Revelation 8:2-9:12 (Trumpets of Judgment)

Introduction

I was once assigned the task of preparing a sermon on 1 Samuel 28. That chapter of the Bible is as much of a challenge as it is fascinating. It describes the last, miserable, and desperate act of King Saul (first king of Israel). It tells the story of his attempt to hear a better word from God than the one he’d heard already.

In 1 Samuel 15, the prophet Samuel told Saul, “you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you…” (1 Sam. 15:26). From that time on, Saul heard no word from God, and Saul was “tormented” by a “harmful spirit” (1 Sam. 16:14). But Saul continued on as king, he made war on his enemies, and he even schemed to prevent what God had told him would inevitably happen.

Finally, just before Saul died by a stray arrow from an unknown archer (an embarrassing and pitiful death), he went to visit an illegal witch who saw far more than she thought she ever would. Saul promised that her pagan sorcery would not be punished if only she would help him to hear a word from the prophet Samuel, who was already dead.

Ironically and amazingly, God made Samuel appear to the witch at Endor and to speak one final word. But the word from God through Samuel was just the same as it had been before… only this time, the end had come. Samuel said, “The LORD has done to you as he spoke by me… Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD… tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me” (1 Sam. 28:17-19).

The rest of 1 Samuel 28 describes how Saul obeyed a cursed witch, how he ate from her cursed table, and how he went on his way… a man cursed to die.

That’s the end of the episode!

The curtain drops, and there is nothing but despair… nothing but impending death… no hope, no rescue, no escape… only God’s unwavering curse.

It reminds me of that time in The Christmas Carol when Ebeneezer Scrooge says to the ghost of Jacob Marley, “Speak comfort to me, Jacob!” And the ghost (who's aimlessly wandering eyes now fix directly upon Scrooge) says (just as matter-of-factly as you can imagine), “I have none to give.”

Our passage today is very much like that. There is an implied comfort for Christians throughout our text, but there is nothing but woe, curse, and torment for those who remain in their sin… who remain in their unbelief… who make their home in this world, and who think little or nothing at all of the world to come.

Today we are continuing our study through the book of Revelation, and our text this morning springs out of our text from last Sunday. If you weren’t here last week, then you may feel like I’m moving too fast through some of this, but I trust we all will still be able to see, to understand, and to apply the main content here.

We left off last week with John’s vision of the Lamb opening the seventh seal, and that is where we will pick it up today. The seventh seal leads us right into the blowing of the seven trumpets, which is the focus of where we are now.

Scripture Reading

Revelation 8:1–9:12 (ESV)

8:1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 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, 4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. 5 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.

6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

7 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 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. 9 A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

10 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. 11 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.

12 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.

13 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!”

9:1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. 2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.

3 Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. 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. 5 They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.

6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

7 In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8 their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; 9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. 10 They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.

11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.

12 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.

Main Idea:

This world is under God’s curse, and those who do not turn from sin and trust in Christ are objects of God’s wrath.

Sermon

1. Answered Prayers (8:2-6)

This first section of our text helps us understand at least two things from the outset: (1) we are starting a new cycle of seven, and (2) we are taking another look at some of what we’ve already seen in the previous cycle of seven (the seals), only now from a new vantage point.

First, this is a new cycle of seven. There are seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls; and each of these groups of seven are obviously intended as distinct sections. And all three of these sevens begin and end in the throne room. We saw this last week, when John “watched… the Lamb” open the seals (Rev. 6:1)… the same Lamb John saw receiving worship right alongside the one seated on the throne (Rev. 4-5). “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13). And then, after the sixth seal was opened, John “looked” and saw “a great multitude” of saints “standing before the throne” singing a song of salvation (Rev. 7:9-10).

The seven seals start or begin from the throne room, and that’s the same place they end up when the cycle is complete.

We see this again today in the cycle of seven trumpets: We begin in v2, where John “saw the seven angels who stand before God.” These are the “angels” who receive the “seven trumpets” (v2). Another angel “came and stood at the altar” (v3), which we learned last week is in the presence of God, who is on the throne (Rev. 6:9-11). And the seventh trumpet will land us right back in the throne room (in ch. 11), where the saints proclaim, “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ… And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God [fall] on their faces” in worship (Rev. 11:15-16).

