Revelation 9 Explained: Demonic Locusts & God's Wrath Unleashed

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. And again, it's good to have everybody back for an afternoon of programming. And for those of you here in the studio, you can be turning to Revelation chapter 8. We'll pick up where we left off. And for those of you on television, of course, that will be just last week's program. And again, we like to have all of you, as many of you have expressed you do, take your Bible and just be part of the class. That's all we are, is an informal teaching. We don't claim to have any special revelations. We just teach the Word as we feel the Holy Spirit would have it taught. We try to help people to see what it really says, not what someone has said they think it says. I never say what I think it says. If I don't know, I just simply say I don't know. But anyway, for those of you out there in television, I especially want to thank the Indiana audience. My, we've had such a good response from the folks in Indiana, and we like to let you know that we appreciate that. Also, we want to announce that booklet number three is ready. Nancy has just been laboring over, and she's had a lot of computer problems with it, but she's got them fresh from the printer. They're here with us now today. And so for those of you in television, you just begin to call us on our 800 number. And I don't know why we surprise people when we answer the phone ourselves. We remember, we're just small potatoes. We don't have an office, we don't have secretaries, so when you call, either my little wife will answer the phone, or if I happen to be in the house, I answer it myself. And I don't know why that shocks people, but that's the way it is. Our 800 number comes into our home, and you just tell Iris which videotape you may want, or if you want a list of what we have available, you call or write. And we appreciate every one of you, especially those of you who are helping us financially, because after all, we do have to pay for television time. We've always said we'll never beg for money on this program. You won't if you write to us. You will not get a bunch of junk mail begging for money. But if you send us a contribution, you'll get a receipt and acknowledgment, and then that's it. All right. Pardon? Oh, that's right. See, it's a good thing she reminded me. Okay, tape number 12 will be ready now after this taping, so starting about the middle of July—of course, this will come on a little later, but nevertheless, as of the middle of July, tape number 12 is ready to go out. All right, enough for announcements. Last program, you remember, we finished at the end of chapter 8 with the end of the fourth trumpet judgment. Now, a lot of times I don't like to review for various reasons from my point of view, and yet every time I do review, someone says, well, review and review and review, because that's the only way it finally soaks in. So I think, again, for those of you who have just tuned in the last two, three weeks, and we know we're having that every week, someone writes, I just caught your program for the first time. I'm going to make, again, just a real quick review of this seven-year period as we've been coming up to it. Now, I've put the line on the board, and for those of you who have been with us, remember I've always emphasized the best way to study the book of Revelation in this last seven-year period of time as we know it is to determine all the things that take place at the beginning, all the things that take place at the middle, and then the whole host of events at the end, which of course will be at the time of His Second Coming, and to set up then the Kingdom. Now, I know there are folks and there are groups who just cringe at my teaching that the Kingdom is going to come upon the earth, and I make no apology for it, because this book is full of it. It's all it talks about from cover to cover is the coming of this Kingdom on earth, which in reality is where heaven is going to be as well, and that's another concept a lot of people can't understand. Heaven is going to be on this earth, and when this earth is destroyed at the end of that initial thousand years, of course, you get into the last two chapters of Revelation, what do you have? A new heaven and a new what? A new earth. And so even the eternal abode is going to be on an earth-type situation and not up somewheres in the regions beyond in a heaven of an ethereal, and I don't know all the foggy notions that people have about heaven, but nevertheless, it's going to be a viable social existence on planet earth. All right, now then, as we said we view, we come out of the church age, and again, I've always emphasized that the church age is indeterminate in time. We don't know when it will end. It began back here, of course, in the book of Acts, and especially as the Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, began preaching the gospel of the grace of God and calling out what he refers to then as the body of Christ. Now, I've always told folks in my classes, it's not so important what congregation you're a member of as it is are you a member of the body of Christ. You can be a Methodist or a Baptist or a Catholic or whatever, but unless you're a member of the body of Christ, you are eternally lost. I mean, the Scripture is so plain. But once we have entered into God's salvation and the Holy Spirit's work of placing us into the body of Christ, then of course we have what the Bible refers to as that eternal life, eternal salvation, the hope of glory. So I've always tried to, and in fact what reminds me, I had a letter from a gentleman in Indiana. He said, last, he said, I'm just thrilled with everything you're teaching, but he said, I've still got some questions about the rapture of the church. And I'm sure he was