Throw Out the Lifeline

Bible Study Lessons

BIBLE CLASS NOTES

by Bill Thornhill

THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST

Chapter Nine

This chapter reveals two of the three calamities pronounced by the eagle-cherub. The sounding of trumpets five, six, and seven takes us through the next several chapters. With the sounding of each one of the successive trumpets there is an accompanying woe or curse pronounced on God’s reprobate people. Many of the creatures encountered as we study the last three trumpets represent spiritual realities as well as physical ones. Physical realities must often be altered so spiritual ones can function as God intended. Consequently, the locusts for example, were not literal, but symbolic of some destructive force, allied with Satan, involving a physical reality (armies) doing its work so spiritual realities could bring about salvation for mankind.

First we will deal with an “abyss,” the very opposite of heaven and all it represents. This is the realm with which God does not communicate, although he knows all transpiring there. The first woe held foreboding for the land of Israel. With the events announced by these trumpets, the “end of the world” is coming for the Jews, the end of the Jewish world being the destruction of their state, the dismantling of their religion, and losing their favored place with God.

We now look at the first verse, 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. This verse tells of a fallen star. It is clear that John did not see a star in the act of falling from heaven. He saw a fallen star, one already in the place it was supposed to be. The word “fallen” comes from peptokota, the perfect active participle meaning the star was fallen. The star represents some evil ruler, of that there is no doubt, who will engage Satan to aid in his work of destroying the land that brought the Messiah into the world. It must be recognized when studying Revelation that various stars represent rulers, usually fallen ones, or evil ones, and the word heaven does not always refer to the place where Deity resides, but to the dominion of God wherever it might be. If we do not understand this, we will never understand the book!

We have a star, already fallen, denoting the descent of some ruler(s) from an exalted dominion, who had, in effect, sold out to Satan. Who was the ruler(s)? Some believe the fallen star is Satan himself, but based on the language of the text, the fallen star must be a person(s) who does the work of Satan, and is supported by him. Based on both the Revelation and history of the time, we see the star representing some person(s) who hastened the judgment to come on Judaism.

Josephus reported in AD 66, John the son of Levi of Galilee, and Simon son of Goria from Geresa, an area east of Galilee, seized control of Jerusalem, killed her governor who was also the High Priest, and murdered many fellow countrymen. This attracted the attention of Cestius, the Roman governor of Syria, who moved against Jerusalem to restore order. He invaded the city in AD 67, and when she was about to fall, for some unknown reason he withdrew his army and started an orderly march back to Syria. It may have been just a tactical error due to his thinking the Jews were defeated. However, the Jews, taking advantage of what to them was serendipity boiled out of Jerusalem, attacked the Romans from the rear, and soundly defeated them driving them back to Syria in shame. When Nero heard of this, he chose two of his very best military commanders, Vespasian and his son Titus, whom he sent to make all-out war on the Jews and bring them to heel to the Roman authorities again. It was, according to Josephus, during the time the insurgents of Jerusalem were chasing the Romans back to Syria that many, if not most, of the Christians made their now famous flight from Jerusalem to Pella. Jesus, in Luke 21:20 and Matthew 24:15 had instructed them to do just that. (For further reading on this matter see Josephus’ Wars, book II, chapter 19.)

Josephus also told how John and Simon polluted the Temple when they fled there for refuge. They committed murder in the Temple while taking sanctuary. (Wars, book IV, chapter 3, number 10). When these despicable men polluted the Temple they began the desolation of abominations of which Jesus spoke (Matthew 24:15).

The Christians were able to flee Jerusalem because the armies of Vespasian had not yet arrived, but were about to proceed through Galilee and Judea, conquering the cities one by one. The Christians fled Jerusalem and its environs, many going to Pella. The Christians were able to flee from Jerusalem the very year Domitius Nero Caesar ordered his own murder, in AD 68. We lean toward the view that John and Simon were the “star” who opened the abyss and released the hordes for destruction when they rebelled against Rome. That rebellion was the “key” they used to open that which brought ultimate disaster on the Jews, their religion, Temple, and city.

In the latter part of the 1^st verse, John said that the star was given a key to an abyss, and in the 2^nd verse we will learn he used it! A “key,” or “keys,” constitutes the power to open and release. The fallen star opened an abyss, from which boiled demonic powers.

