Chapter 8 ended with verse 8:13 saying "Woe, woe, Woe, to the inhabitants of the earth ...". The phrase “the inhabitants of the earth” or something equivalent to that is used 12 times in Revelation. This is a reference to those who live in rebellion and unbelief before the one true living God. They refuse to acknowledge that God exists.
Who opened the seven seals? Jesus as the Lamb of God did standing before the throne of God. In this seventh seal, these trumpets have sounded and with each trumpet a disaster with destruction that we have a hard time imagining. We have to remember who is in control. It is Jesus and His Father God. The seals weren’t broken except that Jesus breaks them. The trumpets aren’t sounded except that He allows them to sound. This is a necessary part of the restoration of the world to God.
The first four trumpets were destruction on the earth and this was followed with a warning that the next three “woes” are yet to come. These woes are going to be personal to “those who live on earth”.
Up to this moment, the physical and spiritual worlds have been kept separated from each other. Those on the earth, while enduring terrible events, have not seen the things of heaven. There is no indication that anyone on the earth has seen the four horsemen, the four angels, the trumpets, or the eagle. Now we will see as the spiritual world invades the physical world.
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.
The star referenced here is a person as it has personal pronouns applied to it. Isaiah describes him (14:12), “How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn!” He is cast from heaven and falls to the earth. He is given the key to the entrance to hell. Who gave him that key?
After the disciples returned from going in pairs to the cities around their countryside, they came back very excited describing how even the demons obeyed them in the name of Jesus. Jesus responded in Luke 10:18-19, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Satan is the snake and his demons are the scorpions, as we will soon see. Jesus refers here that He alone gave the disciples power over them and He maintains that power from the throne of God in these judgments.
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.
What did we just read from Luke. They were not harmed and the demons were subject to them. Yet Jesus specifically told them to not rejoice in that, but that their names are written in heaven. Nothing out weighs the gift of being able to dwell with God the Father. Even physical protection from demons is irrelevant to the reward of being in God’s presence. Who told these locusts, these demons from hell, that they could not touch those who have been sealed?
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.
The eighth plague on Egypt was locusts (Ex 10). They ate every green thing, but did not harm a person. Joel describes a great locust invasion in chapters 1 and 2 and how terrible it is to the people. He calls for repentance and lamentation and that everyone turns to the Lord for blessing from His hand.
The locusts are given limitations. They can torture but not kill and they can only do this for five months. Interestingly, the typical life span of a locust is five months. The torture will be great and people will seek death but not find it. People run from death and do many things to delay it and keep it from them. Yet in this time, they will seek it and long for it because of the agonizing torture stings but will not find it.
John MacArthur describes it as follows:
“So intense will be the torment inflicted on unbelievers that in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them. All hope is gone; there will be no tomorrow. The earth people have loved and worshiped will have been utterly devastated, the land ravaged by earthquakes, fires and volcanoes, the sea filled with putrefying bodies of billions of dead creatures, much of the fresh water supply turned into bitter poison, the atmosphere polluted with gases and showers of heavenly debris. Then, worst of all, will come foul smoke from the pit of hell as the demons are released to spiritually and physically torment wicked people. The dream of a worldwide utopia … will have died. … People will seek relief in death – only to find that death has taken a holiday. There will be no escape from the agony inflicted by the demons, no escape from divine judgment.”
No comments:
Post a Comment