The locusts in Revelation 9 are frightening enough without our inventing details about them. They emerge from the abyss, torment people for five months, and serve an angelic king called Apollyon. I understand John to be describing a real future judgment involving a supernatural host. To explain that conclusion, we need to follow the passage from the sounding trumpet through the end of the first woe, paying attention to the creatures’ origin and instructions as well as their appearance.
Read the Fifth Trumpet in Its Order
The first four trumpets bring devastation to the land, the sea, fresh water, and the heavenly lights. Before the fifth sounds, John hears a warning about the three remaining blasts:
And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!"
Revelation 8:13
A woe announces severe distress and judgment. The earlier trumpets devastate the world people inhabit; the fifth brings torment directed at the people themselves. Heaven warns of that greater suffering before it begins. The locust judgment belongs within this sequence, so we need to read more than its most startling details.
I understand these as future events within a literal Tribulation. The trumpets follow the opening of the seventh seal, and their sequence leads toward the proclamation of Christ’s kingdom at the seventh trumpet. Treating each blast as an unrelated event somewhere in church history breaks up that progression. My study of The Seven Trumpets of Revelation explains the series more fully; here we are following Revelation 9:1-12.
Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.
Revelation 9:1-2
John calls this figure a fallen star, then describes him receiving a key and opening the pit. Those actions are why I understand the star as an angelic person. A meteor does not receive a key and unlock a prison.
Some readers identify this fallen star as Satan and understand his fall as rebellion. Others understand the description as a descent from heaven to perform an assigned task. John says the star has fallen but does not name him or explain the circumstances of that fall. We can discuss those interpretations without pretending the passage settles his identity.
The key was given to him. He does not break into the abyss or seize control of it from God; he receives access when the fifth trumpet sounds. In Revelation 1:18, Jesus holds the keys of Hades and Death. In Revelation 20, an angel carries a key to the abyss when he comes to imprison Satan. Although these scenes concern different actions and places, each shows that access remains under God’s authority.
The Greek expression translated bottomless pit describes a shaft, phrear, opening into the abyss, abyssos, a deep or unfathomable place. The English word bottomless supplies no map of the earth’s interior. Scripture gives no coordinates and does not identify the abyss with an ocean trench or volcano, a black hole, or a tunnel through a flat earth. Its use as a place of spiritual confinement is much clearer. During Jesus’ ministry, demons possessing a man in the country of the Gadarenes begged Him not to send them there:
Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!" For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. Jesus asked him, saying, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion," because many demons had entered him. And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them. Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.
Luke 8:26-33
The demons recognized Jesus as the Son of the Most High God. They had to leave the man at His command and ask permission even to enter the swine. They feared confinement in the abyss because He had authority to send them there. That tells us something about the place and about Christ’s rule over them. It does not establish that these particular demons are the beings John later sees released. The Abyss or Bottomless Pit examines the relevant passages more fully.
When the shaft opens in Revelation 9, smoke pours out like the smoke of a great furnace and darkens the sun and air. John describes an enormous outflow without explaining its chemical composition or identifying a modern weapon. Smoke alone cannot account for what follows, because living beings emerge from it.
The Locust Host and Its God-Given Limits
Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.
Revelation 9:3-6
John calls them locusts, and I am content to use his word. Their origin, behavior, and later description distinguish them from the insects that devastate crops. They come from the abyss, leave vegetation unharmed, and torment selected human beings with scorpion-like power. This is an extraordinary host, whatever further questions we have about its nature.
I believe the strongest reading is that these are supernatural beings associated with the abyss and its destructive angelic ruler. Those connections give us reasonable grounds to call them demons. Revelation itself does not use that name for them or identify a particular class of fallen angels, so I would distinguish the inference from John’s explicit description. We can recognize their dreadful work without supplying a catalogue of beings Scripture never names.
Their instructions are remarkably precise. They receive power, but they cannot use it wherever or however they please. Grass, green plants, and trees are protected. Among human beings, those bearing God’s forehead seal are protected. The host may torment the unsealed for five months, but it has no authority to kill them. Its fierce appearance does not enlarge its assignment.
John repeatedly describes permission being given or withheld. The key was given, power was given, and authority to kill was withheld. A hostile force acts during God’s judgment, yet it remains subject to His command. God restrains these evil beings and determines how far they may act. His control does not make their destructive character good, and their malice cannot turn His judgment into an uncontrolled disaster.
The forehead seal mentioned here was introduced before the trumpet judgments, when four angels were instructed to hold back harm until God’s servants had been marked:
After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, "Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads." And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed: of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.
Revelation 7:1-8
John heard a definite number, 144,000, and named the tribes of Israel from which the servants were sealed. I see no reason to make those tribes a disguised name for the church. The protection announced in Revelation 7 helps explain the command in Revelation 9: the locusts must not harm anyone bearing God’s forehead seal. They can distinguish the sealed from the unsealed, although John does not describe the mark’s physical form.
The Holy Spirit’s sealing of the church also expresses God’s ownership, but we should distinguish it from this particular forehead mark. The Spirit is a divine Person who indwells and seals every genuine believer, guaranteeing what God has promised. Revelation 7 describes servants from Israel being marked during the Tribulation. I understand the church to have been gathered to Christ before this worldwide hour of trial. Our security does not depend on recognizing the locusts or obtaining the mark described here.
The command limits both whom the locusts may attack and how long they may act. They receive five months. Some readers compare that span with the length of an ordinary locust season, but the host’s authority lasts five months because that is the time assigned to it. Nothing in the passage authorizes us to turn those months into centuries of political or religious oppression.
John compares the suffering to a scorpion’s strike, then describes people seeking death and being unable to find it. They will long for an escape they cannot obtain. He does not tell us what each person attempts or how death is withheld. We should let that dreadful statement stand without inventing a medical mechanism or claiming to know every circumstance.
What John’s Comparisons Do and Do Not Mean
The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months.
Revelation 9:7-10
John describes what the beings resemble through a series of comparisons. Their shapes are like horses prepared for battle, their faces resemble men’s faces, and their hair resembles women’s hair. They have lion-like teeth, breastplates like iron, and wings whose noise recalls many chariots and horses charging into battle. Their tails have scorpion-like stings. The combined description conveys a fearsome host equipped to inflict the torment already announced.
Taking the passage literally includes reading those comparisons as comparisons. A real creature can have a face resembling a man’s without being human. Something resembling a golden crown need not be made of gold. An iron-like breastplate suggests formidable protection, but John does not say the beings are indestructible. We should neither explain away the coming event nor treat the description as a set of engineering specifications.
The crown-like forms do not identify a modern political regime or establish an angelic rank. John describes their appearance after already explaining that the host receives its authority. The NET translation note on Revelation 9:7 points out that he makes two comparisons: the forms resemble crowns, and their appearance resembles gold. Neither comparison tells us the material or gives us grounds to assign a hidden office to the beings wearing them.
The comparison with women’s hair also describes appearance. John does not call the hair seductive, shameful, beautiful, or deceptive. Neither that detail nor the human-like faces identifies a particular ethnicity, and the passage gives no basis for condemning a modern hairstyle. A description of these beings cannot be made into a moral lesson about women’s appearance.
The sound of the wings conveys the tumult of a host rushing into battle, without identifying an engine. The description of the tails tells us where the scorpion-like stings are. John then returns to the five-month limit. Even as he describes the creatures’ intimidating features, he reminds us that their power will end at the appointed time.
The King of the Host and Other Interpretations
And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon. One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.
Revelation 9:11-12
John identifies their king as the angel of the abyss and gives his name in Hebrew and Greek. Abaddon is associated with destruction or ruin; Apollyon means Destroyer. In the Old Testament wisdom books, Abaddon can refer to destruction or the realm of the dead. Here John uses it as the name of the angelic ruler over this host. The immediate context determines how we should understand it.
John names an angelic person without explaining his creation or rank among other beings. The title Destroyer does not make him the owner of the abyss or give him control over death. His host may torment people but may not kill them. Giving his name in two languages helps readers identify him. It gives us no reason to search later languages for a similar-sounding politician’s name.
Some readers identify Apollyon with Satan, whom Revelation elsewhere names as the dragon, the serpent of old, and the Devil. John does not use those names for Apollyon. Nor does he say that Apollyon is the fallen star who receives the key in verses 1-2. He introduces the star as the key-holder and Apollyon as the host’s king. Neither proposed identification is explicit, so I would not teach either as certain. At the same time, John’s silence does not prove that these must be different beings.
There is also no explicit identification with the destroyer at Passover, the angel who struck the Assyrians, or the destroying angels mentioned in Psalm 78. Similar work does not establish that every passage concerns the same angel. The distinctive Angel of the LORD in the relevant Old Testament appearances is a Christophany, an appearance of Christ. Apollyon should never be confused with the eternal Son. My study of Apollyon and the Destroyer Angel considers those passages in more detail.
Having a king also sets this host apart from ordinary locusts. Proverbs includes locusts among small creatures whose behavior displays remarkable wisdom:
There are four things which are little on the earth, But they are exceedingly wise: The ants are a people not strong, Yet they prepare their food in the summer; The rock badgers are a feeble folk, Yet they make their homes in the crags; The locusts have no king, Yet they all advance in ranks; The spider skillfully grasps with its hands, And it is in kings' palaces.
Proverbs 30:24-28
Ordinary locusts advance in ranks without a king, while Revelation’s host has one. That contrast adds to the reasons for distinguishing it from ordinary insects. It comes from the abyss, has an extraordinary appearance, and leaves plants unharmed. Enlarging a natural insect does not explain what John describes.
Exodus 10 and Joel provide further biblical background. A locust invasion could strip a land of food and leave its people facing ruin. Joel describes a devastating advance in military language, with darkness and the noise of an approaching host. Those passages help us understand the dread in Revelation, but their similarities do not establish that each describes the same event or species. Revelation 9 also gives a crucial difference: vegetation is spared while people are tormented.
The military comparisons have led some readers to identify the beings as helicopters. They begin with wings, noise, and a warlike appearance, then try to fit the remaining details to a machine. Faces resembling human faces and hair resembling women’s hair require further guesses, as do lion-like teeth and stinging tails. The explanation must also account for the abyss and the angelic king. Why does the host distinguish sealed from unsealed people, and why is it forbidden to kill? Substituting a drone or an engineered bioweapon does not resolve those problems.
If my opening question is What modern object resembles one detail?
I have already given that detail more weight than the rest of the passage. John wrote in the vocabulary of his own day, but that does not mean he was struggling to name a piece of twenty-first-century military equipment. Each generation can find an invention that resembles something in the description. Resemblance alone is poor grounds for identifying the host.
Other readers understand the host as a human army or political movement. They point to the military imagery or the experience of oppression. Yet neither an ordinary army nor a movement naturally accounts for the host’s origin and exact restrictions. An explanation needs to account for the whole description, including the details that do not fit its initial suggestion.
Preterist readings place the fulfillment in an ancient invasion or ruler’s actions. Idealist readings understand the scene chiefly as a recurring portrayal of evil and judgment. I understand a future event because John places this host within a sequence of trumpets and gives its torment an appointed duration. When that judgment ends, further judgments follow. The passage does teach that evil remains under God’s restraint, but that general truth does not replace the event John describes.
A real supernatural host therefore seems to me the best explanation. Its precise nature remains partly unexplained, and filling every silence would not improve our understanding. John tells us where the beings come from and who rules them. He also identifies their targets, describes their torment, and sets out the limits on their power.
The Remaining Woes and the Tribulation Timeline
After naming the king, John announces that the first woe is past and two more are coming. The five months end; the host does not gain an endless reign. At the sixth trumpet, four angels bound at the Euphrates are released, and another terrifying host brings death to a third of mankind:
Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed–by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm. But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Revelation 9:13-21
The fifth-trumpet host was forbidden to kill. The sixth trumpet brings enormous loss of life through a host whose horses, riders, and means of destruction John describes separately. The two judgments should not be merged simply because both are terrifying or include lion-like features.
What follows the deaths is just as sobering as the plagues themselves. The survivors continue worshiping demons and idols that cannot see, hear, or walk. Their murders, sorceries, sexual immorality, and thefts continue. The judgment has exposed the powerlessness of their objects of worship, yet they refuse to turn to God.
John repeatedly says that they did not repent. I understand him to be describing people who refuse a real opportunity. Other Tribulation passages tell us about God’s witnesses and people who come to faith during that time. His offer is genuine, but overwhelming evidence does not compel someone to receive it. A person can hate the consequences of sin while still refusing to give up the practices and false worship that brought those consequences.
The word translated sorceries, pharmakeia, concerns magic and occult practices, which could include drugs or potions. The NET note on Revelation 9:21 explains that usage. Here sorcery appears alongside demon worship and idolatry. The related origin of the English word pharmacy gives us no reason to read this as a condemnation of legitimate medicine. The wrongdoing is seeking power through spells, divination, and occult rituals.
After the sixth-trumpet account, Revelation pauses to describe the little book and John’s continuing prophetic commission, then the measuring of the temple and the two witnesses. God continues to give testimony while judgment proceeds. The seventh trumpet announces the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ. The sequence leads toward Jesus’ rightful reign, and the beings released from the abyss will never gain permanent dominion.
My study of the End Times Timeline places these events within the larger prophetic sequence. To understand the church’s place, we must also consider Paul’s promise about Christ gathering His people:
But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Paul comforts grieving believers by assuring them that Christians who have died will not miss Christ’s coming. The dead in Christ rise first, and the living are caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air. All of them will remain with Him. Our hope rests on belonging to the Lord who died and rose again.
I understand this gathering to take place before the coming worldwide hour of trial. 1 Thessalonians 4 describes the gathering itself. Its place before the Tribulation becomes clear as we read it alongside other prophetic passages; these verses alone do not supply a seven-year timetable. The church’s next great expectation is to meet Christ. We are not instructed to identify the fifth-trumpet creatures in order to survive their mission.
Following that gathering, I understand Daniel’s final week to unfold as a literal seven-year Tribulation. Revelation describes the seals, trumpets, and bowls within God’s dealings at the end of the age, leading to Christ’s visible bodily return. The phrase Great Tribulation refers especially to the intensified final half of those seven years. It follows the midpoint abomination of desolation, the desecration of the holy place Jesus warned about in Matthew 24:15-21. The fifth trumpet belongs within the seven years, but I would not assign it a more precise date than Scripture’s sequence allows.
Jesus will return bodily, defeat His enemies, and reign for a literal thousand years. At the beginning of that reign, the abyss appears again, this time as Satan’s prison:
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.
Revelation 20:1-3
An angel binds Satan, shuts him in the abyss, and seals him there so that he cannot deceive the nations during the thousand years. The abyss remains a place of temporary confinement under God’s control. Satan is released briefly afterward and is later cast into the Lake of Fire. The two destinations should not be treated as interchangeable.
Scripture also speaks of Hades, Gehenna, and angels held in chains of darkness. Each passage needs to be read in its setting so that we do not confuse different places or events. The locusts’ five-month torment occurs on earth during the Tribulation. It does not describe the final judgment of every unbelieving human being or justify teaching that hell is simply God turning people over to demons.
Unbelieving humans will be raised bodily for judgment at the Great White Throne. I understand the Lake of Fire to bring the final, irreversible destruction of both body and soul, called the second death. Human souls are not inherently immortal. This excludes both universal salvation and eternal conscious torment for human beings. It also differs from soul sleep, since the dead remain conscious between death and resurrection. Revelation 20:10 specifically describes endless torment for the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. We need to preserve those distinctions when teaching final judgment. The five months of suffering in Revelation 9 do not describe the final destiny of every unbeliever.
Read Revelation 9 With Sobriety and Hope
We can spend so much time naming the locusts that we scarcely hear the warning. Revelation describes people who continue in false worship and wicked conduct even after devastating judgment. I would not assure someone that he can reject Christ now and easily repent once prophecy becomes unmistakable. The survivors in this chapter do not respond that way. No one should presume on a future willingness to repent while deliberately refusing God’s call today.
People suffering from illness or despair today should not be told that their pain proves the Revelation 9 locusts are attacking them. John is describing a particular future judgment, and a loose resemblance to one feature is no basis for frightening someone with that diagnosis.
For believers, the passage should encourage steady obedience rather than panic. The Holy Spirit indwells and seals those who have truly been born again. Christ’s ownership of His people cannot be overturned by a creature from the abyss. His promise to gather the church gives us comfort, and His coming kingdom gives us reason to remain faithful when evil appears powerful.
Confidence in Christ does not make occult investigation harmless or excuse carelessness about sin. Scripture reveals enough about the host to warn us. It never instructs us to contact its ruler, summon spirits, or seek hidden knowledge through forbidden practices. Christians resist evil by submitting to God, believing His Word, and praying. We refuse participation in darkness and receive instruction and correction in faithful church fellowship, rather than pursue private spiritual experiments.
We need the same care when discussing current events. A disease or eclipse does not become the fifth trumpet because it resembles one detail in John’s language. Nor does a volcanic eruption, military project, or political movement. We should be ready for Christ and honest about what Scripture says. Setting dates or confidently identifying the host afresh with each new headline distracts people from both responsibilities.
I also want our attention to prophecy to affect how we live now. Someone who knows elaborate theories about Apollyon but neglects his family, excuses dishonesty, or refuses to speak of Christ has neglected clearer responsibilities. The coming judgment should make us earnest about repentance and faithful in ordinary obedience. The coming King deserves our worship more than His defeated enemies deserve our curiosity.
That King is the Savior who first came in humility. Jesus is the eternal Son, fully God and fully man, born of a virgin and completely sinless. Wicked men tortured and killed Him, but He voluntarily gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father and Son acted in unity to provide our salvation.
Christ’s saving work through His shed blood and death was complete before His burial and bodily resurrection. He rose again and lives as the Savior of everyone who comes to Him. His death was for the whole world, and God’s gracious offer is genuine. People can still resist and reject it, as the refusal to repent in Revelation 9 painfully illustrates.
Everyone who truly repents and believes receives forgiveness and justification, a right standing before God. That person is born again and becomes a new creation, indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit. Salvation is received by grace through faith. Our conduct neither earns it nor keeps us saved, but genuine new birth does produce evidence in a changed life. Eternal security gives no permission for lawlessness, and a Christian label does not establish that someone has been regenerated.
Every person begins with a place in the Book of Life. Those who finally reject the Messiah have their names blotted out, while believers remain. Through Christ’s blood, it is their sins that are blotted out. The call to repent is therefore a sincere invitation to receive the Savior, not an announcement that some people were never offered salvation at all.
My Final Thoughts
I understand the locusts as a real supernatural host that will emerge from the abyss during the fifth trumpet. Their appearance is extraordinary, their torment severe, and their ruler destructive, yet their targets, actions, and duration are restricted. We can teach those truths firmly while admitting that John leaves some questions about their precise nature unanswered.
Revelation directs us toward the reign of Jesus, who will judge rebellion and fulfill His promises. If you have been putting off repentance, do not assume another frightening event will make surrender easier. Christ genuinely calls you to come to Him now. If you belong to Him, trust His promise, obey what He has already made clear, and tell others why His blood is sufficient to save them.
One of the most disturbing parts of Revelation’s trumpet judgments is the response to them: people survive devastation and still refuse to repent. They do not simply need a more impressive sign. As I follow the seven trumpets, I see God judging openly, setting limits on particular judgments, and continuing to send testimony. I understand these as future events, and the earlier uses of trumpets in Scripture help us follow what John hears.
Trumpets Are Public Alarms Under God’s Rule
The Lord Jesus Christ opens the seals, angels receive trumpets, and the judgments proceed from God’s throne. Human rebellion is moving toward an end God has appointed. John uses vivid comparisons and signs, but those descriptions concern events with real consequences for the earth and its inhabitants. When he says something is “like” a mountain or a torch, we should honor that comparison without treating the judgment as imaginary.
I read these passages from a futurist and premillennial perspective. The trumpets describe judgments still to come, during the seven-year Tribulation associated with Daniel’s seventieth week. Christ gathers His church before that period and returns bodily at its conclusion, before establishing His literal thousand-year reign. The study on the Pre-Tribulation Rapture explains the grounds for that sequence. These judgments concern His dealings with a rebellious world and Israel; the church is not their object of wrath.
Long before Revelation, trumpets served as public signals in Israel. They could gather the people, direct the camp’s movement, mark appointed celebrations, or sound an alarm in war. Numbers 10 gave instructions for silver trumpets, including their use when an enemy oppressed the nation.
When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God, and you will be saved from your enemies.
Numbers 10:9
The Hebrew expression wa-ha-re’otem, translated “you shall sound an alarm,” uses a verb associated with raising a shout or signal. Here the setting is war, and Israel is to call openly upon the Lord for deliverance. Blowing harder or producing a particular sound could not rescue them by itself. They were obeying His instruction and depending on His promise.
When God says they will be remembered, He is promising to act faithfully for them, not admitting that He might otherwise forget they exist. He remembered Noah and caused the floodwaters to recede. He remembered Abraham when He delivered Lot, and His remembrance of His covenant led to Israel’s rescue from Egypt. In each case, remembering was followed by action on behalf of His people.
Joshua 6 also joins trumpet sound with the Lord’s intervention. Israel marched around Jericho under His instructions, and He told them when the people were to shout.
It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.
Joshua 6:5
That was an extraordinary way to take a fortified city, and Israel could not claim that its military ingenuity had brought down the walls. God judged Jericho and gave the victory He had promised. Revelation likewise presents trumpet judgments as acts He directs, even when created things or angelic beings carry them out.
The plagues of Exodus supply another part of the background. The Lord struck Egypt’s water, land, and crops, and later brought darkness, exposing the impotence of its gods. Pharaoh’s continued resistance did not make the judgments unjust. Revelation will show similar devastation on a wider scale and the same refusal to repent in those who remain determined to reject God.
The Seventh Seal Opens into the First Four Trumpets
Revelation 4 and 5 establish why these judgments belong under Christ’s authority. John sees God’s throne and a scroll no created being is worthy to open. The Lamb who was slain takes it, having redeemed people to God by His blood. In Revelation 6, the first four seals bring conquest, war, scarcity, and death. At the fifth seal, John sees believers who have already been killed for their testimony; the sixth brings cosmic disturbance. Chapter 7 turns to God’s sealing and saving work before the seventh seal opens in chapter 8.
And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
Revelation 8:2-3
I understand the prayers offered here to include the saints’ appeals for justice. Under the fifth seal, the martyrs had asked how long it would be before God judged and avenged their blood. Their cries have not been ignored. Asking the righteous Judge to deal with murder is not the same as taking pleasure in someone else’s suffering.
Fire from the altar is then thrown to the earth, and the angels prepare to sound. God directs these judgments from His throne, and they cannot be explained merely as new forms of human warfare. I understand the seals, trumpets, and later bowls as an ordered progression, with the seventh seal opening into this next series.
The first trumpet brings hail and fire mingled with blood upon the land. A third of the trees burn, and all the green grass is burned. At the second trumpet, something like a great burning mountain is thrown into the sea. A third of the sea becomes blood, a third of its living creatures die, and a third of the ships are destroyed. Food and the means of trade and travel are being devastated; these are not remote disturbances that leave ordinary life untouched.
The third trumpet reaches the fresh water on which people depend for life.
Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
Revelation 8:10-11
John names the star Wormwood and describes it falling from heaven like a blazing torch. We know what its arrival does to the rivers and springs, even though he does not classify it in modern scientific or military terms. It may be a heavenly object or another form of blazing judgment. Naming a present weapon or event would go beyond the information he gives.
The Greek name apsinthos refers to wormwood, a bitter plant. The Hebrew word la’anah appears in Old Testament warnings about the bitter results of rebellion. Deuteronomy 29 speaks of an idolatrous heart as a root bearing wormwood. Jeremiah 9 describes the rebellious receiving wormwood and bitter water, while Lamentations uses it in describing grief under judgment.
That background helps explain the name, but it does not turn Revelation’s deadly water into a description of hurt feelings. People die from drinking it. The people who embraced rebellion now face God’s judgment on the very water they need to live. The study on Wormwood in Revelation considers the imagery more closely.
The fourth trumpet then strikes the sun, moon, and stars.
Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.
Revelation 8:12
The light on which the daily pattern of life depends is diminished. Together, these first four trumpets strike the land, sea, fresh water, and heavenly lights. The repeated thirds also show that God has set limits, even though the judgments are severe. I should recognize God’s restraint without minimizing what people are suffering or assuming that a warning can be safely ignored.
The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets Bring Woe
After the fourth trumpet, heaven announces three woes, warning the earth’s inhabitants of the terrible suffering still to come.
And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
Revelation 8:13
In Revelation, “inhabitants of the earth” often describes people whose allegiance is fixed upon the rebellious world order. They are warned before the next judgments fall. The first four trumpets have devastated the world around them, and the fifth and sixth bring torment and death directly upon people.
At the fifth trumpet, the fallen star John sees is given a key and opens the abyss, or bottomless pit. Smoke rises, followed by locust-like beings with power to torment. Their origin, appearance, and authority distinguish them from ordinary insects. I understand these as demonic agents, operating under limits they did not set for themselves.
They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Revelation 9:4
They are forbidden to harm vegetation as ordinary locusts do, and people bearing God’s seal are protected from their attack. Their authority is to torment for five months, not to kill. The abyss does not open because God has lost control, nor do its creatures decide how long the judgment will last. They have a king over them, the angel of the abyss, but their entire operation remains subject to God’s boundaries.
That specific protection shows that God knows those He has marked as His own. It does not promise that every faithful person will escape suffering. Revelation also honors martyrs, and the two witnesses in chapter 11 will be killed when their testimony is complete. God can preserve a servant through danger or permit that servant’s death without His purpose being defeated. Here He explicitly limits who may be harmed.
The sixth trumpet releases four angels bound at the Euphrates. John then hears the number of an enormous mounted force: two hundred million. His description includes fire, smoke, and brimstone issuing from the horses, and a third of mankind is killed.
So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.
Revelation 9:15
Their release occurs at the hour, day, month, and year God has appointed. They do not choose when to act, any more than the creatures at the fifth trumpet choose the limits of their torment.
After such devastation, we might expect the survivors to abandon their idols and plead for mercy. John records their refusal.
But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Revelation 9:20-21
They continue worshiping demons and lifeless objects, and they continue harming other people. Their murders, thefts, sorcery, and sexual immorality show that their false worship is no harmless private error. These people are confronted with judgment and still defend the rebellion being judged.
Their worship of demons is especially dreadful when we remember the cruelty of the beings released from the abyss. Rebelling against God has not left people free and unharmed; the powers of darkness have tormented them.