wondering, is the church going to go into the tribulation? Well, those of you who were with me, what, several months ago now, I think I made the statement, I could probably stand here for an hour or two and give you references that prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the church will not go into the tribulation, mostly because this whole concept of the body of Christ is a revelation only of the apostle Paul. You'll never find it mentioned in the Old Testament. You'll never find it even alluded to in Christ's earthly ministry. It is strictly a Pauline revelation. And when Paul maintains that this body of Christ, which is all wrapped up in another word that is predominantly Pauline, and that is the mystery. Now the mystery, of course, is the revelation that God is now doing something different in this 1,900 plus, now I could say almost 2,000 years, but I use that way, it's handier. But in this 1,900 plus years of time, after the revelation of these mysteries, He is calling out the body of Christ, not under law, not associated with the nation of Israel, not associated with Judaism or the temple. It is totally the whole operation of the grace of God, based upon, of course, the finished work of the cross, His death, burial, and resurrection. Now this is so totally removed from law, which of course will again come in here because Israel is going to have the temple. Now you cannot mix law and grace. We couldn't mix it coming from this direction, and you certainly can't mix it going that way. So the church would be like, if I may use the expression, the church would be a fish out of water in the tribulation period. It just wouldn't fit. It is not part of the Jewish program. It is not part of the law. It is totally insulated from all of the dealings that God does with the nation of Israel, whereas the tribulation is primarily God dealing with Israel. So anyway, as the church age is completed then, it has to be taken out of the way so that God can pick up where He left off, of course, with the nation of Israel. And there we have the introduction, according again to Daniel, chapter 9, of the Antichrist who will assign this seven-year treaty with the nation of Israel. That's why, I guess, the whole world is always watching the Middle East peace process. I was thinking just this morning, why is it, and I want you to think about these things, why is it that the world is always so concerned about peace in the Middle East? Have you ever noticed that? Every United States president, at least since Kennedy, has almost made it their prerogative to somehow or other be the one that could bring peace to the Middle East. Well, my land, look at all the other areas of the world that need peace. Well, they're not that concerned about those. Sri Lanka, what we used to call Ceylon when I was a kid. The Sri Lankans have been in war for the last 20, 30 years. Misery, just because of two factions on that island. Is the world concerned about that? Not really. Look at the areas of Africa that are in constant turmoil. Does every president coming into the White House say, well, the first thing we have to do is establish peace in one of these other areas of the world? No, but they're all hung up on somehow or other bringing peace to the Middle East. Well again, it comes back to the Scriptures. What does the Scripture say about Jerusalem? It'll be a stone of stumbling. And isn't that exactly what it is? Every president has stubbed their toe on Jerusalem. And the new administration, the same way, they are just intent on somehow or other bringing peace to the Middle East. Well, that's why of course the Antichrist will finally be the one to do it. He's going to bring a seven-year treaty of peace to Israel and the Middle East. And seemingly the world is going to think that he is, of course, the mastermind and so forth. So that's the very fact of his signing that treaty is what I call the trigger mechanism of beginning that final seven years. Then as we noticed in our previous lessons, we also have the introduction of the two witnesses coming to Jerusalem who will proclaim, of course, the Word of God again to the nation of Israel. Out of them will come the 144,000 who will be sealed with the mark of God in their forehead and they will become the evangelists and the missionaries then to the whole world. And then we found that I feel there will be a great Russian invasion into the nation of Israel sometime after the tribulation has begun. And then we have the various judgments of God begin to fall. This is not going to be a three -and-a-half years of peace and prosperity either. It's nothing compared to this, of course, but nevertheless there's going to be famine and pestilence and earthquakes and so forth until finally we get to the midpoint. Now when we get to the midpoint and Israel has enjoined temple worship, the Antichrist, remember, will move from his headquarters somewhere in Europe, whether it's in Rome or Brussels or whatever, and he's going to come to the temple and he's going to defile it and he's immediately going to stop any kind of Jewish worship and he's going to demand that he himself be worshiped as God. And that, of course, will trigger then this final three-and-a-half years. And this is where we are now. We have seen the trumpet judgments begin, and again I always like to make the analogy that Jesus made in Matthew 24. These tribulation judgments are a perfect parallel of the young lady approaching delivery of her little one. And as those birth pangs begin, they're rather mild and still rather far apart. But as she comes closer and closer to that delivery hour, everything increases. It crescendos, if I may use that word. So now then, as we have come past the midpoint and the trumpet judgments are beginning, they're going to come a little closer together, they're