Unravelling Revelation No. 12
“The Seven Trumpets”
(Revelation 8v1-11v19)
Introduction
Chapter 8 begins with the Seventh Seal, before it introduces the Seven Trumpets.
The Seventh Seal—(8:1-5) - Silence in Heaven.
The Seven Seals are finished. The Seven Trumpets are about to sound. But the Seven Trumpets don’t follow the Seven Seals, as if in chronological order. We go back to the beginning of the Church Age again, and The Seven Trumpets tell us more of what is going to happen throughout the Age. Each of these sections in Revelation are like overlays or transparencies laid one on top of each other building up a fuller picture of all that is going to happen throughout the Church Age. It’s not as if Revelation is recorded for us like a series of railway carriages — one coming after each other, but thematically, building up a description of all that will happen throughout this period. N.B. each of these sections ends in a crescendo with many similarities to each other (See 8:1-5, 11:19, 15:5-8).
The Seven Seals spoke of God’s authority or control over the history of the Church Age. Though many terrible things will happen, God is in ultimate control. He has even sealed those who are his. Men may harm our bodies but they cannot harm our souls. The seals spoke of the fact that we are owned by the Lord - we are His, they also spoke of the fact that our eternal security is guaranteed, and that as believers we are the genuine article. It was under the Seven Seals that we learned about not only the 144,000 from Israel being sealed before Judgement was unleashed on the earth, but also of a great multitude that no man could number who had come through great tribulation, but were now safe and secure in heaven. So the sealing of the Holy Spirit works. Nothing can separate us from Him! (Romans 8:35-39).
Now we come to The Seven Trumpets, and of course the Trumpet represents a warning. The Seven Trumpets speak of God’s warnings that will be sounded throughout the Church Age. The Trumpet was always used to sound warnings in Israel in the past e.g. Ezekiel 33. Here we see that throughout history God is sounding his warnings. Each Trumpet warns us to “Flee from the Wrath to come!” We will soon come to the Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath later on in Revelation. But the Trumpets are the warnings that God sounds for us throughout history to remind us to get ready and to get right with Him while there is yet time. How does God sound these warnings for us? What do they tell us?
1. The First Four Trumpets. Just as the first four Seals were grouped together as “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” telling us of the Tyranny that would be unleashed on the earth throughout the Church Age, and very often against Christians, likewise here the first four Trumpets are grouped together as well. They speak of the Chaos that is going to happen in the natural world order throughout the Church age. Every natural disaster and tragedy is supposed to be a wake-up call, or a warning trumpet from God, that even worse is still to come, and that now is the time to get ready and to get right with Him. It’s interesting that just before the Seven Seals were opened there was a reference to the prayers of the saints in 5:8, likewise here in 8:3-4 the prayers of the saints are mentioned again. Now this does not mean that we should pray to the saints in heaven and ask them to do things for us. Remember that in the NT saints are believers who are still alive on earth. These references mean that our prayers are heard in heaven, and in some strange way our prayers affect what is done on the earth—the opening of the seven seals followed the offering up of prayers, and the sounding of the seven trumpets follows the offering up of prayer to God. In other words what God does on earth, he does in answer to our prayers! For example, have you ever prayed for someone who’s lost to have a wake-up call?
1. When the first angel sounded the First Trumpet, hail and fire mixed with blood were hurled down upon the earth. Could these be giant hail-stones, or meteor showers? A third of the earth was burned up by them, together with a third of the trees and the green vegetation. One third destroyed, but two thirds survived alright. This is speaking of a partial judgement.
2. When the second angel sounded the Second Trumpet, something like a huge mountain on fire was thrown into the sea. Was John thinking of Mount Vesuvius on the island of Sicily that had erupted a few years earlier in AD79 and not only buried Pompeii, but hurled burning lava into the sea. His description is similar to that of some historians who recorded the event. Again he tells us that a third of the sea turned to blood, a third of the sea creatures died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
3. When the third angel sounded the Third Trumpet, a great blazing star called “Wormwood,” fell from the sky, and turned the water in a third of the rivers and springs bitter, and many people died because of the poisoned water. Whatever this is referring to specifically we are not sure, but even in the recent gathering of all heads of world states in South Africa in summer 2002, the need for good clean drinking water was top of the agenda. For whatever reason, many people are dying on our planet because of bitter or polluted water supplies. These are warnings.
