Part 9 (1/2)
CHAPTER IX.
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.
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 gra.s.s of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of G.o.d in their foreheads.
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.
7. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
11. And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
The symbols of this trumpet are of a very peculiar character and peculiarly combined. They are not drawn entirely from the natural world, showing that we are not to look for their fulfilment in political events alone; neither are they drawn from human life in any such way as to indicate events in the religious history of the church. The leading characters in it, however, are living, active agents of such a destructive nature as to ent.i.tle them to the designation of a woe.
The first object presented in the vision is a ”star” fallen to the earth. Our translation conveys the idea that this star was in the act of falling; but in the original it is different, being there represented as having fallen, its dejection from heaven to earth being complete. The only place that it appeared in view was on the earth, and there it is described as fallen. A star is a symbol either of a civil ruler or of a religious teacher, the symbols in connection deciding whether it is set in the political or the ecclesiastical firmament. But this was not such a star as He who walketh in the midst of the golden candle-sticks holdeth in his right hand, but it was a _fallen_ star, indicating that it was the propagator of a false faith.
To this star was given a key. In the Gospels the same figure is employed, where the ministers of Christ are represented as possessing the keys of the kingdom of heaven, showing that they acted in his name and by his authority. How appropriate, then, is this symbol as applied to a false teacher, who possesses, not the keys of the kingdom of heaven, but, instead, ”the key of the bottomless pit”! Thus, under the symbol of the star and the key, we have the teacher and his authority set forth. Armed with this authority, this false teacher ”opened the bottomless pit; and there rose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.” In the Scriptures Jesus is represented as the Sun of righteousness, while ”the light of the _glorious gospel_ of Christ”
illuminates the world. But here we have something of the opposite character--a dense smoke eclipsing the sun and darkening the heavens.
Have we not here a fit representation of a delusive faith proceeding from its true source, ”the bottomless pit”? And is not a fallen star an appropriate symbol of its propagator?
In representing a system of religion by these objects from nature we depart from the general rule first laid down--that objects of nature symbolize political affairs, while the department of human and angelic life is chosen to represent religious affairs. But the reader should bear in mind one important exception to this rule--that things prominently connected with the history of the people of G.o.d in former ages are frequently employed (regardless of the department to which they belong) to represent spiritual things, their interpretation being easily seen; such as candle-sticks, altar, temple, incense, etc. When the plague of ”thick darkness” covered the land of Egypt for three days, ”the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.” In the exodus the Lord went before them ”by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light.” After the erection of the tabernacle the holy place was constantly illuminated. This natural light in the Jewish age const.i.tutes a beautiful type of the spiritual ”light of the glorious gospel of Christ” that has ”s.h.i.+ned in our hearts” in the Christian dispensation.
This spiritual light comes from Christ, the ”Sun of righteousness,” the ”true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world”; and proceeds, also, from his people, who ”s.h.i.+ne as lights in the world.” But it is the ”light of the _gospel_.” This light proceeds in a special sense from G.o.d's ministers, who are represented as ”stars” (chap. 1:20) and who possess ”the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Mat. 16:19; 18:18.
How appropriate, then, that a _fallen_ ”star,” possessing ”the key of the bottomless pit,” should be a symbol of a religious impostor, and that the smoke which darkened the heavens, eclipsing the sun, the source of light, should represent a prominent delusive faith! I have already mentioned the fact that the symbols of this vision lead to a series of events entirely separate in their nature from the spiritual history of the church as developed under other symbols. We find its fulfilment in Mohammed and the delusive system he promulgated. In the year 606 Mahomet retired to a cave in Hera, near Mecca, and there received his pretended revelations, although it was not until six years later that he began to teach his doctrines publicly and to gain followers outside of the circle of his own family and personal friends. Gibbon, Vol. V., p. 121.
The next object in the vision is the locusts that came out of the smoke, to which was given power like scorpions, or power to inflict a deadly sting like scorpions. To what living agents, then, did the delusion of Mohammedanism give birth--agents of a destructive nature like scorpion locust? Evidently, the Saracens,[6] those warrior followers of Mohammed who flocked to his standard. These locusts received the express command that ”they should not hurt the gra.s.s of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of G.o.d in their foreheads.” The successor of Mohammed, Abubeker, gave the Saracens a command that they should ”destroy no palm-trees, nor burn any fields of grain; cut down no fruit-trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you kill to eat.” This command was singular, yet it doubtless is not the fulfilment of the command to the locusts; for that would be adopting a literal meaning instead of a symbolic one, and to complete the picture we should have had literal Saracens instead of locusts. We can not consistently make a part literal and the remainder symbolical. In the explanation of the first trumpet (chap. 8:6, 7), we showed that gra.s.s and trees symbolized the inhabitants of a kingdom, gra.s.s representing the feebler and trees the stronger portions of society. The fact, then, that these locusts were not to destroy the green gra.s.s and trees show that they were not sent as a scourge upon the political empire only, as was the storm of hail and fire under the first trumpet. Had their mission been like that of natural locusts, to destroy every green thing, we should then conclude that they were sent as a scourge upon the empire alone, having nothing whatever to do with a system of religion. These locusts, however, were commanded not to do what natural locusts always do--eat green gra.s.s and trees--and were commissioned to do what locusts never do--”hurt men,” but only those who have not the seal of G.o.d in their foreheads; that is, the wors.h.i.+pers of a false, idolatrous church, who are not known unto G.o.d as his true people. This is positive proof that the design of this vision is to set forth some awful religious imposture; for the ”men” that they were to hurt are found in the department which by a.n.a.logy represents religious events.
