Four trumpets have been sounded. Each has announced something falling from heaven to strike the one-third of the earth.
Revelation 9: 1-5, The fifth trumpet
The fifth angel blew his trumpet. Then I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the tunnel leading down into a bottomless pit. The pit was called the Abyss.
2 The star opened the Abyss. Then smoke rose up from it like the smoke from a huge furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.
3 Out of the smoke came locusts. They came down on the earth. 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 plant or tree. They were supposed to harm only the people without God’s official seal on their foreheads.
5 The locusts were not allowed to kill these people. But the locusts could hurt them over and over for five months. The pain the people suffered was like the sting of a scorpion when it strikes.
6 In those days, people will look for a way to die but won’t find it. They will want to die, but death will escape them.
2 The star opened the Abyss. Then smoke rose up from it like the smoke from a huge furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss.
3 Out of the smoke came locusts. They came down on the earth. 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 plant or tree. They were supposed to harm only the people without God’s official seal on their foreheads.
5 The locusts were not allowed to kill these people. But the locusts could hurt them over and over for five months. The pain the people suffered was like the sting of a scorpion when it strikes.
6 In those days, people will look for a way to die but won’t find it. They will want to die, but death will escape them.
The falling star has the key to entrance to the Abyss and opens it. Out pour smoke and locusts. This time there appears to be no real destruction (of "one-third") as previously, but pain and suffering to those who do not have the seal of God.
Locusts have always represented destruction and overwhelming disaster, as hordes of locusts could strip the crops from the fields and bring starvation. And their appearance, in waves of insects was always eery, frightening.
Locusts have always represented destruction and overwhelming disaster, as hordes of locusts could strip the crops from the fields and bring starvation. And their appearance, in waves of insects was always eery, frightening.
The NIV footnotes say that Abaddon and Apollyon mean "Destroyer". The star that fell with the fifth trumpet seems to be the "angel of the Abyss", that is Satan, Destroyer.
The first four trumpets brought destruction; the last three will bring "woes".
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