Revelation

Revelation 9: The survivors refuse to repent

Begin in prayer

Before reading the fifth and sixth trumpets, ask God to show your family the judgment He limits and the repentance sinners refuse. Ask Him to search your hearts and lead you away from helpless idols to the living Lord Jesus.

Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”

Deuteronomy 32:35

Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Show us how hard sin makes the heart, and show us Jesus, who saves. Make us more like Jesus. And please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

The fifth trumpet opens the abyss after a fallen star receives its key, and smoke darkens the sun and air. Locustlike creatures emerge to torment people without God's seal for five months, with no authority to kill. People seek death without finding it, while the creatures serve the angel of the abyss as their king. At the sixth trumpet, four angels bound at the Euphrates are released at their appointed time to kill one third of mankind. John hears the horsemen's number as two hundred million and sees the fire, smoke and sulfur by which a third die. Yet the survivors refuse to repent of worshiping demons and idols, or of their murders, sorceries, sexual immorality and thefts.

As you read Revelation 9, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God limits even terrifying judgments, yet the survivors refuse to repent of their idols and sins.

The star receives a key, and the locusts receive their power, showing that even the abyss cannot act independently of God. Unlike an ordinary swarm, these creatures spare plants and attack people who lack His seal. Their five months of torment and prohibition against killing set exact boundaries around their terrible power. People long for death, yet even that escape is withheld from them. Their king's names, Abaddon and Apollyon, mean destruction and destroyer, exposing the character of the power they serve. The Euphrates recalls the direction from which Assyria and Babylon threatened Israel, making the released army a picture of invasion and judgment. Its appointed hour, day, month and year show that God governs the timing as well as the reach of the plagues. The survivors' refusal to repent reveals that suffering by itself does not bring a sinner to God. They continue serving powerless idols, and their murders, sorceries, sexual immorality and thefts remain unrepented.

How does Revelation 9 show us that God limits even terrifying judgments, yet the survivors refuse to repent of their idols and sins?

Even the abyss must act within the limits God gives.

The fallen star receives the abyss's key before opening it, and the locusts receive power to torment (verses 1 to 3). They may harm only people without God's seal, sparing plants and killing no one during their five months (verses 4 and 5). People seek death without finding it, and the creatures serve the abyss's angel as king (verses 6 to 11). His names mean destruction and destroyer, yet his power remains bounded. Demons once begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss, showing His authority over that realm (Luke 8 verse 31).

God fixes the time and reach of the sixth trumpet's judgment.

The altar's voice commands the release of four angels bound at the Euphrates (verses 13 and 14). They are prepared for an appointed hour, day, month and year to kill one third of mankind (verse 15). John hears two hundred million horsemen, whose horses bring fire, smoke and sulfur from their mouths (verses 16 to 18). These plagues kill one third of mankind, and the horses also harm with their serpentlike tails (verses 18 and 19).

The survivors refuse to repent of their idols and sins.

The survivors keep worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone and wood (verse 20). Those idols cannot see, hear or walk, yet they still receive the worship owed to God. The people also refuse repentance for murders, sorceries, sexual immorality and thefts (verse 21). Surviving judgment has not turned them from their sins.

Memorise

They didn’t repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.

Revelation 9:21

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, is there a sin I am holding on to instead of turning to Jesus?

The plagues came, and one third of mankind was killed. Yet John writes that the rest “didn’t repent of the works of their hands.” They lived through the plagues, and still they held on to their idols and their sins.

That shows how hard a sinful heart is. Pain does not mend it, and fear does not cure it. Nobody can change their own heart. Only God can give a new heart. Jesus went to the cross for His people and answered to God for their sin, so that God's justice was not set aside. His sacrifice is enough for all their sins. He rose, and He gives repentance and forgiveness to His own.

So hear the call while there is time. Turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus. Do not harden your heart like those who would not repent. Pray that God would give you a new heart. He forgives sinners who come to Him.

Parent's note

Tell your children that sin makes hearts hard, and that only God can give a new heart. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart. Parents, verses 1 to 19 are frightening, so please explain them calmly in your own words, with the warning's full weight.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God that He warns sinners and calls them to repent, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so let each one say a short prayer if they want to.

But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

2 Peter 3:7

Lord God, thank You that You warn sinners and call them to repent. Please soften our hearts. Lead each of us to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and keep us from holding on to what You hate this week. Amen.