going to keep getting worse and worse until finally we get to the last seven judgments, and they're called the bowl judgment, or in the King James it's called vial. But I prefer to use the word bowl, and I'll tell you why in a little bit. But right now we're in the trumpet judgments that have begun back here at the midpoint, and we got, like I said, as far as the end of chapter 8 in our last program, and now let's just go into chapter 9, where we come to the fifth trumpet judgments. Now again remember, these trumpets are merely God's way of indicating that it is now time for the next judgment to fall. Now this is not going to be isolated in the Middle East, this is going to be worldwide. And as I've mentioned so often as we've taught the book of Revelation, the plagues many times are a repetition of what took place under the pharaohs in Egypt, Moses. You'll have many of the same things, but whereas that was regional, that was just in the area of Egypt, these are going to be all around the planet. This is going to be a worldwide phenomenon. Now another thing I've always mentioned, you want to remember that all the way up through the Old Testament, the supernatural, the miraculous, was rather commonplace, wasn't it? All you have to do is just reflect back. The supernatural, Elijah suddenly transported to heaven, Enoch translated, Israel going through the Red Sea, God coming down on Mount Sinai, over and over. And we don't have any problem with that. I don't know if anybody has any problem with these Old Testament miracles. But as soon as you get into the book of Revelation and you start talking about these phenomena, and then they think, well, you've got to be some kind of a weirdo to believe that. This isn't really going to happen, oh yes it is, because it's happened before. Only there God confined it to a rather small area of the world, but here as we are approaching now the end time, it's going to be worldwide. But it's going to happen. I'm not just a prophet of doom, neither am I one to sensationalize. Those of you who have heard me teach over the years, you know that. I don't sensationalize these things, we just simply teach it because the book says it. All right, now then as you come into chapter 9 and verse 1, the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth. Now here's how you learn to study your Bible. You'll notice in the next statement, this star is given a pronoun. What's the pronoun? Him. So now we don't know what angel it is, but it's a personality. It's a person of some sort. I think it's an angel, and I don't know which one. But nevertheless, it's not just a body from outer space falling, but it is actually a personality fall from heaven to the earth and to Him. See that? And to Him was given the key of the bottomless pit. Now the bottomless pit is not hell, it's not the lake of fire, it's a unique place that God has reserved. And then He opened the bottomless pit, verse 2, and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And now look at verse 3, and there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power as scorpions of the earth have power. Now I don't know how many of you have been bitten by a scorpion, but those of you who have, you know it has a unique sting to it. They burn. I haven't been, but my little wife has. And it just burns and burns, and it lasts quite a little while. Well now these, whatever you want to call them, these locusts are going to have a psychological effect on humanity as much as anything by their appearance and by their ability to sting. Now verse 4, and it was commanded them. Now you see God has complete control because never again lose sight of this, this is God's wrath being poured out on God rejecting mankind. And we're going to see down here in a little bit that everything He does is fair and just. So then He commands that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing or any tree, but only those men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads. Now who are those? Well the 144,000. Flip back quickly to chapter 7, because this is what makes them unique in this 7 year period. Back in chapter 7, verse 3, where the angels are instructed now, hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And then are listed the 12 tribes out of which will come 12,000 or 144 ,000. All right, now these are the ones then that are referred to again in chapter 9, that these locusts, these demonic creatures, will not be able to touch the 144,000. Now verse 5 again of Revelation 9, and to them, that is these locusts, and to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented. And that is mankind, these locusts will never be able to put a man to death or a woman, but that they should be tormented. Now I know the first thing that comes to our mind, how can a God of love do something like this to His created beings? Well you always have to remember the big picture. For thousands of years, God has been nothing but gracious, and kind, and loving, and patient. But all the way back to Psalms chapter 2, all of a sudden we break into a period of time that's going to be the wrath and the vexation of God, isn't it? When He has finally run out of His patience, and He has finally said, I've had enough. Now, I think in the day and age in which you and I are living, and as we have seen the fabric of the world's society just rot at the seams, even in these last 10, 15, or 20 years, don't you often have to ask yourself, how long will God put up with it? Sure we do. I mean, you look at what men are doing today, and you just have to wonder, how long can He put up with it? Well, it's not going to be much longer. And when He does stop being gracious, His wrath is going to be beyond our comprehension. And as the Scripture says, I just said it a moment ago, it's going to tell us that it's fair and it's