The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ - Chapter Nine, Verse Seven

Verse seven: “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.” [Revelation 9:7]

Shapes, heads and faces

Not only are these locusts altered, modified, and infused with the power of scorpions, but they also, are likened to horses.  

Now, what is forming up in my mind’s eye is something rather scary.  These creatures, which come up from the bottomless pit, are no doubt a devilish concoction put together in the laboratory of the underworld.  

What is more, these locusts have crowns on their heads, and their faces resemble that of the faces of men.   This scene has become a nightmare!   

Now, it gets worse! 

Verse eight: “And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.” [Revelation 9:8]

The hair and teeth

What we see coming up out the bottomless pit are zombies.  They have the hair of women, and their teeth are as the teeth of lions. 

Verse nine: “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.” [Revelation 9:9]

Breastplates and wings

The Spirit of God portraying a lurid scene of strange creatures coming up out the depths of the earth.

These are spirits. They are like the spirit that passed before Job in his day: “Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:” [Job 4:15].  It is enough to make your hair stand up!  It gives me the willies!

Now, we need to recall what we have already seen:

1.       These locusts are altered, or modified, and infused with the power of scorpions.

2.       These locusts have bodies likened to horses.

3.       These locusts have crowns on their heads.

4.       These locusts have faces that appear to have the faces of men.

5.       These locusts have the hair of women.

6.       These locusts have teeth as the teeth of lions.

To this list we can add these following attributes:

7.       These locusts are fitted with breastplates.

8.       These locusts have wings!  They can fly!   

Now, there is more!

Verse ten: “And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.” [Revelation 9:10]

Like unto scorpions

Lastly, they have tails like a scorpion, and there are stingers in those tails!

They are ready for war.  They are now fully equipped for their mission to hurt men for a duration of five months.

Now, before I ask a question, I will tell you this: God has created in time past the following creatures by the word of the LORD:

1.       Cherubims  [Genesis 3:24]

2.       Seraphim’s  [Isaiah 6:2]

3.       Angels [Genesis 19:1]

4.       Man [Genesis 1:26]

Now, here comes the question. 

Where did these morphed locusts originally come from?  

Well, the book of Jude provides light, so as to arrive safely to our answer.  These supernatural locusts are angels.  They are the angels that did not keep within the sphere of their intended design in the creation. 

They left their first estate:

Verse six of the book of Jude: “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” [Jude 1:6]

Thus, they morphed into devils!  The First book of Moses called Genesis in chapter six shows where they left their first estate:

“That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” [Genesis 6:2]

 This is why God has locked them up in the bottomless pit.  They are expressly reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.  The Tribulation will be this great day.

 Verse eleven: “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.” [Revelation 9:11]

“…they had a king over them”

1.       These locusts are modified locusts, and are infused with the power of scorpions.

2.       These locusts have bodies likened to horses.

3.       These locusts have crowns on their heads.

4.       These locusts have faces that appear to have the faces of men.

5.       These locusts have the hair of women.

6.       These locusts have teeth as the teeth of lions.

To this list we can add these following attributes:

7.       These locusts are fitted with breastplates.

8.       These locusts have wings!  They can fly!  

9.       These locusts have tails like a scorpion with stingers in their tails!

10.    These locusts are ready for war.

11.    These locusts are angels, which have left their first estate.

12.    These locusts are devils.

13.    These locusts have a king over them. 

14.    This king over them is an angel.

15.    He is the angel of the bottomless pit.

16.    This angel’s name in the Hebrew is Abaddon, but in the Greek is Apollyon.

Just who is this Abaddon or Apollyon?  Good question!  We will search the BIBLE for this answer.

“…whose name”

Now, we have idioms, or modes of expression, used in the English language that point to a particular truth.  This truth is: There are devil’s here on this earth!

