The Book of Joel – Chapter 2:18-27, Part 3,Section B, verses 25-27

“Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.” – Pro 5:18.

[Study Aired August 31 2024]

(Continued – Joel 2:25-27 Section B)

Last week in Joel Chapter 2, we discussed the spiritual symbolism of wheat, wine, and oil in understanding Christ’s word and how it enriches his Bride spiritually. It covertly points to the time after the cross when Joel and the other prophets hazily understood that there must come a time of spiritual tearing down, war and building up of a new man (Ecc 3:1-8 ). A glorious revelation that the yet-to-be-revealed holy spirit would bring, is peace in profound contrast between the Old Covenant with the New that equally clouded Solomon’s understanding of him visualising the “two armies” as seen in the Son 6:13 and his realising that it is impossible for a ‘woman’, obscurely, the Church (Eccl 7:27-29) to keep God’s commandments. Another outstanding revelation alone for the very few Elect is that the holy spirit will cause incredible elation for their chastisements when the mysterious and much anticipated “helper” is fully realised. Subsequently, and seen only by the Elect of God, a phenomenal ‘breach’ (discussed in the last study) utterly preventing God’s people from keeping any of the Old Covenant would be miraculously healed.

Deu 32:5  They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they [the Old Covenant generation, alive and well today in Babylon] are a perverse and crooked generation. 

Pro 15:4  A wholesome [spiritual] tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. 

This last Part B of Joel Chapter 2:25-27 is a very subtle spiritual transition: Christ becomes the Bride’s bright cloud of spiritual understanding and is only seen and understood by her into which she steadily ascends in growing harmonious unity with him, her Husband.

Mat 17:5  While he [Jesus] yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them [meaning, Jesus, Peter, James and John, the small group symbolising the Elect, and a vision manifestation of Moses and Elias]: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

The Elect of God in these apparent ‘end times’ are unutterably humbled by the understanding that the Bible’s chronicle of every sordid lust of man from Adam to the end of the Eighth Day is overwhelmingly for the Bride alone! Even though she experienced harrowing physical chastisements in the wilderness, the New Covenant Bride is given relatively light affliction and resulting chastisements. All because of her growing spiritual understanding of her Lord’s word, she sees undeniably harsh chastisement as a blessing received paradoxically with joy.

2Co 4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2Co 9:15  Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. 

2Co 12:4  How that he was caught up into paradise [clouds; heaven], and heard unspeakable words [Not for Babylon to understand in seven thousand years], which it is not lawful for a man [The Bride] to utter [to her 1,000 Babylonian sisters of Solomon’s harem and their understanding]. 

Luk 8:10  And he said, Unto you [The Bride] it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others [Her sisters in Babylon, the world] in parables; that [blindly] seeing they might not see, and [deafly] hearing they might not understand.

Continuing from the previous study, verses of Joel Chapter 2…

Joe 2:25  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 
Joe 2:26  And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 
Joe 2:27  And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 

Before studying Joel 2:25-27 and its symbolism, it is important to note that the Bride alone has been given the keys to the kingdom. She understands the Lord’s meanings in scripture and can interpret the symbols, types, and shadows of names and terms. Her understanding is brightened by Christ’s great cloud of witnesses and juxtaposed with ‘terrible’ clarity, the subsequent great innumerable cloud of sister Babylonian witnesses leading the way in the heat of the day as the Bride’s understanding grows transparent.

Eze 1:22  And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal [fearfully understood word of God], stretched forth over their heads above [the blue sky by day and star-studded cobalt blue at night].

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses [witnesses both good and evil designed specifically for her, alone], let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Christ chose his Bride out of the field of the world to grow in beautiful spiritual femininity for his good pleasure to bestow on her kingship as his wife in subjection and co-rulership under him.

Joh 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Mat 16:13  When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
Mat 16:14  And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
Mat 16:15  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
Mat 16:16And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Mat 16:17Jesus answered and said to him, You are blessed, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father in Heaven.
Mat 16:18And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Mat 16:19And I will give the keys of the kingdom of Heaven to you. [The Elect only] And whatever you may bind on earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven, and whatever you may loose on earth shall occur, having been loosed in Heaven.

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;

(Mike Vinson. quote). “Those who have not been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven are those who cannot possibly accept the plain statement here in 1 Corinthians 3 that even “the world [and] death” are ours and that we must all live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, including “yes, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Pro 16:4) in each of us. Those who have taken away the key of knowledge of how to enter into the kingdom of heaven will never agree that “all things are yours” really means “all things… the world, death, things present and things to come”. And those who refuse this key to the kingdom of heaven also go as far as to hinder those who are entering into the kingdom of heaven. “…Ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and they that were entering in ye hindered.” (Luk 11:52). Even those sad words are “in me, that is in my flesh” (Rom 7:18).”

The symbolism of the Bride’s former years of famine, mould, pestilence, and universal decay symbolised as locusts, cankerworms, caterpillars and palmerworms is spiritually seen in Aholah, particularly the younger Aholibah’s fornications, which directly symbolises our spiritual decay. And so, this study concludes with those two representative women it began, Aholah and Aholibah, depicting the two covenants of the Bride’s progression to becoming the spiritual Aholibah, Christ’s Wife. Our Lord’s “pity”, meaning his mercy, is first graphically understood by the Elect of God today, having seen those two formally beautiful virgin young women as herself, mirroring their ‘unspeakable’ humiliation for their former mortifying God-given lusts with their literal skirts up above their thighs. She is the Bride found in the field of the world characterised as Babylon in the bloody death of her Lord’s truth to be sheepishly arrayed in royal clothing. Our Lord vividly depicts our Aholibah-like physical lewdity to deliberately jolt our spiritual senses in pornographic contrast.

(Fornication: G4202 – Porneia – Phonetic: por-ni’-ah- Definition: 1. illicit sexual intercourse a. adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc. G4203 – Porneuo

– Phonetic: porn-yoo’-o – Definition: 1. to prostitute one’s body to the lust of another 2. to give one’s self to unlawful sexual intercourse a. to commit fornication)

Eze 23:17  And the Babylonians came to her [Aholibah – the Lord’s budding Elect] into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them [the Babylonians!]
Eze 23:18  So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my [Christ’s] mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister [Aholah]. 
Eze 23:19  Yet she [Aholibah] multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
Eze 23:20  For she doted upon their paramours [puzzlingly, concubines, usually females but exchangeably male], whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Eze 23:21  Thus thou [Aholibah humiliatingly today, since the cross, especially] calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.

It is deliberately heartbreaking for the Lord to write the events in himself that Aholibah’s (The incipient Bride’s) ‘mind was alienated from him’ more than she was from her Babylonian lovers. Every detail of her saga dreadfully highlights unsatiated lust for validating her beauty that required having ‘endless’ young male paramours gleefully using her body for their lust and, no doubt, treacherous ribald recounting among themselves (‘course jesting’ – Eph 5:3-4). Subsequently, her alienation from her lover’s is her subconscious turmoil that something is not right with her actions, pricking her conscience, yet her incontinence for validating her beauty overruled her conscience as she recounted the inexhaustible lusts the young men displayed for her in her youth. Consequently, the Lord was ‘alienated from her as He was from her sister’.

1Jn 3:20  For if our [Aholibah-like] heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
1Jn 3:21  Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

Rom 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their [Aholibah’s] conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;

Lying within Aholibah’s lust for male paramours is the subtly hidden spiritual Queen Vashti-like lust to be glorified by her female ‘paramours’ typified in young women on social media today with millions of followers. For the Bride’s keen observation, they represent the 40,000-plus Christian denominations residing in Babylon today, impudently arousing the laity with her fornicating doctrines and, with equal contrast, the noting of our potential pride.

Aholibah remembered the immorality of her youth and, later, as an older woman, seemed to secretly express the sorrowful and humiliating heartbreak of her lack of self-control. This study in Joel reflects the Lord’s compassion for this God-given condition for Aholah, the world, and particularly Aholibah, who both died in their sins without knowing that in the distant future, the holy spirit would empower the spiritual sister, the Bride of Christ, to overcome what Aholibah never considered possible…

Eze 23:20  For she doted upon their paramours [in this case, heterosexual males inability to reproduce spiritual fruit, as can’t asses physically], whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue [ejaculate] is like the issue [volume] of horses.

Jer 5:8  They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.

First, let’s clarify what an ass is. A mule is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). A horse has 64 chromosomes, and a donkey has 62. The mule ends up with 63. Mules can be either male or female, but because of the odd number of chromosomes. They can’t reproduce. However, a male mule should be gelded in order to make him a safe and sociable animal. The term “ass” is interchangeable with that of “mule”, effectively a “paramour”; however, a donkey is a separate breed, and the result of crossing a female horse with a male donkey produces an “ass/mule” who is incapable of producing offspring.

Here now is the understanding of the spiritual symbolism of our Lord’s seemingly offensive imagery of the outwardly, genuinely pretty girls’ unbridled lust. It was their incurable lust for the most excellent-looking men’s incontinent desire for them that wildly energised the girls to validate their desirability endlessly. They are likened to wild asses who cannot reproduce yet irrepressibly pursue a stallion to quench their biological urgency.

Jer 2:24  A wild ass used to the wilderness [as opposed to a wife and keeper at home Tit 2:5], that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month [nothing will hold Ahola and Aholibah back from attestation to their beauty] they shall find her.

The young guys are depicted as having the flesh of asses, which spiritually means that they, too, cannot produce the fruit of righteousness that God desires as biologically can’t a female ass produce offspring.

The lusty young males’ comparatively minuscule “issue,” to match even one stallion’s issue, portrays the girl’s sheer number of ever-willing paramours, meaning the equivalence of espoused males equals endless adulteries. Apart from brutish passions, and because of the girl’s excessive breast stimulation, the naturally occurring melanin that causes skin darkening accumulates and can give the teats the appearance of bruising. Whilst ‘bruising’ can result from hormonal changes, lactation guarantees melanin darkening and, in Aholah and Aholibah’s case, is proof of sabotaged virginity.

Our Lord uses the offensive imagery of Aholah and Aholibah’s unquenchable sensual desires to emphasise our pursuit of their equivalent spiritual correlations to impact our conscience deeply. While in Babylonian Christianity, we received a prodigious’ issue’ of Satan’s seed to produce bastard spiritual offspring within and consequently greedily suckled the breast of the Great Whore to make strong our self-righteousness.

The following are verses reflecting the righteous use of a wife’s biological “towers”(Son 8:10), her breasts, which symbolise the Bride’s strength of fidelity and eternally delighting her Husband, children, and herself for their glorious God-given employments. Following are some supporting verses.

Joe 2:16  Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the Bride out of her closet.
Joe 2:17  Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar [for all the spilt blood of lies Eze 8:16. Rev 6:9], and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

Pro 5:19  Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

1Pe 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

1Pe 1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed [of Satan], but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

When we painfully see that we are Aholibah, these ensuing verses are attributed to us.

Joh 8:9 And they [The immature Elect] which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest [For this cause, Aholah], even unto the last [the many called Aholibahs but not electd]: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman [Aholibah] standing in the midst.
Joh 8:10  When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
Joh 8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Since the cross, Christianity’s finger-pointing defamation of Aholah and Aholibah will, in the Lake of Fire, be destructively short-lived, as every person ever to be conceived, meaning the world of Gog and Magog will wish for the rocks (the Christs), to fall on them to hide them from the face of Christ and ‘his Christs’. The world will see, like we did, that they contain the guilt of Aholah, the elder sister, to have her whoredoms burned out of her in the Lake of Fire to bring forth fine gold into the Lord’s treasury.

Rev 6:15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

The beautiful conclusion of the sordid saga of man’s existence since Adam is that our Lord has first “pity” on Aholibah, His portrayed Wife, by abolishing her Jezebel-like shame (Rev 2:18-29) through his spirit in this age since the cross, and secondarily, his glorious pity extends to Aholah, the world in the Resurrection to Judgement. Hence…

Joe 2:26  And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you [in seemingly torturous judgement in the Lake of Fire]: and my people shall never be ashamed. 
Joe 2:27  And ye [Eventually every man] shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 

Those verses reflect our Husband, Christ’s immense “pity”; his mercy for the whoredoms he, through his deceitful servant Satan inflicted an endless ‘issue’ of fornication on the world to produce and redeem billions of bastard seed as numerous as the stars of heaven. In the following verse, Christ remembers his Bride and is today rejoicing with her as he puts the final touches on her righteousnesss in preparation to save the world in the Lake of Fire, the Resurrection to Judgement. As such, both Aholah and Aholibah’s shame shall never be sustained since their mortifying vulgarities mirror our parallelled spiritual impurities, for which we all are dreadfully grateful to these two girls.

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities [in being awakened to our Alhoa and Aholibah-like spiritual depravity], that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 

We rigidly realise that we are spiritual Aholah and Aholibah and ashamed to be first to stoop and pick up stones in judgement; we no longer ogle, leer, hiss, nudge, wink or jeer Aholah and Aholibah since they are us, spiritually, designed to perform outrageously shameful acts for our benefit.

Aholaibah first, and then Aholoah’s immeasurable shame.

Eze 16:59  For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.
Eze 16:60  Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Eze 16:61  Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy [Free will] covenant.
Eze 16:62  And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:
Eze 16:63  That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD.

The recurring verse for Part B of this study is, “Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.” (Pro 5:18), that Aholibah nakedly expressed physically for her paramours she, as the Bride today in learned God-given virgin purity, righteously expresses to her Lord with equal spiritual ardour for his and her mutually immense rejoicing.

Next week in Part C, and always Lord willing, we will study the essence that gives the Bride her power to achieve in spirit what she, as Aholibah, couldn’t physically.

Rev 9:9-12 Part 6 of The Fifth Trumpet

[Study Aired August 18, 2024]

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.
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 9:12  One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

 The symbol we last covered was the fourth symbol which was the fact that these locusts which had the appearance of horses and the face of a man also “ had hair as the hair of women”. Our next symbol is:

5) They had breastplates, as breastplates of iron

We know what iron signifies in scripture:

Dan 2:40  And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

Iron is harder and stronger than any other Biblical metal. “Iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things.” So why do these locusts have “breastplates of iron”? The answer is that a breastplate covers the heart, and there is no way to get to the heart of these locusts because of the deep darkness and the pride and deception that is in our hearts at this stage of our walk.

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

Daniel’s image, which typifies our experience, begins with a head of gold, followed by arms of silver, followed by a belly and thigh of brass, followed by legs of iron, and finally it is standing on feet which are made of part iron and part clay. It is concerning the legs of iron that we read in Dan 2:40, that “iron breaks and subdues all things”. The reason these breastplates are of iron is to let us know that it will take the supernatural intervention of God and His Son coming into our lives to destroy these breastplates of iron and to destroy our hardened and darkened hearts, which are protected by the seemingly impenetrable deceits which these “breastplates of iron” signify:

Dan 2:45  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands [signifying that it has nothing to do with our will], and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

6) the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

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.

Our sixth symbol that describes these horse- like locusts is “the sound of their wings was a the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.” All locusts have wings, and the wings of these locusts sound like chariots of many horses going to battle.” ‘Wings’ in scripture signify those things which operate in the heavens, and the fact that the wings of these locusts “sound like chariots of many horses going to battle” tells us that we are up against an insurmountable and powerful army which has been given power over our heavens and is constantly warring against the spirit of our mind:

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:

Rom 7:23  But I see another law [the law of sin and death] in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

These ‘locusts’ are the messengers of “the prince of the power of the air”, and their influence upon our lives cause us to be “the children of disobedience” living to fulfill “the lust of our flesh” keeping us subject to “the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2) which ‘sting’ hurts us for a symbolic 5 months as we fulfil the desire of our flesh and mind while knowing that the Lord has commanded us to overcome those desires of the flesh and of the mind:

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.

Whether it is the destructive power of locusts or the lies spread into every house by the work of an unclean bird like a stork, it is all accomplished by the operation of ‘wings’ which can travel about in our heavens:

Zec 5:5  Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.
Zec 5:6  And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.
Zec 5:7  And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.
Zec 5:8  And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.
Zec 5:9  Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.
Zec 5:10  Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?
Zec 5:11  And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar [Babylon, Gen 10:10] and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.

Gen 10:10  And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

“A woman…. is wickedness… through all the earth” is verified by these words in:

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.
Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

We are called “the bride” of Christ and women are universally accepted as signifying the church whether faithful  or apostate.

What we need to learn in this symbol is that ‘wings’ signify what the Lord is doing in our heavens. In this case He is sending evil spirits with false doctrines to trouble us just as he did to King Saul:

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15  And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.

