We will pick up where we left off in the last section. We are in the midst of the Trumpet Judgments in the book of Revelation. Four of those judgments had been sounded at the very end of Revelation 8. The eagle pronounces three woes concerning the next judgments that are coming. So, these next three judgments are going to be even more intense than the ones prior to that.
We pick up on the fifth judgment. It is very different than what we have seen so far. Let’s follow this in Revelation 9:1: “Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him.” First, the star here is probably an angel of some sort. It could be a demonic angel, it could be Satan himself, or it could be a good angel. We are not told, but it is not a star as we think of a physical star. He comes from heaven, and he has the key to the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit is called the abyss in Revelation 20. As we make connections throughout the gospels and the book of Revelation, we see this abyss is basically a holding tank for demonic creatures. This abyss is where Satan is going to be thrown at the end of the Tribulation period for one thousand years. So, this is a place where the demonic creatures live or have been imprisoned. It’s a mystery to some degree, we don’t know all the details. So, the bottomless pit here is talking about the abyss.
In Revelation 9:2 we see the angel open the bottomless pit, “He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit.” It’s like darkness, like smoke it says here. It comes out and darkens. That’s not really the important part, it’s the prelude to Revelation 9:3.
Revelation 9:3 says, “Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.” We now have what is called locusts. Questions that bible teachers and scholars must examine are: What kind of locusts are these? Are these your typical little insects that we know as locusts or are they something else? In answer, coming out of the bottomless pit and with the descriptions we will be given as we continue to read further, we are almost certain these are not insects. These are demonic creatures of some sort that have come forth that have the appearance, to some degree, of a locust. As we look at that closer later, we are going to find that this is no ordinary looking locust, and they don’t do ordinary locust like things. They are very, very different. Our best understanding is that these are demonic creatures that are released upon the earth at this time. It is a very ugly scene as we look at it.
Revelation 9:4 continues, “They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” Notice here that they are not doing locust like things. They are not eating vegetation. That’s what locusts do. They eat vegetation. They are destructive creatures. These don’t do that, instead they are going to torment people directly. They are going to cause pain for people, not on vegetation. The ones that are exempt from that are those who have been sealed by God. We find the sealed ones in Revelation 7. They are the one hundred forty-four thousand and the great multitude that the Lord is protecting. They are not going to go through this. They are going to be exempt from the power of these demonic creatures and their torments . . .
