What are the trumpets - the fifth trumpet

Okay, I've put this off long enough. The fifth trumpet drives me haywire. It's everything I always hated about end times prophecies -- a riddle wrapped in an enigma surrounded by a mystery... yadda yadda. But here it is, and we have to answer the riddle before we can look at the challenge.

The riddle is this:

What acts like a locust, has the body posture of a war horse, has a face like a human, hair like a woman, something like a gold crown on its head, an iron breastplate over its heart, makes a lot of noise, and finally (pant pant) has a sting that only harms all the people who don't serve God?

John gives us two clues, but first let's work our way through the soupy 1st century Jewish imagery.

1) acts like a locust -- locusts are an agricultural pest. They eat crops. For the people of this time a locust infestation could mean famine and death. Saying that something 'acts like a locust' means that it devours something valuable, like material goods. It could even mean that it devours something that is not material, like one's dignity or legacy.

2) body posture of a war horse -- horses were viewed as proud, powerful creatures. When they sense danger (like being brought up for a battle) they stamp their feet and snort. This is a picture of something that looks strong, and wants to give off the appearance of looking strong.

3) a face like a human -- this one hardly qualifies as imagery at all. It can only mean that what we are talking about is a human, or that it impersonates a human.

4) hair like a woman -- hair was a symbol of femininity. Makeup existed, but it was expensive and very crude by modern standards. The average woman had little access to makeup back then, but if she cared about her appearance she could certainly spend a little time on her hair. All she needed was a brush and some oil. Also, hair has another meaning in the Bible. It can also refer to authority. This is how Paul uses it in 1 Corinthians 11:11-15. So "hair like a woman" could signify that this creature values feminine attributes; that it places them as an ideal over male attributes.

5) something like a crown of gold on its head -- either it has authority like a king, or it just likes to think that it does.

6) an iron breastplate over it's heart -- remember Paul's 'breastplate of righteousness' (Ephesians 6:14)? Paul is saying that righteousness (ie: wanting to do the right thing) acts as a protective piece of armor over the heart. The breastplate is heavy handed imagery that signifies a covering for the heart. A person who had a piece of iron over their heart -- in the metaphorical sense -- would be a person who lacked kindness, compassion, and could not be aroused to either one of those things.

7) makes a lot of noise -- busy, industrious, boisterous, frightful... any number of things.

8) A sting that only harms the all people who don't serve God -- ....we better look at the two clues at this point.


Our first clue is a rehashing of the story of Satan's fall. The word Lucifer means morning star, or light bringer, and at the beginning of Chapter 9 John tells us that he sees a star falling into the abyss. In verse eleven we are told that these creatures have the angel of the abyss as Lord over them. This clue certainly points us in a demonic direction, but it doesn't necessarily mean that we are describing demons -- not exclusively, anyway.

The second clue is that during the time of these creatures we are told that "men will seek death". In the first entry of why doesn't my life make sense, I made this observation:

2) Suicide is a leading cause of death among the young people of today. But go back a hundred years and it's barely even mentioned. Go back two hundred and it's miraculously rare. Any time before Shakespeare's Hamlet and its non-existent in written literature.The whole existential breakdown bit is a fairly recent phenomenon. Sure, suicides took place to avoid capture at the hands of an enemy, or to avoid an even worse death from something like starvation, but that's not what I'm talking about. The fact is, when it comes to the kind of malaise that surrounds today's youth, the "There's no point to any of this $%&! anyway," mindset, it's a product of the modern age.It doesn't exist in earlier times. It's like the thought just never occurred to them.

John tells us that when these creatures emerge, the thought will occur to people. People will want to die because something is tormenting them; something he could only describe by using the most bizarre collage of imagery.

Let me criticize two of the more popular interpretations of this passage for a moment. First, we are not talking about attack helicopters or any other implement of war. Those things don't have "hair like a woman" and they don't only harm non-believers (as mentioned in the last post they are killing believers right now in some parts of the world). Second of all, we are not talking about demonic beings in the way that something like the Left Behind series portrays them. Demons are incorporeal. They do not literally appear as insects... with horse bodies.

But the Greek word that we translate as 'spirit' can mean a number of things. It can mean angels, demons, ghosts -- or it can refer to an attitude or mindset. We still use the word this way when we say something like, "he has a spirit of fear," or simply, "She has spirit." Now I certainly think that the locust creatures are demonically influenced, but they are not demons themselves. They are people. More to the point: they are us.

Who acts like a swarm of locusts? Who spends their time strutting and preening and acting tougher than they really are? What culture cast a negative pall on any sort of masculine characteristics (give you a hint, it's the same one that sells girls jeans to boys)? What culture puts the equivalent of crown on a child's head and tells them that there is no authority above them (another hint, ask a teacher was his/her students are like these days)? Who has the equivalent of a metal plate over their hearts? Who makes noise, but accomplishes little?

Tell me, if you went back in time a hundred years or so, how many people do you think would fit the classification of bipolar, or ADD, or any of the other psychological traumas that we try so hard to medicate out of existence? A hundred years ago children worked in factories in this country, but they didn't go on school-shooting rampages, and they didn't have mass suicide pacts. We have changed. We have become a different creature from what we were a few generations ago.

The answer to the riddle is this: the locust is modern man. And I mean 'modern' in the sense of 'modish', or 'fashionable'. It's a person who conforms to the current no authority, no boundaries, no responsibility culture. It's also the demonic influence which inspired an entire generation to sell their souls for sex without commitment, for the illusion of respect without any of the traits which would reasonably command it, for the flimsy lie that mental health can be found in a pill.... I could go on forever.

And now our job is easy.

The fifth challenge -- we will be fine. All we need is to understand ourselves better. Things like psychology and sociology will bring about a new renaissance of thought and living.


The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon -- Revelation 9:1-11

The answer to the challenge -- It's not your understanding that is the problem. It's your desires; until you can control them, you can't understand yourself. And you will never control your desires apart from God.

Next, there's a war coming. And it's coming soon.