Misery, Woe, and Suffering

REVELATION 9:1

The Abyss

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven [a fallen star] unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit [abyss] (Rev. 9:1).

The abyss is literally a shaft.

Somewhere upon the surface of the earth there is a shaft. The entrance to this shaft leads down into the heart of the earth where Hades exists. Hades is often translated "hell" in the Bible. Hell does exist. It's in the center of the earth.

When the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked Him for a sign, He said,

An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; but no sign will be given it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah; for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 4:29).

Paul tells us,

He who has ascended is the same one who first of all descended into the lower parts of the earth. When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men (Ephesians 4:8-10).

When anyone from the Old Testament died, they went to Hades. That is why in the Old Testament Hades is referred to as the "grave" and "hell." It was the abiding place of everyone who died, but it was divided into two sections.

Jesus told us about this division when He talked about the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). A certain rich man fared sumptuously every day. A beggar was brought, daily covered with sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Also, the rich man died and went into Hades. He lifted up his eyes being in torment and, seeing Abraham afar off, and Lazarus being comforted, he cried unto him and said, "Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame."

Abraham said,

Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime received the good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

"Then I pray thee," the rich man said "that thou wouldst send him to my father's house for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment."

This man was not sleeping. He was very conscious in Hades. Lazarus also was conscious. He was being comforted in Abraham's bosom.

In another biblical allusion to Hades, Jesus said to the thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). And they descended into Hades.

In the second chapter of Acts, Peter on the day of Pentecost stood up to preach. A crowd had gathered to observe the interesting phenomena of the sound of a mighty rushing wind and they heard people magnifying God in many languages. When they questioned what this meant, Peter told them, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." Then Peter began his sermon by declaring,

Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain; whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

And then Peter quoted from one of the prophetic Messianic psalms of David. "David speaketh concerning him... thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. And so," Peter said,

I testify unto you that God did not leave his soul in Hades. But this same Jesus hath God raised from the dead and he is ascended at the right hand of the Father, and he hath now shed abroad this which you see (Acts 2:14-36).

When Jesus died He descended into Hades and preached, according to Peter, to those souls in prison (1 Peter 3:19). According to Paul, when Jesus ascended He led these captives from their captivity (Ephesians 4:8). He emptied that portion of Hades where the faithful with Abraham had waited for God to fulfill His promises. Speaking of Abraham and all these people of faith in the Old Testament period, the Bible says, "For these all died in faith, not having received the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made complete" (Hebrews 11:39-40). They could not come into the heavenly scene until the blood of Jesus Christ had been shed for the sins of the world. The Old Testament sacrifice had covered their sin. Their faith that God would send the Messiah brought them salvation. God imputed their faith in Christ for righteousness. But they couldn't be brought into the heavenly scene until Jesus descended and led them out of prison.

Isaiah speaks of Christ's ministry of opening the prison to those that are bound (Isaiah 61:1). Jesus was to open the prison to those that were bound by death. It was not possible, the Scripture said, that He could be held by death (Romans 6:9). So, he broke the bars of the prison of death and led captivity captive when He ascended on high.

The abyss is the place of incarceration for demons or evil spirits. The demons who possessed the maniac of the Gadarenes said to Jesus, "Do not send us to the abyss before our time" (Luke 8:26-31). They pleaded with Him that they might still have liberty on the earth. They realize the time is coming when they'll be consigned to the abyss for a thousand years during the millennial reign of Christ.

The Bible tells us that the Antichrist will ascend out of the abyss. "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the abyss" (Rev. 17:8). The beast was already upon the earth at one time. He is coming back to the earth, ascending out of the abyss where he has been incarcerated.

The Bible then tells us that Satan will be bound with a great chain and cast into the abyss at the return of Jesus Christ to the earth (Rev. 20:1-3).

REVELATION 9:2-4

The Locusts

In the sounding of the fifth trumpet, John sees the fallen star. A "star" is an angel. The fallen star would no doubt be Satan. The fallen star is given the key to this abyss. As he opened the pit of the abyss, there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit" (Rev. 9:2). The pit, more or less, is as a great volcano belching smoke and darkening the sun and polluting the air around the earth.

And there came out of the smoke locusts [or locust-like creatures] upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing,neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God on their foreheads (Rev. 9:34).

This is another mention of the 144,000. They were previously sealed so that they would not be hurt by the angels holding the four winds, ready to bring the suffering upon the earth (Rev. 7:3). Now the 144,000 are spared the pain to be inflicted by these demons turned loose upon the earth. These demons have the appearance of locusts.

