"And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. 2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. 3 Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
7 In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8 their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lions' teeth; 9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. 10 They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. 11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.
12 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come."
Revelation 9:1-12
This chapter continues the vision of the trumpets, and describes the fifth and sixth. There are two sections, one depicting the opening of the bottomless pit and the eruption of smoke, and in the smoke a plague of locusts, a fantastic picture, horrific and terrifying. In the second, four angels are loosed from the Euphrates in answer to a cry from the golden altar before God, and a prodigious army is loosed upon the earth, tremendous in its fearsomeness and horror. What meaning are we to place upon these manifestations? One commentator - in line with a previous suggestion in an earlier Note, that the thrusting of the gospel into society causes disturbance – maintains that this is what is expressed here. It is the Word of God that opens the bottomless pit of human nature, unveiling the secret depths of the human heart. It may be open to question whether it is legitimate or arbitrary to identify the star in 1 with the Word of God, but surely the general tenor of this interpretation is true enough. But there is much more to it than this - much more. There may well be an allusion in the falling star to Luke 10:17-20, where Christ speaks of Satan falling as lightning from heaven, and of giving His disciples power to tread on serpents and scorpions. At all events, we should certainly see in these verses an irruption of demons from the pit. This does not clash with the first idea, but complements it, and partly explains it. But this is a big subject and must wait until tomorrow's Note. In the meantime, we pause to realise, with great solemnity, that this monstrous irruption is one of the trumpets of God. It is His angel who unlocks the pit!