REV. 9:1-10........
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months."
It certainly reads like they are strange to me.
HOWEVER............was this strange to John???? He was taken by the Spirit of God into the future (2000 years), shown the visions of what was coming and then told to write down what he saw. He then proceeded to do just that in his own understand of the time he lived in........90 AD.
Just to prove this, It is worth noting that, in this chapter, there are more occurrences of the words “as” and “like” than in any other chapter in the Bible. This shows how difficult it was for John to describe the scene which he saw in the vision with the language he had to draw from. Therefore, we must be careful and wise as we interpret this chapter.
I am one who shys away from the teaching that these 200 million beings are "demons".
I am one who believes that the Anti-Christ will be a human and he will be so totally influenced by Satan that no one will be able to tell. This will also be one of the reason why all believers will be Raptured.
Then question must be........why were THESE specific demons bound in the Euphrates River????
It may just be because the Euphrates was in the Mesopotamian Valley, which was the cradle of civilization. It was where the garden of Eden was located; it was where the first sin was committed; it was where the first lie was told; it was where the first murder was committed; and it was where the first grave was dug. It was in this region where God saw that the wickedness of man was great and so He sent the flood. It was where men attempted to build a tower that would reach into the heavens, so that God confounded the languages. Nimrod built the tower of Babel. It was this region where ancient Israel’s most oppressive enemies came from —the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Persians. It is here that God has kept in confinement, four fallen angels who will be loosed upon the earth, when the sixth trumpet is sounded. It might be that God chose to bind these angels at the place of Satan’s first apparent victory, as serving notice that this “victory” will be overturned. Thus, the four bound angels are but the first fruits of a far greater victory to follow.
Just a thought!!!!!