[Footnote 6: ”In earlier times the name of Saraceni was applied by Greeks and Romans to the troublesome Nomad Arabs of the Syro-Arabian desert.”--_Encyclopaedia Britannica_. In the Middle Ages, however, Europeans began to call all their Moslem enemies Saracens. It is in the limited sense that it is here applied, designating the first followers of Mohammed before the rise of the Ottoman empire.]
The fact that their commission was to torment those ”men which have not the seal of G.o.d in their foreheads,” is a proof also of the wide-spread apostasies that had already taken place. This was the time when the pale horseman was careering over the world carrying desolation everywhere by his instruments of oppression--sword, pestilences, famine, and the wild beasts of the earth. ”The churches both in the Western and Eastern empire were in the most deplorable condition, being corrupted with the grossest ignorance and idolatry; the virgin Mary, the saints, and miserable relics of every description being wors.h.i.+ped in the place of Jehovah, and superst.i.tion reigning with sovereign power over all minds.”
The Saracen warriors of Mohammed were sent as a scourge upon apostate Christendom, overrunning the very territory where the gospel was first preached, and were commissioned to ”torment” the false professors of Christianity.
In regard to the kind and the extent of the injury they were to inflict, it is said that ”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. 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 Saracens, as here described under the symbol of the locusts, sustained a two-fold relation, and the careful and perfect manner in which the symbols are selected to set it forth is worthy of particular notice. In the first place, the Saracens were a political body. As such, locusts would fitly represent them. But they were also a religious body, and how could that fact be symbolically combined with the other? It is done by the locusts' being forbidden to act out their own nature in eating gra.s.s and trees, and their being commanded instead to ”hurt men,” thus changing the field of their operations into the department of human life--the department that is chosen to symbolically set forth religious events. Thus the politico-religious system of the Saracens is accurately set forth. This, also, is nearly as clear as a demonstration that the position already taken concerning the nature and the use of symbolic language is correct.
It was given that they should ”not kill” men. We have already shown that killing men when used symbolically signifies the destruction of the political or ecclesiastical organizations and inst.i.tutions of society.
We could not consistently interpret it as literal slaughter, but as some a.n.a.lagous destruction. Now, the Saracen power was, as already stated, a politico-religious system, and its warriors were an infatuated set of religious fanatics, described by historians as ”carrying the sword in one hand, and the Koran in the other.” Thus, they had it in their power to kill either religiously or politically--destroy either the church or the empire--but they did neither, for their mission was not to kill, but to ”torment.” ”They made extensive conquests and gained immense numbers of converts. But they did not overthrow the Eastern empire, although they repeatedly attacked and besieged Constantinople, suffering, however, uniform defeat in the attempt. Neither did they destroy the church, corrupt and apostate as it was. To idolators and infidels they put the alternative of the Koran or death; but allowed the Christians to retain their church organization, laying them, however, under severe contributions, and treating them to the ignominious appellation of Christian dogs.” Concerning the character of Mohammed, Gibbon informs us that ”he seldom trampled on a prostrate enemy, and he seems to promise, that on the payment of a tribute, the least guilty of his unbelieving subjects might be indulged in their wors.h.i.+p, or at least in their imperfect faith” (Vol. V, p. 129), and this, of course, would be the natural tendency of his followers. The Armenian and the Greek churches survived, and still exist in that portion of the world, but they have indeed been greviously tormented. ”The proud Moslem, glorying in his prophet and religion, has heaped every possible insult and injury upon the Christians,” yet he suffered them to live, but live only for him to torment. Surely the oppressions thus experienced are appropriately described by the words, ”as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.” Under such torments the professed Christians might court death, but such is not granted; and still they survive, but only to be ”tormented.” The Moslem had ”the Christian dog” completely under his foot.
We now turn our attention to the period of time during which these Saracen locusts were to continue their ravages. It is given as ”five months,” or one hundred and fifty days. As this description is entirely symbolic, we must consider the time symbolic also, for time certainly can be symbolized as well as anything else. It is very appropriate for days to symbolize years, for they are a.n.a.lagous periods of time; the diurnal revolution of the earth being taken to represent the earth's annual movement. Such a system of reckoning time was known centuries ago. When Jacob complained to Laban because he had been given Leah instead of Rachel, ”Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the first-born. Fulfil her _week_, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve me yet _seven other years_. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week ... seven other years.” Gen. 29:26-30. In this case it will be seen that a day was used to represent a year, since seven days, or one week, represented seven years. When the law was given, Moses recognized the week of seven natural days, the last day of which was const.i.tuted a Sabbath of rest for Israel; but he also inst.i.tuted a week of seven years, the last year of which was a sabbatical year of rest unto the land. This last fact will explain such expressions as ”forty days, _each day for a year_”
(Num. 14:34), and ”I have appointed thee each day for a year.” Ezek.
4:6.