4. When the fourth angel sounded the Fourth Trumpet, a third of the heavenly lights, the sun, the moon and the stars were struck so that they turned dark. A third of the daylight was gone and a third of the night was affected as well. Jesus talked about “signs on the earth below and signs in the heavens above,” heralding not just the end of the world, but the very real threat of greater judgement and wrath to come.
Now before we go any further do you see how the earth, the sea, drinking water and the heavenly lights were all affected by these first four Trumpet blasts. In other words they all speak of terrible events that affect the created order all around us—the elements of nature. They speak of natural disasters. The Seven Seals spoke of death and injustice caused by wicked world leaders and dictators going out to war and conquest, and how a quarter of the population died as a result. Here the Seven Trumpets take us one stage further, this time death and destruction is not caused by “man’s inhumanity to man” but by natural disasters—what the Insurance companies can’t insure you against, and call “acts of God.” But though a quarter of the population died because of man’s evil activities, here one third of the earth is affected by natural disasters in the created order. Again the fraction is important to notice. It is still partial judgement, or partial punishment. It’s one quarter, not four quarters, and it’s one third, not three thirds. The Trumpets are sounding warnings, but the warnings are not as bad as it is going to get. There is coming a day when the whole earth, and sea and sky and heavenly bodies will be destroyed, and all mankind wiped out and banished to Hell, apart from those who have personally trusted in Christ as their Saviour. And this is what is meant in ch.8:13. What has happened already is bad, but there is worse to come. That’s the message of the trumpets. Three “Woes” are now pronounced by a flying eagle upon the inhabitants of the earth, because of the Three Trumpet blasts that are still to come. The final Three Trumpets are three woes on the population of the world.
2. Trumpets Five and Six (ch.9)
The Fifth Trumpet (v.1-11). The First Four Trumpets focused on chaos within the created order - natural disasters. Mankind was only affected by this in a secondary way e.g. the bitter water. But when we come into ch.9 we see here the torture of mankind directly, under trumpets 5 and 6. But who is behind this torture of mankind?
“They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name inHebrew
is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.” (which means “Destroyer”)(9:11).
This angel of the Abyss seems to be the star that had fallen from the sky to earth in v.1, who was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss smoke rose from it, and in the smoke were locusts with power like scorpions to harm the people of the earth who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. (v.4). They tortured or tormented these people but they weren’t allowed to kill them. This whole picture speaks of the Devil, who fell like a star from heaven (See Luke 10:18). He is a fallen angel, who was cast down upon the earth and belongs to the Abyss or the pit of Hell itself. The locusts would probably then be his demons, who have a certain amount of power to torture mankind. But it is interesting to notice that they had no power to harm those who were already sealed by God—the true believers. The Devil is called the Destroyer, because he takes the lives of those who belong to him, and destroys them. The tragedy is that such people can’t see that the devil is destroying their lives (for example with drugs, etc) until it is often too late!
The power of the devil to torment and destroy the lives of men and women is the first woe, sounded by trumpet Five.
The Sixth Trumpet (v.12-21). The angel who blew the sixth trumpet was given power to go to the EuphratesRiver and release four angels that were bound there. These are four evil angels (agents of the devil), that’s why they are bound, as Satan himself will be later on. They are held bound until a certain hour, day, month and year. And then they will be released to kill a third of mankind. They will have 200 million mounted troops. In the First Century it was the Parthians who lived around the Euphrates, and it was feared that they would be the ones capable of overthrowing the Roman Empire and taking on world domination. But whoever they are, or were, or will be, their description in vs.17-19 shows that they are satanic forces, killing people by fire and smoke and sulphur that comes out of their mouths. We are told that their tails were like snakes (cf. the devil). So Trumpets 5 and 6 speak of the devil’s power to destroy the lives of men and women throughout the Church Age, and perhaps particularly towards the end of that time (v.15).But what John is concerned about is the response of the people to what the devil has done with the lives of those around them in vs.20-21. He is annoyed and frustrated that,
“The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the
work of their hands; they did not stop worshipping demons, and idols of gold, silver,
bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent
of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
In short, “there are none so blind as those who will not see.” The devil has blinded the eyes of those who do not believe the Gospel—he is the god of this age—destroying lives! But it is against this backdrop of the occult, and idolatry and wickedness that we now come to chs.10 and 11. The first six Trumpets have sounded the warnings of natural disasters and satanic activity but people still don’t seem to want to hear, so what should we as believers do?
