Abaddon / Apollyon
Another being is introduced at the end of the first woe. The English translation for the name held by this being is destruction. This being is a high ranking demon or fallen angel. It is not an angel who remained allied with God.
I want to take a similar approach to the this demon as I did to the locusts. He has authority over the swarms of locust-like beings, but like them he has been trapped. Notice that he has been the angel of the Abyss. It seems that he, like the locusts, was bound in that location until God gave the key to the man who opened it.
Abaddon may have abandoned God going with Lucifer some eons ago, but his goal for dominance will never be fulfilled. He will dominate over his sphere, but his sphere remains distant from God and bottled up by God. God is the creator and he has lost none of this authority in permitting rebellion. This Devil ally could no more order his swarms to kill humanity than he could escape the Abyss without God’s permission and enabling.
1Don’t fear the Devil and his minions
Satan and his followers, both demonic and human, have power at various levels. That being said, they are absolutely under the dominion of God. For a time they have been and will be given various permissions, but that is just what they have: permission. They can only act as God removes his hand from them. They may function under the delusion of control, but in all circumstances both temporal and eternal they remain constrained.
So, fear not the circumstances of this life or the future. Nothing can take us from the hand of the benevolent God we serve.
2God is not complicit with evil behavior
Don’t let anyone tell you that God is complicit in the evil deeds of the smoky locusts. He lets them loose, and they go about their not-so-merry way. When a horse pulls a cart the driver keeps a steady hold on the reins prevent the horse from having its own way. If the driver lets go of the reins the personality of that horse will show itself.
The rebellious on the earth did not want to have things God’s way nor did the devils in the Abyss. God sort of said, “Ok, for a time you can have your own way.”
From verse 21 you can see that in some manner men were still supposed to repent of their evil deeds. The plagues and deaths visited upon men by the masters of iniquity did not sway the ungodly back toward God.
Ashley Cozart says
I’m signed! I’m sealed! Praise Jesus I’ll be delivered to heaven! ?