Revelation 9 -- The Hard-To-Imagine

My commentary started this chapter by saying, “It is probable that, apart from the exact identification of Babylon in chapters 17 & 18, the meaning of the two judgments in this chapter represents the most difficult major problem in the Revelation.”  Okay, sounds like imagination time.

A bottomless pit holding a demon army is mentioned, and a “star” fell from the sky to earth and was given the key to open it.  Smoke from this pit further reduced the sunlight reaching earth, then demon locusts came out to go worldwide to sting but not kill those unmarked as God’s for five months.  The pain is so terrible that people will want to die but won’t be able to die.  This is the fifth trumpet judgment.  The sixth trumpet sounds, leading to the freeing of four angels from near the Euphrates River, commanding a demon army of 200 million tasked with killing a third of all people remaining on earth.  (Already a fourth have died, so this would leave earth’s population reduced by half, my commentary said.)

Amazingly, all of this death, suffering, and destruction fails to change the hearts and lives of those remaining on earth.  They are still wicked.  “The most frightening thing about Revelation 9 is not the judgments that God sends but the sins that men persist in committing even while God is judging them – demon worship and idolatry … murder and theft … sexual immorality … drug use … It will be an age of lawlessness with every man doing that which is right in his own eyes … But God is working out His plan, and neither the sins of mankind  nor the schemes of Satan will hinder Him from accomplishing His will,” my commentary said.

Father, please open the hearts, minds, and eyes of those I love to Your promises of judgment here.  Change their hearts and minds before we ever get to this period so they will not have to suffer so in their sin.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford