A Picture of Hell
Revelation 9:1-12
Message #19
We have to talk about hell today. Churches don’t like to talk about hell because people don’t like to hear about hell, and churches want people to continue coming to church, so… they try not to talk too much about hell. And believe me, it is not easy for me to paint such a graphic picture of hell as we have today. There are many churches and many people who have decided that hell does not really exist or at least that no relatively decent or upstanding person would ever end up there.
The problem is, the Bible makes it absolutely, positively clear hell does exist, and the horrors of hell are real. God (in his grace) has given us a very graphic picture of what hell is like in Revelation Chapter 9. And I believe God gives us a very clear picture of hell here so we can really consider whether we want to end up there.
We cannot simply choose to believe that hell is not real or that no basically decent person is actually going to go there.
A thing does not cease to be TRUE simply because you CHOOSE NOT to believe it.
The Bible is very clear about the truth of hell. Hell is as real as Heaven is. And God has a very good and very loving purpose for making this truth so graphically clear to us because he does not want any of us to go there!!
Matthew 25 says hell was created for the devil and his angels, and Jesus came to save us from joining them there. And the good news of the Bible is that Jesus Christ came to pay the full penalty for your sin (in your place) and to give you his perfect righteousness, which is the only way you can live for eternity in the presence of God. If he did not have to come in order to do this – he would not have come! If you could get to Heaven some other way, then the God of all Creation would not have put on a tent of human flesh to take your sins upon himself and pay for them so that you could be ushered into Heaven.
We receive this salvation and eternal life with God solely by us putting our full faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord. Today, we see a graphic picture of what our salvation in Jesus Christ saves us from.
In our last message titled, “Is God Unjust?” in the last verse of that message, we read Revelation 8, verse 13.
Revelation 8:13 (NLT)
13 . . . “Terror, terror, terror to all who belong to this world (notice – not “on the earth” – but “belong to this world”) because of what will happen when the last three angels blow their trumpets.”
We have been in the trumpet judgments. We are reaching the end of them. And today, we start to see just how serious these terrors are to those who belong to this world.
Revelation 9:1 (NLT)
1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky (heaven), and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
This star is addressed as he and notice he is not falling – he has fallen (past tense).
Isaiah 14:12 (NKJV)
12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! . . .
And Jesus says in Luke,
Luke 10:18 (NLT)
18 “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning!
This star is no doubt Satan himself, and in Revelation 12, Satan will be thrown down from Heaven “physically” (if I can use that word to describe a spiritual being), meaning he will be (finally) completely barred from Heaven. But here, Satan is given the key to the Great Abyss – the Bottomless Pit from which he is going to bring forth A Picture of Hell on Earth.
This abyss – this bottomless pit is the place where God has imprisoned the worst demons of hell up until THIS very point.
2 Peter says,
2 Peter 2:4 (ESV)
4 . . . God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
And now, that time of judgment for them is at hand. But first, the worst of the demons are going to be used as judgment upon a world that has turned completely against God.
Not all demonic spirits have been chained in the Abyss. We know that we battle demonic spirits as principalities and powers of the unseen world. Ephesians Chapter 6 makes it clear that we are in a war and that the enemy is the principalities and the powers in heavenly places and those high places. And so, many scholars conclude God has chained the very worst of the demonic world in the Abyss. God is in control, right? And when people say, “Well, would God allow the demons mess with us or try to deceive us, or try to take us out?”
We might say, “Well listen. He hasn’t allowed the worst of the worst out. They’re chained in the abyss.” And so, God always kind of has this limit, this “line in the sand” where he allows sin, and the curse of sin on the world, and the demonic world to this point, but no further.
And so, God has chained the very worst of the demonic world in the abyss until this moment in Revelation.
In Luke, Chapter 8 is the story of Jesus driving a legion of demons out of a possessed man in the Gadarene, in the Land of Gad. Gad was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and in that Land of Gad, they were pig farmers. (Which, if you’re Jewish, that perks your ears up a little bit. They had a big bacon factory over there in the Land of Gad. So, that tribe might have missed the mark a little bit.) And when Jesus drove this legion of demons out of this man, Luke 8, verse 31 says this.
Luke 8:31 (ESV)
31 [The Demons] begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
THIS is the same ABYSS we see here in Revelation 9:1. It’s the worst of the worst of the restrained demonic world, and now their leader has been given the key to release them and to bring hell (literally) on earth and to give us a picture of what hell is.
Revelation 9:1–2 (NLT)
1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star (Satan) that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
2 When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke.
When this shaft is opened, David Jeremiah says: Smoke billows from this prison house of evil, unleashing the soot of hell. A spiritual plague of demonic proportions breaks out upon the whole earth, fueled by the work of millions of demon creatures.
WOE (terror) to the people “who belong to this world” because hell has just been turned loose on them.
And when the truth of the darkness and evil of hell comes billowing out of the abyss, this world is finally going to realize what hell is truly like. Right now, we get all kinds of information that deceive us – even to the point of us singing with pride, “I’m on a highway to hell!” Or hell doesn’t really exist, or no one but only really bad people are going to go there. All those deceptive things. John is trying to paint for us a picture of what hell is.
This is God’s grace to us today to give us a picture of what hell will be like while we still have the ability to freely receive the salvation in Jesus Christ that will keep us from hell for eternity. Make your choice carefully – understand what you are choosing before you make that final choice – which is the choice you make before you take your last breath. God’s grace is giving us a true picture so we can make a choice while we still have time.
So, John is trying to describe the indescribable. He’s trying to portray the horror. And to do it, he is going to use the word like thirteen times in this chapter. We’ve talked about before when God wants to make something really clear in Revelation, he says it was. When he wants to leave something unclear, he says it was like.
So, please – get the big picture. Do not get bogged down in the difficulties John has in describing what he’s seeing. This is the stuff of supermarket tabloids and of wealthy YouTube crazy people – maybe they’re Bible teachers at some level – but when we start saying about Revelation, “Well, I think this is this. And this means that. And look at today’s newspaper, and this is happening right now. And this is that.” What happens is we get so bogged down, so tied up in the “Oh, this could be this, this could be that” that we miss the fact that God is giving us a picture of HELL here. Don’t get lost in the details. God is showing us what hell is going to be like.
John cannot accurately describe what he is seeing, so he uses the word like. So please, do not get distracted in trying to guess what John might be seeing. Instead, get the big picture, and the big picture is this is a picture of hell.
Revelation 9:3 (NLT)
3 Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions.
The worst of the demonic world that has been chained by God for thousands of years, is now they are unchained and loosed upon those “who belong to the world.”
In Romans Chapter 1 is an incredible explanation of God’s wrath upon the sin of this world, and three times in that section, we read the words “God gave them up.” That’s where we’re at in Revelation.
If you demand to hold on to your sin and harden your heart towards God more and more and more, and if you demand to receive the wrath that justly comes with your sin, God will ultimately give you up to your own demands. We see that in the Pharoah’s life in Exodus. I’ve seen it in real life. The more your heart becomes hardened towards God, the more your heart becomes hardened towards God, and at some point, God will give you up. And what we are reading about here is a picture of that occurring. The free gift of salvation is offered to those in this world, but in their rebellion and the hardness of their heart, they have continually refused it.
These demonic beings that are released from the abyss are given power LIKE the power of scorpions. Satan gives them this power. But listen, even as the full force of hell is released on earth, God is still in absolute control.
Revelation 9:4 (NLT)
4 They (demonic beings) were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
It’s critically important to see who this full force of hell is falling upon. These demonic beings are only allowed to harm the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. This is certainly the 144,000 Jews sealed by God (Chapter 7).
But also, Ephesians 1, verse 13 says you and I, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are sealed by God with the Holy Spirit.
And Revelation 3:12 says, The one who conquers . . . I will write on him the name of my God, . . . and my own new name. So, it’s not just the 144,000. If there is even one Believer left on earth at this time, they will be spared this judgment because this judgment is a picture of hell on earth, and the only people who are tormented here are those who have rejected salvation from God IN Jesus Christ.
Revelation 9:5 (NLT)
5 They (demonic beings) were told not to kill them (those who belong to this world)
It’s a picture of hell. The demonic world is let loose on those who belong to the world, but they’re not allowed to kill them. Someone came up with this really good idea that God would not allow people to actually be aware that they’re in hell. And so, he will annihilate them – they’re called Annihilists. And this concept of annihilism just makes us feel better because those people aren’t really in hell.