There's a very interesting book called Through Forbidden Tibet by Harrison Forman. He has a chapter called, "I Saw the King of Hell." He talks about an annual religious rite in Tibet where the religious men of the nation gather and call forth various demons - the demon of famine, the demon of floods, etc. - and they materialize.

Forman writes that the "priests" exercise their spiritual powers over these demons so that the demons cannot affect the land in the coming year. But a demon may happen to get away. For instance, if the demon of floods escapes, then the land is ravished by floods in the coming year. At the conclusion of this week-long ceremony, they call forth the King of Hell. Forman describes how he sought to guard himself against falling into any hypnotic state or trance and kept doing things to protect himself against becoming hypnotized. What he saw was uncanny. He actually saw demons as they materialized, and he describes them and their various forms. His descriptions of the demons are much like those in Revelation.

Satan, the fallen star, the fallen angel, opens this shaft and from it comes the smoke, and out of the smoke come demons who go forth upon the earth. Their power is as a scorpion - the power to inflict pain upon those who dwell upon the earth.

The 144,000 are protected from these demonic creatures. This shows that the locusts have intelligence; they're able to discern the 144,000 that have the seal of God upon their foreheads. God is again protecting His own from Satan's attacks.

REVELATION 9:5-6

To them it was given that they should not kill them but that they should be tormented for five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them (Rev.9:5-6).

Death is almost personified in the Scripture. Paul cried, "O death, where is your sting?" In literature, death is spoken of as grasping hold of people. "He's caught in the grasp of death." In Revelation 20 death and hell will be cast into the lake of fire (v. 14). Death and hell will give up their dead to stand before God. Death will release its grasp, hell will release its grip, and men will stand before the judgment throne of God.

For five months death takes a holiday. I can't think of anything more horrible than not being able to die when the time to die has come.

A woman called one night where I was ministering and said, "Chuck, come over quick. I'm in trouble."

I said, "What's the matter?"

She said, "I think my son has killed himself. I'm afraid to take a look because he might shoot me. I want you to go and see." Then she said, "He likes you." Her son was having a problem with alcohol and I had been counseling him.

He had come home drunk. His mother said, "Oh, son, how long are you going to break your mother's heart over your drinking?"

He said, "You won't have to worry about me anymore." He went into his room and she heard a shot. She was afraid to do anything.

I went back into the room and I saw him lying on the floor. He had put a .45 to his right temple and had blown out the whole side of his head. I picked pieces of skull and hair off the ceiling. They were embedded in the plaster. It was one of the goriest sights I had ever seen. After they had taken away his body, they didn't clean up. I had to scrape up his brains with a dust pan and flush them down the toilet.

I didn't sleep for about a week. It was a very terrifying experience. Yet I thought, what if death would not come? What if you would do something like that to your body but still couldn't die? You'd be walking around in that condition and you'd just continue to live. Death really is a blessing at many times. Death isn't the worst thing that can happen to you.

There is coming a time of great torment. Demons will be going around inflicting pain like scorpions. People will be seeking to die, actually attempting to commit suicide, but their spirits will not leave their bodies, and they'll go on in their mangled frames.

REVELATION 9:7-12

And the shapes of the locusts were like horses that were prepared to battle; and on their heads were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men for five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the abyss [Satan], whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue has his name Apollyon (Rev. 9:7-11).

Both of these names mean "destroyer." Satan is a destroyer. He is the king over these demons.

"One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes after these things" (Rev. 9:12). Sometimes a person thinks, "If I should miss the rapture, I'll take off for the High Sierras. I'll find a little stream where I can fish and hunt and eat wild berries. I'll hide away so I won't be under the control of the Antichrist. They won't be able to catch me and put the seal on me." Likewise, some people imagine an escape from the judgments of God that are to come upon the earth.

Though you may be able to escape from the Antichrist and his rule, how in the world will you escape from demons? There's no way any person on earth can escape this judgment of God. Don't dream up a scheme or an escape. It won't work.

There's one escape that God has provided. That's in Jesus Christ. Thank God for that escape. We "shall be caught up... to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17). I like that! The book of Hebrews asks, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" The truth is, there is no other escape.

REVELATION 9:13-15

"The sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God" (Rev. 9:13). In the earthly tabernacle there was the altar with four horns upon it. This was a likeness of the heavenly altar, the golden altar which is before God's throne.

The voice John heard was "saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates" (Rev. 9:14).

The River Euphrates is the river that ran through the ancient Babylonian kingdom from where the world's false religious systems have come. Most of the satanic cults have their origin in Babylon.

The River Euphrates was one of the rivers in the Garden of Eden. The first dwelling place of man was probably in the Euphrates valley. This river is where the four fierce and terrible angels were bound, else they would bring destruction upon the earth.

There are some very interesting verses of Scripture concerning the angels which kept not their first estate (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4). They are reserved in chains of darkness, awaiting the day of judgment. It could very well be that those angels are so fierce and horrible that, for the protection of man, God has kept them in chains until this day of judgment. But now God looses them, and they go forth upon the earth wreaking havoc and death upon men.

In the Old Testament, when God was fighting for His people, the Assyrians under King Sennacherib were encamped against the Israelites. God sent an angel of the Lord through the camp of the Assyrians and in one night this angel destroyed 186,000 of the Assyrian army (Isaiah 37:36).

Here in Revelation 9 there are four extremely fierce angels. God has been protecting the earth from them. They have been in chains, but now they are set loose.

"And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, to slay a third part of men" (Rev. 9:15). In one hour these angels go forth and wipe out one-third of the earth's population.

If one-fourth of the world's population of 5,000,000,000 people is wiped out during the second through the fourth seals, then 3,750,000,000 people would be left upon the earth. Now, one-third (or 1,250,000,000 people) are wiped out during this sixth trumpet judgment. In addition, there are all those destroyed by these other cataclysms - the tidal waves, the earthquake, the meteorite showers, etc. You can see how the earth's population is to be decimated. At this point, only one out of two are surviving, but there's a hint in the Old Testament that only one out of three shall survive (Zechariah 13:9).

REVELATION 9:16-21

The number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand [two hundred million]: and, [John said], I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt (Rev. 9:16-19).

We are speaking here of a huge army of two hundred million. Do you realize how impossible this was until recent times? How could any nation or combination of nations in the world field an army of two hundred million people? It was only in 1860 that the earth reached a population of one billion. Even if every available man alive at the time of Johns writing had been mustered, they couldn't have fielded an army of two hundred million.

Today China boasts that she's able to put an army of two hundred million on the field. Isn't that an interesting figure? Why didn't China say 150 million or 175 million or 201 million? Time magazine reported that China declares that she can now field an army of two hundred million. And John sees this great army.

Who Is Your God?

And the rest of the men who were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils (Rev. 9:20).

The most unlikely thing in the world to me and the hardest thing for me to conceive is that a person would consciously worship Satan. I cannot conceive of a mind that would consciously worship the devil. But such is the case. People today are consciously worshipping the devil. In fact, satanic worship is growing.

These people would not repent of their worship of the devil "and their idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk" (Rev. 9:20).

We're reminded by David in the Psalms that the idols of the heathen are vain. He said that they carve them out of wood or of silver. Eyes they have but they cannot see. Ears they have but they cannot hear. Feet they have but they cannot walk. Mouths they have but they cannot speak. Those who make them have become altogether like the idols that they have made" (Psalm 135:15-18).

Man becomes like his god - that's a basic philosophy of life. Who is your god? You're becoming like your god. Man creates a dumb idol and then himself becomes dumb as he worships it. If your god is false, you're becoming false. If you're worshipping idols, insensate gods, you're becoming insensate. If you're worshipping the true and living God, you're becoming like your God. It can be the greatest curse or the greatest blessing. It all depends on who your god is.

What a blessing to become like our God!

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him [like our God]; for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).

But we all, with open face beholding... the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).

What is the master passion of your life? What ideal, philosophy, or ambition controls you? Realize that you're becoming just like your god!

"Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries" (Rev. 9:21). The word sorceries in the Greek is "pharmakeia," from which we get our word "pharmacy." It is the use of drugs for hallucinogenic purposes.

They didn't repent of their sorceries, "nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts" (Rev. 9:21).

You'd think at this point, as the wrath and judgment of God are being poured forth and people are being wiped out all around, that men would be on their knees saying, "O God, have mercy on me a sinner!" But we see the hardness of man's heart; after all this judgment there is no repentance.

Sometimes we say, "Really lay it on him, God, so he'll repent!" But the Scripture says that the goodness of God leads a man to repentance (Romans 2:4). Realizing how good God is amazes me more than anything else. Realizing that I'm so undeserving and knowing the goodness of God brings me to repentance. "O God, how can you be so good to me? I'm such a rotten sinner!" His love leads me to repentance.