Revelation chapter 8. We will see how far we will get tonight. We will definitely get
into chapter 9. I know that for a fact. We will probably make it through verse 6, but
we will see. So Revelation chapter 8, we are continuing with this study. You remember that
last week we started talking about the 7 trumpets and we were beginning to look at the first
4 trumpets last week and we saw how the first 4 trumpets correspond to the plagues in Egypt.
We were noticing how the effects of the trumpets being blown can be seen in our world today.
But as noted, we have noted this many times that as history continues to progress and
we get closer and closer to the end, these judgments, the effects of the judgments are
going to begin to intensify. So this gradual intensification that leads all the way to
the end. And I think that's why there is a very clear break between the first 4 trumpets
and the last 3 trumpets. Because notice that last week we ended with the 4 trumpets in
verse 12 of chapter 8 and then verse 13, it marks this shift that is going to begin the
intensification. So look at verse 13, this is what it says. Then I looked and I heard
an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead. Whoa, whoa, whoa to those
who dwell on the earth at the blast of the other trumpets that the 3 angels are about
to blow. Now I want you to notice that warning there. Notice that whoa is repeated 3 times.
I mean that itself is an intensification. The angels in heaven declare that God is
holy, holy, holy. I mean that's to show that He is perfectly holy and now you have about
the judgments, whoa, whoa, whoa. These are bad. I mean it's like this voice is calling
out saying, hey you thought the first 4 trumpets were bad. You thought, oh that sounded scary.
Just wait until you see what's about to happen. And most of this chapter, most of chapter
9 is spent describing the 5th trumpet and the effects of the 5th trumpet. And it's going
to describe this locust army which is going to be very interesting. It's a locust army
that wreaks havoc upon the earth and you need to understand that there are two key Old Testament
passages that serve as a background to this passage. The first is going to be Exodus and
it's going to be chapter 10 verses 1 through 20. We don't have time to read all these
verses but that's the first background to this passage. Exodus chapter 10 verses 1 through
20 and it's the 8th plague upon Egypt which was the plague of locusts. Now I'm going to
read verses 14 through 15 of Exodus 10 just to give you an idea. It says the locusts came
up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt. Such a dense
swarm of locusts has never been seen before nor will ever be again. They covered the face
of the whole land so that the land was darkened and they ate all the plants in the land and
all the fruit of the trees that the hell had left. Not a green thing remained, neither
tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt. So that's going to be a key
background passage for understanding what's going on here. The other one is found in Joel
chapter 2. That also, that chapter describes a locust army that comes to wreak havoc upon
the earth. And what we need to know going into Revelation chapter 9 is that there's
a lot of symbolism going on here. I mean the whole thing. Revelation is just full of symbols
and pictures and imagery but this is a very symbolic chapter and we're going to get into
the details but I want us to focus on the big picture. We've been saying this like it's
easy to get called up in all the little details and appreciate the bark on the tree but you
got to take a step back and admire the forest too. And the whole point of this, so if we're
just trying to get out of the details and focus on the big picture, the big picture
that you have to focus on is the effects that the locust army have on the earth. So whatever
the locusts are, whatever they mean, whatever their face is and all this other kind of stuff
all the little details, the point is the effects that they have on the earth. So we will get
into the details and we're going to start with verses 1 and 2. And the fifth angel blue
is trumpet and I saw a star falling from heaven to earth and he was given the key to the shaft
of the bottomless pit or the abyss and he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit and
from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace and the sun and the air were
darkened and the smoke from the, with the smoke from the shaft. Now that's about as
far as we can get for now because there's already a bunch to talk about. So notice first
we have a fallen star. Anything interesting about this fallen star that you see there
in the first two verses? Yes. Yeah, it says he rather than it. So this fallen star is
either an angel that's coming down from heaven to open the abyss or the bottomless pit after
receiving a key from God or it's some sort of demon who has been placed in charge of
the abyss or the bottomless pit or it is Satan himself who is in charge of the bottomless
pit, the abyss. And so we have to decide, well, which one is it? You know, we've got
three options here. Which one is it? As you can imagine, all scholars agree on this. So
there's no debate, right? That's revelation. Of course there's debate. Nobody agrees 100%
on this, but I do think it's most likely a reference to Satan because this echoes another
passage in Scripture. Did this sound familiar to you at all when Jesus says these things?
