(1 John 2:15-16; Revelation 9:2-3)
In Revelation 9, when the Kingdom of God had been fully cleansed of all lawlessness, an angel released Satan from the bottomless pit. Smoke came out of the pit, “like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit.”1Rev 9:2
We often use the expression “smokescreen” to describe a trick that blinds people from the truth. That is the meaning here. The smokescreen of Satan prevents men from seeing the sun and the air. The sun refers to God throughout the Book of Revelation.2as in Revelation 12:1 and 21:23 The air refers to the spiritual world. In Ephesians 2:2, Satan was called “the prince of the power of the air.”
This smokescreen put up by Satan takes men’s eyes away from God and blinds them from the truth of the spiritual world. When men can no longer see God and the spiritual battle, they are easily misled.
The smokescreen that always keeps men from the truth is the world itself. The apostle John described the distractions of this world as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.”31Joh 2:16 These are the things that prevent us from entering God’s Church and receiving the love of God. John said, “Do not love this world or the things of this world, for if anyone loves the things of this world, the love of the Father is not in him.”41Joh 2:15
As soon as Satan is released, he will blind men with “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life”— men will seek their own glory. This is the goal of the locusts that came out of the smoke in Revelation 9:3.
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