Revelation 9 explained: Locusts, Horsemen and Unchanged Hearts

A fallen star opens the Abyss (vv. 1-2)

The 'star' is a heavenly being given the key to the Abyss, the deep prison of evil powers in Jewish thought, and the smoke pouring out darkens the sky. Readers differ on whether this figure is evil, perhaps Satan, or simply an angel sent to unlock it, like the angel with the key in 20:1.

Locusts that sting (vv. 3-6)

Locust swarms were a dreaded disaster, recalling the plagues of Egypt and the prophet Joel, but these ignore crops and sting only people without God's seal from 7:3. They may hurt but not kill for five months, about the length of a locust season, and the pain is so bad that people long to die.

A monstrous army and its king (vv. 7-11)

The picture borrows from Joel's locust army, with horses ready for war and lions' teeth, and most likely shows destructive evil powers rather than real insects. Their king is Abaddon in Hebrew, meaning 'destruction', and Apollyon in Greek, meaning 'Destroyer'; some scholars think the Greek name also mocks the god Apollo, whom some emperors claimed as their patron.

Four angels set free (vv. 12-15)

After the first of three announced disasters, called 'woes', a voice from the corners of the gold incense altar, where the prayers of God's people rose in 8:3-4, orders four bound angels released. They wait at the Euphrates, Rome's eastern border and a reminder of feared invaders beyond it, for an exact moment God has set.

A cavalry breathing fire (vv. 16-19)

An army of 200 million, a number likely meant to feel beyond counting, rides lion-headed horses whose mouths pour out fire, smoke and sulfur, the mix that destroyed Sodom, while their tails, like snakes with heads, also wound. A third of humanity is killed, a scene of mass death that the text openly presents as allowed by God, though still not total.

Still no change (vv. 20-21)

The survivors keep worshiping idols and demons and keep up murder, sorcery (the Greek word is tied to drugs and potions), sexual wrongdoing and theft. Many readers take this as the point of the trumpets: they act as warnings, and as with Pharaoh in Egypt, people refuse to turn.

Key verse: Revelation 9:20

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on what these visions refer to: many evangelicals see events still to come just before Jesus returns, some tie them to the Roman world of John's day, older Protestant readers often matched them to later events in history, and many Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant scholars read them as symbols of destructive forces and judgment that recur in every age.

Something to think about

Why do you think suffering changes some people and only hardens others?