Revelation 9:6-12 - The Devil and his Demonic Angels

In the future, Satan will serve God's purpose by being permitted to launch another deadly assault against the human race. That attack will come at the sounding of the fifth trumpet, during the time of God's judgment in the Great Tribulation (7:14). For millennia the heavens have declared God's glory (cf. Ps. 19:1-2), but in the future they will declare His wrath. The first four trumpet judgments will all involve either objects hurtling to earth out of the sky, or, in the case of the fourth trumpet, the heavenly bodies themselves will be affected (8:7-12). While the destruction caused by the first four trumpet judgments will be catastrophic, the remaining three will be far worse. That was the sobering message given by "an eagle or angel flying in midheaven" (8:13). He pronounced a threefold message of woe (one for each of the final three trumpets) on "those who dwell on the earth" (8:13)—a technical term in Revelation for unregenerate people (6:10; 11:10; 13:8, 12, 14; 14:6; 17:2, 8)—because of the terrors the final three trumpet judgments would soon unleash. The eagle's message will give people one last opportunity to repent before the rising crescendo of divine judgment reaches its apex in the final three blasts of God's holy anger. Indeed, it appears that those who go through the fifth trumpet judgment without repenting may be confirmed in their unrepentant state (9:20-21; 16:9, 11). Each of the first four trumpet judgments affect the physical universe in some way, but with the sounding of the fifth trumpet the focus will shift from the physical to the spiritual realm. Scripture teaches that God has sovereignly chosen to incarcerate certain demons in that pit of punishment. 2 Peter 2:4 says that "God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment." The demons incarcerated in the abyss are undoubtedly the most wicked, vile, and perverted of all the fallen angels. Jude describes some of them as "angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode," noting that God "has kept [them] in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day (Jude 6). After millennia of captivity, the vile demons would no doubt want to give full vent to all of their pent-up evil by slaughtering people. Certainly Satan would want to kill all the unregenerate to keep them from repenting. But God, in His mercy, will give people torment for five months, during which they cannot die but will be given the opportunity to repent and embrace the gospel. So intense will be the torment inflicted on unbelievers that in those days (the five months of v. 5) men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them (v. 6). All hope is gone; there will be no tomorrow. The earth, people have loved and worshiped, will have been utterly devastated, the land ravaged by earthquakes, fires, and volcanoes, the sea filled with the putrefying bodies of billions of dead creatures, much of the fresh water supply turned into bitter poison, the atmosphere polluted with gases and showers of heavenly debris. Then, worst of all, will come foul smoke from the pit of hell as the demons are released to spiritually and physically torment wicked people. The dream of a worldwide utopia under the leadership of Antichrist will have died. Driven mad by the filth and vileness of the demon infestation, people will seek relief in death—only to find that death has taken a holiday. There will be no escape from the agony inflicted by the demons, no escape from divine judgment. All attempts at suicide, whether by gunshot, poison, drowning, or leaping from buildings, will fail. And this is only the first woe! Today, we are living in the Day of Grace! This is the time to repent and believe in Jesus! God bless!