Revelation 9:11; A King, Angel of the Bottomless Pit

Revelation 9:11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. 

Solomon makes this observation as a phenomenon in the nature of locusts recorded in Proverbs 30:27 The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; 

However, this horde of locusts from the bottomless pit had a king over them. He is identified by the Apostle John as the angel of the bottomless it.

The name of it was given both in the Hebrew and the Greek language. He is made known to both the Jews and the Gentiles. The name means “destroyer, destruction, perdition”. The Hebrew name means the place of eternal punishment and the Greek name comes from the verb which means “I destroy”. [MacArthur, Feinberg, Lockyer]

Robert L. Thomas observed well, “a significant case exists for identifying this king as an otherwise unknown angel who is in charge of the abyss. Satan has leaders and sub-leaders under his command (cf. Ephesians 6:12). The angel’s title assures that the demon locusts obey his orders (Swete).”

More recently, the battle against the locust “invasion” in Southwest China’s Yunnan Province is underway, in hope that the plague of insects can be brought under control in a timely manner.

The pests, identified as the yellow-spined bamboo locusts, migrated in bulk to several border counties of Yunnan from neighboring countries starting late June. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on July 17 that they are mostly coming from Phongsaly in Laos.

As of Tuesday, about 8,900 hectares of land in three cities – Pu’er, Xishuangbanna, and Honghe, has suffered damage of varying degrees, according to a statement from the plague prevention and control headquarters in Yunnan.

Jiangcheng County in Pu’er, which borders both Laos and Vietnam, is the worst-hit area. Large swarms of locusts have been seen flying across the sky of the county during the past days.

“There are no specific routes for these insects. They would land in the areas with bamboos and plantain trees,” said Zhu Weihong, a resident of Jiangcheng.

Many farmers have expressed concerns over the incursion expected to last until September.

“The corn leaves were all eaten. The tassels have been destroyed, so there won’t be any pollination. “If the situation is not controlled, we are not expecting to harvest,” said a farmer of Jiangcheng on condition of anonymity.

The yellow-spined bamboo locusts mainly feed on bamboo. Crops like plantain, corn and paddy rice are also among their options. They can also be found in southern parts of China. Compared with the “desert locusts,” they don’t migrate a long distance and only breed once a year, while the desert locusts breed five times or even more in a year.

Authorities have stepped up efforts to contain the plague since late June. The Agriculture ministry and the forestry administration have sent experts to Yunnan to assist in the prevention and control work.

So far, Yunnan authorities have conducted more than 4,000 drone flights and put into a large number of pesticide sprayers against insects. Jiangcheng County government has also formed a special team of some 2,000 people to monitor the movement of the grasshoppers.

“I think the most effective way is to control the locusts from the source. So we have to cooperate, in terms of technology, with the countries where the insects originate from,” said Shen Aidong, a researcher from Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Shen suggested that a special zone set up in the forest-agriculture ecotones to prevent a further inbreak of the pests and mitigate the impact of the “disaster.”

Several provinces in Laos are also working to battle the disaster. The Laotian Times reported in late June that many dry season rice and crops in Phongsaly province were destroyed by yellow-spined bamboo locusts. [https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-22/Battle-against-locust-invasion-underway-in-SW-China-SkE0xK7eak/index.html]

Even now, the locust plague is termed a disaster when the attack is only on crops. It will indeed be a lost cause for the battle against the locust horde from the bottomless pit for men living in the Great Tribulation.

Amen.