Here’s the problem. Genesis 1:27 says we are created in the image of God. That’s as a spiritual, eternal being. And here, in this picture of hell, these people are not allowed to be killed.
Revelation 9:5 (NLT)
5 They (demonic beings) were told not to kill them (those who belong to this world) but to torture them for five months (lifespan of a locust – but NOT the Main Point) with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting.
These demonic creatures are bringing torment to unbelieving Mankind – like this world has never seen. A black wave of demons, enough to darken the sky – all unleashed on an unrepentant earth, and for five months, these demonic beings torment those who belong to this world like scorpions stinging them over and over.
The sting of a scorpion can be one of the worst pains imaginable. If you get stung by the wrong scorpion or stung multiple times, the scorpion sting affects the nervous system, and the worst scorpion sting will make you feel like your entire body is on fire, which is especially horrifying in this “picture of hell.” Because hell is primarily described as the eternal fire and as a picture of that, these people are living in a fire of torment for five straight months. And just like hell, people will want to die to escape the torment, but they will not be able to.
Revelation 9:6 (NLT)
6 In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them!
You will want to die. You will wish you could die, but you will not be able to die. You will exist in a perpetual state of your body feeling like it is on fire.
THIS is a picture of hell on earth, and you do not want to be here. And you do not want to be in the eternal hell that fits this same description. And if we don’t have the courage to just read God’s Word and say, “Yeah, that’s what it says,” then we will not have the information to make an informed decision about where we want to spend eternity.
And here is an interesting point. Jeff Lasseigne (from Harvest) points out so well – This is Satan bringing torment on his own followers.
(Think about it. These are the people who have chosen the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air; here, these are people who have rejected God and chosen to follow Satan, and this is what their king is doing to them.)
I don’t know where you were in the 70’s, but I was (with pride) singing “I’m on the highway to hell” with my buddies. We were saying, “Yeah, man. I’ll see you in hell. It’s going to be the party of eternity.” Was it just me who had those friends?
If you still know people who say they’re looking forward to partying in hell with their buddies, they don’t have a clue about who the host of that “party” is. There will be no backyard keggers in hell. HERE is what there will be: torment, weeping, and gnashing of teeth.
The other option is to fully receive God’s free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ and become a joint heir with Jesus and live in the glory of Heaven for all eternity, and for some people, that is a difficult choice to make.
Tormented by Satan for eternity OR
Living in the glory of Heaven as a joint heir with Jesus for eternity.
All I can say is we need to be very, very careful how we make this eternal choice. Be careful – it’s real. Hell is as real as Heaven.
Now, starting in verse 7, John tries to describe these demonic beings, and he’s forced to use the word “like” seven times in four verses. And many people have tried to tie neat (or crazy) ideas to all these “like” descriptions. But guys, these are radical demonic torturers of those who have rejected Christ and whatever ideas (crazy or not) that we could tie these descriptions – here is the big idea: you do not want to be here.
Revelation 9:7–10 (NLT)
7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces.
8 They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion.
9 They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle.
10 They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people.
That is a radical description of the sky covered with radical demonic beings tormenting those “who belong to this world,” radically tormenting those who have rejected God and his offer of salvation.
I think we do people a great disservice to say, “Well, this might be this, and this might be that.” Guys, this is God giving us a picture of what hell will be like to try to save us from going there. DON’T “crazy that up” by trying to guess what this detail might mean or that detail might mean. Don’t miss the fact that God is showing us what hell is like.
Then, Revelation 9, verse 11, names the demon king.
Revelation 9:11 (NLT)
11 Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer.
SATAN is their king. He is the Deceiver, the Destroyer, and the king of hell, and he knows the time of judgment is coming, and he’s taking everyone he can deceive to hell with him. Jesus says this in John 10:10: The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. That’s all that Satan is doing. He’s the king of these demons, and all he’s doing is trying to take as many people with him to hell as he can. And his number one goal is to make you think that it’s not as real as the Bible says OR it’s not as bad as the Bible says.
Hell is REAL – and Satan will be your king there. And now is your time to decide if you will escape it or be enslaved by it.
Revelation 9:12 (NLT)
12 The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!
This is only the first of three very serious terrors, the third of which is actually seven more “bowl judgments,” which are worse than these. And these are worse than the seals. Do you get the idea that you would rather just avoid the whole thing and that you like the idea of being with God in Heaven?
