Rev.#30~9:1-12 THE 1ST “WOE” TRUMPET JUDGMENT # 5 ~ 11-14-09
Today we’ll continue to talk about Trumpet Judgment # 5.
Once again let me say in case there might be people listening for the first time; there are 3 sets of judgments, the seals, the trumpets, and the vial or bowl judgments, and each of the 3 sets of judgments have 7 applications, they are referred to as the 7 seal judgments, the 7 trumpets of judgment and the 7 Vial or Bowl judgments, and the Vials are the most horrific of all and their just prior to the return of the Lord Jesus.
The seven trumpets appear to be largely associated with satanic and demonic activity, judging by the symbolism that is used. The last 3 of the trumpet judgments are called “woe” judgments because of the catastrophic events that are revealed.
After the True Church is taken from the earth, what is known as the rapture there in Chapter 4:1-2, then will begin the 7 years of Tribulation, the 1st 3 ½ years of the 7 will be a false peace brought about by a man that will come on the scene and it will seem to the world over that this man has all the right answers for all the problems of the day.
He is the rider on the “white horse” of Rev. 6:2 he is seen with a bow, he’ll appear to be a great leader and conquer; as time goes by he’ll be realized to be the Antichrist.
And then at the mid way point of the 7 year tribulation we read in Rev. 6:3-4 about a red horse and its rider, 3And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. 4And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
-- This red horse and rider takes peace from the earth, this is when: Gog and Magog of EZEKIEL 38:-39: takes place, this is when Russia and her coalition are brought into the mountains of Israel thinking their going to attack Israel, but all along its Jehovah God bringing them there in order that 5/6th of them will be destroyed, he puts hooks into their jaws and draws them there.
Ø So the Great Tribulation gets under way with the opening of the 2nd seal where we’re told of the rider on the red horse Rev. 6:3-4, this begins the last 3 ½ years, the last half of the 7 years is called the Great Tribulation.
the seven trumpets of judgment come somewhere in the middle of the Tribulation, and the seven vials or bowls come toward the end.
I think it needs to be mentioned all along in our study of the Revelation of the 3 cycles of 7 judgments to try and keep our train of thought on the right track.
Three cycles of seven judgments in chapters 6–16 consist of seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls of judgment.
--------
Chapter 9: –11: verse 14 describes the first two “woe” trumpets of judgment, and they are trumpets five and six. The last woe trumpet, trumpet # 7 is found in 11:15–18.
Ø Lets read verse 13 of chapter 8 to get us started out right.
13And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!
Let me repeat here a little bit of what I said last time;~~ The 1st 4 of the trumpet judgments were primarily directed toward creation, the sun, moon, stars, seas, earth’s fresh waters, all of the heavenly creation, but these last 3 trumpet judgments are called the “WOE” judgments and they are directed toward man, these “woe” judgments are much worse the 1st 4 trumpet judgments.
In Rev.9: Satan, the king of the fallen angels or demons, is given the power and authority by God to open the abyss and release these demons on earth as part and instruments of God’s divine wrath.
Verses 1-11 is telling about the 1st woe trumpet judgment, it’s all about what comes out of the bottomless pit that Satan is allowed to open.
Ø I told you before that the words “as” and “like unto” are found here in chapter 9 more that any other chapter of the Bible.
We don’t have the actual fall of Satan to earth in chapter 9, but here we are told of some of the things that he’d be doing at this particular time.
In chapter 12 when he is cast from the atmosphere because of his defeat by Gods angelic army he’ll turn all his attention on the destruction of the Jews.
The devil dear heart is not in hell today and he never has been but in chapter 20: he will be bound in the bottomless pit while the Kingdom reign of Christ is under way, if he wasn’t there’d be no peace at that time.
The record of him being cast out of heaven is found in:
Isa. 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations --notice; to the ground—not to hell.
Ø Let me remind us what Jesus said in Luke 10:18 -- I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
This is a good verse to show us that the Son of God** was a witness to Satan being cast out of heaven.—Jesus said “I beheld” He saw it.
This was way before He came to earth and born Jesus of the Virgin Mary.
Satan was already on this earth before man was ever created, only God knows how long.
Satan had not forgotten the promise God made him in
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity* { hostility:— hatred.} between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it *shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
So Satan knew that it was only a matter of time before Jesus arrived on earth and he was watching for Him, Satan tried many times and many different ways to destroy Jesus, he tried to kill before going to the cross, Satan knew that if Jesus went to the cross and died for or sins that he was doomed.
Jesus said in John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. 33 This he said, signifying what death he should die. –He had to be lifted up on the cross, that was the plan of GOD.
1 Peter 1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
----------------------------------
Ø Listen as I read: 9:1-2 again
1And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. Now this is not when Satan originally fell to earth, John is telling us what he sees in this vision.
2And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Earth’s atmosphere will become polluted with the smoke pouring out of the abyss. This will block out the sun and suddenly all will be dark. This is a literal darkness, This demonic activity that will literally fill the atmosphere will be clearly evident to the eyes of men, even the demon creatures themselves.
remember this fallen “star” is Satan himself.
Let me give you my personal thought on “the bottomless pit” this is some thing to think on, I’m not going to say that this is the exact meaning of the bottom less pit but this is what has come to my mind in the past.
~ We all know about gravity, listen, when we step on our bathroom scales to check our weight, the center of the earth is pulling us down on the scales, {gravitational pull} and what ever the scales reveal is what we call our weight.