The KJV uses the words bottomless pit in translating abussou, meaning “the lower depth,” and has reference to the dwelling place of demonic powers. The prophet Ezekiel used the Hebrew form of this word when he threatened ancient Tyre with great desolation in which God would bring the abyss to cover the city with a flood resulting in people going down to the pit, or lower parts of the earth (Ezekiel 26:19-21). John was saying the hell-inspired forces were about to break loose.

In the 2^nd verse John wrote, 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. When the fallen star opened the abyss a dense smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. This was a benighting choking smoke denoting the judgment of God. (The metaphor is drawn from Abraham’s watching the smoke from the cities of the plain in Genesis 19:28.) This smoke represented the work of demonic forces from the infernal underworld working through a human agency, the armies of the Romans, to accomplish the will of God. This is reminiscent of Isaiah 13:10; Joel 2:10 & 31; 3:15. The blackout of the sun symbolized the influence of God being removed from the land until his vengeance was accomplished by demonic agents. The people on whom the judgment was coming would never again see the Sun of righteousness …with healing in his wings.

In the 3^rd verse the metaphor grows more intense, Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth. John saw boiling up out of the smoke of the infernal abyss things described as locusts. They have the ability to utterly destroy grains, fruits, vegetables, almost everything that grows. However, here, it is not the locusts to be feared but what they represent. This harkens back to the plague of locusts about which we read in Exodus 10:12-15.

The locusts were given power (exousia), authority to execute a mission on which they had been sent. The power they were given was to hurt like the scorpion. The scorpion is an insect-like creature with a long tail having the appearance of a string of small pearls, which are pouches storing poisonous venom. In the Scriptures the metaphor of the scorpion is often used to denote the wicked tormenting the righteous or inflicting suffering on them. In Ezekiel 2:6 the prophet of God was to dwell among people likened to scorpions who could harm him. In the case of Ezekiel, God referred to people of Judah who had been taken into Babylonia where Ezekiel was to prophesy. In other words, Ezekiel would be living in the midst of grave danger.

In the 4^th verse, we read, 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. We favor the view that the locust-scorpions represent the insurgent Jews locked in deadly battle to see who would control the city of Jerusalem. The important thing to note is the people of God were no longer to suffer at the hands of any Jews. That which is green, such as grass and trees, is often used in Scripture as a symbol for those who are righteous. Here the rule is applied, for the righteous are described as those with the seal of God in their foreheads. In 7:3, those who received the seal of God were the faithful of the twelve tribes of Israel. These were the Jewish Christians, the first fruits of the Gospel in Judea and, as we have noted, were able to escape Jerusalem during the debacle occurring when Cestius of Syria attacked the city of Jerusalem in AD 67.

Of the locust-scorpions John said, And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. (V. 5) We will do well to comment on matters we should have noticed earlier regarding the locust-scorpions; to them was given power (v. 3), they were commanded (v. 4), and they were not given authority (v. 5). These expressions are used to express the great truth that no evil can have any power unless it is allowed by God.

The antecedent of the pronoun “them” in this passage is those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Those who had not received the mark of God in their foreheads were the Jews on whom the locust-scorpions were going to inflict pain for five months. Regarding the locust-scorpions, we believe they were the armies of Gessius Florus, Roman procurator of Judea who just prior to the invasion by Vespasian, for about five months struck absolute terror into the hearts of the Jews by trying deliberately to incite them to further rebellion so he could have a part in destroying them. He did not kill many of the Jews in his forays into their lands, but he caused them excruciating mental and emotional pain. They lived in terror of him.

Locusts have a life span of approximately five months. The five month period here could be nothing more than injury inflicted on the Jews for a relatively brief period, but as we just observed, it could also refer to the time during which Gessius beleaguered the Jews. He was successful in harassing the Jews into rebellion, and because he did so Josephus dated the beginning of the Jewish wars from May AD 66.

Foy Wallace, Jr. took the position the five month period referred to the time of the Roman siege of Jerusalem. We believe it refers to the terrorization of the Jews by Gessius because the siege of Jerusalem lasted longer than five months, and in the siege the people were not just traumatized emotionally and physically; they died by the thousands.