Thus, we have heard it said many times:

1.       Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don't

2.       Between the Devil and the deep blue sea

3.       The Devil in disguise

4.       The Devil may care

5.       Every man for himself and the Devil take the hindmost

6.       Full of the Devil

7.       Give the Devil his due

8.       Go to the Devil

9.       He must needs go that the Devil drives

10.    He who sups with the Devil should use a long spoon

11.    He will give the Devil his due

12.    In league with the Devil

13.    Like the Devil

14.    Little Devil

15.    Luck of the Devil

16.    Make a deal with the Devil

17.    Needs must when the Devil drives

18.    Parsley seed goes nine times to the Devil

19.    Play the Devil's advocate

20.    Raise the Devil

21.    Sell your soul to the Devil

22.    Speak of the Devil

23.    Supping with the Devil

24.    Sympathy For The Devil

25.    Talk of the Devil

26.    Talk of the Devil, and he is bound to appear

27.    Tell the truth and shame the Devil

28.    The Devil finds work for idle hands to do

29.    The Devil has all the best tunes

30.    The Devil is in the detail

31.    The Devil made me do it

32.    The Devil take the hindmost

33.    The Devil take you

34.    The Devil to pay

35.    The Devil looks after his own

36.    What the Devil?

37.    While you live, tell truth and shame the Devil!

38.    Son of a Devil

There is something that we need to learn here.  The Devil [that is Satan], and all the devils, which are in subjection to the Devil, have a ready access to God.   

Note, the scene opens to us through the Spirit of God in the book Job, chapter one, verse six:

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.” [Job 1:6] 

Here is a question.  How many meetings have there been, such as this one, down through time?  I wonder.  We will go now to the book of Matthew, and see the one who has this kind of access.

Matthew 10:2-4

“Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;

Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;

Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.”

Here again, are the twelve men that Jesus Christ chose to for HIS apostles:

1.       Simon [Peter]

2.       Andrew

3.       James

4.       John

5.       Philip

6.       Bartholomew

7.       Thomas

8.       Matthew

9.       James [the son of Alphaeus]

10.    Lebbaeus

11.    Simon [the Canaanite]

12.    Judas

Now, turn to the Gospel according to John, chapter six, and we will see a rather peculiar statement made by the Son of God, Jesus Christ. 

Read verse seventy:

“Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” [John 6:70]

Do you see it!  One of his disciples [note the use of the present tense] “is a devil”!  Note the letter “a”, which is an indefinite article.

So, one of Jesus Christ’s disciples … is a devil.   Strange!  All twelve men look like normal men!  For forty-two months:

1.       They all lived together.

2.       They eat together.

3.       They travelled together. 

4.       They prayed together.

And not one of them, not even once, discerned in three and half years of living together that a devil was in their midst.   Yet one of them was a devil. 

The word of God has a way of bringing out into the open the things that are hidden for all to see.  Jesus said:  “and one of you is a devil”!

Now, the word devil appears in your English King James Bible 57 times. And the plural form of the word devils appears forty-eight times.

And the first instance of either form of the word appears for the first time in the Bible, in the third book of Moses, called Leviticus, in chapter seventeen, verse seven:

“And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.” [Leviticus 17:7]

Now at a certain point later in time the word of God states that Satan [The Devil] entered into Judas who was a devil.  This thing is clearly seen in the Gospel according to Luke in chapter twenty-two.  Read verse three: 

“Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.” [Luke 22:3]

Furthermore, the word of God has identified Judas as being the son of perdition.   To substantiate this fact, we will look at two verses: first the Gospel of John, chapter seventeen, verse twelve, and then second, in the Second Epistle of the Thessalonians, chapter two, verse three:

“While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.” [John 17:12],

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;” [2 Thessalonians 2:3].  

Conclusion: This king called Abaddon in the Hebrew, and Apollyon in the Greek is Judas Iscariot. 

Well, you say, “How can we know this?”  We can.  Go to the book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter one, verse twenty-five, and read:

“That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” [Acts 1:25]

After Judas died, he went somewhere.  He went “to his own place.”

Remember, Judas has already been identified as a devil [according to John 6:70].

Remember, Judas has already been identified as being the son of perdition [according John 17:12].