So, for today, let’s skip ahead to the end of Chapter 9. We’ll come back to the rest of Chapter 9 next week. The obvious question today is, will you choose the glory of Heaven or the torment of hell. It may seem like an easy choice. So many people refuse to see it. And the more they refuse to see it, the more hardened their heart gets toward God until they cannot see it, and God gives them over to their own rejection of him. Many will still choose hell over Heaven and eternal torment over eternal joy.
Revelation 9:20–21 (NLT)
20 But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk!
21 And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Most of the saved have disappeared from the earth, and the rest of Mankind refuses to repent of their evil deed or their demon and idol worship. In fact, their experiencing this hell on earth is making their hearts harder and harder towards God. Even in the face of hell on earth, people will still not repent of the sin that demands judgment from God.
How about you? Have you made your choice? Do you know who your King will be for eternity?
If these demonic locusts were to come upon us TODAY, would you be safe by being covered by the seal of God?
God wants to save you from this judgment, and he’s made the only way possible for you to be saved.
Ezekiel 33:11 (NLT)
11 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live . . .
God wants to save you from an eternity of separation from him in HELL. Jesus Christ came to die in your place, to pay the price on your behalf so that you could be saved from this wrath to come. God wants us so bad that Jesus came in the flesh incarnate, in the tent of a man, lived a perfect life to be the perfect sacrifice, to take your sins upon himself, to pay the full penalty, the full price, and then conquer sin, and death and the grave on your behalf and be the first to be raised from the dead to allow you to be raised from the dead in him. Jesus came to do all that so that you could escape this picture of hell that we see here and be escorted, instead, into Heaven.
But you must receive God’s gift of salvation by FAITH.
You must repent of your sin.
Put your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior
And receive him into your life as your Lord.
And your eternal home will be Heaven instead of hell.
There are over six hundred warnings in the Bible regarding judgment and hell.
If you were driving toward a bridge over the Grand Canyon and you passed six hundred signs that said BRIDGE OUT, would you stop your car and turn around? Or would you continue to stubbornly drive right off the edge and into the Grand Canyon?
Hell is torment, weeping, and gnashing of teeth, and worst of all, it is separation from God. There are six hundred warning signs in the Bible to stop you from ending up there. STOP the car, TURN your life around, and DRIVE toward eternal life in Jesus Christ today.
The problem is, the Bible makes it absolutely, positively clear hell does exist, and the horrors of hell are real. God (in his grace) has given us a very graphic picture of what hell is like in Revelation Chapter 9. And I believe God gives us a very clear picture of hell here so we can really consider whether we want to end up there.
We cannot simply choose to believe that hell is not real or that no basically decent person is actually going to go there.
A thing does not cease to be TRUE simply because you CHOOSE NOT to believe it.
The Bible is very clear about the truth of hell. Hell is as real as Heaven is. And God has a very good and very loving purpose for making this truth so graphically clear to us because he does not want any of us to go there!!
Matthew 25 says hell was created for the devil and his angels, and Jesus came to save us from joining them there. And the good news of the Bible is that Jesus Christ came to pay the full penalty for your sin (in your place) and to give you his perfect righteousness, which is the only way you can live for eternity in the presence of God. If he did not have to come in order to do this – he would not have come! If you could get to Heaven some other way, then the God of all Creation would not have put on a tent of human flesh to take your sins upon himself and pay for them so that you could be ushered into Heaven.
We receive this salvation and eternal life with God solely by us putting our full faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord. Today, we see a graphic picture of what our salvation in Jesus Christ saves us from.
In our last message titled, “Is God Unjust?” in the last verse of that message, we read Revelation 8, verse 13.
Revelation 8:13 (NLT)
13 . . . “Terror, terror, terror to all who belong to this world (notice – not “on the earth” – but “belong to this world”) because of what will happen when the last three angels blow their trumpets.”
We have been in the trumpet judgments. We are reaching the end of them. And today, we start to see just how serious these terrors are to those who belong to this world.
Revelation 9:1 (NLT)
1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky (heaven), and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
This star is addressed as he and notice he is not falling – he has fallen (past tense).
Isaiah 14:12 (NKJV)
12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! . . .
And Jesus says in Luke,
Luke 10:18 (NLT)
18 “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning!
