Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Revelation 9

What do we learn from this chapter?

• The timing of the 5th trumpet is between Israel’s betrayal in the middle of the tribulation when attacked by the Antichrist in the invasion of Gog and Magog, and the coming of the march to Armageddon. The Antichrist has been assassinated and brought back to life with a mimic resurrection of technology. He is now the “image of the beast”. The real power is the false prophet who steps in and forces everyone to “worship” this technological wonder and take his mark; however, many already had this mark. Now it is mandatory for everyone. [Note: the beast marks men but God seals them, even as He sealed 144,000 young, Jewish, virgin men just before the invasion of Gog and Magog].
  
• This invasion is covered in the Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls under the White Line in the chart covering “MAN AND EARTH”.

• In Revelation 6, 9, and 16, the reader is introduced to Satan being thrown out of heaven and onto earth. Men are scorched by the sun, called a “him”. It is also the first woe when locusts (wars) are released from the bottomless pit. The 5th bowl shows Satan sharing his throne with the Antichrist by indwelling him.
• It wasn’t enough to attack and take Israel. The insatiable appetite for more power, more land, more greed, opens the bottomless pit where enough is never enough.

• The march to Armageddon includes the drying up of the Euphrates River to make way for the nations of the world to meet their Creator in the Valley of Decision: Megiddo.
• The Return of Jesus is the 7th seal, the 7th trumpet, and the 7th bowl in Revelation 6, 11, and 16. Each description by a different point of view: God’s covenant with the Jews, God’s warning to the Gentiles, and the consequences for ignoring God’s warnings. They all have these in common: Noises, lightning, and thunder at the presence of Jesus.

• There are reasons to believe the Antichrist is of the lineage of the Amalakites, Syrian, Edomite, and Babylonian.
• An army typically consists of planes, tanks, helicopters, and a marching army similar to locusts which invade and destroy.
• The cause of wars is hate, greed, and power, the smoke from the bottomless pit.
• How the Antichrist comes to power.
• The meaning of Armageddon.
• The first woe is the locusts from the bottomless pit.
• Satan uses men to carry out his will in the same way God uses men to carry out His will.

Gog is called “The King of the Locusts” in the Greek Septuagint (Amos 7:1 LXX: Septuagint among other translations).

Who is Gog? He is the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.
His name is the same as Agag the king of the Amalakites during the reign of King Saul.
The spirit of the Amalakites continually persecuted the Jews whereby God told Saul to slay every last Amalakite. Saul, however; spared king Agag who fathered a son; a genealogical line to the time of Esther in which Haman, of the line of Agag, attempted to eradicate each and every Jew.

Therefore, we can surmise the locusts are a marching/flying army which destroys and leaves devastation in the same way locusts clean and destroy the fruit of the field where nothing is left.

Each trumpet signals an event in the campaign against Jerusalem.

Armageddon is the “Day of the Lord” when Jesus comes with His Saints and Angels to fight the Antichrist and the False Prophet who have brought destruction to the world.

Zechariah 14:12 And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.

• The description in Zechariah 14:12 appears to be a nuclear blast and gives credence to the war being a nuclear war.

The armies of the Antichrist are one fourth of the world’s population from the surrounding Nations:

The campaign against Jerusalem begins with a so-called peace treaty. But when Satan is thrown out of heaven and indwells the Antichrist…All hell breaks loose from the bottomless pit of greed, hate, and power.

The bottomless pit is a spiritual term for greed, hatred and power (war) where enough is never enough.

MEANING OF “ARMAGEDDON”

Multitudes (Megiddo)

The word Armageddon appears only once in the Greek New Testament, in Revelation 16:16.
Megiddo (Strongs H4023) “Megiddon or Megiddo, a place of crowds (multitudes).”

It dominates the Plain of Jezreel.
BC The Archaeology of the Bible Lands. By Magnus Magnusson. BBC Publications 1977

• Isaiah 13:4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like that of many people! A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! The Lord of hosts musters the army for battle.
  
• Ezekiel 39:16 The name of the city will also be Hamonah (Literally Multitude). Thus they shall cleanse the land.” ‘

Revelation 9

Revelation 9:1 Then the fifth angel (fifth trumpet) sounded: And I saw a star (an entity) fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit (Lit. shaft of the abyss).

