Revelation 9: The First Woe - The Locust Horde

Revelation 9

Snug Gospel Chapel: August 21st, 2016

Good morning!
Were continuing once again our series in the book of Revelation, and this morning were looking at the fifth trumpet judgment.

Well be looking at some dark and difficult concepts today some of which are widely misunderstood so Id ask your patience
as we study these things together. While theres much to learn here, there is, as always, an overarching conclusion: that in all
things, Jesus Christ is glorified, whether in judgment or in mercy.

Lets pray.

Father, as we open your Word this morning, my prayer is that you would make us mindful of the supremacy of the King. Help us
to see and understand that in all things, you are sovereign; in all things, you are God, and there is none like you.

Lord, open our eyes this morning that we might see what your Spirit would have us see, and open our ears that we might hear
your voice as you speak to us from your Word.

May all the power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing be Yours, and may our time in Your
Word this morning be to your glory, and to your praise.

Amen.

Open your Bibles with me, if you would, to Revelation chapter 8.

Were going to read just the last verse of chapter 8 this morning, and the first 12 verses of chapter 9, and well be studying these
things in as much depth as time will allow. I mentioned a moment ago that there are things in this passage that are quite dark;
things that are not often studied in churches, and even in print, it seems but nonetheless, they are here in Scripture and we
know that all Scripture is God-breathed, and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness and so
well give this passage the attention it deserves this morning. With that said, given the nature of the things were going to study
today, I want to begin with the conclusion.

What we see in this passage, what were about to read, conveys the same message that the book as a whole continually repeats.
Jesus Christ is King. We see in Psalm 2 that He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He
shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure. This is the picture were going to see as we continue,
that the deep displeasure of the King manifests itself in wrath. This wrath, though terrifying and horrific, is just. Weve seen
repeatedly in this book that the Lord has held back His hand in mercy; that his judgments have been partial, and always tinged
with grace. Nonetheless, the inhabitants of the earth have rejected the Kingship of Gods Anointed, and now we see them suffer
the retributive justice of Messiah, as He pours out His judgment upon the earth.

What Id like to do this morning is follow the passage at hand sequentially. Were going to investigate five separate points today,
some in more depth than others. Well see the three woes, a fallen star, the bottomless pit, a horde of locusts, and the king at
their head.

Three woes, a fallen star, the bottomless pit, a horde of locusts, and a king at their head.

lets read. Revelation 8, beginning at verse 13.

13

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!

(CHAPTER 9)
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.

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 womens 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.
12

One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.

The Three Woes

Allow me to set the scene for you.

Weve come a long way through this book, and progressed a long way into the Tribulation timeline. Weve seen John, cloistered
away in his prison cell in Patmos, praying on the Lords day. Weve seen the Revelation of the King, beautiful and terrifying in His
role as judge of all the earth; a vision so overwhelming that John, who knew Him best of all, fell at his feet as dead. Weve seen
the letters to the seven churches, in both a literal sense and one symbolic, as they represent the entire span of church history.
Weve seen the rapture of the church represented in chapter 4, entered the throne room of Heaven in chapters 4, 5 and 6, and
weve seen the Lamb of God break the seals and open the scroll for He alone is worthy. Now, after seven seals and four trumpets,
we stand with the apostle John, viewing a world that has been crushed under the judgment of God. Revelation has a rather clever
way of using angels to break up the action and bring our attention to something new. In the final verse of chapter 8, we see
exactly this. Into a world filled with chaos, conflict, famine, death, persecution, cosmic upheaval, charred vegetation, blood-filled
oceans, bitter waters and shortened days, enters yet another angel; flying through the heavens, crying out 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!.

There is a curious distinction to this angel, however. After all the judgment and all the anguish, God sends this angel, not with a
sword, not with a trumpet but with a bold declaration.

Whats coming is worse and it is a woe unto you. Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth.

Lets break that down.

We know what woe means its a word that is common enough in our own language, if a little antiquated in many respects.
Its word that the Old Testament prophets loved to use to describe the impending judgment of God upon the earth. And it is that
here; but its also more than that.

Theres another layer of significance to this angels declaration. He proclaims woe three times, yes, but why? Well, Id suggest to
you that its not simply because there are three woes to come. Rather, this threefold declaration signifies to us two things: first,
that these woes signify an escalation in the nature of the judgment, and second, that in these three judgments, God is bringing
something to completion. Escalation and completion.

Let me break that down for you.