It was common knowledge in the days of King Saul that evil spirits were servants of God  The same thing happened to King Ahab:

1Ki 22:20  And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
1Ki 22:21  And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
1Ki 22:22  And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he [the Lord] said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
1Ki 22:23  Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

It is the same today, and it behooves us to simply acknowledge the sovereignty of God over both the good and the evil. In scripture evil men are called the Lord’s sword.

Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, [ which is] thy sword:

We need to acknowledge that the words ‘which is’ are not in the Hebrew and could just as easily have read ‘with’ instead of ‘which is.’ Nevertheless we are still told this in Pro 16.

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

So the Lord is definitely the Lord of both the good and the evil that is within us, and it is He who creates us as wicked first, for our own “day of evil” within each of us. It is He also who sends the angel that opens the bottomless pit and darkens our Sun and air by these locusts which hurt us for five months and crush us and bring us to want to die with Him on His cross. Here is Rev 9 in Joe 1. It is the same event. This is the “day of the Lord” which Peter said he had experienced just before the day of Pentecost.

Joe 1:1  The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Joe 1:2  Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
Joe 1:3  Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
Joe 1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
Joe 1:6  For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth [ are] the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
Joe 1:7  He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast [ it] away; the branches thereof are made white.
Joe 1:8  Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
Joe 1:9  The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn.
Joe 1:10  The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
Joe 1:11  Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
Joe 1:12  The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
Joe 1:13  Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
Joe 1:14  Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders [ and] all the inhabitants of the land [ into] the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
Joe 1:15  Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD [ is] at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Joe 1:16  Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, [ yea], joy and gladness from the house of our God?
Joe 1:17  The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
Joe 1:18  How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
Joe 1:19  O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
Joe 1:20  The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Is this not what the seven seals, seven trumpets and seven plagues are doing within us as we are caused to  “keep the things written therein?” (Rev 1:3) Is this not the very same “Lord’s day” which includes the events of the revelation of Jesus Christ? Is this not the destruction of our old life, which we must all experience to bring us into our new life? Speaking of this very battle, Joel continues:

Joe 2:11  And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

Joe 2:30  And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
Joe 2:31  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Christ mentions this very same battle in which these locusts as horses with the faces of men and the hair of a woman are involved:

Mat 24:29  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Mat 24:30  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

Rev 6:12  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
Rev 6:13  And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
Rev 6:14  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Rev 6:15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

None are able to stand against his wrath in this battle. The lies of all these locusts, their strength as horses, and their iron breastplates will all fall victim to Christ, and the armies that are with him. He has created this army of locusts for our destruction. When they have accomplished their evil deeds and have destroyed within us all that the lies of Egypt and Babylon have produced within us, then He will destroy the destroyer.

Rev 17:14  These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

7) They had tails like scorpions…

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

The scriptures tell us plainly what the significance of ‘tails’ is:

Isa 9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

8) They had a king over them…

Our eighth symbol is that of a king:

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.

Kings exercise power over their subjects. Kings and princes are used interchangeably in scripture. Isaiah 14:3-23 is addressed to the king of Babylon while Ezekiel 28:1-10 is addressed to the prince of Tyrus. Both express the exact same message. Both condemn “the beast” who is also called “the man of sin” who sits on the throne of our hearts demanding to be worshipped as God until the brightness of the coming of Christ destroys this “man of sin” and his kingdom within us:

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. [Exactly what the king of Babylon and the prince of Tyrus did]
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Our last symbol is:

9) The angel of the bottomless pit

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 Lord has ordained that his “vessel of clay… first man Adam” is to worship himself and fulfill his every carnal desire. This is what the scriptures can “worshipping  the beast”. What the king of Babylon, the prince of Tyrus, and the man of sin within us fails to realize is that when we worship ourselves we are also worshipping the dragon who empowers us to put our own desires ahead of the Lord’s desires for us:

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?

“They worshipped the dragon” confirms the words of our Lord and the words of the apostle Paul both of who call us “of your father the devil” and “the children of disobedience… the children of the prince of he power of the air”:

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.

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 dragon” who is the first to empower us to do his bidding], the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

The Hebrew word ‘abaddon,’ becomes the name of the angel of the bottomless pit. This word appears 5 times in the Old Testament.

Job 26:6  Hell is naked before him, and destruction [ abaddon] hath no covering.

Job 28:20  Whence then cometh wisdom? and where [ is] the place of understanding?
Job 28:21  Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
Job 28:22  Destruction [ abaddon] and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

Job 31:12  For it [ is] a fire [ that] consumeth to destruction [ abaddon], and would root out all mine increase.

Psa 88:11  Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? [ or] thy faithfulness in destruction [ abaddon]?

Pro 15:11  Hell and destruction [ abaddon] are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?

Will God’s loving kindness be declared in the grave? The answer is, yes, it will. Will His faithfulness be declared in destruction? Again the answer is, yes, it will.

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose [ Greek, apollumi] it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

It is only through the destruction of our old man that our new man can be born.

Mat 10:28  And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy [ Greek, apollumi] both soul and body in hell.

Mat 12:14  Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy [ Greek, apollumi] him.

It is a grave mistake to think that the king of the bottomless pit is Adam himself. If that were so, then where is ‘Adam’ in these verses?

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15  And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee

King Saul was not “troubled” until the Lord sent a spirit to do so.

Mat 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

If Christ’s flesh was ‘satan’ what need was there to “go into the wilderness to be tempted?

Joh 13:27  And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly

Where was Satan before “the sop”. If Judas’ flesh was satan why wait till “after the sop” for satan to enter Judas?

Satan is not our flesh, but he is our ‘father’ (Joh 8:44) and he definitely has been given to rule over our fleshly bodies until the Lord comes and dethrones him with “the brighteness of His coming” (2Th 2:3-8).

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.

There is no one here who is denying that “that old serpent the devil and Satan” dwells within us, just as Christ dwells within us whe He comes to dethrone “the man of sin”. When ‘the man of sin’ is cast out Satan goes with him. When we say that Satan is our flesh we are saying that Eve was speaking to Adam when she was seduced by the serpent. What utter nonsense! Adam was already in King Saul before “the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.” Christ was not being tempted of Adam when He was in the wilderness 40 days. Adam did not enter into Judas “after the sop.” Adam was there all along. And finally, Adam will be on earth being ruled with a rod of iron all through the thousand year reign of Christ, while Satan is bound in the bottomless pit which is within us all.

Therefore Abaddon, also known as Apollyon, is the king of the lies which are symbolized by the locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit, simply because God created him to be his lying Adversary, “from the beginning.”

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.

Summary

We have covered nine symbols in this study. There are six symbols which the holy spirit has used to describe these locusts which come out of the smoke that ascends up out of the bottomless pit.

1) They are shaped like horses prepared to battle, tells us that we are fighting an enemy with great strength.

2) They appear to have crown of gold on their heads, tells us that they will at first be mistaken for overcomers, and those who are the servants of, and the angels of God.

3) Their faces are “as the faces of men,” tells us that these lies are nothing more or less than idols of our own hearts, which we have carved out of the truths that are the Word of God.

4) They had hair as the hair of women, tells us that these doctrines are one and all the doctrines of that great harlot woman, and they certainly do darken our sun and air.

5) They had breastplates, as breastplates of iron, tells us that it is impossible for any man to reach our hearts and destroy these lies and deceits, and that it will take Christ, Himself to do so.

6) “The sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle,” tells us that these deceits are many and strong and they are ready and willing to do battle with our Lord and His Word.

The last three symbols are concerned with the function of the adversary, satan, in the Lord’s plan and purpose for our lives

7) They had tails like scorpions, and we saw that their ‘tails’ signified “the prophet that prophesies lies” :

Isa_9:15  The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

8) They had a king over them…

Our eighth symbol is that of a king:

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.

We saw that a king exercises power just as we will be “kings and priests” with Christ ruling this ear for a thousand years if we are granted to have a part in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection”:

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

9) The angel of the bottomless pit

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 king that is over these locusts is “the angel of the bottomless pit”. What that means is that he ministers to our fleshly lusts with all of His lies. It all works to destroy our lives so He is named Abaddon, in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek.

This tells us that this is a life and death battle in all of these seven trumpets, and God had created the waster to destroy, and he is good at what he was created to do. That is to destroy all that we think we are, so that we can be “made again as seems good to the Potter to make us” (Jer 18:4). Just like the evil Joseph’s brother thought against him worked for the good of the entire family, so also is the evil that Satan is given to perform working good for all of the Lord’s creation.

Next week, Lord willing, we will begin our study of the sixth trumpet, which is also called “the second woe.”

Rev 9:13  And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
Rev 9:14  Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
Rev 9:15  And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

Rev 9:7-8 Part 5 of The Fifth Trumpet

[Study Aired Aug 16, 2024]

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.

Introduction

We have established that these locusts are the fruit of the smoke of the bottomless pit, because we are told that they come out of the smoke. This smoke and the locusts it produces are what is “by nature” within us.

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.

Mar 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
Mar 7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
Mar 7:23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

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.

One of the “locusts,” signifying one of the lies which come out of this smoke of the bottomless pit which we saw in our study of Rev 9:1-2 is within us, is the doctrine that denies what Christ had to say about what is “by nature… within… the heart of men.” This doctrine teaches that God created man in communion with Him and concludes that communion equals perfection. That is the false doctrine of a totally unbiblical “fall of man.” That is a phrase which neither Christ nor any of His apostles nor any New Testament writer ever uses. “Falling from grace”, which is a Biblical phrase, has nothing at all to do with the false doctrine of “the fall of man.”

God created man of dust and not of spirit; nothing else is truth.

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.

He created mankind ignorant of his own shameful nakedness. He created mankind unclothed and without the righteousness of the saints.

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.

Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

That is just another way of saying that they were completely unaware that they were created “marred in the hand of the Potter.”

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

This particular ‘locust” uses the name of Christ and quotes many scriptures about Christ being within. But this locust does not mention that Christ has to remove what is naturally within us before He will take up His abode within this earthen vessel.

We have seen that this smoke out of the darkness that is within us darkens our heavens and our air. In other words, this smoke that produces these locusts and darkens our heavens and our air is ignorance of the Truth of God’s Word, of which ignorance is the source of the many false doctrines we have entertained so long. It is all our false doctrines which have blotted out the light of the Truth and has defiled God’s dwelling place, keeping our hand out of God’s hand for many years via the “darkened air”, the blinded spirit of darkness and deception which has taken up residence in God’s own home, which we are destined to become. This is how that is done.

Mat 12:22  Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.

Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

The spiritually blind always think they see, and the spiritually dumb bring many false doctrines and are totally incapable of speaking one word of Truth.

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

If we accept and acknowledge our own blindness and we acknowledge that it is only Christ’s Words which “are spirit and Truth”, then, and only then, will we be given eyes to see that it is only in those words of Christ that we can hope to learn what is the meaning of the symbols of these verses which describe these locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit, which is within each of us.

The description of these lying locusts

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.
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 symbols which describe these locusts are very revealing for those who know what the scriptures reveal concerning the meaning of these symbols. There are six symbols which the holy spirit has used to describe these locusts which come out of the smoke that ascends up out of the bottomless pit.

1) They are shaped like horses prepared to battle.

2) They appear to have crown of gold on their heads.

3) Their faces are “as the faces of men”.

4) They had hair as the hair of women.

5) They had breastplates, as breastplates of iron.

6) The sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. The last symbol of this fifth trumpet is:

7) the king that is over these locusts. His name is Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek.

We covered the symbols of verse 10 when we were on verses 3-5, so we need not repeat that study here.

Here are those verses, side by side.

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 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment [ was] as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

These three verses concern the power that God himself uses to break us to pieces, and bring us to our wits end, and to humble us and bring us to repentance, and to drag us to Himself:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G670. ‘helkuo’, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

These three verses, Reev 9:3-5, are summarized by verse ten.

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.

Then in verse 11, we have our final 7th symbol in these verses. It is the symbol of the king of these locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit. His name is given in both the Hebrew and in the Greek, and he is called “the angel of the bottomless pit.”

So let’s look at how the scriptures interpret these symbols which describe the locusts which come out of the smoke which proceeds from the bottomless pit within us. The first symbol is…

1) They are shaped like horses prepared to battle.

Those who are not given to discern the things of the spirit will, once again attempt to discredit scripture and say ‘You cannot look like both a grasshopper and a horse.’ But God’s Word is not limited by our lack of understanding. As we have already pointed out, this is a book of symbols which were never intended to be understood by what they say, but they are to be understood by what the scriptures reveal they mean. So each word symbolizes a point that is being made. The locusts symbolize the complete and systematic destruction of Egypt and all that Egypt has produced within us. So we do not care that a grasshopper does not look like a horse. All we want to know now is what do horses symbolize in scripture? Here are some verses which answer that question:

Job 39:19  Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?
Job 39:20  Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.
Job 39:21  He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.
Job 39:22  He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.
Job 39:23  The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield
Job 39:24  He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.
Job 39:25  He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

The horse is the symbol of fierceness and strength, and does not fear or even hear the sound of the trumpet as he goes to do battle with armed men. Christ comes on the strength of a white horse, but these are not said to be white horses. We are told that they come out of the smoke that darkens our sun and our air. These horses are doing battle against anything that would allow the light of the gospel to come to us. Here is what God thinks of these “horses.”

Psa 33:17  An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.

Psa 147:10  He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
Psa 147:11  The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

Do not ever underestimate the strength of the flesh or of the Adversary. He has been granted “great strength” so that no man “can make war with 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?

Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him t o make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

But as King David tells us in Psalms, if Christ is living in us, “a horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by his great strength”, and the Truth of this matter is:

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

So Christ’s strength is much greater than the strength of these horse like locusts, or the strength of the beast or the strength of the Adversary.

2) They appear to have crowns of gold on their heads.

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.

And this is where these locusts as horses get these crowns like gold.

Eze 16:12  And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
Eze 16:13  Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
Eze 16:14  And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 16:15  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

Babylon is full of “gold, silver and precious stones”, and only those who know how to try the spirits can tell the gold of Babylon from the gold that is upon the breasts of God’s elect. It is God’s own gold with which these horse-like locusts are crowned. But they are crowns of pride that will be stripped in due time.

Isa 28:1  Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

The lies of these lying ‘locusts shaped as horses’ are one and all perversions of God’s Truths which have been perverted into the “images” or doctrines “of men”, and you and I have worshiped those “idols of our hearts.”

Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

3) Their faces are “as the faces of men,”

What do the scriptures mean by the word “men”? These verses should tell us why these destructive, strong locusts, wearing golden crowns of God’s own gold covering the idols of our hearts, are said to have “faces of men.”

Mat 10:17  But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;

These are “men” who are in councils or the Sanhedrin and who are in synagogues. These are religious “men” of whom we must “beware”. The word ‘men’, unless otherwise qualified by phrase like ‘rightous men’ or ‘men of God’ most always refers to carnal minded men of this world.

1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas [ there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

Tit 1:14  Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.

1Pe 2:4  To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,

1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

These are “carnal… men who will “scourge you in their synagogues.” That is the significance of  “their faces [ were] as the faces of men.”

Rev 16:21  And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

1Th 2:13  For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, y e received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

It is “the word of men” that we need not have “any man to teach us.” It certainly is not the word of God which “God has set… teachers… in the church,” for that very purpose of teaching His body of His Words.

Act 8:29  Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
Act 8:30  And Philip ran thither to [ him], and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
Act 8:31  And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. .

1Jn 2:27  But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

1Co 12:28  And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

4) They had hair as the hair of women,

What is the spiritual significance of “the hair of women”? What is the Biblical difference between the hair of women and the hair of men? Is it color? Is it texture? No, there is no Biblical comment which distinguishes the color of a man’s hair or the texture of a man’s hair from “the hair of women”. The only Biblical difference between the hair of men and the hair of women is given to us in 1Co 11.

1Co 11:13  Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
1Co 11:14  Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
1Co 11:15  But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

It is not the purpose of this study to cover the subject of the spiritual significance of the length of a woman’s hair, but these verses should establish the fact that these horses like locusts with faces like a man had long hair that is like “the hair of women.” What we are concerned with is why the holy spirit wants us to connect these locusts with women. What do women portray in scripture? Here is the answer to that question. It is right here is this same 11th chapter of 1Co.

1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Paul informs us that our wives typify our own relationship to Christ. “The head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man.” He comes right out and tells us this is so in Eph 5.

Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

The Greek for ‘women’ and ‘wife’ or ‘wives’ is the same one word. It is gune. Here is how Strong’s defines this word.

G1135
γυνη
gune
goo- nay’
Probably from the base of G1096; a woman; specifically a wife: – wife, woman.

The relationship between a man and woman, according to Eph 5, is a type of the relationship between Christ and His church, and the reason these locusts have “the hair of women” is to tell us that these locusts appear as a wife that is subject to her husband, Christ, and to his word, while in reality they are the words and doctrines of  a harlot who is not subject to her husband’s words, even though they have “the hair of women.”

