Chapter Twenty-Two/The First Woe-Locusts - Those Tormenting Locusts - Conclusion

 The torment lasts for five months. Is that a relatively short time? Not from the point of view of a literal locust. Five months describes the normal life span of one of these insects. Therefore, it is for as long as they live that the modern-day locusts keep stinging God's enemies. Moreover, the torment is so severe that men seek to die. True, we have no record that any of those who were stung by the locusts actually tried to kill themselves. But the expression helps us to picture the intensity of the torment-as though by a relentless assault of scorpions. It is like the suffering foreseen by Jeremiah for those unfaithful Israelites who would be scattered by the Babylonian conquers and for whom death would be preferable to life. - JEREMIAH 8:3; see also ECCLESIASTES 4:2, 3.

Why is it granted to torment these ones in a spiritual sense, and not to kill them? This is an initial woe in the exposing of the lies of Christendom and her failures, but only later, as the Lord's day progresses, will her deathlike spiritual state by fully publicized. It will be during the second woe that a third of the men are killed. - REVELATION 1:10; 9:12, 18; 11:14.

Next time: Chapter Twenty-Two/The First Woe-Locusts - Locusts Equipped for Battle

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