ABOUT THIS EPISODE
As we continue our journey through the Book of Revelation, we are moving into one of the most dramatic transitions in the entire prophetic narrative. The first four trumpets have progressively affected the created order—the earth, the sea, the rivers and waters, and the heavenly bodies. But when we arrive at the fifth and sixth trumpets, something fundamentally changes. The judgments are no longer primarily directed against creation. They are directed against humanity itself. And even more significantly, Revelation begins to pull back the veil and show us what lies behind the rebellion of humanity: a supernatural kingdom of darkness, a counterfeit kingdom that seeks to imitate, corrupt and ultimately replace the Kingdom of God.
We saw how trumpets one to four struck creation – the trees, the seas, the rivers and the darkening of the sun and the moon and the stars. And now the fifth trumpet releases supernatural powers that torment humanity. Revelation 9:1 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fall from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only to harm those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads – they had no authority to kill those people, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days those people will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
THE FIFTH TRUMPET — THE ABYSS IS OPENED
Then the fifth Trumpet sounds. John says: I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth. And to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. He says “to him.” The star is a personal being identified as Abaddon, in Hebrew, or Apollyon, in Greek. Both names mean Destroyer. This is therefore a supernatural ruler of the abyss. The abyss is opened, and smoke rises from it like the smoke of a great furnace. Then something terrifying emerges. Locust-like beings appear. But John repeatedly says they are “like” something. They have human-like faces. They have hair like women’s hair. They have teeth like lions. They have breastplates like iron. Their wings sound like an enormous army. And they have tails like scorpions. The picture is deliberately unnatural and chilling. These are supernatural demonic powers released from the abyss, a demonic army under the authority of Apollyon/the destroyer. But what is extraordinarily important is that God remains sovereign, and the demons are not given unlimited authority. They are told what they may do and not do. They cannot destroy the vegetation. They cannot harm those who possess the seal of God. And their period of torment is limited. They are given five months. This does not necessarily mean that believers experience no challenge of suffering, but it tells us that God’s people are never outside His protective care. The five-month period is significant - 150 days the same as the 150 days during which the floodwaters prevailed in the days of Noah and God’s people were preserved. The days of Noah were characterised by corruption and judgment, but God preserved Noah and his household. And Revelation here again presents humanity facing a world of escalating judgment while God continues to preserve those who belong to Him – It’s Psalm 91 again.
And next is the sixth trumpet - unleashing an unprecedented force of destruction in which one-third of humanity dies.
Then, between the sixth and seventh trumpets, Revelation chapter 10 gives us a remarkable prophetic prelude to what will happen in the Tribulation. John is shown that God’s apparent and puzzling delay in revealing the enigma of the history of the world is coming to an end. The history of mankind while blessed with the goodness of God is a confusing and often unhinged narrative of human disasters. But the mystery of God in all this is approaching its unveiling and fulfillment. And finally, with the seventh trumpet, the great declaration is made: The kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. So Revelation 9–10 is not simply a catalogue of frightening events. It is a movement toward the final confrontation between two kingdoms—the counterfeit kingdom of Satan and the true Kingdom of God.
THE UNVEILING OF THE SATANIC KINGDOM
To understand Revelation 9, we must understand the biblical story of human rebellion. Behind the visible structures of human civilisation lies a deeper spiritual conflict, describing the development of what can be called the satanic kingdom—a kingdom born from Lucifer's rebellious ambition. The rebellion is therefore not merely evil behaviour. It is usurpation/overthrow. And that same ambition eventually appears here in Revelation in its fullest form to construct a counterfeit of God’s Kingdom. The biblical picture becomes almost like a dark mirror.
God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The satanic kingdom is portrayed through the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet. The Dragon represents Satan. The Beast receives worship. The False Prophet directs humanity toward that worship.
The result is a counterfeit kingdom with a counterfeit ruler, counterfeit worship and counterfeit authority. This is a counterfeit trinity, with the Beast receiving the worship that belongs to Christ and the False Prophet directing humanity toward worship of the Beast and global economic control. This is why Revelation is so concerned with worship. The final conflict is therefore spiritual before it is political.
FROM TORMENT TO DEATH — THE SIXTH TRUMPET
So the fifth trumpet brought all that torment without death. Now the sixth trumpet brings death on an unprecedented scale. Four angels are released at the Euphrates. The Euphrates is not an arbitrary detail. It represented the boundary of the land promised to Abraham. It was associated historically with the great enemies of God’s people, and the Euphrates also becomes significant because of its association with the ancient world of Genesis and the traditions surrounding the angelic watchers and the Nephilim giants, and the Mesopotamian traditions represented by the Epic of Gilgamesh.
