In today’s exploration of Revelation, David Hawking uncovers the chilling details of the locust plague, as portrayed in the Bible. These locusts, unlike any before, are led by a fallen angel, stirring fear and leaving destruction in their wake. Are they mere symbols, or could they manifest in reality? As we delve deep into the texts, you’ll gain insights into God’s prophetic warnings, the nature of spiritual warfare, and the ultimate battle between good and evil. Don’t miss this powerful teaching that equips believers for spiritual battles in this world.
Those of you who are spiritually sensitive know that we need to put on the spiritual armor of God. And if I were you, I would pray that especially the Bible teacher might have a hedge built around him to protect him because I do not believe that Satan wants to hear this message or have it said. I’ve experienced this many, many times before.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
A shadow spreads across the land as a dark cloud rises, swallowing the light. The air grows thick and noise builds. A swarm moving with purpose. It doesn’t come to feed on fields or forest. Its target is far more personal. What follows is unlike anything the world has ever seen, and its purpose is as terrifying as its origin. Turn to Revelation 9, verses 1-12, as Bible teacher David Hawking brings us day one of Locust from Hell. That’s next on Hope for Today. First, Matt Hocking is here, and together we’re going to share a tool that may just help you take this study in Revelation to new heights and get even more from it.
SPEAKER 02 :
A most helpful tool we have for you is my dad’s original sermon notes, his outlines for the messages in our current radio series, Through Revelation.
SPEAKER 01 :
Matthews provide key points, references, and an outline that will help listeners keep track along with David and get the most out of our daily study time for the series.
SPEAKER 02 :
The Revelation Sermon Notes are just $10 by download or PDF CD. Go to davidhocking.org or call in Canada at 1-888-75-BIBLE. In the U.S., call us at 1-800-75-BIBLE. And Bible by the Numbers is 242-7000.
SPEAKER 01 :
And also please know that your resource purchase or donation right now will help the Ministries of Hope for today and make you a co-laborer in the work with us. All right, as promised, here’s David with day one of Locust from Hell.
SPEAKER 04 :
Chapter 9, beginning at verse 1. 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, like 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, nor any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men who 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 like 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 horses prepared into battle, and on their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. And they had hair like the hair of women. And their teeth were like the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates as it were breastplates of iron. And the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like scorpions. And there were stings in their tails and their power was to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them who 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 appeared in the Orange County Register. A highway billboard says, 30 barren miles south of Winnemucca, Nevada, says, Winnemucca, 5 billion people have never been here. This high desert town of only 5,000 is the capital of the biggest infestation of crickets that the nation has ever seen. Four years of drought have left about 700,000 acres hopping with the now mouse-sized insects. In the 1930s, they invaded this area with such appetite that they ate the paint off of all the houses and the wood handles off of all gardening tools. In some places, it is now up to 100 of these crickets per square yard, said Martin Laraneta, supervisor of the state’s Department of Agriculture. And they may just be building up. This may not be the worst of it. They seem to be getting bigger. Named after the settlers who nearly, they nearly drove out of Utah back in the 1840s, they are called Mormon crickets. And they’ve been common to about a dozen western states much longer than humans, it says. Usually their population is held down by cold, wet springs, which destroy most newly hatched nymphs. But Nevada has had four consecutive warm, dry springs, and the cricket population has now exploded. The females lay up to 300 eggs, and up to 100 of those can survive, so they can increase 100-fold each year. They’ve always been here, but this is by far the worst we have ever seen. In the 1930s, during a similar drought, several highways in the area had to be closed because the surfaces were so thick with these crickets that only vehicles equipped with chains could pass through. Hatched in the dirt from eggs laid the previous summer, they passed through five different moltings on their way to adulthood. That two-month process results in an adult that normally measures up to two and a half inches in length and is protected from most natural predators by a tough shell-like skin and sharp spines along its long rear legs. These present crickets are quite larger than the former ones. At some point before reaching maturity, no one can predict just when, the young crickets suddenly group together in bands of thousands and even millions and begin erratic military-like marches across the countryside. The marauding bands might eat everything in their path. Then again, they might not. They have very strange behaviors, said Robert Gronowski, director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture’s plant industry program. They have no predictable pattern. When they’re in a migrating mood, they just go and nobody knows why. It’s not determined by food. Sometimes they’ll eat almost everything, and other times they’ll march right past a lush alfalfa field without hardly touching it. Alfalfa is the agricultural department’s big worry because it’s one of the few crops that flourish in northern Nevada’s salty soil. Imagine what this field is going to look like when they are ten times this size, which appears they’re going to be. That’s an unpleasant thing to imagine because Laraneta is the one person who’s supposed to keep it from happening. Although most of the infested land is owned by the federal government, the state is under contract to care for it. The state, however, must abide by federal regulations that prohibit aerial spraying of pesticides within 500 feet of water, which is where most of these crickets hatch. So he has been given one assistant and a pickup truck filled with bags of poison bait that And he plans to lay bait at the mouths of certain canyons in hope of killing off at least some of them as they are now migrating toward the alfalfa fields in the valley. God only knows what is coming, and yet we have described in Revelation chapter 9 something that’s amazing indeed. The Rome-based food and agricultural organization said, “…adult swarms of desert locusts, which cover great distances.” destroy all vegetation have been spotted all over the northwest coastal plains of Somalia is indeed a serious plague you know it’s strange isn’t it when you read the bible do you think oh that’s so incredulous and then you read something like that out of the newspaper and you wonder wait a minute I wonder what really is going to happen. Is it possible that this is a