Revelation 8:13 – 9:12 (NIV): “As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in mid-air 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!”
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. 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.
And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 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. 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. During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 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. They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months.
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).
The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.”
The eagle sets the scene for the next three trumpets – from his vantage point, he can see the landscape of the terrible woes, which are about to be released. As Selwyn states, these scenes are intended to show the terrible consequences of a life that resists the overtures of God’s mercy.
The people who are harmed (spiritual torture) by the locusts (whose king is Satan – the Destroyer), are actually the people who are slaves to Satan.
It’s important to notice that ‘Satan is not only the accuser of God’s people, he is also the tormentor of his own‘. I’ve heard some people say: ‘It will be okay in hell, as my friends will also be there.’ There is no friendship in hell, it’s a place where love cannot exist – Satan is a spiritual being who can only deliver hatred, division, and destruction. His main success in today’s world is to convince people that he doesn’t exist.
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