Revelation 9:1-6

Revelation 9:1: “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.”

The first four trumpet judgments were truly terrible, but things are about to get much worse. Here we see “a star fall from heaven”. In the Bible, whenever stars are used symbolically (and we can see from the passage that it is not talking about an actual star) they refer to angels. So, in this case, we are seeing a fallen angel. This fallen angel is given the key to the bottomless pit – the abyss. The abyss is a place of confinement for demons; some demons (although not all of them) are confined there. Here we see that during the Tribulation the door to the abyss will be opened and they will be freed.

I really can’t overemphasize how unimaginably horrifying this will be. A giant horde of demons is going to be let loose to roam the Earth – and they are being let loose for the sole purpose of tormenting mankind. These are not just run-of-the-mill demons, either; these are demons that are so bad that they have been held in prison for thousands of years. These are the worst of the worst – and these powerful, supernatural beings are being set free so they can torment mankind:

Revelation 9:2: “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.
3 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.
4 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.”

The demons are called locusts, but they’re not actual locusts. Later on in the passage we are told that they have a king, and Proverbs points out that real locusts do not have a king. What this passage is describing is that a giant horde of demons is being freed from prison. The demons are not allowed to hurt any plants or any of the 144,000 Jews who have been sealed, but they can torment everyone else. (It is possible that they are also restricted from harming believers.) There are so many demons being released that they actually darken the sun. They are like a giant cloud that blots out the sky.

Revelation 9:5: “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.
6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”

The torment that is inflicted by these demons is so great that people will desperately try to kill themselves, but they will be unable to die. For five months mankind will be in unbearable pain.

But that is not all; there are still more judgments to come.