Grace & Peace: Revelation 67

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it 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 five months. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter” (Rev. 9:7–12).

So these demonic locust-like creatures were released from the Abyss, but they are not like actual locusts in certain key respects. I take them for demons, released to wreak havoc in the streets of Jerusalem during the last five months of the siege. They are like locusts, but here are some differences. First, the grass, the trees, and every green thing is protected from them. Actual locusts devour the greenery. Second, their macabre appearance indicates intelligence (men’s faces), effeminate transvestitism (women’s hair), apparent invulnerability (iron breastplates), real ferocity (lions’ teeth), and venomous malice (scorpion-like sting in the tail). And third, these had a king (v. 11), and locusts have no king—“The locusts have no king, Yet go they forth all of them by bands” (Prov. 30:27).

The demons imparted their characteristics to the men they came to possess, the demon-possessed tribe of Jerusalem’s defenders. Just as a deaf and dumb spirit results in a deaf and dumb man, and an unclean spirit results in an unclean man, dwelling among the tombs, so also this bizarre demon army created a vile army within the holy city. The demons descended, not upon the green things, and not upon the servants of God who had His mark, but on the men without such a mark.

Here is part of Josephus’ description of what happened then.

“With their insatiable hunger for loot, they ransacked the houses of the wealthy, murdered men and violated women for sport; they drank their spoils with blood, and from mere satiety and shamelessness gave themselves up to effeminate practices, plaiting their hair and putting on women’s clothes, drenched themselves with perfumes and painting their eyelids to make themselves attractive. They copied not merely the dress, but also the passions of women, devising in their excess of licentiousness unlawful pleasures in which they wallowed as in a brothel. Thus they entirely polluted the city with their foul practices. Yet though they wore women’s faces, their hands were murderous. They would approach with mincing steps, then suddenly become fighting men, and, whipping out their swords from under their dyed cloaks, they would run through every passerby” (Wars 4.9.10).

Their authority could be flexed, and was, but it was a spurious authority. They wore crowns, but the crowns were not genuine gold, but were rather were something that just looked like gold. This passage is the only one in Revelation where the word stephanos, the word for crown, is used for the ungodly.

All of this is beyond horrific, and it still just the first woe.

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“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and 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. And there came out of the smoke locusts 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 in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented 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. 9:1–6).

So the fifth angel sounds, and the first of three woes is declared. In order to understand this well, we have to review some of our history.

The Jewish War lasted for three and a half years. This was prophetically declared by John the apostle just a few chapters later. The Temple is measured, and it is declared that the Gentiles will trample the holy city for 42 months (Rev. 11:2). And the same figure is given in the next verse, under a different form. 42 months of 30 days each amounts to 1260 days. In this passage, we are given the tormenting figure of 5 months, which I would link to the final months of the siege of Jerusalem (April through August, A.D. 70). This was the time during which the Jewish defenders of the city turned on each other in a terrible frenzy, and which Josephus records in his annals (Wars 5.1.5, 5.10.5, 6.3.4-5). Why is this relevant?

A star falls from heaven, and because a personal pronoun is used we know that it is a personage. He opens the Abyss, and smoke comes out of it, blocking the sun and choking the air. Out of that smoke a horde of locusts come, only with power to sting like scorpions. I take these to be demons because of the Lord’s instruction elsewhere. In the exorcism of Legion, the demons beg not to be sent to the Abyss, same word (Luke 8:31). And the Lord says something quite striking when He tells us what happens when a demon is cast out of a man.

“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation” (Matt. 12:43–45).

Jesus had spent three years casting demons out of the House of Israel. Israel was the house that was found empty, swept, and garnished. All the demons that had been cast out—and there had been a multitude—went and gathered up a host of more demons, like a plague of locusts with a sting, and they poured back into that wicked generation. The Jewish defenders of Jerusalem in the final months were demon-possessed, hell bent on destruction. As we shall see in the next verses, they had a king over them, with the Hebrew name of Abaddon and the Greek name of Apollyon. It does not matter because the name means the same thing, which is Destruction.

The demons pent up in the Abyss are beyond frustrated because their nature is to destroy, and they dwell in a place where everything is already destroyed. They cannot wreck because they live in a wrecked place.

When released, they do not hurt the grass, and they cannot touch those who were sealed in chapter 7. Those they torment long for death, but death still eludes them.

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