A Commentary in Simple English on Revelation

CHAPTER 9

Verses 1-11: The fifth trumpet

These verses are not easy at all. But right at the end we shall find out what it is that John writes about here.

In verse 1, the fifth angel blows his trumpet. John sees a star, which has fallen from the sky to the earth. This sounds rather like the star of 8:10. That 'star' could be Artemis, the false goddess of Ephesus. Someone gives a key to this 'star'. We do not know who does this. (In 1:18 Jesus had the keys which lock - or open - Death and Hell.) Jesus is the bright morning star (22:16), not a fallen star.

What comes next is rather like 8:8. It is something like a volcano. Many volcanoes are like great tubes. These go deep into the earth. Most of the time the volcano seems to be 'asleep'. But from time to time the volcano comes to life. Then, white-hot melted rock (lava!) comes up through the tube and pours down the slopes of the mountain. The volcano throws up hot ashes into the air. And there is steam and smoke too.

So in verse 2 the 'star' uses his key to open the tube or 'shaft' of the hole or 'pit'. This is so deep that it has no bottom to it. So much smoke comes out that the light of the sun is cut off. (This is rather like the darkness of 8:12.) Then 'locusts' come out of the smoke (verse 3). The 'locust' is an insect, which is at least 5cm. (2 inches) long. It is not unlike a 'grasshopper'. It has four wings and six legs. It uses the back pair of legs when it jumps. There are said to be ninety different kinds of 'locust'. They come from south Arabia or east Africa. From there the wind carried millions of them to countries like Palestine. They live from April to September, for five months. (See verses 5-10.) People feared them because a cloud or 'swarm' of locusts will eat everything green that grows. A swarm of locusts did so much damage to food crops that afterwards people often died from hunger. The locusts cover everything and they eat everything that grows.

Now the prophet Joel used this picture of a swarm of locusts. If you look at the book, which he wrote in the Old Testament, you will see that he begins to talk about locusts in 1:4. In Israel in Joel's time, several different kinds of 'locust' had eaten everything. The locusts are so greedy that they eat the bark of vines and trees. So they will have no fruit on them. There will be no wine (verse 5). There will be no food, so the offerings to God cannot be made. (verse 9). In verse 10, the crops have been eaten, so the hot sun will bake the earth hard. Farm animals cannot be fed (verse 18). By verse 20, it seems that there is no rain.

It is good to know that today we can do something to stop locusts. Aircraft can fly over the places that locusts come from and spread substances to kill them. But this can only be done if there is peace.

But we need to say more about Joel. He had seen swarms of locusts and heard the noise of their wings and of their jaws as they ate the crops. But Joel says: - 'They are like an enemy army'. There are some places where he seems to speak of this enemy army, not of locusts (Joel 2:11,20). In his day, the enemy was the army of Assyria.

So we can come back now from the book of Joel. John talks in Revelation 9 about locusts. But he means an enemy army.

If we look at verse 11, we shall be able to find out what army this is. First, John says that they have a 'king'. Locusts, of course, do not have a king (Proverbs 30:27). The angel here should be the same as the star in verse 1. John now gives him two names. The first is 'Abaddon'. The name 'Abaddon' has not been found anywhere else in the Bible or in other old writings. It means 'The one who destroys'. 'Apollyon' means much the same: it is the opposite of 'salvation'. It is loss of everything.

Now 'Apollyon' is very much like 'Apollo', the name of the Greek sun 'god'. Some of the Roman Caesars - Caligula and Nero - dressed up and pretended that they were Apollo. Domitian, who ruled in John's day, wanted people to think that he really was Apollo. [9.1]. So John thinks here of Rome and its army as 'the destroyer'. You can understand this. The Roman army had come to Jerusalem. They had destroyed the city and the temple in AD. 70 and they had destroyed the land all around. Before the Roman army took Jerusalem, the Christians had left. (See verse 4.)

Verse 6 tells us that the people will 'wish they were dead'. Look at Philippians 1:23. You will see there that Christians should not be afraid to die. When we die, we shall be with Jesus, which will be far better than this life. But we want to go on in this life to serve Christ. We do not know which to choose. We want both life and death.

The fifth trumpet is not only the Romans. If you see an enemy army, which destroys a country, you will feel that it is just like this part of Revelation. And you will be right.

Verses 12-19: The Sixth Trumpet

In verse 12 John tells us that his 'vision', the fifth trumpet, goes away. But there are still two more 'woes', or sorrows, to come.

