And the locusts were like horses prepared for war in appearance, and on their heads was something like golden crowns, and their faces were like the faces of men.  Their hair was like the hair of women, and their teeth were like lions' teeth.  And their breastplates were like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of horse-drawn chariots rushing into battle.  Rev. 9:7-9.
 
    Careful study has unearthed no clear goal or theological purpose in this passage.  It is as if John has piled one image onto another for the simple purpose of heightening the terror of the overall picture.  So what, then, is the point?  What spiritual lesson can we learn from horrific images such as the above?  And what role can disasters possible play in our daily walk with Him?
 
    If nothing else, disasters turn our minds back to God and His Word.  The Creator has designed us as human beings.  The Bible, therefore, is like a software manual.  It tells us where we came from, how we were made, and how we function the best.  The best software manual, of course, comes from the mind of the one who designed the software.  That's why the Bible is so important for us.  The One who created us knows what we are like and how we should live.
 
    Sin is like a "glitch" in the software of our minds and bodies.  When your computer's operating system develops a glitch, you call Microsoft and say, "Look, I'm having trouble with Windows."  Wouldn't it be comforting to hear the following: "I'm sorry to hear that.  This is Bill Gates.  How may I help you?"  As the chair of Microsoft and one of the inventors of computer operating systems, he would be in a good position to make sure your problem gets solved!
 
    Now, that is very unlikely to happen.  Mr. Gates is far too busy to answer computer help lines.  But the analogy I have offered may enable us understand the value of Scripture.  As with software, many hands participated in creating the Bible, but God was personally involved in every part.  When we study the Bible and pray, we put ourselves in direct touch with the Designer.
 
    The divine judgments, in a most down-to-earth way, act as attention-getters.  They are not vindictive, but rather wake-up calls to realign our software to the way God originally intended.  The decision of how we relate to Jesus and His Software Manual is the most important decision we will ever face.  Designed by God, we function best in relationship to Him.  The worst possible disaster, therefore, would be to turn our face away from God and try to do things our own way.  The trumpets are about the lesser disasters that turn our hearts away from the worst disaster.
 
Lord, I thank You for Your presence as we study the challenging images of the seven trumpets.  I pray that I might clearly understand the consequences of falling away from Your purpose for my life.  And I choose to give renewed attention to the divine Software Manual.

  And it was given to them [the locust/scorpions] that they should not kill them [the unsealed], but rather that they should be tormented for five months.  And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, when it stings a man.  And in those days men will seek death, but they will not find it.  They will long to die, yet death will flee away from them.  Rev. 9:5, 6.
 
    Recently my wife and I were in Australia.  She wanted some video footage of a new "down under" hairdo she had just received, and we decided it would be fun to put her behind a jungle bush and in front of a tree in which a kookaburra (the famous Australian "mocking" bird) was calmly sitting.
    
    My wife posed like a model, the kookaburra visible just above her head.  Suddenly she disappeared from view.  I made some wisecrack or other into the camera and continued taping.  Suddenly Pamella started shrieking.
 
    "Ants, ants--they're biting me.  Help!  Get them off of me!"
 
    Knowing my wife's tendency to joke for  the camera, I sauntered unhurriedly in her direction.  As I came around the jungle bush I suddenly noticed that the ground seemed to be moving.  Ants swarmed between the bush and the kookaburra's tree.  My wife raised one leg of her slacks and was swatting wildly at her shoe and the skin of her leg.
 
    "Help!  Do something!"
 
    At last I went into action.  "Get away from here!  Quick!  Get out of this spot!"
 
     She started running with me half dragging her to the laundry room about 20 yards away.  There we slammed the door for privacy and pulled the pants off.  As I snapped the pants like a whip, ants scattered onto the floor, where we went after them with a vengeance.  After we had finished off all the ants that appeared on the floor, we tended to six of seven large welts on my wife's right leg.  Bull ants, whose bite burns like a flame, had attacked her.  Only after the intensive application of anesthetic did the fire in her legs die out.  For a few moments, at least, she experienced as severe a torment as she had ever known.  Had the "fire" lasted for hours or days, she would probably have felt just like the tormented ones of Revelation 9.
 
    The basic message of the text is that those under Satan's control may think that they have real freedom, but in reality they have submitted to a tyrant that makes Hitler or Idi Amin appear benign.  The torment of stinging insects illustrates how enslavement to Satan sucks the joy out of life and eventually makes even death seem attractive.
 
