Revelation 9:9 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Revelation 9:9

Comments

This passage ties in with Revelation 20. ‘I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. After that he must be loosed a little season.’ This refers to the whole of the gospel age. There are many respects in which Satan is bound, but chiefly, as the passage says, in that he is unable to prevent the gospel going to the Gentile nations. He and his hosts have been cast into the bottomless pit. This is the language of vision. There is no such thing literally as a bottomless pit. Everything in the Book of Revelation is a vision. It would not be possible to explain how the devil could somehow be contained and restrained by God through the gospel age, except in pictures of this kind. That is Satan’s state throughout the majority of the gospel age, but at the end of the age he is released (Revelation 20:7-9). That is called Satan’s ‘little season’; this is the five months that we are seeing in chapter 9. It is among the last of the woes at the end of time. We are not there yet, but we can see the beginnings of it; we can see the stirrings of a degree of decline and moral impudence and outrage, that we have never seen before; and it’s on the way; it’s coming in.They are untouchable and invincible. You can’t easily overcome them. ‘And the sound of their wings was the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.’ They have wings which vibrate the air further adding to their awesome appearance. This feature reminds us that these are the locusts that ascended out of the bottomless pit. The images are all mixed up together. The sound of their wings is like the noise of chariots advancing into battle. These were the most formidable military machinery of the day. John has already described the effect of their sting. Now he adds that it is located in their tail. The worst comes last. The poisonous tail may not be seen to begin with, when the creature is first encountered. But it is there ready to curl up and sting those who come too close. The sting of a scorpion is reported to be one of the most painful stings that anyone can receive.

Application

One moment those that hold extreme alternative morality, and extreme anti-moral views, seem to be a minority, and we call them extremists. The years fly past and suddenly they have all the power and they are everywhere, and they are in almost every country wherever you look, in every branch of the media; they seem to dominate. They seem to have multiplied furiously and amazingly in ever so short a time. This is all descriptive of the ideas that Satan and his hosts will be propagating, and the things that he will be inserting into hearts and into society in the last days. But this is a woe sent from God. If people will not honour him and turn to him and love him, they will be progressively given over, especially at the very end of time. Satan has been given the key of the bottomless pit to let out some or many of his hosts and to rampage.

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Revelation 9:9 Commentary and Bible Study