阅读经文 

我们往往很想略过这段启示录的经文，它的信息实在令人困扰。有一大群蝗虫从无底坑出来，这些活物外表怪诞、又无情和坚决地要尽力折磨许多的人，我们想尽办法要避开它们。

在这第五号吹响后的场景中，我认为这里使用的描述手法，与耶稣在登山宝训中祂使用的部份手法相同。这便是修辞学上的夸张法——使用夸张、但又不按照字面来解释的图像。例如，想想耶稣在马太福音五章二十九至三十节所说的话：“若是你的右眼叫你跌倒，就剜出来……若是右手叫你跌倒，就砍下来...... ”我教的那班主日学其中有个学生回应这段经文说：“哇！耶稣的要求真的很高。”

她其实是明白这里所说的意思。她知道耶稣不是说我们真的要伤害自己，然而她却看到，耶稣其实是在吩咐我们要抗拒罪恶。第五号的故事，提到很多关于邪恶和它带给人生命的深切痛苦，所以我们要抗拒它。依靠神的保护，我们可以做得到，然而我们必须看清邪恶的本质。圣经所说的罪和邪恶，就是我们视为“随自己的欲望、按自己的时间做事。”的这种心态。

罪恶的外表和味道像糖果，然而神要我们看到罪恶真正的腐蚀作用。要明白这个真理，最要紧的就是看看这个由无底坑出来的、在背后推动的王的名，牠的名字是毁坏者。

谁是你的王呢？

It can be tempting to skip over this section in Revelation. Its message is troublesome. The swarm of locusts rising up from the Abyss, grotesque in appearance and ruthlessly determined to torment as many people as they can, are creatures we would rather avoid.

I think this fifth-trumpet scene applies the same technique Jesus used in parts of his Sermon on the Mount. This is hyperbole—the use of exaggerated pictures that are not meant to be taken literally. Consider, for example, what Jesus says in Matthew 5:29-30 (NRSV): "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. . . . If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. . . ." One of my church-education students responded to this passage by saying, "Wow! Jesus asks a lot."

She understood. She knew that Jesus was not saying we should literally harm ourselves, but she could see that he does call us to resist sin. The fifth-trumpet story says a lot about evil and the terrible pain it brings into people’s lives, and we need to resist it. With God’s protection we can do that, but we must see evil for what it is. What the Bible calls sin and evil is what we might define as "doing what I want, when I want."

Sin may look and taste like candy. But God wants us to see sin’s real cavity-creating rot. Perhaps this truth is best brought home in the name of the driver-king who comes out of the Abyss. His name is Destroyer.

Who is your king?