Chapter 9
Verses 1- 12 Read the Bible verses.
The Fifth Trumpet sounded.
A “star” fell from heaven and given to him was the key to the bottomless pit.”
This “star” is a “person or being”. Because he is given a key.
This “bottomless pit” is the hallway or shaft that leads to the place of eternal punishment. In the future, Satan will be chained there for 1000 years. Later he will be sent on down the hallway to the Lake of Fire.
This “being” has the key to this shaft. When he opens it, out comes smoke–that darkens the sky and out of the smoke come “locusts”.
Regular locusts that we know are like grasshoppers and they eat plants and leaves. They destroy everything that they can eat.
These are not regular locusts. Their purpose is to hurt people.
They can not hurt the 144,000 people that have God’s mark on their foreheads.
These locusts seemed to be demons. God has let them out to torment (hurt and bother) people. They can sting and bite. Even though they have teeth like a lion, they hurt with their tails.
The strange look of these locusts is not explained.
These locusts could be demon spirits that enter into people that have power to hurt other people. They could be a kind of sickness, or insect that hurts people.
These demon locusts have the power to hurt for 5 months.
Men will wish they could die, but they will not die. Misery and pain will be continue and pain will be great.
These demon locusts have a ruler over them and that is the angel of the “shaft of the bottomless pit”. In Hebrew the name is Abaddon, in Greek it is Apollyon. Both mean “the destroyer”.
Satan is called “The prince of the power of the air”. So this ruler of the abyss “shaft of the bottomless pit” probably is a high ranking demon angel.
All of the demons and Satan are fallen angels.
Verse 13-21 Read the Bible verses.
The Sixth Trumpet is sounded.
The 4 angels who were bound (tied there) at the Euphrates River were told to kill 1/3 of the people.
The Euphrates River was in the Garden of Eden. This great river is about 1700 miles long. In John’s time, it was the eastern boundary of the Roman empire. During the Old Testament times, it was the northern boundary of the land God promised to the Hebrews.
In Old Testament times, God used the kings who lived along this river to bring judgment on the Hebrews when they turned to idols.
The demon locusts were only allowed to torture (hurt) people, but these evil angels will be allowed to kill people.
1/3 of the people left on earth will be killed.
When these 4 angels are let go, John sees a huge army.
There were armies of horsemen—200 million.
The riders had breastplates of red, blue and yellow.
The heads of the horses are like lions and out of their mouths comes fire and brimstone. There was power in their mouths and tails to hurt.
1/3 of the people were killed by 3 things: fire, smoke, brimstone.
It could be that these “horses” are newer kind of weapon that shoot fire from the front and can also hurt from the back.
The people who were not killed, still did not repent of their sins. They just kept on worshipping demons and idols and kept on sinning.