While it’s not said, there is enough in this chapter to be all three woes. Angels are involved in so many of these, to perform the wrath of God that is being dispensed. And yet there is still time to repent. No one does.
Revelation 9 – Amplified Bible
Revelation 8:13
13 Then I looked, and I heard a solitary eagle flying in [e]midheaven [for all to see], saying with a loud voice, “[f]Woe, woe, woe [great wrath is coming] to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpets which the three angels are about to sound [announcing ever greater judgments]!”
Please read Revelation 9:1-2
The Fifth Trumpet—the Bottomless Pit
1 Then the fifth angel sounded [his trumpet], and I saw a star (angelic being) that had fallen from heaven to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit (abyss) was given to him (the star-angel). 2 He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke like the smoke of a great furnace flowed out of the pit; and the sun and the atmosphere were darkened by the smoke from the pit.
I see why the woes were spoken. this smoke is not going to be just smoke. Yet thus far, we only know those marked by the angels as God’s are still on earth. Well, them and all the unbelievers anyway.
The Angels are involved in dispensing His wrath
Please read Revelation 9:3-6
3 Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power [to hurt] was given to them, like the power which the earth’s scorpions have. 4 They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but [to hurt] only the people who do not have the seal (mark of ownership, protection) of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment and cause them extreme pain for five months; and their torment was like the torment from a scorpion when it stings a man. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it; and they will long to die [to escape the pain], but [will discover that] death evades them.
“Hurt only the people who do not have the seal.” These stings must be horrible if the people long for death yet it evades them.’
Please read Revelation 9:7-12
7 The locusts resembled horses prepared and equipped for battle; and on their heads appeared to be [something like] golden crowns, and their faces resembled human faces. 8 They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. 9 They had breastplates (scales) like breastplates made of iron; and the [whirring] noise of their wings was like the [thunderous] noise of countless horse-drawn chariots charging [at full speed] into battle. 10 They have tails like scorpions, and stingers; and in their tails is their power to hurt people for five months. 11 They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss (the bottomless pit); in Hebrew his name is Abaddon (destruction), and in Greek he is called Apollyon (destroyer-king).
12 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.
All those horrible characteristics and yet only their tails are used to hurt these people. And this angel is one of the fallen ones. And yes, there are many, many angels and we don’t have very many names for any of them.
Yet one woe is now passed.
Please read Revelation 9:13-15
The Sixth Trumpet—Army from the East
13 Then the sixth angel sounded [his trumpet], and I heard a solitary voice from the four horns of the golden altar which stands before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the [appointed] hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.
There are four angels bound at the Euphrates. And when they are released death, likely violent death comes to a third of the people.
Please read Revelation 9:16-19
16 The number of the troops of cavalry was twice ten thousand times ten thousand (two hundred million); I heard the number of them. 17 And this is how I saw the horses and their riders in my vision: the riders had breastplates [the color] of fire and of hyacinth (sapphire blue) and of brimstone (yellow); and the heads of the horses looked like the heads of lions; and from out of their mouths came fire and smoke and brimstone (burning sulfur). 18 A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone that came from the mouths of the horses. 19 For the power of the horses [to do harm] is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and it is with them that they do harm.
This cavalry, guessing they come with those four angels, yet not certain. But the power of them is not just to bring plagues, but in their mouths and in their tails also do harm.
Please read Revelation 9:20-21
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, [a]did not repent even then of the works of their hands, so as to cease worshiping and paying homage to the demons and the idols of gold and of silver and of bronze and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; 21 and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries (drugs, intoxications) nor of their [sexual] immorality nor of their thefts.
It’s really rather disappointing that even today, when God’s kindness is still everywhere, so many do not repent. Then as the wrath comes, they choose to continue sinning, despite the fact that there is still a chance they could repent and believe.
Make sure you repent and believe. Grow your faith. Live close to Him every day.
Footnotes
[a] Revelation 9:20 – The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, [a]did not repent even then of the works of their hands, – The wickedness of idolatry is so deep and deceptive that idolaters refuse to repent in spite of the overwhelming evidence of God’s displeasure with them (Ps 115:8; 135:18).
Menu for this study.
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