The Fifth Trumpet/First Woe
“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.” Revelation 9:1-2
Continuing from the last blog which covered the first four trumpets sounded during the period of tribulation, the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and a star fell from heaven and was given a key to open the bottomless pit. What or who is this star? Since the star is referred to as a “he”, it would indicate that the star is a male person, angel, or demon. Some see him as a mighty leader of armies. Others see him as a “good” angel who had been given the key by Jesus because, in 20:1, there is an angel who comes down from heaven and has the key to the bottomless pit. Others believe the star is Satan or one of his demons. Whoever the star is, he can only do what God allows. The bottomless pit is also called the Abyss, the nether world, the abode of the wicked dead, Hades, and other names. I call it a “half-way house to hell”.
The bottomless pit is the present home of Satan and his demons, who have the ability to come and go, and it is also the temporary but long-term holding cell for all those who die without Christ and will remain there until the time of the final judgment. The star unlocked the gate of the bottomless pit, and out of it arose thick, black smoke, maybe something similar to a mushroom cloud from an atomic bomb. It was so thick and opaque that it blotted out the light of the sun and filled the air with a choking, stifling, and noxious material which had a horrible stench of sulfur. Also arising from the pit were locusts. In Exodus 10:12, God sent a plague of locusts which destroyed all of the Egyptians’ crops in an effort to force Pharaoh to let God’s people go. These locusts were different, though. They were not to destroy vegetation, but would be given a power like that of scorpions to sting those who had not been sealed by the angel of God, those who had rejected Christ.
The scorpion-like locusts were not to kill, but rather to inflict pain and misery upon God’s enemies for a time period of five months. Why five months? It is not made clear, but the timing of swarms of locusts are usually from May through September–five months. Those inflicted with this pain would seek to die to escape the misery, but they would not be able to succeed no matter what they did to themselves. Death would escape them. John then gave a detailed, but somewhat mysterious, description of these locusts. He said they were like battle horses, symbols of power, might, and determination. Their heads appeared as though they wore crowns of gold, symbols of authority and victory. Their faces were like the faces of men which indicated that they had the power to think and reason.
John continued his description of the locusts as having hair like the hair of women. This is not explained, but perhaps the long hair was meant to deceive people into thinking that the soldier locusts had been “feminized”, that is, not as tough and strong as one might imagine. In this way they could infiltrate themselves among the people and then make their attack. They had teeth like that of lions whose teeth can rip apart animals larger than themselves. These locusts also wore breastplates strong as iron. The sound of their wings was like the roar of chariots being pulled by horses as they raced into battle, a very frightening sound to be sure. Their tails were equipped with stingers. I suppose we could refer to them as “weapons of mass destruction”, but the misery they would bring would only be for five months–five months of opportunities for the wicked to repent.
As with any army, the soldier-locusts had a leader over them. A swarm of locusts did not usually have a leader–every insect for himself. However, these locusts were organized, trained, and ready for battle which required a leader over them to issue their orders. Their leader was called the “angel of the bottomless pit”. In Hebrew his name was Abaddon, and his Greek name was Apollyon. The meaning of both names is destruction, destroyer, or to destroy. He was probably one of Satan’s high-ranking demon commanders. We do not know whether the description of these locusts was literal which would make for a very strange looking creature or whether it was symbolic in that it represented some type of modern day warfare including some sort of super soldiers. After the fourth trumpet had been sounded, an angel flew calling out three woes to earth’s inhabitants (8:13). John’s description of the first woe was now complete: five months of pain and misery among the ungodly of earth, but there was even greater misery to come.
Next time: The Sixth Trumpet/Second Woe