Lord, help me to just say no to the attractions of sin.  May I clearly see its potential enslavement and torment whenever temptation comes.

 And it was told to them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree, only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.  Rev. 9:4.
 
    The year was 1944.  Continental Europe struggled under the dominion of the Axis powers, who controlled everything from the shores of France to the plains of western Russia.  The allies, mainly the United States and Great Britain, built up an enormous invasion force, filling up the southern part of England with men and equipment.  Thousands of ships and landing craft assembled as an even larger number of aircraft moved into action.
 
    On the shores of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, German forces braced for the inevitable assault, not certain where the blow would strike.  Weeks and months of bombing all along the coast preceded the invasion.  Then on the sixth of June, forever to be known as D-day, the push got under way.
 
    One of the key French cities in the path of Allied forces was Caen.  The city's war museum graphically tells the story of the invasion and its impact.  The British and American bombers dropped thousands of tons of bombs in and around the city.  When the Allies finally marched into Caen, the bombardment had destroyed almost every building.
 
    There were, however, a few notable exceptions.  The churches of Caen, built during the Middle Ages, survived.  Wartime photos attest to the fact that ancient spires still stood amongst the rubble.  Apparently the careful construction of these ancient churches was so solid that the populace of Caen would use them as air-raid shelters during the terrible nights of bombing.
 
    What is remarkable about Revelation 9:4 is that the locust/scorpions seem able to discern between the genuine followers of Jesus and those who only profess allegiance.  The seal represents the living presence of God in His people (Eph. 4:30; 2 Tim. 2:19).
 
    Satan's attacks will become more and more pronounced in the period before Jesus comes.  The good news is that those who have their character solidly built on the foundation of Jesus Christ will not be harmed.  In our own human strength we would have no chance against Satan, but those in living relationship with Jesus are shielded from the worst of the devil's devices.
 
    We construct spiritual foundations through time spent each day with the Lord, in the study of His Word, and in prayer and in ministry to others.  There is no more significant way to use our time as we approach the last days of earth's history.
 
You are the Master Builder, Lord.  Strengthen my spiritual foundations today for the challenges yet to come.

And locusts came out of the smoke onto the earth.  And they were given authority like the scorpions of the earth have authority.  Rev. 9:3.
 
    I have seen only one scorpion in the wild.  I was staying in a kibbutz at the edge of Jerusalem when one of them wandered through the wide-open outside door of the ballroom and headed across the floor.  The fearsome stinger remained in full view the whole time, arched over the scorpion's back.  A crowd gathered at a safe distance to watch its progress, wondering fearfully what to do.  After a couple minutes a skittish but determined colleague of mine found a widemouthed glass, turned it upside down, and covered the scorpion on the floor with the glass.  He then slipped a piece of paper between it and the floor.  This way he could carefully return the creature back outside.
 
    A story tells of a frog and a scorpion contemplating a swift river that they both needed to cross.  The barrier was more of a problem to the scorpion than it was to the frog.  So the scorpion asked the frog to permit it to ride on its back across the river.
 
    "Why would I allow you to do that?" the frog demanded.  "When we get halfway across the river you will sting me, and I will drown."
 
    "Why would I do that?" the scorpion countered.  "If you drown, so will I.  It would be stupid for me to sting you."
 
    Convinced by the scorpion's argument, the frog agreed to ferry the scorpion across the river.  Halfway across the river the scorpion stung the frog.  As both drifted down to their deaths, the frog protested, "Why did you do that?  You promised!"
 
    "I couldn't help it," the scorpion responded.  "It's my nature to sting!"
 
    While I was able to avoid it that day, I understand that the scorpion's sting is one of the most painful things a human being can endure.  The excruciating pain captures one's full attention for some time.  In this passage the scorpion represents the power of darkness and evil.  Satan offers people enticing opportunities.  He promises that if they will follow him they will have pleasures galore, wealth and fame, and everything their hearts desire.
 
    His followers quickly discover, however, that while he may promise many things, it is his nature to torment those in his control.  The enticing things he dangles--such as illicit sex, power over others, and the accumulation of things--all have consequences that lead to misery and pain.  He seeks to hide their results behind a pleasant face, but let the tempted ones beware!  Serving Satan leads to no joy and no future.
 
Lord, I am constantly bombarded with advertisements and other incentives to make choices that would lead me away from You.  Share a good dose of reality with me today.

