Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. Mark 3:4.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:29-30.

We know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. Romans 8:22-23.

And our chapter, Revelation 9: Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months; and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them. The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle. They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months. They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things. Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and the day and the month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind. The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm. The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.

Remember John is seeing in vision what in his experience of what he is seeing, is limited to his time, so his descriptions of the armies and their weapons of war sounds strange to us even as they must have been exceedingly strange to John. I was struck by the bottomless pit because isn’t our capacity for war and sin and suffering also bottomless? And the king of that bottomless pit? Abaddon…Apollyon…which means Destruction. And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour…and the day…and the month…and the year…were released. We can’t read Revelation without being sobered by the vision John experienced. There is a reason for every part of it. So can we think this is so farfetched and strange, really? Listening to the NPR news the other day in the car, a reporter in Israel was telling the host about receiving text messages that asked him to report a fragment and not a missile had hit in Israel, with the texts becoming more urgent and threatening. He investigated as all investigative reporters do to verify sources. It was a gambling site. People stood to make or lose money on a bet about even the specificity of what would fall on Israel. Can you imagine? And they did not repent of their murders nor their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts…and did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood. The first Scripture verse cited was from Hearing God by Dallas Willard. He was sharing Scripture about Jesus’ encounter in the synagogue with the man with the withered hand and the Pharisees who were watching to see if Jesus would heal – work – on the Sabbath. Willard wrote at the end of the devotional for today: “Meditate: Read Mark 3:1-5. Consider the synagogue folks (primarily Pharisees) who could not automatically want someone healed (love, compassion), but who could automatically want someone dead (judgment, contempt). What causes religious people to be so disconnected with the heart of God? What heart attitudes must have been missing? Plead for them.” The one they wanted dead – Jesus. How far removed from the heart of God are we today? And yet Love and Trust are blessings we receive from the very heart of Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. Everything in this life we live can pull us away from the heart of God or can draw us closer to Him. Our choice always. His choice? For our good in Him. All that will be played out described in John’s vision will be, and if we’re honest, is being played out today and every day in some measure from the bottomless pit of destruction until Jesus the Son returns. And then? The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat hay like a cow. But the snakes will eat dust. In those days no one will be hurt or destroyed on My holy mountain. I, the LORD, have spoken! Isaiah 65:25. To me that sounds no less impossible than all the events of this fallen world leading inevitably to all John saw in vision. We have so much to understand. Only God can truly help us to see. There is a hope we can know. Our hope in Creator God for all He is doing for good we will one day understand and rejoice in when all destruction and suffering and sin will cease and be no more.