If you recall, there was an eagle flying above John who recorded seeing and hearing this eagle “crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, ‘Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”. That pause has ended. The woe’s have been pronounced. Now we come to the fifth trumpet judgment in Revelation 9:1-12, which is the first of the three woe’s. In today’s blog we will not cover all 12 verses; we’ll look at verse one for today.
Now I am one who believes good Bible study begins with making good, but simple observations and then asking good questions. So, we are going to start out by making four observations of verse 1 which says, “And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.”
The first observation we need to make is that as the fifth angel has blown his trumpet, a star has fallen from heaven to earth.
John writes in verse 1, “And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth…” If you recall, a star called Wormwood also fell when the third trumpet was blown. This is not the same. In fact, this is not a star at all, which leads us to our second observation.
Notice in verse 1 that John refers to this star as a pronoun.
“…I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth and he…” We are not to think of this star as some heavenly body, like that which lights up the night sky. We are to think of this star as a person; a living, breathing, intelligent person. Which brings us to this question:
Who is this person that John witnesses falling from heaven to earth? The truth is we do not know. However, there are four possibilities to who this person could be: First, he could be Satan. Many believe that because Satan is often referred to as a star, like in Isaiah 14:12. Secondly, he could be a fallen angel. Thirdly, he could be a good angel. And lastly, he could be Jesus himself, which I am least inclined to believe.
Now, I am one who has come to believe this is a good angel sent from heaven to earth, who shines brightly, appears to John as a falling star, and has been sent from heaven to earth for a specific purpose. You may disagree, and that is absolutely fine, because who this star is, is not the essence of this passage. And that leads us to our next observation.
John records seeing this person given a key.
John writes in verse 1, “…he was given the key…” This means this person did not have this key before, someone else had this key. Once this person descended from heaven to earth, this star received this key.
The other thing we must keep in mind here is what keys do. They have a function. Keys unlock and lock things like doors or safes. Also, notice this text says “the key” and not “a key”, which should lead us to believe this is no normal key. This is “the key”. Which brings us to this question: What does this key go to? And that leads us to our next observation.
According to John, in verse 1, this key goes “to the shaft of the bottomless pit.”
Your translation may use the name “Abyss” instead of “bottomless pit”; both are correct. There are two questions here that need to be answered. The first one being: Who gives this person the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit? My answer is Jesus. According to Revelation 1:17 & 18, Jesus is the one who holds this key. Which means Jesus is the rightful possessor to the key of the abyss. Which is also why I do not believe this star is Jesus. I believe Jesus sent a good angel from heaven to earth, with this key, and gave this good angel the authority to eventually open the shaft to the abyss.
My next question is this: What is this “bottomless pit” or “Abyss”? As the name implies it is a place with an unfathomable depth. Jesus referred to this place as “Death & Hades” (Rev. 1:17-18). It is the place of demons. For example, in Luke 8:26-31, there was a man possessed by a legion of demons, who lived in a cave. One day, when this possessed man saw Jesus, the demons cried out, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God?” And not wanting to return to the Abyss, the demons asked if they could depart into a herd of pigs, which Jesus granted. It is also the place where Satan will spend 1,000 years locked up during Jesus’ millennial reign, according to Revelation 20:3. And in case you are wondering – this is not the place we refer to as hell. Hell is different from the Abyss. While the Abyss is nothing more than a bottomless pit that contains evil spirits, hell is a literal lake of fire where Satan and all whose name is not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be cast for all eternity, after the millennial reign of Christ, according to Revelation 20:14-15.