 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star, having fallen out of heaven to the earth, and the key to the pit of the abyss was given to him.  And he opened the pit of the abyss and smoke came up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace.  The sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit. Rev. 9:1,2.
 
    This section of Revelation is one of the most terrifying passages in the book.  A star from heaven receives a key to the abyss.  The opening of the abyss results in darkness  that completely blot out the sun and the atmosphere.  The darkness turns out to be locusts, agents of Apollyon (Rev. 9:3, 10, 11). 
 
    We find a couple significant parallels to this passage in the Gospel of Luke.  When a demon-possessed man confronted Jesus, the demons pleaded with Him not to send them back into the abyss (Luke 8:30, 31).  Evidently the abyss is where the power of God confines demons, a place they don't want to go.  
 
    Further parallels occur in Luke 10:17-20.  There Jesus sees Satan falling like lightning out of heaven.  Nevertheless, He states, His disciples should not be alarmed.  They will have authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, symbols of the power of the enemy.  Their assurance of salvation will provide the confidence to confront Satan in the name of Jesus.  
 

    How far does demonic power go?  Would it be wrong for Christians to worship in a place that once served for the worship of Satan?  Is it always wrong to use forms of music previously employed in pagan rituals or worship?
 
    Consider the dilemma of those who first translated the Bible into a language steeped in the worship of spirits, trees, and other magical creatures.  The translators struggled to find ways to express the sublime truths of Scripture and salvation in words and expressions already loaded with profane and even demonic associations.  Its pagan origins saturated every aspect of this language.  But the translators went ahead anyway.  I'm glad they did.  That language was English.
 
    We may feel disturbed to hear the gospel in language and musical forms that have had a checkered history.  But we mustn't forget that God chose to be incarnated in human flesh in spite of all its pagan, promiscuous, and perverted history.  When the Word became flesh, however, He brought life and light to the human race.  Wherever He went, the demons fled.  It is not the presence of demons that condemns the human race--it is the absence of Christ.  
 
 
Lord, I choose to have Christ with me wherever I go. I praise You for overcoming the evil one at the cross.  May the power of Satan be vanquished in my life as well.

And I saw and I heard a vulture flying in midheaven saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe, to those who live on the earth, because of the rest of the sounds of the three angels who are about to blow their trumpets."  Rev. 8:13.
 
    "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," U.S. administrator Paul Bremer told journalists in Baghdad, to loud cheers from Iraqis in the audience.  American soldiers had just found Saddam Hussein in a tiny cellar at a farmhouse about 10 miles south of his hometown of Tikrit. Saddam was the most wanted man on a list issued by U.S. authorities, but had not been seen since Baghdad fell to American forces seven month before.
 
    After receiving a tip from a member of Hussein's family, U.S. forces cordoned off the area.  Then they discovered the Iraqi strongman, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands during a 24-year reign of terror, cowering in a "spider hole," a tiny cellar.  Access to the hiding place consisted of a narrow hole covered with a rug, brinks, and dirt and about six to eight feet deep.  In one last show of bravado, he announced to his captors, "I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq, and I am read to negotiate."  A quick-minded American soldier rejoined, "I bring you greetings from President George Bush." 
 
    Video footage released by the U.S. military showed a disheveled-looking Saddam with a long black and gray beard in custody, receiving a medical checkup.  Hussein emerged from his hiding place "very much bewildered" and said "hardly anything at first," according to Major General Raymond Odierno.  Soon after, people began celebrating the capture of their former president in the streets of Baghdad and northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk by sounding their horns and firing into the air.
 

    The hut where Hussein had been living contained two tiny rooms.  One was a bedroom cluttered with clothes, some of them new and still in their wrappers, and the other a kitchen with running water.  In spite of his record, I felt a tinge of sympathy for the man.  
 
    "Christians suffering at the hand of evil rulers should never envy the position of those who persecute them.  The seven trumpets are poured out on "those who live on the earth,"  the very ones who afflicted the faithful, as described in the seals (Rev. 6:9,10).  Those who have hurt or killed the faithful people of God are marked in the "books," and if they do not repent, they will suffer as much as or even more than those they attacked.  It isn't a pretty picture.  I'd rather face the wrath of humanity than the wrath of God.
 
 
Lord, help me not to judge reality by who is up or down in the power polls.  Enable me to see that human power is temporary and so is the suffering it causes.  Lead me to trust that You will soon make everything right.

   And I saw and I heard a vulture flying in midheaven saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe, to those who live on the earth, because of the rest of the sounds of the three angels who are about to blow their trumpets."  Rev. 8:13.
 
    The book of Revelation marks out the role of the trumpets more clearly than most people realize.  The key to understanding them is Revelation 6:9-11.  There the "souls under the altar" cry out,  "'How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?'" (verse 10, NIV). The "inhabitants of the earth" are those who have persecuted and martyred God's faithful people.  These "inhabitants" appear again in Revelation 8:13.  The three woes of trumpets five, six, and seven fall on "the inhabitants of the earth."  The seven trumpets, therefore, are judgments on those who have martyred and persecuted God's faithful people.
 
    Revelation 8:2-6 tells us that the trumpets sound in response to the prayers of the saints, which rise up like incense from the altar (verses 3, 4).  What are those prayers?  They are the martyred saints (Rev. 6:9-11) calling out for justice.  When those prayers reach heaven mingled with incense,  judgments hurl down to the earth (Rev. 8:5,6).  The seven trumpets, therefore, carry a powerful message to those abused, neglected, and killed because of their faith.  The trumpets assure them that God is actively confronting those who oppressed them.  And those judgments begin already in this life.  
 
    A friend of mine was a professor at a school of medicine.  A church officer pleaded with him to leave his job at great professional and financial cost to himself and work for the church, living in a small church-owned apartment.  Out of love for Jesus he accepted without hesitation.  He joyfully threw himself into the work of the church.
 

    But one day my friend had a difference of opinion with the church officer.  The latter felt that my friend had offended his dignity and challenged his authority.  Without warning he arranged for my friend to be fired.  Stunned, for several hours my friend dazedly cleaned out his desk and office.  Having been a man of wealth and influence in his country, he now had no job and no source of income.   
 
    In discouragement he went home only to find the locks of the church apartment changed and all his belongings tossed out on the sidewalk, up for sale to anyone who would pass by.  His wife had discovered them there and was sitting on a couch, sobbing uncontrollably.  While revenge would be a thought on most people's minds, my friend decided to leave that up to God. The trumpets assure us that God marks the injustices of our world and will make them right in His time.
 
 
Lord, thank You for the assurance that everything that happens to me matters to You.

         And the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were smitten, in order that a third of them might be darkened, and that a third of the day might not shine, nor a third of the night likewise.  Rev. 8:12.
 
    Today's text speaks about a partial darkness, one that affects some people more than others and some parts of the day more than others. It is a good description of life as we experience it.  The darkness of sin touches some people more than others.  
 
    A humorous story tells about two famous people.  Jack Nicklaus was one of the greatest professional golfers of all time.  Stevie Wonder is a popular singer distinguished by the fact that he is totally blind.  the two of them supposedly got together one day, and it astounded Nicklaus to hear that Wonder was an avid golfer too.
 
    "How can you possibly play golf when you're blind?" Nicklaus queried.
 
    "Oh, it's not too hard, really, "  Stevie Wonder said.  "When I tee up my ball, I have my caddie walk out the distance I usually drive and call to me from the center of the fairway.  Then I hit the ball in his direction, and he calls me from where it lands.  I walk over to the ball and then he moves further out in the direction I need to hit until he is standing in the center of the green.  He tells me how far it is to traps and water hazards, and I hit the ball accordingly." 
 
    "That's amazing!"  Nicklaus said.  "But tell me something--how do you ever manage to putt?"
 
    "Oh, that's the easy part for me.  The caddie describes the tilt and speed of the green and then lies on his stomach, talking to me from right behind the hole.  I just hit the ball to his voice.  In fact, I think I could beat you if we played together."
 
    "You're incredible.  But there is no way you could beat me."
 
    "Actually, I think I could,"  Wonder replied.  "Why don't we play a round today?"
 
    "I'm free,"  Nicklaus answered.  "What time shall we get together?"
 
    "How about 10:00 tonight?"
 
    If you know anything about golf, you had a good laugh at that one.  Golf is not a game most people would try at night.  A teacher of mine loved to say,  "In the land of the blind, one eye is king!"  Well, in the darkness of night a blind man has a distinct edge over a sighted person.  When the darkness of sin sweeps over the world, those who follow God will have the advantage--they will see with spiritual eyesight (cf. John 9:39-41).
 
Lord, help me not to limit myself to one or two ways of knowing You.  Energize all my senses to be receptive to the signal You want to send me.