This star is no doubt Satan himself, and in Revelation 12, Satan will be thrown down from Heaven “physically” (if I can use that word to describe a spiritual being), meaning he will be (finally) completely barred from Heaven. But here, Satan is given the key to the Great Abyss – the Bottomless Pit from which he is going to bring forth A Picture of Hell on Earth.
This abyss – this bottomless pit is the place where God has imprisoned the worst demons of hell up until THIS very point.
2 Peter says,
2 Peter 2:4 (ESV)
4 . . . God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
And now, that time of judgment for them is at hand. But first, the worst of the demons are going to be used as judgment upon a world that has turned completely against God.
Not all demonic spirits have been chained in the Abyss. We know that we battle demonic spirits as principalities and powers of the unseen world. Ephesians Chapter 6 makes it clear that we are in a war and that the enemy is the principalities and the powers in heavenly places and those high places. And so, many scholars conclude God has chained the very worst of the demonic world in the Abyss. God is in control, right? And when people say, “Well, would God allow the demons mess with us or try to deceive us, or try to take us out?”
We might say, “Well listen. He hasn’t allowed the worst of the worst out. They’re chained in the abyss.” And so, God always kind of has this limit, this “line in the sand” where he allows sin, and the curse of sin on the world, and the demonic world to this point, but no further.
And so, God has chained the very worst of the demonic world in the abyss until this moment in Revelation.
In Luke, Chapter 8 is the story of Jesus driving a legion of demons out of a possessed man in the Gadarene, in the Land of Gad. Gad was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and in that Land of Gad, they were pig farmers. (Which, if you’re Jewish, that perks your ears up a little bit. They had a big bacon factory over there in the Land of Gad. So, that tribe might have missed the mark a little bit.) And when Jesus drove this legion of demons out of this man, Luke 8, verse 31 says this.
Luke 8:31 (ESV)
31 [The Demons] begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
THIS is the same ABYSS we see here in Revelation 9:1. It’s the worst of the worst of the restrained demonic world, and now their leader has been given the key to release them and to bring hell (literally) on earth and to give us a picture of what hell is.
Revelation 9:1–2 (NLT)
1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star (Satan) that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
2 When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke.
When this shaft is opened, David Jeremiah says: Smoke billows from this prison house of evil, unleashing the soot of hell. A spiritual plague of demonic proportions breaks out upon the whole earth, fueled by the work of millions of demon creatures.
WOE (terror) to the people “who belong to this world” because hell has just been turned loose on them.
And when the truth of the darkness and evil of hell comes billowing out of the abyss, this world is finally going to realize what hell is truly like. Right now, we get all kinds of information that deceive us – even to the point of us singing with pride, “I’m on a highway to hell!” Or hell doesn’t really exist, or no one but only really bad people are going to go there. All those deceptive things. John is trying to paint for us a picture of what hell is.
This is God’s grace to us today to give us a picture of what hell will be like while we still have the ability to freely receive the salvation in Jesus Christ that will keep us from hell for eternity. Make your choice carefully – understand what you are choosing before you make that final choice – which is the choice you make before you take your last breath. God’s grace is giving us a true picture so we can make a choice while we still have time.
So, John is trying to describe the indescribable. He’s trying to portray the horror. And to do it, he is going to use the word like thirteen times in this chapter. We’ve talked about before when God wants to make something really clear in Revelation, he says it was. When he wants to leave something unclear, he says it was like.
So, please – get the big picture. Do not get bogged down in the difficulties John has in describing what he’s seeing. This is the stuff of supermarket tabloids and of wealthy YouTube crazy people – maybe they’re Bible teachers at some level – but when we start saying about Revelation, “Well, I think this is this. And this means that. And look at today’s newspaper, and this is happening right now. And this is that.” What happens is we get so bogged down, so tied up in the “Oh, this could be this, this could be that” that we miss the fact that God is giving us a picture of HELL here. Don’t get lost in the details. God is showing us what hell is going to be like.
John cannot accurately describe what he is seeing, so he uses the word like. So please, do not get distracted in trying to guess what John might be seeing. Instead, get the big picture, and the big picture is this is a picture of hell.
Revelation 9:3 (NLT)
3 Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions.
The worst of the demonic world that has been chained by God for thousands of years, is now they are unchained and loosed upon those “who belong to the world.”