Did it sound familiar? Luke chapter 10 verse 18, if you want to just reference that, that's
Luke 10, 18. And the Bible says this is Jesus talking. He said, I saw Satan fall like lightning
from heaven. Now in that passage, that's when the 72 are returning and Jesus is saying because
of his disciples presence in the world and because of their ministry efforts, because
of their evangelistic efforts, he sees Satan having a great defeat. Basically Satan's power
and authority had been undermined. It was like he was fallen from heaven like lightning
because of what Jesus and his disciples were doing in the world. Well here, it's a little
different. It's referring to a fallen star, which is most likely Satan and his presence
on earth because notice John does not see the star as it's in the process of falling.
He just sees it after it has fallen, right? He sees a fallen star and it also makes sense
that this would be Satan because we learn later in this passage, in the same passage,
that this angel is called the angel of the bottomless pit has a name that corresponds
with the name of Satan. He is called Apollon. He is also called Abaddon, which both of those
is Greek and Hebrew just means destroyer. It's best to view this as Satan. We kind of
have ourselves a situation here like that of the book of Job. You remember what was
happening in the first part of the book of Job? God calls all his angels, Satan comes
and God's like, hey, have you seen Job? He's great. Love that guy. He is awesome. Satan's
like, well, yeah, because you've blessed him so much. Just take some of that stuff away
and then see what he does. God grants Satan permission to go and torment Job but not kill
him. Remember that. He specifically said, do whatever you want to him, but don't kill
him. Here we have a very similar situation where God is granting Satan. Notice he has
to receive the key from God. He doesn't just own that on his own. Satan has no power and
no authority except that which is given to him by God. He's not equal. People think that
Christianity is this dualistic. We just have these competing forces of God versus the devil.
It's not like that. It's always just God and the devil's running around trying to cause
trouble but it's not a real battle at all. It's like when Ezra tries to hit me and I'm
like, now if I ever find out that you hit me, it's just a little thing. There's no battle
there, right? That's God and Satan. So Satan has no power, no authority except that which
God gives to him. So God grants him this key, allows him to open the bottomless pit or the
abyss and stuff is going to happen. He is going to release this army. Before we move
on from there, it's important for you to remember that the bottomless pit or the abyss, whatever
your translation says, it's not hell. You all remember that? Hell is never referred to
in that way in the Bible. Hell is the lake of fire and all that kind of stuff but the
bottomless pit or the abyss, it's the realm of the demonic. That's all it is. It's the
demonic realm. It's the place where demons are confined until they are released into
the earth and it's the place from which the demonic come. Now obviously they were angels
at one point who have fallen but they are now kept in this abyss until they are released
into the earth. So that's exactly what happens here. God gives Satan the key to the abyss
and he unleashes these demonic forces upon the earth and it's going to last during the
entire church age, the entire time between Christ's ascension and his return. Notice
what it says here, this smoke, it's very interesting. The smoke rises up and causes darkness. It
causes the sun to go dark and people are having a hard time seeing. Since we're talking about
spiritual matters here because we need to understand that the locusts that are going
to be described here, they're not literal locusts and we know that based on their description.