   And the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were smitten, in order that a third of them might be darkened, and that a third of the day might not shine, nor a third of the night likewise.  Rev. 8:12.
 
    When I was 10 years old, I spent two years of savings on a telescope.  I thought it was so cool to be able to look at the heavens and see such awesome things as the rings of Saturn, the craters of the moon, and the satellites of Jupiter and its colorful gas clouds.  But the best thing I ever saw in my telescope was the Pleiades.  In spite of the smoggy air in my neighborhood just outside New York City, the Pleiades knocked my socks off.
 
    People sometimes refer to the Pleiades as the seven sisters.  To the naked eye they appear as a small cluster of six or seven points of light.  But in my telescope the Pleiades expanded to a cluster of several hundred stars sprinkled across the viewing area like so many jewels.  The stars were visibly yellow, red, blue, green, and every shade in between.  It was the equal of any of the royal crowns I have seen in the palaces of Europe.
 
    After this experience I fully agreed with the psalmist, who said, "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Ps. 19:1, KJV).  In viewing the heavens through my telescope I caught a glimpse of God's greatness and how much He is a lover of the beautiful.  Stars also illustrated the infinity of God for Job.  When Job was questioning why he had to endure so many problems, God pointed him to the stars.  "Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?  Can you loose the cords of Orion?  Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear without its cubs?  Do you know the laws of the heavens?  Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?" (Job 38:31-33).
 
    Our text for today speaks of a partial darkening descending over the stars and the other heavenly bodies.  In a spiritual sense this would portray a time in history when events disguise or partially obliterate the true knowledge of God.  Just as it is hard to imagine a world in which we can no longer see the stars, the author of Revelation is boggled by the thought of a world in which the spiritual light of God is no longer visible.
 
    In the context of this passage we discover a God who hides Himself at times.  When we take Him for granted, when we ignore the abundant blessings that He has scattered everywhere for us, He sometimes removes Himself from our view for a time.  He hopes that we will remember what we are missing and long for a renewed walk with Him.
 
Lord, I don't want You to have to hide from me.  Keep your glorious greatness ever before me, I want to see You as Your really are.

   And the fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were smitten, in order that a third of them might be darkened, and that a third of the day might not shine, nor a third of the night likewise.  Rev. 8:12.
 
    It started as a routine trip home one night.  As I came around the S curve and entered the straightaway that brings me to my street, I saw the strangest thing.  There appeared to be a full moon rising above the horizon in front of me, but it looked as if someone had taken a big bite out of the left-hand side.
 
    "Could that be a gibbous moon [the third quarter of the lunar month, when the moon begins to shrink after its full phase]?" I asked my wife, who was riding home with me.
 
    "I don't think so," she said.  "I've never seen anything like this."
 

    Undeterred by her opinion, I tried to think of whether a gibbous moon was like a reverse crescent, or whether it "had a bite out of it," as this one did.  I kept on pondering the significance of what I had seen, but when I arrived home I forgot all about it for a half-hour.  Then I suddenly remembered the moon again. 
 
    "Hey, kids!"  I called to my teens.  "You got a look out the front window.  The moon has a bite out of it!"
 
They followed me out to the living room to look past the white birch in our front yard.  I wasn't prepared for what I saw.  No longer did the moon have a bite out of it,  Instead I was looking at a half moon.  ("What's the big deal, Dad?")  Could the moon go through half a phase in a half hour?  I ransacked the limited scientific knowledge in my brain and came up with a negative conclusion.  Then I noticed that the dark of the moon was a dull red, completing the full circle.
 
    "I know!" I blurted out.  "It must be a lunar eclipse.  ["Told you so," grumbled the wife.]  The earth has moved directly between the sun and the moon, and the shadow of the earth is moving across the moon."  I continued watching until the white part of the moon completely vanished, leaving a dull red circle.
 
    The best explanation of Revelation 8:12 is probably an image drawn from the eclipses of sun and moon that were widely known to the ancient world.  The sun, moon, and stars symbolize the Word of God (Ps. 19; 119:105), the people of God (Dan. 12:3), and the things of heaven (Dan. 8:10) in the Old Testament.  The rejection of God's Word and His ways results in spiritual darkness.  But the darkness here is partial.  We still have time to repent.
 
Lord, I want to live in the light of Your Word and Your Ways.  Keep me from choices that will lead me into spiritual darkness.