In Romans Chapter 1 is an incredible explanation of God’s wrath upon the sin of this world, and three times in that section, we read the words “God gave them up.” That’s where we’re at in Revelation.
If you demand to hold on to your sin and harden your heart towards God more and more and more, and if you demand to receive the wrath that justly comes with your sin, God will ultimately give you up to your own demands. We see that in the Pharoah’s life in Exodus. I’ve seen it in real life. The more your heart becomes hardened towards God, the more your heart becomes hardened towards God, and at some point, God will give you up. And what we are reading about here is a picture of that occurring. The free gift of salvation is offered to those in this world, but in their rebellion and the hardness of their heart, they have continually refused it.
These demonic beings that are released from the abyss are given power LIKE the power of scorpions. Satan gives them this power. But listen, even as the full force of hell is released on earth, God is still in absolute control.
Revelation 9:4 (NLT)
4 They (demonic beings) were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
It’s critically important to see who this full force of hell is falling upon. These demonic beings are only allowed to harm the people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. This is certainly the 144,000 Jews sealed by God (Chapter 7).
But also, Ephesians 1, verse 13 says you and I, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are sealed by God with the Holy Spirit.
And Revelation 3:12 says, The one who conquers . . . I will write on him the name of my God, . . . and my own new name. So, it’s not just the 144,000. If there is even one Believer left on earth at this time, they will be spared this judgment because this judgment is a picture of hell on earth, and the only people who are tormented here are those who have rejected salvation from God IN Jesus Christ.
Revelation 9:5 (NLT)
5 They (demonic beings) were told not to kill them (those who belong to this world)
It’s a picture of hell. The demonic world is let loose on those who belong to the world, but they’re not allowed to kill them. Someone came up with this really good idea that God would not allow people to actually be aware that they’re in hell. And so, he will annihilate them – they’re called Annihilists. And this concept of annihilism just makes us feel better because those people aren’t really in hell.
Here’s the problem. Genesis 1:27 says we are created in the image of God. That’s as a spiritual, eternal being. And here, in this picture of hell, these people are not allowed to be killed.
Revelation 9:5 (NLT)
5 They (demonic beings) were told not to kill them (those who belong to this world) but to torture them for five months (lifespan of a locust – but NOT the Main Point) with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting.
These demonic creatures are bringing torment to unbelieving Mankind – like this world has never seen. A black wave of demons, enough to darken the sky – all unleashed on an unrepentant earth, and for five months, these demonic beings torment those who belong to this world like scorpions stinging them over and over.
The sting of a scorpion can be one of the worst pains imaginable. If you get stung by the wrong scorpion or stung multiple times, the scorpion sting affects the nervous system, and the worst scorpion sting will make you feel like your entire body is on fire, which is especially horrifying in this “picture of hell.” Because hell is primarily described as the eternal fire and as a picture of that, these people are living in a fire of torment for five straight months. And just like hell, people will want to die to escape the torment, but they will not be able to.
Revelation 9:6 (NLT)
6 In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them!
You will want to die. You will wish you could die, but you will not be able to die. You will exist in a perpetual state of your body feeling like it is on fire.
THIS is a picture of hell on earth, and you do not want to be here. And you do not want to be in the eternal hell that fits this same description. And if we don’t have the courage to just read God’s Word and say, “Yeah, that’s what it says,” then we will not have the information to make an informed decision about where we want to spend eternity.
And here is an interesting point. Jeff Lasseigne (from Harvest) points out so well – This is Satan bringing torment on his own followers.
(Think about it. These are the people who have chosen the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air; here, these are people who have rejected God and chosen to follow Satan, and this is what their king is doing to them.)
I don’t know where you were in the 70’s, but I was (with pride) singing “I’m on the highway to hell” with my buddies. We were saying, “Yeah, man. I’ll see you in hell. It’s going to be the party of eternity.” Was it just me who had those friends?
If you still know people who say they’re looking forward to partying in hell with their buddies, they don’t have a clue about who the host of that “party” is. There will be no backyard keggers in hell. HERE is what there will be: torment, weeping, and gnashing of teeth.
The other option is to fully receive God’s free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ and become a joint heir with Jesus and live in the glory of Heaven for all eternity, and for some people, that is a difficult choice to make.
Tormented by Satan for eternity OR
Living in the glory of Heaven as a joint heir with Jesus for eternity.
