9 Marks Of The Demonic (Revelation 9:1-11, 20-21) Series

Last week, we worked our way through Revelation 8 and 9, covering six of the seven trumpets. I tried to give you the big picture, and cover a lot of ground. But if I'm honest, I did so as a coward. At one critical point, I got nervous, and decided to teach it in a way that wouldn't be controversial. It's embarrassing, and it's kind of scary. If I can't be brave here, I'm probably not going to be brave out in the world.

In being a coward, I also did you a huge disservice. One of the things that keeps some of us from really embracing Revelation, is a lack of imagination. By trade, some of us are accountants, and engineers, and scientists. We are all about empirical evidence, and sound logic. Others of us are just ordinary blue collar workers. We work the factory floor; we sling cardboard for a living; we are contractors. What most of us aren't, is artsy English literature majors. And so my guess is that some of us don't have much time or energy for things like symbolic imagery, and half-hidden meanings. I could be wrong-- maybe some of you enjoy reading poetry, and well-written, deep stories in your part time.

But I think this is part of our struggle with Revelation. We aren't used to thinking in symbols. That requires using a part of our brain that's been cobwebs since high school English. And because some parts of Revelation have so much symbolism, and seem so freaky, and bizarre, it's hard to connect it to our own lives. We think it must be describing events far off in the future, because when we look at Revelation with one eye, and the world with our other, we don't see connections.

So what I want to do today, to make up for being a coward, and as a way to help Revelation come alive to you, is focus on one of the trumpet blasts from last week. It's the fifth one, the demonic locust horde, that starts in Revelation 9:1. I'll very lightly say a few things as I go. You can use this as a test to see how well you remember last week's sermon. And I'll use it to see how differently I explain things than last week (amusingly, there's some differences-- still not exactly settled on everything obviously):

(9:1) and the fifth angel blew a trumpet,

and I saw a star from heaven having fallen to(ward) the earth, [perfect tense; fell in the past and remains fallen]

and it was given to him the key of the pit/shaft of the netherworld,

"Stars" throughout the Bible are sometimes divine/angelic beings. Satan, most famously, is called the morning star somewhere. But this is a normal way of talking about divine beings. So any time we see the word "star," especially in Revelation, we should stop and think about if it's a twinkling star, or an angel. Here, it's obviously an angel.

This divine being has already fallen from heaven, at some point in the past (Luke 10:8?). Heaven is no longer the angel's home; it was kicked out. And this language about having fallen from heaven, tells us that this is a wicked angel. It doesn't descend from heaven. It's not "sent" from heaven. In the past, at some point, it fell.

This dark angel is given the key of the pit of the netherworld. This language is called the "divine passive." He "is given" the key, because God gives him the key. But using the passive voice (English majors rejoice!) keeps the focus on the angel. So we are focused on this angel, and this key.

Now, the netherworld, in biblical thought, is the place of the dead (Romans 10:7). It's the place where demons belong, and where they will someday be sent (Luke 8:31; Revelation 20:3). You can think of it as being a bit like a level 4 science and research facility. It's hard to know exactly what it looks like inside-- the details are fuzzy. But it's the kind of place where you double-check that you've locked the door, because you're not quite sure what horrors might escape if you're not careful.

So this dark angel is given a key to a dark place. Not good.

Verse 2:

(2) and he opened the pit/shaft of the netherworld,

and smoke from the pit/shaft ascended like the smoke of a large furnace,

and the sun and the air were darkened from/by the smoke of the pit/shaft,

(3) and from the smoke came out locusts to(ward) the earth,

and it was given to them authority/power,

like the scorpions of the earth have authority/power,

(4) and it was told to them,

that they shouldn't harm the grass of the earth, nor any green plant, nor any tree, but only the people who don't have the seal of God upon their foreheads, [compare to Rev. 8:8, when all the green grass was already burnt. To read this literally, is to misread it.]