Revelation 9:1-2
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. 2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.
There have been some imaginative interpretations of the extraordinary glimpses of the future given to John around 95 AD. He probably did not completely understand what he was writing because there was no context. To be honest, 1,930 years later, some descriptions are still a mystery to us, even with our helicopters and amazing technology of war. We simply have no context to envision what this could be. The star seems to be a person. That much we can ascertain. He had the ability to manipulate the earth and pollute the air. It eludes the standard techniques of interpretation.
Come to Cape Community Church and learn that this limitation has done surprisingly little to stop the speculation of eager interpreters. The remaining trumpets present some interpretive hurdles that must have seemed insurmountable to John, with armies of 200 million. But now we have China and India who could conceivably assemble such a force. Now we have helicopters and amazing technology that could be seen as a locust. It could also be that the necessary technology is around the corner. What is important is not how this happens but that it happens. Jesus is coming soon and all fear will be gone.
O Heavenly Father, you have the answers to all the questions about the future. May we come to you in prayer to seek what is important. In Jesus’ name. Amen.