INTRODUCTION

Revelation 9 shows us that God will deal with Rome in several ways. Rome’s government will decay from the inside, and there’s also going to be an external invasion. God promised that Rome would be punished, and the government would begin decaying from the inside.

THE FIFTH TRUMPET

‘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. 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. And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 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. 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. During those days, people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.’ Revelation 9:1-6

Here we have the fifth of seven angels sounding his trumpet, Revelation 8:2. A star denotes a ruler and heaven his dominion, the falling symbolises a dethroning, Revelation 9:1 / Luke 10:17-18.

This is said of a Babylonian ruler in Isaiah 14:2. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss, and notice this star is personified as ‘he’, Revelation 9:2 / Revelation 9:11 / Ephesians 2:2.

McGuigan, in his commentary, says the following.

‘It’s clear to me this is Satan. In Revelation 22:16, we read of ‘the bright and morning star’. The Bright and Morning Star has the key of death and Hades, Revelation 1:18, but the fallen star has the key of the abyss. That star represents a personality we are not left to doubt, for Revelation 9:11 tells us so. He is their god, 2 Corinthians 4:4, and the king of the locusts.’

When the bottomless pit is opened, there is unleashed a great pollution of smoke so dense that the sun cannot shine through it, as the air is smoggy, it was darkness, Revelation 9:2 / Genesis 19:28. This would seem to symbolise complete corruption or pollution of the land, Exodus 10:21-23.

Out of this horrible smoke came locusts, locusts were a scourge to the land and were dreaded, Revelation 9:3 / Joel 1:1-20 / Joel 2:1-32. They invade an area like an army, Exodus 10:14-17 / Joel 1:4-7.

This is further amplification of the woe pronounced upon the earth by the angel. These locusts have the power of scorpions, Revelation 9:3. Thus, the distress which was to come upon the land is personified as being poisonous and able to kill.

We see that the locusts are commanded not to ‘harm the grass of the earth, any green thing, nor any tree,’ they can harm ‘only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads,’ Revelation 9:4 / Ezekiel 9 / Habakkuk 1:5-17. Thus, Christians would be spared, Ezekiel 9 / Exodus 8:22 / Exodus 9:4 / Exodus 9:6 / Exodus 9:26 / Exodus 10:23 / Exodus 11:7. This tells us that Rome was going to be taken over.

Roper, in his commentary, says the following.

‘The primary purpose of the sealing of the 144,000 in Revelation 7 was to protect God’s people. Revelation 9:4 gives an example of that protection. Since the locusts represent consequences of disobedience, the obedient are spared those consequences.’

The victims of these woes were not to be killed immediately but tormented for five months, Revelation 9:5. These locusts were shaped like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns like gold, and their faces were like men. This would symbolise a great army, Revelation 9:5. It’s not surprising that these men want to die, Revelation 9:6.

‘The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads, they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails, they had power to torment people for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer). The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.’ Revelation 9:7-12

The locusts are further described as having hair like women and teeth like those of a lion, Revelation 9:7-8. In other words, they look beautiful like the hair of a woman, but they will devour them like a lion.

The breastplates of iron depict the invader’s armour; they come in chariots also, Revelation 9:9. This army has the power to inflict great horror for five months, Revelation 9:10 / Ezekiel 22:31 / Hosea 13:9.

Barclay, in his commentary, says the following.

‘Their attack is to last for five months. The explanation of the five months is almost probably that the lifespan of a locust from birth, through the larva stage, to death is five months. It is as if we might say that one generation of locusts is being launched upon the earth.’

They have a king over them whose name in Hebrew was ‘Abaddon’, Revelation 9:11, meaning destroyer and in Greek ‘Apollyon’, which means the same. This king was the angel of the bottomless, this is Satan himself, Revelation 9:1-3.

John now tells us that of the three woes announced by the flying angel, one is now past and two are yet to come, Revelation 9:12. The judgments in the seven trumpets seem to be divided into three woes, Revelation 9:12.

This would explain why each directive is applied to ‘a three woes,’ and would explain why each directive is applied to ‘a third part,’ Revelation 9:15 / Revelation 9:18.

The apocalyptic descriptions in this and the preceding verses are the same kinds of imagery Joel employs to describe the invasion of Jerusalem about 600 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar.

THE SIXTH TRUMPET

‘The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.’ And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number. The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulphur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulphur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulphur that came out of their mouths. The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury. The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshipping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.’ Revelation 9:13-21

RIDERS ON HORSES AND A TEMPLE

Here we have the sixth of seven angels sounding his trumpet, Revelation 8:2. Notice John heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God, Revelation 9:13.

