Understanding Revelation's Strange Images (Revelation 9:1-11)

Children's Lesson (click here)

I. Inspiring Images

Think for a moment about these 'inspiring images', that is, think about what these simple images inspire in you: a red heart, a white dove, a skull, a gun, a rainbow, an elephant, a donkey, a house, a thermometer, a crescent moon, a cross, an upside-down star, a compass, a serpent.

All of us know that even the simplest representations of the things I just listed are powerful enough to inspire or evoke in us a whole host of specific feelings and ideas, right? Maybe feelings of affection and reassurance; maybe feelings of danger and dread. As in the ancient world, we today have our own lexicon of evocative images or symbols. Whether they are universally recognized symbols, or symbols that come from road signs or corporate logos, all of us (to whatever extent) speak this visual language.

II. The Passage: “To Open the Scroll” (9:1-11)

As I mentioned last time, the final book in our Bible, the book of the Revelation, is written in this same language: the language of symbolic imagery (and numbers... Revelation is also filled with symbolic numbers that are just as important). The challenge for us as modern readers is that we don't always understand or recognize the images that are being used. When that happens, we can be tempted to two extremes: we either 1) give up and avoid the book altogether, or 2) we attempt to make this book more manageable by interpreting these symbols literally (for example, the description of a star falling must be referring to a meteorite). This morning, I want us to think together about how to understand this symbolic imagery, and in doing so, how to access the fullest picture we can get of Jesus Christ and the incredible work of God in redeeming all things.

So let's do this: let's take an extremely weird passage, one full of strange symbols, and see if we can make sense of it. And if we can, let's see how it points us to Jesus and the ultimate victory of God. So look with me at Revelation 9:1-11. I'm simply going to dive right in by reading this...

[Revelation 9:1] And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. [2] He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. [3] Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. [4] They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. [5] They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. [6] And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them. [7] In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, [8] their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; [9] they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. [10] They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. [11] They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon [“Destruction”], and in Greek he is called Apollyon [“Destroyer”].

So as we approach a passage like this, one of the first questions we might want to ask is, “How do we know that this isn't a literal description?” If Revelation is all about the future, just before the return of Jesus, then maybe there will be Godzilla-like monsters that will come out the deep and dark places of the earth, monsters who will being chaos and devastation to the planet. Well, even if that would make for an exciting action movie, it isn't how Revelation tell it's story.

Let's take a minute to consider a key idea: Revelation explicitly tells us that it's composed of symbolic imagery. Think about these examples:

What are the “seven golden lampstands” and the “seven stars” in the hand of the heavenly Jesus in Revelation 1? 1:20 tells us: “the seven stars are the angels [or messengers] of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.” What are the seven torches of fire before God's throne in Revelation 4. Verse 5 tells us: they are “the seven spirits [or the seven-fold Spirit] of God”. What are the “golden bowls of incense” in Revelation 5:8. The verse goes on to tell us. They are “the prayers of the saints.” If we jumped ahead to chapter 19, we read about the bride of the Lamb being clothed in fine linen. Is this a literal women dress in a literal garment? No, it's the church, and as 19:8 reveals, “the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” No, not every symbol in this book is explicitly explained. Many are deciphered by going back to the OT, while others can be figured out from the context or usage in the book.

So what in the world is being represented here in 9:1-11, and how should we understand the symbolism used in this passage? To answer that, let me simply run through some of the imagery in these verses. It may feel overwhelming at first, but try to get a sense of the overall impression this vision was intended to make. So for example...

Stars are often a symbol in Scripture for angels. Like many angelic servants in this book, the angel in 9:1 descends in order to initiate the next judgment by... opening this bottomless pit.

This pit or abyss refers to a real, but spiritual place of death and darkness and judgment, a place the demons of Luke 8 did not want to be consigned, begging Jesus not to send them there.

Locusts were one of God's plagues on ancient Egypt and used figuratively in books like Judges and Jeremiah to describe a vast and devastating army.

Not surprisingly, the crowns on their head seem to speak of the authority they've been given.