If the fifth trumpet was about the Romans, we shall not be surprised if the sixth trumpet is about their great enemies. The Parthian Empire was to the east of the Roman Empire. And it seems that the sixth trumpet is about the Parthian Empire.

In verse 13, the trumpet sounds. John hears a voice, which comes from 'the altar that is made from gold'. We do not know whether this voice is the voice of God. But this means that God still remembers the prayers of his people. (See 8:3 and Exodus 30:1-3.) What happens is a little different from what happened at the sound of the other five trumpets. The angel is told to do something. He is to set free four angels who are tied up. And they are at 'the great river Euphrates'.

The river Euphrates is one of the great rivers of the world. It is about 2,900Km long. It rises in what is now the eastern part of Turkey. At first it flows west and south, until it is only about 150Km from the Mediterranean Sea. It then goes south through Syria and turns east and south east through Iraq until it reaches the Persian Gulf.

John here speaks about the part of the Euphrates that flows south through Syria. The very old city of Carchemish is here. We will call this part 'the middle Euphrates'. [9.2]. See also 16:12. The eastern side of this part of the river in John's time was called Osroene and to the east of it again was Edessa. This was where the local kings ruled. The Romans fought the Parthians in this part of the world. But most of the wars were in Armenia, which was further to the north.

There were large numbers of Jews in this area and the Christian church soon grew strong there. The great church at Antioch (see Acts 11:20,21) must have spread the Good News to the east. So the Romans feared that the Parthians would attack them from the middle Euphrates. The Parthian soldiers rode horses, and it would not take long for them to reach Antioch from the middle Euphrates.

In verses 14 and 15, the four angels are probably bad angels. They would not be tied up if they were good angels. They are not the four angels of 7:1. Perhaps we should rather think of Daniel's vision of four beasts in Daniel 7:1-7. In the Old Testament times great armies had crossed the middle Euphrates. First there were the Assyrians. Then the army of Babylon came next, some years later. Then later still came Persia. Perhaps Parthia is the fourth. God has fixed the exact time of this event. God still rules. He rules the world. He even makes use of forces that are bad. Things happen at the time that He chooses.

In verse 16, John hears the number of the soldiers who rode horses. The number is too large to imagine. John could not count them. [9.3]. Psalm 68:17 and Daniel 7:10 tell us about the size of God's army. It seems that now the devil has an army as big as that as well. This army rides horses, as the Parthians did.

Verses 17-19 tell us about this army. Sometimes we have a very bad dream at night. It is so bad that it frightens us. We call such a dream a 'nightmare'. This army belongs in a nightmare. The soldiers ride on horses. But the soldiers do not seem to have swords or spears. The horses that they ride do the fighting. Some of the things that John says about this army make us think about war as we know it today. [9.4]

Verses 20, 21: Men go on in their sins

These verses tell us three things.

1.We should look for men to 'repent'. That means to change the way they live and to stop their sins. This is what God looks for as well.

2.Horrible events do not make men repent. This is why the next part of this book is about God's word and the way that Christian people tell the world about God's truth. God's word and the power of His Holy Spirit will make men 'repent'.

3.Then John tells us what the sins of the people in his day were. They were: -

a) False religion and worship. There were false 'gods' in the heathen temples. Someone had made them from cheap wood or stone or perhaps from metal of high value - 'gold or silver'. What had been used to make them did not make any difference. They could not do anything. These 'gods' or 'idols' were no better if they were made from gold than if they were made from wood. They could not help anyone. Yet many people worshipped them. That was one part of false worship. It was the worship of 'idols'. But it was mixed up with the worship of 'demons' and of bad spirits. (See 1 Corinthians 10:20,21). When men worship false 'gods' and 'idols' they are in danger from bad spirits.

b) Another common sin was murder. It is always wrong to take away human life. But the Romans killed great numbers of people and they were often very cruel in the way that they did it.

c) 'Magic arts' suggests poison. What happened was this. Someone would pay money to spend a night in a heathen temple. The priests would promise him that he would see 'visions'. Then in his food or drink, the priest would give him 'drugs' to make him dream strange dreams. The priest would say that these dreams came from the 'god'.

d) Next in his list John puts the sins of sex. God has made some of us men and some of us women. Sex is a good gift, which He has given to us. But He gave sex to us to enjoy within marriage. All sex that is not in the marriage of one man with one woman is sinful. The greatest pleasure is found when husband and wife come together in love. [9.5].

e) Last John puts 'thefts'.

There are lists like this in 21:8 and in 22:15. There are several others elsewhere in the New Testament. (See Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3: 8; I Peter 2:1; Romans 1:29-31. Men do not change.)