The Great Ribulation

JSRUSALEM UNDER SIEQE 10S
came (Genesis 7:11; 8:2; Proverbs 3:20; 8:24), and
which nourished the kingdom of Assyria (Ezekiel
31:4, 15). The Red Sea crossing of the covenant people
is repeatedly likened to a passage through the
Abyss (Psalm 77:16; 106:9; Isaiah 44:27; 51:10;
63:13). The prophet Ezekiel threatened Tyre with a
great desolation of the land, in which God would
bring up the Abyss to cover the city with a new
Flood, bringing its people down to the pit in the
lower parts of the earth (Ezekiel 26:19-21), and Jonah
spoke of the Abyss in terms of excommunication
from God’s presence, a banishment from the Temple
(Jonah 2:5-6). The domain of the Dragon (Job 41:31;
Psalm 148:7; Revelation 11:7; 17:8), the prison of the
demons (Luke 8:31; Revelation 20:1-3; cf. II Peter
2:4; Jude 6), and the realm of the dead (Remans
10:7) are all called by the name Abyss.
St. John is thus warning his readers that hell is
about to break loose upon the Land of Israel; as with
Tyre of old, the Abyss is being dredged up to cover
the Land with its unclean spirits. Apostate Israel is
to be cast out of God’s presence, excommunicated
from the Temple, and filled with demons. One of the
central messages of Revelation is that the Church
tabernacles in heaven (see Revelation 7:15; 12:12;
13:6); the corollary of this is that the false church tabernacles
in hell.
Why does the locust plague last forjiw months?
This figure is, first of all, a reference to the period of
five’ months, from May through September, when
locusts normally appeared. (The unusual feature is
that these locusts remain for the entire period, engag-