Foundational for reader understanding is to recognize the text is a foretelling of the final events in the history of human ‘governance’ – of our history forged in rebellion against the Divine will – separated from His purposes, His purity. Still, how can scripture reveal the future without changing the future?
Not possible? All things are possible with God! And so, what of our response? The key point I consider in response is for each of us, for all to choose rightly.
In continuing, please be aware: the message of the Book of Revelation has been belittled, rejected, ignored – but not understood. There are things to happen that we simply cannot understand, things beyond human experience – at present. Even so, today’s witnesses can offer, without hesitation, that forthcoming events are indeed set to become catastrophic, even worldwide.
Believers can receive the word of truth, as the Eternal God provides awareness and understanding, but of all that is recorded, nothing, not a solitary mite will change! In order to continue and to find understanding, we must embrace the text without preconception, and without prejudice.
1 Then the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and it was given the key [Greek: κλεὶς – a means to unlock; to access] to the pit of the Abyss [Greek: ἀβύσσου – the depths]. 2 The star opened the pit of the Abyss, and smoke rose out of it like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit.
A ‘star’ (again, a meteor or asteroid, some heavenly body) opened the ‘pit’. The contemporary reader can readily understand why one would interpret this as a sizeable meteor impact.
3 And out of the smoke, locusts descended on the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 The locusts were not given power to kill them, but only to torment them for five months, and their torment was like the stinging of a scorpion. 6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.
Only the sealed people of Israel were to remain unharmed. Out of the smoke – directly, emerging from the impact, or from the smoke that fills the air in the aftermath? The matter may constitute a prepared response to the crisis. A great many winged, flying creatures? Perhaps not, but rather flying weapons or surveillance craft. Perhaps the comparison with locusts is, essentially, in the frenetic, flying nature of the emergence.
‘Locusts descended’? Impossible? Remember that John wrote of what he witnessed in the vision, and rendered it in the form he could verbalize.
A mechanical, technological deployment of drones or manned craft, deployed to ensure compliance with … directives for containment of the people? One cannot say with certainty, and yet it is certain to come!
7 And the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle, with something like crowns of gold on their heads, and faces like the faces of men. 8 They had hair like that of women, and teeth like those of lions. 9 They also had thoraxes like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the roar of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.
‘Like horses prepared for battle.’ The focus of the related image may well be the premise of prepared combatants. Perhaps to John a frightening image, one most keenly conveyed as a warhorse – terrifying to the civilian and the combatant both! Also, some have likened this ‘sound of their wings’ verbage to the raucous sound of helicopters, akin to the droning cacophony of gyrating blades. A matter for prayer in preparation as the days ‘encroach’, and an unsettling matter for consideration and even research is that of contemporary non-lethal weapons, for:
10 They had tails with stingers like scorpions, which had the power to injure people for five months. 11 They were ruled by a king, the angel [Greek: ἄγγελον (ang’-el-on) – messenger] of the Abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon [Destroyer], and in Greek it is Apollyon [The Destroying One].
Again, for five months. The entirety of the (initial) response a deployment, a military response? Is the ‘ruler’ possibly a military leader, known to the world as ‘destroyer’. There are many possibilities, of course, but given the nature of ‘an asteroid striking the earth’, my focus herein is currently upon the asteroid Apophis (see Wikipedia – the Uncreator). Consider the following (space.com):
Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “What makes Apophis the poster child for potentially hazardous asteroids is that it will make the closest known approach to Earth of any large asteroid this decade.
“But the three most important things about Apophis are: Apophis will miss the Earth. Apophis will miss the Earth. Apophis will miss the Earth.”
If one consults YouTube – in particular the archives regarding video commentary on the part of astrophysicists and others – well, I cannot feel reassured. But I don’t know. No one does, only Almighty God.
Addendum: I see that searches on YouTube for Apophis are increasingly generating results that are ‘distracting’, so please let me clarify in part. The asteroid’s orbit currently has a precise seven-year interval with earth. In the Old Testament, a calendar year was considered to be 360 days; the tribulation encompasses 1260 days * 2 plus 30 days – that is, seven years plus a short period of time to complete the events detailed in chapter nineteen. You may find further analysis here, but I do not agree with expectations of a pre-tribulation rapture – a matter for prayer. But one more detail, please: April 13 2029 is a Friday, and April 13 2036 is Easter Sunday. Will humanity itself experience death, darkness as Christ did?
12 The first woe has passed. Behold, two woes are still to follow.
The first woe is bad, but it is not the worst of the ‘fallout’, might I say.
13 Then the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God 14 saying to the sixth angel with the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
Messengers, ‘bound at the great river Euphrates.’ Odd? Yes, but perhaps it is prudent to inform the reader about the Keban Dam, completed in the early 1970s. What’s the relevance? Armageddon. Rather, Megiddo – so much to share, to analyse, but the forward chapters’ text is yet to come.
I will ask the reader to continue with the remainder of the chapter and consider what follows. Thusly, at present I offer only a solitary word for what it all sounds like. It sounds like war, like humanity itself constitutes the beast.
15 So the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 And the number of mounted troops was two hundred million; I heard their number.
17 Now the horses and riders in my vision looked like this: The riders had breastplates the colors of fire, sapphire, and sulfur. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceeded fire, smoke, and sulfur. 18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that proceeded from their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; indeed, their tails were like snakes, having heads with which to inflict harm.
20 Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Furthermore, they did not repent of their murder, sorcery*, sexual immorality, and theft.
* Greek φαρμάκων – pharmakon, a drug or pharmaceutical
Why is God so … angry? Please read the words again, and as you do so remember that God understands, experiences all the pain in the entirety of His creation. Can it be that any parent who loves their child, their children not suffer, not endure their pain? So I recall Christ in Luke 18 verses 7 and 8:
And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
End Times Prophecy 