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The Beginning of the Trumpets - Revelation 8:1 - 3

 Wednesday, December 9 –

It is midweek in our reading thru the New Testament in a year.  Today we continue our reading in the book of Revelation, reading from Rev. 8:1 – 13.  Please read the passage first, and then come back to look at it again.


Trying to read Revelation as a series of chronological, or historical events is wrought with problems.  At the end of the sixth seal, there was an interlude of the multitude of saints that will be safely kept from, and through tribulation.  Now, as we turn to chapter eight, we find John witnessing the seventh seal being opened, and the beginning of a new set of judgments with trumpets.  The seals anticipated God’s protection of his people thru persecution, tribulation.  The trumpets will anticipate judgment on those who are not God’s people.  While the seals led to consolation, the trumpets will serve as warnings to repent and turn while there may be time. 

“When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.  Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them” (8:1-2).

Trumpets served a multitude of purposes in the Old Testament nation of Israel. They were used to herald announcements to the nation, to call the nation to arms, to move the people through the wilderness, and to call them to worship.  Joshua was told by God to march around Jericho seven times in seven days, and on the seventh day he told him to blow the Trumpets, and the judgment on Jericho followed.  The trumpets in Revelation set in motion a series of judgments that lead up to the second coming of Christ (see Joel 2:1).  However, before the first trumpet is sounded, there is at first silence – a silence that anticipates the coming seven trumpets, that signal God is once again moving us through the next phase of judgments.

Why the silence?  Two Old Testament passages might be the background to the silence precluding God’s judgments.

 “Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests” (Zephaniah 1:7).

“Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the LORD.  And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.  And the LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”  Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
Zechariah 2:10-13

The silence is purposeful, even reverential, as the trumpets await God’s signal.  God awaits to gather the prayers of the saints before He executes the judgments that follow.

“And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.  Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.  Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them” (8:3-6).

What is apparent is that the prayers of the saints are important to the judgments that follow.  Christ loves his Church – it is His Bride – and the persecution of the Church is not unnoticed, nor forgotten.  The seventh seal is opened and seven trumpets are given, and in the silence, anticipation builds, but God is acting on his own timetable, but in conjunction with the prayers of the saints for justice, and the answer is frightening.  The prayers are described as “ascending” to God, as “incense” ascends.  Incense was a part of the Temple worship and was the last action of the Priest in the Temple as he lit the incense and the smoke and smell arose through the top.  It always signified that prayers were given as a sweet-smelling fragrance, and heard, and the sacrifice was acceptable to God.  We sometimes think our prayers are unnoticed and unimportant, but God does not. 

Now everything that preceded the seventh seal and the waiting seven trumpets have been accomplished.  From this point at 8:6 thru 9:21, a series of judgments all follow.  Again, Revelation is a complex read that defies logical order or consequential outcomes.  Think of things as folding one upon another.  Often times we are given pictures of things that are the same picture before, only from a different angle.  The key is the main point John sees – that Tribulation is on the earth, even as Christ Jesus brings the purposes of God to completion and comes again in salvation and judgment.

The silence ends and the prayers are gathered, and the trumpets begin to sound.  Four trumpets blast in short quick order in just six verses, while the fifth thru the seventh trumpets signify events (judgments) that will unfold from chapters 9 thru 11.  The first four deal with the earth and the way the planet and the atmosphere will be affected.  The final three are spiritual warfare in tone. 

The first trumpet sounds and now 1/3 of the earth’s vegetation, food, global economy, and health are all affected –

“The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up” (8:7).

The second trumpet sounds and 1/3 of the oceans are devastated. 

“The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.  A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed” (8:8-9).

John saw something like a burning mountain cast into the sea.  The image of blood reminds us of the plague of the Nile River turning into blood before a defiant Pharaoh (Exodus 7:17-19).  Is John seeing these things in a literal way? We cannot be sure, but we see is the death and destruction of much of the ocean’s resources is part of the judgments.

The third trumpet sounds and a third of the earth’s water resources from rivers become bitter, unable to be used for human consumption.

“The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.  The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter” (8:10-11).

Again, the image is of a celestial body – comet? asteroid? – striking the freshwater rivers and springs. John names the celestial “star” – “Wormwood”, a bitter herb that was often a symbol of a bitter life. The catastrophe leads to many deaths.

The fourth trumpet sounds and a third of the heavenly bodies are struck, and the light of day is changed.

“The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night” (8:12). 

The first trumpet judgments serve as a warning.  There is proportionality to the judgments as a third of these things are affected.  That is enough to create economic and health calamities, chaos, and desperation.  On a micro-scale, the Pandemic of 2020 affected a large part of the earth, but not on the scale we see here.  The judgment of God is not to be ignored.  These judgments are more severe than the first six seals.  While we can be relieved, we are not living in them, we cannot miss the fact that something seriously will go wrong with the created order at the end of time.  Paul wrote to the Romans that the created order is in “bondage to decay” from which it longs for liberation (Romans 8:21-22).  While creation waits for its own rebirth, we can see from this short section that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Job 28:28; Psalm 33:8, 18; 103:17; Proverbs 1:7).

We could wish the final judgments of God would be finished, but they are not.  After four trumpets have sounded there are still three more to go, and John hears that they will not be for the better –

“Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!” (8:13).

We do not live in a world that ascribes events of natural orders to be from God.  The Bible knows that sometimes God will do things to get his people or the world’s attention.  At the end of the first four trumpets, John heard three “woes” to signify that a rebellious earth’s judgments are not over – things will get worse before they get better.  Judgments have their purposes in that they call us to revere and stand in awe of God.  Our hearts are often sinful and stubborn, and God knows how to accomplish his purposes even in our sinful rebellion.  Let’s remember that Sin is odious to God, and we should not excuse it away.  We know that God’s judgments included the judgment of our sin on His own Son. 

Peace

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