Revelation 9:1-21

(Revelation 9:1-21)

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. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.  One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.  And 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 which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.  And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.  By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.  And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:  Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Chapter 9 describes the judgment that will take place when the fifth of the seven trumpets is blown. The judgment of the seven trumpets is a judgment that follows the judgment of the seven seals, and concerns the vision received by the apostle John in 8:2. 『And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. 』Seven angels received seven trumpets from God. When the first to fourth angels blow their trumpets, the vision seen by the apostle John reminds us of the plagues that fell upon Egypt at the time of the Exodus. This shows a pattern similar to the characteristics of the judges from the first to the fourth of the seven judges, as read in Chapter 6. We can see that there are differences between the first four and the last three of the seven.

The apostle John saw the vision of the judgment of the fourth angel's trumpet, and before the fifth angel blew the trumpet, he saw and heard the loud voice of the eagle. It is recorded in the last verse of chapter 8, the second half of verse 13. 『And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by. reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! "to be. Even if we look at what the apostle John saw through the eagle vision before the fifth angel blew the trumpet, we know that the latter three trumpet judgments of the seven trumpet judgments have different characteristics from the first four trumpet judgments. It is natural that it is fearful to be a referee, but it emphasizes that there is anger in the last three referees. After the illusion of the fifth trumpet judgment, 『One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. 』. Thus, it can be said that among the seven trumpet judges, the last three trumpet judges are a stronger judge with different characteristics from the first four.

『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. 』A star that fell from heaven to the ground means an angel as a person who performs judgment with the authority of God. The abyss literally means a bottomless pit, and symbolically, it means hell or hell where the dead go. Except for the book of Revelation, there are two places in the New Testament that use the same word as the abyss.

One is in Luke 8:31. they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. When Jesus healed a demon-possessed man in the region of Gerasain, the demon used it to ask Jesus not to go into the abyss. The other is mentioned by the apostle Paul in Romans 10:7. 『Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)" Heaven is above and if you think of the Lord coming from above, you find that the abyss relatively below is a bad dark place.

When the angel opened the abyss with a key, we can see that the abyss is the place beneath, even if we see that the smoke came up. Darkness came from the smoke from that hole. This darkness symbolically shows judgment. Yellowworm appears from the abyss in the dark. Yellowworm is an insect of the grasshopper family. The trait of grasshoppers is that they harm grains and plants while moving in swarms. However, yellow bugs appearing in the fifth trumpet judgment do not harm the trees and green grass that were damaged in the first trumpet judgment.

『 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. 』 It is not green grass or various trees that the yellow bug will harm, but only those who have not been sealed by God on their foreheads. They are in contrast to the sealed servants of God mentioned in chapter 7. And, they correspond to those who received the mark of the beast on their foreheads by the expression in 13:16-17. They were ordered not to kill them, and the duration was 5 months.

It is worth noting that 5 months is a period similar to the lifespan of yellowworm. It seems that the judgment of Hwangchung will not exist for a long period of time, but the subjects of the judgment will suffer to the extent that they do not die. The harassment is expressed as afflicting when a scorpion shoots a person, and it is expressed that even if people ask for death, they cannot die. The time of judgment in which there is suffering that cannot die even if it wants to die reminds me of hell. The shape of the yellow worms looks like a swarm of yellow worms when viewed from a distance, but when viewed closely, it is like horses for war, like a human face, like a woman's hair, like a lion's teeth, has an iron heart mirror, and has a tail and stinging flesh like a scorpion. And they say that they have a king, and they say that it is the messenger of the abyss, Abaddon in Hebrew, and Avoluon in Greek.

By analogy taking into account the ambiguity of revelation, Avoleon means Roman emperors. Avoleon can be seen as a variation of the name of the god Apollo, worshiped by many in the first century. The 3rd emperor of Rome, Calicula (reigned 37-41), the 5th emperor Nero (reigned 54-68), and the 11th emperor Domitian (reigned 81-96), are representative of the god Apollo. And they forced people to worship the emperor. Considering these points, Hwangchung is a Roman army and the king of Hwangchung becomes Roman emperor. Historically, it has been a thing of the past, but considering the ambiguity of revelation, Hwangchung's judgment is also a judgment in the future. The important point is that the target of the fifth trumpet judgment is not God's people, but those who have not been sealed by God.

The beginning of the sixth trumpet judgment is the gold altar before God. It is expressed as a voice from the four horns of the altar. This can be understood as God's judgment answering the appeals of those who were martyred under the altar and the prayers of the saints for salvation on this earth. Four angels judge those who persecuted the saints, but the exact year, month, day and time were not mentioned. The four angels are those who are prepared to kill a third of men. The number is said to be twenty thousand horsemen. Twenty thousand means 200 million, which is calculated by multiplying 20,000 times 10,000.

Symbolically, it means the number of soldiers innumerable numbers. The appearance of the horsemen is described in verse 17, and it is said that fire, smoke and sulfur from the mouth of a horse are three plagues. A third of people are killed by these three plagues.

The four angels are those who carry out God's judgment. The four angels came from the great river Euphrates. Today, the Euphrates River in Iraqi territory, along with the Tigris River, was the source of Mesopotamian civilization. The Euphrates River is known as the river that formed the eastern border of the Roman Empire in the days of the Apostle John. The symbol of the four angels from here can be seen as judging the armies of the Roman Empire who persecuted Christians. Historically, Westerners were destroyed by the East Medes and Persia. This too, considering the ambiguity of revelation, is not a single judgment, but a judgment that will be in the future.

The point to consider in the sixth trumpet judgment is the foolishness that those who survived despite the death of a third of the people did not recognize God's judgment. 『And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 』

God sent Jesus to this earth to save humans in the end times. Jesus died from bleeding on the cross to redeem the sins of repentant humans. I don't know when the resurrected Jesus will come, but that is the end time. From the past until now until the Lord comes again, God has shown many forms of judgment on this earth. Nevertheless, many people do not realize the judgment of God and still do not repent of their evil deeds, are led by the lust of the eye, and bow to idols. We must remember the words that Jesus cried 2,000 years ago, "Repent, that Heaven is near."