• Jesus identifies this entity as Satan. The entity is a “him”. Satan is thrown out of heaven in the middle of the tribulation.

And He (Jesus) said to them (prophetically), “I saw Satan fall like lightning from (o’) heaven.”

Strong’s Hebrew: 1300. בָּרָק (baraq) — Lightning,
Strong’s Hebrew: 1116. בָּמָה (bamah) — High place, ridge, height, bamah (technical name for cultic platform)

• The war continues for 3-1/2 years as the nations gather adding strength to strength, pulled into a march to Armageddon.
• The entire seven years are Daniel’s 70th “week” of seven years as God works with the Jews to bring them to a place of repentance. Israel becomes the stumbling stone of the world. In the end, at Armageddon, every last Jew recognizes Jesus as their Jewish Messiah and Savior when He returns to earth bringing an army of angels and saints to destroy Israel’s enemies and set up His kingdom on earth.
  
• Satan has the key to the bottomless pit.

Revelation 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.

• The bottomless pit is a place of hatred, greed, corruption and power resulting in war; enough is never enough.
  
  • Isaiah 56:11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
    
• Out of the bottomless pit comes a war. The sun and the air are darkened because of the effects of the war.

Revelation 9:3 Then out of the smoke locusts (Gog is the king of the locusts. He is also the Antichrist, see {4 of 6} Rev. 9) came upon the earth. And to them was given power (from Satan), as the scorpions of the earth have power (to hurt).

Revelation 9:4 They were commanded NOT to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

• After the 144,000 are sealed, The FIRST TRUMP destroys the vegetation-By the FIFTH TRUMP instructions are given NOT to hurt the vegetation, rather, only hurt those without the seal of God.
• 

The First Trumpet is blown AFTER the vegetation is struck (right after the 144,000 young Jewish virgin men are sealed). This puts the attack on Jerusalem in the middle of the tribulation for the seals, trumpets, and bowls (all of which run consecutively). The locusts are told NOT to hurt the vegetation on the Fifth Trumpet.

Speculation would point to the possibility that the location is different. The armies of the Antichrist move from Jerusalem to the battle at Armageddon.

Revelation 9:5 And they (The locusts) were NOT given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.

Revelation 9:6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

Revelation 9:7 The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold (brass), and their faces were like the faces of men (through the windows).

Revelation 9:8 They had hair like women’s hair (blades), and their teeth were like lions’ teeth (the grill).

Revelation 9:9 And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle.  (The whirl of the blades)

Revelation 9:10 They had tails (guns) like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months.

Revelation 9:11 And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is (Destruction) Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon (Destroyer).

• Gog is the king of the locusts (Amos 7:1 LXX) He is the Antichrist indwelt by Satan, the destroyer.

Revelation 9:12 One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.

• The three woes begin with Satan’s arrival on earth.

Sixth Trumpet: The Angels from the Euphrates and the Kings of the East.

Revelation 9:13 Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

Revelation 9:14 saying to the sixth angel (messenger) who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels (messengers) who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”

Revelation 9:15 So the four angels (messengers), who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.

• See Topic: Euphrates River Drying Up

• Revelation 16:12 [Sixth Bowl: Euphrates Dried Up] Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.

• News article below: The drying up of the Euphrates:

• Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are Drying Up – NASA studies recently have indicated that the Fertile Crescent region in the Middle East is losing fresh water at a rapid rate. The water flow in the important Euphrates and Tigris Rivers has decreased as a result of this trend and formerly arable land in the area has become cracked and dry.

Revelation 9:¹⁶ Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million (200,000,000); I heard the number of them.

Revelation 9:¹⁷ And thus I saw the horses (military tanks?) in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow;  and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone.

Revelation 9:18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths (military).

Revelation 9:19 For their (lions/tanks?) power is in their mouth (the gun in front of the tanks)  and in their tails (machine guns in the back of the tank); for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.

Revelation 9:20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works (change their ways) of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.

• Men certainly worship gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood that will make them a profit.
• Do we also worship demons?

Revelation 9:21 And they did not repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or their sexual immorality, or their thefts.

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