Jer 4:21-31 The Whole Land Shall be Desolate – Yet Will I Not Make a Full End

[Study Aired March 7, 2021]

Jer 4:21  How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
Jer 4:22  For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Jer 4:23  I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Jer 4:24  I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Jer 4:25  I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Jer 4:26  I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
Jer 4:27  For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
Jer 4:28  For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
Jer 4:29  The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
Jer 4:30  And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
Jer 4:31  For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

Jer 4:21  How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

Outwardly Jeremiah is a prophecy of the impending Babylonian invasion and conquering of Judah and Jerusalem for rejecting their God and rebelling against His ways. “How long shall I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet” can be taken to be speaking of the standard and trumpet of the watchmen, warning the Lord’s people of their coming judgment. The standard and trumpet can also apply to the standard of the invading Babylonians and their trumpets which call their troops to begin the invasion and destruction of the Lord’s people for their sins and transgressions against their own Lord. Both scenarios bring about the same intended end – the judgment of the Lord’s rebellious people.

Jer 4:22  For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

This is the condition of humankind by nature. No man yet ever had to be instructed in how to lie, cheat or steal. Simply being placed into the proper situation to be tempted to lie, we of ourselves all succumb under enough pressure to do so. It is so easy to rationalize how it is much better to lie than to tell the truth. The same applies to cheating and stealing. In our self-righteousness we have no trouble at all telling ourselves that it is much better to cheat than to fail. Stealing is just as easy for our old man. He simply tells himself how much good he can do for himself and perhaps even for others if He just takes a little unearned substance or undeserved credit for how the Lord works. Because lightning does not immediately descend from heaven and strike us dead for our sins and transgressions, it very soon gets to the point that we do not even bother to rationalize our sins.

Ecc 8:11  Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily” we just shamelessly pursue and satisfy our own deceitful lusts. As Jeremiah reveals just a few chapters later:

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The great motivational speakers of this world universally tell us to “follow your heart” while Christ warns us against being so foolish as to do so. Our heart is deceitful and wicked, and our Lord “searches” our hearts.

Rev 2:20  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Rev 2:21  And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Rev 2:22  Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Rev 2:23  And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

An unrepentant, lascivious, stubborn heart is the meaning of our next verse:

Jer 4:23  I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

The ‘earth’ is clearly a reference to the Lord’s own chosen people who have turned away from Him to commit spiritual fornication with the ways of our flesh. The twenty-second chapter of Jeremiah is addressed specifically to the king and the people of Judah, the Lord’s own people:

Jer 22:1  Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

Then the Lord, speaking to this same audience says:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

“The earth… was without form and void” is just another way of saying “the earth… and the heavens… have no light” because they have no knowledge of their God. They have turned their back on Him and have committed spiritual fornication against Him.

The Lord has been very merciful and has not speedily executed His sentence against all the evil we have committed against Him. We have heaped up to ourselves the Lord’s wrath against the day of His wrath.

Yes, it is true:

Ecc 8:11  Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

This is also true:

Ecc 11:9  Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes:  but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

The Lord does not change. He is still the same in the New Testament. The longer we refuse to repent, the more fuel we are storing up for His fiery judgments within us.

Rom 2:2  But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
Rom 2:3  And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
Rom 2:5  But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Rom 2:6  Who will render to every man according to his deeds:

That is the message of this prophecy of Jeremiah:

Jer 4:24  I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Jer 4:25  I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
Jer 4:26  I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

It is the mountains and hills, the very foundations of all the false doctrines within us, which tremble at the Lord’s presence and at the knowledge of His mind and His doctrines. The ‘man and the birds of the heavens’ of verse 25 are also the symbols of our old man and all his false doctrines, respectively. We, and all our lying false doctrines, flee at the presence of the Lord and His Truth. His Truth is called “fire in [the] mouth” of His prophets (Jer 5:14), and the fire consumes our old man and his entire kingdom.

Outwardly “at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger” refers to the coming of the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to destroy and burn down the cities of Judah and the city of Jerusalem for rejecting their own God.

We happen to be living at a time when this prophecy is being fulfilled both inwardly and outwardly for the very same reason. We have all rejected the Lord’s words inwardly, and this world has rejected them and is rejecting them outwardly and reaping the fruits of that rejection.