Eze 16:15  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
Eze 16:16  And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so
Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

We will pause at this point and seek to understand the significance of the symbols of these next verses concerning the fifth trumpet:

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.
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 9:12  One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

Rev 9:3-6 – Part 4 of The Fifth Trumpet

[Study Aired August 11, 2024]

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 9:4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

We resume our study on the meaning of the sixth of the nine symbols we find here in this fifth trumpet. We will never understand what the holy spirit is telling us in the symbols of this fifth trumpet until we are given the scriptural meaning attached to each symbol. This is not guesswork and we dare not “speak above that which is written” (1Co 4:6), nor take away from the words of the prophecy of this book:

1Co 4:6  Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written; that no one of you be puffed up for the one against the other.

Rev 22:18  For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Here again is that list of holy spirit inspired symbols of what comes out of the bottomless pit:

1) Our first symbol is smoke. 2) The second is locusts. 3) The third is the earth itself. 4) The fourth symbol is the power as the scorpions of the earth. 5) the fifth is the grass, any green thing, and trees of the earth. 6) the sixth is those men who have not the seal of God. 7)  The seventh symbol is those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. 8) The eighth symbol is “they shall be tormented five months. 9) Our final symbol is “they shall seek death and shall not find it”.

We  have given the scriptural meaning assigned to each of the first five symbols describing the affect of the smoke of the pit upon the earth, the darkening of the sun and the air by reason of that smoke, and we are now seeking to know what the holy spirit proclaims to be the significance of the 6^th symbol which is “those men who have not the seal of God” being the target of the scorpions that come out of the smoke of the pit and hurt men with the sting they inflict of the those who are in the earth:

Rev 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

6) The sixth symbol is “those men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” Who these men signify is revealed to us in the ninth chapter of Ezekiel. As is always the case, our challenge is to constantly remember that these men and all these events are within us, and each of us are required to “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, and keep the things written therein.”

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

What that means is that an integral part of this revelation of Jesus Christ, requires that we are all King Saul who persecutes David, before we can become King David, and we are all Saul of Tarsus who persecutes God’s church, before we can become the apostle Paul who fills up in his body what is behind of the afflictions of the Christ.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Our understanding of this prophecy of Rev 9 is greatly enhanced by reading the prophecy of Ezekiel 9. This is what is taking place within those who have the mark of God upon their foreheads. This is what happens to those ‘men’ within us who are not yet “sighing and crying for all the abominations that be done in the midst of Jerusalem” which is above, and is also within us.

Eze 9:1  He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
Eze 9:2  And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.
Eze 9:3  And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side;
Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
Eze 9:5  And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
Eze 9:6  Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.
Eze 9:7  And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.
Eze 9:8  And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
Eze 9:9  Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah [ is] exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
Eze 9:10  And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, [ but] I will recompense their way upon their head.
Eze 9:11  And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which [ had] the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.

Those who are destroyed by the destroying weapon are each and every one of us who have at our own appointed time accepted all the doctrines of all the men who have twisted and distorted the word of God down throughout the years of our time spent living our lives according to all of those false, lying Babylonian doctrines, signified by “the abominations that be done therein” in this verse:

Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

This prophecy here in Ezekiel and the prophecy of the book of Revelation are both addressed to the Lord’s own people. Ancient Israel was but the type of the Lord’s elect. This prophecy of the book of Revelation is addressed to the seven churches of Asia, signifying the complete Christian Church. In both cases, typical Israel, and the true spiritual “Israel of God” are both being judged for forsaking their own Lord.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

It is each of us as the Lord’s own apostate people who are “those men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads.”

7) What is meant by “their foreheads.”

7) The seventh symbol is “those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” That “destroying weapon” of Ezekiel 9 is both “the fire” of “the sword of the spirit” which will “try every man’s works of what sort they are” and as “a flaming sword” it will burn up all that will burn, and it will purify all that is in need of being purified.

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Jer 23:29  Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

This seal which is not in the foreheads is that same Words of God which are in the hearts and minds, and mouths of those who do have the seal of God. Those who have that seal at first did not have that seal  or ‘mark’. It is when we do not have the mark of the Lord in our foreheads that the Lord’s words are burning us up, with all the false doctrines of  apostate men and the apostate kingdoms and principalities that are all within us. That word is Christ, and Christ is in our forehead because our forehead is the symbol of the heavens of our hearts and minds.

Eph 6:12 Because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but, against the principalities, against the authorities, against the world- holders, of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. (REV)

“The spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavens” is also where we find the mark of the beast under which we all labor before we receive the mark of God in our foreheads. The great whore’s forehead is what keeps her from being ashamed:

Jer 3:3  Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

We have covered the symbol of the forehead in Rev 7:3 where the 144,000 are said to be “sealed in their foreheads.”

Rev 7:3  Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

The spiritual significance of ‘the forehead’ is the heavens of our hearts and minds which is either being purified or is defiled with the false doctrines of Babylon and all the fruits of those lies and false doctrines:

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

8) What is the significance of five months of torment?

8) The eighth symbol is “they shall be tormented five months… as the torment of a scorpion when he strikes a man.”

Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

These are words which we are to read, hear and keep (Rev 1:3). It is each of us who symbolically are “tormented five months… as the torment of a scorpion when he strikes a man.”  Why are we said to be “tormented five months.” Why are we not tormented four months? Or why are we not tormented six months? Why are we told that we are tormented five months? As is usually the case, the number itself is never the point, just as the words themselves are never the point. The point of being tormented five months is that we are brought to our wits’ end in the faith of Jesus Christ, and in faith of Jesus Christ we are brought through God’s chastening grace and we learn to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts:

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [G3811, ‘paideuo’, chastening]us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Chastening “grace through faith” is the significance of the number five.

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth [3811, ‘paideuo’], and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

We have a series on the web site about The Spiritual Significance of Numbers in Scripture which deals, in depth, with the spiritual significance of most of the major numbers mentioned in scripture. Read that series of studies for an in depth study of this number 5, as well as all the other numbers mentioned in scripture. We will give but a few verses in this study but there are many more in this study on the number 5:

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/numbers_five/

For the sake of this study, and to understand why we are tormented for five months instead of 6 months or 4 months or any other number, let’s take note of these verses which give us an idea of the spiritual significance of this number five.

Notice how Joseph, an Old Testament type of Christ, favored and showed great grace to his full brother, Benjamin.

Gen 43:34 And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin’s mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.

Benjamin is not guilty of selling his brother into slavery, and while we are all Joseph’s ten brothers before we become Benjamin, nevertheless Benjamin here is a type of God’s elect who, like Joseph did in type, partake of the Lord’s chastening grace in this present age:

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [G3811, ‘paideuo’, to chasten] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth [G3811, ‘paideuo’, to chasten], and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Another verse revealing the spiritual significance of this number five is:

Gen 45:22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.

“Raiment” in scripture, in its positive application, signifies “the righteousness of saints” (Rev 19:8). Raiment is our spiritual clothing. In its negative application ‘raiment’ also signifies the unrighteousness of saints:

Zec 3:3  Now Joshua [the Lord’s high priest, vrs 1] was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
Zec 3:4  And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
Zec 3:5  And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with [clean white linen, Rev 19:8] garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by.

The priests were to be clothed only with linen which does not cause sweat:

Eze 44:15  But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD:
Eze 44:16  They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge.
Eze 44:17  And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.
Eze 44:18  They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.

Our ‘raiment’ is what covers us. As priests of Christ clean white linen clothes covers our sins. Clean white linen raiment is a type of “Christ in [us] the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). What clothes are covering each of us? White linen robes are said to be the righteousness of the saints.

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.

Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Benjamin was given five changes of raiment. In type, Benjamin was given five times as much of Christ as any of his brothers. Both the food and the raiment joseph bestowed on his brother, Benjamin, are types of Christ and His Word. Benjamin was given five times more food than his brothers were given even though they were also Abraham’s seed. Joseph had not been stingy toward his ten brothers who had sold him into Egyptian slavery. Like the workers in the vineyard who had been hired first, Joseph’s ten elder brothers, who had been born first, were shown loving grace, but it was not given to them first, nor was it given in the abundance which was shown to Benjamin. Like the workers who came in at the 11^th hour, Benjamin was singled out for special attention. The number five has everything to do with God’s people. There were five wise and five foolish virgins, and they are all God’s people. But like Benjamin, the five wise virgins typify those who are given grace through faith first and most abundantly. In Mat 25 we are given the parable of the talents. The most favored servant was given “five talents.”

Mat 25:15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

It is in God’s great grace and through Christ’s own faith that we are all brought through the chastening torment, of ‘fiery scorpions’ to Christ. Five months has nothing at all to do with five literal  months any more than five messes had anything to do with Benjamin’s appetite, or five changes of raiment had to do with Benjamin’s need for clothing. ‘Five months’ signifies the fact that God is “in this present time” (Rom 8:18) bringing His elect to their wits’ end through the symbolic torment of the symbolic “sting of a scorpion”. It takes a symbolic five months of being stung by scorpions to bring us “to [our] wits end”, before the Lord can then “bring [us] to our desired haven”:

9) Why cannot those who are tormented die as they wish?

9) Our final symbol is “they shall seek death and shall not find it.” What does that mean? Once again we can turn to Joseph’s brothers to show us the meaning of wanting to die but not being granted that wish. While we are not told Joseph’s brothers wanted to die we are told they feared dying all the years they were in Egypt while their father, Jacob, renamed Israel was still alive. Jacob signifies our own old man who has to die before we are delivered from the fear of death:

Gen 50:15  And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
Gen 50:16  And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
Gen 50:17  So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
Gen 50:18  And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
Gen 50:19  And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Gen 50:21  Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

It is not until after we want to die that we are granted the privilege of dying daily with Christ and being crucified with Him and being buried with Him in baptism. Only after we are tormented and “brought to our wits’ end,” through “the stinging of scorpions” are we found worthy to die with Christ and live in newness of a resurrected life.

Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

We are one and all “brought to our wits’ end” at some point. That is the point at which the holy spirit takes over the throne of our heart and the man of sin begins to be destroyed with the brightness of His coming (2Th 2:8). But even then “judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17). Each storm we endure prepares us for the next trial as we “endure to the end… are being crucified with Christ… and dying daily.” (Mat 10:22; Gal 2:20; 1Co 15:31)

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

The stings of these scorpions are what bring us to despair of life and desire to die. It is in God’s mercy that we are granted that ability in spirit and we are able finally, only after five months of torment, to be baptized into Christ’s death and be raised with Him from among the spiritually dead, to walk in newness of life. A dead man is not tormented by scorpions, and those who “are [ being] crucified with Christ, are dying daily” with Him on His cross and no longer experience the hopelessness of being brought to their wits’ end. A person who is dying with Christ we now see a purpose in suffering and we rejoice in our trials:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

But it is a peaceful dying in which we rejoice in our trials, and rejoice that we have been counted worthy to suffer with Him because we know that we will also reign with Him.

Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint- heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

The inability to die begins to subside after the symbolic five months when we are granted a new mind which rejoices in being crucified with Christ, and can now begin to fill up what is behind of His afflictions in our own flesh for the sake of the church, which has rejected this straight and narrow way for the ‘smooth things’ like a rapture and never knowing God’s wrath upon our own sins and blasphemies.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
Col 1:25  Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what [ is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Summary

1) Our first symbol was smoke, and we were reminded that smoke symbolizes that which darkens our sun and air, as do the desires of our flesh, and all the false doctrines which are so appealing to our flesh.

2) The second symbol was locusts, which come out of the smoke, and we saw that these locusts were used to destroy all that Egypt has produced within us. We saw that these locusts devour our substance and bring us into spiritual poverty and despair.

3) The third symbol is the earth. As we have seen so many times before, the ‘earth’ is God’s people who are living in rebellion against the ever present truths of God’s Word.
4) The fourth symbol is the power of these locusts to hurt those who dwell on the earth, with power as the scorpions of the earth have power. It is our own rebellious ways which chasten us, and it is our own sins and false doctrines which bring spiritual torments and spiritual bitterness and despair upon us.

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that [ it is] an evil [ thing] and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

5) The fifth symbol of this fifth trumpet is the grass, any green thing and trees which these locusts with the power of scorpions cannot hurt.  What we saw was that obedience to God’s doctrines and to His words removes the wrath of God upon us. The overcomers are this “grass, trees and any green thing” which cannot be hurt by these scorpion- like locusts which darken our sun and air and torment us as scorpions of the earth have power to “sting and torment”. Overcomers are not innately overcomers. Overcomers are those who were innately rebellious but were, by the grace of God, given to repent and do the things the Lord tells us to do. (Luk 6:46; Rom 9:15-16; Rev 15:2)

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

6) The sixth symbol is those men who do not have the seal of God in their foreheads. As unpopular as it is to have to say, we are all “the children of wrath” before we begin to “believe the Son.” So we are all hurt of these stinging locusts before we are granted  immunity from their power to sting and to hurt us.

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 [by default] the children of wrath, even as others.

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

7)  The seventh symbol is their foreheads. We saw that both the mark of God, in the foreheads of those that sigh and cry for the abominations in Jerusalem of Ezekiel 9 and in the foreheads of the 144.00 of Rev 7, is the same mark. We also saw that the mark of the beast is also in the forehead, and that we all have ‘the mark of the beast… a whore’s forehead’ in our hearts and minds before we are given the thoughts and mind of  God “in our foreheads.”

Deu 6:6  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
Deu 6:7  And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Deu 6:8  And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

Deu 11:16  Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
Deu 11:17  And then the LORD’S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
Deu 11:18  Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

It is the words and thoughts of our Lord which are His mark “as frontlets between our eyes” and as a “mark in our foreheads.”

8) The eighth symbol is “they shall be tormented five months.” We saw in this symbol that this torment lasts five months simply because it is connected with God’s chastening and scourging grace that is the stings of these locusts which drive us to our wits’ end and make us want to die to the things of this world.

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?

9) Our final symbol is “they shall seek death and shall not find it.” We saw that this really is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and that Christ Himself was “weary even unto death,” and that according to Psa 107, we too, will be made “weary unto death.” But we will have to wait a symbolic five months before we are brought to the point that we are granted to be crucified with Him and in that way be relieved of that five months of torment:

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

We saw that once we relinquish this life and all of its false values, our own crucifixion with Christ (Gal2:20), and our “dying daily” with Christ (1Co 15:31) can actually come to be one of rejoicing in the certainty of our glorification with Him.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial [dying daily] which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

The mind of Christ can discern the things of the spirit which the natural mind cannot discern:

1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Dying daily “by little and by little” (Deu 7:22) cannot be accepted by the natural mind as anything to “rejoice [in] inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings”. Neither is the natural man given the faith of Christ to “have respect unto the recompence of the reward as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt and better than the pleasures of sin for a season”.

Next week, Lord willing, we will learn more about the identity, the power, and the king of these locusts which come out of the bottomless pit and darken the sun and 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.
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 9:3-4 – Part 3 of The Fifth Trump

[Study Aired August 9, 2024]

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 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

Introduction

As we “look behind us” to see the process of this “revelation of Jesus Christ” has already begun (Rev 1:10). We see that this revelation reveals the very beginning of the judgment of our old man. The fact that we are ‘looking behind  us’ signifies that judgment has already begun before we ever become aware that “Thou art the man” who has betrayed and denied our Lord (2Sa 12:7). Others have, of course done so, but so have you and me. Christ can only be revealed through the daily dying of our rebellious old man, and the dying of our old man entails this painful sting of the ‘scorpions’ of this study which accompany this part of our walk signified by the “power of scorpions of the earth.”

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

This “voice as of a trumpet” is revealed in its ‘complete’ form as “seven trumpets. These seven trumpets are the seventh seal of this revelation of Jesus Christ. This “great voice, as of a trumpet” is the ‘voice’ of the words of our Lord, who is giving us this revelation of Himself within us. This mystery of Christ and His kingdom, which is at this time being formed in us, is hidden from the masses of mankind and from the multitudes of orthodox Christianity. He does not give the masses that come to Him the ability to see and hear the mysteries of the kingdom of God, ‘within us’:

Mat 13:2  And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
Mat 13:3  And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

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.

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

That kingdom is within us only if its King is within us.

Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

The means by which God has hidden the mysteries of the kingdom of God within us is to cause us to believe all the lies and false doctrines of the many daughters of Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots, and keep hidden from us the meaning of any of His parables, all of which concern the kingdom of God, also called ‘the kingdom of heaven’:

Mat 4:17  From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The Truth is that the kingdoms which comprise Nebuchadnezzar’s great image are also all first within us. It is the kingdom of God, which is within, which destroys all the kingdoms of this world, that are also,  one and all, within mankind. All that is “in Adam” is also within his seed, just as surely as all that is “in Christ” will be in His seed.

