Grace Presbyterian Church, Montclair, New Jersey

I. The First Woe – Revelation 9:1-12

As the trumpets continue to blow they sound a terrible judgment on the inhabitants of the earth. In this highly symbolic account John begins by describing a fifth angel who blows his trumpet, and in response, a star “that had fallen from heaven to earth” (Revelation 9:1). This star then is given the key to the “bottomless pit” which certainly is hell, or more properly, Hades, the place of death. A huge amount of smoke arises from the abyss to the point where the sun itself was darkened. Then, out of the pit came locusts, yet not locusts such as mortal eyes have ever seen. These are monsters.

They are like “horses equipped for battle” (Revelation 9:7). They have human faces with crowns and long flowing hair like that of a woman’s. They have lion’s teeth and scales “like iron breastplates” (Revelation 9:9). The noise of their wings is tremendous, like that of “many chariots with horses rushing into battle”. Most terrible, these giant locusts have tails like scorpions with stingers and they have the power “to harm people for five months” (Revelation 9:10). They will actually inflict torture through the deadly sting of their tails. The pain will be great. People will seek death to try and escape it but they will fail, “they will long to die, but death will flee from them” (Revelation 9:6).

The victims of this terrible fate are highly specific. First of all, they are human. The locusts are not to harm nature itself, not the grass or any tree (Revelation 9:4). Second, this terrible fate falls only on those “who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads” (Revelation 9:4). The king of these demonic locusts is none other than Satan himself whose name here in both Hebrew and Greek signifies, “Destruction or Destroyer.” How are we to make sense of this terrible picture?

Remembering our basic point of interpretation that nothing in Revelation is new or unique in the Biblical record, we need to ask, to what is John referring in this vision that already exists in Scripture? There are two crucial references to locusts in the Old Testament which we need to consider. The first occurs in the tenth chapter of Exodus which is the eighth plague. Moses sends a deadly plague of locusts on Egypt. However, what is different in this case is that the locusts do not attack human beings, but rather all the vegetation, all the trees and plants, the very things they do not touch in the Revelation account. The result of this plague is that Pharaoh is called to repentance. The tragedy is that it is too late for him and rather than accept his repentance, God hardens his heart (Exodus 10:16-20).

The second notable example of a plague of locusts is described in the first two chapters of the Book of Joel. Here again the locusts are described as a judgment of God, the “day of the Lord” (Joel 1:15). Joel seems to have a double image. On one level he is describing the effects of literal locusts who devour not only the plants and trees but the storehouses of grain (Joel 1:17). Yet on another level they appear to be symbolic of an actual army, not necessarily a human one. They are forces of God’s judgment but their destruction is terrible. “The sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining”    (Joel 2:10). This army leaps on the tops of mountains. They are like “the crackling of a flame of fire” (Joel 2:5). The purpose of this attack of locusts is to call the people of Israel to repentance. In the midst of this devastation they are called to return to the Lord “for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Joel 2:13).

It is important to remember in the example of Revelation that this destruction is initiated by Christ himself. He alone has the keys of Death and Hades (Revelation 1:18). Whatever this star represents in chapter nine he can only have been given the key to “the bottomless pit,” Hades, by the one who has the key. That is not the king of Hades. It is rather the Lord of all, Jesus Christ.

To understand the full significance of the locusts we will need to look at the next “woe.”

II. The Second Woe: The Sixth Angel – Revelation 9:13-21

The sixth angel blows his trumpet and four angels are released from having been bound by the river Euphrates, which is at the eastern border of the Roman Empire, and was also one of the rivers that bordered the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:14). An enormous troop of cavalry appears, some two hundred million, which could even have been more than the population of the earth at that time. The riders, like the locusts, are horrific in appearance. They have breastplates the color of fire, sapphire and sulfur (Revelation 9:17). The horses have lions’ heads and breathe fire, smoke and sulfur. They have tails like serpents’ heads. They inflict harm and kill a third of humanity. There are several Biblical references here. Fire and sulfur descended on Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins (Genesis 19:24). A similar fate befalls Edom (Isaiah 34:9) and it becomes the habitation of goat-demons and vampires (Isaiah 34:14). This is also the fate of spiritual Babylon, Gog (Ezekiel 38:22). We will encounter this again in Revelation chapter 20. All of these are examples of the psalmist’s statement that the Lord will “rain coals of fire and sulfur” on the wicked (Psalm 11:6).

To say that this chapter presents disturbing images is to put it mildly. We have scenes of torture and death presided over by monstrous figures which nonetheless can be traced back to Jesus himself who has the keys of Death and Hades. How do we reconcile such images with the view of a loving God who sent Christ not to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17)?

The difficulty however lies not in the Biblical text but rather in ourselves. We have a tendency to minimize the reality of sin. We tolerate sin, even excuse it. God has no patience with such attitudes. God’s judgment is not incompatible with his mercy as the text in Joel makes clear (Joel 2:12-13). God’s mercy ultimately triumphs over his judgment (Matthew 9:13; Psalm 30:5; James 2:13). Nevertheless, God’s judgment is real because sin is real.

The chapter concludes with the meaning and purpose of these terrible judgments. The survivors of these judgments continue to worship demons and idols (Revelation 9:20; I Corinthians 10:14-22). They do not repent of their murders, sorceries, fornication and thefts (Revelation 9:21). The early Christians had witnessed the rise of the cult of the emperor, which proclaimed the emperor as “son of a god” and then finally divine himself. The patron goddess of Rome, Cybele who was known as the Great Mother, was worshipped with mutilation and sexual indulgence. John calls her the Great Whore (Revelation 17; Revelation 18). Earlier, the Emperor Nero had murdered his mother and his wife as well as many Christians. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, Domitian, the presumed emperor at the time of the writing of the Book of Revelation, was not only cruel but cunning. He killed many senators, devised unspeakable tortures for his enemies and banished all philosophers. In addition to this, Suetonius describes him as being “extremely lustful.” He insisted on being addressed as “Lord and God.” We know that some twenty years after the writing of Revelation it was a written policy to torture and kill Christians. Is there any question then about the judgment falling on all those “who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads” (this would seem to be a broader group than the earlier martyrs who were specifically washed in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14))? As God arose to defend Israel in spite of her sins, would he do any less for Christians and even the “God-fearers” of the first century (Jeremiah 51:36-37; Acts 10:22)?

John speaks of the wrath of the Lamb (Revelation 6:15-17). It is the Lamb of God with whom we deal. His wrath is limited (five months, one third) but it is still wrath and it is just. On the nights that Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr. were murdered, fire spread through the cities of Germany and the United States, respectively. The Lamb who is also the Great Shepherd has said,

“My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28).

The hope of this chapter is that God cannot and will not forget his own (Revelation 6:9-11).

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