John presents a vivid description of the locusts that must be understood in its entirety. These locusts should not be taken literally but symbolically for eight reasons:
1. They are like horses prepared for battle.
2. On their heads appeared to be crowns like gold.
3. Their faces were like the faces of men.
4. They had hair like the hair of women.
5. Their teeth were the teeth of lions.
6. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron.
7. They had tails and stingers like scorpions.
8. They have a king over them, a fallen angel from the abyss.
In reality locusts wage war on the ground by devouring plant life and consequently rob the food supply of humans and animals. But John uses the imagery to depict symbolically the spiritual battle that demons wage against the human race.
John employs the symbol of horses prepared for battle with something like crowns exhibiting a golden appearance to mark impending triumph. The crown of gold serves as a picture of the golden crown on the head of Jesus the Son of Man (14:14).
The locusts appear with human faces, indicating intelligence, shrewdness, and discernment. They are demonic creatures with the mental power of rational beings to inflict untold misery on those people who rebel against the angel of the abyss.They purpose to delude the people who do not serve and worship him. They project demonic evil with a human face that is turned away from and is therefore without God.
John writes the phrases hair of women and teeth like those of lions to express figuratively demonic deception on the one hand and ferocious attack on the other.
The teeth of lions symbolize brutality and cruelty to satisfy a gluttonous appetite, for Satan and his demonic forces seek to entice human beings and ultimately destroy them.
They had breastplates like breastplates of iron.The figurative presentation of these demonic beings points to their invincibility. No one on earth can rise up against these evil attacks that are designed to inflict untold harm on the human race.
Only those people who have the seal of God on their foreheads are able to withstand the furious attacks of these demonic monsters. Nonetheless, not even the holiest saint on earth can destroy a fallen angel, for as immortal beings they are invulnerable to ultimate destruction and death.
The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle.
The thundering hooves of horses and the whirring wheels of chariots in ancient days turned the tide of battle when they outnumbered those of their opponents. Here the innumerable locusts representing demonic forces are sure of their victory.
They have tails and stingers like scorpions; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months.
The verbal picture is that of horses followed by chariots with whirring wheels to harm their opponents. Similarly a scorpion takes hold of its prey and then with its tail administers a poisonous strike. As the chariot is attached to the horse so the tail is attached to the scorpion.
The sting of a scorpion usually does not kill a person but causes excruciating pain for a limited period. By repeating the same thought, John stresses the magnitude of the attack. He indicates that the torment caused by demonic creatures is temporary. He mentions five months to convey a period of short duration.
They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.
The king or angel of the abyss is none other than Satan himself.
Both Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greektranslate “destroyer”. Satan, the “destroyer,” rules all those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads; they are called “children of the devil” in 1 John 3:10.
The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.
John states that there are three woes, of which the first two are explained in this chapter.
The three woes succeed one another in increasing intensity:
1. The first woe follows the sounding of the fifth trumpet. It relates the release of demonic forces that are empowered to harm but not to kill for a specified duration.
2. The second woe occurs when the sixth trumpet is blown. It reports that four angels are released to kill a third of the human race by fire, smoke, and sulfur.
3. The third woe introduces God’s judgment of the dead (11:15b–19).
The Sixth Trumpet 9:13-21
INTRODUCTION
The calamities affecting the world and the human race increase in intensity with the sounding of each successive blowing of a trumpet. In this segment, John reveals that a war will take place that has no parallel in the records of human history.
Calls for repentance go deaf ears and God’s revelation is deliberately rejected, so that a terrifying war ravages mankind as an outcome of divine wrath.
The difference between earlier world wars and this one is the magnitude with which Satanic forces are unleashed and go unchecked.
The powers of darkness rule supreme without any hindrance; they annihilate a third of the world’s population.
Treaties and conventions that have served as barriers are ignored. This is God’s judgment on a world that has abandoned him and his Word.
Next Lord’s day under the Sixth Trumpet9:13-21 we will look at three things:
Audio of sermon
