Abaddon Comes

 

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).

 

Our reading today is disturbing; and it can be tempting to skip over this section in Revelation. Its message is terrifying. The swarm of locusts rising from the Abyss, grotesque in appearance and ruthlessly determined to torment as many people as they can, are creatures we would rather avoid. However, we dare not avoid it, for in doing so we would miss an incredible message of hope and encouragement.

 

This fifth-trumpet scene applies the same technique Jesus used in parts of his Sermon on the Mount. This is hyperbole, or apocalyptic, which is the use of exaggerated pictures that are not meant to be taken literally. Consider, for example, what Jesus says in Matthew 5:29-30 (NRSV): “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out… If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off.”

 

I remember teaching this passage in a church once when one of those in attendance responded by saying, “Wow! Jesus asks a lot.” They understood. They knew that Jesus was not saying we should literally harm ourselves, but they 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 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 look and taste good. But God wants us to see sin’s real affect. Perhaps this truth is best brought home in the name of the driver-king who comes out of the Abyss. His name is Abaddon, or “Destroyer.”