I find that response deeply troubling. It is easy to assume I would listen more readily if God gave a stronger warning. But greater suffering does not automatically produce repentance, and an extraordinary sign does not force someone to love the truth. We need to respond to what He has already made known, rather than keep asking for a more alarming reason to obey.
God Continues to Speak During Judgment
Between the sixth and seventh trumpets, John’s account turns from the plagues to the testimony God continues to send. Chapters 10 and 11 describe servants who receive His word and proclaim it while people resist Him.
In chapter 10, John is told to take a little scroll and eat it. Ezekiel had also been commanded to receive a prophetic scroll before speaking to a rebellious people.
Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.
Revelation 10:10
I understand the sweetness and bitterness in keeping with the message John must deliver. God’s truth and promised victory are good, but the judgment upon people who resist Him is grievous. John must receive that word himself before prophesying again. Reading it as entertainment would ignore both its truth and the suffering it announces.
In chapter 11, John is told to measure the temple, altar, and worshipers. God distinguishes what belongs to Him while the holy city faces Gentile oppression. He also gives two witnesses an appointed ministry.
And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.
Revelation 11:3
Their 1,260 days equal forty-two months reckoned at thirty days each, or three and a half prophetic years. They prophesy in sackcloth, clothing suited to mourning and a call to repentance. God protects them during that ministry so their enemies cannot kill them before their testimony is complete.
Their authority to withhold rain and turn water to blood recalls Elijah and Moses. Those similarities give us reason to consider the connection, but Revelation does not name the two men.
When they finish, the beast from the abyss makes war on them and kills them. Their bodies are left exposed in the city where the Lord was crucified, and people celebrate the removal of the prophets who had confronted them. After three and a half days, God raises the witnesses, and they ascend to heaven while their enemies watch.
That is why I cannot read these chapters only as a catalogue of disasters. God has not left the world without warning or His servants without help. His witnesses finish what He gave them to do, and even their deaths cannot prevent Him from vindicating them. The refusal to listen is not a failure on His part to speak.
The Seventh Trumpet Announces Christ’s Kingdom
After describing the witnesses’ ministry, death, and vindication, John returns to the angels’ trumpets. When the seventh angel sounds, loud voices in heaven announce the kingdom of the Lord and His Christ.
Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”
Revelation 11:15
Later chapters describe the bowls completing God’s wrath, the fall of Babylon, and Christ’s return to establish His open reign on earth. The seventh trumpet announces that outcome as certain because God will carry out what He has declared.
Revelation 11 also places reward alongside judgment. The nations are angry, but their anger cannot prevent God from judging the wicked, rewarding His servants, and destroying those who destroy the earth. Those who fear His name are remembered, including people without the power to protect themselves from earthly rulers.
This is the future reign described in Revelation 20, with Christ returning bodily before His literal thousand-year rule. It is not a kingdom the church gradually establishes by reforming earthly governments. Jesus will openly exercise the authority that rightfully belongs to Him, and His reign will never end.
Reading the Trumpets Without Speculation or Fear
Some readers understand the trumpets as a recurring symbolic cycle throughout the church age. That recognizes Revelation’s imagery, but I remain persuaded by its movement from seals to trumpets and toward bowls, with appointed times and specific limits. I understand these as an ordered sequence of future events, rather than a description of the ordinary troubles Christians have always endured.
That conviction does not entitle me to identify each object with a current weapon or nation. John describes something like a burning mountain, a star called Wormwood, and terrifying forces released at God’s command. He gives us their effects without giving us modern names for them. A confident label borrowed from the news can obscure what the passage actually says.
These are deliberate judgments, not simply the ordinary repercussions of bad choices. God directs these judgments from His throne and sets their limits, while continuing to warn people and call them to repentance.
We do not need to place the church under this wrath in order to take the passage seriously. Revelation was given to churches, so believers should receive its instruction about God’s holiness, the consequences of rebellion, and the certainty of Christ’s reign. Our confidence that He gathers His church before the Tribulation should produce gratitude and faithfulness, rather than indifference to people still refusing Him.
I also need to remember how easily prophecy can become a way of displaying what I think I know. The people suffering these judgments are not pieces in an interesting puzzle. Their refusal to repent should grieve us and give urgency to our witness, without making us imagine that we were saved because we were wiser or morally stronger than they are.
The gospel directs us to the Savior God has provided. Jesus is the eternal Son, who became truly man without ceasing to be God and lived without sin. Wicked people tortured Him and put Him to death, but He willingly gave Himself to be slain as the sinless, perfect sacrifice for our sins. He completed that saving work through His shed blood and death before His burial and bodily resurrection. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father and Son acted in unity to redeem us.
Christ died for the whole world, and everyone may genuinely come to Him in repentance and faith. Salvation is given by grace, and neither religious performance nor frightened promises to reform can earn it or keep us saved. Someone who has truly been born again becomes a new creation; the Holy Spirit lives within him and seals him, and his salvation is eternally secure in Christ. That assurance is no permission for lawlessness, nor does a Christian label by itself establish that a person has received new life.
We can therefore speak about judgment honestly without trying to terrify believers about their security in Christ. The Savior receives those who come to Him, and His warning gives us reason to proclaim that mercy now. We should not encourage someone to postpone trusting Him until the warnings become harder to ignore.
My Final Thoughts
The trumpets show God judging a world that has resisted Him, while continuing to speak and keeping every hostile power within His limits. I find hope in the certainty of Christ’s reign, and I am grieved that people can hear these warnings and still refuse Him. Revelation gives us reason to worship, obey, and speak the gospel without pretending to know modern identities or dates. If we understand that the Lord will judge rebellion, we ought to take His offer of mercy seriously while it is before us.