Again, this is a new cycle of seven, beginning and ending at the throne.

A second thing this opening section helps us to understand is that we are getting another look from a new vantage point. The first four of the seven seals are already opened in the world. I argued last Sunday that the four horsemen of the apocalypse are representative of tyranny, war, economic disaster, and death. I also said that some Christians believe that such things will intensify as we get closer to the return of Christ, but we must all admit that these divine judgments are already evident in the world.

Tyranny has never been absent, since Genesis 3. Wars and rumors of wars are the norm for life under the sun. Economic chaos is greater and lesser, depending on geography and history, but it is always around us. And death and the grave remain insatiable in their hunger for more every day and for every generation since Adam. In short, the best way to understand the four horsemen is as symbols of God’s judgment that has already been and will continue to be unleashed on the world (especially between Christ’s first and second coming).

The fifth seal in Revelation 6 was yet another call for judgment, but that one was in the form of a prayer from those saints who have already died and are now in God’s presence. Those faithful witnesses cry out, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:10). And the heavenly response is that these saints are “given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete” (Rev. 6:11). In other words, the saints who die in faith are with God, they are awaiting vindication (God’s justice poured out on those who oppose Christ and His people), and God will bring it.

The sixth seal, then, is a vision of the final judgment, when God does in fact bring the full weight of His justice upon “those who dwell on the earth” and vindicate those who have remained faithful to Christ. We are told (in Rev. 6:16-17) that all the earth-dwellers – great and small, “kings” and “great ones” and “generals” and “the rich,” “everyone, slave and free” – they all say, “the great day of their wrath has come” [that is, the wrath of “him who is seated on the throne” and “the wrath of the Lamb”] (Rev. 6:17).

When the seventh seal is opened, there is “silence in heaven” for a short time (Rev. 8:1), and the sense we get is of both awe and expectation. All of heaven is in awe of God’s judgment and His salvation… and the reader is left with the sense of expectation, since this sixth seal has not yet been opened in human history.

And when the new cycle of seven begins (the seven trumpets), it is a continuation of the imagery of the fifth seal and a recapitulation or retelling of what happened when the sixth seal was opened. Note (in v2) that John “saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them” (Rev. 8:2). Then John saw “another angel” come to “the altar” where the saints had been praying (as described in the fifth seal). That angel had a “golden censer” (which is a small container used to burn incense as a sacrifice), and the angel “offered” up “the prayers of all the saints… before the throne” of God (v3).

Then “the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and [then] there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake” (Rev. 8:5)… all symbols of God’s judgment. Just like what happened when the sixth seal was opened, the trumpet blasts are a result of the prayers of the saints… the prayers for vindication… and for judgment upon the world. Thus, the seven trumpets are a retelling and an expanded description of what God’s final judgment is like.

And yet, just like we’ve already seen with the seven seals, there is a growing intensity and a limitation on the extent of these judgments… which I believe indicates (again) features of these judgments being both already and not yet. It’s a “third of the earth” (Rev. 8:7), a “third of the sea” (v8), a “third of the living creatures” (v9), and a “third of the sun… moon… and… stars” (v12). But on the last day, there will be a total destruction of this world as it is and a recreation or resurrection of it (Rev. 21:1).

In sum, we see here that this world and the people in it are already under God’s curse, and we learn (in these first five trumpet blasts)… that God distinguishes between His people and the earth-dwellers, that God has set His wrath (not His love) on the earth-dwellers, and that God’s curse is worse than mortal death.

2. Judgment Falls (8:7-12)

Commenting on what I think is one of the most glorious passages in all the Bible (Romans 3:21-26), John Stott asked the question, “Why is a propitiation necessary?” In other words, “Why was it necessary that there should be some sort of sacrifice to appease or satisfy or relieve the wrath that is aimed toward sinners?” Then Stott responded to his own question, “The pagan answer is because the gods are bad-tempered, subject to moods and fits, and capricious. The Christian answer is because God’s holy wrath rests on evil. There is nothing unprincipled, unpredictable or uncontrolled about God’s anger; it is aroused by evil.”[i]

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, he gave us the divinely inspired diagnosis of natural (post-Genesis-3) humanity. What is our condition, apart from the miraculous grace of God? We are “dead in [our] trespasses and sins.” We “walk” around, “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” We “live in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.” And we are “by nature children of wrath” (Eph. 2:1-3).

