Revelation 9:1-11 - Control Issues
The first issue to address here is the identity of the star that fell from the sky and opened the Abyss. The ancients often understood celestial beings to be spiritual beings, so this fallen star is probably the “angel of the Abyss” of verse 11. The names given to the angel. both of which mean “Destroyer” give us some insight into exactly what the star/angel is all about. Is it Satan? Perhaps. But as we’ve seen already, God is doing plenty of destroying of his own. So this isn’t necessarily an angel who is rebelling against God. In fact, as we go along I think that’s the whole point. God’s in control even of what appears to be his opposition.
The understanding of Satan that many of us have doesn’t come from the Bible but from the Elizabethan poet John Milton, whose epic poem “Paradise Lost” portrays Satan as a powerful angel who rebelled against God, was thrown out of heaven, and nursed a grudge. This is one of the few passages in the Bible that seems to support Milton’s version. But there’s an important piece missing: nowhere here does it appear as though the angel is doing anything other than what God wanted.
The second issue is the notion of the Abyss. Arguably the greatest theologian of the twentieth century was Karl Barth, whose massive thirty-one volume “Church Dogmatics” has made students’ eyes glaze over if their spirits weren’t caught up in it. I only had the “pleasure” of reading one of the thirty-one volumes. In it, Barth describes “nothingness:” that which had not been created by God but which opposes God. It’s Barth’s way of dealing with the problem of evil, and I’m not sure if I completely buy it. But he makes the very interesting point that the opposition which confronts God is literally nothing. And yet it has power and causes evil. It could be that the Abyss (a deep pit of nothing) is something like Barth’s “nothingness.”
The third issue is this terrifying and tormenting army of locusts that swarms up out of the Abyss and tortures humanity. The Old Testament often used locusts as an image of destruction, and rightly so. The documented stories of how an unbelievably massive swarm of locusts can wipe out all vegetation for miles is enough to make the stoutest heart tremble. But this is no ordinary locust swarm. Instead of going after plants, like normal locusts, they go after people. I’ve never been stung by a scorpion, but from what I’ve been told, I have no desire to do so. These locusts are a weird hybrid creature that flies and swarms like locusts, but inflicts horrible pain like scorpions. Again, if you want to describe something about as nasty as they come, these locusts do it.
The description of these locusts tells a little bit about why God sent them. (And yes, they come from God. We’ll get to that in a moment.) They come like an army. Horses, chariots, and iron breastplates were the Abrams tanks, Predator drones, and ballistic missiles of the time. It’s a devastating army coming to inflict God’s wrath. Their crowns indicate the ultimate doom of those who grasp for glory. The flowing women’s hair represents, at least for the culture that John was part of, the temptation of earthly pleasure. Only “loose” women showed their long flowing hair in public. So the torment that comes upon the people is a consequence or a result of our own sin. Can we really blame anyone but ourselves for some of the nasty stuff that we have to deal with?
The fourth issue is the most important of all. I’ve hinted at it a few times already. God is in control of it all: the destroying fallen angel, the Abyss, the locusts that come out of it, and what the locusts do. Read the passage carefully, and you’ll see it. The angel was “given” the key to open the Abyss. The locusts were “given” the ability to sting like scorpions. Who do you think was doing all this giving? God, of course. But God also set “rules of engagement” upon the locust army. He instructed them only to attack people and nothing else. He did not permit them to kill anyone, but only to torture them. Of course, that may not have been doing anyone any favors. It’s common for people going through extreme torture to wish for death so that their agony would end. No such luck here. Perhaps the most important of all the “rules of engagement” that were given to the locusts was the prohibition to do anything to the people who had the seal of God. Remember that from Chapter 7? God paused in the unfolding of his plan to mark the people who had been saved by Christ’s redeeming work. We hear so much about
“the mark of the Beast” which comes up in Chapter 14. But God’s mark is the one that really matters.
What does the mark mean here? On the one hand, it means that the people who have received grace through the acceptance of Christ’s gift do not have to fear God’s wrath, which comes upon everyone else. But even more, if we understand the locusts to be the personification of the destructive consequences of our sin, we can see that God spares us from the damage that we do to ourselves. There’s really no limit to what God will do for us! He even protects us from ourselves.