Jer 4:27  For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

The land shall be desolate, yet the Lord will not make a full end because He has promised in the previous chapter:

Jer 3:14  Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

One of a city and two of a family is indeed a mere remnant in “this present time” (Rom 8:18) but the Lord will use that ‘remnant’, which has been accumulating for the past two thousand years, as the “saviors” of all the rest of mankind who have ever lived:

Isa 1:9  Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Thankfully there will be a remnant who will fulfill:

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Isa 58:1  Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

Before we can become saviors we, too, must first be judged for our sins:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

The “earth” is the Lord’s own people, so these words are first for us:

Jer 4:28  For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

The Lord has made all things for Himself, yes even the wicked man within us for the day of evil within us. That ‘day of evil’ begins when we are born:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

Our heavens above are black, and our experience is evil because of the nature of our earthy composition. In scripture the opposite of ‘heaven’ is not ‘hell’. In scriptural terms the opposite of the heavens is “the earth” from which we are made:

Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Contrary to what the great whore and her daughters teach, we are not spirits having a natural experience. Rather we are natural, dust and clay, earthy creatures having a spiritual experience, as the scriptures plainly state:

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

This is 1 Corinthians 15. It is known as ‘the resurrection chapter’, and this is all being said in hope of a resurrection.

However, our earth has a heavens in which the fowls of our heavens fly:

Gen 1:20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

We may be totally unaware of it being so, but the fact is that our earth is ruled by the clouds of its heavens:

Job 36:27  For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:
Job 36:28  Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.
Job 36:29  Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?
Job 36:30  Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea.
Job 36:31  For by them [by the clouds] judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance.
Job 36:32  With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt.

This is how we are being judged by our own heavens:

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace;

The English words ‘bottomless pit’ are translated from the Greek words ‘abussos’ G12, ‘deep, sea… bottomless’, and G5421, ‘phrear’, pit, well.

Here is Strong’s definition of this Greek word ‘abussos’:

G12
ἄβυσσος
abussos
ab’-us-sos

From G1 (as a negative particle) and a variation of G1037; depthless, that is, (specifically), (infernal) “abyss”: – deep, (bottomless) pit.

Total KJV occurrences: 9

We must always “try the spirit” of Strong’s definitions with how the holy spirit uses a word. So here is how the holy spirit uses this Greek word ‘abussos’ in the New Testament:

G12
ἄβυσσος
abussos
Total KJV Occurrences: 9
bottomless, 7
Rev_9:1-2 (2), Rev_9:11, Rev_17:7-8 (2), Rev_20:1, Rev_20:3
deep, 2
Luk_8:31, Rom_10:7

This word is translated as bottomless only two times, not seven times as stated here. This word ‘bottomless’ is only found in the book of Revelation. The other two appearances of this Greek word ‘abussos’ outside of the book of Revelation are:

Luk 8:31  And they [the demons in the Gadarene demoniac] besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep [Greek:  G12 abussos, the sea of Galilee].

Rom 10:7  Or, Who shall descend into the deep [Greek:  G12, abussos]? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

According to Romans 10:7, those in the ‘abussos’ are spiritually dead, as Christ Himself asserted:

Mat 8:21  And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Mat 8:22  But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

Whether the adversary is hedged out (Job 1:10 and Mar 12:1) or is given to attack the Lord’s elect, it is the Lord’s elect the adversary wants most. The adversary knew this demoniac was about to be delivered, and they did not want to return to the uncalled who are the ‘sea’ of mankind (Mat 18:6, Rev 13:1)

Job 1:7  And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. [“Seeking whom he may devour” (1Pe 5:8)].

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Job 1:8  And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9  Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10  Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Mar 12:1  And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.

Satan’s domain is in the ‘sea’ of unconverted mankind, but he is keen to expand his dominion into the chosen of God at any opportunity. That is the function of “the adversary… the tempter”.

Mat 18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 18:5  And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
Mat 18:6  But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat [Greek: ‘thronos’ – throne, his kingdom], and great authority.

Satan’s most prized target whom He seeks to devour is the “manchild” (Rev 12:3-4), the Lord’s elect.

