And it was given to them [the locust/scorpions] that they should not kill them [the unsealed], but rather that they should be tormented 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, but they will not find it. They will long to die, yet death will flee away from them. Rev. 9:5, 6.
Recently my wife and I were in Australia. She wanted some video footage of a new "down under" hairdo she had just received, and we decided it would be fun to put her behind a jungle bush and in front of a tree in which a kookaburra (the famous Australian "mocking" bird) was calmly sitting.
My wife posed like a model, the kookaburra visible just above her head. Suddenly she disappeared from view. I made some wisecrack or other into the camera and continued taping. Suddenly Pamella started shrieking.
"Ants, ants--they're biting me. Help! Get them off of me!"
Knowing my wife's tendency to joke for the camera, I sauntered unhurriedly in her direction. As I came around the jungle bush I suddenly noticed that the ground seemed to be moving. Ants swarmed between the bush and the kookaburra's tree. My wife raised one leg of her slacks and was swatting wildly at her shoe and the skin of her leg.
"Help! Do something!"
At last I went into action. "Get away from here! Quick! Get out of this spot!"
She started running with me half dragging her to the laundry room about 20 yards away. There we slammed the door for privacy and pulled the pants off. As I snapped the pants like a whip, ants scattered onto the floor, where we went after them with a vengeance. After we had finished off all the ants that appeared on the floor, we tended to six of seven large welts on my wife's right leg. Bull ants, whose bite burns like a flame, had attacked her. Only after the intensive application of anesthetic did the fire in her legs die out. For a few moments, at least, she experienced as severe a torment as she had ever known. Had the "fire" lasted for hours or days, she would probably have felt just like the tormented ones of Revelation 9.
The basic message of the text is that those under Satan's control may think that they have real freedom, but in reality they have submitted to a tyrant that makes Hitler or Idi Amin appear benign. The torment of stinging insects illustrates how enslavement to Satan sucks the joy out of life and eventually makes even death seem attractive.
Lord, help me to just say no to the attractions of sin. May I clearly see its potential enslavement and torment whenever temptation comes.
Recently my wife and I were in Australia. She wanted some video footage of a new "down under" hairdo she had just received, and we decided it would be fun to put her behind a jungle bush and in front of a tree in which a kookaburra (the famous Australian "mocking" bird) was calmly sitting.
My wife posed like a model, the kookaburra visible just above her head. Suddenly she disappeared from view. I made some wisecrack or other into the camera and continued taping. Suddenly Pamella started shrieking.
"Ants, ants--they're biting me. Help! Get them off of me!"
Knowing my wife's tendency to joke for the camera, I sauntered unhurriedly in her direction. As I came around the jungle bush I suddenly noticed that the ground seemed to be moving. Ants swarmed between the bush and the kookaburra's tree. My wife raised one leg of her slacks and was swatting wildly at her shoe and the skin of her leg.
"Help! Do something!"
At last I went into action. "Get away from here! Quick! Get out of this spot!"
She started running with me half dragging her to the laundry room about 20 yards away. There we slammed the door for privacy and pulled the pants off. As I snapped the pants like a whip, ants scattered onto the floor, where we went after them with a vengeance. After we had finished off all the ants that appeared on the floor, we tended to six of seven large welts on my wife's right leg. Bull ants, whose bite burns like a flame, had attacked her. Only after the intensive application of anesthetic did the fire in her legs die out. For a few moments, at least, she experienced as severe a torment as she had ever known. Had the "fire" lasted for hours or days, she would probably have felt just like the tormented ones of Revelation 9.
The basic message of the text is that those under Satan's control may think that they have real freedom, but in reality they have submitted to a tyrant that makes Hitler or Idi Amin appear benign. The torment of stinging insects illustrates how enslavement to Satan sucks the joy out of life and eventually makes even death seem attractive.
Lord, help me to just say no to the attractions of sin. May I clearly see its potential enslavement and torment whenever temptation comes.
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