"Have An Apocalyptic Day." Chapter 9: A Bug's Life

 

As an angel blows the fifth of seven trumpets, a bottomless pit is opened, and out come locusts. This, again, echoes the plagues in the Book of Exodus, used to force Pharaoh to liberate the enslaved Israelites. Unlike those common locusts, however, these locusts are commanded not to touch any plant life, but only to harm humans who are not under God's protection. Their job is not to kill--in fact, even humans who long for death will not receive it--but again, the goal is repentance. 

The sixth trumpet releases a vast cavalry, riding in from the river Euphrates. This was the eastern border of the Roman Empire, home of the Parthian Empire, Rome's bitter rivals in modern-day Iran. Even though these soldiers kill a third of humankind, those who survive do not "repent of the works of their hands, or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk."  

This imagery is terrifying, and it's meant to be. It should not be taken literally. Some of my takeaways are: 

1) Even what seem like demonic forces are under God's control, and their purpose is to turn people to God. 

2) Unlike most all human military campaigns, the attack of the locusts is not harmful to wildlife: there is no collateral damage to the grass or the trees or any of God's creatures. This is humankind's problem. 

3) Even though it seems terrible that people would seek death and not find it, this again is showing that the goal is not retribution but a change of heart. This reminds me of one of my favorite verses from the prophet Ezekiel: "I have no pleasure in the death of anyone. Turn then, and live." (Ez 18:32)

My Poetic Interpretation of REVELATION 9  

9. The first woe comes upon fifth trumpet’s sound: 

Unlocked and loosened is the smoky pit

With scorpion’s sting, wherever lies are found,

But all green growth, in blessed peace may sit.

Dread locusts, crowned in gold, with lion’s teeth

With scorpion’s tail and noise of roaring wings

Have months of pain, but never death, unsheathed

And Abaddon, Destruction, is their king. 

The second woe, sixth trumpet, grants release

To those four-cornered angels, lately bound.

Vast fire-breathing lion cavalries

Bring death to one in three whom they surround.

Still, humans worship gold, which cannot see

The changed and the repentant shall be free.