Apollyon... the Destroyer

 

In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon. The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come. (Revelation 9:7-12 ESV).

 

It can be tempting to skip over this section in Revelation. Its message is troublesome. The swarm of locusts rising up from the Abyss, grotesque in appearance and ruthlessly determined to torment as many people as they can, are creatures we would rather avoid. I think this fifth-trumpet scene applies the same technique Jesus used in parts of his Sermon on the Mount. This is hyperbole, the use of exaggerated pictures that are not meant to be taken literally. Consider, for example, what Jesus says in Matthew 5:29-30: “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out… If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off…” I had a student years ago in a college Bible course respond by saying, “Wow! Jesus asks a lot.”

 

She understood. She knew that Jesus was not saying we should literally harm ourselves, but she could see that he does call us to resist sin. The fifth-trumpet story says a lot about evil and the terrible pain it brings into people’s lives, and we need to resist it. With God’s protection and the power of the Holy Spirit we can do that, but we must see evil for what it is. What the Bible calls sin and evil is what we might define as “doing what I want, when I want.”

 

Sin may be perfectly pleasurable for a moment; however, God wants us to understand the real end of sin. James gives us the end of sin: But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:14-15 ESV). It should not surprise us that the leader of this great calamity of the end times is Apollyon, or better translated as “Destroyer.” We must not worship at his feet! Only the real King… Jesus will redeem us from the eternal death waiting those who refuse God’s grace and mercy.