Revelation Nine Series

“Revealing the Revelation”

December 6, 2009

Chapter Nine

Revelation 9

1The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

7The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.

12The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.

13The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns[b] of the golden altar that is before God. 14It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." 15And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. 16The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.

17The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. 18A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

20The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Last week we started the chapter with silence. Heaven was silent for a half hour. This seemed so unusual and out of place because there was so much noise going on before this in heaven. You may remember we suggested that heaven was silent because of what was about to happen. All of heaven paused with bated breath, because of what was about to happen.

And then, seven angels were given seven trumpets and when they blew their individual trumpets some really bad stuff happened. The first trumpet brings a plague on vegetation. A third of the vegetation is burned up.

The second trumpet blasts - and something LIKE a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. Some think, perhaps a meteor crashes into the sea and results in great oceanic upheaval. Others speculate it may be a bomb.

The third trumpet sounds and now a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky, and turned a third of the water sources, springs and rivers, bitter.

The fourth trumpet sounds and we have a third less light in the world. The day is darker and so is the night.

The first four trumpets reveal the mercy of God. He warns. He prepares. These are partial judgments striking only one-third of the world. They are meant to warn and lead a rebellious world to repentance before the final curtain call. For now, God spares more than He smites. But the worst is yet to come. And so we come to chapter Nine.

“1The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.” Revelation 9:1-2