locust plague on a scale of huge mutation such as what is happening now in Nevada? Is it not possible that this plague of locusts will become in reality literal and that John is describing a literal plague? Yet there are some elements about this that make it strange indeed. Now I really want you to divide the first 12 verses up into two parts. One, we want to talk about the leader of the locusts, because according to Proverbs chapter 30, the locusts normally don’t have a leader. So these are strange locusts. Locusts go out in bands, and you say, well, what drives them? Because their patterns are so erratic, as we read in the article. And the answer from a biological point of view is the wind. They follow wind currents. They go out by bands. They have no leader whistling to them, saying, hey, guys, over here. They just follow the wind patterns. And you hope the wind will blow them away from the vegetation. But these locusts have a leader. So we’re going to look at the leader of the locusts. And then secondly, we’re going to look at the locusts themselves, who according to this text, come out of the abyss, the bottomless pit. Now about the leader of the locusts. We know in verse 1 of chapter 9 it says, I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth and to him. We got a person here. was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. This has caused a lot of people to believe that hell is in the center of the earth. But verse 11 is the clue. It says they had a king over them who is the angel of Now I know the star, the hymn of verse 1, is the angel of the bottomless pit. Not an angel, but the angel, the particular one, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek Apollyon. Those words mean destroyer. I think there’s no doubt about it. We’re talking Satan here. He is the leader of the locusts. The word Satan is used 54 times in the Bible, 36 of which are in the New Testament, and seven times he is mentioned in the book of Revelation. And I’d like you to see at least three things from these few verses about the leader of the locusts. One, his position. It says he is a star fallen from heaven onto the earth. That’s what it says in verse 1. Now several things about his position. We’re told in verse 11 that he is the angel of the bottomless pit. Back in chapter 1 verse 20 we read that the stars represent angels. Therefore this star falling from heaven is the angel of the bottomless pit. Interesting in chapter 11 verse 7 it tells us that the beast will ascend out of the bottomless pit. In chapter 17, verse 8, in speaking about world empires, a seven-headed beast with a woman sitting on it, it says that beast will also ascend out of the bottomless pit. We also read in chapter 20, verse 3, that the bottomless pit is where Satan is going to be cast and bound for a thousand years during the reign of Christ on the earth. Now, he’s not only the angel of the bottomless pit, but according to verse 1, he’s a fallen angel. I saw a star fall from heaven. John 8, 44, Jesus said to religious leaders, you are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth. There was no truth in him. He’s the father of lies, the Bible says. Turn to Luke chapter 10, please, verse 18. A star fallen from heaven. He is the angel of the bottomless pit, and he is a fallen angel. Now, for you Christians who are spiritually sensitive, you know that we are in a spiritual warfare, amen? Ephesians 6.12 tells us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but it appears to me that a lot of us are spending our time doing that. But the Bible says we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood. That’s not your warfare. It’s easy to blame human personalities for what’s occurring, but the Bible says that we wrestle against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. These are terms that refer to the demonic forces of Satan, principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness, a metaphor for the sin and corruption of this world. They’re rulers of the darkness. They are spiritual hosts of wickedness in high places. They are dominating, they’re ruling, they’re influencing, they’re causing trouble everywhere, and among the believers, apparently. But we need to understand some things about the enemy, and this is one of the issues here in Revelation. There are going to be a number of them. this locust plague. And he’s the leader of them. And he comes out of the bottomless pit. But folks, he is a fallen angel. That’s what it says. I saw a star fall from heaven. Now in Luke chapter 10, verse 18, is an interesting remark by our Lord Jesus Christ. Luke chapter 10, verse 18. When the 70 came back, verse 17, after their little missionary trip, they said, Lord, even the devils, the demons are subject unto us through your name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. That’s the language of Revelation 9, isn’t it? Notwithstanding in this rejoice, not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Amen? Better know where your security lies. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. But what an interesting remark to tell these men who had experienced demons being subject to them, having through Jesus’ name the ability to cast demons out. And Jesus almost cautions them and says, I want you to know I beheld Satan fall as lightning from heaven. What is this fall of Satan? From heaven. Take your Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter 14. Satan is not only the angel of the bottomless pit, and I’d like to add, that’s where he belongs. He’s not only the angel of the bottomless pit, but he is a fallen angel. Now, if you’re a fallen angel, that means he was something special before he fell. Isaiah chapter 14 says, many people believe is a reference to Satan, even though it’s primarily concerned with the king of Babylon and probably represents Nebuchadnezzar himself. Yet behind this is something more. Verse 12, Isaiah 14. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground who didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. Angels. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. And here’s the ultimate statement of pride. I will be like the Most High. Watching Christian television last week. And I couldn’t believe it. The guy right on the television said, we, by faith, can be like the Most High. I thought, brother, that’s almost a quotation, except you took it out of context. Either that or you haven’t got a brain in your head. Folks, we are not God. We will never be God. And anybody who tells you any different is a heretic. And we need to be careful. There’s only one God, and he is to be worshipped. And Satan would love to have you believe the lie of the Garden of Eden. You take of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and you will be as God, knowing good and evil. What a lie that was. Satan mixes truth with error. And so a little bit of the truth and a little bit of the error It’s a terrible thing.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re listening to Hope for Today, the broadcast ministry of Bible teacher and author David Hawking. And David will be back in just a moment to close out our time, some additional thoughts and teachings, so do stay tuned. First Davidson, Matt is here, and we’re going to tell you about a powerful resource that you may just want to add to your home Bible study library. Matt, what do we have?