First, escalation. We saw in chapter 4 and verse 8 an example of this threefold declaration and in fact, its a device that Revelation
uses repeatedly in order to reinforce a point. There, we saw the four living creatures declare the One who sat on the throne as
being holy, holy, holy. This obviously doesnt mean that God is Holy three times; rather, it expresses the point that God is
emphatically Holy. He is Holy to the uttermost; He is entirely Holy. Let me put it this way: the character of God is saturated in
holiness, to the point where He could not possibly be any more holy than He already is. In fact, this is the only attribute of God
referred to in this way, and I suspect the point of this revelation is this: that all of the characteristics and attributes of God are
both subject to and empowered by this one great and worthy distinctive. And thus we see Gods holy love, His holy grace, His
holy judgment, His holy righteousness, and so on and so forth, forevermore. God is infinitely holy, and you will never exhaust the
height or length or breadth or depth of that great truth.

now, lets take that concept and apply it to the three woes here in chapter 8.
This same literary repetition, used so clearly to demonstrate the greatness of the holiness of God, is likewise used to represent
the extreme nature of the judgment to come. In proclaiming these woes to be threefold, the angel highlights for us the fact that
these final three trumpet judgments are the outpouring of the unbridled, unrestrained wrath of the King and you can see that
here, cant you even in just the cursory reading weve done so far. These locusts, with their cruel teeth and stings in their tails,
are grotesque and violent and entirely awful. This is unquestionably an escalation; not only because of the severity of the
judgment, but because this is actually the first time in the book of Revelation that any being is given the right to enact its judgment
over the entire earth. You may recall that at the fourth seal, Death and Hades rode forth to kill a fourth of the earth. There is no
such restraint here, and in some sense this judgment seems worse than death, as men will seek death, and will not find it.
Honestly, thats so horrific that I cant even conceive of how thats possible. I cant imagine a scenario in which, if men really did
want to die, they could be prevented from doing so. And yet here it is.

So thats the escalation; now lets look at the completeness of this judgment.

I want to jump ahead for a moment to look at a verse in Revelation 11 as we need to see a slightly broader context if were to
place this judgment where it belongs.

Turn with me to Revelation 11, verse 15.

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the
kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!

This is a serious problem. We can see here that Jesus Christ returns in the Second Coming at the sounding of the seventh trumpet.
but how do we reconcile this with the fact that there are still seven bowl judgments to come?

Well, the key to it all is here in chapter 8, tied up in the angels three woes.

You see, the number three doesnt just signify extremity in the Biblical text; it also represents completeness. We see this in the
concept of the trinity, of course, where Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the complete nature of the godhead but we can see this
shown here in the same verse I quoted to you earlier, Revelation 4 verse 8. The living creatures cry out holy, holy, holy, Lord God
Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come!. In the latter part of this declaration, the repetition is used to express the timelessness
of God, and to demonstrate the completeness of His existence. God was, and is, and is to come.

The implication of this is that the three woes represent not only the uttermost wrath of God, but also the complete fulfilment of
the judgment of God.

This means that the seventh trumpet includes and incorporates the bowl judgments, which well see when we reach chapter 16.
I wont go into any more detail on that now, but its important that we understand the timeline that were dealing with. These
three woes, including the outpouring of the bowl judgments at the Seventh Trumpet, are the final, emphatic outpourings of the
wrath of God upon the earth, before the return of the King.

but its not just the degree of the judgment that differs here, either; its also the kind of judgment. You could argue, I think, that
everything weve seen up to this point, all of the judgments, have been in a context that we can at least understand, physically, in
one sense or another. At the fifth trumpet, however, we see a spiritual judgment unfold, and is truly terrifying. Lets move on,
then, and look at the first character in chapter 9: the fallen star.

The Fallen Star

Look at verse 1 of chapter 9.

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.

You may remember from previous sermons that stars are used in the book of Revelation, and elsewhere in Scripture, as a
representation of angelic beings. Thats true here too. Its important to note that John describes this angel as fallen, and not

falling that is, this angel fell at some point in the past, prior to Johns observation of these events. Now, that might lead your
mind toward a fairly specific fallen angel, and youd be right in thinking so.

Turn with me to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah, chapter 14.

Isaiah 14, verse 12.

How you are fallen from heaven,

O Lucifer,[b] son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
13

For you have said in your heart:

I will ascend into heaven,

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
14

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,

I will be like the Most High.

15

Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,

To the lowest depths of the Pit.