Of this period in which the locust-scorpion armies were inflicting anguish on the Jewish people, John said, In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them. (v.6). In the above words, there is a literary device called a parallelism, the same thing stated in different words. Seeking death and not finding it is the same thing as desiring it and having it flee from them. Notwithstanding, there was an even more extensive agony coming in the not-too-distant future. Their darkest hour had not come.

John wrote in the 7^th verse, 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. We will notice a series of similes in these passages. The locust-scorpions were like horses, they had crowns like gold, faces like men, hair like women, etc. We conclude the locust-scorpions represent something horrible. They represent a terrible army. The only thing fitting this description was the Roman cavalry prepared for battle. The description found in verses 7-9 is reminiscent or the 1^st and 2^nd chapters of Joel in which there is a description of the land of Israel being laid waste by a huge locust-like army in the Day of the Lord.

The locust-scorpions were shaped like horses prepared for battle. On the heads of these horses were crowns bearing a resemblance to gold. There is no difficulty seeing these as helmets worn by cavalry. The helmets having he appearance of gold seems to say they were metal battle helmets worn as part of the armor of the Roman cavalry.

In the 8^th verse John said, They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. Though they had faces like men, they had hair like women. This is without doubt drawn from Jeremiah 51:14 & 27, in which the prophet described the armies of the Medes and Persians coming against Babylon like “hairy” locusts. Our view is that it is an embellishment of the description of the Roman soldier’s helmets which had such things as bristles and other decorations attached giving the impression of women’s hair. The army had teeth like the teeth of the lion. Our view is John spoke of the ferocity, strength, and killing ability of the army. We see an army that could tear and devour as the teeth of the lioness.

In the 9^th verse, John began a description of the armor worn by the huge cavalry, 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. They had breastplates like iron, speaking of the metal armor, or “coat of mail” worn by the Roman soldier. The army was so large it made a thunderous noise when moving, as was the case with such formidable armies.

In the 10^th verse he spoke of the tails of the locust-scorpion army saying their sting, their ability to injure, inflict pain, cause distress and agony was in their tails. He declared, They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. This particular host was not going to engage in wholesale slaughter of the Jews like the ones following under the command of Vespasian, and then Titus, as least not early on. However, they had the ability to inflict great pain on Israel, and this they certainly did. It seems like the five-month period in the same in verses five and ten.

In the 11^th verse John wrote, 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. In Proverbs 30:27, we read, The locusts have no king, yet they all advance in ranks… These locust-scorpions cannot be literal locusts and scorpions for they have no leader. These locusts represent armies. Albert Barnes perceived this and of locust-scorpions did have a king, or an absolute leader, but not a visible one. When all the information is combined it points to Satan or one of his earthly emissaries. Note these facts: (1) The King is the messenger from the abyss, from whence came the terrible army of locust-scorpions. (2) The abyss represented the unseen world of evil and darkness. (3) His names in both Hebrew and Greek are Abaddon and Apollyon respectively. (4) He is not the fallen star, for the fallen star opened the pit out of which Abaddon came to lead the army of the locust-scorpions. The Hebrew name worn by the messenger from the abyss is Abaddon which means, Destroyer, one who brings others down to death, or Sheol. The Greek name is Apollyon, also Destroyer, one who brings others down to death and doom. While he had earthly agents who ran greedily to do his will, ultimately it was Satan who led the forces marshaled against both the Christians and the Jews. Early commentators found in the name Apollyon a play on the name of the Greek-Roman god Apollo, whose symbol was the locust and to whom plagues and destruction were often attributed. One of the names Domitius Nero Caesar usurped was that of the god Apollo. If the messenger from the abyss is not Satan, then he must be Nero who commissioned the Roman army, after the Jewish rebellion of AD 66, to crush and destroy the Jewish nation.

Finally, in the 12^th verse John wrote, One woe is past, Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things. The Roman armies were in the land; Vespasian had crossed the border from Syria to Palestine. The army of God, the one used to accomplish God’s purpose was on the move.

We come to the sounding of the 6^th trumpet. The scenes of this trumpet do not end with this chapter, but continue to 11:15. Of the sounding of the 6^th trumpet John wrote, Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. (V 13-14). John said he heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which was before God. That the voice came from the altar of incense signals it was a response to the prayers of the saints which ascended as smoke to the throne of God. The fact the voice was responding from the “horns” or the golden peaks of the altar, indicated God had heard the prayers of the saints and was about to respond.

