Revelation chapter 9:1-21
The imagery in the these chapters need to be read and if no interpretation is given, it needs to be stored in your spirit until the Lord shows you. You will not be able to even come up with what for example the locust that are released are because nothing like that is on the earth yet….or nothing has occurred like that yet…so all guessing is a futile distraction. What the bible doesn’t say, leave it alone and wait. In God’s timing, he will show us. Let the bible say what it says, and when it doesn’t say, wait for God to show you in his time. Build faith, not fear.

9 ¹And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

Look at the language here… “and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.” God is in charge, and God is allowing these things to happen in hopes that mankind repents and receives Jesus before it’s too late, and they are lost forever. This is the mercy of God. Humans have an idea of mercy being some gentle act of kindness that doesn’t hurt at all and only soothes. Sometimes, though, an act of mercy is painful… like when you break a bone, and it has to be positioned before a cast is put on so that it can heal correctly… that repositioning hurts so badly, but in the end… not doing it would hurt badly for a lot longer and diminish the quality of your life. These harsh events that give a tiny taste of what hell is like in hopes of waking people up before they end up in eternity, are because of the mercy of God…. but soon, this mercy will come to an end for the unrepentant. What comes after is judgment.
In Revelation 8:13 An angel flies through heaven proclaiming ¹“³ And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”
The very next thing that happens on the earth is the bottemless pit is opened releasing demonic locust. These locusts can’t touch those with the seal of God, which God sent his Angels to seal.

² And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

³ And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

⁴ And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

⁵ And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

⁶ And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

⁷ And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

⁸ And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.

⁹ And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.

¹⁰ And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

¹¹ And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

¹² One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

¹³ And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

¹⁴ Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

Right now this river is drying up…does that mean anything though? What I do know is God parted the Red Sea and dried the channel between the waters so that the Israelites were able to cross over on dry land… and this same God is also able to dry the river up in less than a nanosecond if he is so inclined. I say this to emphasize that we need to put our beliefs in the word of God and view things like the drying up of the Euphrates as something that could be leading to these end time events, or maybe they aren’t, so we need to just hold what the word says. The drying of the Euphrates could just be because of a dam or a drought, but the word of God is always true, keep your faith there, watch other things with curiosity. Another thought is that the countries that share this river are always in conflict because of it and the way each country uses the resources… so much so, they have formed committees to ensure all the countries sharing the river have their interest protected. Over and over however, these countries, while agreeing to preserve and look out for other countries and their needs, will put their ventures ahead of the other countries when it comes to the resource. This leads to tensions between countries. So there is more to the drying of the river….which isn’t so much as a miracle sign of the end times and more of a sign of the conflict that comes in the end times.
Check out this informative video on the river as it is today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfp4z_UapgY

¹⁵ And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

¹⁶ And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.

¹⁷ And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.

¹⁸ By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

¹⁹ For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.

²⁰ And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:

²¹ Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.