Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #6 of Revelation, chapter 9, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 9:2:

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

Once again, this was the action of the Lord Jesus Christ who is typified by a star falling from heaven to earth.  We know it was Christ because He had the key to the “bottomless pit” and only Jesus possesses that key.  He has the “keys to hell and death.” 

Christ opened the bottomless pit and this would have occurred at the beginning of Judgment Day on May 21, 2011.  That is the day God shut the door to heaven.  That is the day that judgment expanded from the churches to the world and that is the day that Christ opened the pit of “hell and death” and the things that identify with them and the smoke that rises out of the pit comes up to the earth.  We do not read that men are cast down into the pit, but the “condition” of the “pit” rises and takes over the earth, so the “smoke of a great furnace” rose and “the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.”

The sun was darkened and, here, God is giving a reason why it was darkened.  Elsewhere, in Matthew 24:29, He says, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened,” but in our verse, He is giving extra detail; it is darkened because the “condition of hell” has come up to the world and “hell” identifies with darkness.  So the wrath of God, which is typified by the smoke, has risen with such dense and awful intensity, and to such a degree, that is as if it rose far above the earth’s atmosphere into the heavens itself and actually darkened the sun.  That is how furiously angry God is with the wicked of the world. 

The “air” was, likewise, darkened “by reason of the smoke of the pit.”  We were discussing this in our last study.  We saw in a couple of places how God uses this word “air,” and, let me just remind you that there are two different words that are translated as “air” in the New Testament.  The first word is “ouranos” and this is a word that is found ten times andn in every case, it involves the “fowl of the air” or the “birds of the air.”  This particular Greek word, Strong’s #3772, is the word that is translated as “heaven,” “heavens,” or “sky.”  And, where do birds sky?  They fly in the sky or, we could say, in the “first heaven,” or where the atmosphere is in the sky above.  This is the word that is used in every case with “birds of the air.”

There is another Greek word and it is Strong’s #109, (aer) and we would translate this as “air.”  It would be pronounced similarly to our English word “air” and, no doubt, we have gotten our word “air” from the Greek word “aer.”  This word is only found seven times and it is found in 1st Corinthians 14, where the Lord was contrasting words easy to be understood with speaking in unknown tongues: “except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.” If you “speak into the air,” it is not understandable; it is not profitable, and, so, it is not a good thing at all.

Then we saw in Acts 22, where some Jews were angry with the Apostle Paul because they thought he had brought Greeks into the temple, but they gave heed to him and listened to him speak, up until the point when he mentioned Gentiles, then they “threw dust into the air.”  Again, this is not a very positive connotation with the word “air.” 

Then we went to Ephesians and I want to go back there now.  It says in Ephesians 2:1-2:

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

This is language describing sinners, but God is speaking of people that were “born again,” and have been made alive; they were once “dead” in trespasses and sins, but they are no longer “dead.”  They have been “quickened” and brought to life in their soul existence, and that is why he says, “in time past ye walked according to the course of this world;” that is, when they were unsaved, they did things according to the way of the world; they were not going God’s way.  What is the way of the world?  That can be summarized simply by understanding it is “any other way” than God’s way.  Any other way than the Lord Jesus Christ is the way of the world.  So it is a “broad way” that leads to destruction.  There are many religions and many philosophies and the way of the world allows for the broadest religious ideas and the grandiose thoughts of men in the secular society, including atheists, and it is all the “way of the world” and is contrary to God and the way of the Bible. 

In time past (and this is a factual statement concerning every one of God’s elect), “ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”  And that “spirit” would be the spirit of any unsaved individual that is following in the steps of Satan, his spiritual father, and living a lie, and so on.  The “spirit that now worketh,” or operates, in every unsaved individual is a spirit that is similar in nature to Satan, because it is a rebellious spirit.

But we are trying to understand the word “air,” so how can this help us?   First, let us look at this statement, “according to the prince of the power of the air.”  We read in Colossians, where God is speaking of His salvation plan, in Colossians 1:13:

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

So, just like Ephesians 2:1, it is speaking of the time prior to our salvation when we, the elect, were the children of wrath, even as others and, therefore, in darkness in our sins.  Yet God delivered us from the power of darkness and “translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.”

So, here, the “condition” was being under the power of darkness and in Ephesians 2:2, it was a “condition” of being under the “power of the prince of the air,” so it is really describing a very similar thing, if not the same thing.  So this helps us to understand that the “power of the air” can be likened to the “power of darkness.”  They are similar thoughts.

But there is more in Ephesians 2 that will help us to understand what God means by “air” much better.  Let us go back again and read Ephesians 2:2:

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world…

In “time past” when you were unsaved, or when any child of God was unsaved, you walked according to the course of this world.  That word translated as “course” is “aeon” and it is the word translated as “age” in some places.  So, in times past you walked according to the age, or manner, of this world; and then God says: “according to the prince of the power of the air,” and that is really restating what was said in the first part of the verse.  We find that done often in the Old Testament and theologians call it Hebrew parallelism – there is a statement made and then the statement is reworded and the same idea is restated with different words.  That happens often and, here, too, we can understand there is a similarity, if not the idea of a synonymous statement: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.”  That would make the phrase “prince of the power of the air” akin with “course of this world.” 

