Several years ago, as I was driving to work, I heard a talk show host fulminate against the opponents of genetically modified foods—what those opponents call “Frankenfood.” Why, he asked, did they oppose genetic modification when it led to high yield, bug resistant crops? It was a reasonable question, I thought, although I am not scientifically literate enough to weigh in on the debate over the costs and benefits of genetically modified foods.
Then, when I got to the office, I read Revelation 8.13–9.12 and realized how terrifying John’s vision must have been to those who lived in the age before scientific agriculture, pesticides, and genetic modification. What John saw, after all, would have struck fear into the heart of any pre-modern farmer, for it presaged the destruction of his crops. John saw a swarm of locusts from hell.
Robert H. Mounce comments: “Behind this picture are two scenes from the OT. Exod 10:1–20 tells of the plague of locusts that devoured all vegetation through the land of Egypt. Joel 1:2–2:11 interprets the devastation of Israel by locusts as a portent of the destruction that will come with the day of the Lord (Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11). Throughout the OT the locust is a symbol of destruction (Deut 28:42; 1 Kgs 8:37; Ps 78:46). Bred in the desert, they invade cultivated areas in search of food. They may travel in a column a hundred feet deep and up to four miles in length, leaving the land stripped bare of all vegetation.”[i]
John’s vision of locusts, in other words, is a vision of divine judgment. They swarm because they have been summoned by the fifth angel’s trumpet blast (9.1). And their power is circumscribed: They cannot “harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads” (9.4), and they can only operate for five months (9.5).
These are not ordinary locusts, however. Verses 7–10 pile simile upon simile to describe their appearance: “like horses prepared for battle,” “like crowns of gold,” “like human faces,” “like women’s hair,” “like lion’s teeth,” “like breastplates of iron,” “like the noise of many chariots,” “like scorpions.” Some interpreters have thought John might be describing helicopters or some other modern military aircraft. Verse 11 lays that idea to rest swiftly: “They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.” The locusts, in other words, are demons, and their king is a demon too—perhaps the devil itself.
The appearance of these locusts from hell has its intended effect: “And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them” (9.6). Just as earthly locusts strip the land of vegetation, so the demonic locusts strip human beings of hope without allowing them to die.
Why would God allow such a thing? Again, although it is hard to wrap our minds around such an idea, even this divine judgment contains a measure of grace. It represents one of God’s final attempts to get people to see that there is no hope outside of faith in him. They have rebuffed his loving advances and spurned his kindly invitations. Perhaps, he thinks, they will change their minds if they see the impossibility of life outside of him.
I wonder: Will we?
[i] Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 186.
GeorgePWood.com 
The king over the locusts is definitely not the devil. If the locusts are executing God’s judgments on wicked people, then the locusts must be acting in harmony with His judgments. The devil, the original rebel Satan, ‘the adversary’, the ‘dragon’, has never acted in harmony with God’s purpose. In present times, Satan and his demons are described as having been ousted from heaven by the Archangel Michael to be confined solely to the earth. Because he knows that he and his demons are due to be thrown into the abyss,(Revelation 20) he is described as having (“Great anger, knowing he has a short period of time”) – Revelation 12:12.
While he is confined to the earth he persecutes every human who upholds the coming kingdom under Christ’s rulership by witnessing about the bible prophecies.
However, as the resurrected Jesus prophesied to John, showing him visions of the future, John “saw an angel coming down out of heaven with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he seized the dragon, the original serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he hurled him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him that he might not mislead the nations any more “(Revelation 20). Therefore, Apollyon cannot be the devil, can he?
Bettine:
Thank you for your reply!
On occasion in the Bible, God uses sinful people to accomplish divine purposes. For example, in the Old Testament, he used Assyria and Babylon to execute judgment on Israel and Judah. In the New Testament, he used corrupt religious and political leaders to crucify Jesus. Given these examples, I’m not sure why he cannot providentially use demonic spirits to accomplish judgment as well.
You may very well be correct that Apollyon/Abaddon is not the devil. I only suggested that he might be. I’m sticking with the notion that the locusts represent something demonic, however. Both the location (“bottomless pit”/”abyss”) and the names (Apollyon=”destroyer”/Abaddon=”destruction”) point in that direction.
George