Until the power of the Prophet-King, or Star, was matured in “the pit of the abyss,” the pit was shut; so that neither “smoke” nor “locusts” could issue forth upon “the earth” to torment and destroy the unsealed. The furnace was roaring with flaming blast in the pit, from which nothing could come forth until the acquisition of undisputed authority and power by the star.
This leads me to remark, that in these places of the apocalypse, abussos is improperly rendered “bottomless pit.” In Isa.
A key is symbolical of governmental power and authority.
But, before the star was seen by John “in the earth,” it had acquired possession of “the Key of the Pit of the Abyss” — he kleis tou phreatos tes abussou. The pit of the qbyss is the geographical locality of the “smoke,” out of which the locusts issued to invade “the earth.” When the pit was opened smoke arose out of it.
On the sounding of the fifth angel, John saw “a star.” I need not repeat here what has already been said about stars. The reader is referred to my explanation of the symbols of the third trumpet, the subject of which is the “great star Apsinthos.” The star of the fifth trumpet may also be styled a falling star; or rather, when John saw it in vision, & fallen star.
SECOND SECTION OF THE SEVENTH SEAL
OR
FIRST TWO WOE-TRUMPETS
ACT I — FIFTH TRUMPET; OR, FIRST WOE
SUMMARY
We have seen in ch. 7, that the judgments of the first four trumpets were restrained until the work of sealing the servants of the Deity should be sufficiently advanced. The tempests that were to wreck the state, and dash it in pieces upon the rocks, were not to blow until there should be a community of faithful ones developed, who should be able to read the signs of their times aright, and be able to instruct others. This is implied in their being “sealed in their foreheads”.
An angel, in a symbolic sense, represents a class of agents executing a mission to which they have been appointed. We have seen this use of the word in ch.
The phenomena of the fourth trumpet are thus briefly sketched by Mr. Elliott: “The vision has passed; the fourth angel sounds. Hitherto, though its land, its sea, and its frontier rivers and fountains of waters have been desolated, yet the sun has still continued shining on the Western Empire as before. But now at length this too is affected. To the extent of a third part of its orb, it suffers eclipse. The shadow falls over the Western Empire.
“For the understanding of the prophecies,” says Sir Isaac Newton truly, “we are, in the first place, to acquaint ourselves with the figurative language of the prophets; which is taken from the analogy between the world natural, and an empire or kingdom considered as a world politic.”