Revelation 9:1

REV:9

The seven seals were divided into two groups (4,3); and the same is true with the trumpets, the division being marked by the insertion of Revelation 8:13"[1] where the last three trumpets are designated as "woes." These last three "woes" contrast with the first four trumpets in that their judgments fall directly upon man; whereas, in the four, the judgments fell upon the environment, with their effect being felt indirectly by man. Both here and there, however, the heavenly limitation is clearly visible. The torment of the locusts is for "five months" only (Revelation 9:5,10); only the "third part" of man may be killed under the sixth trumpet (Revelation 9:15); the fallen angel (Revelation 9:1) could not open the abyss until "there was given him" the key; the four angels bound at the Euphrates could not act independently, but only upon orders from God himself (Revelation 9:13,14); and in the fifth trumpet (first woe), the tormentors could only inflict punishment, but could not kill.

This chapter relates the fifth trumpet (Revelation 9:1-12) and the sixth trumpet (Revelation 9:13-21), which are the first two woes; and here there is a dramatic progression beyond the environmental judgments of the first four trumpets recorded in Revelation 8.

The picture of terror mounts in its awful intensity. Here the terrors coming upon the earth are beyond nature; they are demonic. The abyss is opened, and the superhuman terrors are being dispatched upon the world.[2]

This fundamental change in the character of the visions from environmental dislocations to the type of terrors in the woes forbids the interpretation that makes the successive trumpets prophecies of sequential historical events; and exactly the same change is seen in the first two woes. For example, Barnes' view that the fifth trumpet represents Muslim conquests, and that the sixth refers to the rise of the Turkish power, takes no account whatever of the fact that the fifth trumpet was not fatal, and that the sixth resulted in the slaughter of a third of the human race. This is a distinction that cannot pertain to the successive conquests of the Muslims and the Turks.

In fact, it is likely that the fifth trumpet does not symbolize military operations at all. Taken together, and there is an obvious connection, the two woes represent such things as wicked philosophies, false theories, satanic delusions, vain imaginations, humanistic assumptions, perverted religious systems, evil patterns of human thought, etc., which turn people's thoughts away from God and betray the whole world into the hands of Satan, with a result, of course, that plunges the whole world repeatedly into destructive wars and revolutions, producing a lifestyle radically contrary to the will of God.

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven fallen upon the earth: and there was given to him the key of the pit of the abyss. (Revelation 9:1)

This heralds the appearance of the first woe.

A star from heaven fallen upon the earth ...

The fallen star must be Satan himself[3] The fallen star is apparently Satan, his power to open and close being exercised by divine permission.[4] The star fallen represents the devil's present condition. Having rebelled against God, he has lost his position in heaven ... When we read that Satan had power to open the abyss, it means that he receives power to incite men to evil.[5] Isaiah said of Satan, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning" (Isaiah 14:12). It seems therefore that Satan himself is here referred to under this symbol.[6] The star is Satan[7] The pit is opened by one who is a fallen star - no doubt Satan.[8]

The only "fallen star" in the sense of this passage in the entire Bible is Satan. Jesus said, "I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18). Lenski objected to this interpretation on the basis that Satan fell "like lightning," but not "out of heaven to the earth."[9] However, Lenski failed to show any difference in falling "from" heaven and "out of' heaven. Compare this verse with Luke 10:18. Others also have shown great reluctance to accept this fallen star as Satan:

He is obviously an angel of God carrying out the divine will.[10] (Would such an angel be called "fallen"?) He depicts the corporate life of men in its opposition to God..[11] "Fallen" is used because that is the way stars come down out of the sky. It represents some angelic figure, not Satan.[12]

Such objections are arbitrary and unsupported by any solid logic. It appears that much of the reluctance to admit what appears to this writer as a certainty derives from an erroneous identification of this being with the angel with the key in Revelation 20:1 who bound Satan and locked him up; but that angel was the true possessor of the key. Here the fallen angel used it only by permission. As Caird observed:

There is all the difference in the world between this fallen angel who was given the key, and the angel of Revelation 20:1 whom John saw descending from heaven with the key. The difference is not just that one releases and the other locks up. One is an evil agent acting with divine permission, and the other is a good agent carrying out God's will.[13]

We do not hesitate to identify what takes place under these trumpet woes with the "loosing of Satan," detailed later in the prophecy.

And there was given to him the key of the pit of the abyss ... Jesus' encounter with the demons of Gadara (Luke 8:31) revealed the "abyss" as "the abode of the devil and demons."[14] When people serve Satan rather than Christ, the Lord permits Satan to torment them (the fifth trumpet) and to slay them (the sixth trumpet). Fallen in this verse therefore refers to what took place long before this vision; "the proper translation is star which had fallen."[15] Having the key of the abyss, with limitations, shows that Satan is free to deceive and even to cause the death of the wicked, and has special reference here to his inciting them to rebel]ion against God. Beckwith objected that, "Satan nowhere appears as a divine agent of God to carry out a divine ordering, such as the sending of these plagues upon the world";[16] but the Scriptures teach that Satan blinds the ungodly (2 Corinthians 4:4), and practically all of Romans 1:18-32 is a vivid description of God's use of Satan in just such a capacity. It is clearly satanic activity which is in view in these verses.

[1] Isbon T. Beckwith, The Apocalypse of John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1919),p. 555.

[2] William Barclay, The Revelation of John (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), pp. 46,47.

[3] Frank L. Cox, According to John (Austin, Texas: Firm Foundation Publishing House, 1948), p. 64.

[4] Charles H. Roberson, Studies in Revelation (Tyler, Texas: P. D. Wilmeth, P.O. Box 3305,1957), p. 57.

[5] William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1956), p. 145.

[6] A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950, p. 262.

[7] Edward A. McDowell, The Meaning and Message of Revelation (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1951), p. 104.

[8] Michael Wilcock, I Saw Heaven Opened (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1975), p. 97.

[9] R. C. H Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John's Revelation (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943). p. 288.

[10] Martin Rist, The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. XII (New York-Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1957), p. 431.

[11] J. W. Roberts, The Revelation of John (Austin, Texas: The R. B. Sweet Company, 1974), p. 78.

[12] George Eldon Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972), p. 129.

[13] G. B. Caird, The Revelation of St. John the Divine (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), pp. 117,118.

[14] James A. Moffatt, Expositor's Greek New Testament, Vol. V (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 406.

[15] Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, Vol. 20, The Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969), p. 127.

[16] Isbon T. Beckwith, op. cit., p. 561.