The first thing I want you to note here is this: In respect to his position before God, Satan has already fallen. Fallen from Gods
heaven, and fallen from Gods grace. What were seeing in Revelation 9, however, is something different. The book of Ephesians
describes the devil as the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2). This indicates to us that when Satan fell, when he was driven
out of his heavenly habitation, he was confined to the second heaven. Despite this, however, Scripture demonstrates that despite
this fall, Satan still has access to the heavenly realm. We can see this in the book of Job, in particular, which states:

there came a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. And
the LORD said to Satan, from where do you come?. Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro on the earth, and
from walking back and forth on it. (Job 1:6-7)

So, we know and understand from these passages that Satan still has access to the presence of God. What we see in Revelation,
however, is that the day is coming, and coming soon, when his opportunity to stand before the throne of God comes to an abrupt
end, as he and his angels are cast down to the earth. And in this sense, Satan is twice fallen first, from the grace of God, and his
position in heaven, and second, fallen quite literally to the earth. This is what Revelation 9 is referring to.

And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth.

Now, there is further justification for this view, and we find that justification in Revelation 12.

Revelation 12, beginning at verse 7:

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did
not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the
Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

These verses describe events that occur at the midpoint of the Tribulation. Well study that in greater depth when we reach
chapter 12, but for now, just take note of the transition between verse 6 which describes the woman, Israel, fleeing into the
desert after the Abomination that causes Desolation, and the fall of Satan in verse 7. Thats the sequence.

So, weve identified the fallen star. He is indeed that great serpent of old, called the Devil, and Satan.

but into his hand is placed a key and it is the key to the bottomless pit.

Turn back to Revelation 9, and look at verse 2.

And he [that is, Satan] 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.

Before we talk about the bottomless pit, we need to clarify something important. You can see from the text here, verse 1, that
the key to that pit is handed to Satan though were not told by whom; at least, not here. We have seen this key before in the
book of Revelation, however, in chapter 1 and verse 18, wherein Jesus Himself declares I am He who lives, and was dead, and
behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Now, this might seem like a small detail, but it is incredibly important. It is not the devil who orchestrates the judgment of chapter
9. It is Jesus Christ. Let me put it this way. Were often encouraged to view the book of Revelation, or indeed the whole span of
Scripture, as an epic battle between light versus darkness; good versus evil.

Allow me to declare to you, emphatically, that it is absolutely not that. In fact, we just saw in Revelation 12 who it is that casts
the devil out of heaven. Its not Jesus Christ; its Michael, the Archangel! And to which of the angels did God ever say, You are
my Son; today I have become your Father?

This may be a battle, but it is by no means a fair fight. Jesus Christ is the author and orchestrator of history. He is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for
Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence (Col. 1:15-17).

What we see in chapter 9, then, is no more Satans moment than the cross was his victory. He may hold the key to the bottomless
pit; he may even open its gates, but the judgment here is the judgment of the King. Satan is merely the pawn through whom it is
enacted.

but lets move on, and look at the bottomless pit itself.

The Bottomless Pit

I think its important at this point that I define my terms, because we need to understand the Bottomless Pit in order to really
grasp the scope of this judgment.

In Scripture, the Bottomless Pit is presented as a specific location within the lowest parts of Hades that is, within the holding
place of unsaved souls inside the earth. I say inside the earth because in every instance in which Hades is referred to in a
directional sense, it is down. We can see this in Isaiah 14:15. We read this earlier, and it states, yet you shall be brought down
to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit. The two terms used here, Sheol (the Hebrew equivalent of Hades) and the pit, are
not synonymous, they are sequential. Hades is down the bottomless pit even more so. But we can fill this picture out even
more. Turn with me to the book of Luke, chapter 16.

Luke, chapter 16 and verse 19.

I hesitated at the idea of reading this entire passage to you, for times sake, but its so revealing that I think its important that we
do. Verse 19:

There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 20 But there was a certain
beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21 desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell[d] from the rich mans
table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abrahams
bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off,
and Lazarus in his bosom.
24

Then he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and

cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your
good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. 26 And besides all this, between us
and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.
27

Then he said, I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my fathers house, 28 for I have five brothers, that he may

testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment. 29 Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them
hear them. 30 And he said, No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. 31 But he said to him, If
they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.

There are, in this passage, several locations and areas that are mentioned. Each is important, and we need to be sensitive to the
distinctions that Scripture makes here.

First, we have Hades. This is, as this story makes clear, the resting place of the souls of the dead. This term is used to describe
the dwelling of both the Old Testament saints, and the unbelieving dead. When Paul says in Ephesians that Jesus Christ ascended
on high, and led captives away and gave gifts to men, this is what he is referring to. After His death, Paul tells us, Jesus descended
to the lower parts of the earth to snatch his Old Testament saints from their place in Sheol and bring them into His presence in
Heaven. This dwelling place then, which we know as both Hades and Sheol (those names are interchangeable), consists of two
halves: Paradise referred to here as Abrahams Bosom, and a place of torment, in which we find the rich man, burning in
agony.

