Wishing for Death.

Revelation was written for all believers (Revelation 1:3), but especially for the believers in the seven churches addressed in chapters 2—3. These churches were all located in modern Turkey, consisting largely of Gentile believers, meeting in house churches, who faced much persecution. Each church was given specific information in addition to the overall vision shared to all believers.

The goal of this post/study is to help in reading and understanding Revelation. When I first read Revelation it was like reading a crazy mixed up series of calamity! This is why most people teach that. They don't know how to read it. Once you understand how to read Revelation, it becomes a much more interesting and informative book.

In Revelation 9:6 from the King James Version of the Bible, it says: “And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.” This passage describes a time when people will long for death but won’t be able to find it. Quite a thought-provoking verse!

Revelation 9:6 - "And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them."

Revelation 9:6 describes a vivid and distressing scene. In those days, people will seek death due to their suffering and torment, but they won’t find it. They will long for death, yet death will elude them . It’s a powerful image of anguish and desperation.

Revelation 9:1–6 tells what happens when the fifth angel blows his trumpet. This trumpet judgment is more severe than the previous trumpet judgments. A star, presumably Satan, falls from heaven and receives a key to the bottomless pit. He uses the key to release a demonic force of locusts that torment unbelievers for five months.

The torment is so severe that people seek death but are unable to find it. The verses that follow describe the locusts and tell what happens when the sixth angel blows his trumpet

Revelation 9 tells us that under the fifth trumpet judgment John sees a star fall from heaven to earth. This ''star'' is Satan, and he is given the key to the bottomless pit. Using this key, Satan unleashes a plague of supernatural demons resembling locusts.

They torment unbelievers for five months with such pain that people seek death unsuccessfully. They appear like horses prepared for battle, and they have a king, whose name is Apollyon, meaning ''Destroyer.'' Under the sixth trumpet judgment John sees four angels released from the Euphrates river.

Their release coincides with a horde of two hundred million demonic mounted troops that kill a third of mankind. However, the survivors refuse to abandon their idolatry and to repent of their evil deeds.

Prior verses described Satan releasing a horde of locust-like demons, limited to torment—not kill—unbelievers only. Their ability was comparted to that of a scorpion (Revelation 9:1–5). This verse reveals that the locust-like creatures' "scorpion" stings will be so painful that victims will want to die.

The Greek wording of this verse implies that the people stung will seek death vehemently or earnestly. The pain of this experience will not be something one "gets used to."

That someone in horrible agony would want to die is not hard to understand. What's less clear, in this verse, is the implication that these afflicted non-believers will be unable to die. Somehow, in some way, they will be prevented from ending their own lives to cut short their suffering.

What exactly this means, Scripture is not clear. Perhaps the sting so immobilizes victims that they give no outward sign of pain—preventing others from mercy killings or other interventions.

Perhaps their condition renders them temporarily immune to other drugs and chemicals. Or, it might be simple supernatural intervention keeping them alive.

The reference to "five months" in the prior verse may, also, suggest that the effect of the demons' sting lasts five months for those who are stung. Scripture isn't explicit about this, but that possibility might explain why people would seek death for something so painful and chronic.

This period of inescapable torment parallels the concept of hell. Physical death is the separation of the spirit/soul from the body, which leads to eternal suffering for unbelievers. They will experience eternal death: a forever separation from God. Jesus told a story in Luke 16:19–31 about a rich unbeliever who died and went to Hades.

His story also focused on Lazarus, a beggar who died and went to Paradise, where he enjoyed the company of Abraham. The rich man called upon Abraham to show him mercy by sending Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool his tongue with the water.

The rich man confessed he was "in anguish in this flame" (Luke 16:24). At the end of human history, the occupants who suffer in Hades will be consigned to the lake of fire, where their agony will continue eternally (Revelation 20:7–15).