The next trumpet is to do with spiritual catastrophes. This is quite different from those before, being the direct punishment of people who persecute the saints and who reject the Lord.
No wonder the angel speaking after the fourth trumpet bewailed the three woes still to come. They get worse and worse as you draw to the very end of the age, and this fifth trumpet is moving towards those judgments which belong to the very end of the age, after the testimony of the church is complete (Revelation 11:7). Men and women have forfeited the right to God’s protection and now they must face their enemy alone; they wanted nothing to do with the Lord God and refused him in spite of his gracious invitation. As Hendriksen says, ‘God uses even the work of the devil as a punishment and warning for the wicked, a warning in order that they may repent (9:10).’