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INTRODUCTION
It has been some time since we were together, so allow me to do a bit of a review.
There are seven cycles in the book of Revelation and we have been through two of them thus far.
Each cycle shows us something about history and its culmination with Christ’s return from a different perspective.
So in Cycle 1, Christ is in the midst of 7 churches and we get a picture of who He is.
We also get a snapshot of those 7 churches, which represent all of the churches that exist between Jesus’ first coming and second coming
In Cycle 2, there is a worship scene in heaven and God the Father holds a scroll with all of history written on it.
The scroll is completely sealed and there is only One who is worthy to open it—that is Christ.
And as the seals are opened, we saw history unfold and we got a glimpse of what the world is like until the return of Christ.
There will be conquest.
There will be war.
There will be famine.
And there will be death.
We saw this in the first four seals.
Christians will be martyred and crying out for justice.
We saw this as the fifth seal was opened.
And then Christ will return and judge the world.
And we saw this in the opening of the 6th seal.
But His people will not be touched by that judgment.
This was clear in chapter 7.
They are the 144,000.
The sealed church.
His ranks on earth carrying out His will.
And ultimately, they will worship Him in heaven with the angels as the great multitude from every nation.
Cycle 2 ends with half an hour of silence in heaven.
An eerie awe over God’s plan and the weight of God’s judgment.
This is where we pick it up tonight.
And I love this passage that we are looking at tonight.
It is just a few verses.
But I love it because it is a bit of an interlude.
A bridge between Cycle 2 and Cycle 3.
And in these few verses, we get a really neat look into the meaning and purpose and importance of prayer.
Let’s read Revelation 8:2-5
THE TRUMPETS (v.
1-2)
Verse 2 begins with John seeing seven angels who are standing before God and they have been given seven trumpets.
These trumpets will be the main literary device used to show us what is going to unfold in the 3rd cycle.
Just like the 7 churches were in Cycle 1
Just like the 7 seals in Cycle 2
And what the trumpets will do is show us the distresses and disasters that God will allow to come upon the earth throughout history
And how all of these distresses and disasters are little previews of what is to come in the Final Judgment when Christ returns.
The trumpet is very important in the Bible.
When God gives the Law to the people at Sinai, the Law is accompanied by a trumpet blast
Exodus 19:16 “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.”
Exodus 19:19 “And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.”
In Numbers 10, two silver trumpets are made for the purpose of gathering God’s people
Numbers 10:2-3 ““Make two silver trumpets.
Of hammered work you shall make them, and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp.
And when both are blown, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the entrance of the tent of meeting.”
When the year of Jubilee came and debt was forgiven and slaves were freed every seventh year, how was is commemorated?
Leviticus 25:9 “Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month.
On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.”
In Joel 2, Israel's Southern Kingdom, Judah, is weak from frequent military conquests in their land and agricultural hardships.
And Joel is warning them that their weakness a symptom of their spiritual state.
He warns them that judgment is on the way.
Joel 2:1 “Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,”
So when he calls the trumpet to be blown, it is a blast of warning to Judah that judgment is on the way.
And of course, the New Testament teaches us that Christ’s return will be proclaimed with a loud trumpet blast
Matthew 24:31 “And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
1 Corinthians 15:52 “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”
But for the purposes of understanding Revelation 8, there is one text that seems to be of the most importance when it comes to the trumpet in biblical history.
It can be found in Joshua 6, when Israel conquered Jericho by the power of the Lord.
The time had come for Israel to enter the Promised Land.
The wilderness wandering was over.
But one of the first enemies that needed to be dealt with in the land was Jericho.
They had many mighty men behind high, strong walls.
Joshua didn’t have tanks or guns or air support.
But he had the strength of the Lord.
He was to have all the soldiers march around the city while seven priests carried seven trumpets
And they were to do that for six days.
And then on the 7th day, the trumpet sounded and the people shouted and the walls came down and Israel took the city.
To the people of Israel, the sound of the trumpet was the sound of victory.
To the people of Jericho, it was a warning of impending judgment.
We certainly see a parallel for the New Testament church that Revelation is written to.
The church has been rescued from slavery by a better Moses named Jesus.
He leads us through life with a better cloud and flame—His Holy Spirit.
And before we can fully enter into the Promised Land and dwell in it, we have work that must be done.
And that work is to conquer the nations of the world in the name of Christ
But we do not do it with swords.
We do it with love and preaching of the Gospel.
Warning people of the judgment to come and calling the to repentance
Joel Beeke: The people shouted, and the walls of Jericho collapsed.
That is what God is going to do in the world.
At present, God is encircling the stronghold of the enemy.
When the last trump sounds, however, earth will crumble, and the kingdoms of this earth will become the kingdoms of God and His Christ.
We will keep Jericho in mind as we talk through the trumpets and we will keep comparison to the New Testament church in mind as well.
But to summarize verse 2—we have seven angels with seven trumpets.
Trumpets that are an important literary device with lots of biblical meaning for the purpose of showing us history and the 2nd coming from yet another perspective.
WHO PRAYS?
(v.
3-4)
But we really won’t get into any of the trumpets and their meaning until we get to verse 6. Tonight, we will stop after verse 5.
And that is because I don’t want us to miss this brilliant bit of the vision that teaches us so much about prayer with just a few words.
If we go back to the beginning of the chapter, we had that sudden silence after all the noise of Revelation.
We had that silence in heaven for about half an hour.
Awe over what God has done and what He is about to do.
And when is that silence broken?
You see it in verse 3--
Revelation 8:3 “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,”
The first “noise” we see to break the silence is the prayers of the saints.
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