Luk 22:28  Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations.
Luk 22:29  And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
Luk 22:30  That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Luk 22:31  And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32  But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child [you and me] as soon as it was born.

Here is Strong’s definition of the Greek word ‘phrear’:

G5421
φρέαρ
phrear
freh’-ar

Of uncertain derivation; a hole in the ground (dug for obtaining or holding water or other purposes), that is, a cistern or well; figuratively an abyss (as a prison): – well, pit.
Total KJV occurrences: 7

This is where this word appears in the Greek manuscripts:

G5421
φρέαρ
phrear

Total KJV Occurrences: 7
pit, 5
Luk_14:5, Rev_9:1-2 (4)
well, 2
Joh_4:11-12 (2)

In John 4 the Samaritan woman tells Christ:

Joh 4:11  The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well [G5421: phrear, the pit] is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

It is interesting to notice that the first two times the phrase ‘bottomless pit’ appears, it is translated from two Greek words, the words ‘abussos‘ and ‘phrear’. The Greek word ‘abussos’ is translated as ‘bottomless’ and is found only in these two verses. Where the word ‘bottomless’ appears in the KJV outside these two verses, it is simply being added by the translators, and does not appear in any Greek manuscript.

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless [G12: abussos] pit [G5421: phrear].
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless [G12:  abussos] pit [G5421: phrear]; and there arose a smoke out of the pit [G5421: phrear], as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit [G5421: phrear].

Revelation 9:1-2 is the only time those two words are found together. All the rest of the other five appearances of the phrase ‘bottomless pit’ is simply the Greek word ‘phrear’ – pit.

In scripture the word ‘deep’ often means the ‘sea’:

Luk 8:31  And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep [sea].

A better translation of Revelation 9:1-2 would be to replace the phrase ‘bottomless pit’ with the words ‘deep pit’. The sea is the ‘deep pit’ of dying flesh out of which all the Lord’s people are called. That is why Christ says that if we come to Him, we “pass from death unto life”:

Joh 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

1Jn 3:14  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

All of Satan’s attempts to destroy “the man child”, the Lord’s elect, are used by the Lord to chasten and scourge every son He receives, just as he was sent by the Lord to try Job and chasten him for his self-righteousness. Job was chastened of the Lord as a type of those whom the Lord loves in this present time:

Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Job 2:5  But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

This typifies how the Lord deals with us if we are His “very elect”:

Mat 24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

This is what the Lord is doing in this prophecy.

Jer 4:29  The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
Jer 4:30  And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

“The whole city” is all our false doctrines within our Babylonian world where we are being carried away as a captive for our sins which already align with the doctrines of Babylon. Nevertheless, in our darkened and deceived minds we do not recognize our own deceived and blinded condition.

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Joh 6:65  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

The generation which entered into the promised land came out of the generation whose “carcases fell in the wilderness”. We cannot and must not tell ourselves we are the generation that entered into the promised land, but we have nothing in common either with those whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. Rather, we must remember that “all things are [ours]”, both life and death. Then, and only then, can we understand that it is our own old man who is typified by those whose carcasses died in the wilderness:

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Heb 3:17  But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

“The world” is “the wilderness”, and that is where we find the Lord’s adulterous wife within each of us as we “read… hear… and keep the things written in the book of Revelation (Rev 1:3):

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2  With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

This is the same woman who flees into the wilderness in:

Rev 12:1  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Rev 12:2  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

Notice, “her child was caught up unto God and to His throne”:

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

The woman herself “fled into the wilderness”, where she is nourished of God for “a thousand two hundred and threescore days”. 1260 days is the same as the forty and two months, 42 x 30=1260, during which the beast rules in our lives.

Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months [1260 days].

Here is the birth of this manchild:

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Our judgment is the death of our old man, and it is “through death” we are given life:

Rom 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: [“We are…His flesh and…His bone” Eph 5:30]

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Likewise, it is through the death of the harlot Babylon that we become the faithful bride of Christ:

Isa 40:2  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins [Rev 18:6].

