1 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters.
— Psalm 24:1-2

When you read, “The earth is the LORD’S, and everything in it…” you naturally think of everything you see. In fact, Revelation 8 does a good job itemizing everything that is seen. As we learned, the land, seas, rivers, streams, sun, moon, stars, and everything that lives on, within, or under them are God’s. In short, EVERYTHING SEEN belongs to God.

As you read Revelation 9, you also learn that EVERYTHING UNSEEN belongs to God as well. Not only does the earth belong to the Lord physically, but it belongs to Him spiritually. And spiritually, there is an unseen war taking place on earth. Verse 1 refers to it.

1 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss.

The Unseen War

A high school student once surprised me with the following question. With a sincere heart, she offered, “I’ve always been taught that there’s no sin in heaven. How can we be sure? Didn’t Satan sin while in heaven?” I had never been asked that before. However, I was able to respond with a quick and confident, “Uh...let me get back to you.”

As you can see, I never forgot the question and was confident that in time God’s Word would reveal an answer. The answer is we can be certain that there will be no sin in heaven because God resolved that problem long ago.

Revelation 9:1 talks about “a star that had fallen from the sky to earth.” The word “fallen” in Greek grammar communicates a past action with ongoing implications. The word “star” in the Hebrew is Satan’s name before he rebelled against God. His name was Lucifer, which is translated from the Hebrew as “Morning Star.” You find it only once in all of scripture. It’s in Isaiah 14:12-13:

12 How you have fallen from heaven,
O morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.”

As you will see when we get to Revelation 12, Lucifer’s arrogant pride caused him to want to unseat God in heaven. When his efforts were foiled, God cast him out of heaven along with a third of the angels, for they had joined Lucifer in the rebellion.

Having lost their war for heaven’s throne, they continue to wage an unseen war against God on earth. They fight against God for what is dearest to God—you and me! If they can’t have what they want (heaven’s throne), then they will try to keep God from having what He wants, which is a meaningful relationship with each of us. The Apostle Paul alludes to this unseen war in Ephesians 6:11-12.

11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

It’s important to note that after his defeat in heaven, Lucifer’s name is changed to reflect his true nature. He’s called “Satan” which means “adversary,” and “Devil,” which means “accuser.” In this unseen war, you will find him doing what he can to either keep relationships from being established with God, or to keep established relationships with God from becoming meaningful. He does this by either slandering God to us (Genesis 3) or us to God (Job 1).

Ephesians 6:11-12 reminds us that Satan is good at what he does and that he doesn’t do it alone. Verse 11 warns us of the “devil’s schemes.” “Schemes” is the Greek word “methodeia” and in it you hear the English word for “method.” Satan is a cunning, diabolical strategist and his strategies employ the efforts of his angels. Like Satan, however, their names have been changed. They are no longer worthy to be called angels, but are more frequently called demons (Luke 8:26-39). When Plato looked at the etymology of the Greek word for “demon” (daimon), he saw that it came from an adjective meaning “knowing” or “intelligent.”¹ Therefore, Satan’s demons are not dumb thugs, but crafty schemers like their leader.

Furthermore, verse 12 indicates that they are organized and influential. Just as we’ve seen that the angels in heaven have a sense of rank and order, it’s logical to assume that the demons do as well. It’s possible that verse 12 uncovers that demonic order.

First, Paul makes it clear that he’s not talking about “flesh and blood.” These are unseen spiritual entities at work. Among the demons you have “rulers” (achas). These are the demon chiefs, the ones in charge. Then you have the “authorities” (exousias), the demonic doers. They have the “ability” to fulfill the schemes of the “rulers” and the “powers.” The “powers” (kosmokratoras) are the demons given responsibility to rule the affairs of the world. No wonder Jesus says in Matthew 24:6 that before He comes to restore the earth, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars.” The demon “powers” are always stirring strife among nations, people groups, and individuals. Finally, you have the all-inclusive “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” This either identifies a fourth order of demons or it classifies all demons as unseen and evil.

As you consider this unseen war taking place on earth, you have to ask, “What is the objective of each side?” You don’t go to war without an objective. John, who will pen the final scenes of this war in Revelation, cites why it’s taking place in John 10:10. Quoting Jesus, John writes,

10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Satan and his demons want to steal, kill, and destroy every opportunity we have for a meaningful relationship with God. God is fighting for you to have that opportunity and enjoy it.

It’s important to hear that though Satan and his demons are organized, shrewd and strong, they’re not God. Though 1 Peter 5:8 describes Satan as a roaring lion, compared to God, he’s still nothing more than a squeaking rabbit. The following poem says it well.

A tiger met a lion as they sat beside a pool.
Said the tiger to the lion, “Why are you roaring like a fool?”

“That’s not foolish,” said the lion, with a twinkle in his eyes.
“They call me the king of the beasts because I advertise.”

A rabbit heard them talking, ran on like a streak.
He thought he would try the lion’s plan, but his roar was just a squeak.

