REVELATION 9:1-12

9 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. 2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. 3 Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

7 In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8 their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; 9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. 10 They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. 11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.

12 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.

Revelation chapter 9 is what most folks think of when they think of the book of Revelation—violent, wild imagery—and it is terrifying.

The Jews thought of the Abyss as the place where the rebellious spiritual beings were kept, and when the fifth angel blows his trumpet, an army of locusts is allowed to invade the earth from the Abyss. Invasion is the key theme of the fifth and sixth trumpets.

Whether the army is meant to be a human army that is exaggerated with demonic features or an actual demonic army with human features is not relevant—the point is that God has permitted violent invasion as a warning judgment on the earth.

The people of the eastern Roman Empire in John’s day feared invasion from the wild and violent Parthians from beyond the Euphrates, and the sixth trumpet plays on this fear, in the same way that Americans in the 80s feared invasion from the Soviets, à la Red Dawn.

The overwhelming picture is one of terror and violence.

And yet look at how the chapter closes….