Thursday, April 3, 2025 ▫ Read Revelation 8:13–9:21
Questions from the Scripture text: What does John see, in between the fourth and fifth trumpets (Rev 8:13)? What does it pronounce upon whom? Why? Who sounds his trumpet in Rev 9:1? What does John see? What happens to the star? What is given to him? What happens when he opens it (v2)? What come out of the smoke? What power are they given? What don’t they harm (v4)? Whom do they harm? But what couldn’t they do (v5)? What did they do for how long? With what effect? What would men seek and desire in those days (v6)? With what “success”? What were the locusts like (v7–10)? What power of theirs is repeated in v10? Who was their king (v11)? What are his names? What does v12 declare has passed? What does it say are to come? Who sounds his trumpet in v13? What does Joh hear from where? To whom does the voice speak (v14)? What does it say to do? How precisely was this timed (v15)? What were they released to do? To how many? What sort of army did they lead (v16)? How many were there? What did they look like (v17)? What three things came from their mouths? What did these three things do (v18)? To how many? Where is their power (v19)? What do the rest of mankind still not do (v20)? What did they continue to worship? What other four things are a sampling of the immorality that they continued (v21)?How should we respond to the locusts of Revelation 9? Revelation 8:13–9:21 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty-two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the horrors of the enmity of devils and men should be a clarion call to us to repent before we find ourselves on the receiving end of the enmity of God.
Just as there was an interlude between the fourth and fifth seals, now we see one between the fourth and fifth trumpets. The last three alarms to the unconverted are particularly dreadful. They are introduced with a triple cry of “woe” (8:13)!
The fifth trumpet/alarm is the warning that only the sealed (v4, cf. 7:2–3) are under the protection of God in the midst of the raging of the devil.
We have seen that protection before, in the book of Job. It is only as far as he is permitted that the Devil may afflict Job, and there, as in the fifth trumpet, he is not permitted to kill. The difference between the sealed and the unsealed is that for believers, this affliction comes as a help not a harm.
Like Job (cf. Job 42:5) and the psalmist (cf. Ps 119:67, 71, 75), the sealed saint knows that even the evil of the evil one cannot assault him unless God has intended it for his good.
The unsealed, however, who lack the Spirit, lack assurance, and lack Christ—there is a sting for them in all of the attacks of the devil (1Co 15:55–56, Heb 2:14), and the fear of death which they desire, here, but cannot attain (v6)! If this is how dreadful it is for them under the attacks of devils, how much worse it will be when they experience the fullness of the enmity of God!
These stinging locusts (v3, 7–11) are other-worldly in their description and have a king over them.
The sixth trumpet/alarm is, again, demonic. These angels are not only otherworldly and hideous, but what comes from their mouths clearly indicates the demonic (v17–18). Indeed, war is demonic! It is also ubiquitous, with the four demonic angels representing the four winds, i.e. all the earth. Thankfully, it is also under the sovereignty of God. Its precise timing, and even the demonic element of it, is ordained (v15).
Grievously, these trumpets/alarms do not produce the desired result in those who have not been elected unto life. They see and know the horrors that afflict them and await them, but they still don’t repent (v20)! We are reminded here that idols are nothing, but that false worship is actually offered to demons (cf. 1Cor 10:20). Murder, sexual immorality, and drugs/potions (NKJ “sorceries”) are profoundly harmful, yet not even the horrors of war bring men to their senses. How hard is the unregenerate heart!
No one will be able to say, in the last day, that they had not been warned. Throughout history, and in every part of the world, there are moments of intense evil and harm perpetrated by demons and men, which remind us that this is a world under judgment. For the believer, there is great comfort in knowing that even these things must work together for our good and are ruled and overruled by God. For the unbeliever, it is an urgent trumpet-call to repentance before an infinitely more dreadful day arrives!
What wars or other evils of devils of men are you aware of, or have you experienced? How have you taken them as reminders for repentance? What is your comfort, as you consider them?
Sample prayer: Lord, forgive us for our idolatries, and murders, and immoralities, and thefts. Grant to us repentance from them. We thank You for those woes that trumpet a warning to us. Grant that Your Spirit would make these warnings penetrate our hearts and send us flying to Jesus, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP46 “God Is Our Refuge and Our Strength” or TPH389 “Great God, What Do I See and Hear?”