Their human faces and long hair probably speak of their craftiness and ability to entice.

Their teeth like lions' teeth speak of their ferocity. Their iron breastplates remind us they are extremely formidable enemies. The noise of their wings, as we see there in verse 9, is symbolic of the dread they inspire. And their scorpion tails speak to the kind of pain they can inflict, pain that is long-lasting... and yet, still limited. They don't kill. They torture.

Now, please notice one more thing. We read in verse 4 that these creatures are not sent to hurt things like “the grass of the earth or any green plant... but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” The torment described in this passage is one of the six 'trumpet' judgments mentioned in chapters 8 and 9. I believe these judgments have in fact been occurring for the last 2000 years, signaling (trumpeting) the eventual coming of God's bowl judg-ments. But we need to see that it's only from this judgment that those who were sealed and marked as belonging to God (7:3; Ezek. 9), it's only from this that they are said to be protected. Okay. Why is that? Because when we consider all the clues, we realize what is being described here is a spiritual (specifically, a demonic) attack. Who is this “Apollyon” ('destroyer')? Who is this “angel of the bottomless pit”? He is the devil, the ultimate “thief” of John 10:10 who “comes only to steal and kill and destroy”. Therefore, these locusts are the same beings described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:12: they are “the cosmic powers over this present darkness... the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”. And the symbolism used here to describe these powerful beings is just as powerful in communicating their dreadfulness and numbers and power and craftiness. What is this demonic sting that they inflict? Could it be the kind of possess-ion we read about over and over again in the Gospels? Maybe. The torment of evil spirits is still a common occurrence on mission fields all over the world. But our societies like ours immune? No. I would suggest this trumpet judgment is manifested more often as an inner torment (yes, demonically inspired) that leads to the kind of pain, despair, alienation, confusion, bitterness, and hatred that, according to verse 6, drives people to prefer death to life. Sadly, I think that torment is something with which we are familiar in this country and in the Western world.

III. Wonderfully Strange

Now... I know that a simple study like this does not answer every question you might have about the Revelation. But I hope it will help you feel more equipped when thinking through the symbolic images of this book. And I hope it will help you appreciate the evocative power of that symbolic imagery, imagery that comprises the vast majority of this book. But more than any of that, I hope a simple study like this helps you to really, really savor a truth like the one we find in verse 4. The frightening and repulsive imagery of Revelation 9:1-11 only applies to (v. 4) “those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.”

Please don't misunderstand me. Christians are also targets of demonic temptation. And, believers can and do struggle with things like pain, despair, alienation, bitterness, etc.. But they cannot be possessed, and they cannot be tormented demonically and inwardly in the frightening way that is represented here. Why? Because we are sealed, brother and sisters. Listen to how the Apostle Paul uses this same word “seal” in 2 Timothy 2:19a... “But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his...". In fact, I think we read about this seal again in the opening verse of Revelation chapter 14. Listen to what we discover is on the foreheads of God's people. “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”

Without a doubt the book of the Revelation is filled with strange and powerful images. Evocative images. But these images can either inspire fear or they can inspire comfort. Brother, sister, hear the reassuring word of God this morning: you have his name on your forehead. You are marked as His. He knows who are his (like Woody was marked with “Andy” in Toy Story). And because you are marked, because you are sealed, not one dreadful thing visualized in this book can ever spiritually harm or spiritually destroy you. Such things should sober us. Such things should inform us as we inform others. But please allow the evocative power of the other images in Revelation to be even more memorable: a banquet, a new name, a new Jerusalem, a river of the water of life, trees of life, a book of life, God as our everlasting lamp. And all of it possible because of what we saw last time: the Lamb is worthy, “for [He was] slain, and by [His] blood [He] ransomed people for God”. And when you remember that, you will give thanks that, on the cross, Jesus Christ bore for you (in actuality!) every dreadful drop of the wrath of God symbol-ically visualized in this book. So yes, Revelation does contain some really strange imagery. But when considered through the blood and worthiness of the Lamb, these images of justice and salvation and sovereignty should be celebrated as nothing short of wonderfully strange.