The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets

The first four trumpets will be horrible events, polluting a third of the ocean and a third of the fresh water.  One third of the world’s forests will burn, and all of the grass and small plants.  Atmospheric pollution will block about a third of the sun’s energy from reaching the earth.   These things will destroy the world’s economy, destroying crops, disrupting trade, leaving vast humbers of people without water, and increasing the need for heating.  Revelation 8:13 tells us the last three trumpets will be even worse.    “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”

The first four trumpets destroy nature as we know it.  The fifth plague is will directly affect the people who have rejected God, as Revelation 9:1-12 describes.  “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”

And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.  And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.  And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.  One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.”

This first woe consists of a plague of creatures that swarm like locusts, but are far larger.  They only attack humans who do not have God’s mark or seal in their foreheads.  They have an armored shell that makes them very difficult to kill, and they have stingers that cause immense pain, but are not fatal.  They are led by a destroying angel, and the plague will last for five months.   Things will be so bad people will try to commit suicide, but will be unable to.   

The sixth trumpet or second woe is another plague specifically on humans.  Revelation 9:13-19 describesthis plague.  “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,  Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.  And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.  And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.  And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.   By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.  For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.”

The four angels lead an army of two hundred million creatures.  They are apparently much larger than the creatures in the fifth trumpet, being compared to horses with a head like a lion.  They spew fire, smoke, and brimstone or molten sulfur from their mouths, any of which can kill people.  They have an appendage like a tail that they can also use to kill, and will kill one third of the world’s population. 

The first six seals will have demonstrated that mankind cannot control the things they know about, even when empowered by Satan.  With the first six trumpets, God introduces things that are far beyond man’s experience.  In spite of all this people continue to deny God’s power or even his existence, worshipping various idols instead.  They refuse to acknowledge God’s moral standards, as Revelation 9:20-21 tells us.  “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” 

The story of Pharaoh in Exodus gives us an illustration of what the people’s attitudes will be like in that day.  Even when his people begged him to let Israel go because his decisions had destroyed Egypt, he still refused.