Dan 2:31  Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness [was] excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. [Are you, at this moment, thinking of Nebuchadnezzar, or are you thinking of Matthew 4:4 and Luk 17:20-21?]
Dan 2:32  This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
Dan 2:33  His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Dan 2:34  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Remember what we learned was “the earth” upon which these locusts are sent forth.

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

The earth signifies the Lord’s own people, and it is also we who, because we all ‘leave our first love’ we become the nations of this earth, and we are those who are hurt by these devouring locusts before we become the green things which are not hurt of these hurtful, scorpion- like locusts.

All of the metals which comprise this great image are also within us, and if we “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”, then we must understand that all of the beasts of Daniel 7 are also first one composite beast within us.

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Dan 7:2  Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
Dan 7:3  And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
Dan 7:4  The first [was] like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
Dan 7:5  And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and [it had] three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
Dan 7:6  After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
Dan 7:7  After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

The point is that we are not just the “green things” which are not hurt by the power of these locusts, but we are first those who are hurt by the power of these locusts. We must all first be the first Adam and come to know that life of darkness. Then, and only then, will we be dragged by God to become the green things which are not hurt by the power of the locusts of the earth. This message is throughout the Word of God, and is hidden from us by our inability to see the mysteries of the kingdom of God, which kingdom is within us. We are the grass that is burned up before we become the grass that is not hurt of the locusts.

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

We are all under “the power of darkness”, and we were all “the children of disobedience” before we are granted to become “the children of light” and we are “raised up together and made to sit in the heavens in Chist”:

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.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Remembering that this is all being told us so we will know what we are to keep and live by, let us note what the symbols of these two verses of this fifth trumpet of the revelation of Jesus Christ are within us.

1) Our first symbol is smoke. 2) The second is locusts. 3) The third is the earth. 4) The fourth symbol is the power as the scorpions of the earth. 5) the fifth is the grass, any green thing, and trees. 6) the sixth is those men who have not the seal of God. 7)  The seventh symbol is their foreheads. 8) The eighth symbol is “they shall be tormented five months. 9) Our final symbol is “they shall seek death and shall not find it”.

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 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only t hose men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

What is smoke?

1) We saw last week that the smoke that darkens the sun and the air is the false doctrines, whether Christian or Pagan, which are used to keep us from seeing the Truth as being the light of the world.

Mat 4:16  The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

Mat 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Mat 5:15  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the [dark] house.
Mat 5:16  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil [full of false doctrines], thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Joh 1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

It is instructive that an evil eye is not contrasted by a righteous eye, but by a single eye. Until we come to see that God is sovereign, we have an evil eye that cannot acknowledge the truth that it is that sovereign God Who is working all things after the counsel of His own will, and that not just all good but even all evil is created and worked by God.

Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither [as a slave in Egypt], but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it [the evil you did to me] unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Exo 14:19  And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:
Exo 14:20  And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it [Christ, the cloud] was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these so that the one came not near the other all the night.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

We all first think that light is darkness, and we think that darkness is light, because we all first have “an eye that is evil.” We all “sit in darkness and the shadow of death” until the light comes to us. When the light of God’s Word does come, we eventually acknowledge that our God is the sovereign Creator of both all the good and all of the evil that is in this world.

Psa 139:12  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

Good and evil are both alike to God because they are both the work of His hand. That is not true for us.

Isa 5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

God alone can make good come from evil. We cannot do that and must never be guilty of attempting to justify evil, even as we acknowledge that God is the Creator of both.

What are locusts?

2) Locusts are not themselves darkness any more than the fruit of a tree is the tree. John the Baptist was nourished with locusts:

Mat 3:4  And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

In most cases, locusts signify destruction and ruin both physically and spiritually:

Exo 10:12  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.

The locusts in this verse here in Revelation 9 signify the product of the “darkness by reason of the smoke of the pit”, just as fruit is the product of the tree. So what is it that darkness produces? Here are just a few of the fruits of darkness which are symbolized by these “locusts.”

Pro 4:19  The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

Darkness causes us to stumble, and when we stumble, we do not prevail or overcome. Like the apostle Paul, we are all first Saul of Tarsus, persecutors of the way of Truth, before “the Lord is with us.”

Jer 20:11  But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.

Here is what happens to us all when we are persecutors of our Lord and of those who brought us His Truth.

Exo 10:4  Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
Exo 10:5  And t hey shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
Exo 10:6  And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.

When our spiritual house is full of that which darkens the sun and the air and devours everything that is attempting to grow, we are quickly being destroyed. We are as Pharaoh, and we are given a hardened heart before we are delivered out of that darkened and devastated condition. Our substance [our false doctrine] is devoured as if by locusts.

Exo 10:12  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, [ even] all that the hail hath left.
Exo 10:13  And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.

Exo 10:14  And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.

What is the affect of these locusts upon Egypt within us?

Exo 10:15  For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

The locusts are thorough in devouring “any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the fields” of Egypt within us. The locusts devour anything that is left after the destruction of the hail upon the things of Egypt that are within us.

What is the earth?

3) The third symbol is the earth. We have seen in great detail that “the earth” within is the Biblical symbol of who we are when we have rejected the truths of God’s Word.

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

We received that word with joy, but when persecutions and tribulations arise because of the word, we are quickly offended and fall away into the lies of Egypt, which all the rest of society believe, and which are far more appealing to our flesh. The earth, the land, the world and the field, all have very much in common, according to our Lord.

Mat 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children [the doctrines] of the kingdom; but the tares are the children [the doctrines] of the wicked one;

“The field is the world.” That is why we read this of Esau, the symbol of God’s rejected twin, born of the same free woman.

Gen 25:27  And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.

This verse contrasts the true man of God with the rejected man of God. “A cunning hunter, a man of the field” is contrasted with “a plain man, dwelling in [temporary] tents,” which is the essence of Christ and those in whom He dwells.

Isa 53:2  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness [He was “a plain man”]; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

“The earth” within us, the “man of the field”, sees no beauty at all in the things of the man of the spirit.

What is the power of the scorpions of the earth?

4) The fourth symbol is the power given these locusts, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

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 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

What power do the scorpions of the earth possess? Here is the power scorpions have been given.

Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

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.

The pain of the sting of a scorpion is a severe and sharp pain. If it persists, it truly does cause us to want to die. This is that part of our walk that ‘brings us to our wits’ end.’

Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.

What is the grass, any green thing and trees?

5) The fifth symbol is the grass, any green thing and the trees.

Rev 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

That God intends for this revelation to be hidden from the multitudes of Christianity is demonstrated by the symbols of this fifth trumpet and by this symbol in particular. For many years I personally could not understand the meaning of this symbol simply because it seems, to the natural man, to contradict the obvious meaning of this very same symbol, which is referenced to in the previous chapter in the description of the first trumpet:

Rev 8:7  The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

In the previous chapter and in the previous trumpet, the first trumpet, the “trees… and all the green grass are burned up” by the “hail and fire mingled with blood.”  As we saw when we covered that verse, “the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies.”

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Mat 3:12  Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff [the lies and false doctrines] with unquenchable fire.

So if the grass and the trees and green things symbolize the lies of Babylon in chapter eight, how can it possibly symbolize “those men which have the seal of God in their foreheads” in chapter nine? How is that possible? It is possible in the same way that so many Biblical symbols are given a positive connotation in one context and a negative connotation in another context. For example, Adam is both positive and negative throughout scripture as both the old man and the new man.

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a quickening spirit.

The symbol of the lion is used as both a symbol of the Devil and a symbol of Christ:

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

Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

Psa 17:9  From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.
Psa 17:10  They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.
Psa 17:11  They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;
Psa 17:12  Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

Here in Psalms 17:13, ‘the wicked’ are used as “Thy sword”, the Lord’s sword which He uses to punish us when we  defy Him and His ways. That is the same principle by which the king of Assyria is called “the rod of mine indignation” when the Lord use the king of Assyria to punish His people:

Isa 10:5  O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6  I will send him against an hypocritical nation [The Lord’s own people], and against the people of my wrath [His own people] will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

The symbol of a ‘sword’ also has this “two-edged” application. It is both “the wicked, which is your sword,” and it is “the Word of God.”

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Why then cannot “the grass, the trees and every green thing” also have the negative meaning of the things of the flesh in Revelation 8:7 and the positive meaning of those in whom is the Word of God, and who have the seal of God in their foreheads in Rev 9:4?

Rev 8:7  The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

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 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

This characteristic of God’s Word, being both positive and negative, is deeply hidden from the natural man, and He is thereby rendered completely incapable of either “rightly dividing the Word of Truth” or “trying the spirits to see whether they are of God.” The natural man certainly does not recognize that if we do “rightly divide the word of truth” then we will recognize and acknowledge that we must all be “the first man Adam… which has not the mark of God,” before we can become “the last Adam… with the mark of God in our foreheads.” It is by the use of this principle of the Word of God being both positive and negative that the Lord has kept the natural man from understanding the things of the spirit:

1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

6) The sixth symbol is “those men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads”.

Who are “those men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads?

We will pause our study of the meaning of the symbols of this fifth trumpet at this point and  resume our next study examining what the scriptures reveal to be the meaning of the sixth symbol of this fifth trumpet judgment, which is “those men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads.”

“The hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies” – Isa 28:17

[Study Aired July 13, 2024]

The Book of Joel appears to have been written somewhere between 520 to 200 BCE, before the destruction of the first Temple and after the exile of the Northern Kingdom of Israel during wicked King Manasseh’s reign (2 Ki 21).

Joel conveys the same uncomplicated theme and indictment of sin, judgment, chastisement, and forgiveness leading to salvation, as was portrayed in our recent study of Hosea and reiterated in the other so-called ‘minor prophets’ and, indeed, the entire Bible. However, complications to the simplicity of God’s word assuredly arise when the ‘Beast’ we are (Ecc 3:18 – ‘man is but a beast’ 2 Pet 2:12) typically hides from his indicting conscience. The path of inevitable guilt for disobedience to our Lord’s commands innately activates a sense of psychological nudity that is profoundly spiritually embedded in our genes, the spirit in man (Job 32:8). The lamentable yet God-given progression of sin is to excuse ourselves and accuse some other entity for the entire saga is first and classically typified by Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit (Gen 3:1-24).

The Bride of Christ alone among Babylonian/Gentile Christianity (inclusive of the rest of humanity figuratively outside the Camp of Israel) is given to see the ‘vision’ brightly seen in the opening verse of Joel 1, that she, too, was the whore, Gomer, symbolically the Lord’s first wife. Her Lord has given her, the “little flock” (Luke 12:32) Church, the greater portion of His spirit to understand and keep all His commandments progressively. From that standpoint, she vivaciously sees from whence she has come through the sequence of the lust of the eyes and flesh that inevitably result in the most catastrophic sin of all, that of pride. When the inner trumpet blasts the warning of lust and is dismissed, hiding from the sin innately and insidiously follows. Pride is instantly in lockstep with hiding since, if the sin is discovered, the humiliation is exacerbated seemingly beyond endurance and covering lies are now used to hide and consolidate the original sin further. The pride is now “joined hand in hand” with lies to maintain its status and has become so deeply rooted that it seems impossible to break free without ironically desiring death to escape the humiliation.

Pro 16:5  Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

Eze 18:24  But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

Rom 2:12  For as many [All of humanity!] as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law [First, physical Israel, and then the spiritual Israel of God, the Bride] shall be judged by the law;
Rom 2:13  (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 
Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Rom 2:15  Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
Rom 2:16  In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. 

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
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 [The Heavenly Jerusalem above]: 

1Jn 2:15  Love not the world [Things directly contradicting God’s word, and, or innocuous things idolised], neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 
1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever [It all is vanity and chasing the wind of diverse and evil spirits, that cannot be contained to be eternally enjoyed. (Ecc 1:14, Ecc 2:10-11)]. 

Psa 10:2  The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. 

We all are that man of sin (2Th 2:1-4) who is most wicked in his pride since it is pride that stops us from going to Christ to acknowledge the sin and thus doubly amplifies the original sin of illicit lust! Subsequently, we become dreadfully “the poor” in our Lord’s spirit and are taken by our own devices of evil imaginations through self-righteousness.

Joel 1:1-12

Joe 1:1  The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. 
Joe 1:2  Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? 
Joe 1:3  Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 
Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. 
Joe 1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 
Joe 1:6  For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. 
Joe 1:7  He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.
Joe 1:8  Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
Joe 1:9  The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn. 
Joe 1:10  The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 
Joe 1:11  Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
Joe 1:12  The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

Now, and in the Book of Joel, the Bride is given to enthusiastically advance and consolidate her understanding of her disappearing harlot ways through her Lord’s ravishing word.

Significations:

Joe 1:1  The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.

Joel’s father was Pethuel (H6602), which means ‘vision of God’, and ‘to be spacious, be open, be wide’, and profoundly states God’s nature that Joel envisioned as the ‘spaciously unadulterated’ indictments of sin, judgement, chastisement, and forgiveness leading to salvation. However, carnal Israel was utterly frustrated through blindness (Isa 42:18-25), having never received lasting spiritual peace through unity with her Lord to bring salvation. She, now understood as predominantly Babylonian Christianity, remains in that God-given vexation of the spirit to this day and into the coming Resurrection to Judgement. However, for a very small “little flock”, the Lord has and still is dragging out of Babylon within, is being given eyes that see the mysteries in and through Christ, her “deliverer.”

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in [at the end of the One-Thousand Year reign with the rod of iron]. 
Rom 11:26  And so all Israel [symbolic of the entirety of mankind] shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: [Please see all of Romans 11:25-36]

An Invasion of Locusts

Joe 1:2  Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
Joe 1:3  Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 
Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten. 

The answer to Joel 1:2 is a resounding, “Yes.” Old Israel, to this day in Babylonian Christianity, has been given major blindness and deafness that only chastisement will break the pride of her power only by Christ’s strength. The terminology “blindness in part” used in Rom 11:25 suggests minimal blindness and deafness and belies the reality of total blindness and deafness during all the days of their fathers.

The only “old men,” meaning Israel’s prophets and sanctified teachers, paradoxically who do hear those verses’ significations is the Bride of Christ, who is the only one unified with her Husband given to see and hear all positive and negative meanings of the ‘inhabitants of her land’ within her. She has keenly observed all spiritual signs from Genesis 1 to Revelations 22, the endlessly repeated pattern of rebellion, chastisement, and physical salvation resulting from the plagues of locusts, cankerworms, and caterpillars in knowing their spiritual equivalence. She is that ‘other generation’ in verse 3 and the second “army” in Song of Solomon 6:13 who alone is given to understand spiritual significations.

The following verse of Son 6:13 is Solomon’s tortured mind trying to understand the Shulamite by inwardly searching his mind; he says,

Son 6:13  Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.

 The ‘first army’ of the two is Manasseh (the elder) and Ephraim (the younger), depicted in the book of Hosea and other biblical locations solely as Ephraim, representing them both as greater Israel.

1Co 1:22  For the Jews [symbolic of spiritual understanding] require a [an outward physical] sign, and the Greeks [symbolising the world] seek after wisdom:

The world’s peer-reviewed logic and ‘scientific methodology’ that, if honestly used, is the genuinely very best man has outside of Christ to gain truth progressively, but, like Artificial intelligence, can never discover the eternal spiritual realities. Hence, both Jews (Manasseh and Ephraim) and Greeks, as one, represent the world and are utterly deaf and blind to Christ.

1Co 1:23  But we [The Bride] preach Christ crucified [in spirit], unto the Jews a stumblingblock [since Christ is spiritually perceived and is not clearly stated by the letter in the Law of Moses, and thus cannot be understood], and unto the Greeks foolishness [Unstable, esoteric stupidity];

Greeks represent Gentiles. The Jews, meaning Manasseh and Ephriam, because of their dependence on the physical laws of Moses, are lumped in with the Gentiles as the same with the world. The tribal world cannot agree with one another to this day and, in fact, is becoming more violently contentious with every man’s hand against his neighbour.

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: 
Rom 2:7  To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
Rom 2:8  But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
Rom 2:9  Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; [Gentile H1672 = a Greek either by nationality, whether a native of the mainland or of the Greek islands or colonies. G1671 Greece = unstable: the miry one [the world/mankind made of miry clay].
Rom 2:10  But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the [Spiritual] Jew first, and also to the Gentile [the world becoming God in the Lake of Fire]:
Rom 2:11  For there is no respect of persons with God [… thankfully!]. 

Zec 14:13  And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them [Jew and Gentile, the world of humanity]; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise against the hand of his neighbour.