Isa 61:7  For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

The great whore of Revelation 17-18 is backslidden Israel, and the salvation within us comes to us only through her death:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

It is our birth in Christ which in time destroys our mother Babylon. In that sense Rachel typified Babylon when she died while giving birth to Benjamin, who in the story of Joseph typifies the Lord’s elect:

Gen 35:18  And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

This is how our study ends:

Jer 4:31  For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

It is only through the curse of death that our blessings all come. Here is the New Testament interpretation of this verse of Jeremiah:

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17  For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

The death of our mother Babylon is the birth of Christ within us, the “man child” turning every curse into a blessing for them who love God and are the called according to his purpose:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things [even the curses] work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

That concludes our study, and it concludes this fourth chapter of Jeremiah. Here are our verses for our next study:

Jer 5:1  Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
Jer 5:2  And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.
Jer 5:3  O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
Jer 5:4  Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
Jer 5:5  I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

Jer 5:6  Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
Jer 5:7  How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
Jer 5:8  They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
Jer 5:9  Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jer 5:10  Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’S.
Jer 5:11  For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.
Jer 5:12  They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
Jer 5:13  And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

Audio Links

The Spiritual Meaning of Biblical Locations – Part 5

The Bottomless Pit

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

Introduction

I recall as a 14 year-old child asking my father about this place called “the bottomless pit”. Dad was honest enough to admit he didn’t know where it was, but he emphasized the fact that Satan would be chained and bound in this ‘bottomless pit’ for the entire length of the millennium. I remember clearly asking my father why God let Satan out of that prison after the thousand years, and my father again admitted that he did not understand why God would do that.  So it was with many things. Our entire family simply believed what was taught in our church, and no one asked any hard questions. A very popular song that was sung in the church at that time was entitled ‘Farther Along’, I think, and the message of that song was that there are many things which we simply are not meant to understand in this life.

Here are a few of the lyrics that come back to my mind after all these years:

“Farther along we’ll know all about it, farther along we’ll understand why. Cheer up my brother, live in the sunlight. We’ll understand it all by and by”.

Soon enough, as I got older I began asking some very simple questions; questions like ‘Why did the translators translate the Greek word ‘pascha‘, which is Greek for ‘passover’, as Easter?” I learned very quickly that everyone else was perfectly satisfied to ‘understand it all about [in the] by and by’.

Not one minister in a thousand will even quote the scriptures beyond this point when preaching a funeral:

1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Not one Christian in a thousand can, or even wants to see or hear the very next verse:

1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

A so-called “bottomless pit” is one of “the deep things of God” which “God has revealed unto us by His spirit” but which very few Christians can locate or understand. I dare say that most Christians do not bother to even question what or where  this ‘bottomless pit” is. They are perfectly content to assume that God has not revealed it to us when He has, in Truth, told us exactly where to find this ‘bottomless pit”.

Where is the bottomless pit mentioned in the scriptures?

As will always be the case, the understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom of God, which includes understanding the function of this ‘bottomless pit’, will be hidden within the “line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little” method which the Lord has plainly told us He uses to teach and inform “them that are weaned from the milk and are drawn from the breast”. There is also another reason why God uses this ‘line upon line precept upon precept’ method of teaching those who are “made to understand doctrine”, and that reason is to cause us to “go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.”

Isa 28:9  Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
Isa 28:10  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
Isa 28:11  For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
Isa 28:12  To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
Isa 28:13  But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. 

So let’s go “line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little” and see if the Lord will see fit to “teach [us] knowledge… and… [make us] to understand doctrine”, as those virtues apply to knowing and understanding what is and where is this thing which the King James Bible calls “the bottomless pit”.

The verses I have quoted from Revelation 20 at the beginning of this study are actually the last of seven  times this phrase is found in the New Testament. Here are the rest of the verses where this phrase appears in the King James Version of the New Testament:

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. 
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; 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. 
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

Rev 9:11  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

Rev  17:8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Let’s take all these verses line upon line and precept upon precept and see what they reveal to us about this place called ‘the bottomless pit’.

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; 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.
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

The first three verses of Revelation 9 tell us that an angel (“star” – Rev 1:20, 2:1, 3:1) “[fell] from heaven unto the earth and to him was given the key to the bottomless pit”. Then we are told that when this fallen angel opens this pit, a heavy smoke arises out of that pit, and that smoke is so heavy that “the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit”. Then we are told that locusts come out of the smoke which proceeds out of this bottomless pit.

