Revelation 9 continues as the seven angels pour their destruction out upon the earth. The first four angels are recorded in chapter 8, and we pick up with angel five coming to work.
Angel – action – outcome
Fifth angel – a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit – locusts….given….the power of scorpions….not to harm the grass….only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads….allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them….people will seek death and will not find it…. long to die, but death will flee from them
Sixth angel – Release the four angels – to kill a third of mankind….mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand…. three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths
So angels five and six were pretty nasty. They torment and then kill a whole lot of people – 1/3 of mankind – and not in a very nice or easy way. Five months of torment and then death by plagues. Not an appealing thought to say the least.
But the amazing thing is what scripture tells us next: “The rest of mankind….not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols….nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts”. So they have seen the death and torment but yet they are unwilling to repent and turn from sin and idolatry. Hello – that is a really stupid response to what is happening here. But it does show just how depraved the mind of man can become. Sin can get a grasp on us to the point we lose common sense. It only makes sense that seeing the kind of destruction that has been described via the first six angels should grab ones attention – but as it is written – they don’t get it. They keep doing what they have always done and will pay a huge price for that decision. God cannot tolerate sin. It won’t be ignored or overlooked. Hell is a real place. Death will happen. It is time to get your life on track and tuned in with God!