SPEAKER 02 :
It amazes me how infrequently the major and minor prophets are studied in pulpits, radio, and in print. And that’s why my dad has written a thorough study of Zechariah titled Visions of the Future.
SPEAKER 01 :
Zechariah is often referred to as the little revelation of the Old Testament. The historical background follows Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem and the return of the Jews to rebuild the temple.
SPEAKER 02 :
The book also speaks of the centrality of Jerusalem in God’s prophetic plan. This city will become a cup of trembling to all nations. And prophecy concerning a future invasion of Israel, the Battle of Armageddon.
SPEAKER 01 :
the glorious return of the Messiah to this earth, and the setting up of a kingdom that will never, ever end.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, it’s right there in Zachariah, Jim. Right. And my dad’s book, Visions of the Future, will show you all of the vivid details, historical context, explanations of crucial original text terms, cross-references, and fascinating applications for our lives today. Visions of the Future is our featured offer for August, and we have your copy for just $15. Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
And when you purchase, please consider adding an extra amount as a donation to Hope for Today or make a donation by itself. Your gift makes you a part of this ministry. And always, please start by praying for Hope for Today. call 1-800-75-BIBLE, that’s in the U.S., or 1-888-75-BIBLE in Canada, Bible by the numbers 24253. You can also order on our website, davidhawking.org. And, you know, if hope for today has opened your eyes to the depth of God’s word, and if it’s given you courage to stand for truth in a world that mocks our faith, well, if that’s the case, then we’re asking you to pray for us and possibly to step up financially. You know, this isn’t a time for silence or spectating. Every day, Hope for Today is reaching people who may never hold a Bible in their hands or otherwise hear the gospel. Your prayer and financial support puts the Word of God into ears and hearts across the globe, free of charge to anyone who will listen. You can mail support to Hope for Today, Box 3927, Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO, Seven Oaks, Abbotsford, BC, V2S, 8P1. or give us a call. We’d love to speak to you by phone, 875-BIBLE-IN-THE-US, or 888-75-BIBLE-IN-CANADA. And of course, you can give securely at davidhawking.org. And once again, here’s David.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thanks for listening to Hope for Today and our study of Revelation. We’re in chapter 9, just beginning. Our subject is Locusts from Hell. and I hope you were with us for these words. If you missed this broadcast and you’re just tuning in now, go to our website, davidhocking.org, and you can pick up anyone you missed and catch up with us. Well, we have been looking at how the bottomless pit was opened up, and the smoke comes out of it, and there came out of this locusts upon the earth. Well, these are unusual locusts. They’re like scorpions that have power like them. Wow. And they were given a responsibility to torment people for five months. Can you believe that? and it says they shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. Wow. We need to look at this matter very carefully. I believe it’s a demonic plague. That hell itself is bringing us a lot of demons. And they are going to kill and torment people on the earth. Wow. What a day that will be. We’re going to look at the shapes of the locusts, too. They are unusual, to say the least. So we’ll begin with that in our next broadcast.
SPEAKER 01 :
If you missed anything on today’s program, you can listen again to recent programs for a limited time at davidhawking.org. You’ll also find a wealth of resources, including study notes that dig deeper into each passage, books from David that tackle tough biblical topics, and complete teaching series that walk you through entire books of the Bible step by step. Check it out at davidhawking.org. And remember, any resource purchase also helps the ministry of Hope for Today. Well, next time we continue our look at Revelation 9, 1 through 12, when the abyss opens and all hell literally breaks loose. Locusts like you’ve never imagined, armored, merciless, and coming for people, not plants. David Hawking pulls back the curtain on one of the most jaw-dropping judgments in the Bible and reveals why God put it in his word for us to hear now. That’s next time right here on Hope for Today.