A fox came to investigate and had lunch in the woods,
And so my friend, when you advertise, you be sure you’ve got the goods.²

Though Satan and his demons are well organized and deceptive, they don’t have the goods compared to God. Therefore, remember this. At salvation, the Bible says that the Spirit of God comes to live within you (John 14:17). Regardless of the attacks, deception, and temptations Satan and his demons may use against you, remember 1 John 4:4, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

What if you’ve not surrendered your life to Jesus? God promises to help you as well. In John 16:8-11, He promises to keep on convicting you of your need for Him with the hope that you will see your need and surrender your life to Him. Once you do that, you will find His help and strength coming from within you.

God promises to help you one other way. He promises to limit the amount of demon activity on earth for a while. However, He warns you not to wait too long to surrender to Him. The day will come when He will rapture His believers and release all the other demons He has been holding back. This happens with the fifth trumpet.

The Fifth Trumpet
The Demons are Mine!

With the blast of the fifth trumpet, evidence of the unseen war is seen. In all that takes place in Revelation 9:1-12, God makes a strong statement. He says, “The demons are mine!”

1 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8 Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11 They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.
12 The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.

As was seen in chapter 8, this experience in chapter 9 resembles one of the plagues in Egypt. It’s like the eighth plague in Exodus 10:1-20, only worse. This time the whole world is affected, not just Egypt. Furthermore the locusts attack humans, not crops. Finally, they are not insects. They are demons that John describes as locusts.

John has never seen anything like them. That is why in verses 5-10 he uses the word “like” eight times. He can only describe them through comparisons. But one thing is clear in his description: nothing can be done humanly to stop them. Only God can stop them, for the earth is His spiritually.

These verses remind us again and again that everything spiritually is under God’s control. In verse 1, Satan could not release these demons without asking Jesus for the key (Revelation 1:18). Upon their release, their activity was limited by God. Verses 3-5 explain that God wouldn’t allow them to hurt the foliage, only humans, and only the humans who didn’t have the seal of God (Revelation 7:3-4). Furthermore, they could only sting them, not kill them. And they could only sting them for five months.

Revelation chapters 8 and 9 remind us that nothing happens on earth physically or spiritually without God’s permission. The earth is His and everything in it. Though God has limited the activity of these demons, what He has allowed is still hard to grasp.

When the abyss is opened, smoke dims the sun, a sun whose light was already darkened a third by God (Revelation 8:12). As the demon-locusts fly, the sound of their wings grinds out a constant feeling of anxiety and fear. When you read William Barclay’s description of a plague of locusts invading Algiers in 1866, you get a feel for the experience.

The noise of the millions of their wings is variously described as like the dashing of waters in a mill-wheel or the sound of a great cataract. When the millions of them settle on the ground the sound of their eating has been described as the crackling of a prairie fire. The sound of their march is like the heavy rain falling on a distant forest.³

Though in Revelation 9 those living will hear the demon-locusts fly and march, they will not hear them eat. They will just feel the sting and hear the screams of those being stung. Verse 5 says that their sting will be like a scorpion. Though often not fatal, the sting of a scorpion is one of the most painful. Its venom makes you feel as though your veins and nervous system are on fire. The effects of such a sting can last for several days.⁴
Without being stung, 200,000 died from the invasion of locusts in Algiers in 1866. Yet, none will die from their stings in Revelation 9. Countless will want to die, but God won’t allow their stings to bring death, “For the earth is the LORD’S and everything in it”—everything, physically and spiritually.

The blast of the fifth trumpet is a reminder that nothing physically or spiritually happens on earth without God’s approval. Even before the fifth trumpet sounds, we need to remember that.

Recently, I heard of a couple experiencing a series of tragedies. One tragedy alone would have been enough for them to question God’s care, yet the fact that the tragedies seemed linked together caused the couple to become bitter. Though they were both strong believers, one of them finally said it: “I’d just like to ask God, ‘Why us!’” In an unexpected moment of strength, the other said, “Why not us?” With that simple statement their rage became strength. Their strength became resolve, and soon their resolve became an unforgettable experience with God.

Because everything physically and spiritually belongs to God, every experience you face has God’s permission. Some hard experiences are of our own making while others are allowed by God to make us what He wants us to be. Here are some wonderful lessons we wound never have learned if God had not allowed a temptation or hardship to take place in the lives of others.

We would have never learned from...

• Paul – “The greater my thorns the greater God’s grace.”
• Daniel – “When God shuts the mouths of lions, He opens the heart of a nation.”
• Peter – “Satan wants to sift you when he knows God wants to use you.”
• David – “When hungry, hurting, confused or scared, the shepherd’s there.”
• Job – Stay faithful. It makes Satan mad.
• Jesus – There’s a reason for the cup!

When the fifth trumpet blows in Revelation 9, the people will understand even more that the demons are under God’s control. And though their activity will be harsher then than today, the divine rule is the same. The demons can do nothing without God’s permission. When the fifth trumpet blasts all will be reminded, “The demons are mine.”

The Sixth Trumpet
The Conditions are Mine!

With the fifth trumpet God reminds all, “The demons are mine.” And now with the sixth trumpet, He reminds all that “The conditions of the earth are mine as well.” You see this when reading Revelation 9:13-19.