They've got human faces, they've got manes like horses, they've got armors. They're
not literal locusts. It's symbolic. It's a picture and we're going to get into that
in a little bit. We're talking about spiritual matters here. You have the realm of the demonic
releasing demons. That's what the locusts are. They are demons and they are inflicting
some sort of spiritual pain, some sort of spiritual torment into the world. When we're
talking about this smoke that rises up, you have to understand it's saying, think about
it as a picture book. You've got the gates of this abyss opening. Smoke is going throughout
the whole earth in such a way that things are darkened. But if this is a spiritual matter,
it's referring to spiritual darkness. In other words, when Satan releases the demons into
the earth, they are going to make it such that people are kept in spiritual darkness.
That's the smoke that's rising up here. That's actually confirmed in other places in scripture.
In 2 Corinthians 4-4, the Bible says of unbelievers, in their case, the God of this world has blinded
the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ, who is the image of God. So they are blinded from seeing the light of God because
they are kept in this darkness because the smoke has risen. You know this, if you've
ever been at a campfire or a bonfire and the fire got out of hand and there's a whole
bunch of smoke, you know you have a hard time seeing it. It stings your eyes. You can't
really open them or anything. You can't really see anything, especially if the room gets super
smoky. It's hard to see. That's what the Bible is saying here. That this world and
the people in this world, their eyes, their spiritual eyes, it's like they have smoke
in them. They can't see. Their eyes have been darkened and they aren't able to understand
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not able to see His beauty in the light of
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ because Satan and the demonic forces have darkened
them. They've blinded their eyes to keep them in that state of spiritual darkness. That's
the image that's being portrayed here. And notice that it gets even worse in verses 3-6.
This is what the Bible says. Then from the smoke came locusts on earth and they were
given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the
grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have
the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but
not to kill them. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.
And in those days, people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die,
but death will flee from them. That's a pretty grim picture of the night. I mean, that's
what it's literally describing as these demons are unleashed into the world. And again, the
locusts, they aren't literal locusts. They are demons. But the reason they're described
as locusts is because that is a very fitting picture because locusts are a destructive
animal. Are they not? They're a very destructive beast. And particularly, they're destructive
to what? Anybody know what they eat? Crops, right? Fields that are ready for harvest.
And so it's a very fitting picture, right? It's amazing because Jesus, he looked out
and he said, wow, the fields are what? Right for harvest. If only we had what? Some labors.
So Jesus looks out at the world and says, man, what a harvest. This is great. If only
we had some labors. So it makes sense that those who are opposed to God and His kingdom
and His ways would be described as the very animal who destroy harvest. Does that make
sense to you? It's very, it's very clever. You describe them as this beast, this animal
that is known to destroy a harvest. So God's plan is for His people to go out in the world
and to be the labors in the field and reap the harvest that's ready. But at the same
time, Satan has his plan. And Satan says, I've got my own army and I'm going to get
to the harvest fields before you can. And my army is going to destroy all the potential
harvest that there was going to be. That's why they're described as locusts here. And
you learn that these are the demons that are coming from this place and they're this destructive
force that are working against God's plans and they keep people in this spiritual darkness
and destroy the potential harvest. But what's interesting is they're not like the locusts
in the plague in Egypt. You remember in the eighth plague, it said that the locusts ate
all the green grass and all the shrubs and nothing green was left in all of Egypt. What's
different about this? Yeah, they're specifically told don't touch anything green. So in Egypt,
everything green. Here, nothing green. Instead, it's actually a lot scarier. They focus specifically
on people. They don't touch the grass. They harm the people. And they are harming specifically
people who what? Not believers. They don't have the seal of God on their forehead. Now,
you remember we said this a few weeks ago, but in the first century, masters would brand
their slaves with their own name on the forehead. And so if you were to see a slave, they had
their master's name branded here and it was a way of showing ownership. You looked at
that guy, you knew who he belonged to. Well, that's why it says in the Bible that God puts
his seal on our forehead. It's metaphorical. It's not literal. We're not walking around
with a big old seal on our forehead, but God seals us with his Holy Spirit. And that's
to show ownership so that when we are in the world, as people are supposed to be able to
look at us as if we did have a seal on our forehead and go, that's a Christian. I know
it without a shadow of a doubt. I can clearly see the fruit of the spirit in their life.
