Whoa: The Pit of Despair
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I’ve been talking to people who are experiencing frustration…and even despair lately. Some around living with covid cautions, loss of loved ones, living with different, political situations or woes, injustices, etc.
It’s easy to get trapped in a cycle of despair and discouragement.
13 As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”
1 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. 6 During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8 Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11 They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).
12 The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.
Woe! Woe! Woe!
Woe! Woe! Woe!
- You thought that was bad? Wait for the next three!
The blowing of the 5th trumpet is also called the First Woe and in it terrifying locusts are unleashed upon the unrepentant oppressors for five months...meant to terrify and alarm the unrepentant. The imagery describing these creatures is borrowed from various portions of the Hebrew Bible.
The fact that there are symbols used here in this style of writing does NOT mean that it doesn’t have a literal meaning…just like when you hear in the news or read on a blog that “the stock market blew up this week” (could be positive or negative depending on context…and it means that something actually DID happen)…figures of speech and hyperbole still have an actual significance…that IS the literal meaning of the figurative/symbolic way of speaking.
- I’m going to tear you up…destroy you… “I’m going to beat you” ..."i’m going to kill you" ...
Revelation is Letter, Apocalyptic, and Prophetic writing...
There are also elements that were Past, Present, and Future at the time of Writing...
Preterist: events have been fulfilled in the first century AD.
Historicist: panorama of church history, probably without specific referents.
idealist: the book is a constant, universal struggle between good and evil, not actual historical or future events.
Futurist approach understands much of the book to detail future events right before the return of Jesus.
Mixed: seeking to understand what it meant to the original audience, that it likely had immediate fulfillment in their day while also pointing at key events that would take place in the future…AND knowing that it is written in Apocalyptic style it also contains lessons for the church both then and now through it’s grand story of the battle between good and evil.
Fallen Star
Fallen Star
“I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth.”
Fallen Angel?
Angel = Job description, messenger, what a thing does not what a thing is.
- Son of God = hierarchical term, royal household term,
- Spiritual Beings = Elohim
- Fallen: Genesis is not just the story of the Fall of humanity but of THREE rebellions that took place against God
Genesis 3 The Garden and the Tree of Knowing Good and Evil, Genesis 6 events leading up to the flood and Nephilim, Genesis 11 events leading up to the tower of Babel
These involved humans and spiritual beings.
Hebrew Bible idea of “Divine Council”
Deuteronomy 32:8, and 4:19 say that God apportioned the Nations according to the number of the Sons of God.
The prophet Daniel in chapter 10 refers to spiritual beings who are in rulership over nations who battle against God’s Will, God’s angels and God’s people.
In OT idea of “princes”
Paul refers to these spiritual beings as rulers (or principalities), authorities, thrones, and powers…spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.
Peter says that Jesus has “all authorities, angels, and powers in submission to him” (1 Peter 3:22)
Mention is also made of Demons or Unclean spirits, and even of “glorious ones” and elemental spirits.
Important to note that these are used in different ways and are not just synonyms for Demon.
This spiritual being is called Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek
Both mean destruction or destroyer…it could be referring to Satan specifically, but more than likely to another spiritual being as Satan makes an appearance later as the Dragon in these visions.
He is identified later as the king of the locusts
He is given the Key to the Abyss
Abyss
Abyss
Abyssos: Literally “The Pit”: believed to be a deep hole with a narrow opening that was sealed with a gate to keep those condemned to wait in their prison.
Idea of bottomless pit, the deep, or underworld.
This was the place where the demons pleaded NOT to be sent by Jesus....but it was also place where fallen spiritual beings were kept in captivity…waiting for the day of judgment to be cast into the lake of fire (2 Pet 2:4 and Jude 6).
And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day
It is from THIS pit that locusts come pouring out...
Locusts
Locusts
Smoke like from a giant furnace - could be because of the cloud of locusts or because of this being a place of fire and sulfur.
Darkened sun and sky...
Significance of Locusts:
Common image in those days to think of Armies as Locusts.
Joel and other prophets describe invading armies as such...
But also actual plagues of locusts in those days…and in the Plagues of Egypt...
What they looked like:
I’m just going to come out and say that these are NOT helicopters...
like horses prepared for battle.
On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold
their faces resembled human faces.
hair was like women’s hair…Parthians to the east?
teeth were like lions’ teeth.
breastplates like breastplates of iron,
the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.
Like Scorpions
given power like that of scorpions of the earth.
tails with stingers...their tails had power to torment people for five months.
FIVE is half of ten…for “some” time
told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Going after people not property...
They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes.
Apollyon: Destroyer connected to Apollo, emperor Domitian considered himself Apollo incarnate…with the symbol of Locust...
Fitting that they would be seeing this attack against that empire with similar pictures...
Possible picture of Parthian invaders (shooting backwards and long haired)…but also MORE than that.
These are spiritual beings because they come from the abyss and inflict what appears to be spiritual pain of Agony & Despair...
Despair
Despair
6 During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
Satan’s plan has always been to Kill, Steal, and Destroy
He uses Deception, Distraction, and Doubt
But this is NOT all to the story…we’re told that WE can trample on scorpions and close mouths of lions...
The world is already filled with Agony & Despair…Nihilism…everyone trying to define good and evil…because in the end it doesn’t even matter…it will most likely increase...
People are trapped in despair…following the doctrines of demons…the end is death & destruction…in their liberation they find bondage…in living their best life they find death...
God wants to give us…and spread through …Beauty for Ashes and a Garment of Praise instead of a spirit of despair...
When we are walking in alignment, knowing our identity and calling, we can say to satan: “You have no power here!”
Demonic attack on believers is like Criminals attacking a house: egging, breaking, entering, staying, etc…we can evict…there is a higher power!
if experiencing this…time to walk in your authority…ask Jesus to come…give the house over to God...
Remember this isn’t the end…these Judgments were to call unrepentant people to repentance...
Repent and make the exchange!
For those who ARE sealed we look ahead...
The New International Version Chapter 15
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” k
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?” l
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Death is not the end.
Suffering is not meaningless
LOVE and TRUTH break the bonds of the Pit of Despair!
Invitation and Challenge...