This is the same altar where the prayers from the saints came from up to God, Revelation 8:3-5. As this trumpet is sounded, four angels are loosed from the Euphrates River, Revelation 9:14, which was symbolic of military might, Isaiah 8:7-8.

McGuiggan, in his commentary, says the following concerning Revelation 9:14.

‘These are they who are appointed to attack Rome. These stand for the armies upon which God can call his bidding.’

Summers, in his commentary, says the following.

‘The three factors combined to overthrow the Roman Empire: natural calamity, internal rottenness, and external invasion. The first four trumpets involved natural calamity and proposed that the locusts of the fifth trumpet typified internal rottenness. The sixth trumpet is a symbolic representation of the third factor: external invasion.’

The symbolism of this section is also parallel to Joel’s vision of horsemen and chariots going into battle, Joel 2:4-11. These four angels may be the same four mentioned in Revelation 7, as ‘holding the four winds of the earth,’ Revelation 7:1-3.

With the sealing of the 144,000, the suspension period is now lifted. The Euphrates River had served as a boundary line for Old Testament Israel, Revelation 9:14 / Genesis 15:18 / Isaiah 8:7-8.

These angels had been held at the boundary line but are now released; thus, destruction of the land is now turned loose. The preparation of an hour, day, month, and year doesn’t seem clear, Revelation 9:15. It could denote the time of suspension while the Romans were preparing for invasion.

Morris, in his commentary, says the following.

‘It is clear that John is speaking of a divine plan. God has a purpose, and it is worked out. It is a purpose of judgment; and, upon this occasion, the third part of man were to be slain.’

We have a picture of an overwhelming military power poised to kill, Revelation 9:16. Notice the number of horsemen, this is two million. If this number of horsemen didn’t frighten Rome, nothing would.

In Revelation 6:8, a ‘fourth part of the earth’ is involved. However, there were four judgments in this chapter. The division of parts is made proportionate with the pronouncements of judgments or woes. John heard several such magnitudes to make human resistance impossible, Ezekiel 38-39.

An impressive description is given of the army, Revelation 9:17. An awesome description is given of the doom that was given to the Roman Empire, Revelation 9:18-19. Similar descriptions of the 600 B.C. Babylonian invasions are given in Joel 2:2-4 and Jeremiah 25:9-11. Notice the power of the hoses comes from their mouth, Revelation 9:19.

‘Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.

‘Evil propaganda is clearly suggested by this. It is the flood of wicked, irresponsible, inflammatory, deceitful, and violence-oriented rhetoric of all kinds of Pied Pipers screaming for people to follow them which is evident here. His evil mouth is the ruination of man.’

The ‘rest of the men’, Revelation 9:20-21, were those who refused to repent; notice this is said twice. At the heart of any sin is the setting up of someone or something else in the place of God.

Notice how the form of worship goes in terms of worth; it goes from demons to gold to silver to brass to stone to wood, Revelation 9:20. This shows how worthless idolatry is. They shall not escape God’s final judgment.

History tells us that this happened; also, Rome was invaded, and outside forces came and overtook Rome, eventually bringing punishment upon her. Although Rome looked like she would be victorious, God promised that she would decay from the inside and be invaded in order to be punished.

How does all of that apply? In Revelation 9, we’re taught that we must stay true to God and always be sure that our lives are right, Revelation 9:20-21. These things were happening and should have been recognised as signs to bring the people of Rome back to God.

Yet they didn’t repent of their works. God loves all people and ‘wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth,’ 1 Timothy 2:4. The Bible makes it clear that God is patient toward us, and isn’t willing that anyone should perish, but wants everyone to come to repentance, 2 Peter 3:9.

Did God want the souls in Rome who were opposing Christianity to be lost and go to Hell? Absolutely not! The Romans should have seen their destruction as the power of God. They should have seen the internal decay and external invasions as God’s power and assigned that they needed to get their lives right.

They needed to make sure that they were worshipping the God of Heaven, not idols of silver and gold that couldn’t see, talk, or hear. Yet, unfortunately, they didn’t repent of their works. It’s so important for us today to realise that we must, at all times, examine ourselves to make sure that we’re right with God, Luke 13:3.

How serious it is for us to take the time that we have here and now very seriously, so that we will use it to honour God and make sure our lives are right before Him. The people of Rome were lost because they refused to change their ways. God doesn’t want people to be lost, but because He is a just judge, He will punish those who do ungodly things.

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