阅读经文 

在揭开第七印后接着展开的故事中，我们听见号声响起，又有巨大的毁灭和黑暗临到地上（启示录 8:6-13）。今天，当我们读到第五个号响起的时候，我们看见无底坑被打开了，有烟从这个巨型的坑里往上冒，好像大火炉的烟。

无底坑是一个人人都憎厌的地方，最好还是一直把它锁住。邪恶的力量和权势威胁要毁灭神美好的创造，无底坑就是圣经用来形容这些力量隐藏的地方。在这里，启示录描绘无底坑被打开的景象，凡住在里面的都要出来，它们的身份被暴露了。

光能够暴露那些本来隐藏的东西。举例说，我想起很多时候早上走进我家鸡舍的情景，在阳光还没有透过窗户照射进来之前，鸡笼里的空气乍看起来是清新的，随着阳光照射进来，突然之间，空气中每一粒尘埃都显现出来了。

无底坑打开时，有一层厚厚的云冒上来－好像巨型的熊熊火炉发出的烟，大地都因此昏暗了。在我们日常生活中，当暗昧隐秘的贪污腐败被揭露时，也会有类似的事情发生。掩盖的事被公开了，我们感到好像黑云弥漫。有时我们希望无底坑仍然被紧紧锁上，我们不喜欢看到暗昧的罪恶被暴露，然而我们需要为此作好心理准备。藉着神的帮助，我们需要正视邪恶、指出它的问题、努力去与它破坏的力量进行抗争。

In the ongoing story of the opening of the seventh seal, we read of trumpets sounding and of great destruction and darkness coming on the earth (Revelation 8:6-13). Today, as we read about the sounding of a fifth trumpet, we see the opening of the Abyss, a great bottomless pit that belches smoke like a gigantic furnace.

The Abyss is a detestable place, and perhaps it is best left locked. This is the Bible’s way of describing the hiding place of evil powers and forces that threaten to undo the goodness of God’s creation. Here Revelation pictures the Abyss opened and its occupants brought out so that their identity can be exposed.

Light has a way of exposing what otherwise would remain hidden. I’m reminded, for example, of what I see most mornings when I walk into my henhouse. The air in the chicken coop looks clear until a beam of sunlight shines through a window. Then suddenly every dust particle in the air becomes visible.

When the Abyss opens, a thick cloud rises—darkening the world like smoke from a vast, raging fire. In our everyday lives, something similar happens when dark secrets of corruption and abuse are exposed. What was hidden comes out in the open, and it can feel like a dark cloud has come over us. There are times when we wish the Abyss had remained closed. We don’t like it when dark sins are exposed, but we need to be prepared. With God’s help, we need to look evil in the eye, name it, and work against its power to destroy.