A Swarm

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

A SWARM

Rev 9:1-11

9:1 The 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. 2 When 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. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4 They 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. 5 They 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. 6 During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them. 7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8 Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11 They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.  

NIV

We go from just one verse at a time to this large chunk of description of the fifth trumpet which is also the first woe. All of this must be dealt with in its entirety as any one verse alone would have little meaning to afford us any truth and thus a lesson for our life. This could be seen in so many ways and in fact has been by so many scholars. Again we have those who would commit this to a historical event regarding Israel and the Romans. Others would see a time of a plague of real locust of a special species yet see by men, resembling one of the plagues upon Egypt. There is some symbolism it might seem at work here as well. Because of the resemblance of human faces it would seem by some this is a mighty army raised up by the destroyer, Satan himself. We know that at some time he will raise up an army to fight against Jesus at the last battle. Perhaps this refers to a time that is coming when a darkness will come over the Christian church. Again we should wonder if we are here during all this or have we left already. But if this is in fact a time when this angel of darkness, this destroyer opens the bottomless pit and a smoke a darkness falls upon the earth, and from it comes a tremendous false doctrine which torments people. Maybe it could have been the Romans, but it also might be the extremist ISIS group, if we are to see this as an army of men bringing terror upon the people for five months. As far as the people who cannot be harmed, it is those who have the seal of God on their foreheads. Is that us? Are we then here? If we have already left, in the rapture, and as we have thought before there will be some people who have seen the light during the first four trumpets and returned to God, repenting and accepting Jesus as their Savior. These people will still be present during this fifth trumpet but will not be affected by the swarm of locust. It is also possible this is a representation of some great false doctrine which sweeps across Christianity. The vast smoke from the abyss blacks out the light, the truth. Men will come in swarms deceiving many believers. The average believer will be stung by their words and will not see the truth anymore. There is such a great number of false teachers and preachers in the world today, but this is certainly not the number as seen by John. Whether this is an actual army of men, such as a great military invasion that either the extremists could muster, or perhaps the nation of North Korea or even China, but the problem with that is they cannot do harm to those who have the mark or seal of God upon them. Any human army from another part of the world which has some faith other than Christian would certainly do harm to believing Christians, in fact might even single then out for torment, as ISIS does today. Some would say that John can only describe what he sees in the terms of his knowledge of the time he lives in, but then we would have to discount that God has inspired him to write these words. But because God inspired him to write this and with the absolute foreknowledge of all the advancement of mankind, including all the military might available today, it is unlikely that John wrote of something he did not understand. This has to be a supernatural event for the purpose of God. This has to be one more attempt to show mankind there is only one way to salvation, and that is through Jesus Christ. If all mankind is in torment except those who are true believers in Christ, who have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, marked by God as his, then the world will know he has the power to save, to protect, to provide for his people. All of scripture has the purpose of revealing the character of God and his purpose for creating mankind. Scripture also reveals the rebellion of mankind against God, and how he continues to demonstrate their folly, their foolish thinking and the results which will ensue. He is determined to save them from their folly, but he has also given them over to their futile thinking. Yet he will bring destruction upon them if they do not repent. So we have another event which will be not death, but torment in order to show them God is still in control of their lives. We need to be ready for this should it happen in our lifetime and the rapture of the true church has not happened. But if it does not happen in our lifetime we can be assured it will happen and once again we can tell the message to others so they too can be sealed by the Holy Spirit. If this is symbolic of a great false doctrine then we have that message as well. We need to rest assured Jesus will build his church. The message of truth will ring out loud and clear. Let him who has an ear, let him hear. A swarm is coming.