loose upon the earth. This will be the army that the four fallen angels will command, an army such as the world has never seen before.
2. The riders will have breastplates. The breastplates are “fiery red and sapphire blue and sulfur (brimstone) yellow” (The Amplified New Testament). The breastplate symbolizes that they will be indestructible, protected and defended as they go to war against the ungodly of the world. Man will not be able to stop them.
What three plagues to the breastplate colors elude to?
Fiery red or orange - Fire
Sapphire blue - Smoke
Sulfur yellow - Brimstone
3. The horses will be horrible and add terror upon terror on the ungodly.
⇒ They will have heads like lions: ferocious, fierce, devouring, cruel, and consuming.
⇒ They will have mouths that spit out fire: a hellish and fiery nature; a vengeful, angry, and wrathful nature (see Re. 14:10; 19:20; 21:8).
⇒ They will kill one third of the ungodly and evil upon earth. How? By the plague of fire, smoke, and brimstone. (Note: the weapons used by this demonic army are not given. But observe how fire, smoke, and brimstone sounds like an atomic explosion. We must, however, keep in mind that this slaughter is being masterminded by evil spirits and demonic forces—all being executed under God’s will as a judgment upon the ungodly and evil of the world.)
Where is the power of these horses located?
⇒ Their power is in their mouths, heads, and tails. The head symbolizes intelligence; the mouth symbolizes deceptive speech and a hunger to consume and to destroy; and the serpent-like tails symbolize poisonous strikes and deadly wounds.
These plagues will be responsible for the death of a third of humankind (9:18). Not only did the horses’ lion heads have power to inflict this carnage, but John said, “Their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm” (9:19).
Thought 1. The picture of the great tribulation is a picture of horror heaped upon horror. It is a frightful and fearful scene. But note: with what we know about the possibility of atomic destruction, environmental devastation, and the possibility of some monstrous gene mutation—the judgments of God’s book can no longer be doubted. Not if God is really God, and not if He is truly just, and not if some diabolical leader arises (as they have in the past) who launches a holocaust against God’s people. God is bound to execute justice if some demon of a person slaughters millions and millions of His people, and if the whole world gives its support. It is this that will cause the antichrist to differ from all former world leaders who have killed millions. They had only limited support. But in the last days, the antichrist will have the support of most of the ungodly and evil people of the earth.
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,
21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
What is the purpose of the judgments?
There is the purpose for the judgment—repentance. Two significant points are now made.
1. The ungodly and evil survivors of the earth still do not repent and turn to God. Two thirds of the population will survive, not because they deserve to survive but because God is merciful. God is always merciful even in the midst of judgment. He will give the ungodly of the earth another chance to repent, speaking to them through the judgments, but they will not repent.
Thought 1. Lehman Strauss makes an excellent point about this fact:
God has never delighted in the death of the wicked. In the midst of His visitations of severest judgments, He delights to be gracious to the guilty. But alas, the death of one billion people in the earth, with the accompanying grief and the confusion which must follow such a disaster, finds the residue of people not willing to repent. Such is the human heart, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. After two world wars, and one hundred lesser wars in the past fifty years, the world is more wicked than ever. Instead of repentance, sin increases (The Book of the Revelation, p.196).
2. There will be several gross sins for which the ungodly need to repent. And remember: there will be an enormous increase and intensification of the evils in the end time.
a. There will be an increase in the worship of evil spirits and the worship of idols. Actually, the devils are said to be behind the worship of idols. Just think about how much worship of evil spirits and idols is going on today. How much is going on in the cities of the world at any given moment? Scripture actually declares that the worship of all gods except the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the worship of an evil spirit or idol. In fact, Scripture even declares that covetousness is idolatry. Why? Because a person has set his heart on something other than God Himself, and man owes his first allegiance to God.
Note that no idol can see, hear, or walk; and how true this is. They cannot answer a single prayer, give a single ounce of strength, lift a single finger to help, save a single hair, extend life a single minute, carry a person one single inch toward heaven. They cannot arouse one single moment of acceptance out of God nor give one moment of eternal life to a person. An idol is lifeless. It can do nothing for man. But note: the evil spirits behind the idols can damage and destroy a person’s soul forever. It will be this that will cause so much idolatry and worship of evil spirits in the last days. The antichrist will demand the worship of the state. There will apparently be laws passed demanding that a person give his first loyalty to the state, much as we see in some nations today and have seen in past history. The worship of the state, of course, aids a government in keeping control of its people. This is the worst kind of idolatry, for a person has to submit to the state or else he is usually imprisoned and executed. In the government of the antichrist, people will be executed for not giving their first loyalty to the state.
God hates idolatry and demands in no uncertain terms that man turn away from his idolatry and from the worship of evil spirits.
b. There will be an increase in the sin of murder. Remember all the martyrs John saw in heaven, the numberless multitude of believers slaughtered by the antichrist and his government and followers. The martyrs were so many that “no man could number [them]” (Re. 7:9). Believers will be slaughtered all over the world—from all nations and tribes and languages and people. Just think of the holocaust that will take place—not even a single tribe of the earth, not where a believer exists, escapes the attempt of the antichrist and the world to stamp out the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The antichrist will have his followers all over the world and they will support his murderous moves against the believers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Note: this is undoubtedly the difference between the holocaust of the past and the holocaust of the antichrist. In the past the diabolical leaders like Hitler and Stalin had only a number of people who supported their murderous genocide; the antichrist will have worldwide support. The fact that it is worldwide and that it is launched against all the followers of God’s Son will trigger God’s decision to go ahead and move in His final judgment.
The point is this: murder will be one of the great sins of the antichrist and his followers. It is a sin for which the ungodly and evil must repent or face the terrible judgments of the end time and of eternity.
There will be an increase in the sin of sorcery (pharmakon). Note that the Greek word is close to the spelling of the English word pharmacy, that is, a place that handles drugs. Sorcery includes all kinds of witchcraft, the use of drugs or of evil spirits to gain control over the lives of others or over one’s own life. In the present context it would include all forms of sorcery including astrology, palm reading, séances, fortune telling, crystals, and other forms of witchcraft.
There will be an increase in immorality (porneias): a broad word including all forms of immoral and sexual acts. It is premarital sex and adultery; it is abnormal sex, all kinds of sexual vice.
There will be an increase in thefts (klemmaton): to cheat and steal; to take wrongfully from another person, either legally or illegally.