Glimpse Of Glory 6

Sweet Prayer, Devastation & A Gracious Warning

Text: Revelation 8

Introduction

two reals — the seen and unseen

two locations — heaven and earth

Remember, Jesus is reclaiming the title deed of the earth essentially by pullings His hands back and allowing cataclysmic judgement to unfold.

We are in a time called the tribulation period.

Please remember, what we read is a warning that has come from a loving and merciful Savior! He has reserved judgement for the end and not the beginning!

144,000 thousand Jews come to faith and preaching the gospel message.

An innumerable amount of people came to faith and died a martyr’s death and was welcomed around the throne of heaven.

One huge truth that we are reminded of as we look at this, we are reminded of who our real enemy is; the devil and his demonic army. God has hid the unseen enemy as a way of protecting you of being fearfully overwhelmed.

The people receiving this kind of hell on earth are those who willingly remain in resistance to God’s warnings.

Here are the list of judgements:

7 seals, 7 trumpets (3 woes), 7 thunders (Not revealed), 7 vials (or bowls)

1) The Ascension Of Sweetness To God’s Throne

Silence ushers in due to what is getting ready to be unleashed.

These images be read by a first century people who are familiar with such imagery from the Old Testament, would not have any problem with this.

The actions of this angel take you back to the actions of the priest working daily at the altar of incense within the holy place.

It is no longer the golden altar, but the actual throne of God.

Notice v3

God’s judicial judgements will be in response to the “how long” prayers of the martyred saints mentioned in 6:10.

However, I believe the prayers of “how long” of any saint throughout history are never cast away! God keeps them up to this moment. He is the only God who can and does answer the prayers of all His children!

(v4-6) Doesn’t this give you a different understanding of the phrase “The power of prayer”

2) The Descension Of Judgement To The Earth

The sounding of each judgement will be the announcement of a new judgement.

A. First trumpet

Ezekiel 38:22 “22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.”

Can you image such a weather shift that caused this kind of damage

This reminds you of the seventh plague over Egypt — Exodus 9:23–27 “23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. 26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. 27 And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.”

Intensity is the major difference.

Fire and blood take this plague to a whole new level than that was done to Egypt.

B. Second trumpet (v8-9)

Some have estimated that this could either be a meteor or ocean floor volcano.

Thoughts about a meteor — A considerable amount of time is being devoted now by the space administration and military organizations to find a way to deter a meteor of considerable size, the trajectory of which indicates an intersection with earth and corresponding devastation. Paige Patterson, Revelation, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 39, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2012), 211.

Mt. Saint Helens, Pompe (show video)(Destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius), Iceland (9 volcanic eruptions this year).

Mt. Vesuvius (eruption lasted 18 hours

When it erupted scientist believed it to be the equivalent of 100,000 sized Hiroshima atom bombs.

Super heated poison gases

Pulverized rock, pumice, and ash (buried 14-17)

The pyroclastic flow came down traveling at about 400 mph

Over 1,000 degrees f

All body fluid bursts into steam

Spinal fluid instantly come to a boil

An atmosphere become 50% sulfur dioxide.

Choking to death on the ash (breathing with your head stuck into a bag of dry cement while someone beats the sides of the bag)

C. Third trumpet (v10-11)

“start” = Asteroid

Could have John been trying to explain a nuclear weapon by calling it a star? It is a possibility.

Reading contemporary circumstances back into a Johannine milieu, of course, is both risky and totally unnecessary. That some form of toxicity is apparently associated with the explosion that makes a third of the waters on the face of the earth undrinkable is possible to affirm. Paige Patterson, Revelation, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 39, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2012), 212.

Wormwood = made bitter

O.T. references to wormwood:

Jeremiah 9:15 “15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, And give them water of gall to drink.”

Jeremiah 23:15 “15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.”

Lamentations 3:15 “15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.”

Lamentations 3:19 “19 Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.”

Drinkable water not found

D. Fourth trumpet

It’s effects:

Third part of sun, moon, and stars are not permitted to shine for 8 hours each day.

If you impact the sun, it therefore determines the Illumination of the moon.

Our galaxy is tied so intricately to the sun, moon, and stars, that more than the earth is probably impacted.

Astrophysicists have argued for some time that the sun is in the process of burning itself out. Paige Patterson, Revelation, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 39, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2012), 212.

Matthew 24:22 “22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

Anything thing or natural law God created His has every right to bend and maintain life on earth.

Reminds you of the three hours of darkness when Jesus died.

Illustration: Like giving our kids getting a timeout to think about do they really want to continue in their rebellion?

3) A Gracious Warning

(v13) Once again, God pauses to send one of His angels to warn the inhabitance of earth of three more judgements that are about to come.

The significance of this declaration by John must have been devastating. The calamities unleashed by the blasts of the first four trumpets are beyond anything imaginable to the inhabitants of the earth today, but the woes announced by the eagle have to do with the profoundly serious judgments yet to come. Paige Patterson, Revelation, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 39, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2012), 213.

God’s grace again on display give everyone a time to relent, repent, and believe.

This warning is coming

There are numerous examples of God giving man warning before judgement.

Lot and his family.

Egypt

Nineveh

Israel and all her history of captivity

There is one thing not one person can accuse God of and that is this: God didn’t do enough to convince the world!

Conclusion

Fifth trumpet

There are different thoughts as to “who” this star that fell from heaven.

Some say Satan, others say Jesus.

Given the little detail we have, I am inclinded to believe it is a designated angel who was given the key to the pit to release unthinkable wrath upon humanity.

This would be no different than the angels that were assigned to the “four corners of the earth” to carry out the first four judgements.

The most important thing to figure out is what is the pit?

Where is the language used elsewhere in scripture?

(demon possessed man in gadara) Luke 8:31 “31 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.”

Revelation 11:7 “7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.”

Revelation 17:8 “8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

Revelation 20:1–3 “1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”

2 Peter 2:11 “11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.”

Jude 6 “6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”

(v2) I do believe we need to take care of the planet God has entrusted us to steward, however, there is not amount wind energy, solar energy replacement of fossil fuels that will prevent this from happening to the atmosphere.

(v3-4) There is no reason to have to include a stretching of the mind beyond the power these demons have to cause such devastation.

(v5)

Revelation

Tyconius remains an interesting interpreter, saying, “The rivers and fountains of waters signify the teachers of the divine Scriptures who instruct others but turn themselves away from the way of truth. Indeed, the name Wormwood indicates either the bitterness or the sweetness of sins, which give a present sweetness to those who desire them but afterwards change themselves into bitterness” (Revelation, ACCS, 128)