It is only the Bride of Christ who is given to ‘tell her children’, meaning, to see from Israel’s endless loop of disobedience, chastisement and salvation against her sins within that the spiritual palmerworms, cankerworms, and caterpillars will consume the last morsel of green until all that is left is her “black” desolate landscape negatively and Shulamite-like positivity. The palmerworm, cankerworm and caterpillar are the progressive stages of development of the locust and are the same. Joel 1:4 reads as if there are three different geniuses of insects coming from each worm. However, they all represent the development of the locust.

Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm [H1501: locust] hath left hath the locust [H697: locust] eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm [H3218: young locust] eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller [H2625: locust H2628 – 1. (Qal) to consume, finish off, bring to an end] eaten.

The world of Gentile Jewry and Greeks disregards the King of King’s immutable truth and thus has no righteous king and multitude of counsel; rather, Satan is their father of lies who devours the truth and enslaves them by their multitude of idols directed by defiant women who represent Babylon’s churches and rule the laity with their imagined Christ, “another Jesus” as described in 2Co 11:4.

Pro 30:27  The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; 

Nah 3:13 -17 Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars. 
Nah 3:14  Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln. 
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. 
Nah 3:16  Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away. 
Nah 3:17  Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day [when Christ’s commands are dismissed in the blackness of the night], but when the sun ariseth [Christ’s word is preached] they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. [Flying high in the heavens carried by the spiritual wind to find another landing place to infect lies]

Scorpions and serpents are false doctrines that give us lies within. They are as numerous as 200,000,000 locusts, with the lies of stings in their tails.

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 [mankind]: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 

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 [40,000 plus Babylonian churches], 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 [the locusts] had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months. 
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 [Satan].

Notice again the Jew/Hebrew association with the Gentile Greek ethnicity, additionally substantiating that Satan rules the world from Adam to the beginning of the One-Thousand Year reign with the rod of iron by Christ and His Christs.

Stepping down to:

Rev 9:16  And the number of the army [enigmatically the first “army” of the “two” in the Son 6:13 residing within while in Babylon] of the horsemen [locusts] were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them [200,000,000]. 

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters [God’s fiery word] shall overflow the hiding place [Drown them in the Lake of Fire while they yet live].

(For a more thorough understanding of “locusts”, please see this link and scroll down to Rev 9 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/studies/ )

Joe 1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 

Wine represents God’s spiritual word, and wine drinkers are our former Babylonian selves, revelling in the doctrines of the world, unconscious of the spiritual cloud causing darkness. They have not progressed in understanding Christ’s New Covenant doctrine of spiritual understanding and are thus unwittingly cut off and enslaved when Moses read.

Isa 5:8  Woe unto them that join house to house [likened to “join[ing] in hand” with lies Isa 5:8], that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! 
Isa 5:9  In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. 
Isa 5:10  Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah. 
Isa 5:11  Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! 
Isa 5:12  And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands. 
Isa 5:13  Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst [For this cause, the locusts have eaten up the truth, leaving only lies]. 

The drunkards and wine bibbers are our Babylonian former selves dancing to our happy-clappy music of falsely believing that they are saved without chastising grace and are blind to the reality that they remain at Sinai enslaved by Moses’ laws while imagining that they are Christ’s elected symbolic Jews (Rev 2:9). 

2Co 3:6  [It is Christ, the Bride’s husband,] Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 
2Co 3:7  But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away [And since the cross, is superseded by the new wine]: 
2Co 3:8  How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 
2Co 3:9  For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 
2Co 3:10  For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
2Co 3:11  For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. 
2Co 3:12  Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech [Only because the spirit of God has given us understanding]:
2Co 3:13  And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 
2Co 3:14  But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
2Co 3:15  But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
2Co 3:16  Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 
2Co 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 
2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Joe 1:6  For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. 
Joe 1:7  He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white [skin, de-barked].

That strong, innumerable nation with the teeth of a lion is Gog, and Magog represents the 200.000.000 locust lies seen in the previous scripture, Revelation 9:6, following the One-Thousand Years. The fire that comes down from heaven at the end of One-Thousand Years represents God’s fiery word, figuratively consuming all of mankind until his flesh is black, with the horrific visual of cracked black skin exposing cooked ‘white’ flesh beneath just as the bark from the fig and vine branches is made white (apparently the flesh of man cooks white like roast pork)

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea [all of humanity alive at that time, yet, representing the all from Adam to that point in time ever to exist]. 
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

The pure virgin word of God clothes the Bride of Christ in dazzling white. When God’s fiery, all-consuming word is “eaten”, it has the distinct effect of making us initially symbolically yet factually spiritually white.

Dan 7:9  I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. 

Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 

Joe 1:8  Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 

That verse reminds us of Jephthah’s daughter, whom the Bride of Christ directly represents, temporarily weeping upon the mountains of the Lord for the denied physical fulfilment in marriage and children. Although Jephthah’s daughter grieved her virginity until her death, the Bride of Christ she represents today glorifies her Lord for her symbolic virginity, knowing full well that she was formally characterised as the whore, Gomer.

Jdg 11:36  And she [Jephthah’s daughter] said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD [a vow to sacrifice a pure offering in the first that comes forth from his house], do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. 
Jdg 11:37  And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months [a witness with many representations. Jew/Greek. Elder serving she, the younger, etc.], that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows [The little flock, the joints of the Bride]. 
Jdg 11:38  And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. 
Jdg 11:39  And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father [for us, Christ], who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel, 
Jdg 11:40  That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. 

Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Rev 6:9  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain [The virgin Bride of Christ] for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 
Rev 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 

Hence, Jephthah’s daughter, the Bride of Christ, no longer laments her youth virginity since she is betrothed to Christ. However, temporarily, for humanity, the spiritual reality of the New Covenant marriage to the Lamb of God is dried up.

Joe 1:9  The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn. 
Joe 1:10  The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 
Joe 1:11  Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen [The incipient Elect seeing her former ways]; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. 

The harvest of the field perished at the beginning of the One-Thousand Years when all who are given to be the Bride, have gone into the wedding supper. Outside remain the symbolic dogs like Esau, who rejected the Lord’s word. They, being alive at the end of the One Thousand Year rule, will wither away by God’s fiery word coming down from heaven and making their flesh burn (Rev 20:7) being made white carried forward into the Lake of Fire until they are literally pure white like Christ and his Wife. 

Mat 22:11  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 
Mat 22:12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 
Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

Joe 1:12  The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. 

However, even now, before the OTY reign, the world languishes fruitless since “the” Christ, the “joy” in Babylonian Jews and Greeks, is made nothing since their understanding of his Law remains physically understood and thus devoids them of understanding.

Rom 3:31  Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the [spiritual] law. 

Dan 12:9  And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Dan 12:10  Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand. 

Ecc 9:2  All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

That “time of the end” is today, ever since the Cross, and understood only by Christ’s Bride being made white. Her brother and sisters in the world, portrayed as Jews and Greeks, will be made white in the Lake of Fire.

Next week, Lord willing, we will see the next step of “Repentance” that follows chastising fire.

May the Lord hasten that day in the Bride, inclusive of the Jew and Greek.

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Awesome Hands – part 53

“Not able to see the earth”

Jan. 15, 2013

The show of the power of the Lord has been in full force with the first seven plagues being used to bring judgment to the Pharaoh and Egypt and God’s people as well, spiritually speaking.

All of the ten plagues are for us to learn that we must go through these things to come out of them and to join Moses in the “song of the Lamb”.

In order for us to get to the point of being able to sing this song, we must continue to be subject to the remaining plagues. In this study today, we are going to find that the locusts will leave nothing uneaten.

“I bring the locusts into thy coast”

The locusts follow a spiritually significant and noticeable event in our spiritual lives and that is the plague of hail or otherwise known as a “great earthquake” in our lives.

The plague of hail is an event for us that has never been as grievous and never will be as grievous again as witnessed by us at the time of this plague.

However, this is just another step in the judgment the Lord is pouring out on our old man at this time.

Exo 10:1  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:
Exo 10:2  And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son’s son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the LORD.
Exo 10:3  And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.

There are a few significant phrases written for us here that should be written on our hearts if we are to grasp the control the Lord has over our hearts and minds AND the Love He has for us.

The Lord tells us plainly that He has hardened the heart of Pharaoh and the heart of the servants of Pharaoh so that He can show “His signs” before the Pharaoh.

Additionally, these signs are there so that this story can be told as a REMINDER so that “you may know how that I AM THE LORD.”

If you will notice, we are told the Lord does the hardening but then sends Moses to ask the Pharaoh, “how long will YOU refuse to humble yourself before me?”

At first glance, it seems that the Lord has left us in a peculiar predicament. That would be true if “we” had anything to do with how we act or react. If we are seeing anything spiritually though, we will notice that what the Lord is REALLY after is “our humbling”. This humbling is simply acknowledging that the Lord is in control.

In fact, this is VERY hard for the flesh to do and impossible without Christ doing it in us. When we do admit God’s being sovereign over all, the fear of the Word of the Lord becomes a very significant thought to us!

Because of our refusal to be humbled, the Lord must send locusts.

Exo 10:4  Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
Exo 10:5  And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
Exo 10:6  And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.

If you’ll recall how the hail stopped, or was caused to stop, you’ll remember that Moses “went out of the city” and then called upon the Lord to cause the hail to stop.

Exo 9:33  And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.

So, this is where Moses and Aaron remained until the Lord tells them to “go in unto Pharaoh.”

“Exo 10:1  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh: …”

At this point it may seem insignificant that this is mentioned but what we are studying with this series is how the Lord works His sovereign hands in our lives and in the lives of those we are sent to say, “thus sayeth the Lord” or “thus sayeth the Word of God”.

Since we are now studying the plague of the locusts, what then is the significance of Moses having been out of the city in order to go in unto the Pharaoh to deliver the message of the Lord that the locusts were/are coming?

In order to answer that, we don’t have to look outside of scripture. What does this “city” represent spiritually?

As with all scripture there is a positive and a negative application to every Word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God.

Since we live by every Word, then we live by the positive and negative applications. With Moses being a type of Christ and Moses going out of the city, what are we being told?

How does the earth mentioned in Exodus 10 have anything at all to do with “the city?”

Luk 9:5  And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.

Mar 6:11  And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

So, what city are we speaking about in context of Moses coming to Pharaoh from “without the city”?

Here are a few examples.

Jer 22:6  For thus saith the LORD unto the king’s house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
Jer 22:7  And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
Jer 22:8  And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city?
Jer 22:9  Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

And

Jon 1:1  Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Jon 1:2  Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

Rev 11:12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

Rev 18:21  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

Why does this happen?

Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

Did you notice that in Revelation 14 this is done in the presence of the Lamb? Well, with Moses this is happening to Egypt in the physical as a type of spiritual plagues taking place in us.

This judgment will be so great that it will utterly destroy everything and the locusts simply represent a part of that process. However, they also represent the coming of darkness that is brought on us by this plague we live out.

Exo 10:5  And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:

The “earth” cannot be seen. In spiritual terms, the “church” of Babylon cannot help us because it is Babylon in us itself that is being judged and destroyed!

Whatever doctrines we hold to be truth will be no help to us when they are confronted by the Word of God of which Moses is bringing to Egypt in type.

For us, this is the same for those we are sent to but we know of whereof we speak having lived through this process ourselves.

“How long shall this man be a snare unto us”

Exo 10:7  And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?
Exo 10:8  And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: but who are they that shall go?
Exo 10:9  And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD.
Exo 10:10  And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you.
Exo 10:11  Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.

To understand what was just said, I will read verse 10 in a few other translations.

(ISV)  Then Pharaoh told them, “The LORD will certainly be with you if I let you and your little ones go. I know some evil plan is in your mind.

(ESV)  But he said to them, “The LORD be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind.

(BBE)  And he said to them, May the Lord be with you, if I will let you and your little ones go! take care, for your purpose clearly is evil.

Clearly, the Pharaoh was laughing at Moses request because he believed Moses was up to no good. So he tells Moses that just the men can go and he DRIVES Moses out from his presence.

Clearly, things are escalating since even the Pharaoh’s servants are telling the Pharaoh what to do since Moses is a snare unto them.

To gain some perspective, we saw the negative application of “this great city” but what is the positive and what does it have to do

with Moses being a snare unto Egpyt and the Pharaoh?

Psa 48:1  A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.
Psa 48:2  Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

Mat 5:34  But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:
Mat 5:35  Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.

Rev 21:9  And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

Rev 21:10  And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

So, the opposite of the great city of men is the great city of our Lord, new Jerusalem. How then are they a snare to those they are sent to?

Luk 21:5  And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said,
Luk 21:6  As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Luk 21:7  And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
Luk 21:8  And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.

Do you think that Christians today think they come saying, “I am”, as in “I am Christ”? Of course they don’t! What we come saying is we are the Christ!

We are His body, His wife the new Jerusalem, the city of our Lord. We, as Moses, leave the city after the hail hits because we don’t belong to that city. We, in this role as prophet, speak God’s commandments and when we and the Words we speak aren’t received, we shake the dust (the EARTH) off of our boots.

This is how we are a snare unto Egypt in all of mankind.

Luk 21:9  But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
Luk 21:10  Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
Luk 21:11  And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Luk 21:12  But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.
Luk 21:13  And it shall turn to you for a testimony.

(Darby)  Luk 21:9 And when ye shall hear of wars and tumults, be not terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end is not immediately.

Why isn’t the end immediately coming after this “great earthquake” which is seen in Exodus as the hail storm and spoken about in the Gospels by Christ? Could it be that there is more which must be accomplishing by the 8th, 9th and 10th plagues that Lord will be sending?

Luk 21:14  Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
Luk 21:15  For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
Luk 21:16  And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
Luk 21:17  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.
Luk 21:18  But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
Luk 21:19  In your patience possess ye your souls.

The snare that comes upon Egypt and the Pharaoh is the SAME SNARE that comes upon us all. We get snared by the cares of this world, the cares of the kingdoms we live in, the cares of this life which so easily DISTRACT us from the “day” that approaches.

Luk 21:31  So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
Luk 21:32  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
Luk 21:33  Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
Luk 21:34  And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
Luk 21:35  For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Luk 21:36  Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

The Truth of the sum of the Word is that we all become snared. However, the Lord does this so that we can realize that we are all “chief of sinners”.

The escape we have been given is that the Lord does set a safe place aside for His people to dwell in while these seven last plagues take place all around them so that we can take refuge and not become snared again with wiles of the devil and cares of this world.

For Egypt, they must live this story out physically for us to be able to connect the dots spiritually of what happens to us today spiritually.

Exo 10:12  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.
Exo 10:13  And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
Exo 10:14  And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
Exo 10:15  For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

When this plague of locusts happens, it will be brought about by Christ being in the mouth of His servants and Christ comes from the east. When the Lord has judged with this particular plague and has eaten up all that can be eaten by the locusts, He puts a stop to it by a “west wind”.

Exo 10:16  Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said, I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you.
Exo 10:17  Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the LORD your God, that he may take away from me this death only.
Exo 10:18  And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD.
Exo 10:19  And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.
Exo 10:20  But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.

We must all live out the 10 plagues. They must be lived out so that we can enter into the temple of God. In type and shadow, we can see God’s elect in both bring Egypt and being Moses.

For Egypt, all that remained from the hail storm is consumed and what is to follow is great darkness that can be felt. The last thing left after that is death (the death of the first born i.e. spiritually the old man)

For Moses, he is living out the walk of which the Lord uses him and Aaron to deliver the judgments, the plagues which must happen in order for anyone to come into the kingdom of God/the kingdom of heaven.

For us today, Christ has given us the parable of the temple and the parable of the fig tree to warn us of everything that will come to pass in every generation and to also give us comfort to not so much as meditate on what “we” will say when these things happens to others around us. God alone will give us His Words to speak “in that day” and “in that hour”.

Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

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Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Introduction

“Egypt” is the Biblical symbol for the world out of which we first come as we begin our journey toward knowing God and His Son, Jesus Christ. In Christ we are to consider ourselves as dead to the world and alive in the spirit. That is why Christ calls those who put the world ahead of Himself, “the dead”.

Mat 8:21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer [ allow] 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.

That is also why we read of ourselves as being considered as dead in the streets of that “great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified”.

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

According to the scriptures, if you know God and His Son, you smell like death to the natural- minded man of Babylon.

2Co 2:15 for we are a fragrance of Christ to God, in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing:
2Co 2:16 to these [“those who are perishing”], indeed, an odor of death for death, yet to those [“who are being saved”] an odor of life for life. And for this who is competent?
2Co 2:17 For we are not as the majority, who are peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God in Christ, are we speaking.

