The First Terror | Daily Devotion
Revelation 9:1-12 NLT
Here the apostle John sees the fifth angel step forward and blow his trumpet. He then sees a star fall to the earth, and the star is given a key to open the shaft of the bottomless pit. This star could very well be Satan—Isaiah 14 and Luke 10:18. The bottomless pit, the place where the fallen angels were banished to – the specific fallen angels who defied the living God and indwelt mankind and procreated with women prior to Noah’s day, bearing offspring with supernatural powers. These fallen angels so angered God in their defiance as they left their place as spirit beings and indwelt mankind that He banished them to a dark place of continual terror, the bottomless pit, a place the other demons feared.
Thus, this fifth trumpet opened the door of this bottomless pit to allow out the most evil to descend upon mankind. Smoke poured out first like smoke coming from a furnace and then the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke. A doomsday presence.
Many people upon seeing the smoke fill the air and the sunlight dim will probably begin to fear what’s to come. That foreboding feeling. The senses heightening. Some experiencing a state of hypervigilance – that fight or flight feeling, not exactly sure what to do.
Then when the people see these evil beings coming from the bottomless pit that look like locusts but have human faces and descend upon the earth—their fear will heighten even more. They will experience anxiety symptoms, such as heart pounding, tightness in the chest, sweaty palms, arms tingling, dizzy and lightheaded, and an overwhelming fear of dying. Some will become immobilized unable to continue living their everyday life.
John tells us these locusts are able to inflict physical pain on everyone, but the people marked with the seal of God—Revelation 9:4. The locusts also could not destroy the grass, trees, or plants – thus the vegetation remained intact.
This is like a demonic annihilation of humanity. These locusts and their seemingly endless attacks – though only five months in duration. Only those who read the Bible in this time, will know that this terror is five months long. But a very real truth is, when people are suffering from physical pain, it does negatively impact them psychologically and a minute feels like a lifetime. Therefore, though there is a specified time frame for this terror, it will feel endless for those suffering. There will be no relief from the torment. People will seek death, trying to escape the pain and misery, but they will not be able to die.
This appears cruel as they will not be able to escape the pain and suffering – but ultimately God is opening eyes to His presence and power and the very real truth, only a Savior, only Jesus Christ can save them from this demonic annihilation that keeps people in a state of suffering, preventing them from dying while they are being horrifically tormented.
This is a reminder though of God and His love – all who have the seal of God on their foreheads, all who know God and the power of His name lived in real time, those who actively live out the truth of God and walk by faith and not by sight, all who love God and seek to honor Him with their life are protected from this horrific terror.
There is so much demonic in the world today that God will not allow to touch you because you are His child. We can rest assured. There are certain evils in this world that God will not allow to harm His people. He will always place a boundary around His children. He does allow some suffering, but doesn’t allow the same suffering in the lives of everyone, and He speaks to the individual who is suffering never leaving them nor forsaking them.
It’s God’s love and presence amidst suffering that gives us the ability to endure to the end.
Prayer: Abba, thank You for this forewarning of what’s to come in the Tribulation, we ask Lord for You to soften the hardest hearts, drawing them to Yourself.