Now for the bizarre and final connection.  Turn to the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to chapter seventeen, verse eight:

“The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. [Revelation 17:8]

What do we see?

1.       We see here a beast that was.

[This was Judas when he was on this earth as one of Jesus’s twelve disciples].

2.       We see here a beast that is not now.

[This is Judas who is now interned in the bottomless pit waiting].

3.       We see here a beast that will return to life by ascending out the bottomless pit.

Judas is our man! Judas is the beast “that was, and is not, and yet is”, who also, is the angel of the bottomless pit.  And Judas is coming back to this earth as a beast.

 Verse twelve: “One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.” [Revelation 9:12]

Woe

Woe to the men who will have been hurt continuously for those five months. These are the same men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads. 

There is a reference to this invisible seal [remember in verse of this chapter] placed in the foreheads of those who have trusted Jesus Christ.   The LORD certainly knows who are HIS!

We know this because of what was written in the second epistle of Timothy, chapter two, verse nineteen:

 “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” [2 Timothy 2:19]

There are two more woes are to come.

Now, back out from here from all these events [which will occur in the future in the book the Revelation of Jesus Christ] for just a moment.

We all [that are living today] generally experience woes.

Woe is you!  Woe is me!  Woe to you!  Woe to me!  Now, what does this word: woe mean?

Well, it means sorrows are coming to you!  It means sorrows are coming to me!

It means distresses are coming to you!  It means distresses are coming to me!

It means griefs are coming to you!  It means griefs are coming to me!

It means calamities are ready to engulf you!  It means calamities are ready to engulf me!

There are intense sorrows, distresses, griefs, calamities, and afflictions are surely coming to the inhabitants of this world for those last forty-two months of the upcoming Tribulation by the way of the Seal, Trumpet, and Vial JUDGMENTS of God.

The sixth trumpet is next.

Verse thirteen: “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,” [Revelation 9:13].

“…a voice”

The sixth angel sounds, and the Apostle John hears a voice.

Now, whose voice is this?  It is no doubt the same voice that was heard from behind the Apostle John in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, in chapter one, verses ten and eleven:

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.” [Revelation 1:10-11]

The Apostle John hears the voice of Jesus Christ.  It is a great voice.  And this voice is as a trumpet.

Now, God has a particular love for this musical instrument, the trumpet, above all the other musical instruments in the world.  Check it out! 

If we were to run through all the books of the Bible [comparing Scripture with Scripture] we would find this very connection of the trumpet to the voice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  [Exodus 19:16-19, Isaiah 58:1, 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Hebrews 12:19, Revelation 1:10, Revelation 4:1]

Amazing!

“…the four horns of the golden altar”

The voice of this PERSON was a voice from within the four horns of the golden altar of incense.  At each of the four corners was a horn, and this voice came from where the incense rose up, which is the prayers of all the saints. 

This scene is pictured in chapter eight of the book of Revelation in verse three:

“And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.” [Revelation 8:3]

Now, on earth, the golden altar of incense in the tabernacle of the wilderness was placed before the vail of the Holy of Holies in the Holy Place.

The Testimony: What was here on earth was built according to the true things in Heaven.

We can see this in the Second book of Moses called Exodus, chapter thirty, verse six: “And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.” [Exodus 30:6]. 

This golden alter of incense was patterned after the golden altar of incense, which is located in the third Heaven above the crystal sea, and is set before the throne of God. 

For more of this pattern, we need to turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter eight, verse five:

“Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.” [Hebrews 8:5]

Verse fourteen: “Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.” [Revelation 9:14]

The Euphrates

The command here, is to loose four angels. 

In Asia, there is a mighty river called the Euphrates.  Let’s provide a synopsis for this river.

In the First book of Moses called Genesis, chapter two, verses ten through fourteen, there is mention of the original four mighty rivers that were formed by a greater river that went out of Eden to water the garden in the antediluvian world [which is before the Great Flood]. [B.C. 4004]

“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

“The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.” [Genesis 2:10-14]

These four antediluvians, [pre-flood], rivers were:

1.       The Pison

2.       The Gihon