Rev 11:8 is speaking of Babylon the great and equates Babylon the great with “Sodom and Egypt”. So the “diseases… which [ God]… brought upon the Egyptians” is a type and shadow of the diseases which afflict us while we are in Babylon. What were the diseases which afflicted Egypt and exactly how are we to avoid those same afflictions and diseases?

First Plague

Exo 7:20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
Exo 7:21 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

The waters of Egypt are the corrupted words of God. Those waters turning to blood tell us what happens when we begin to see how we have been believing the heresies of heretics, and we begin to see how our teachers have been twisting and polluting the words of God. Only then does our old man begin to die from drinking that bloody water.

Second Plague

Exo 8:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exo 8:2 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs:
Exo 8:3 And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs:
Exo 8:4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.
Exo 8:14 And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank.

These frogs, and the lice and flies which follow them, are all symbols of the 200 million false doctrines which come against the Truth of God’s Word, blotting out the light of the Sun:

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 9:7 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.

How many of these witnesses to the lies and heresies of the adversary are there?

Rev 9:16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

This is all the result of the doctrine of “tolerance in the nonessentials” versus “diligently listening to the voice of the Lord thy God, [ and] keeping all His statutes”.

Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

“Diligently listen… keep all His statutes”. Does that sound as if there is anything which is ‘nonessential’ about to be said by the Lord they God?
Here is what heretics, heresies and lies do for our spiritual life:

Psa 78:45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

This is speaking of the spirits and words of the false prophets to which we have all fallen victim in our own time.

2Ti 2:17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
2Ti 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:
2Ti 4:15 Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
2Ti 4:16 At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
2Ti 4:17 Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
2Ti 4:18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen
Rev 2:15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

Third Plague

Exo 8:16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exo 8:17 And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exo 8:18 And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.

Fourth Plague

Exo 8:24 And the LORD did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies.

Both these plagues and the innumerable swarms are just to tell us how many heresies of the heretics there are that will always be there to keep us from seeing the light of “the Sun of righteousness” when we believe that there are nonessential statutes that proceed out of the mouth of the Lord our God.

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.

Notice the “healing” that is promised both here in Mal 4:2 and in Exo 15:26. Healing comes when we ‘diligently listen to the Lord our God”. It is the Truth of God word which gives us the healing we so need.

Psa 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Fifth Plague

Exo 9:2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,
Exo 9:3 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: t here shall be a very grievous murrain [ H1698, deber pestilence, diseases].
Exo 9:4 And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children’s of Israel.
Exo 9:5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land.
Exo 9:6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.
Exo 9:15 For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence [ H1698 deber – diseases]; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.
Exo 9:16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
Lev 26:25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence [ H1698 deber – diseases] among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
Num 14:11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?
Num 14:12 I will smite them with the pestilence [ H1698 deber – diseases], and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

Livestock in scripture represents our possessions and our wealth, and the wealth of the children of Abraham are riches in gold and silver and cattle which all belong to God and are again the symbols of the wealth we have in Him and His Word.

Gen 13:2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Diseased cattle are just another way of telling us how we have fallen victim to the heresies of heretics and false prophets. Both Lev 26:25 and Num 14:11-12 demonstrate that the diseases of our cattle are our own diseases, and just like the frogs and the flies and the lice, they spiritually devour and destroy us and all we spiritually own, simply because we would rather tolerate the so- called nonessential words that proceed out of the mouth of God, rather than to “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord our God”.

Sixth Plague

Exo 9:8 And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.
Exo 9:9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:10 And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.
Exo 9:11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.

We have seen that Job suffered from boils because of his pride in his own, nonexistent righteousness. But the same pride that restrains our old man from letting loose the throne of God within our hearts, is the same pride that kept Pharaoh from letting Israel leave Egypt, and it was the same pride which kept Job from acknowledging that he was vile of himself and not righteous at all.

Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
Job 33:9 I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.

So once again it was the words of Job’s mouth, the false doctrine of proud self- righteousness, which was used of God for an occasion to bring “these diseases”, the boils and blains upon him, and it is the lies of spiritually proud Egypt which brings “these diseases” and boils “upon man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt” within us.

Seventh Plague

Exo 9:22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Exo 9:25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.

What do you suppose this destruction of Egypt and its wealth by hail signifies in spiritual terms? Could it possibly be false doctrines and failing to “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord our God” rather than to tolerate the so- called nonessential words which come forth from the mouth of God? What do the scriptures reveal to be the spiritual function of hail?

Isa 28:17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Judgment is being laid “to the line and… to the plummet” with the righteousness of the Truth of God’s Word. Jerusalem, God’s own people are no exception to those words proceeding out of the mouth of God. The fact is that God’s own house will be the first to be judged:

2Ki 21:13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.
1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
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 house of Ahab” tolerated the nonessential doctrines of “that woman Jezebel”:

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.

It behooves us all to “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord our God” and to never even consider “tolerating the nonessentials”, as if any of the words which proceed forth out of the mouth of God were “nonessential”. Here is what happens when we allow that woman Jezebel to teach in our midst:

2Ti 2:17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;

A ‘canker’ devours us just as do the locusts of the eighth plague or ‘disease’ upon Egypt.

Eighth Plague

Exo 10:3 And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exo 10:4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
Exo 10:5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
Exo 10:6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.
Exo 10:7 And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?
Exo 10:14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
Exo 10:15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

Again we are made to know that the diseases God brings upon the Egypt within us are heretics with heresies which are worse than any preceding plague of this kind. It is ordained that we buy into especially egregious doctrines like believing there is no law or that Christ died to sin so we can live in it, before we are given to see that our world is being destroyed by our own stubborn desire to destroy the Christ within us. That is exactly what Pharaoh’s determination to keep Israel in slavery represents.

Exo 1:15 And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:
Exo 1:16 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

The very threat of this plague of locusts makes Babylon, which spiritually is Egypt, begin to realize that “Egypt is [ being] destroyed” within us as we contend with, reprove and condemn our own Creator who seems intent on destroying our old man, Egypt within us. We have already seen that it is the lies, falsehoods and heresies we so willingly tolerate, that these locusts symbolize. It is these lies represented by these locusts which block out the light of the Sun of righteousness.

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.

Ninth Plague

Exo 10:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.
Exo 10:22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
Exo 10:23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

It is the lies and heresies that constitute the smoke coming up from the abusos, or “bottomless pit” within us, which blots out the light of the sun and produces the locusts which devour and destroy the old man who is symbolized by Egypt and Egypt’s Pharaoh. Pharaoh is the symbol of that “man of sin, the son of perdition” who is still hanging on to the hope of “withholding” the destruction of our old man and the birth of our new man within.

2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [ withholds] will let [ withhold], until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

The “love of the Truth” is contrasted with failing to “diligently listen to the word of the Lord thy God”. It is the sin in our members that desires to be accepted of this world and fit in with this world. But that ninth plague of darkness brings us to condemn our Creator more than ever before. The darkness of this plague is the same darkness of the fifth of the seven last plagues of Rev 16.

Rev 16:10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

Pharaoh is the type of our proud, rebellious “old… first man Adam”. Pharaoh never repented, and he was destroyed, just like that generation whose carcases fell in the wilderness. Christ made it clear that the birth of our new man comes only through the death and destruction of our old man.

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

And that is exactly what the tenth plague symbolizes within us:

Tenth Plague

Exo 11:4 And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt:
Exo 11:5 And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.
Exo 11:6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.
Exo 11:7 But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians [ our old man] and Israel [ Christ in us].

The coming of this death angel, is the destruction of the man of sin of 2Th 2:8.

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

This death angel is also the “mighty earthquake… such as was not since men were upon the earth”, ushering in the judgment and destruction of the great harlot with all of her pride, her lies, her heretics and heresies within us all.

Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Rev 16:20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Remember, it is the hail that “shall sweep away the refuge of lies” that make up the very foundation of that great city, Babylon.

Isa 28:17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

So Babylon, that great city where our Lord was crucified within us all, which is spiritually called Egypt seeks to destroy the people of God by keeping them in the bondage of darkness, which is given to God’s unsuspecting people by evil angels bringing evil spirits which must be tried and found wanting of the truth which is the Word of God.
Here is how King David sums up the Egypt and Babylon experience within us all:

Psa 78:42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy.
Psa 78:43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
Psa 78:44 And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
Psa 78:45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.
Psa 78:46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.
Psa 78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.
Psa 78:48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
Psa 78:49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
Psa 78:50 He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
Psa 78:51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham:

These words are not addressed to some bad man somewhere else. These words are addressed to you and to me. When we read that “He spared not their soul from death”, we are reading about what God is doing to the old man, the first man Adam within each of us. Christ said so:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat [ our old man within us all] fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Now let’s review what God has promised us if we obey Him:

Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

If we “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord thy God… and keep His statutes, [ God] will put none of these diseases upon [ us]”. Those are the stipulations for staying spiritually healthy. We cannot serve God as we want and expect Him to just go along with our rebellion. Here is what happens when we do that:

Jer 14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence [ H1698 deber – diseases].

Of course, this is the same as saying:
“All things are [ ours]”, and we “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”. What we are told not to do is nothing less than a prophecy of what is in our flesh and what we will do, and what we are told to do is a prophecy of what is not in our flesh and a prophecy of what we will not at first do.
The first commandment mankind was ever given is a perfect example of how “the law of sin in [ our] members” works (Rom 7:21-23).

Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

We all know just how “diligently” our original parents “listened to the voice of the Lord… God”. Contrary to the heretics and heresies of Babylon, God Himself had already placed a “law of sin” within the members of our original parents. It was the operation of this law within their members which assured that they would eat of the tree of which they were told not to eat. That law of sin is to this day sustained in us all, by the “one [ and only] lawgiver”.

Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

So none of us will just naturally “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord thy God and… do that which is right in His sight”. “No not one” will at first, just naturally “give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes”. Consequently all of these diseases will at first come upon us.
Here is one of those afflictions and diseases which in type and shadow come upon us when we refuse to “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord [ our] God:

Jos 7:11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
Jos 7:12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
Jos 7:13 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

That is the cure for the disease of “the law of sin in our members”, or as it is worded here in Joshua, “in the midst of thee”. “Sanctify the people… you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you”. That is what we must do if we are to maintain a healthy spiritual life individually as well as the corporate health of the “body of Christ” and the corporate family of God. How are we sanctified? Do “tolerance of the nonessential” words of God sanctify us? Absolutely not! That is the accused thing itself. Achin thought there were some things that simply were not essential in the words God had spoken to Israel, but this is the only way God’s people can be sanctified:

Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: THY WORD is truth…
Joh 17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

It is “through the foolishness of preaching” that we remind each other that the cure for “all of these diseases… the body of this death”, in which “the law of sin and death” has been granted free reign, is accomplished. It is only by “taking away the accused thing from among [ us]. We ‘destroy the accused thing’ by being “sanctified”, and we are “sanctified through the Truth”, and the Truth is “Thy Word”.
So let’s take the time to “Listen diligently to the voice of the Lord… and do that which is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all of His statutes”. That is the only thing which will sanctify us and “destroy the accursed thing from among [ us so we can] stand before our enemies” and “fight the good fight of faith”.

Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Here now are just a few of the verses of scripture which are the “commandments, and… statutes” which are specifically designed to keep us spiritually healthy both individually and corporately. It is ignoring these verses of scripture which has given us the tens of thousands of harlot daughters of Babylon the great with which the world is plagued to this very day.

Tit 3:10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
Tit 3:11 Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

How can we know who is and who is not “an heretick”? Here is what we must do if we are to stay spiritually healthy. If we fail to do this, we will be “swallowed up by the earth” (Num 16:32-35), and descend into the darkness of spiritual death itself:

1Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

We “believe not every spirit, [ but] trying the spirits… because many false prophets have gone out into the world”, tells us that the false doctrines of these false prophets are the spirits which we are to try. And yet it is those who “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord” and who insist on trying “every spirit” and every doctrine to be certain that they are “abiding… in the doctrine of Christ” who are always condemned and accused of being divisive and of being unloving. But when we see what happened to Christ as to all his apostles who were “forsaken of all men” for simply remaining faithful to the word of God, it is clear that the lesson of the scriptures is that it is better to be divided by the Truth than to be united in a lie and in the false doctrines brought to us by the many false prophets who have gone out into the world to deceive.
But is it possible for us to know what is the spirit of Truth and the spirit of error on every doctrine? What is the answer from the scriptures? For those who who have been granted to be able to “try the spirits to see whether they are of God”, here is the answer to that question.

1Jn 4:4 Ye [ who “try the spirits to see whether they are of God”, vs 1] are of God, little children, and have overcome them [ false prophets who refuse to try the spirits of all the false prophets who have “gone out into the world”, vs 1] : because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
1Jn 4:5 They [ the heretics and false prophets] are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.
We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

There it is. That is how “know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error”. That is the only way we can remain spiritually healthy and have “none of these diseases upon [ us] which [ God]… brought upon the Egyptians”.

Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

If we “diligently listen to the voice of the Lord [ our] God, and… do that which” we have been commanded in all these verses, then we will be “diligent” to “Keep [ this another of]… His statutes”:

2Jn 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that [“diligently listens to the voice of the Lord” and] abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2Jn 1:10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
2Jn 1:11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

If we fail to “try the spirits” and we allow false doctrines coming from our own brothers to come into our fellowship, then we are simply disobeying our Lord’s commandment to “try the spirits whether they are of God”. Here is how Christ Himself tells us we are to handle any and all such trespass against us:

Mat 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault [ including his false doctrine] between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Mat 18:17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

It is in keeping with this commandment from our Lord that the apostle Paul commands us:

Tit 3:10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;

It is so much easier to simply tolerate differences of opinion concerning doctrinal matters. Here is the the verse which would keep us from ever having heresies in our midst if we lived by this verse:

1Co 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

That sounds fairly conclusive. It certainly seems to be saying that in matters which concern every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God we should “all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
But notice now how the adversary has managed to completely neutralize and nullify those life giving healthy and wholesome words of scripture. Here is what the Calvinist rebel Albert Barnes has written in his very popular commentary concerning this incredibly important and powerful verse of scripture:

“That ye all speak the same thing – “That ye hold the same doctrine” – Locke. This exhortation evidently refers to their holding and expressing the same religious sentiments, and is designed to rebuke that kind of contention and strife which is evinced where different opinions are held and expressed. To “speak the same thing” stands opposed to speaking different and conflicting things; or to controversy, and although perfect uniformity of opinion cannot be expected among people on the subject of religion any more than on other subjects, yet on the great and fundamental doctrines of Christianity, Christians may be agreed; on all points in which they differ they may evince a good spirit; and on all subjects they may express their sentiments in the language of the Bible, and thus “speak the same thing.” “

There it is, ” uniformity of opinion cannot be expected among people on the subject of religion any more than on other subjects“.
That is the doctrine which has been accepted by the world and by many who were once a part of our fellowship. That is not exactly “diligently listening to the words of the Lord thy God”. That is much more akin the the accursed thing which will keep us from being able to stand up to the false doctrines of our enemies. That is the reasoning of a carnal mind which wants to serve God in its own way with absolutely no fear of twisting and ignoring a very plain commandment to “all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Mr. Barnes thinks nothing of reading those words and telling us that the holy spirit is simply not incapable of keeping us “all… perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” as concerns “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”.
Here is a verse which comes to mind at this point:

Rom 3:3 For what if some did not believe [ those words of God]? shall their unbelief make the faith [ and word] of God without effect?
Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Mr. Barnes lies when he says “uniformity of opinion cannot be expected among people on the subject of religion any more than on other subjects”. The Truth is that when Christ lives in those people, they will have His mind. If Christ is in any man, Christ has but one mind, and that is the same mind which we too, must have:

1Co 2:14 But the natural man [ Albert Barnes included] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1Co 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
1Co 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Albert Barnes and the entire ecumenical Christian movement will tell you that it is impossible to have the mind of Christ. You choose who the Lord leads you to believe.
We are doing nothing short of being slothful and even disobeying our Lord when we allow unrepentant brothers in our midst, spreading their heresies after having been twice admonished against those heresies which they have brought into our fellowship.

Pro 18:9 He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.

What is the blood of Christ? What does that blood accomplish in our behalf?

1Co 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

All the admonitions we have covered thus far are in the New Testament. If we apply these words “the plague shall not be upon [ us] to destroy [ us]”. If we do not abide by these words, along with Mr. Barnes, we will be destroyed as “the land of Egypt” within us.

Exo 12:13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

The only reason the plague is not upon us to destroy us is that we have already died to this world, and we no longer care what anyone thinks but God himself, and now we can “diligently listen to” this commandment from out Lord:

Rom 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Rom 16:18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Contrary to what you may hear, Mike Vinson makes no unilateral decisions concerning who is and who is not a heretic in our midst. The words of our Lord, Lord willing, always have and always will be “diligently listened to” and will be followed, and it will be in the mouth of two or three witnesses that every word will be established, and such decisions will be made on after “a multitude of counselors have been consulted.
I will close by quoting the words of our beloved brother, Jim Ross in Australia, which he sent me just this past week:

“I try to remind myself that the closer that I get to our Father in heaven and our Lord Jesus Christ puts me on a priority list for Satan to test my faith. He is not as interested in my loved ones as me or you or our family who seek the things that are above and the mind of Christ. I pray the Lord will direct your steps … for the protection of the flock”.

He then quoted this verse:

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

Thank you, Jim, for your sober vigilance, and thank all of you for your sober vigilance in diligently listening to the voice of the Lord our God.

Video Links

Rev 9:3-6 – The Fifth Trump – Part 2

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 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

Introduction

As we “look behind us” to see the process of this “revelation of Jesus Christ”, we see that this revelation begins at the beginning, and therefore it entails the painful sting of our present study which accompanies that part of our walk symbolized by the “power of scorpions of the earth.”

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

These seven trumpets of the seventh seal of this revelation of Jesus Christ are that “great voice, as of a trumpet” of our Lord, who is giving us this revelation of Himself in us. But this mystery of Christ and His kingdom, which is at this time being formed in us, is hidden from the masses of mankind and from the multitudes of orthodox Christianity. He does not give the masses that come to Him the ability to see and hear the mysteries of the kingdom of God, which is within us.

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

That kingdom is within us only if its King is within us.

Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

The means by which God has hidden the mysteries of the kingdom of God within is to keep hidden from us the fact that the kingdoms which comprise Nebuchadnezzar’s great image are also all first within us. It is the kingdom of God, which is within, which destroys all the kingdoms of this world, which are also one and all, within mankind. All that is “in Adam” is also within his seed, just as surely as all that is “in Christ” will be in His seed.

Dan 2:31  Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness [ was] excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. (Are you, at this moment, thinking of Nebuchadnezzar, or are you thinking of Mat 4:4 and Luk 17:20-21?)
Dan 2:32  This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
Dan 2:33  His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Dan 2:34  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Dan 2:35  Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Remember what we learned was “the earth” upon which these locusts are sent forth. If we are the earth, then we are the nations of this earth, and we are those who are hurt by these devouring locusts before we become the green things which are not hurt of these hurtful, scorpion- like locusts.
All of the metals which comprise this great image are also within us, and if we “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God,” then we must understand that all of the beasts of Daniel seven are also first one composite beast within us.

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Dan 7:2  Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
Dan 7:3  And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
Dan 7:4  The first [ was] like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
Dan 7:5  And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and [ it had] three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
Dan 7:6  After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
Dan 7:7  After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

The point is that we are not just the “green things” which are not hurt by the power of these locusts, but we are first those who are hurt by the power of these locusts. We must all first be the first Adam and come to know that life of darkness. Then, and only then, will we be dragged by God to become the green things which are not hurt by the power of the locusts of the earth. This message is throughout the Word of God, and is hidden from us by our inability to see the mysteries of the kingdom of God, which kingdom is within us. We are the grass that is burned up before we become the grass that is not hurt of the locusts.

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

Remembering that this is all being told us so we will know what we are to keep and live by, let us note what are the symbols of these two verses of this fifth trumpet of the revelation of Jesus Christ within us.
1) Our first symbol is smoke. 2) The second is locusts. 3) The third is the earth. 4) The fourth symbol is the power as the scorpions of the earth. 5) the fifth is the grass, any green thing, and trees. 6) the sixth is those men who have not the seal of God. 7)  The seventh symbol is their foreheads. 8) The eighth symbol is “they shall be tormented five months. 9) Our final symbol is “they shall seek death and shall not find it.

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 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only t hose men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

What is smoke?

1) We saw last week that the smoke that darkens the sun and the air is the false doctrines, whether Christian or Pagan, which are used to keep us from either seeing or being the light of the world.

Mat 4:16  The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up
Mat 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. .
Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Joh 1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

It is instructive that an evil eye is not contrasted by a righteous eye, but by a single eye. Until we come to see that God is sovereign we have an evil eye that cannot acknowledge the truth that all evil is created and worked by God.

Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Exo 14:19  And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:
Exo 14:20  And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these so that the one came not near the other all the night.

We all first think that light is darkness and we think that darkness is light, because we all first have “an eye that is evil.” We all “sit in darkness and the shadow of death” until the light comes to us. When the light of God’s Word does come, we eventually acknowledge that our God is the sovereign Creator of both all the good and all of the evil that is in this world.

Psa 139:12  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

Good and evil are both alike to God, not to us.

Isa 5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

God alone can make good come from evil. We cannot do that and must never be guilty of attempting to justify evil, even as we acknowledge that God is the Creator of both.

What are locusts?

2) Locusts are not themselves darkness any more than the fruit of a tree is the tree. Locusts are the product of the darkness just as fruit is the product of the tree. So what is it that darkness produces? Here are just a few of the fruits of darkness which are symbolized by these “locusts.”

Pro 4:19  The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

Darkness causes us to stumble, and when we stumble, we do not prevail or overcome. Like the apostle Paul, we are all first Saul of Tarsus, persecutors of the way of Truth, before “the Lord is with us.”

Jer 20:11  But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.

Here is what happened to us all when we are persecutors of our Lord and of those who brought us His Truth.

Exo 10:4  Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast:
Exo 10:5  And t hey shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field:
Exo 10:6  And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.  

When our house is full of that which darkens the sun and the air and devours everything that is attempting to grow, we are quickly being destroyed. But we are as Pharaoh, and we are given a hardened heart before we are delivered out of that darkened and devastated condition. And out substance is devoured as if by locusts.

Exo 10:12  And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, [ even] all that the hail hath left.
Exo 10:13  And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
Exo 10:14  And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.

What is the affect of these locusts upon Egypt within us?

Exo 10:15  For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt. 

The locusts are thorough in devouring “any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the fields” of Egypt within us. The locusts devour anything that is left after the destruction of the hail upon the things of Egypt that are within us.

What is the earth?

3) The third symbol is the earth. We have seen in great detail that “the earth” within is the Biblical symbol of who we are when we have rejected the truths of God’s Word.

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

We received that word with joy, but when persecutions and tribulations arise because of the word, we are quickly offended and fall away into the lies of Egypt that are far more appealing to our flesh. The earth, the land, the world and the field, all have very much in common, according to our Lord.

Mat 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
Mat 13:38  The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

“The field is the world. That is why we read this of Esau, the symbol of God’s rejected twin, born of the same free woman.

Gen 25:27  And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.

This verse contrasts the true man of God with the rejected, man of God. “A cunning hunter, a man of the field” is contrasted with “a plain man, dwelling in [ temporary] tents,” which is the essence of Christ and those in whom He dwells.

Isa 53:2  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

“The earth” within us, the “man of the field”, sees no beauty at all in the things of the man of the spirit.

What is the power of the scorpions of the earth?

4) The fourth symbol is the power given these locusts, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

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 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only t hose men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

What power do the scorpions of the earth possess? Here is the power scorpions have been given.

Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be t ormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
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.

The pain of the sting of a scorpion is a severe and sharp pain. If it persists, it truly does cause us to want to die. But this is that part of our walk that ‘brings us to our wits’ end.’

Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.

What is the grass, any green thing and trees?

5) The fifth symbol is the grass, any green thing and the trees.

Rev 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

That God intends for this revelation to be hidden from the multitudes of Christianity is demonstrated by the symbols of this fifth trumpet and by this symbol in particular. For many years I personally could not understand this symbol simply because it seems, to the natural man, to contradict the obvious meaning of this very same symbol, which is referenced to in the previous chapter in the description of the first trumpet:

Rev 8:7  The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

There it is, the “trees… and all the green grass are burned up” by the “hail and fire mingled with blood.”  As we saw when we covered that verse, “the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies.”

Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

So if the grass and the trees and green things symbolize the lies of Babylon in chapter eight, how can it possibly symbolize “those men which have the seal of God in their foreheads” in chapter nine? How is that possible? It is possible in the same way that so many Biblical symbols are given both a positive connotation in one context and a negative connotation in another context. For example, Adam is both positive and negative throughout scripture as both the old man and the new man.

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [ was made] a quickening spirit.

The symbol of the lion is used as both a symbol of the Devil and a symbol of Christ:

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Psa 17:12  Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

So too, is the symbol of the sword. It is both “the wicked, which is your sword,” and it is “the Word of God.”

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

So why cannot “the grass, the trees and every green thing” also have the negative meaning of the things of the flesh in Rev 8:7 and the positive meaning of those in whom is the Word of God, and who have the seal of God in their foreheads in Rev 9:4?

Rev 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

But this characteristic of God’s Word, being both positive and negative, is deeply hidden from the natural man, and He is thereby rendered completely incapable of either “rightly dividing the Word of Truth,” or “trying the spirits to see whether they are of God.” The natural man certainly does not recognize that if we do “rightly divide the word of truth” then we will recognize and acknowledge that we must all be “the first man Adam… which has not the mark of God,” before we can become “the last Adam… with the mark of God in our foreheads.”

2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Who are “those men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads?

6) The sixth symbol is “those men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” Who these men are is revealed to us in the ninth chapter of Ezekiel. As is always the case, our challenge is to constantly remember that these men are within us, and we are each and every one required to “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, and keep the things written therein.”

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

What that means is that an integral part of this revelation of Jesus Christ, requires that we are all King Saul who persecutes David, before we can become King David, and we are all Saul of Tarsus who persecutes God’s church, before we can become the apostle Paul who fills up in his body what is behind of the afflictions of the Christ.

Col 1:24 Now, am I rejoicing in the sufferings on your behalf, and am filling up the things that lack of the tribulations of the Christ, in my flesh, in behalf of his body, which is the assembly,

Our understanding of this prophecy of Rev 9 is greatly enhanced by reading the prophecy of Ezekiel 9. This is what is taking place within those who have the mark of God upon their foreheads. This is what happens to those ‘men’ within us who are not yet “sighing and crying for all the abominations that be done in the midst of Jerusalem” which is above, and is also within us.

Eze 9:1  He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.
Eze 9:2  And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar.
Eze 9:3  And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side;
Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
Eze 9:5  And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
Eze 9:6  Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.
Eze 9:7  And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.
Eze 9:8  And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
Eze 9:9  Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah [ is] exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
Eze 9:10  And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, [ but] I will recompense their way upon their head.
Eze 9:11  And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which [ had] the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.

Those who are destroyed by the destroying weapon are each and every one of us who have at our own appointed time accepted all the doctrines of all the men who have twisted and distorted the word of God down throughout the years of our time spent in all of those Babylonian doctrines.

What is meant by “their foreheads.”

7) The seventh symbol is “their foreheads.” That “destroying weapon” of Ezekiel 9 is both “the fire” of “the sword of the spirit” which will “try every man’s works of what sort they are” and as “a flaming sword” it will burn up all that will burn, and it will purify all that is in need of being purified.

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
Jer 23:29  Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

This mark in the forehead is that same Word of God in the hearts and minds of those who at one time did not have that mark.. At that time it is burning us up, with all the false men and kingdoms and principalities that are within us. That word is Christ, and Christ is in our forehead because that is the symbol of the heavens of our hearts and minds.

Eph 6:12 Because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but, against the principalities, against the authorities, against the world- holders, of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. (REV)

That is the mark of the beast under which we all labor before we receive the mark of God in our foreheads. We have covered the symbol of the forehead in Rev 7:3 where the 144,000 are said to be “sealed in their foreheads.”

Rev 7:3  Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

What is the significance of five months of torment?

8) The eighth symbol is “they shall be tormented five months… as the torment of a scorpion when he strikes a man.”

Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

These are words which we are to read, hear and keep. It is each of us who are “tormented five months… as the torment of a scorpion when he strikes a man.”  Why are we said to be “tormented five months.” Why are we not tormented four months? Or why are we not tormented six months? Why are we told that we are tormented five months? As is usually the case, the number itself is never the point, just as the words themselves are never the point. The point of being tormented five months is that we are brought to our wits’ end in faith and in faith through God’s chastening grace. “Grace through faith” is the significance of the number five.
We have a series on the web site about The Spiritual Significance of Numbers in Scripture which deals, in depth, with the spiritual significance of most of the major numbers mentioned in scripture. Read that series of studies for an in depth study of this number 5, as well as all the other numbers mentioned in scripture.
For the sake of this study, and to understand why we are tormented for five months instead of 6 months or 4 months or any other number, let’s take note of these verses which give us an idea of the spiritual significance of this number five.

Notice how Joseph, an Old Testament type of Christ, favored and showed great grace to his full brother, Benjamin.

Gen 43:34 And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin’s mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.

Benjamin is not guilty of selling his brother into slavery, and while we are all Joseph’s ten brothers before we become Benjamin, nevertheless Benjamin here is a type of God’s elect.

Gen 45:22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.

“Raiment” in scripture is who and what we are. Raiment is our spiritual clothing. Raiment covers our sins. Raiment is a type of Christ. What clothes you? White linen robes are said to be the righteousness of the saints.

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.
Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Benjamin was given five changes of raiment. In type, Benjamin was given five times as much of Christ as any of his brothers. Both the food and the raiment are types of Christ and His Word. Benjamin was given five times more food than his brothers were given even though they were also Abraham’s seed. Joseph had not been stingy toward his ten brothers who had sold him into Egyptian slavery, but Benjamin was singled out for special attention. The number five has something to do with God’s people. There were five wise and five foolish virgins, and they are all God’s people. But like Benjamin, the five wise virgins typify those who are given grace through faith first and most.
In Mat 25 we are given the parable of the talents. The most favored servant was given “five talents.”

Mat 25:15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

It is in God’s great grace and through Christ’s own faith that we are all brought through the fiery scorpions to Christ. Five months has nothing at all to do with five months any more than five messes had anything to do with Benjamin’s appetite, or five changes of raiment had to do with Benjamin’s need for clothing. Five months represents the fact that God is bringing His elect to their wits’ end through the symbolic torment of the symbolic sting of a scorpion.

Why cannot those who are tormented die as they wish?

9) Our final symbol is “they shall seek death and shall not find it.” What does that mean? Once again we can turn to Joseph’s brothers to show us the meaning of wanting to die but not being granted that wish. It is not until after we want to die that we are granted the privilege of dying daily with Christ and being crucified with Him and being buried with Him in baptism.
Only after we are tormented and “brought to our wits’ end,” through “the stinging of scorpions” are we found worthy to die with Christ and live in newness of a resurrected life.

Psa 107:24  These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

We all must live these words at some point. Each storm we endure prepares us for the next trial as we “endure to the end… are crucified with Christ… and die daily.”

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

The stings of these scorpions are what bring us to despair of life and desire to die. It is in God’s mercy that we are granted that ability in spirit and we are able finally, only after five months of torment, to be baptized into Christ’s death and be raised with Him from among the spiritually dead, to walk in newness of life. A dead man is not tormented by scorpions, and those who “are [ being] crucified with Christ, are dying daily” with Him on His cross. But it is a peaceful dying in which we rejoice in our trials, and rejoice that we have been counted worthy to suffer with Him because we know that we will also reign with Him.

Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint- heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

The desire of death begins to subside after the symbolic five months when we are being crucified with Christ, and can now begin to fill up what is behind of His afflictions in our own flesh for the sake of the church, which has rejected this straight and narrow way for the ‘smooth things’ like a rapture and never knowing God’s wrath upon our own sins and blasphemies.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
Col 1:25  Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what [ is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Summary

1) Our first symbol was smoke, and we were reminded that smoke symbolizes that which darkens our sun and air, as do the desires of our flesh, and all the false doctrines which are so appealing to our flesh.
2) The second symbol was locusts, which come out of the smoke, and we saw that these locusts were used to destroy all that Egypt has produced within us. We saw that these locusts devour our substance and bring us into spiritual poverty and despair.
3) The third symbol is the earth. As we have seen so many times before, the ‘earth’ is God’s people who are living in rebellion against the ever present truths of God’s Word.
4) The fourth symbol is the power of these locusts to hurt those who dwell on the earth, with power as the scorpions of the earth have power. It is our own rebellious ways which chasten us, and it is our own sins and false doctrines which bring spiritual torments and spiritual bitterness and despair upon us.

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that [ it is] an evil [ thing] and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

5) The fifth symbol of this fifth trumpet is the grass, any green thing and trees which these locusts with the power of scorpions cannot hurt.  What we saw was that obedience to God’s doctrines and to His words removes the wrath of God upon us. The overcomers are this “grass, trees and any green thing” which cannot be hurt by these scorpion- like locusts which darken our sun and air and torment us as scorpions of the earth have power to “sting and torment”.