Friends, the mass of humanity on this planet today, and throughout the history of the world (including all of us), deserve no good thing from God. We have never done anything in our whole lives that should convince Him that we are His loyal subjects, His faithful children, or His obedient servants.

If anyone wants to say, “We are all God’s children,” then we we the worst sons and daughters of all time. We have spent our lives in open rebellion against God. We have disregarded His laws. We have ignored His commands. We have denied His authority over us. And we have often lived as though He is not even worthy to gain from us a second thought.

Children such as these are not welcome at the family table… they have sold their birthright… they have renounced their heritage… and they are rightly viewed as outsiders and foreigners… even as enemies to family stability, peace, and reputation.

Even if we are Christians today (believing the gospel of Christ and clinging to the gracious promises that God has made to spare us from His wrath), we are still prone to wonder… still attracted to sin… still needing God’s constant grace and forgiveness for our ongoing failures and even rebellion.

The point here is that this world (and all the people who call it home) is not the city of Zion, it is Babylon… natural humanity is not represented by Israel going into the promised land, we are naturally the Canaanites who must be eradicated because of our abominable deeds and our scandalous words.

It’s important that we understand this because language and rhythm and imagery of Revelation 8 is drawn from all over the OT, and we must not perceive that humans are basically good or that God is by default “on our side.”

The prophet Ezekiel saw a vision of judgment that was to come upon Jerusalem, and he wrote of a heavenly figure who “scattered… burning coals… over the city” just before the Babylonian king came and slaughtered many of its inhabitants (Ezekiel 10:1-7). God demanded obedience and faith from the people of Israel, and when they did not give it, God sent His judgment upon them with violence.

Later, after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, God promised that He would judge Babylon for her arrogance. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares the LORD… I will stretch out my hand against you, and roll you down from the crags, and make you a burnt mountain… Set up a standard on the earth; blow the trumpet among the nations… for the LORD’s purposes against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant” (Jer. 51:25-29). Again, God does not take His holiness or His glory lightly, and when humans do, God is provoked, and His wrath is sure.

But the most significant reverberations from the OT in the first five trumpet blasts have their origin (1) in the exodus and (2) in the first battle upon Israel’s entrance into the promised land.

Each of the trumpets correspond to various plagues from Exodus. The first “trumpet” brings forth “hail” and “fire” (v7), which was the seventh plague in Egypt (Ex. 9:22-25). The second and third “trumpets” turn “water” into “blood” and make it “bitter” (v8-10), which parallels the first plague in Egypt (Ex. 7:20-25). The fourth “trumpet” strikes the earth with “darkness” (v12), which was the ninth plague in Egypt… just before death came to every household that was not marked by the blood of the lamb (Ex. 10:21-23, 12:11-13).

The fifth “trumpet” releases supernatural “locusts” on the earth (Rev. 9:3), which corresponds to the eighth plague in Egypt (Ex. 10:12-15). But we will get to this horrifying amplification of the plague of locusts in a little while. We should merely note here that this is one additional feature of God’s judgment on the world that we learn about in this second cycle of seven – the trumpets.

The blowing of seven trumpets as an announcement of God’s judgment and as a miraculous act of God’s victory for His own people is most remarkably depicted in the fall of a city named Jericho. After God rescued Israel from bondage in Egypt, He brought them to Mt. Sinai, where He gave them His covenantal law. Then God led the people of Israel right to the edge of the promised land, but they rebelled against God, and they did not go in. For 40 years, they wandered in the wilderness (God graciously providing for them and defending them, despite their rebellion), and finally God led them back again to the edge of Canaan.

Moses had died, and Joshua had become their leader. God brought the people of Israel through the Jordan river (as He had done at the Red Sea), they renewed their covenant with God, and they observed their first Passover meal (a reminder of what God did in Egypt) just inside the land of Canaan for the first time. But there were cities and people already living in Canaan. God promised Israel the land, but God would only give it to them as they obeyed His commands and followed His lead.

