The Fifth Trumpets Revelation 9:1-12 CCLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

The Fifth Trumpet

When this trumpet sounds, an angel opens the bottomless pit and locusts come out that torment men on the earth for 5 months.  Here are the particulars.

 1 – the fifth angel sounds this trumpet – John sees a star fall from heaven – this star is an angel [Revelation 1:20; 20:1] – notice that “to him was given the key” – he is given the key of the bottomless pit – the bottomless pit is in the very center of the earth and thus has no bottom – notice that the key opens this pit [v.2] and thus whatever is in it cannot get out until it is let out [Revelation 20:1-3, 7]

2 – he opened the pit – and smoke, as the smoke of a great furnace, rose up out of the pit – it was so thick and plentiful that it darkened the sun and the air [Isaiah 13:9-11, Joel 2:30-31]

3 – locusts came out of the smoke – this plague matches, somewhat, the plague of locusts in Exodus 10:4 – however, these locusts are supernatural – for one thing, locusts abhor smoke and fly away from it – yet these locusts come out of the smoke – furthermore, their power is like the power of scorpions – they strike men [v.5] and sting them with their tails [v.10]

4 – they will be commanded to spare grass, green things and trees – instead, they will hurt men, only those men who were not sealed in Revelation 7:4-8

5 – they will have power to hurt men but not to kill them – their torment will last for five months

6 – the torment will be so bad that men will seek death and will desire to die but they won’t be able to die – death will be chosen rather than life [Jeremiah 8:3] but death will escape them – so they will have to endure the torment

7 – the description of these locusts show that they are like mutations – these locusts are shaped like horses that are prepared for battle [notice, they have breastplates v.9] – they have what appear to be crowns of gold on their heads – and they have faces like men

8 – but their hair is like women’s hair and their teeth are like lion’s teeth [Joel 1:6] – just try to picture what is being described here

9 – they have breastplates like breastplates of iron – the sound of their wings is like chariots running to battle

10 – they have scorpion’s tails with stingers – and they will hurt men for five months – now imagine what has just been described – they have

• The bodies of locusts
• The shape of horses
• The appearance of golden crowns on their heads
•  The faces of men
• The hair of women
• The teeth of lions
• The appearance of iron breastplates
• The tails of scorpions
• The stingers of scorpions
•  And they make the noise of chariots when they fly

Undoubtedly these are helicopters [that is if you believe scholars instead of the Bible] – Hollywood is closer to the truth with their fictional mutations than unbelieving scholars are – unfortunately Bob Jones, Sr. was right – Hollywood has portrayed fiction as the truth for so long that when the truth appears [as here] men regard it as fiction

11 – these locusts have a king over them, unlike the locusts God created [Proverbs 30:27] – and this king is the angel of the bottomless pit – and this angel is the beast of Revelation 11:7 and 17:8 – when we get to Revelation 17:8 we will run the cross references on this beast and show you that he is Judas Iscariot [2 Thessalonians 2:3, John 17:12] – in Hebrew, his name is Abaddon [Job 26:6] meaning “destruction” or “perdition” – in Greek, his name is Apollyon meaning “A destroyer”

12 – this is the first of the three woes [Revelation 8:13] – there are two more to come