That's how obvious it should be to the whole world that we are believers. It should be
like we have a big old stamp right there on our forehead. Is that always the case? No,
it's not, unfortunately, but that's how it should be. And so that's why it's talking
about here. The people know that we belong to God because we've been sealed. And as
his sealed people, the Locust Demon Army does not touch us. They do not harm us in the way
that they're going to inflict torment on unbelievers. So those who have not been sealed
by God, those who do not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, those who do not belong
to God, but actually belong to the kingdom of darkness, they are going to suffer the
torment of the Locust Demons. And it says here that they are allowed to torment but not kill
them for five months. What's the question here? Why five months, right? Seems very specific.
So why five months? Anybody have any suggestions? About five months. Approximately. So yeah,
there are two things at play here. Very, very good, Michael. Two things at play here. Average
lifespan of a Locust about five months. So they're tormenting for their entire existence
is what that's saying. But also the dry season in this area lasted about five months. And
that's when the Locusts would actually strike and go after the harvest fields. It was odd
for a swarm of Locusts to be active during the entire five months. Normally they'd hit
a spot or two and then kind of be done. But this swarm of demons is active the whole time.
So with five months, it's literally just two ways, like two different ways or one way of
saying two different things or the same thing. I'll get my words. You can interpret it two
different ways, but at the end of the day, it means the exact same thing. They are tormenting
for their entire existence. For as long as they are allowed to exist, they are tormenting
here on the earth. And so the Bible goes on to describe the type of torment and says it's
like a scorpion's thing. Have you ever been stung by a scorpion? No, me neither. So I
don't exactly know what it's like, but what we need to understand as it's going to go
on to describe here is that the torment of the demons is not physically. That would be
easier. The torment of the demons is mental, spiritual, and psychological. And you see
that people are in anguish. It says that the unbelieving world is so distraught and in
anguish due to the torment of the demons that they desire death, but it escapes them. It's
the Bible's way of saying that the demons from the abyss, they create this culture of
death on earth. They create this atmosphere in which people long for death. People make
this idol out of death almost and even promote death and they make light of death. And I
was thinking about this and thinking about how many people this affects today. I mean,
you have people who are suffering mental illness and this isn't just exclusive to unbelievers.
I mean, believers can suffer in this way too. But for the unbeliever who is suffering in
this way, they think about death. They long for death. They might even make a plan for
suicide, but so many of them don't actually go through with it. Death escapes them. It
eludes them. Why? Because they're actually afraid of death. If you pull all the nations
in the world, the number one, most biggest fear is always what? Death. Everybody is afraid
of death, especially as an unbeliever. Believers have no fear of death, right? We might fear
dying, but death, not a big deal for the believer. But unbelievers are terrified of death because
they cannot say for certain what comes next. And so you live in this world in which they
are psychologically tormented. There's mental illness. There's depression. There's all
sorts of twisted thoughts. They are longing for death. They want to commit suicide, but
it escapes them because they are afraid of death itself. And that's their existence.