At the third trumpet in Revelation 8, John sees a blazing star strike rivers and springs, making the water so bitter that many people die from drinking it. He calls the star Wormwood. I understand this as a real future judgment, and the name takes us back to warnings God had already given about the consequences of rejecting Him.
Wormwood in the Trumpet Sequence
Wormwood belongs within a sequence of judgments that begins with the Lamb opening the scroll. In Revelation 5, Jesus Christ is the only One worthy to open it. He opens its seals in chapters 6 through 8, and the opening of the seventh seal introduces seven angels who receive trumpets before God’s throne. These judgments unfold under His authority. I understand them to take place during the future seven-year Tribulation.
The first trumpet burns a third of the trees and all the green grass. At the second, a third of the sea becomes blood, a third of its creatures die, and a third of its ships are destroyed. After Wormwood strikes freshwater at the third trumpet, the fourth strikes a third of the sun, moon, and stars, leaving a third of the day and night without light. Each judgment damages something people depend on for ordinary life. The repeated references to a third also show that these judgments have not yet brought the whole creation to its end.
We should not mistake that limit for mildness. Many people die, and the survivors face devastation on an enormous scale. God has acted decisively against a rebellious world while still leaving people alive who can hear His warning and repent. The announcement of further woes at the end of Revelation 8 makes clear that judgment is not yet finished.
John describes what happens to the rivers and springs when the third angel sounds.
Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
Revelation 8:10-11
When the NKJV says that “many men died,” men means human beings, not only adult males. These people die from drinking the water. The word bitter therefore describes more than an objectionable taste; the changed water is lethal. I take that physical consequence seriously when interpreting the passage, rather than making Wormwood only an image of spiritual confusion or distress.
John describes the star as burning like a torch, but that comparison does not identify it as a particular kind of object in modern astronomy. A meteor or some other physical mechanism could be involved. We are told what John sees and what happens to the water, without being given the information needed to classify the star confidently as an asteroid or comet.
Some readers understand the star as an angelic being because Revelation uses stars that way elsewhere. In Revelation 9:1-2, for example, a fallen star receives a key and opens the bottomless pit. That description involves someone acting, whereas Revelation 8 describes the blazing star falling on waters and making them deadly. I understand the third trumpet as a judgment on actual freshwater, while leaving the precise means God uses unresolved.
John also leaves the affected rivers unnamed and does not identify a modern country. The judgment reaches rivers and springs, with a third of the waters made bitter; it is not described as contamination confined to one named lake.
Wormwood translates the Greek word apsinthos, the name of a bitter plant. The Old Testament Hebrew word commonly translated wormwood is la’anah. Scripture had already used this plant’s bitterness to describe the consequences of rebellion and the sorrow of judgment. That background explains why the star bears this name without supplying a chemical explanation for the event.
Wormwood’s Old Testament Background
In Deuteronomy 29, Moses warned Israel about people turning from the Lord to serve the gods of surrounding nations. He described that departure through the image of a root producing bitterness.
so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood;
Deuteronomy 29:18
The warning begins with a heart turning away from God. Moses goes on to describe someone who hears the covenant warning yet assures himself that he will have peace while following his own desires. He wants to disregard the Lord’s command without facing its consequences. A place among God’s covenant people did not make that presumption safe.
The image of a root also describes rebellion developing before its harm is fully apparent. A father may excuse idolatry as his own private choice, but his children see the worship he practices and hear him defend his conduct. If he teaches them to disregard God’s command, the harm has spread beyond his own disobedience. Moses was warning the whole community because turning from the Lord could influence a family or tribe, not just the person who first made that choice.
Centuries later, Jeremiah addressed Judah’s refusal to obey the Lord. The people had abandoned His instruction and followed the Baals, including the idolatry their fathers had taught them. God explained why judgment was coming.
And the LORD said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them,” therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.”
Jeremiah 9:13-15
They were following desires and customs they preferred to God’s Word. Having inherited those customs did not make them right. The Lord who had sustained His people would make them taste the bitterness of the rebellion they had chosen. Jeremiah’s reference to wormwood and poisonous water belongs to that announced judgment, rather than an unexplained misfortune.
Lamentations speaks from within the grief of Jerusalem’s devastation after judgment had fallen. The speaker describes affliction through the same bitter image.
He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood.
Lamentations 3:15
These passages do not treat sin’s consequences as a minor disappointment. The sorrow is devastating, and wormwood gives a name to its bitterness. By the time we reach Revelation 8, the word has already appeared in warnings about idolatry and in the grief that followed judgment. Its use for the star fits the world’s continued rejection of the Lord.
I need to be careful about applying that connection to an individual who is suffering now. A person’s illness or bereavement does not give me grounds to announce that God is punishing him for rebellion. Scripture records faithful people enduring terrible affliction too. The Old Testament passages identify the covenant unfaithfulness God was judging, and Revelation describes a particular judgment still to come.
In Revelation 8, people are dying because water they need has been made bitter. The rivers and springs have not simply dried up; water is still there, yet drinking it brings death instead of sustaining life.
Elsewhere in Scripture, God supplies water as an act of mercy. He opened Hagar’s eyes to a well in the wilderness and gave Israel water from the rock. The prophets also described restoration through flowing water, and Jesus offers living water to those who come to Him. Revelation itself ends with the river of the water of life. The third trumpet shows the severity of rejecting the Giver: He has authority to make the water on which people depend a means of judgment.