GILGAMESH, THE NEPHILIM AND THE ANCIENT REBELLION
This brings us to a fascinating theological connection. There is a Biblical account in Genesis ch. 6 that speaks about angels coming down and procreating with women in the earth. Genesis 6:4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. This is also mentioned in Jude And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day (Jude 1:6). The Bible records this as ‘evil crossing divinely established boundaries’ which led ultimately to the corruption of humanity and the judgement of the flood of Noah.
But another reality reverses that claim and establishes a deliberate and deceptive ancient Mesopotamian worldview of surrounding nations in the Middle East that were not only corrupted by these angels, but who admired and eventually recognised them as demi-gods. The ancient Mesopotamian world produced stories of supernatural beings, superheroes and angelic-human interaction. One of these superheroes named Gilgamesh was praised in a document called ‘The Epic of Gilgamesh’ which presents Gilgamesh as an extraordinary figure, described in Mesopotamian tradition as partly divine and partly human.
This occultic worldview is being adopted by many in today's culture. Documents and scrolls have been found that draw upon the Book of Giants traditions associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls, where Gilgamesh and Humbaba are identified in connection with the Nephilim tradition. The tomb of Gilgamesh has become a place of real interest and artifacts have been taken from the area surrounding his tomb and the US government officially handed it back to Iraqi authorities during a repatriation ceremony in Washington, D.C. in September 2021. It is interesting that there has been a rise in occultic practices and satanic rituals being practised globally in recent times but as these things get called out and exposed the hearts of the people involved in these things are becoming even more hardened.
This is what is called theological inversion.
Mesopotamian culture celebrated supernatural heroes and beings as the bringers of wisdom, civilisation and political power, and magical crafts. They were traditionally viewed as supernatural semi-divine philosophers and sages. But what humanity celebrated as greatness actually represented Satanic rebellion against God.
But the Bible in Genesis 6 presents what the ancient world calls “divine wisdom” as corrupted supernatural knowledge, and what is celebrated as heroic power was actually part of humanity’s descent into violence and corruption that brought on Noah’s flood. This provides an important backdrop for Revelation. The final conflict is not simply about modern politics. It reaches back into the ancient spiritual rebellion and overcomes it, and Revelation presents that rebellion and its final expression.
THE TWO HUNDRED MILLION
John then sees an army of extraordinary magnitude. Two hundred million. Humanity is confronted with a force of unprecedented destructive power. One-third of humanity is killed. First, creation is struck. Then humanity is tormented. Then humanity is killed on a massive scale. So the judgments are escalating. But then comes one of the most sobering statements in the entire passage. The survivors do not repent.
After everything they have witnessed, they continue worshipping demons and idols. They continue in murders. They continue in sorceries. They continue in sexual immorality. They continue in theft. This teaches us something profound about judgment. Judgment does not automatically produce repentance. Pain does not necessarily soften the human heart. Fear does not necessarily create faith. Even witnessing supernatural intervention does not guarantee surrender to God. The human heart can become so hardened that even catastrophe becomes an opportunity for further rebellion – the great warning of Revelation. The problem is not simply that humanity needs better circumstances. The problem is that humanity needs redemption.
REVELATION 10 — WHEN HEAVEN ANNOUNCES THAT THE DELAY IS ENDING
After the sixth trumpet, before the seventh, John sees another mighty angel. The angel is clothed with a cloud. A rainbow is upon his head. His face is like the sun. His feet are like pillars of fire. The imagery is majestic and Christ-like. Yet John calls him another mighty angel, so the emphasis is that he functions as a heavenly representative of divine authority rather than being identified directly as Jesus. And then John hears seven thunders speak and is about to write what they say. But heaven tells him: “Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.” There are things God reveals. And there are things God deliberately does not reveal. Revelation means unveiling—but even Revelation contains mysteries that remain sealed. We do not know everything. We do not need to know everything. God remains God.
THE LITTLE SCROLL — SWEET IN THE MOUTH, BITTER IN THE STOMACH
Then John is commanded to take the little scroll and eat it. It is sweet in his mouth but it becomes bitter in his stomach. The Word of God is sweet because it reveals God’s purposes. It is sweet because God’s Kingdom is coming, and because Christ will triumph and because evil will not have the final word. But the message is also bitter because before the Kingdom comes, judgment must unfold, and before restoration, rebellion must be exposed, and before the final triumph, the darkness must be confronted. So the prophet has to carry both dimensions. Sweetness and bitterness, Hope and warning. Judgment and restoration. The Gospel is good news, but it is good news precisely because the powers that oppose God will ultimately be defeated.