The voice gave a command to the 6^th angel (messenger) that he should release four other messengers bound at the river Euphrates. Milton Terry explained the meaning of these words when he wrote,

Notice four angels here as in 7:1. There they “hold the four winds of the earth;” here they are to be let loose from the restraint which had so far bound them. The number four in both cases has no other significance than that of being the apocalyptic number of world-judgments. That the angels are to be regarded as evil rather than good is inferred from the fact of their being bound and from the character of the army which they lead. Compare the warlike angelology of Daniel 10:13-20. The great river Euphrates is here employed as a symbolical name in allusion to the well known fact that from the regions of that river came those rods of Jehovah’s anger (Isaiah 10:5), the great armies of the Assyrians and Chaldeans which swept over the land of Israel like a destructive flood. Compare Isaiah 7:20; 8:7-8; Jeremiah 46:10; Habakkuk 1:6-11.

In the 15^th verse John wrote, So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. The four messengers who were to take vengeance on behalf of the souls under the altar were released. We can expect some spectacular activity because John said these angels had been prepared for what was coming; this is no fly-by-night or afterthought operation on the part of God but something planned from all eternity. They were prepared for the hour and day and month and year. Remember the Olivet Discussion when the Lord was asked about when these things would happen (Matthew 24:36).

The mention of the hour, the day, the month, and the year means God had made a very precise plan for these events to take place, telling none until John, when they would happen. These things were planned to follow the seventy weeks of Daniel, according to the prophet’s timetable found in 9:27. The mission of the messengers was to kill one third of mankind. This cannot refer to the human race because there has never been a judgment that destroyed a third of the world’s population. The “men” of whom John speaks in this verse are the population of Judea. It is unnecessary to look at “a third” as being a set number, it simply meant when the conquerors came they would slay a great portion of the population.

In the 16^th verse John accentuated the size of the invading cavalry. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. Again, we emphasize John is still hearing what he revealed. The number of the cavalry is not to be taken literally because it is not found in the Greek text. We are not sure why the translators rendered the number two hundred million, except they wanted to convey the idea of countless thousands multiplied by countless thousands. John meant the number of the troops who made up this astronomical cavalry was so great they could not be counted.

In the 17^th verse John proceeded to describe this august cavalry, And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. Following the same pattern we have seen in the past, John first heard something and then saw what he heard. Here he began a description of the great cavalry whose uncountable number he had previously heard. In this vision he saw horses, but described them as looking like lions and breathing fire like dragons.

Let’s look at description of the riders. He described them as wearing the colors of an enormous conflagration. The magnitude of the coming destruction was likened to the whole country being on fire fueled with burning sulfur. An intense fire is not only red, but blue and yellow also. The color of their breastplates was sulfur yellow. Sulfur is what the Old Testament calls “brimstone.” It is often used in that Testament to indicate a final and fatal judgment, or punishment to come, or had come, on a city or a nation. (Genesis 19:24; Deuteronomy 29:23; 2 Samuel 22:9; Isaiah 34:9-10; Ezekiel 38:22). So, the cavalrymen John saw in this vision were covered with coats of mail reflecting the colors of destruction.

He then described the horses on which this cavalry rode as having heads like lions. The heads of the horses appeared huge and ferocious. The nation of Israel would be unable to withstand such a fierce enemy, any more than a man, alone and unarmed could stand against the mighty lion. He continued his description and said out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. This passage depicting fire-breathing horses reminds one of Job 14:18-21, and like the description in Job, it was designed to send a horrifying message of destruction and death to the people who had slaughtered so many of the souls under the altar. We may sum up the meaning of this verse in the words of Chilton,

An innumerable army is advancing upon Jerusalem from the Euphrates, the origin of Israel’s traditional enemies; it is a fierce, hostile, demonic force sent by God in answer to His people’s prayers for vengeance. In short, this army is the fulfillment of all the warnings in the law and the prophets of an avenging horde sent to punish the Covenant-breakers. The horrors described in Deuteronomy 28 were to be visited upon this evil generation (see especially verses 49-68). Moses had declared: You shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see (Deut. 28:34).