Between those two places there sits a great gulf that prevents travel from one side to the other, and in the centre, in the deepest
part of that gulf, sits the bottomless pit. Now, there is only one way that this pit can be bottomless only one way in which this
makes sense in a world in three spatial dimensions. That pit must be at the absolute center of the earth; and from there, every
direction is up.

So, that defines the location of the pit for us. But what of its purpose? Well, Jesus revealed that to us, too. Turn with me to Luke
chapter 8.

Luke, chapter 8, beginning at verse 26.

Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes,[c] which is opposite Galilee. 27 And when He stepped out on the land, there met
Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, [d] nor did he live in a house but in the
tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with You, Jesus,
Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me! 29 For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven
by the demon into the wilderness.
30

Jesus asked him, saying, What is your name?

And he said, Legion, because many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged Him that He would not command them to go
out into the abyss.
32

Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them.

And He permitted them. 33 Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep
place into the lake and drowned.

This is a revealing passage: first, because it reveals to us the purpose of the bottomless pit. Youll note that in verse 28, the demons
cry out through the possessed Legion do not torment me!. They recognize that pit is a place of torment. That fits perfectly with
what were about to see from the locust horde, so keep that in mind. Second, the demons begged Jesus not to command them
to go into the abyss. Interestingly, Jesus complies! Why does he do this? He does this because He knows that their time has not
yet come. The time will come, incidentally, when the Devil himself will be chained up in the bottomless pit for a thousand years,
by another angel bearing the key we saw earlier. and its worth noting that, too. The purpose of the bottomless pit is to keep
restrained, in perpetual torment, those who are locked within its gates. This will become important in a moment, so hang on to
that.

So this is the picture we have. An angel, flying through the midst of heaven, declares woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because
something is about to be unleashed, through the judgment of the King, that the earth has never seen before. Satan, fallen from
heaven at the midpoint of the Tribulation, receives the key to the bottomless pit and he wastes no time in opening it. And this
brings us to the Locust Horde.

The Locust Horde

Lets read verse 2 again.

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.

You can see here that the smoke, billowing out of the great furnace of the pit, reinforces the idea that the pit itself is at the centre
of the earth. Smoke only travels one way: up and here, we see it billowing out of the earth after the gate of the pit is unlocked
by the fallen angel of verse 1. So thick is this smoke that the sun and air are darkened by it. We have some recent context for this
type of smoke: in the Gulf War in the early 1990s, for example, oil wells in Kuwait were set on fire by the invading Iraqi forces,
billowing thick and very black smoke into the sky. These fires burned for months, and the military operation that took place to
put them out was termed Operation Desert Hell, and perhaps appropriately so. This is the type of picture that we see here in
the book of Revelation, only on a global scale. but theres more than that going on here; more than just mere smoke. We see
in Revelation 14 that smoke itself is a picture of the holy judgment of God. Listen to these verses this is Revelation 14, beginning
at verse 9:

Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on
his forehead or on his hand, 10 he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the
cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the
Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and
his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.

You can see here that the smoke that proceeds from the presence of God is associated with two things: His own holiness, and
their torment; and one is the product of the other. We can see this picture elsewhere, too 2nd Thessalonians 1:7 talks about the
revelation of Jesus Christ with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not obey the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His
power.

Theres something important to note here, too. You see, Hell is often presented to us as a place in which the wicked suffer, away
from the presence of God. That is not, however, the picture that Scripture presents. Rather, what 2nd Thessalonians 1:7 suggests
to us is that the wicked suffer because of the presence of God, and the magnitude of His holiness.

Whats being expressed here is the fact that Gods holiness is a radiant, burning fire that not only surrounds Him, but extends from
Him as part of the very essence of His being. This is certainly what we saw in Revelation 1, the vision that overwhelmed the apostle
John and here in chapter 9, this holiness, this visible, tangible manifestation of the purity of the King, is a torment, both physically
and spiritually, to those who are in sin. They themselves burn as a result of His holy fire; and the smoke of their torment rises for
ever and ever. This should stand, of course, as a rebuke to those who water down the seriousness of death and hell because
the very thing they have despised, the burning holy vengeance of hell, is not just a reflection of Gods attitude toward sin, but an
intrinsic and inescapable characteristic of His very being. Our God is a Holy God.

Knowing this, then and understanding who our God is, we should look again at exactly what these locusts are. Lets read again;
look at verse 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.

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 womens 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.