Smoke is presented to us in its negative sense when it is associated with this ‘bottomless pit’. In the writings of the Old Testament prophets, smoke is often presented as the very symbol of wickedness and as something unpleasant in the Lord’s nose:

Psa 68:2  As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. 

Pro 10:26  As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him. 

Isa 9:18  For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

Isa 65:5  Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.

The smoke from this ‘bottomless pit’ darkens “the sun and the air”, both of which symbolize the things of the spirit realm – both good and evil:

Mal 4:2  But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

The smoke that comes out of this pit darkens the sun and the air because it obfuscates the Truth which is the Sun of Righteousness and His words. Verse three makes this even clearer by telling us locusts come out of the smoke that comes out of the ‘bottomless pit’. Locusts are one of the most common symbols of the devourer whose lies and false doctrines consume the kingdom and all the efforts of our rebellious, carnal, old man, even as he thinks of himself as being blessed in every way:

2Ch 7:13  If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

Nah 3:15  There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. 

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

So we have a very good clue in Revelation 9:2 because we now know that this “bottomless pit” produces wicked works and wicked words, symbolized by smoke which darkens the truth, which is symbolized by the sun and the air. Satan told Christ that God had given the nations of this world over to him, and Paul confirms that fact when he calls Satan “the prince of the power of the air”, which Satan is empowered to darken with his lies and the “lusts of our flesh”, which he is empowered to excite within us as “the children of disobedience”.

Luk 4:5  And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Luk 4:6  And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Lest there be any doubt what this “bottomless pit” produces, Revelation 9:11 tells us that these locusts which come out of the smoke produced by the bottomless pit “have a king over them whose name in the Hebrew is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon”.

Rev 9:11  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

The Hebrew word ‘abaddon’ appears five times in the Old Testament, and it means destruction:

H11
אבדּון
‘ăbaddôn
Total KJV Occurrences: 5
destruction, 5
Job_26:6, Job_28:22, Job_31:12, Pro_15:11 (2)

The Greek name Apollyon means the same thing. It appears only once here in Revelation 9:11, but its root is:

G622
ἀπόλλυμι
apollumi
ap-ol’-loo-mee

From G575 and the base of G3639; to destroy fully (reflexively to perish, or lose), literally or figuratively: – destroy, die, lose, mar, perish.

So both of these names are the name of the same person in two languages, and that person is the destroyer, the devil, whom God Himself created for that very purpose:

Job 26:13  By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

Isa 54:16  Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

So much for the false doctrine of an out-of-control adversary named Lucifer. Isaiah 14, where that name first appears, and Ezekiel 28 are both speaking of men who will “go down to the grave”, the king of Babylon and the king of Tyre respectively:

Isa 14:4  That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

Isa 14:10  All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? 
Isa 14:11  Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

This king is the symbol of those who serve the king of the locusts which come out of the smoke ascending up out of the bottomless pit. The king of these locusts is the destroyer himself. The kings of Babylon and Tyre are not the king of ‘the bottomless pit’. They are just men who will be eaten by worms when they go into the grave.

The king over these locusts is the same as “the prince of the power of the air” who is also the father of the “children of disobedience”. He is “[our] father the devil” whose children we all are before we are dragged to know and abide in the words of Christ. Christ Himself tells us who these locusts are:

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
Joh 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. 
Joh 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
Joh 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. 
Joh 8:38  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Joh 8:42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The servants of the king and angel of the bottomless pit are those who “commit sin” while professing to “believe in [Christ]”. These locust servants are those who profess Christ while Christ’s words have no place in them. Yet these locusts are “those Jews [Christians] which [profess that they] believe on Him”. How can I be so sure these locusts are false prophets who bring lying false doctrines? Here is how the scriptures themselves interpret this symbol of locusts which come out of the “smoke which darkens the sun and the air”:

Rev 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
Rev 9:8  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
Rev 9:9  And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
Rev 9:10  And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

Notice who else in this revelation is said to have crowns. Who in Revelation 20 is also associated with this place called ‘the bottomless pit’?

Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 

This is the same dragon of Revelation 20:

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

Every subject of any king is empowered by the king to whom he is subject, and here are those who are subjects of and who are empowered by this “great red dragon”:

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Just like “[his] father the devil”] this beast, which rises up out of the sea, also has “seven heads and ten crowns upon his heads”. We will come back to Revelation 13:1 after we have covered every verse in the King James Version which has the phrase ‘bottomless pit’ in it. This verse we will find to be a big help in revealing to us just where this place called ‘the bottomless pit’ is located.

First, let’s notice what this beast does as he relates to God and His Son Jesus Christ:

Rev 13:5  And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Rev 13:6  And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 
Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 

The fact this beast is given to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and he is given power over all men and all nations, explains why we are all first this beast, but it also explains why these locusts are described as “horses prepared unto battle”. At the same time, we are told “their faces were as the faces of men”:

Rev 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
Rev 9:8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

The biblical symbol for a church, whether it is the church of God or the false churches of Babylon, is a woman. Babylon the great is called “the mother of harlots” (Rev 17:3-5), and physical Jerusalem is called a harlot (Isa 1:21). The false churches all want to bear Christ’s name, but they will have nothing to do with His clothing or His food, which they hate:

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. 

So what are we told of these locusts which come out of the smoke of this place called the bottomless pit?

Rev 9:8  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

These locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit appear to be the church of God, when in reality they are a roaring lion seeking whom they may devour. “Hair of a woman… and their teeth… as the teeth of lions”, is just another description of the beast who “had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon”:

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 

This second beast is just a more religious version of the first beast. Both blaspheme God and those who dwell in heaven, both are but different stages of the locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit:

Rev 13:12  And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13  And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
Rev 13:14  And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Rev 13:15  And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

Now let us take note of one more piece of information about these locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit:

Rev 9:10  And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

This adds one more clue as to the location of this place called ‘the bottomless pit’. These locusts have tails like a scorpion, and what do the scriptures reveal to be the spiritual meaning of this word ‘tail’? This is the spiritual significance of the word tail, and it accords with everything else we have so far shown to be the spiritual meaning of everything which we are told comes up out of ‘the bottomless pit’.

Isa 9:14  Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

Deu 28:13  And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:

“The prophet that teaches lies… is the tail”, and the fact that these locusts sting like a scorpion just adds to our understanding of who is being stung by these locusts with “tails like scorpions”. Just as the church of Laodicea did not realize they were wretched, miserable, blind and naked, neither do we know we are being stung while we in the the darkness of that smoke filled with these stinging locusts. All of this adds to our understanding of the meaning of all of the symbols. The smoke, the locusts and the tails like scorpions are all these false prophets who teach lies and who darken the light of the truth of Christ and His words with their lies and false prophecies.

We have yet another very revealing clue of where we can locate the bottomless pit. That clue is given us in chapter 11 where we read:

Rev 11:7  And when they [Christ’s witnesses] shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

This verse practically comes out and tells us where to locate the bottomless pit. We are told that the beast himself ascends out of the bottomless pit to make war against and overcome and kill Christ’s “two witnesses”.

Our next verse which has this phrase, ‘the bottomless pit’, repeats:

Rev  17:8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

In this verse we discover that this beast which “ascend[s] out of the bottomless pit… was, and is not, and [yet it] shall ascend out of the bottomless pit”. So now we have one more clue which tells us that whatever “the bottomless pit” is, it has an ‘is, was, and will be’ quality about it which will endure from generation to generation even as the beast in each of us goes into perdition and is delivered from this bottomless pit through the destruction of that beast.

Those are the first five times this phrase ‘bottomless pit’ appears in the King James Version of the scriptures. Here now are the last two, which are the verses I quoted to open this study:

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more.

From these verses we learn that “an angel [will] come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit.” He has a figurative “chain in His hand”, and this particular ‘angel’ has the power to “lay hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan and [bind] him a (figurative) thousand years” and “shut him up” and set a seal on him so that he will not be free to deceive the nations again until the “thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”

We have now come to the point of needing to know where Satan will be confined for “a thousand years”? Where is this place called ‘the bottomless pit’, and how will Satan be confined there?  Let’s go to e-sword and see how many times the Greek word for the English phrase “bottomless pit” appears in the Greek:
G12
ἄβυσσος
abussos
Total KJV Occurrences: 9
bottomless, 7
Rev_9:1-2 (2), Rev_9:11, Rev_17:7-8 (2), Rev_20:1, Rev_20:3
deep, 2
Luk_8:31, Rom_10:7

There is only one Greek word from which the English phrase “bottomless pit” is translated, and that Greek word is ‘abussos‘, and look at that! It actually appears nine times in the original Greek.

