<p>9:11 <em>They have over them as king</em>- Prov. 30:27 observes that locusts have no king. The picture presented is of an unusual and uncharacteristic unity of the locusts under the leadership of a &quot;king&quot; or caliph. This is what students of latter day prophecy are taught by the image's toes of Daniel 2. The components of the final entity to abuse Israel are divided, but uncharacteristically united in their domination of Israel. This will be brought about by the locusts having a king- just as the disparate materials of the image are united in the form of a man, a latter day Nebuchadnezzar.</p><p><em>The Angel of the bottomless pit</em>- This presumably is the same as the fifth Angel, who opened the pit at the beginning of this section. As in Daniel, so here, the Angel refers both to an Angel in the court of Heaven, and to the person on earth whom that Angel represents before God. Again we see how that even the terrible individual on earth spoken of here is in fact represented in the court of Heaven and under the control of God&rsquo;s Angel. The allusion is to the destroying Angel of the Passover deliverance (Ex. 12:23; 1 Cor. 10:10). The Angel comes in judgment upon the Egyptians and also upon any unfaithful Israelites who would not trust in the blood of the Lamb; hence all the allusions to the plagues on Egypt here in the trumpet judgments. The locusts unleased by the destroyer Angel therefore come forth to punish people for what they did to God&rsquo;s people Israel, and also to punish those of Israel who will not trust in the blood of the Lamb / Jesus.</p><p><em>His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek tongue</em>- The two languages are perhaps mentioned because both Jews and non-Jews in the land suffer from this invasion. The locusts have an Angel-King over them, called Abaddon / Apollyon- the destroyer. The idea is that their leader has an Angel representative in Heaven. Again, emphasis is placed upon their having a specific leader, the antichrist. &lsquo;The destroyer&rsquo; was the Angel who destroyed the unfaithful Israelites (1 Cor. 10:10), and the charge of the locusts and their leader is against the same group, within the land promised to Abraham.</p><p><em>Apollyon</em>- This is the noun from the verb <em>apollumi</em>. Lk. 21:18 says that not a hair of the faithful will be <em>apollumi</em> in the latter day tribulation, and this is clearly what the Apollyon Angel is responsible for. There are many word plays upon and indirect allusions to Caesar worship in Revelation. Rev. 9:11 is an example- the condemned King of the bottomless pit is called &quot;Apollyon&quot;, which G.B. Caird takes to be an allusion to Domitian, &quot;who liked to be regarded as Apollo incarnate&quot;.</p><p>Often, Angels are described in terms of the men, empires or armies they control- the frequent descriptions of human armies in language which refers to Angels too provides proof of this (e. g. Is. 66:15; Ez. 26:7,10; Joel 2:5; Nahum 2:3,4,13). Rev. 9:11 is another example: &quot;They (the Arabs?) had a king over them, which <em>is </em>the Angel of the bottomless pit&quot;. This Angel is both a Heavenly Angel and the earthly leader over which the Angel has charge. Rev. 9:16&nbsp;says that &quot;the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand&quot;- cp. &quot;thousand thousands&quot; of Angels in Dan. 7:10. Rev. 9:17 continues: &quot;Horses... and them that sat on them&quot;. Horses and riders in Rev. 6 and Zechariah have clear Angelic connections (Chapter 11); &quot;the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions&quot;- lions and Angels are linked in Rev. 9:17; 10:1,3.</p><p>The locusts have a specific leader- an Angel called Abaddon or Apollyon. Angels as in the Divine beings do not sin, as I&rsquo;ve demonstrated in chapter 2 of <em>The Real Devil</em>.&nbsp; But Daniel 10 and other passages are clear that situations, nations and individual leaders on earth have an Angelic representative in Heaven, before the court of God. The antichrist figure on earth therefore has a representative Angel in Heaven, just as the prince of Persia did in Daniel 10. &lsquo;Abaddon&rsquo; means &lsquo;the destroyer&rsquo;, and the term is used of the destroying Angel of Passover, the same Angel who destroyed the unbelieving Jews in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:10)- and it is also used of the Babylonian invader (2 Chron. 36:19; Is. 14:20; Jer. 4:7; 15:3; 22:7 &ldquo;I will prepare destroyers against you&rdquo;; 36:29), the Midianite invasion of Israel (Jud. 6:4), the Philistines / Palestinians (1 Sam. 13:17; 14:15), the Assyrian invader (1 Kings 18:25) and the Syrian invasion (2 Chron. 24:23). All these nations and incidents were from the territory of the IS, and prefigure the latter day invasion of Israel. The point is, there is a specific, singular leader- and this fits well with the Biblical requirements for an antichrist figure to lead the enemies of Israel in the final jihad against her. The destruction, wanton and conscious, wrought by the IS surely justifies the leader of the entity being called &lsquo;the destroyer&rsquo;.</p><p>The Islamic world has always been divided, and the neighbours of Israel have likewise been characterized by their historical divisions. What is going to be remarkable, therefore, is their temporary unity against Israel. This is the picture presented of the iron and clay not cleaving to each other, but standing together, however fragile, in brief domination of the land promised to Abraham on the eve of Christ&rsquo;s return. This unity will be under one strong leader, the antichrist. The metaphor in Rev. 9 makes this point, by saying that the invading hordes will be as locusts who have a king over them, called Abaddon (Rev. 9:11). Locusts do not have much centralized structure in their movement, and Prov. 30:27 specifically states that locusts have no king over them. But these latter day locusts will have such a king- for a brief period. Muslim tradition speaks of locusts having dropped into the hands of Mohammed, bearing on their wings this inscription - &lsquo;We are the army of the Great God.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p><p>There can be little doubt that Revelation 9 speaks of the very last days. The smoke and resultant darkening of sun and moon is obviously alluding to the Old Testament prophecies about these things happening in the context of an invasion of the land of Israel in the immediate prelude to Christ&rsquo;s coming: &ldquo;Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine. (Is. 13:9,10). &ldquo;And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD&rdquo;&nbsp;(Joel 2:30,31).</p>