Fifth Trumpet: Locusts From The Bottomless Pit, Sent To Torment Series

These demon locusts inflict a sting which produces the most intolerable suffering. The sting of a natural scorpion is not generally fatal, but it produces the most intense pain that any creature can inflict on the human body. The word used to describe the effect of their sting is “torment,” a word generally associated with demons. The sting of these demon locusts also produces torment of mind and spirit almost beyond endurance. The agony they produce is so great that men who normally flee from death will scream for death to come and end their miseries. Imagine a world in which men court death, attempt suicide, expose themselves to the reaper’s scythe, chase after him with all their might, only to find that, for once, he cannot be found! These tormented men cannot die—poison may be swallowed only to find it has been neutralized to impotency—yet they are in anguish beyond words to describe it. It is hell on earth. Do you understand these words? Guns will not kill, razors will not sever arms, poison will not poison, necks will not break, and hearts will not stop! Men will go on their faces and beg God to kill them . . . to let them die. They will mutilate their bodies, but they cannot bleed to death. Death has always been the enemy of men (1 Corinthians 15:26).

The day when men shall choose death rather than life is predicted by God through Jeremiah the prophet (Jeremiah 8:3). “Oh, the misery of waiting for death when it cometh not!” (Job 3:21). Such will be the state of man that even death would be a relief. What great mercy of our Heavenly Father—that believers shall escape this invasion from the underworld! The prophecy of Joel seems to coincide with this prophecy of John. Joel described a locust plague as a foreshadowing of the “day of the Lord,” meaning God’s coming judgment (Joel 1:6-2:11).

7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

This army of demon-locusts out of hell is described in verses 7-10. They had bodies like horses prepared for battle. They had on their heads crowns like gold. These demon monstrosities had faces like men, with long, flowing hair like a woman. They had jagged, sharp teeth like a lion, and “as it were” breastplates of Iron . . . durable and strong, comparable to our steel. They could not be destroyed. Bullets would not penetrate these locusts. They had tails like scorpions of the earth, with stings in their tails, and they were to sting man for five months. These hideous savage demon monstrosities will fill this earth for five months. Think of it! Today, the fearsome army described here is already incarcerated, waiting for the hour of liberation.

Five: THEY ARE INTREPID. John says, “And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle.” Throughout the book of Revelation the horse is the war horse, a symbol of defiance. These terrible creatures from the abyss are like high-spirited steeds, seemingly straining at the bit and pawing the ground in their eagerness to fling themselves out of the blackness of hell and then to gallop forward on their mission of doom. Hence, these are not ordinary locusts such as plagued Egypt (Exodus 10:12-15), for they had no king over them (Proverbs 30:27), but those coming from the pit are intelligent beings who take orders from Satan (v. 11); and to top it off they are organized.