THE MYSTERY OF GOD
Then we come to one of the most important statements in Revelation 10: “In the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished.” What is this mystery? It is a remarkable collection of biblical mysteries converging toward the final consummation. Mystery of Marriage: The union between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:32). Mystery of Babylon: The condemnation of the "great prostitute" and the Beast (Revelation 17). Mystery of Iniquity/Lawlessness: The working of Satan and the revelation of the "man of sin" (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Mystery of the Gospel: The shared life with Jesus to be understood by all (Ephesians 6:19). Mystery of Israel: The partial hardening of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in (Romans 11:25). Mystery of the Resurrection: The instantaneous change of the living and the dead at the last trumpet (1 Corinthians 15:51). Mystery of Godliness: God manifested in the flesh and preached among nations (1 Timothy 3:16). Mystery of the Kingdom: Truths given to believers but hidden in parables from those outside (Mark 4:11).
These themes are not isolated. They converge because the story that began in Genesis is moving toward its finality and the rebellion that began in the heavenly realm moves toward its final confrontation. The covenant purposes of God move toward fulfilment and the Gospel moves toward its universal proclamation and victory. The Bride moves toward her wedding while Babylon moves toward judgment. The Beast moves toward destruction and the Dragon moves toward defeat. And Christ moves toward His Kingdom - His victory is not just the destruction of His enemies. It is the restoration of God’s order.
JUDGMENT AND RESTORATION
This is why we should not read Revelation simply as a book of catastrophe. Running underneath the judgments is a deeper biblical theme: sifting and restoration. God is exposing what cannot remain and bringing hidden rebellion into the light. He is exposing the counterfeit and separating truth from deception. He is judging the powers that have corrupted humanity and is ultimately restoring what was lost. The final Kingdom is therefore not merely about the end of something - It is about the beginning of something. The end of Satan’s counterfeit kingdom becomes the beginning of the visible reign of Christ.
So as we move forward in our study of Revelation, we need to understand what Revelation 9 and 10 are really showing us.
It is God’s victory over the satanic kingdom and human rebellion — from Genesis to Revelation God’s purpose: God desired a human family on earth to love Him and be loved by Him. And He appointed angels to serve and minister to humanity (Ezek. 28; Heb. 1:14).
Rebellion 1 — Lucifer and Eden: Lucifer rebelled against God and beguiled Eve, drawing humanity into rebellion through Adam and Eve. God declared that the seed of the woman would ultimately crush the serpent’s seed (Gen. 3:15).
Rebellion 2 — Genesis 6: Other rebellious heavenly beings violated the boundary between heaven and earth, taking human women and producing the Nephilim. Their rebellion contributed to the corruption of humanity and the spread of violence and evil, resulting in the Flood. The particular angels involved were subsequently judged and imprisoned (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). But Gilgamesh mythology praises the fallen angels' progeny as great demigods as explained before.
Rebellion 3 — Babel and the nations: God restarted humanity through Noah, but the human heart remained rebellious. At Babel, humanity again resisted God’s command to fill the earth. God confused their languages and scattered the nations. Deuteronomy 32:8–9 describes the nations being allotted according to the sons of God - lesser divine beings. These angels subsequently rebelled and became associated with the nations’ idolatry and corruption (Ps. 82).
God’s response — Abraham and Israel: God called Abraham to become the father of a covenant people through whom He would reclaim the nations. Israel was brought out of Egypt and into Canaan, where it confronted nations associated with idolatry and, in some cases, the Nephilim/Anakim (Num. 13:33; Deut. 2–3). The preservation of Abraham’s seed was central to God’s redemptive purpose, ultimately bringing forth Jesus through Mary.
Christ reverses Babel: Jesus sent out seventy disciples to announce the kingdom and confront the powers of darkness (Luke 10:1, 17–20). Through His death and resurrection, Christ defeated the powers and reconciled humanity to God (2 Cor. 5:14–19). At Pentecost, the Gospel was heard by people from many nations in their own languages (Acts 2)—a powerful reversal of Babel’s division.
Rebellion 4 — Revelation 9: In the final period of judgment, those previous demonic powers are released from the Euphrates and unleashed against humanity (Rev. 9). Their rebellion reaches its climax, but Christ ultimately defeats them and consigns the rebellious powers to an awaiting final judgment.
Rebellion 5 — after the Millennium: After the thousand years, Satan is released once more and deceives the nations into one final assault against God’s people. God intervenes with fire from heaven, decisively ending the rebellion (Rev. 20:7–10). The story is therefore not simply the history of humanity’s rebellion. It is the story of God progressively defeating every rebellion—human and angelic—and ultimately reclaiming the nations for His Son.
And then they show us something even greater and the delay is ending. The mystery is approaching completion. The prophetic Word must be proclaimed. And the seventh trumpet is waiting to be sounded (Revelation 11:15), and as Revelation unfolds from chapter 9 toward chapter 10 and beyond, we are watching the collapse of the counterfeit and the emergence of the true. The darkness becomes darker, the rebellion becomes more open, the judgments intensify, but the purpose of God becomes clearer. History is not spiralling out of control – it is simply the worldly kingdoms being shaken. And ultimately, the declaration of heaven will proclaim The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ—and He shall reign forever and ever. Amen.