That's the world in which they live. I want you to think for a moment about the world
that's describing because it sounds a lot like our world, does it not? I mean, are we
not living in a culture of death right now? Look at the rise in abortion rates. Look at
the rise of people who were pro-physician assisted suicide. I even saw where a Japanese
company was inventing a suicide chamber where a person can literally go in and they would
press a button and I think it filled with nitrogen. And so you would start to breathe
the nitrogen and you wouldn't really notice anything, but you would just slowly begin
to fall asleep and then die. And it was for anybody who just wanted to come in in their
life. And that's the culture that we live in, where we're creating instruments of death
to escape this life. I mean, think about how death is downplayed all the time now. I mean,
we're so used to it from movies and TV shows and video games that we don't even think anything
about it anymore. It's a culture of death that we're living in and then you see these
other effects as well. Because notice this, our world is becoming increasingly more spiritual,
but unfortunately not more biblical. And that's an issue, is it not? I mean, people want to
say that spirituality is dead, but it is not. It is alive and well in our world today. Everybody
is spiritual. They're just not biblical. That's why people are more willing to believe in good
vibes than pray to a sovereign God of the whole universe. They believe that something
like that exists. That's why they go into all this sort of like mantras and crystals
and meditations of various kinds and zodiac signs and horoscopes and all this kind. They
have all this spirituality, but no one is willing to seek spirituality in Christ. There's
no biblical aspect to this at all. You also see people twisting all of God's ways and
all of God's decrees. And what I want you to understand, when you see this picture of
Satan releasing these demons into the world and they are causing this spiritual and mental
and psychological torment where they are literally darkening the minds of unbelievers and blinding
them from seeing the truth of the gospel, you have to understand the Bible wants us
to view the world in the way in which Revelation describes it. Because so often we're looking
for a literal locus and the effect of the locus is right in front of us. And God's saying,
what are you doing? You're looking for a little flying bug with wings and it's happening
right in front of you. Look at the effects all around you. But we don't see the world
that way. We've got to learn to see the world as Revelation describes it. So for instance,
let me give you an example. When you see a gay pride parade or you see people marching
for abortion rights and people marching for the right to murder babies all the way up
to the moment of birth for any reason whatsoever. When you see something like that, you know
what that looks like according to Revelation? It looks like rising smoke from the abyss that
darkens understanding and blinds people to truth. It looks like a swarm of locusts descending
upon the earth to promote the kingdom of darkness and keep people out of the kingdom of light.
That's exactly what that looks like according to the book of Revelation. When you hear about
and see the absolutely mind blowing number of young people who are so mentally confused
that they actually believe they are a different gender than the one they were born with. And
you see the confusion that arises today from the gender crisis in our world. What are you
looking at according to Revelation? You're looking at the smoke of the abyss that is
darkened minds and continues to keep people in darkness. Isn't it amazing that this is
increasing now exactly how Revelation said it would? As we get closer to the end, this
kind of stuff is going to intensify because at no other point in human history have we
ever had a gender crisis like this, right? Shouldn't that raise a couple red flags? Everybody's
saying, well, it's so natural today. People were just not open to it back then. No, something
is going on. There's a spiritual warfare at play here because you don't read about anyone
in the 17th century, 16th century, 15th, anything like that of people saying, hey, I'm actually
a girl. I was just born with a boy's body. That didn't exist. The reason it exists today
is because the locusts have descended upon the earth and they are increasing in their
number. They're increasing their expansion. They're darkening the minds. The smoke is
blinding people to spiritual truths. I mean, if you'll another example, when you hear and
see prosperity teachers preaching a false gospel and you see them leading people astray, when
you see them praying on the harvest, the literal harvest, here are people who come to church
and you see these prosperity preachers praying on the harvest. What are you looking at? You're
looking at a swarm of locusts who are here to do the bidding of Satan and further the
kingdom of darkness rather than serving Christ the king and expanding the kingdom of light.
That's exactly what you're looking at. That's the world according to Revelation. The demonic
forces that have been unleashed on our world are terrifying and the consequences and effects
of their efforts are horrific. But all of this should just make us all the more thankful
for Jesus, should it not? When you read about what's going on here in this scene as scary
as it is, we who have turned from our sins and trusted in Christ, who have received the
indwelling presence of God by His Holy Spirit and have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, we
will never have to suffer the effects of this swarm of demons. That's good news for us.
Is it not? They're only allowed to touch the unbelievers because God has sworn to watch
over us and protect us. I'm reminded of the night that Jesus was betrayed when He looked
at Peter and He said, Peter, Satan demanded your life. Imagine Jesus saying that to you.