The first city they encountered was a city named Jericho. The city was big, well-fortified, and situated atop a high place. It had all the resources necessary to be a real stronghold. And God’s battle-plan was ridiculous. God said, “I have given Jericho into your hand… You shall march around the city… for six days [not fight]. Seven priests [not an army of warriors] shall bear seven trumpets [not weapons]… before the ark [of the covenant]. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets… then all the people [of Israel] shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat” (Joshua 6:2-5). A ridiculous battle-plan if there ever was one.

But all went exactly as God had said… The people marched, the trumpets blew, and the walls came tumbling down. There was no negotiating with the people of Jericho. There was no offer of peace, if they would simply repent. There was only the trumpet blast of judgment. “God has declared war on you, people of Jericho, and you will surely die this very day.”

Friends, this is what these trumpet blasts in Revelation mean to communicate as well! “God has declared war on you, people of the earth. Like Egypt and the pharaoh before, you will be made to suffer God’s plagues. Like the people of Jericho, who felt so secure, you will be destroyed and eradicated.”

At the trumpet blasts, there will be no negotiation… there will be no invitation to repent and believe… there will only be judgment.

It’s also important to note that throughout the Exodus, at the battle of Jericho, and right here in the seven trumpets of Revelation, God distinguishes between His people and the earth-dwellers. The angel called out with a loud voice in Revelation 7, “Do not harm… until we have sealed the servants of our God” (Rev. 7:3). And the fifth trumpet repeats this same refrain, “[Do] not… harm… but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads” (Rev. 9:4).

On the last day, God will most certainly preserve and rescue His own people. But those who remain in their sin, those who live in disobedience to His law, those who follow their own desires and passions (which oppose God’s good design and instructions)… they are now and will be the objects of God’s wrath.

All of this is obvious from what we’ve considered so far, but it rings out with unmistakable dread in v13.

3. The Superlative Woe (8:13-9:12)

Revelation 8:13 is a break from the cadence of the first four trumpets. Like the seven seals, the seven trumpets are divided up – one to four, five, six, and then seven. So too, like the seven seals, there is a major question raised and answered in the sixth and seventh trumpets (which we will consider together when we get to those passages).

Once again, there is a lot of repetition in these three cycles of seven – the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls. And what we want to look for in each cycle is that stuff we see or learn that’s new… the stuff that wasn’t already revealed (or at least not emphasized as much) in the previous cycle.

Here in the fifth trumpet, and in the horrifying broadcast of “woe” from a heavenly “eagle” (v13), the new revelation (that was not portrayed in the seven seals) is that God’s judgment on the world (specifically on “those who dwell on the earth” [v13]) includes supernatural or demonic torment, not just the natural kind.

In Hebrew, the word for “woe” is ōy; in Latin, it’s vae. Maybe you’ve heard someone use the Yiddish expression “oy vey” when something bad happens. But in Greek, the word is pronounced as an onomatopoeia. You know what that means don’t you? Can you remember back in school when your English teacher taught you that an onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like what it means?

“Wack,” “boom,” “sizzle”… these words sound like what they mean.

The Greek word for woe is οὐια. The sound itself evokes a sense of dread, of grief, and of anguish. And all of that is certainly intended here.

Not only do we see in v13 an announcement of “woe,” but we see it ring out three times in succession. This is the superlative woe; it is the mother of all woes; it is the prophetic woe, more dreadful than any other.

“Woe, woe, woe,” says the heavenly messenger (v13). And this superlative woe is aimed directly at “those who dwell on the earth” (v13).

The announcement also tells us that this incomparable woe is going to be distributed over the course of the next three trumpet blasts (v13)… five, six, and seven… and the common feature throughout each of these three trumpet blasts is demonic activity in the world (torment and hostility) and God’s wrath upon Satan and all who join with him in opposition to Christ and His people.

Here in this fifth trumpet (which is the first description of the superlative “woe”) we read about a grotesque army of tormenting “locusts” that rise from “the bottomless pit” or the “abyss” (Rev. 9:2-3).