For the historical record of the fulfillment of this prophecy, see the Wars of Josephus 2, 18. 9 through 19.7 and 6. 5. 3. One is simply amazed at the similarity between what John predicted and what Josephus recorded regarding the Romans hordes’ invasion of Jerusalem.

The 18^th verse reads, By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed- by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. John here referred to the war in which a third of the population of Judea would fall. The three plagues were very much like those which came on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. John will, in 11:8 designate Jerusalem as …Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. It is, therefore fitting for John to use the figures of destruction which came on Sodom to describe those which were coming on Jerusalem. Have you wondered why Jesus said it would be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than for the cities of Judea? The Holy Spirit inspired John to use the definite article before each plague. They were going to be destroyed by the fire, the smoke, and the brimstone, revealing he was not speaking of these in general. This is a special fire, smoke, and brimstone predicted to destroy this once-righteous people. The horse was the animal of war in those days. Consequently, they are pictured as doing what the army did when it came on the land.

In the 19^th verse John added still another dimension of horror when he said, For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm. This reminds us of the army of locust-scorpions out of the abyss. Their mission was to hurt; here it is to destroy. The point is to indicate both armies are the same army. The intensification of the metaphor is fascinating. These horses not only have destructive power in their mouths, but in their tails as well. Their tails have heads like venomous serpents. The fact John used the tails of the horses to extend the metaphor of destructive power, lends credence to the idea the army of the locust-scorpions would combine with the army being loosed by the sixth angel at the Euphrates. These armies combined to come against Israel and Jerusalem; the armies of Cestius and Vespasian united to make a final assault on “the land.”

The 20^th and 21^st verses read, But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see or hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. The Bible translators translated the word anthropon as “mankind.” The simplest and most obvious meaning of the word is ”men,” since in its singular form, it is translated “man” again and again in the New Testament. Why the translators chose “mankind” is beyond us, because it conveys the wrong idea. We will use the word “people” because the writer is speaking to a particular people. The rest of these people were the two-thirds not killed by the formidable army. When the people of Israel, especially those in Jerusalem, saw the terrible slaughter carried out by the Roman army as it marched from the north, they should have repented of the death of Christ, and the deaths of the saints whom they had slain. They should have repented, as did the citizens of Nineveh in the days of Jonah, but they did not! False prophets were all around. Of them Josephus wrote,

Thus were the miserable people beguiled by these false charlatans and false messengers of God, while they disregarded and disbelieved the unmistakable portents that foreshadowed the coming desolation; but, as though thunderstruck, blind, senseless, paid no heed to the clear warnings of God. (Wars, 6. 5. 3.)

John recorded that they did not repent. Some might say that these people cannot be the Jews because they were not idolaters in the 1^st century. However, John did not say they were idolaters in the sense they worshiped the idols which were made of the materials herein mentioned. He said they did not repent of the works of their hands in order not to be guilty of worshiping demons, etc. When the leaders of the people cooperated with idolaters in order to achieve their agenda, they might as well have literally worshiped idols. By their demanding, and getting, the cooperation of the Roman authorities to carry out deeds they could not legally carry out, they bowed to the Roman Gods. Their actions toward the Son of God and his saints were acts of rebellion. Rebellion was as the sin of witchcraft, a form of idolatry, as Samuel told Saul (1 Samuel 15:23). The Jews refused to repent of their many sins even after they saw the invasion of their homeland. Chilton summarized all this very well when he wrote,

Throughout the Last Days, until the coming of the Romans, the trumpets had blown, warning Israel to repent. But the alarm was not heeded, and the Jews became hardened in their impenitence. The retreat of Cestius was of course taken o mean that Christ’s prophecies of Jerusalem’s destruction were false: The armies from the Euphrates had come and surrounded Jerusalem (cf, Luke 21:20), but the threatened “desolation” had not come to pass. Instead, the Romans had fled, dragging their tails behind their legs. Increasingly confident of divine blessing, the Jews recklessly plunged ahead into greater acts of rebellion, unaware that even greater forces beyond the Euphrates were being readied for battle. This time, there would be no retreat. Judea would be turned into a desert, the Israelites would be slaughtered and enslaved, and the Temple would be razed to the ground, without one stone left upon another.

The trumpet will continue in the next chapter with the advent of a mighty angel.