Revelation 9:1-6

1The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the
sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2When he
opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.
The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3And out of the
smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of
scorpions of the earth. 4They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any
plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their
foreheads. 5They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for
five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion
when it strikes a man. 6During those days men will seek death, but will not find
it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
20The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent
of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of
gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk.
21Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality
or their thefts.

Meditation
1. Joel’s prophecy (Joel 1:2-2:11) of locusts is to call for repentance of the
Israelites to return to God. He emphasized the final judgment and terrible
consequence of refusing to repent. Only in true repentance are we saved
from the terror of sin.
2. Despite God’s judgment, those who are temporarily spared still go on their
merry way (vv20-21). Pharaoh also refused to repent after the ten plagues.
And sometimes, we are just like them. During such times, God is actually
forcing us, through difficult circumstances, to look inside ourselves for
persistent stubbornness that dismisses such invitation of grace from God. If
it’s an honest look, what we see should humble us, and that humility should
pave the way to the grace of repentance.
3. Sit silently. Allow the Holy Spirit to show areas of my “persistent
stubbornness”. Pray for humility to see and grace to repent.

Personal Note:
The end goal of discipleship, evangelism, and worship is for a person to repent of sin and obey God's will.  Repentance means change of mind, change of actions, and change of words.