Sunday, April 12, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Revelation 9
Key Verse
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.”
Devotional Thought
Revelation 9 is a hard chapter to read on a bright spring morning, and perhaps that is exactly why we need it. The fifth trumpet sounds, and a star falls from heaven to earth with the key of the bottomless pit. Smoke rises like a great furnace, the sun and air are darkened, and out of that smoke come locusts with the power of scorpions. They are commanded to harm no grass, no green thing, no tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Their torment lasts five months, and it is so severe that men seek death and cannot find it. Then the sixth trumpet sounds, and four angels bound at the great river Euphrates are loosed, leading an army of two hundred thousand thousand horsemen whose mouths issue fire, smoke, and brimstone, killing a third of mankind.
What strikes the reader most is not the strangeness of the imagery but the response of those who survive. Verses 20 and 21 tell us plainly: “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands.” They kept worshiping devils and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood — things that “neither can see, nor hear, nor walk.” They did not repent of their murders, sorceries, fornication, or thefts. Judgment fell, and still the heart stayed hard. That is the sober lesson of this chapter: suffering alone does not soften a soul. Only grace does.
This is the Sunday after Easter, and the contrast could not be sharper. Last week we sang of a tomb that could not hold the Son of God; today we read of a pit that will not release its darkness until God says so. The same risen Christ who walked out of the grave holds the keys of hell and of death. The locusts cannot touch the sealed; the angels are bound until the appointed hour, day, month, and year. Nothing in this chapter escapes God’s timing.
So what does this ask of us today? It asks us to examine our own hearts while there is still time. It is easy to read about idols of gold and stone and feel distant from them, but we have our own mute trusts — money, reputation, comfort, self. The warning is not merely about the future; it is about the hardness that can settle into any heart that refuses to turn. Let this chapter drive us to the cross, where repentance is not a grim duty but a gift, and where the One who opens the pit is also the One who opens the door of mercy.
Reflection
- If trials came and did not soften you, what does that reveal about the idols your heart still clings to?
- The sealed were spared, not because they were better, but because they belonged to God — do you live today with the quiet confidence of one who is sealed in Christ?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, You hold the keys of death and hell, and nothing in heaven or earth moves without Your permission. We read of smoke and locusts and horsemen, and we tremble — not because we fear the pit, but because we know our own hearts can grow hard even under Your hand. Keep us from the idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Turn us again to the cross, where Your mercy meets our repentance. Seal us as Your own, guard us in the day of trouble, and let our lives be marked by softness toward You and faithfulness to Your name. Amen.