Let’s notice three quick features of these hellish tormentors… first, that their “king” or “chief” is Satan; second, that their “torment” is aimed at earth-dwellers; and third, that they are under God’s authority in every way.

First, their “king” or “chief” is Satan. Rev. 9:11 says, “They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek he is called Apollyon.” Jesus warned that the “thief comes only to kill and steal and destroy” (Jn. 10:10)… He said, “the devil [even] comes and takes away the word [of God] from [the] hearts [of those who hear it], so that they may not believe and be saved” (Lk. 8:12)… In other words, the devil aims (and so do all his demons) to destroy the souls of men, even by darkening their minds and hearts so that they will not believe the truth when they hear it.

Friends, Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and the devil aims to destroy as many people as he can… there is no middle ground.

I didn’t watch it, but I heard that the opening ceremonies at this year’s Olympic games in France were full of abominable blasphemies. I read that the closing song was a Hymn to Love, but love is completely redefined, and it now stands for everything God opposes. The western world was once the beneficiary of a basic Christian worldview, and it was once taboo (at least a little) to show such overt hostility to Christ and to His people. But as the west lurches further away from its historic foundations, we are sure to see more of this sort of open blasphemy… It’s always been there, but we will see just how opposed to Christ the people of the world actually are.

Second, their “torment” is aimed at earth-dwellers. A common distinction we will see throughout the rest of Revelation is that clear line of demarcation between those who are “the servants of God” (Rev. 7:3) and “those who dwell on the earth” (Rev. 8:13). See in Revelation 9:4 how the demonic “locusts” are told “not to harm” anything except “those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” And the “torment” that comes upon the earth-dwellers is such that they “will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them” (Rev. 9:6).

Just exactly what this “torment” is, we are not told, but it surely includes the anguish of the soul that knows he or she is under God’s wrath… and it is constantly hanging over their heads. The unbeliever may war against God, against His law, and against His people out in the open, but in the dark recesses of the soul, there is a sense of impending judgment. This is also a reminder that even if a person dies, he or she does not escape the torment of their miserable soul. Death is no solution to the fundamental problem we all face. If we are not marked off as God’s people, then we are the object of His wrath, both in this life and in the life to come.

Third, they (the demonic “locusts” and the “king” who leads them) are under God’s authority in every way. R.C. Sproul was known to say, “Even the devil is God’s devil.” The “key” to the “bottomless pit” must be “given” to the one who opens it (Rev. 9:1). Christ holds the “keys” of all authority in this universe, and the devil can only do what he is allowed by the true King. There is also a limit on who these demons can harm and on how long they can do it. Notice the repetition of “five months” and the designation of torment only on earth-dwellers. Christ guards His own people, and the devil’s torments will only last for a time.

Friends, make no mistake… There is no yin and yang, and no opposite equals in this universe. The works of the devil – his torments and his aims to destroy – are evidence that this world is under God’s curse… and those who do not turn from sin and trust in Christ are objects of God’s wrath… thus, even the devil himself is unleashed upon the earth-dwellers.

Conclusion

I said at the outset of this sermon that we were going to read and consider a passage today that is full of bleak despair. There is nothing here of hope, nothing of a way of escape, and nothing of any blessing. There is only “woe.”

For those who remain unmoved by such warnings, this is where I must leave you. Like King Saul of old, the message I have for you (even from God Himself) is that the condemnation you feel, the anguish you know, and the torment of your soul is exactly what you should expect… now and only amplified beyond imagination in the life to come.

Oh, may that not be any of us here today!

For those who hear these warnings and are pricked today, not only by fear, but also by a gracious sense of humility and a desire to cling to the one who has suffered all God’s wrath in the place of guilty sinners… For those I have a message of genuine hope.

Look to Christ… turn from your sin… and believe that He is the only one who can save you from yourself and the torments that are surely due.

May God grant us all the gifts of repentance and faith today… and if you want to know more about what this means and how you might receive such glorious and gracious gifts, then let’s talk as soon as the service is over today.

Endnotes

[i] Stott, John R. W. The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World. InterVarsity Press, 2001, p. 115.