13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is before God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.

17 The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. 18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19 The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

With its lips still buzzing from the blast, the sixth angel is told to release the four angels bound at the river Euphrates. Since the four angels are bound, they too are demons. I don’t know why they were bound at this river. It could be that the Euphrates River was the cradle of all civilization (Genesis 2:14). This was where the creation, deception and fall of humanity took place. Or they could have been bound at the Euphrates River because it borders Israel (Revelation 15:18), and God knows that’s where it will all be restored.

The article “the” sets these demons aside as a select group. Verses 15-16 explain that they will lead a demon force of 200,000,000. The word translated “troops” in verse 16 is a Greek word better translated as “armies”—plural. It is possible that each of these four demons will lead these armies. Unlike the demon-locusts that could only sting, these demon armies will kill one-third of mankind. Since a fourth of mankind was already killed in Revelation 6:8, this brings the tribulation death toll to around half of the earth’s population. The number of deaths is staggering enough, yet when you look at the conditions in which they died, the clearest way to describe it is “hell on earth.”

Listen to John’s description of the riders in verse 17. Their breastplates were red like fire. They bore the color hyacinth—a dark blue or black smoke-like color, and a sulfurous yellow—like brimstone. These are the colors and features of hell described elsewhere in the book of Revelation (14:10; 19:20; 20:10; 21:8). Furthermore in verses 18-19, John writes how death will come from these demons and their horses. It will come via incineration by fire, and asphyxiation by smoke and the gases given off by the sulfurous brimstone. Again, it’s a taste of hell on earth.

Until this moment, any picture of hell was verbal. Jesus often called hell Gehenna. The valley of Gehenna was south of Jerusalem. It was there that refuse and the bodies of criminals and others were burned. Its fires and smoke never stopped. However now, in Revelation 9:13-19, those alive during the tribulation are experiencing a form of hell on earth.

Occasionally, Loree and I will drive a back road and see an abandoned farmhouse. Looking at the gray weathered boards of the leaning house, I’ve said, “Loree, I would liked to have been there the day the farmer and his family walked into that house for the first time. The smell of new paint, the sight of fresh drapes, and the excitement of children running in and out I’m sure made it a great experience.”

Going back beyond the farmhouse, wouldn’t you like to have been with Adam and Eve when God’s creation was new? No roads or buildings, just walking under a clear blue sky and with each step seeing something so grand you find yourself amazed at God’s work. Oh, God’s work is still all around us. It’s just that we sometimes take it all for granted.

I read of two friends standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon. One leaned back, sighed and said, “I can’t believe God did all this.” However, his friend leaned forward to spit over the edge and then said, “I can’t believe I just spit a mile.” One takes it all in and the other takes it for granted. And sadly, these two friends represent those who live today. Some see all that God has created and are in awe of Him, and see each day as a gift. Others see the earth as a self-managing globe, nothing more than a cosmic accident. Yet, Revelation 9:13-19 reminds us that God says, “The conditions are mine. Everything you see, touch, and enjoy is there by my permission. And, by my permission, the day will come when all that will change.”

Still No Repentance

The last two verses of Revelation 9 explain a great deal, and yet, I still don’t understand. Look at verses 20-21.

20 The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood-idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.

These verses explain that though they experienced the sting of the demon-locusts and wished they had died, and though half of the earth’s inhabitants ultimately did die from a hell-like experience, as a whole they still refused to repent and turn to God. As though it was hard for John to believe as well, he lists several reasons why they failed to repent.
In verse 20, they refused to repent of the work of their hands. John lists the demons and inanimate idols they chose to worship instead of God. They made God the way they wanted and were living their lives the way they wanted. In spite of all they were experiencing, they saw no need to change.

In verse 21, they refused to repent of their murders and magic arts. The Greek word for magic arts is translated elsewhere as “sorcery.” In English it becomes our words for “pharmacy” and “pharmaceuticals.” They refused to turn from their drugs and unto God. However, it’s fair to add any other addiction you like and you get the picture that even in the ugliest of conditions they would still choose their addiction over God. Finally, they wouldn’t repent of their sexual immorality or thefts, either.

Here’s a sobering thought. The same reasons the masses fail to turn to God during the tribulation are the same reasons why the masses refuse to surrender to God today. Are these your reasons? Do you refuse to turn to God because you are...

satisfied with the god you have created and life you have made?
addicted to something or someone else?
consumed with ungodly sexual passions and practices?
unwilling to give up what you want for what God wants for you?

Here’s another sobering thought. What’s been described in Revelation 9 is not something that might happen. It’s something that will happen. The numbers are exact. John was given the number of 200,000,000 for the demon armies. One-third of the earth will die. The times are precise. In Revelation 9:15, God tells John that He knows the exact year, month, day and hour this will take place.

I said that John explains a great deal in verses 20-21, and yet there’s something I still don’t understand. Having heard what you’ve heard, and now knowing what you know, I still don’t understand why you refuse to surrender your life to God. This is not something you can say, “I’ll do it later.” Later may only make your heart harder. The time is now!