It’s an issue of control. Satan and his minions aren’t in control. They only do what God allows them to do. And when we commit ourselves to God, we’re not in control of ourselves. It’s a good thing, because we’d make a royal mess of our lives and everything else around us. Accepting Christ’s lordship doesn’t just mean that we have to obey him and live the way he wants. It means that he takes control of our lives so that we don’t wreck ourselves.
The understanding of Satan that many of us have doesn’t come from the Bible but from the Elizabethan poet John Milton, whose epic poem “Paradise Lost” portrays Satan as a powerful angel who rebelled against God, was thrown out of heaven, and nursed a grudge. This is one of the few passages in the Bible that seems to support Milton’s version. But there’s an important piece missing: nowhere here does it appear as though the angel is doing anything other than what God wanted.
The second issue is the notion of the Abyss. Arguably the greatest theologian of the twentieth century was Karl Barth, whose massive thirty-one volume “Church Dogmatics” has made students’ eyes glaze over if their spirits weren’t caught up in it. I only had the “pleasure” of reading one of the thirty-one volumes. In it, Barth describes “nothingness:” that which had not been created by God but which opposes God. It’s Barth’s way of dealing with the problem of evil, and I’m not sure if I completely buy it. But he makes the very interesting point that the opposition which confronts God is literally nothing. And yet it has power and causes evil. It could be that the Abyss (a deep pit of nothing) is something like Barth’s “nothingness.”
The third issue is this terrifying and tormenting army of locusts that swarms up out of the Abyss and tortures humanity. The Old Testament often used locusts as an image of destruction, and rightly so. The documented stories of how an unbelievably massive swarm of locusts can wipe out all vegetation for miles is enough to make the stoutest heart tremble. But this is no ordinary locust swarm. Instead of going after plants, like normal locusts, they go after people. I’ve never been stung by a scorpion, but from what I’ve been told, I have no desire to do so. These locusts are a weird hybrid creature that flies and swarms like locusts, but inflicts horrible pain like scorpions. Again, if you want to describe something about as nasty as they come, these locusts do it.
The description of these locusts tells a little bit about why God sent them. (And yes, they come from God. We’ll get to that in a moment.) They come like an army. Horses, chariots, and iron breastplates were the Abrams tanks, Predator drones, and ballistic missiles of the time. It’s a devastating army coming to inflict God’s wrath. Their crowns indicate the ultimate doom of those who grasp for glory. The flowing women’s hair represents, at least for the culture that John was part of, the temptation of earthly pleasure. Only “loose” women showed their long flowing hair in public. So the torment that comes upon the people is a consequence or a result of our own sin. Can we really blame anyone but ourselves for some of the nasty stuff that we have to deal with?
The fourth issue is the most important of all. I’ve hinted at it a few times already. God is in control of it all: the destroying fallen angel, the Abyss, the locusts that come out of it, and what the locusts do. Read the passage carefully, and you’ll see it. The angel was “given” the key to open the Abyss. The locusts were “given” the ability to sting like scorpions. Who do you think was doing all this giving? God, of course. But God also set “rules of engagement” upon the locust army. He instructed them only to attack people and nothing else. He did not permit them to kill anyone, but only to torture them. Of course, that may not have been doing anyone any favors. It’s common for people going through extreme torture to wish for death so that their agony would end. No such luck here. Perhaps the most important of all the “rules of engagement” that were given to the locusts was the prohibition to do anything to the people who had the seal of God. Remember that from Chapter 7? God paused in the unfolding of his plan to mark the people who had been saved by Christ’s redeeming work. We hear so much about
“the mark of the Beast” which comes up in Chapter 14. But God’s mark is the one that really matters.
What does the mark mean here? On the one hand, it means that the people who have received grace through the acceptance of Christ’s gift do not have to fear God’s wrath, which comes upon everyone else. But even more, if we understand the locusts to be the personification of the destructive consequences of our sin, we can see that God spares us from the damage that we do to ourselves. There’s really no limit to what God will do for us! He even protects us from ourselves.
It’s an issue of control. Satan and his minions aren’t in control. They only do what God allows them to do. And when we commit ourselves to God, we’re not in control of ourselves. It’s a good thing, because we’d make a royal mess of our lives and everything else around us. Accepting Christ’s lordship doesn’t just mean that we have to obey him and live the way he wants. It means that he takes control of our lives so that we don’t wreck ourselves.
posted by Rev. Peter de Vries, Old Union Presbyterian Church @ 2:17 PM
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