We have here the seven entries we have covered so far where it is always translated as ‘bottomless pit’, but we have two more entries where this word is translated as ‘deep’.  Let’s look at those two entries and see what more we can learn about the location of this ‘abussos‘ which produces so much blinding smoke and stinging locusts and which will be the prison of the great red dragon for a thousand years.

Here is our first entry where abussos is translated as deep:

Luk 8:30  And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.
Luk 8:31  And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep [the abussos]. 
Luk 8:32  And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them.

This is the story of the legion of unclean spirits which had been residing in this “Gadarene” man (verse 26). It is revealing that even here they do not want to go into the deep, ‘the abussos‘. They much prefer to be given to devour our flesh at their will, which is what they are given to do at this time:

2Ti 2:24  And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
2Ti 2:25  In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
2Ti 2:26  And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Now let’s examine how this Greek word ‘abussos‘ is translated as  ‘deep’ in Romans 10:

Rom 10:5  For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
Rom 10:6  But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
Rom 10:7  Or, Who shall descend into the deep? [Greek: abussos] (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
Rom 10:8  But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

This entry demonstrates for us that the ‘abussos‘ is the realm of the dead. Descending into the abussos is the same as bringing Christ again from the dead. The people in the millennium are spiritually dead while they are physically alive. Christ entered into the realm of the dead the moment He emptied Himself of His divinity and came into His physical mother Mary’s womb to be offered as the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. He even refers to all men who are living without knowing Himself or His Father as the walking dead:

Mat 8:21  And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Mat 8:22  But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

So where is the bottomless pit, the abussos? We have learned that it is the source of all the lying spiritual darkness which blots out the light of the sun. It is the source of the devouring locusts which strip us naked while telling us we are rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing, totally unaware of the blinding spiritual darkness in which we live. We have learned that the abussos is the source of all of the opposition against the saints and the witnesses who have the testimony of Jesus Christ, and we have learned that the abussos is the place from which the beast of Revelation 13:1 arises. We were twice told that the beast “ascends out of the bottomless pit”, the abussos.

Finally we saw that the abussos is the realm of the dying first-man Adam who is himself the beast who “ascends out of the bottomless pit”.

So where is this ‘bottomless pit’, this abussos? It is the very flesh of every man who rises up out of the sea of the flesh of all who are “in Adam”. When we read:

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Yes, it is true that the Greek word translated ‘sea’ here is ‘thalassa‘, G2281, which is properly translated as ‘sea’. However, when we read this same story in Mark, the abussos which the devils did not want to enter, and in which the swine die, is called thalassa:

Mar 5:13  And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea [thalassa].

The beast comes up out of the thalassa in Revelation 13:1, but we are also twice told that the beast “ascends out of the [abussos] bottomless pit”. Clearly “the deep” – the abussos and “the thalassa” – are just two words for the same thing. They are both symbols of the Adamic flesh into which we are all born and out of which we all rise up to blaspheme God and to blaspheme those who dwell in heaven.

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit [Greek: abussos] shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

Rev 17:8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit [Greek: abussos], and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

If the abussos is simply the sea of flesh, why would Satan object to being locked and chained in that bottomless pit? The answer is that the abussos is flesh only as it applies to Adam and his carnal, natural, clay-and-dust origins. Satan loves to rule over our flesh and devour us for his lunch, which is what is given him to do at this time, but during the thousand years he will be under lock and key within us, and he will be unable to deceive the nations “till the thousand years are expired”. It is analogous to having access to a car, which you were once given as a means of transportation, and then having the keys taken away from you. Being locked up and imprisoned in the very thing that once served him so well in doing what he wanted to do, which for Satan was to go out and deceive the nations, is Satan’s fate during the millennium.

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. 

Satan is not allowed to drive his car for a thousand years because God’s elect will be in the driver’s seat at that time:

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: 
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.