1. Revelation 9:4 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Are these locusts free to do whatever they like?

Revelation 9:4 (ESV)

4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

No, they are not. These locusts must do what they are told to do. Christ Jesus is sovereign (Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:21) and has these locusts fully under his dominion (see Genesis 1:26; Psalm 8:6–8). He told them that they, contrary to the pattern of all locusts, were “not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree.” They were not, then, to threaten man’s food supply.