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.

·        Unfortunately, this “sting” does not bring the desired repentance, but instead men desire death. (CS)

·        The anguish of a scorpion sting drives men to great despair and even panic, so that men seek suicide instead of God, but are unable to do it. In an unspecified way, God doesn’t allow them to kill themselves.

                                                                                           

Job 3:21  Who long for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than hidden treasures.

Jeremiah 8:3  Then death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts.

Revelation 9:5

And they 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.

·        The hurt they were to do them was not a bodily, but a spiritual hurt (MH)

·        Their purpose and period is expressly governed by God, and the purpose of all this to bring repentance (Revelation 9:20-21). (DG)

Proverbs 29:2  When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, the people groan.

Isaiah 50:11  Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks; walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled – this you have from My hand; you shall lie down in torment.

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.

·        The characteristics of these locusts make it clear that they are not natural locusts. They have a king whereas natural locusts do not have a king (Rev. 9:11; Prov. 30:27). These have the ability to distinguish between unbelievers who they hurt and believers who they do not hurt. Also, natural locusts do not come up from the depths of the earth and do not sting with their tails.  (CS)

·        The specific time must be taken literally since there is no contextual (biblical) reason to make this figurative or symbolic.  (CS)

 Psalm 105:15 Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.

Ezekiel 9:4-6 … and the LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”…..

Revelation 9:3

Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth.  And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

·        These locusts had, by the just permission of God, power to hurt (MH)

·        God lifts His restraints off the demonic realm, so their wickedness is manifest. (CS)

Exodus 10:12-15  Then the LROD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land – all that the hail has left.” …

Deuteronomy 8:15   …who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock…..

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 devil carries on his designs by extinguishing light and knowledge (MH)

·        These are obviously not “natural” locusts. They avoid plants and attack men like scorpions attack. They are “A visual representation of the hordes of demons loosed upon the earth.” (Walvoord)

Genesis 19:28  Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace.

Ezekiel 32:7  When I put out your light, I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

Revelation 9:1

Then the fifth angel sounded:  and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth.  To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.

·        The text clearly shows us that this star is a person (to him), not a literal star. The verb tense (fallen) indicates that he already had fallen. (DG)

·        This key becomes the devil’s turnkey, to let loose the powers of hell against the churches of Christ (MH)

Isaiah 14:11-16 ….How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!  How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!.....

Psalm 30:3  O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Revelation 8:13

And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”

·        Here are three woes, to show how much the calamities coming should exceed those that had been already (MH)

·        If less judgments do not take effect, but the church and the world grow worse under them, they must expect greater. (MH)

Isaiah 3:11 Woe to the wicked!  It shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him.

Psalm 47:5  God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.