I know that is not definitive, but it does present an idea to us, and now let us examine that idea.  Let us “try” that idea.  We already saw the phrase “prince of the power of the air,” and that Colossians spoke of the “power of darkness,” so is it possible that the word “air” means “world?”  The “air” is a part of this world, but when we search out this word “air,” we do not find the idea of “breathing,” so that is not spiritually in view.  But, is it possible that the Greek word “aer” somehow represents the world?

Here, it spoke of Satan being called the “prince of the power of the air.”  This is not the only place that the Bible refers to Satan being called a “prince.”  We read in John 12:31:

Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

Here, this is speaking of Satan as the “prince of this world.”  Look at John 14:30:

Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

It says in John 16:11:

Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

Three times he is referred to as the “prince of this world.”  You see, this supports our earlier idea.  Remember how Ephesians 2:2 was worded: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.”  We began to think that maybe this is just indicating that Satan is the prince of the power of this world, and that is what he is called three times – the prince of this world.  So we have Biblical evidence that helps us to understand that this is very possible, but what would that mean when we come back to our verse in Revelation 9:2:

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

In telling us the sun is darkened, God is looking at the Gospel that He has sent forth into the world.  When God spoke of the “third part” of the sun being darkened, in chapter 8, it was letting us know that the Gospel light had gone out in the churches of the world.  But it so happens that when the Gospel light went out within the churches of the world, God was sending forth the latter rain; and this is a figure of speech indicating that the Gospel is going forth in a tremendous way outside of the churches and congregations.  What lies outside of the churches and congregations?  It is the world – the world of which Satan is the prince.  God had His people leave the churches and go into the world (which was typified when the Jews left Judea and went as captives into Babylon), so God’s people left the churches and went out into the world, while God was stretching forth His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people; He was sending forth a second Jubilee period; the latter rain was falling all over the earth outside of the churches in the world, saving a great multitude of people.

So now we can understand in Revelation 9:2 that God is making a “double” emphasis: “Look, I have put out the light of the Gospel; the sun is darkened as a result of my wrath, as the smoke of a great furnace comes out of the pit and darkens the sun and the “air.”

Now the world has always been a “dark” place because of man’s sin.  As we saw in Colossians, it is likened to a “kingdom of darkness.”  In Revelation 16, where we read of seven last vials full of the seven last plagues of the wrath of God, the pouring out of those vials pictures God pouring out the “cup of His wrath” that the nations of the world (the unsaved inhabitants of the earth) must drink of during this present time period.  So all seven vials typify Judgment Day, this time after the Great Tribulation, and we read in Revelation 16:10:

And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

Keep in mind that the beast is the name given to Satan exclusively for his rule during the Great Tribulation period and he reigned not only in the churches, but he reigned in the world in a special way that he was never previously able to do, as the world had been “given over” to iniquity and God had given up men to their sins, more and more, to prepare them for the final day of judgment.  Yet, when the fifth angel, or messenger, “poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast,” (upon Satan’s place of rule in the churches and in the world) then Satan’s kingdom of darkness was now “full” of darkness “and they gnawed their tongues for pain.”  Since Satan’s kingdom was always a kingdom of darkness, why did God make it a point to say that it was “full of darkness?”  How can we understand that?  It is the same thing God is telling us when He says that the sun and the air were (both) darkened “by reason of the smoke of the pit;” that is, Satan’s domain, as he is the prince of the power of the air, and his rule over the kingdom of the world (which now included the churches) has become particularly dark. 

How can “darkness” get darker?  The answer is, yes, the “world lieth in darkness,” but God at least had the Light of the Gospel shining into it in prior times.  Wherever the Word of God was faithfully proclaimed and as long as it was still the day of salvation and God was still saving sinners, it was as though the light could still enter into the darkness of a city, a village or a town; and the light could enter into the darkness and shine upon individuals that were in that kingdom of darkness.  There was the potential, from man’s perspective, for anyone to have been translated out of the darkness and into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.  They could have been delivered by that light that had shined in the world, but now God has put out that light and God has made “darkness” darker; there is a “fullness” of darkness that has come upon the world.  It is like the darkness that came upon Egypt – a darkness that could be felt.  The world has been overcome by the “blackness of darkness” and it will continue for as long as this world continues.   God will never again shine His light into the world.  Remember how God puts it, in speaking of Babylon being cast down, in Revelation 18:21-22:

And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee…

And musical instruments in the Bible point to proclaiming the Gospel.  And then it goes on to say:

…and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee:

You see, once the light of the candle has gone out, it has gone out for ever.  It is an eternal blackness and an everlasting blackness, because what God has done in putting out the light of the Gospel has eternal consequences.  This is the light that has gone out in the world.  Yes, the world had always been in darkness, but there was that “candlestick” that had shined in the darkness.  So, if you have a world in darkness and you put out the only light that was shining in that darkness, then you can see how the “darkness” gets darker still.  That is what God is revealing and it is an awful thing.  It is a horrible thing that this light of the sun is put out and even the “air” was darkened.  The domain of Satan and the place where he ruled became even darker, “by reason of the smoke of the pit.”