The Final Triumph

Verses 1-11: And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. And he opened the bottomless pit; and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth; and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And they were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment them for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; and they will long to die and death flees from them. And the appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads, as it were, crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. And they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle. And they had tails like scorpions and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months. They have as king over them, an angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. This star is clearly a fallen angel, most probably Satan. This fallen angel was given the key of the bottomless pit where some demons are locked up by God (as we read in 1 Peter 3:19). All demons are not there. Most demons have freedom to roam around on the earth. Remember the man with a legion of demons whom Jesus met? The demons within that man pleaded with Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit. Jesus granted their request and sent them into the 2000 pigs that ran into the sea. But one day the bottomless pit is going to be opened. And the demons that are locked up there are going to be released on to the face of the earth. That is part of the judgment that God is going to allow upon the face of this earth, as though the Lord says to the people, "You wanted to follow the advice of the devil. You wanted to obey the devil's words rather than Mine. All right. Here are all your friends who are going to visit you now, the whole lot of them from the bottomless pit." That is what we see here. The smoke from the pit is the filth and muck of the unclean spirits. The locusts are the evil spirits who are granted power to poison men's minds and torment them even as the scorpions of the earth have power to poison men's bodies. The torment of these demons will be so bad that many people will want to die, but they will not be able to commit suicide!! The description of the demons is terrifying - terrifying faces, flying hair like that of mad women and the teeth of lions - all pictures to show us how horrible it is going to be for those who will be tormented by these demons. But they are given permission to hurt men only for five months. Why only for five months? Because God is merciful. Jesus told a story in Matthew 18:23-35 of a man who was forgiven forty million rupees by a king, who would not then forgive his fellow servant a paltry sum of forty rupees. This unmerciful man caught his fellow servant by the throat and said, "Pay up." And when the king heard it he was angry and handed the unmerciful servant over to the torturers. Those torturers symbolise demons who are permitted to torment unmerciful believers today. For Jesus said, So shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. (verse 35) This is something serious, and I don't want anyone's blood on my hands. If you who are reading this, (whether you call yourself a believer or Spirit-baptized or whatever) have not forgiven even one person anywhere in the world, I want to warn you (no matter how long you may have considered yourself to be a "believer") that you will certainly not enter the kingdom of God. You will certainly not be taken up when Jesus comes. You will instead be handed over to these demons who have the sting of a scorpion. That is as clear as black and white to me, because I believe the words of the Lord Jesus. That man who was handed over to the torturers was a man who was once forgiven. But his master withdrew that forgiveness, because he would not forgive someone else. God will not hesitate to hand over such a man to the demons. That is why I would plead with you earnestly, "Get rid of your bitterness (your Wormwood). Forgive everyone freely. Your heavenly Father will not forgive you if you do not forgive even one human being on the face of the earth." The name of the angel of the bottomless pit, Abaddon or Apollyon, means "Destroyer". That describes in one word Satan's purpose for man - to destroy him with lust or an unforgiving attitude. Jesus spoke of scorpions in Luke 10:19 to symbolise the powers of darkness. He said to His disciples, "I have given you authority over serpents and scorpions to tread upon them." The demons can only harm those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Spiritually speaking, you can't have that seal on your forehead if you haven't forgiven others. Verses 12-17: The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, 'Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.' And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they might kill a third of mankind. And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And this is how I saw in the vision of the horses and those who sat on them; the riders had breastplates the colour of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like lions; and out of their mouth proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. The River Euphrates mentioned here is a very broad river that flows down through Iraq. Four demons have been bound at that river. These are demons whose main aim is to stir men to go to war against each other. The Middle East is going to be the centre of constant war in the last days. There was a long war there between Iraq and Iran for nearly 9 years and later between Iraq and the Western powers. But all that is nothing compared to what is going to take place around the River Euphrates in the future. As soon as the four demons are released, a great war will start which is described more fully in chapter 16. We read here that the exact hour and day and month and year have already been determined by God. 200 million fierce demons are let loose on the face of the earth at that time to possess 200 million soldiers and to incite them to war. Jesus spoke about hell as a place of fire and brimstone. Here we see demons bringing that atmosphere to people on earth. Verse 18: A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which proceed out of their mouths. In chapter 6:8, we saw that one-fourth of mankind was already killed by the 'ashen horse' ridden by 'Death'. Now a further one-third of the remaining population of the world is killed. That reduces the world's population to half of what it was originally. Verse 19: For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads; and with them they do harm. God is using various symbols here to teach us the horrible nature of these demons. It is horrible to expose oneself to demons and ignore the warnings of the Word of God. When Eve listened to Satan in the garden of Eden, she opened the door for the influx of demons into the human race. Jesus has come to enable us to shut that door. But it is WE who have to make that choice. We are warned in Ephesians 4:27 not to give ANY PLACE to the devil. If we don't give any place to the devil in our lives, we can live a life of perfect rest in God on this earth, even in the midst of many trials and sorrows. Verses 20, 21: And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts. Even after seeing half the world's population wiped out, people still do not repent. Jesus once told a true story of a rich man who went to hell. Lazarus the beggar who sat at his gate however went to heaven. When the rich man went to hell, he asked Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to tell his five brothers to repent (Luke 16:30). That rich man realized when he went to hell that people go to hell not because they are sinners but because they do not repent of their sins. What were the sins men continued to indulge in? First of all, idolatry - worshipping idols made of gold and silver, and the idols of money, position and earthly honour. Then murder - which includes hatred. They did not repent of their hatred and bitterness and murder. Then sorceries - Satan-worship has increased in the twentieth century much more than at any time in the history of the world. Sorcery also includes astrology, palm reading, fortune-telling, reading what the stars foretell for the week, ouija boards, tarot cards etc., etc. The Greek word for sorcery is 'pharmakeia' from which we get the English word 'pharmacy'. You could therefore translate this word as 'sellers of drugs' too. People did not repent of selling harmful drugs like cocaine and marijuana and heroin that destroyed others. Then immorality - that is their adultery and fornication, which have all increased tremendously in the world in the last 50 years since the advent of television, video-tapes and pornography on the Internet. And finally stealing - taking things that do not belong to them. The reason why men do not repent even when they see half the world's population wiped out is because their hearts have been hardened. He who has ears to hear let him hear.