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

6) The sixth symbol is those men who do not have the seal of God in their foreheads. As unpopular as it is to have to say, we are all “the children of wrath” before we become “believers on the Son.” So we are all hurt of these stinging locusts before we are giving immunity from their power to sting us.

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.
Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6  For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

7)  The seventh symbol is their foreheads. We saw that both the mark of God, in the foreheads of those that sigh and cry for the abominations in Jerusalem of Ezekiel 9 and in the foreheads of the 144.00 of Rev 7, is the same mark. We also saw that the mark of the beast is also in the forehead, and that we all have the mark of the beast in our hearts and minds before we are given the thoughts and mind of  God “in our foreheads.”

Deu 6:6  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
Deu 6:7  And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Deu 6:8  And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
Deu 11:16  Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
Deu 11:17  And then the LORD’S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.
Deu 11:18  Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

It is the words and thoughts of our Lord which are His mark “as frontlets between our eyes” and as a “mark in our foreheads.”
8) The eighth symbol is “they shall be tormented five months.” We saw in this symbol that this torment lasts five months simply because it is connected with God’s chastening and scourging grace that is the stings of these locusts which drive us to our wits’ end and make us want to die to the things of this world.

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?

9) Our final symbol is “they shall seek death and shall not find it.” We saw that this really is the revelation of Jesus Christ, and that Christ Himself was “weary even unto death,” and that according to Psa 107, we too, will be made “weary unto death.” But we will have to wait a symbolic five months before we are brought to the point that we are granted to be crucified with Him, and we can be relieved of that five months of torment. We saw that once we relinquish this life and all of its false values, our own crucifixion with Christ can actually come to be one of rejoicing in the certainty of our glorification with Him.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Next week, Lord willing, we will learn more about the identity, the power, and the king of these locusts which come out of the bottomless pit and darken the sun and 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.
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.

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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.
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 9:12  One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

Introduction

We have established that these locusts are the fruit of the smoke of the bottomless pit, because we are told that they come out of the smoke. This smoke and the locusts it produces are what is “by nature” within us.

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.
Mar 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
Mar 7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
Mar 7:23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
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.

One of the “locusts,” that is one of the lies which come out of this smoke of the bottomless pit which we saw in our study of Rev 9:1-2 is within us, is the doctrine that denies what Christ had to say about what is “by nature… within… the heart of men.” This doctrine teaches that God created man in communion with Him, and concludes that communion equals perfection. That is the false doctrine of a totally unbiblical “fall of man.” That is a phrase which neither Christ nor any of His apostles nor any New Testament writer ever uses. “Falling from grace”, which is a Biblical phrase, has nothing at all to do with the false doctrine of “the fall of man.”
God created man of dust and not of spirit; nothing else is truth.

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.

He created mankind ignorant of his own shameful nakedness. He created mankind unclothed and without the righteousness of the saints.

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.
Gen 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

That is just another way of saying that they were completely unaware that they were created “marred in the hand of the Potter.”

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

This particular ‘locust” uses the name of Christ and quotes many scriptures about Christ being within. But this locust does not mention that Christ has to remove what is naturally within us before He will take up His abode within this earthen vessel.
We have seen that this smoke out of the darkness that is within us darkens our heavens and our air. In other words, this smoke that produces these locusts and darkens our heavens and our air is ignorance of the Truth of God’s Word of which ignorance is the source of the many false doctrines we have entertained so long, which have blotted out the light of the Truth and has defiled God’s dwelling place, keeping our hand out of God’s hand for many years via the “darkened air”, the blinded spirit of darkness and deception which has taken up residence in God’s own home, which we are destined to become. This is how that is done.

Mat 12:22  Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.
Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

The spiritually blind always think they see, and the spiritually dumb bring many false doctrines and are totally incapable of speaking one word of Truth.

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

If we accept and acknowledge our own blindness and we acknowledge that it is only Christ’s Words which “are spirit and Truth”, then, and only then, will we be given eyes to see that it is only in those words of Christ that we can hope to learn what is the meaning of the symbols of these verses which describe these locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit, which is within each of us.

The description of these lying locusts

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.
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 symbols which describe these locusts are very revealing for those who know what the scriptures reveal concerning the meaning of these symbols. There are six symbols which the holy spirit has used to describe these locusts which come out of the smoke that ascends up out of the bottomless pit.
1) They are shaped like horses prepared to battle.
2) They appear to have crown of gold on their heads.
3) Their faces are “as the faces of men”.
4) They had hair as the hair of women.
5) They had breastplates, as breastplates of iron.
6) The sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. The last symbol of this fifth trumpet is:
7) the king that is over these locusts. His name is Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek.
We covered the symbols of verse 10 when we were on verses 3-5, so we need not repeat that study here. Here are those verses, side by side.

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 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment [ was] as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

These three verses concern the power that God himself uses to break us to pieces, and bring us to our wits end, and to humble us and bring us to repentance, and to Himself. These three verses are summarized by verse ten.

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.

Then in verse 11, we have our final 7th symbol in these verses. It is the symbol of the king of these locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit. His name is given in both the Hebrew and in the Greek, and he is called “the angel of the bottomless pit.”
So let’s look at how the scriptures interpret these symbols which describe the locusts which come out of the smoke which proceeds from the bottomless pit within us. The first symbol is…

1) They are shaped like horses prepared to battle.

Those who are not given to discern the things of the spirit will, once again attempt to discredit scripture and say ‘You cannot look like both a grasshopper and a horse.’ But God’s Word is not limited by our lack of understanding. As we have already pointed out, this is a book of symbols which were never intended to be understood by what they say, but they are to be understood by what the scriptures reveal they mean. So each word symbolizes a point that is being made. The locusts symbolize the complete and systematic destruction of Egypt and all that Egypt has produced within us. So we do not care that a grasshopper does not look like a horse. All we want to know now is what do horses symbolize in scripture? Here are some verses which answer that question:

Job 39:19  Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?
Job 39:20  Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.
Job 39:21  He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.
Job 39:22  He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.
Job 39:23  The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.
Job 39:24  He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.
Job 39:25  He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

The horse is the symbol of fierceness and strength, and does not fear or even hear the sound of the trumpet as he goes to do battle with armed men. Christ comes on the strength of a white horse, but these are not said to be white horses. We are told that they come out of the smoke that darkens our sun and our air. These horses are doing battle against anything that would allow the light of the gospel to come to us. Here is what God thinks of these “horses.”

Psa 33:17  An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
Psa 147:10  He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
Psa 147:11  The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

Do not ever underestimate the strength of the flesh or of the Adversary. He has been granted “great strength” so that no man “can make war with 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?
Rev 13:7  And it was given unto him t o make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

But as King David tells us in Psalms, if Christ is living in us, “a horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by his great strength”, and the Truth of this matter is:

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

So Christ’s strength is much greater than the strength of these horse like locusts, or the strength of the beast or the strength of the Adversary.

2) They appear to have crowns of gold on their heads.

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.

And this is where these locusts as horses get these crowns like gold.

Eze 16:12  And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
Eze 16:13  Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
Eze 16:14  And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 16:15  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

Babylon is full of “gold, silver and precious stones”, and only those who know how to try the spirits can tell the gold of Babylon from the gold that is upon the breasts of God’s elect. It is God’s own gold with which these horse like locusts are crowned. But they are crowns of pride that will be stripped in due time.

Isa 28:1  Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

The lies of these lying locusts as horses are one and all perversions of God’s Truths which have been perverted into the “images” or doctrines “of men”, and you and I have worshiped those “idols of our hearts.”

Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

3) Their faces are “as the faces of men,”

What do the scriptures mean by the word “men”? These verses should tell us why these destructive, strong locusts, wearing golden crowns of God’s own gold covering the idols of our hearts, are said to have “faces of men.”

Mat 10:17  But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;

These are “men” who are in councils or the Sanhedrin and who are in synagogues. These are religious “men” of whom we must “beware”.

1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas [ there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
Tit 1:14  Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
1Pe 2:4  To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

These are “carnal… men who will “scourge you in their synagogues.” That is the significance of  “their faces [ were] as the faces of men.”

Rev 16:21  And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
1Th 2:13  For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, y e received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

It is “the word of men” that we need not have “any man to teach us.” It certainly is not the word of God which “God has set… teachers… in the church,” for that very purpose of teaching His body of His Words.

Act 8:29  Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.
Act 8:30  And Philip ran thither to [ him], and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?
Act 8:31  And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. .
1Jn 2:27  But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
1Co 12:28  And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

4) They had hair as the hair of women,

What is the spiritual significance of “the hair of women”? What is the Biblical difference between the hair of women and the hair of men? Is it color? Is it texture? No, there is no Biblical comment which distinguishes the color of a man’s hair or the texture of a man’s hair from “the hair of women”. The only Biblical difference between the hair of men and the hair of women is given to us in 1Co 11.

1Co 11:13  Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
1Co 11:14  Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
1Co 11:15  But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

It is not the purpose of this study to cover the subject of the spiritual significance of the length of a woman’s hair, but these verses should establish the fact that these horses like locusts had long hair that is like “the hair of women.” What we are concerned with is why the holy spirit wants us to connect these locusts with women. What do women portray in scripture? Here is the answer to that question. It is right here is this same 11th chapter of 1Co.

1Co 11:3  But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Paul informs us that our wives typify our own relationship to Christ. “The head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man.” He comes right out and tells us this is so in Eph 5.

Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

The Greek for ‘women’ and ‘wife’ or ‘wives’ is the same one word. It is gune. Here is how Strong’s defines this word.

G1135
γυνη
gune
goo- nay’
Probably from the base of G1096; a woman; specifically a wife: – wife, woman.

The relationship between a man and woman, according to Eph 5, is a type of the relationship between Christ and His church, and the reason these locusts have “the hair of women” is to tell us that these locusts appear as a wife that is subject to her husband, Christ, and to his word, while in reality they are the words and doctrines of  a harlot who is not subject to her husband’s words, even though they have “the hair of women.”

Eze 16:15  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
Eze 16:16  And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so
Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

5) They had breastplates, as breastplates of iron

We know what iron signifies in scripture:

Dan 2:40  And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

Iron is harder and stronger than any other Biblical metal. “Iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things.” So why do these locusts have “breastplates of iron”? The answer is that a breastplate covers the heart, and there is no way to get to the heart of these locusts because of the deep darkness and the pride and deception that is in our hearts at this stage of our walk.

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

Daniel’s image, which typifies our experience, begins with a head of gold, followed by arms of silver, followed by a belly and thigh of brass, followed by legs of iron, and finally it is standing on feet which are made of part iron and part clay. It is concerning the legs of iron that we read in Dan 2:40, that “iron breaks and subdues all things”. The reason these breastplates are of iron is to let us know that it will take the supernatural intervention of God and His Son coming into our lives to destroy these breastplates of iron and to destroy our hardened and darkened hearts, which are protected by these “breastplates of iron.

6) the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

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.

Our final symbol that describes these horse- like locusts as “the sound of their wings was a the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.” All locusts have wings, and the wings of these locusts sound like chariots of many horses going to battle.”
What we need to learn in this symbol is just a little more about the sovereignty of God over both the good and the evil. In scripture evil men are called the Lord’s sword.

Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, [ which is] thy sword:

We need to acknowledge that the words ‘which is’ are not in the Hebrew and could just as easily have read ‘with’ instead of ‘which is.’ Nevertheless we are still told this in Pro 16.

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

So the Lord is definitely the Lord of both the good and the evil that is within us, and it is He who creates us as wicked first, for our day of evil, within. He also who sends the angel that opens the bottomless pit and darkens our Sun and air by these locusts which hurt us for five months and crush us and bring us to want to die with Him on His cross. Here is Rev 9 in Joe 1. It is the same event, and this is the “day of the Lord” which Peter said he had experienced just before the day of Pentecost.

Joe 1:1  The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Joe 1:2  Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
Joe 1:3  Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
Joe 1:4  That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.
Joe 1:5  Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
Joe 1:6  For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth [ are] the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
Joe 1:7  He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast [ it] away; the branches thereof are made white.
Joe 1:8  Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.
Joe 1:9  The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD’S ministers, mourn.
Joe 1:10  The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
Joe 1:11  Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
Joe 1:12  The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
Joe 1:13  Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.
Joe 1:14  Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders [ and] all the inhabitants of the land [ into] the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
Joe 1:15  Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD [ is] at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Joe 1:16  Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, [ yea], joy and gladness from the house of our God?
Joe 1:17  The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
Joe 1:18  How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
Joe 1:19  O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
Joe 1:20  The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Is this not what the seven seals, seven trumpets and seven plagues are when we “keep the things written therein?” (Rev 1:3) Is this not the very same “Lord’s day” which includes the events of the revelation of Jesus Christ? Is this not all the destruction of our old life, which we must all experience to bring us our new life? Speaking of this very battle, Joel continues:

Joe 2:11  And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
Joe 2:30  And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
Joe 2:31  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Christ mentions this very same battle in which these locusts as horses are involved:

Mat 24:29  Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Mat 24:30  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Rev 6:12  And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
Rev 6:13  And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
Rev 6:14  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Rev 6:15  And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16  And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

None are able to stand against his wrath in this battle. The lies of all these locusts, their strength as horses, and their iron breastplates will all fall victim to Christ, and the armies that are with him. He has created this army of locusts for our destruction. When they have accomplished their evil deeds and have destroyed within us all that the lies of Egypt and Babylon have produced within us, then He will destroy the destroyer.

Rev 17:14  These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

Our last symbol is:

9) The angel of the bottomless pit

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 ‘ababbon,’ becomes the name of the angel of the bottomless pit. This word appears 5 times in the Old Testament.

Job 26:6  Hell is naked before him, and destruction [ abaddon] hath no covering.
Job 28:20  Whence then cometh wisdom? and where [ is] the place of understanding?
Job 28:21  Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
Job 28:22  Destruction [ abaddon] and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
Job 31:12  For it [ is] a fire [ that] consumeth to destruction [ abaddon], and would root out all mine increase.
Psa 88:11  Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? [ or] thy faithfulness in destruction [ abaddon]?
Pro 15:11  Hell and destruction [ abaddon] are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?

Will God’s loving kindness be declared in the grave? The answer is, yes, it will. Will His faithfulness be declared in destruction? Again the answer is, yes, it will.

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose [ Greek, apollumi] it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

It is only through the destruction of our old man that our new man can be born.

Mat 10:28  And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy [ Greek, apollumi] both soul and body in hell.
Mat 12:14  Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy [ Greek, apollumi] him.

It is a grave mistake to think that the king of the bottomless pit is Adam himself. If that were so, then where is ‘Adam’ in these verses?

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15  And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.
Mat 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Joh 13:27  And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. 
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.

There is no one here who is denying that “that old serpent the devil and Satan” dwells within us, just as Christ dwells within us. What we are denying is that Eve was speaking to Adam when she was seduced by the serpent. Adam was already in King Saul before “the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.” Christ was not being tempted of Adam when He was in the wilderness 40 days. Adam did not enter into Judas “after the sop.” Adam was there all along. And finally, Adam will be on earth being ruled with a rod of iron all through the millennium, while Satan is bound in the bottomless pit within us all.
So Abaddon, also known as Apollyon, is the king of the lies which are symbolized by the locusts which come out of the smoke of the bottomless pit, simply because God created him to be his lying Adversary, “from the beginning.”

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.

Summary

We have covered seven symbols in this study. There are six symbols which the holy spirit has used to describe these locusts which come out of the smoke that ascends up out of the bottomless pit.
1) They are shaped like horses prepared to battle, tells us that we are fighting an enemy with great strength.
2) They appear to have crown of gold on their heads, tells us that they will at first be mistaken for overcomers, and those who are the servants of, and the angels of God.
3) Their faces are “as the faces of men,” tells us that these lies are nothing more or less than idols of our own hearts, which we have carved out of the truths that are the Word of God.
4) They had hair as the hair of women, tells us that these doctrines are one and all the doctrines of that great harlot woman, and they certainly do darken our sun and air.
5) They had breastplates, as breastplates of iron, tells us that it is impossible for any man to reach our hearts and destroy these lies and deceits, and that it will take Christ, Himself to do so.
6) “The sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle,” tells us that these deceits are many and strong and they are ready and willing to do battle with our Lord and His Word.
The last symbol of this fifth trumpet is:
7) The king that is over these locusts is named Abaddon, in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek. This tells us that this is a life and death battle in all seven of these seven trumpets, and God had created the waster to destroy, and he is good at what he was created to do. That is to destroy all that we think we are, so that we can be “made again as seems good to the Potter to make us.” (Jer 18:4)
Next week, Lord willing, we will begin our study of the sixth trumpet, which is also called “the second woe.”

Rev 9:13  And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
Rev 9:14  Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
Rev 9:15  And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.