Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 477
9:1–10:1
R e v elati o n
465
Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to
earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless
pit. When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace,
and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke.
Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and
they were given power to sting like scorpions. They were told not to harm
the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal
of God on their foreheads. They were told not to kill them but to torture
them for five months with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting. In those
days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but
death will flee from them!
The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what
looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human
faces. They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion.
They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of
chariots rushing into battle. They had tails that stung like scorpions, and
for five months they had the power to torment people. Their king is the
angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in
Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer.
The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming!
Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking
from the four horns of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God.
And the voice said to the sixth angel who held the trumpet, “Release the
four angels who are bound at the great Euphrates River.” Then the four
angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year
were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth. I heard the
size of their army, which was 200 million mounted troops.
And in my vision, I saw the horses and the riders sitting on them. The
riders wore armor that was fiery red and dark blue and yellow. The horses
had heads like lions, and fire and smoke and burning sulfur billowed from
their mouths. One-third of all the people on earth were killed by these
three plagues—by the fire and smoke and burning sulfur that came from
the mouths of the horses. Their power was in their mouths and in their
tails. For their tails had heads like snakes, with the power to injure people.
But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of
their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and
idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood—idols that can neither
see nor hear nor walk! And they did not repent of their murders or their
witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded
by a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face shone like the sun, and