We believe according to the Bible, that “hell” is in the center of the earth, the reason we read, “bottomless pit” is because in the very center of the earth there would be no gravitational pull, it would be as though it was bottomless, much as we might think of as just dangling in the air. That’s only a thought, food for thought.~
“The long shaft of the abyss is the bottomless pit; the abyss and hell are not the same.
We read in verse 1- and to him {star} was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Jesus presently holds the key to bottomless pit and hell.
Revelation 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. –Satan is allowed to have the keys in order to accomplish Gods plan.
Peter tells us that a certain number of demons are imprisoned there now
2 Pet. 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell,* and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
The word “hell” here in PT.2:4 has a different meaning that any other place we read the word “hell” in the Bible. Here its called “tartarus” in the Greek, it’s a special place in hell for this particular group of fallen angels.—the Greek word “tartarus” is not applied to any other place we read the word “hell” it is a special place for this particular group of fallen angels.
Jude 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day-
We believe these are the one and the same fallen angels.
The abyss is a place of judgment for demons for a specific sin. It’s a place of utter blackness and the demons there are in total oblivion to the rest of the universe.
It is also a place of bondage, a prison from which not even Satan can release them until he is give the key and authority to do so in keeping with God’s sovereign purpose for the Tribulation.
God created angels with a free will, Angels do not reproduce as human beings do; therefore, they do not inherit a sinful fleshly nature and are not interested in nor are they capable of being interested with fleshly desires as humans do.
A part of these angels did something in their rebellion with Satan as Satan tried to take over Gods throne and this brought Gods wrath on this particular group and they were cast into the bottom less pit at that time.
Apparently, the fallen angels are divided into two groups. The group whose rebellion was so great is evidently locked up and in the pit awaiting judgment. They no longer have freedom of movement.
2 pt.2:4 and Jude verse 6 tell about these angels.
The other group of fallen angels has freedom of movement and is under the leadership of Satan.
It seems evident that these are the demons mentioned in Scripture and that are on the scene today.
This group of fallen angels committed certain sins in their rebellion that were much greater than some of the other rebellious angels.
We’re not sure exactly what these fallen angels did; some say they may be tied to what happened in Gens. 6: to do with leaving their 1st habitation and cohabited with the daughters of men, but I can’t go along with that idea since angels are spirits and have no fleshly desires nor can they procreate, I’m not sure what their particular sins were, but we know that they are there because the Bible says so, and we believe that there is another group of fallen angels, demons as we call them that are here on earth at this present time, these are under the leadership of Satan.
Ø Back to this star in verse 1.
This star is not a literal meteor or star, but stands symbolically for a person, an angelic creature—specifically Satan.-- Lets notice that this “star” is referred to as “him and he” in verses 1-2, so this is talking about Satan as he fell from heaven.
He opens the abyss (verse 2), which indicates that the star is in charge of these creatures of the abyss and somehow related to them.—remember that Satan is himself a fallen angel.
The star of verse 1 is the king and angel of verse 11, because first of all, the mention of the fallen star in verse one would be meaningless unless he is the one who opens the pit.
If this were not the case, why call attention to a fallen star.
Second, the fact the star was given the key and authority to open the pit in order to bring destruction on the world also fits with the names given to this angel of the abyss. Both names, Abaddon and Apollyon, in verse 11 mean “destruction.”
Ø Listen as I read verses 3-12.
3And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
God is allowing them to have this power, it was given unto them.
4And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Their purpose will be to hurt men, not kill men. The only people that will be excluded from this torment of locust are the 144,000 who have the seal of God in their foreheads, and the believers that heard their preaching.
This is a judgment upon men who have rejected Christ, not for believers in Jesus Christ, those who had believed the message of the 144,000.
5And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
6And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
“Scorpion” is the Greek word skorpios. It looks sorter like a lobster about four or five inches long. It had a claw on the end of the tail that secreted a poison when it struck.
These demons are not called scorpions, nor are we told that they look like scorpions, just that they have the power (vs. 3), and torment (vs. 5) of a scorpion. This means they have the power to cause tremendous pain, short of death, for five months of unending torment and pain.
The earth dwellers will do any thing and every thing to kill themselves and can’t, how they wish they were dead, but God does not allow them to die at this time.
These demonic creatures will be in every closet and draw in the house, people will look out their kitchen window and there they will be sitting on the eve looking back at them, men’s wives screaming out of fear and pain and he can’t do a thing about it as he himself is consumed with fear and pain like mankind has never seen before, it is worse than any dream or nightmare any one has ever had.
There has never been a horror movie ever made that can even come close to what will be going on at that time, all pride and self esteem will be a thing of the pass as people are screaming and rolling on the ground and floor because of these demonic creatures that are all over them stinging and biting them. These are demonic creatures that have come from the abyss. They are the worst of the demons of Satan.
7And 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.
8And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
11And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
12One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
The first woe is now past but we are informed that the next two woes are still to come. As serious and fearful as the first woe is in its agony and torment, it is only the first.
The worst is yet to come.
I thank God my family is saved, none of us will witness these horrific happenings, if your not saved take this as a warning from the Word of God because its not to far away, call on God right now and confess you’re a sinner and ask Jesus to save you, invite Him into your heart to be your Lord and Savior, if you’ll ask Him and mean it from your heart He’ll save you.