Well the challenge of ch.10 is that we are still called to witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, even against this difficult backdrop. Natural disasters are not enough to turn people to God, they need to hear the Gospel too.
3. Interlude—the need for a clear presentation of the Gospel (ch.10-11:14)
In words that are very reminiscent of the call of Ezekiel to be a prophet in the OT, (See Ezekiel chs.2-3) an angel now re-calls John to prophetic service in the NT era. John, like Ezekiel before him, sees an angel with a little scroll in his hand. This angel announces that:
“There will be no more delay. The seventh trumpet is about to sound, and the mystery
of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.”
Do you see how we are brought back to the need for the prophetic voice to be heard to announce or make known the mystery of God? (A term Paul used in Ephesians about the Gospel of the New Testament Church). In v.8 John is told to go and take the little scroll, and when he does, just as with Ezekiel in the OT, he is told in v.9 to:
“Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour,
but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”
And sure enough that’s exactly what it was like when John ate it. Then he was told,
“You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.”
The Gospel is both sweet and sour. It has a sweet effect on the one who believes it for themselves and receives the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. It is sweet as we proclaim it to others—the only way of salvation, the only hope of forgiveness and of heaven. It is sweet to those who accept it, but it turns sour those who reject it.
Very often it creates a back-lash against the one who has proclaimed or preached this Gospel. As we saw with the Seven Seals, many had lost their lives as martyrs because they had shared this Gospel. John himself was in prison on the island of Patmos for preaching this Gospel. His opponents had turned sour against him. With all this persecution and intimidation believers could have been forgiven for keeping quiet. Against all this backdrop of natural disasters and satanic activity it was becoming very dangerous to go on preaching the Gospel, or sharing your faith with others. So the temptation was to keep quiet. That is why the angel re-calls John to “prophesy again about (or to) many peoples, nations, languages and kings.” And it’s a message that we need to hear again today as well. We mustn’t keep quiet. We must keep on sounding the Gospel Trumpet to warn people to get ready, and get right with God while there is yet time, before it is forever too late! This is spelled out in ch.11:1-14. Here we are given a very clear picture of how dangerous it will be to witness for the Lord. This passage talks about Two Witnesses, in terms reminiscent of Elijah and Moses from the OT. (v.1-6). (See also Zechariah ch.4 v.6 & 11-14: “Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord.” - that’s how we must witness). But in v.7-10 these two witnesses have to pay the ultimate price for speaking out for their Lord. The devil is behind it (v.7), but they were both attacked, overpowered and killed. Their bodies lie in the street of Jerusalem, which is now as bad as Sodom and Egypt, in the way that it treats God’s servants. People from every nation gloat over them and refuse them burial. But three and half days later in words echoing Ezekiel 37:9-10 they come to life again. This resurrection strikes terror in all who see it. But the two witnesses ascend into heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watch. At that moment a severe earthquake strikes, and a tenth of the city collapses. 7000 people are killed in the earthquake, and this at last has an effect on those who survived—they give glory to the God of heaven! (v.13) At last a natural disaster has the right effect: people turn to the Lord, but it was only because of the Gospel witness before it happened. People need to be told the way of salvation as well as be moved by natural disasters to get right with God. It takes Two Trumpets: The Gospel and the Warnings from natural disasters to turn people to God!
4. The Seventh Trumpet (11:15-19) - Jesus has already begun to reign!
And so the final Trumpet sounds. Like the Seventh Seal it comes after the interlude, but unlike the seventh seal that spoke of silence in heaven for half an hour, this time we have loud voices in heaven (v.15). But look at what they are saying—this is the mystery of God being revealed that the angel had spoken about in ch.10:6,7. What is this mystery? (v.15)
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord
and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
The kingdoms of this world have become Christ’s Kingdom and He will reign forever!
At this the twenty-four elders around God’s Throne join in and add to the chorus: