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.]
We see a few more divine passives here. In verse 3, "it was given to them authority." In verse 4, "it was told to them."
God is actively involved here, orchestrating these events. God gives these demonic locusts authority, and power.
God gives these locusts the job of harming everyone on earth who doesn't have God's seal on their foreheads.
And we see that these locusts harm non-Christians, not Christians.
Verse 5-6:
(5) and it was given to them,
not that they would kill them,
but that they would be tortured/tormented five months,
and their torture [is] like the torture/torment of a scorpion when it stings a person,
(6) and in those days people will seek death, [Job 3:21]
and they will absolutely never find it,
and they will desire to die,
and death will flee from them,
These locusts pack a vicious sting. They're like scorpions, in that sense. And they torture people. They torment them. It will be bad enough that people will find themselves wanting to die. But death is like an Olympic track star. You can chase after it, wanting it, but it will outrun you. And I think we should hear this as a kindness on God's part. People who are oppressed by demons in different ways-- mentally, physically, spiritually-- may find themselves wanting to die. But God here keeps these people from dying, because at that point all hope is lost. In the language of Revelation, if you aren't sealed by God, physical death eventually brings "the second death" (Revelation 20:6, 14; 21:8; h/t Brighton, Revelation, 238). So what we see here, again, is that God's ultimate goal in releasing these locusts isn't punishment and judgment. The pain is supposed to bring non-Christians to repentance.
Verses 7-11:
(7) and the appearance of the locusts [was] similar to horses being prepared for battle,
and upon their heads [was] something like crowns, similar to gold,
and their faces [were] like people's faces,
(8) and they had hair like women's hair,
and their teeth, like lions they were ["like lions" is focused], [Joel 1:6]
(9) and they had breastplates like breastplates of iron,
and the sound of their wings [was] like the sound of many horse chariots running toward battle,
(10) and they have tails similar to scorpions and stingers,
and in their tails, their authority/power to harm the people five months.
(11) They have over them a king-- the angel of the abyss.
His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, ["Destruction"?]
and in Greek the name he has is Apollyon. ["Destroyer"]
When we try to picture these locusts, it's a struggle. They almost defy description. In different ways, they are like horses, and kings, and humans, and lions, and women, and soldiers, and scorpions. If you tried to draw a picture of this, it would be total chaos. And everything about them is messed up (for what follows, Craig Koester, Revelation, 463, was really helpful):
(1) Normally, locusts are stunned by smoke, but these locusts thrive on it.
(2) Normally, locusts do damage with their teeth, but these harm with their tail.
(3) Normally, locusts feed on plants, but these harm people.
If we slow down, and let the imagery hit us, it's horrifying. We want no part in it. We read this, and it makes us want to go buy a shotgun. And it makes us want to make sure are sealed. You can tell yourself that God's seal is on your forehead. I can you tell that. But is it actually there? Are you actually part of God's protected people?
That depends on if you've washed your robes.
So we can feel the force of the imagery here, without really wrestling with how literally we should read all of this.
Will the day come, when a hole opens up in the ground, and smoke rises, and locusts come out? A few of us, perhaps, were raised in church traditions that insist that we should read Revelation literally whenever possible. And if that's you, your gut/upbringing probably tells you "yes" here. You find yourself double-checking your shotgun.
But Revelation has given us lots of clues already, that it's not designed to be taken so literally. The grass was all burned up in Revelation 8:7, but the locusts are told not to harm the grass in 9:4. In Revelation 6:12-14, everything is removed, or changed, or disappears-- the sun, the moon, the stars, the heavens, and the islands. But in the fourth trumpet blast, Revelation 8:12, a third of the sun, moon, and stars are struck. So the heavens still exist, and seem untouched, until the fourth trumpet. In 6:12, all the mountains are removed, but four verses later, in 6:16, all the ones dwelling on the earth call on the mountains to hide them from God's wrath.
All of these little inconsistencies are by design. They are a signal to us, that we can't be too literal in reading Revelation. We need to respect that we are reading symbolic language, and we need to wrestle with what the symbols teach us.
So for the rest of this morning, let's explore the symbolic world of the fifth trumpet. This passage has at least nine things to teach us about the demonic, if we step into its symbolic world. Each of these could be unpacked in far more detail, and depth. But I will try to say enough about each of them to get your spiritual imaginations going.
(1) The demonic attacks/breaks the natural order of creation.
Let's ease into this point by starting with God creating the world, in Genesis 1. We tend to read Genesis 1 against the backdrop of debates over evolutionary theory. We use Genesis 1 to argue that we aren't evolved from salamanders or monkeys. And I agree with that. But the picture Genesis 1 gives us, actually, is of a Creator God who creates order out of chaos. God takes a world that's a dark, scrambled, complicated, soupy mess, and He separates things out. He separates light from darkness, day from night. He separates out land, sea, and sky. And He creates species, each according to its own kind, that have particular places to live within those spaces. And near the end of the week, God created man, and woman. God set it up so that an adult male would marry an adult female. After getting married, they would come together, becoming husband and wife. They would then have male and female children. And those children eventually grow up, and find spouses, and have kids of their own, and spread out across the world.
Everything about creation is logical, and ordered. There are still parts of creation where there is a little chaos (Job talks about that)-- the sea is at the top of the list-- but chaos is in tightly controlled areas.
One of the things the horrifying locusts teach us, is that demonic forces defy the order God built into creation.
What do you call a locust that's part horse, and king, and human, and lion, and woman, and soldier, and scorpion? Last week, I called them mutant locusts. And I did that, as a coward. I chickened out. The other way you could describe them, is that they are trans-locusts. From the front, they look a bit like women, but they aren't women. They are something else.
When you look at the world, one of the ways you can tell if something has demonic roots, is by if it attacks the order God built into creation.
When we look around with that perspective, we see demonic activity everywhere. And when we look back over the past 60 years, we see the locust horde spreading, and evolving. I'm no historian, and someone could do this far better than me. But in the U.S., over the last 60 years, we've somehow decided as a nation that intimacy should be separated from marriage, that men should be able to marry men, that unborn babies are often a curse and not a blessing. We've decided that you can't define a man and a woman biologically, or theologically. We've decided that this is something people determine for themselves, not by checking themselves in the mirror, but by how they feel. We trust our brains, and not our bodies, to tell us the truth about who we are. And we've decided that if you don't like the way God made you, you can change that through surgery and hormones.
In addition to all of this, as a nation, we are in the process of deciding whether or not children are fair game, sexually, for adults. Should intimacy be for two consenting adults? Or is it acceptable for adults, and minors, to come together? As part of this, we sexualize children, exposing them to drag queens and all sorts of twisted things from a very young age.
I would argue that all of these things have demonic roots. Our struggle isn't really with flesh and blood. It's with the demonic horde of locusts behind the scenes. Demons are behind pedophilia, and transgenderism, and homosexuality, and bestiality, and everything else that's twisted, and attacks God's order.
Now, let me be clear on one point. I'm not saying that Revelation 9 is for the first time in history being fulfilled in the modern U.S. school system or in the Democratic party. I'm not saying we can look at these things, and say we are just now entering into the last days. I think there have been waves of demonic locust plagues throughout church history, and that demonic waves tend to have some of the same qualities, and characteristics. In the first century, when Roman Christians pictured these trans locusts, they probably would've applied to them to some of the mystery religions in Rome, led by female priests, that did some pretty crazy stuff, and subverted Roman values for the family.
Again, I think there have demonic waves across human history, and Christians throughout the centuries have been able to see different types of locust swarms in their own context.
(2) The demonic isn't libertarian; it desires to rule.
Let's reread verse 7:
(7) and the appearance of the locusts [was] similar to horses being prepared for battle,
and upon their heads [was] something like crowns, similar to gold,
The locusts, like God, have something "like" a crown (contrast Revelation 4:4; 6:2), but it's not a crown. And it's made of something like gold, but it's not gold (I feel like this is Krodel's commentary, but many scholars note this).
So what the locusts have on their heads shows their authority, but it's on a lesser scale than a real crown.
Nevertheless, the crown shows that the locusts come as kings.
And this symbolism, I think, has something to teach us about the militant nature of the locusts. Demonic forces are not content to live and let live. They push, and push, and push. Sometimes after they gain ground, they pause, regroup, and bide their time for another opening. But they are fighting a war, and they relentlessly press for new ground.
Some of us, especially in North Dakota, tend to be libertarian in nature. We just want to be left alone, to work, and be productive, and raise families. We want the freedom to use our land and our resources how we want, and we chafe at government control. And we treat others, the way we want to be treated. We let our neighbors do their own thing, for the most part. If they want to have a bonfire in their backyard, we don't call the cops. If they set up a shed without a permit, we don't call the city hall. And even if they choose to make a mess of their lives, we let them be. We might feel sorry for them. We might pray for them. We might tell them about the good news of Jesus, and God's kingdom. But we let them live their lives.
Demonic forces are not like North Dakotans. Demons don't live, and let live. Demons probe weaknesses, and attack, and gain new ground wherever they can. And they tend to seek out places where they can do the most damage. In particular, this means the government, the court systems, and schools. That's how you break down the order God built into the world. That's how you attack. So if you wonder how drag queens ended up in elementary schools, doing drag shows... Or if you wonder how drag queens ended up being invited to public libraries to do story time with kids... it's because demonic forces are relentless, and they've been wildly successful.
(4) Demonic things are deceptively good-looking.
If you only see the locusts head-on, neck up, they're deceptively good looking. They have a human face, and long-flowing hair. But what we see here, is much like today's dating world. The first time you meet someone, one of the things you now have to do is make sure that the face matches the body. Does that attractive woman across the table from you have a subtle five o'clock shadow?
With demonic things, the face doesn't match the body (what follows is adapted from M. Robert Mulholland Jr., “Revelation,” in Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: James, 1–2 Peter, Jude, Revelation, ed. Philip W. Comfort, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2011), 492).
Demonic things present themselves to people as alluring and attractive. They present themselves to people as something that will improve their lot in life. But once you get sucked in, you'll find that there's a hidden stinger on the backside. There's a wicked cost to demonic things, and the harm far outweighs the benefit.
(5) Demonic rule has a human face. (Caird's most quoted statement from his commentary)
(I think the imagery of the human face and long hair can be approached from two different angles-- the way demonic things present themselves to humans as attractive, and the way that demons work indirectly through humans)
As we look around the world, I think we see demonic forces everywhere. But very few of us can actually see demons. We see the demonic indirectly, through their effects (like seeing wind, by the trees swaying). We see the people they are manipulating, and lying to, and using for their own purposes. We see the human face.
We should understand that the human face, is human. The drag queens, and transgender activists, and corrupt D.A.s and judges, are not demons. They are human. But they are being manipulated, and used, toward demonic ends. Demons work indirectly through humans. When Paul talks about how our struggle isn't with humans, but with spiritual rulers and authorities, that's what he means. Your battle isn't with the drag queens who want to do story time in libraries. Your battle is with the locust, that's pushing that.
(6) Demonic rule, in contrast to God's rule, is harmful and destructive.
Let's stop for a minute, and think about the non-Christians around us, and what their lives look like (Ephesians 2:1-3). What I see, in my world, is pain and hurt everywhere. I'm surrounded by broken people, who have believed many different demonic lies, and pursued many different demonic things. I know people who have looked at their bodies in their mirror, and decided that they should trust their brains, and not their bodies, to tell them who they are. They've decided they were never actually male; they are actually women. And they take hormones, which can do incredible damage to people. They change how they dress. And they maybe go all the way, and permanently mutilate their bodies. Does any of this make them happy, or bring them contentment in life? Not as far as I can tell. They seem miserable, and depressed, and lonely. Satan harms those who belong to his kingdom. He's truly an evil master.
(7) Demonic rule is sharply limited.
We see in this passage that the demonic hordes are limited in three main ways:
First, in verse 4 we see that they are only allowed to harm non-Christians. Anyone who is sealed by God, is untouched. The locusts have to pass over those people. Some of us, hearing this, maybe struggle with this. You know what it's like to be attacked by demonic forces. You've felt the oppression, and heaviness, and darkness. Or perhaps you've been attacked by some type of demonic sickness (Acts 10:38-39), and you feel like you lost that battle.
Later in Revelation, we will hear about Satanic attacks on Christians (Revelation 12:13-18; 13:1-18; h/t Louis Brighton, Revelation, 237). We don't go through life singing M.C. Hammer's "Can't Touch This." So I think what this passage teaches us is that there is a specific type of demonic attack, that specifically targets non-Christians.
The second way that it's limited, in verse 5, is that it's temporary. We are told that this locust plague lasts five months. It's debated among scholars what exactly this means-- although everyone agrees it's not a literal five months. The explanation I like best, is that the life cycle of locusts tends to run about five months. So the idea is that there are waves of demonic attacks, and then those waves disappear. The type of demonic attack being pictured, is not a permanent part of non-Christians' lives.
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I find Brighton, Revelation, 238, helpful here again: "At any given time throughout the period covered by Revelation's message (from Christ's ascension to his return), those not marked with the seal of God will suffer the anguish of these demonic torments, whether of a mental or physical kind. These sufferings will not always be present in a particular unbeliever's life, and when they are, they will not necessarily last an entire lifetime."
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The third way it's limited, also verse 5, is that it can't kill non-Christians. Let me read a quote adapted from Brighton (Revelation, 237-38; adapted a tiny bit because he identifies the locust king as satan, and I'm not sure yet if that's right): if the locust king had his way, "he would do much more than injure some people. As in the case of Job (1:6-12; 2:1-6), it is God who permits these demons to strike, in this case those who lack God's name. The demons and their king can go so far and no farther, for it is God's will that no sinner should die but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth (Ezekiel 18:23; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9)."
(8) Demonic rule works under God's rule.
What we see in this passage, is that demons have to work within the constraints of God's rule. Any power and authority they have on earth, at this point, is only what's given to them by God. So we shouldn't think of God and satan as equal adversaries. It's not a fair, balanced fight. Demonic forces are subservient to God.
(9) Demonic attacks are designed to bring repentance, but they aren't effective by themselves.
The series of six trumpet plagues ends with this hopeless note in Revelation 9:20-21. [Add those two verses to the bottom of the translation handout]. Let's turn there:
(20) and the rest of the people-- the ones not killed by/from these plagues-- didn't repent from the works of their hands,
so that they didn't worship/bow down to the demons and the idols-- the gold, and the silver, and the bronze, and the stone, and the wooden [ones]--
which neither are able to see ["to see" is focused], nor to hear, nor to walk,
(21) and they didn't repent from their murders, nor from their witchcraft/magic, nor from their sexual immorality, nor from their stealing.
So what do we see at the end of chapter 9? We see a hurt and broken world. We see people who are being actively harmed by demonic things, but who keep doing what they're doing. They don't repent. God's judgments, by themselves, don't bring repentance. They don't do, by themselves, what they need to do.
How should we feel about all of this?
Happy, when wicked people get what they deserve? Are we supposed to rejoice when non-Christians get stung?
I think we're supposed to see that God has not yet given up on the world. The trumpet calls are sounding, and God is bringing judgments, to bring people back to himself.
But when I look at God working hard to bring this about, I can't help but look at myself, and look at all of you. If God's heart, and God's goal, is that people turn from their sin to him, then what should my heart and goal be? Are we not God's partners? Is there something He wants from us, as well? Or are we just supposed to hide in our church bunkers, and wait for Jesus?
Next week, for real this time, we will find Revelation beginning to answer this question. If God cares about a broken, hurting world, and if we are a kingdom of priests serving God... then maybe it's time to leave the bunker.
Translation:
(9:1) and the fifth angel blew a trumpet,
and I saw a star from heaven having fallen to(ward) the earth,
and it was given to him the key of the pit/shaft of the netherworld,
(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 verse 8, when all the green grass was already burnt. To read this literally, is to misread it.]
(5) and it was given to them,
not that they would kill them,
but that they would be tortured/tormented five months,
and their torture [is] like the torture/torment of a scorpion when it stings a person,
(6) and in those days people will seek death,
and they will absolutely never find it,
and they will desire to die,
and death will flee from them,
(7) and the appearance of the locusts [was] similar to horses being prepared for battle,
and upon their heads [was] something like crowns, similar to gold,
and their faces [were] like people's faces,
(8) and they had hair like women's hair,
and their teeth, like lions they were ["like lions" is focused], [Joel 1:6]
(9) and they had breastplates like breastplates of iron,
and the sound of their wings [was] like the sound of many horse chariots running toward battle,
(10) and they have tails similar to scorpions and stingers,
and in their tails, their authority/power to harm the people five months.
(11) They have over them a king-- the angel of the abyss.
His name in Hebrew is Abaddon,
and in Greek the name he has is Apollyon.