All I can say is we need to be very, very careful how we make this eternal choice. Be careful – it’s real. Hell is as real as Heaven.
Now, starting in verse 7, John tries to describe these demonic beings, and he’s forced to use the word “like” seven times in four verses. And many people have tried to tie neat (or crazy) ideas to all these “like” descriptions. But guys, these are radical demonic torturers of those who have rejected Christ and whatever ideas (crazy or not) that we could tie these descriptions – here is the big idea: you do not want to be here.
Revelation 9:7–10 (NLT)
7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces.
8 They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion.
9 They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle.
10 They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people.
That is a radical description of the sky covered with radical demonic beings tormenting those “who belong to this world,” radically tormenting those who have rejected God and his offer of salvation.
I think we do people a great disservice to say, “Well, this might be this, and this might be that.” Guys, this is God giving us a picture of what hell will be like to try to save us from going there. DON’T “crazy that up” by trying to guess what this detail might mean or that detail might mean. Don’t miss the fact that God is showing us what hell is like.
Then, Revelation 9, verse 11, names the demon king.
Revelation 9:11 (NLT)
11 Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer.
SATAN is their king. He is the Deceiver, the Destroyer, and the king of hell, and he knows the time of judgment is coming, and he’s taking everyone he can deceive to hell with him. Jesus says this in John 10:10: The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. That’s all that Satan is doing. He’s the king of these demons, and all he’s doing is trying to take as many people with him to hell as he can. And his number one goal is to make you think that it’s not as real as the Bible says OR it’s not as bad as the Bible says.
Hell is REAL – and Satan will be your king there. And now is your time to decide if you will escape it or be enslaved by it.
Revelation 9:12 (NLT)
12 The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!
This is only the first of three very serious terrors, the third of which is actually seven more “bowl judgments,” which are worse than these. And these are worse than the seals. Do you get the idea that you would rather just avoid the whole thing and that you like the idea of being with God in Heaven?
So, for today, let’s skip ahead to the end of Chapter 9. We’ll come back to the rest of Chapter 9 next week. The obvious question today is, will you choose the glory of Heaven or the torment of hell. It may seem like an easy choice. So many people refuse to see it. And the more they refuse to see it, the more hardened their heart gets toward God until they cannot see it, and God gives them over to their own rejection of him. Many will still choose hell over Heaven and eternal torment over eternal joy.
Revelation 9:20–21 (NLT)
20 But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk!
21 And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Most of the saved have disappeared from the earth, and the rest of Mankind refuses to repent of their evil deed or their demon and idol worship. In fact, their experiencing this hell on earth is making their hearts harder and harder towards God. Even in the face of hell on earth, people will still not repent of the sin that demands judgment from God.
How about you? Have you made your choice? Do you know who your King will be for eternity?
If these demonic locusts were to come upon us TODAY, would you be safe by being covered by the seal of God?
God wants to save you from this judgment, and he’s made the only way possible for you to be saved.
Ezekiel 33:11 (NLT)
11 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live . . .
God wants to save you from an eternity of separation from him in HELL. Jesus Christ came to die in your place, to pay the price on your behalf so that you could be saved from this wrath to come. God wants us so bad that Jesus came in the flesh incarnate, in the tent of a man, lived a perfect life to be the perfect sacrifice, to take your sins upon himself, to pay the full penalty, the full price, and then conquer sin, and death and the grave on your behalf and be the first to be raised from the dead to allow you to be raised from the dead in him. Jesus came to do all that so that you could escape this picture of hell that we see here and be escorted, instead, into Heaven.
But you must receive God’s gift of salvation by FAITH.
You must repent of your sin.
Put your faith in Jesus Christ as Savior
And receive him into your life as your Lord.
And your eternal home will be Heaven instead of hell.
There are over six hundred warnings in the Bible regarding judgment and hell.
If you were driving toward a bridge over the Grand Canyon and you passed six hundred signs that said BRIDGE OUT, would you stop your car and turn around? Or would you continue to stubbornly drive right off the edge and into the Grand Canyon?
Hell is torment, weeping, and gnashing of teeth, and worst of all, it is separation from God. There are six hundred warning signs in the Bible to stop you from ending up there. STOP the car, TURN your life around, and DRIVE toward eternal life in Jesus Christ today.