The Opening of the Abyss

 

And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them. (Revelation 9:1-5 ESV).

 

In the ongoing story of the opening of the seventh seal, we read of trumpets sounding and of great destruction and darkness coming on the earth (Revelation 8:6-13). Today, as we read about the sounding of a fifth trumpet, we see the opening of the Abyss, a great bottomless pit that belches smoke like a gigantic furnace. The Abyss is a detestable place, and perhaps it is best left locked. This is the Bible’s way of describing the hiding place of evil powers and forces that threaten to undo the goodness of God’s creation. Here the Apostle John pictures the Abyss opened and its occupants brought out so that their identity can be exposed.

 

Light has a way of exposing what otherwise would remain hidden. I’m reminded, for example, of what I see many times immediately after a rain when I walk through the woods. As the sun’s rays begin to creep over the eastern horizon, with the raindrops still clinging to the spider webs that have been woven after the rain, suddenly every strand is revealed as if it were magnified. Every fine thread suddenly becomes visible.

 

John says that when the Abyss opens, a thick cloud rises darkening the world like smoke from a vast, raging fire. In our everyday lives, something similar happens when dark secrets of corruption and abuse are exposed. What was hidden comes out in the open, and it can feel like a dark cloud has come over us. There are times when we wish the Abyss had remained closed. We don’t like it when dark sins are exposed, but we need to be prepared. With God’s help, we need to look evil in the eye, name it, and work against its power to destroy. We cannot become tolerant of corruption and evil.