7 Trumpets of Judgment

Introduction:

What do we make of this great passage that we are going to be looking at today. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the symbols and imagery used. We can’t know what every detail means, but we can know for sure that God will judge the earth and that He hears you and me.

Read Text. Pray.

1. God hears us when we pray (vv. 1-5)

It is the prayers of the saints that stops the judgment of God for half of an hour. This pause is both dramatic and is a way of indicating that God is hearing and responding to the prayers of the martyrs.

Jewish tradition believed in 7 archangels. The only two that are mentioned in the Bible are Gabriel and Michael, and these sources for Jewish legend are not from Scripture; however, John’s Jewish readers would have known about them. Michael is the only one mentioned by name in .

There is also a Jewish tradition that in the fifth heaven (which we have no Scripture to validate) there are angelic servants that praise God at night but become silent during the day in order that the praises offered by Israel could be heard by God. Now the problem with this is that God is not hard of hearing. We also don’t have any Scripture to back this idea up, but we know that this was the tradition that the people were raised hearing.

Illustration: Bad Weather = Bad Omens

Have you ever been in a bad storm before? Sometimes before the weather turns rough, in fact right in the middle of it, there is an eerie calm and silence. It’s like the eye of the hurricane. You know that there is a storm all around you, but there is pause to the destruction. The intensity ramps up as you anticipate what is coming. You don’t know where exactly it will come from or the precise moment it will hit, but you know that it is coming with a vengeance and the storm isn’t over yet.

That is how it will be in the judgment. There are some that believe that the 7 seals, 7 trumpets, and 7 bowls are all the same events being told from an earthly and heavenly perspective. The problem is that they seem different at different moments.

Also, there are parallels to the plagues of Egypt, as we will see in a minute. The plagues were progressively worse as opportunity was given for the Egyptians to repent, and yet they would not. The plagues didn’t cause their hardness of heart, it only revealed what was there. In the same way, the judgments in Revelation reveal how wicked the world is and how determined man will be not to follow God.

2. God’s judgment will be swift and decisive (vv. 6-12)

There are 7 trumpets of judgment that are divided into two groups. We will only look at the first four in this message, but the difference between the two groups is that the first four affect the whole earth and everyone in it, while the last three trumpets affect only unbelievers who have not been marked with the seal of God. The last three trumpets are demonic in nature.

Trumpet 1: Hail, Fire, and a Blood-red Storm

In the first trumpet there is a blood red storm that brings hail and fire with it. The result was that 1/3 of the vegetation on earth was burned up. 1/3 of the trees and 1/3 of the grass.

Now remember that in the 7 seals judgment, there was already famine and plague. If this is on top of that damage, it makes things even worse for people.

This plague is reminiscent of

Exodus 9:23–25 ESV

Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field.

This plague is a more intense version, as are the other trumpets.

Trumpet 2: A Great Burning Mountain

The second trumpet is a little more challenging to interpret. The question arises as to whether or not this is a volcanic eruption or a meteor that hits the earth.

Here is what some commentators have said about it.

Jews viewed the unexpected eruption of Mount Vesuvius (AD 79) as divine punishment on Rome for the events of AD 70—when Titus entered Jerusalem, sacked the city, destroyed the temple, and killed many people. According to Jewish legend, God caused Vesuvius to erupt in recompense, destroying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were in Titus’ jurisdiction.

While this could be true, it is clearly a judgment that has a reference back to the Egyptian plague of God turning the Nile river into blood.

Exodus 7:20–21 ESV

Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood. And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

Exodus 7:20-21

With this judgment comes a third of sea life destroyed and even 1/3 of the shipping industry. That means it wouldn’t be far fetched to see this as a reference to a volcanic event.

Some people believe that this could also be a reference to a kingdom instead of a physical phenomenon. The kingdom would be Babylon and this would describe the fall of Babylon in less specific detail than later in the chapter.

The answer is......I don’t know! The point I think that needs to be made with all of these judgments is that people are so hardened they don’t want to repent.

Trumpet 3: The Wormwood Star

The third trumpet is the Wormwood star. Wormwood is a plant that grows in the Middle East and is very bitter.

The star, or possibly even angel, falls on the fresh water supply this time and poisons it. Many people die from the water.

There is a reversal happening here from what happened at the waters of Marah.

Exodus 15:23–25 ESV

When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them,

Exodus 15:

So God first makes the bitter water sweet, but in the end He reverses it and makes the good water bitter. also describes a curse where bitter water was used when a man suspected his wife was unfaithful. Jeremiah also describes using bitter water as a sign for a curse.

Jeremiah 9:15 ESV

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink.

Trumpet 4: A Darkened World

3. God’s judgment will get progressively worse (v. 13)

The fourth trumpet is a darkened world. I think it is appropriate to have a darkened world that reflects a darkened heart. 1/3 of the sun, moon, and stars are darkened to reflect the mood of the world during this judgment phase.

God also sent darkness on the Egyptians for three days.

Exodus 10:22 ESV

So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.

This darkness theme pops its head again when Jesus is hanging on the cross. In we are told

Matthew 27:45 ESV

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

The mood of darkness fits with the mood of judgment. God was judging our sin on the cross as Christ hung there. For those who refuse to repent and follow Christ, darkness is a part of the judgment that is coming.

Explanation of the Trumpets:

What do the trumpets mean? What is God doing here? There is essentially a dismantling of creation, or a decreation happening. God is rolling back his creation in judgment until he recreates a new heaven and new earth at a later time with the faithful inhabiting it.

3. God’s judgment will get progressively worse (v. 13)

The last thing we need to visit tonight is that there are three woes that come before the last three trumpets. The last three trumpets are demonic in nature.

An eagle, or as some translators believe a vulture, flies and proclaims the woes that are coming.

The main point is that God’s judgment on the wold is a tightening down of the screws to build pressure on people and urge them to repent. It’s like people are put into a pressure canner, only they won’t budge.

Conclusion:

What are we to take away from this message tonight? The main thing we need to remember is that God is not playing around. He is serious about our need to repent and follow Him. We must realize turn to Him while we can. We aren’t guaranteed more time.

Let’s close by listening to what Jesus said.

Luke 21:25–26 ESV

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Perhaps it is best for us to think about the fact that as these judgments take the form of trumpet blasts, they are there to warn us of what happens we we chose rebel against our Creator. Let’s sound the warning and call people to Jesus!