Would that not be the most terrifying thing you'd ever heard? I'd be thinking Satan knows
who I am. Are you kidding me? Satan demanded your life. And Jesus says, but I have prayed
for you. It doesn't matter that Satan demanded it because Jesus prayed for it. He intervened.
He protects His people. He watches over His people. And we're not Peter, but we know that
Jesus is our intercessor and our mediator, and He intervenes for us. He prays for us.
He is before the Father making intercession for His people even right now. So yes, demonic
forces, they're going to seek to oppress us, right? You'll never be possessed by a demon,
but you could be oppressed by a demon. They will oppress us. They will tempt us. They
will seek to thwart God's plan and prevent His kingdom from expanding. We also know
who wins. I read the end of the book. I know. Spoiler alert. Our whole series is called
The Triumph of the Lamb. Jesus will have the victory. And as His people, we will stand
in victory with Him. And so we need not fear this swarm of demons because Christ is more
powerful than all the forces of the Abyss. Amen?
It's to be a parallel, I think, or at least an antithesis to the plagues in Egypt because
in the plague in Egypt, they were only allowed to eat the grass and the green things, but
not touch the people. But here is showing, hey, you thought that plague was bad in Egypt.
That was just a picture of judgment in history. But wait till you get to this because they
won't be touching grass then. They're going to be touching only people. So I think that's
probably, but it also could have to do with the first four trumpets. The grass was affected
and burned up and things like that. And so I think it was trumpet one, maybe, where all
the, yeah, so in the first trumpet when it blows, all the grass and the trees were burned
up or at least a third of them were. And so there's probably not much left at that point
anyway. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's a great point, Michael. Yeah, Satan
doesn't care about grass. He cares about people. That sounds odd to say. Satan does not care
about people. Satan wants, yeah, we get what you, right, right. No, Satan does not care
about people. He wants to keep people from God. So, yeah. We'll get to that next week.
But yeah, no, no, you can ask your question now if you'd like. Yeah, we'll talk about
this more next week, but just kind of to give you a brief answer is it's apocalyptic literature.
So the language is highly symbolic and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John is
trying to describe what he sees using language that's not necessarily weightier, but that
contains more than just a simple description. So you're going to read about how like they've
got names like women's hair, you know, type thing when locusts only have antennas and
they are like horses that are stampeding. They've got faces like people. And I think
it's meant to give us the idea that these demons that have been unleashed in the world
could be anybody. Looks like a person has nice hair. Like, because, you know, movies
and TV shows, they always depict like Satan and the demons are red. They've got these
horns and they've got this fork tail and all this kind of stuff. And it's like, well,
that's not actually they come as an angel of light. So I'm not convinced Kenneth Copeland
is not a demon. Just putting that out there for you. I don't know if I'm still recording,
but thanks, thanks, Jordan. I don't know where recording that'll get taken down or
we'll get sued and he's got more money than almost God himself. So, but I'm not convinced
he's not a demon. I mean, Joseph and I and Jordan and I, we've talked about this. There
have been some videos that have surfaced that are just and you see that he's promoting
a kingdom of darkness. He's a prosperity teacher. And so I think when you have a description
where it's like, hey, it's a locust, but it's also it kind of looks like a person and they've
got nice hair, but they sound like a stampeding army. It's meant to draw us again to the effect.
Why is it a locust? Because locusts are destroyer. They're here to reap the harvest before the
disciples. Why does it sound like horses? Because there's so many of them and they are
unleashed in our world. Why the human faces and the hair? Because it could be anyone and
they aren't these ugly, twisted red things. They could have nice glossy hair. It looks
like they've just conditioned it like you just don't know who it is or who it could
be, but you know that they're present and you know them by the effect, not what they
look like. So I think that's why there's a very description there. I could be wrong.
Again, it's revelation, so we're free to come to different conclusions, but I think that's
maybe one of the reasons. Alright, Joseph, how about you close this in
and open alleys?