Journey Through The Bible
 Old Testament Reading: Joshua 1-3
 New Testament Reading: Revelation 9

The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. The key for the shaft to the abyss was given to him. He opened the shaft to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft like smoke from a great furnace so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft (Revelation 9:1-2).

The fifth trumpet is blown, and the first woe begins! Hollywood with all its special effects, cannot create a movie depicting the horror that is to come in the remaining judgments. The fifth and sixth trumpet judgments, here in the ninth chapter, are the first two of the three woes mentioned in Rev 8:13.

John saw a ‘star’ that had fallen from heaven, which is almost certainly Satan. (Ezekiel 28:12–17, Isaiah 14:12–15, & Luke 10:18) He does not have complete authority for the key for the shaft to the abyss was given to him (v1).

When Satan opens the shaft to the abyss, smoke rises out of it and covers the earth, darkening the sun. Then creatures come up out of the abyss and cover the earth. For five months, these creatures sting and torment all the people of the earth that do not have God’s seal on their foreheads. The torment will be so severe that people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them (v6). God protects His tribulation saints during this time just as He protected the Israelite families in Egypt and death passed over their homes (Exodus 12).

Many Bible teachers and preachers of prophecy today try to interpret these creatures as implements of modern warfare. This is foolish for two reasons. First, we do not know when Christ will return, and the Tribulation will take place. It may not be in our lifetime. When Christ returns, machines of warfare may differ from what we have today.

Second and more importantly, these are creatures that come up out of the abyss. Satan does not need to rely on man-made devices to implement his plan. These are demonic creatures like nothing humanity has ever seen. John does his best to describe them to us. Not for us to know what they are, but he places image upon image to force us to feel the horror of this judgment.

The sixth Trumpet Judgement (the second woe) sets loose a demonic army of two hundred million. The army is released at a precise time and for a special purpose. Not just to torment, but to kill a third of the people on the earth. Since a fourth of humanity was killed in Rev 6:8, this means that half of the world’s population will be dead by the end of the sixth Trumpet Judgement! No wonder Jesus said, at that time there will be great distress, the kind that hasn’t taken place from the beginning of the world until now and never will again (Matt 24:21).

The Trumpet Judgements clearly grew in intensity and severity, becoming worse and more devastating. Despite the substantial evidence of God’s power to judge the world, there will be no change of heart by the people. Though the sixth judgment will produce fear, it does not produce repentance.

If anything ought to bring people to their knees in humble, desperate prayer to the Lord, these woes should. Yet the people remain not only unrepented but idolatrous. It’s not that they will be ignorant of God, they will just choose to continue their sinful lifestyle and worship demons and idols of precious metals, instead of their Maker. How Tragic! May we respond differently. When calamity strikes, may we be a people who pray to, worship, and find our refuge in the one true God.