Day 231

How can a physical star fall from the sky and then be given a key? Obviously the image that John saw lacked adequate language for him to understand exactly what he saw and what it meant. We do know the star must be a being of some kind, perhaps an angel. He takes the key and unlocks the Abyss, the place where evil was confined until the day of judgment. And out of that Abyss comes smoke and from the smoke comes something that looks like locusts.

In our culture locusts don’t mean much. If a crop on some distant farm is destroyed by weather or pests, it is no big deal to us. We just grab a different loaf of bread off the shelf at the grocery store. But for someone who grows their own food, a bad harvest means starvation. Locusts normally eat everything in their path. These locusts are told not to eat the vegetation, their normal diet, but to attack the people who don’t have God’s seal. We might not know the exact nature of what John saw, but we know enough to know that we don’t want to suffer what these locusts have to dispense. It will get so bad that people will want death as relief from the sting of this judgment.

And the seal of God protects from death and torture. Those with the seal will stand and watch the judgment side by side with those who are being judged. The locusts will not touch them. I am sure there will be many questions like why we are not being attacked and they are. Those moments will be moments of great witness. We will have the opportunity to share the love of God and witness to His goodness.

We can that these locusts are not ordinary locusts because they are much larger than horses. As I read this passage I can imagine that these Locusts could be military helicopters. Read verses 7-9 again and see if you can’t imagine John seeing a helicopter for the first time and trying to describe it in terms he understood. These locusts carry out God’s judgment on these people, or at least the beginning stages. To put it another way, they have five months to repent!

The second phase of this judgment period involves twenty million troops (20,000,000 – three times the population of the earth at this moment). This is not an earthly military force, unless they are the clone armies from Starwars! And their job is to bring final judgment on a third of all mankind. A third will die, over two billion people! Do you think that would get people’s attention?

But despite this great tangible sign, they still are stubborn. They refuse to repent. They are given the opportunity to repent, but they don’t take advantage of it.

Such a shame that people can have proof of God’s existence right in front of them and they still refuse to acknowledge His existence and His right to be Lord in their lives. Pigheaded, I would say, and I mean no disrespect to the pigs!

Should we be any less willing to repent? Shouldn’t we see God’s hand in our lives and bow our hearts and bodies to Him? Take time today to do just that. Bow before Him. Give Him the rightful place in your life.