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Trumpet 5 (Revelation 9:1-12)
9:2 He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a burning furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit.
The beast also comes up out of this pit, which fits well with the history of the beast who received a mortal wound that was healed. A mortal wound would represent defeat which could induce despair, but its healing revives hope in a new takeover of the world with help from the forces of darkness seen here in this trumpet.
Defeat and despair seem to summarize what I am finding as the best interpretation of this abyss symbol. The question then is this: what is God's solution for overcoming this plague of fear that plunges us into darkness and induces hopeless despair?
I remember the days of old. I meditate on all your doings. I contemplate the work of your hands. I spread forth my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah. Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails. Don't hide your face from me, so that I don't become like those who go down into the pit. Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you. Deliver me, Yahweh, from my enemies. I flee to you to hide me. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness. (Psalms 143:5-10)
He opened the pit of the abyss
This parallels other openings and unsealing going on in this first part of Revelation while closings and sealing increase. This opening is reversed later by this same pit being closed and sealed over Satan for 1,000 years.
smoke went up out of the pit
As we move further into this description, note the contrasts between this and a later similar reference.
The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power. No one was able to enter into the temple, until the seven plagues of the seven angels would be finished. (Revelation 15:8)
like the smoke from a burning furnace
This is in sharp contrast to the kind of smoke that filled the temple. I think this is key to appreciating what is being emphasized here. Smoke from burning in a furnace resonates more with the fear-based view of God witnessed at Mt. Sinai where the display of power only elicited terror and promises to obey resulting in years of legalistic attempts to comply or repeated lapses into idolatry and rebellion. I wonder if what we are seeing here is the counterfeit version of God's glory, demanding obedience based on intimidation, deception and enticements of reward as the means of maintaining order.
The second angel sounded, and something like a great burning mountain was thrown into the sea. One third of the sea became blood, and one third of the living creatures which were in the sea died. One third of the ships were destroyed. (Revelation 8:8-9)
Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh. He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace. It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived. (Genesis 19:27-29)
Mount Sinai, the whole of it, smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. (Exodus 19:18)
But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as at this day. (Deuteronomy 4:20)
Then the herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, peoples, nations, and languages, that whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up; and whoever doesn't fall down and worship shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. (Daniel 3:4-6)
Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image which I have made, well: but if you don't worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up. (Daniel 3:15-18)
All of these resonate strongly with the counterfeit kingdom symbolized by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, reward and punishment, intimidation, deception and selfishness. Yet for every counterfeit there is a true original that usually looks in at least some respects very similar, at least initially. What do we find regarding the original that this is mimicking?
His feet were like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. His voice was like the voice of many waters. (Revelation 1:15)
It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. (Genesis 15:17)
The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but Yahweh tests the hearts. (Proverbs 17:3)
The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but man is refined by his praise. (Proverbs 27:21)
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
(Isaiah 48:10)
Son of man, the house of Israel is become dross to me: all of them are brass and tin and iron and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver. Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you are all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire on it, to melt it; so will I gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there, and melt you. Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst of it; and you shall know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my wrath on you. (Ezekiel 22:18-22)
"For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up," says Yahweh of Armies, "that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." (Malachi 4:1)
Lastly, we can include another reference to smoke that may not be the same as this coming out of the pit but can be taken under advisement.
The kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived wantonly with her, will weep and wail over her, when they look at the smoke of her burning. (Revelation 18:9)
The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit
A question that needs to be raised at this point is about the nature of the fire behind this smoke. The fire of God is His passion of love, and the result is always increased light, not obscuring the light. This smoke clearly is coming from a fire different than what comes from God, for here we see that it darkens the sun and pollutes the atmosphere around us, making it dark, foreboding and unhealthy. And this smoke is coming out of the pit. So it is connected to the definition we discussed previously about the meaning for the symbol of the abyss. That will inform us as to the nature of what is coming out of this pit that is bringing increased darkness instead of increased light.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)
Why was the surface at creation dark? Because the Spirit over it was blocking the light or some other reason? Remember that Satan was given the keys to the pit and is associated with chaos and darkness. What we need to see in the beginning is that God's Spirit is hovering no matter how dark it might be.
I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
(Jeremiah 4:23)
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" Having said this, he breathed his last. (Luke 23:44-46)
I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became as blood. (Revelation 6:12)
All of these verses alert us to the reality that it is Satan who brings in darkness and is the cause of chaos, and it is God's Spirit that divides the light from the darkness and brings light that results in judgment, judgment meaning exposing and separating. From this perspective we could even say that the creation week was a powerful time of judgment, where the myriads of lies the enemy had spread about God's light of love had darkened the entire universe and through the Word of God, the same Word found in John 1, spoke in powerful ways to dispel darkness and bring beauty and order out of darkness and chaos.
This darkening smoke from the pit is a counterfeit of the smoke that fills the temple of God (Rev. 15:8) which is the hearts and minds of those following the Lamb. That smoke comes from embracing fresh revelations of truth about God's character of love, the passionate fire of His agape love producing in the heart sweetness and love even for enemies. In contrast, this darkening smoke results from the combination of base passion, desires for power, greed, and deceptions, coalescing to reinforce oppressive empires of tyranny, exploitation and coercion motivated by fear and selfishness.
The war we are all caught up in is a battle between light and darkness, truth and deception, creation design based on family and love under attack by a counterfeit kingdom based on force and fear.
What we are studying here involve events that are presently propelling us toward the grand culmination of this conflict when separation is once again needed to clarify the difference between what is true and what is false, between light and darkness, between the power of true love and selfish power seeking control and domination that hardens the heart against love. Revelation is designed to expose the difference between what is right and what leads to death, the difference between the truth about God's heart we are meant to reflect and participate in versus the slander and blasphemy that has darkened the atmosphere of this world filled with lying spirits of demons deceiving the whole earth.
Then those who feared Yahweh spoke one with another; and Yahweh listened, and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those who feared Yahweh, and who honored his name. They shall be mine," says Yahweh of Armies, "my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn't serve him.
(Malachi 3:16-18)
This is not merely an interesting study of theology or prophecy but is rather an exposure to actual reality meant to alert us to the true issues of the war that we are experiencing presently. Will we open our minds and hearts to allow the impressions of the Spirit to transform and prepare our own hearts for the fierce conflict we are already entering right now? While we are not to dwell on fear which is what the world is forcing onto everyone right now, we do need reminders of dangers we must avoid and truths we must embrace if we are to navigate our way through the choices we are being forced to make during the closing events of this world's morbid history.