Exodus 7 records a judgment on water after Pharaoh refused God’s command to release Israel. The Lord told Moses to instruct Aaron to take his rod and stretch out his hand over Egypt’s waters, which would become blood.
And Moses and Aaron did so, just as the LORD commanded. So he lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. The fish that were in the river died, the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. So there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exodus 7:20-21
The Nile had sustained Egypt, but its water became blood, the fish died, and the river stank. God had commanded that judgment while delivering Israel from slavery. Revelation describes future judgments during the Tribulation, so the two events belong to different settings. Yet both show the Lord confronting defiance by striking the water people need, with false gods unable to protect those who worship them.
Our ability to study water and build systems to supply it does not make us independent of Him either. Testing water and constructing treatment plants are worthwhile uses of human knowledge, but we still depend on a supply we did not create. A wealthy, technologically capable nation depends on water just as surely as a poor one. Understanding a physical process does not place creation beyond its Maker’s authority.
Warning, Repentance, and Careful Interpretation
A disaster involving water is not enough to establish that the third trumpet has sounded. Earlier events can remind us of biblical patterns without fulfilling this prophecy. Revelation places Wormwood within an ordered sequence, and a resemblance to one detail does not establish that it has occurred. Jesus warned about deception and called His disciples to watch faithfully; He did not authorize us to set dates for His return.
I hold a pre-Tribulation and premillennial view: the Lord will gather His church before the coming Tribulation and later return publicly to establish His earthly thousand-year reign. Paul describes believers being caught up to meet Him in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 and says in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 that God has not appointed us to wrath. Jesus also promised the church in Philadelphia that He would keep them from the coming worldwide hour of trial in Revelation 3:10. I read these promises together as grounds for expecting the church to be gathered before the trumpet judgments.
That does not mean no one will turn to Christ during the Tribulation; Revelation describes saints in that period. Nor does our hope excuse indifference toward those who still need salvation. Knowing that judgment is coming should make us eager to bring people the gospel now, while there is an opportunity to respond. Every warning remains under Christ’s authority, and no rebellion will prevent His promised return and reign.
I might expect people who survive such judgments to be eager to turn from their idols. Revelation 9 records a different response after further trumpet plagues.
But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Revelation 9:20-21
These survivors continue worshiping idols that cannot see, hear, or walk, even after the world around them has been devastated. They also refuse to turn from the sins John names, including murder and theft. Suffering has not compelled them to repent, and witnessing judgment has not made them willing to obey God. They remain responsible for what they choose to defend.
That should correct the assumption that someone can safely put off repentance until the warnings become impossible to ignore. Repeatedly dismissing the truth can make a person more stubborn about the sin he has been excusing. Being frightened by a catastrophe is not the same as turning to Christ. The survivors are still alive to respond to the Lord, yet they persist in idolatry and the conduct He condemns.
God offers mercy through Jesus Christ, His eternal Son, who became fully man without ceasing to be fully God and lived without sin. He willingly gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men tortured and crucified Him, but the Father did not punish or abandon Him. Father and Son remained united in this saving work. His shed blood and death accomplished our redemption before His burial and bodily resurrection. Forgiveness is genuinely offered to every person, although people can resist His grace and reject Him. Everyone who repents and believes in Christ is forgiven and receives everlasting life.
From Bitter Water to Living Water
The Savior who will judge the world is also the One who offers living water. In John 4, Jesus spoke with a Samaritan woman who had come to draw from Jacob’s well.
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 4:13-14
She needed ordinary water, but Jesus offered life that the well could never supply. A better bucket might have made her work easier; it could not reconcile her to God. Nor could a more respectable reputation or less complicated circumstances give her everlasting life. She needed what Jesus was offering as a gift.
In John 7, Jesus made a public invitation for thirsty people to come to Him and drink. John explains that Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit.
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7:37-39
The living water is connected with the Holy Spirit whom believers would receive after Jesus was glorified. The Spirit was already at work before then, but Christ’s promise looked ahead to His New Covenant ministry following Jesus’ death, bodily resurrection, and ascension. The life He gives is received through faith, with the Spirit Himself coming to dwell in the believer.
When someone is genuinely born again, he becomes a new creation and is indwelt and sealed by the Spirit for the day of redemption. That salvation is eternally secure, but a Christian label with no evidence of new life should not be confused with regeneration. Obedience does not earn or keep salvation, and being born again does not mean the believer never sins. His conduct should provide evidence that the Spirit has changed him, and assurance in Christ gives him no permission to continue in lawlessness.
John’s visions reach as far as God’s final victory over evil and the revelation of the holy city. At the close of the book, the invitation is addressed to those who hear its words now.
And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
Revelation 22:17
The word freely tells me that I cannot buy what Christ gives. He bore the cost of redemption, and the thirsty person comes to receive His mercy. Wormwood warns us about the bitterness of persisting in rebellion, while this invitation calls us to the living Savior in repentance and faith. We should bring that invitation to people rather than leave them with fearful curiosity about the disaster.
My Final Thoughts
I believe Wormwood describes a real future judgment in which people will die from water made bitter. Its name also recalls the bitter consequences of turning from the Lord, so I need to take the warning seriously instead of treating it as a puzzle about a star. Knowing more about the prediction cannot make me right with God. Christ offers the mercy we need, and we should respond in repentance and faith while we still have the opportunity.
