Revelation 9:10-12

10 They have tails like scorpions, and they have stings, and in their tails lies their ability to hurt men for [the] five months.

I have heard these verses preached that these are men who are attacking and that this must have been John seeing today’s helicopters. But these events are spiritual, and these are spiritual beings released from the Abyss, given power by our Father to possess and vex the unsaved. Think of a scorpion’s tail, it strikes fast and delivers the pain instantly! These beings come from nowhere and cause fast and furious pain to those affected by their attacks. If these were men in helicopters, people would die, death would be found and death would be dealt.

11 Over them as king they have the angel of the Abyss (of the bottomless pit). In Hebrew his name is Abaddon [destruction], but in Greek he is called Apollyon [destroyer]. 

The king of these beings is the destroyer, this angel was created to destroy and only to destroy, and he was created by our Father. The fallen angels have been under lock and key of this destroyer and the demons on the earth fear the daylights out of being around him and now he is loosed. Abaddon may be their king, but our Father is their controller! Jesus is the King of Kings!They will only do what our Father allows them to do and not one little thing more. 

So far we have seen that our Father releases forces that cause a war that devastates a fourth part of the earth. We have seen that He releases natural disasters that affect a third of the earth. Now we see that our Father releases a being that He created only to destroy. And we have heard it proclaimed that all of the unsaved inhabitants of the earth will be affected by these spiritual attacks. 

Think about a natural disaster that happens today and how the world reacts to it. Then think of a war as small as the Iraq war and how the world reacts, can you imagine the evil that will arise from a war that encompasses a fourth part of the earth? Add to that war the natural disasters that affect a third of the earth and then consider how people will react. Fear, dread, hopelessness, anger, and bitterness will be magnified a million times by the children of the devil when the wrath of our Father is released upon them. The actions of the lost and the fear that comes will far surpass anything that we have ever seen. 

The Truth is still the Truth and whatsoever thing a man soweth that shall he reap. What has been sown by the wicked as they see the war and disasters allows these evils to be released by our Father from the Abyss. The fear that will be sown by the wicked will be massive, even from people who have not been directly affected by these events. Just like today, how many people protest things and try to spread fear when they have never experienced the thing they are protesting. 

This is the first woe that the eagle cried out about and He cried three times.

12 The first woe (calamity) has passed; behold, two others are yet to follow.