just. So He's going to torment the human race by the stings of these locusts, and instead of hurting for an hour or two, it's going to sting for five months. That's what the five months refers to, is the length of the result of that sting. And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he strikes a man. Now verse 6, in those days, now remember we're in the last half of the Tribulation, those days that Jesus said were like nothing ever before, in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it. In other words, they're not even going to be capable of suicide. They're not going to be able to take their own life, because a sovereign God is going to take even that from them. But they're going to be tormented, and will wish they could die and can't. Then verse 7, and the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle. Now I know for years, I looked at that and I just couldn't figure it out. And then one day, my wife likes to use grasshoppers for fishing once in a while. Maybe not so much here in Oklahoma, but when we go other places. One day I was catching grasshoppers with her, and it never struck me before, have you ever taken a good look at the head of some of these big grasshoppers, what does it look like? A horse's head, a horse's head. And then I read soon after that, that in Germany there is a species of grasshoppers that they call the horse-headed locust. And so all of this, you see, just fits perfectly. This is not way out in left field, and so these locusts, of course, will just be an expanded version, I think, of what we know as locusts, even though they have that horse-type head. But they're going to have so much more. They're going to be, like I said, psychologically frightening. It's going to be mentally attacking the human race. And in verse 8, they had hair as the hair of women, teeth as the teeth of lions, and their breastplates as breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was of chariots and many horses running to battle. Now, of course, we in America have never had to come under the attack of swarms and clouds of locusts. But you take in the Middle East, when locusts can come up and just literally cloud out the sun for locusts, and it is indeed a roar. They can hear them coming. And here we have the same kind of a thing. These things are going to be so numerous and so huge that the sound of their wings is that many chariots. And then verse 10, now here's where they come to that ability to sting like a scorpion. They have tails like scorpions with stings in their tails, and their power, again, was to hurt men five months per sting. It's beyond our comprehension. Verse 11, and they had a king over them, who is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon, which really means the destroyer. Beyond that, again, we don't know who this angel is. It's not Satan, I'm quite sure. He's probably one of Satan's cohorts, but whatever. Some may feel this is Satan, but I think it's one of his lieutenants. Now verse 12 says, "...one woe is past, and behold, there are two more to come." As if this isn't bad enough, there's still two-thirds of it left. Then you come down into verse 13, "...the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Loose, or release, the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates." Now why the Euphrates of all places? Well if you remember back in Genesis chapter 10, what took place on the Euphrates River? Well, the Tower of Babel. And as I've stressed over the years for some of you now, I've been under my teaching quite a while, what was instituted at the Tower of Babel? Well all pagan religions. Every pagan mythological religion that you can think of or read about or research has its roots at the Tower of Babel on the Euphrates River. Now evidently, at the time that God scattered the human race, or maybe even later after Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians and some of the high priests of these pagan religions fled, I think somewhere back there God confined four of these powerful demonic beings who had been, of course, under Satan's rule, and they were bound in the area of the Euphrates River. Now another thing I always like to point out about the Euphrates, a lot of people just don't know their geography that well, but the Euphrates River, you see, is that great boundary between east and west. Have you ever thought of it that way? It has always been the major obstacle for those traveling from the east to the west, and so it has always been more or less abound. Now religiously, you know I don't like that word, but I can't find a better one. Religiously, it's the same way. East of the Euphrates has always been predominantly your pagan idolatrous religions. West of the Euphrates you have some of your other religions. You have, of course, Judaism, even Muhammadism is certainly not akin to the pagan idolatrous religions of the east, and then, of course, Christianity. So the Euphrates River is just what I call a boundary between the eastern religions and those of the west. And so these four angels now have been confined in that boundary area. And of course the next verse, and then we're going to have to stop and wait for the next program to continue. And these, in verse 15, these four angels were loose and were prepared. In other words, God has kept them waiting for a particular hour of a particular day of a particular month. Now I read something again the other day that just shook me, and I'm always stressing how God is meticulous in His timing. Hope I can do this in 10 seconds. But did you ever know that the first temple, which was built by Solomon, was destroyed on exactly the same month, the same day as the later temple that was built and destroyed by the Babylonians? On the same day of the same month. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.