I am not going to spend a great deal of time this morning discussing the physical appearance of these locusts. We could certainly
go into great depth on each of the individual characteristics and elements revealed here, but I suspect that an overview is perhaps
sufficient to understand what Scripture is conveying.

so lets just take Scripture for what it says, shall we?

First of all, lets establish what these locusts are not.

They are not literal locusts.

Look at verse 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.

Now, Im sure that doesnt demonstrate my point, so allow me to read to you a verse from the book of Proverbs that will tie this
together. This is Proverbs 30 verse 27.

The locusts have no king, yet all of them march in ranks.

Thats an odd verse on its own, and yet it fits perfectly for us here. It demonstrates to us that these are no ordinary locusts.

So if theyre not ordinary locusts, what are they?

Well, let me answer that by taking you back a step. Throughout this series, weve seen some pretty incredible creatures, both in
heaven and on earth. Weve Biblically defined the ministries and nature of the four horsemen of Revelation 6, and seen their
terrifying missions upon the earth. Weve explored the Living Creatures, the Seraphim and Cherubim of chapters 4 and 5, each
with the face of a man, an ox, an eagle and a lion. Weve seen angels in the form of men, heavenly armies, burning chariots of
fire, and much more. What weve seen, and what Scripture consistently demonstrates, is that there are many different types of
angelic beings, with different functions, different purposes, and different ministries. Some of these ministries are beautiful and
wonderful, like Gabriel, whose explicit role seems to be the declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ - and particularly as it concerns
His incarnation. There are others, however, whose ministries are decidedly less pleasant.

I believe that the locusts of chapter 9, unpleasant and terrifying though they may be, fall into this latter category.

I should be honest with you at this point and tell you that the vast majority of scholarship identifies these creatures as being in
some sense demonic. This doesnt work on multiple levels, however. Scripture presents demons as creatures that require a host
in order to manifest; this is why the various incidences of possession are outlined in the gospels. Demons cannot manifest alone,
as they are not flesh and blood. More than that, we know from Scripture that locusts are clean creatures remember, the apostle
John ate locusts and honey in the wilderness and demons are frequently referred to as unclean spirits (Matt. 10:1, 12:43; Mark
1:21, 3:11; etc.).

Perhaps the best term Ive seen for these locusts, then, is spirits of torment. These are spirit beings, created by God, whose
primary role and function is the punishment of those confined to the bottomless pit. Here, at the end of the age, in the face of
the continued rebellion and defiant idolatry of mankind, they are called upon by God to exert that same torment upon those who
dwell upon the earth. You can understand, cant you, why the angel pronounced woe in chapter 8. These are terrible judgments
indeed.

The final piece of this puzzle is the King himself.

Verse 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.

Now, again, these names have been used in an improper context in the past. John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress ascribed these
names to the devil himself, whom his main character Christian encountered in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, as he passed
through on the Kings Highway. Nowhere in Scripture, however, are either of these names used again. While this makes it difficult
to tie down the exact identity of this angel, there are a few things to note. First, this angel is not described as a fallen angel.
Secondly, he is King over clean animals whose express purpose is to torment the wicked residents of the Bottomless Pit. Third,
the name Abaddon means The Destroyer, indicating that his own role is to bring destruction to those who reside in the
Bottomless Pit. This is not the task of a fallen angel. Rather, like Death and Hades, whom we studied in chapter 6, The Destroyer
is an angel charged with executing the judgment of the King, and his area of sovereignty is likewise named after Him. Psalm 88:11
says, Shall your lovingkindness be declared in Sheol, or thy faithfulness in Abaddon?, while Proverbs 27:20 state that Sheol and
Abaddon are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied. So, just as Death and Hades rule over their respective regions, so
Abaddon over his.

Weve studied a lot this morning, and there are still many details in this passage that I havent even had the time to cover. Beyond
all these things, however, what can we take away this morning? Whats the conclusion from all of this?

I think the answer to that is clear. Weve seen the imposing holiness of the King, radiant and burning in his glory, both to the great
joy of his people, and the torment of those who refuse to kneel before Him; weve seen His judgment, overwhelming as it is, at
the hands of the spirits ascending from the Bottomless Pit and weve seen two angels, one fallen, one in the service of the King,
but both nonetheless doing His bidding.

The truth here is inescapable.

Jesus Christ, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, is supreme in all things. In righteousness, in glory even in judgment. All things are
in His hands. and Ill close with this.

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I
heard saying:

Blessing and honor and glory and power

Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!

This is the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Judgment and justice are His; righteousness and holiness are within His very being. If
youve never called upon His name, I implore you to do so today. Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He
is near. Time is short, and the things written in this book are coming soon.

Lets pray.