The Seven Trumpets Part I of 2

Where we’ve been

Last week in worship…we discussed…the seal judgments... the first of three....judgment sequences found in the book of Revelation…Each containing a series of 7 judgments...

We talked about as how the seal judgments were preliminary…they came upon the earth and humanity…as Christ broke each seal...

We spoke about how those judgments…could be seen as God simply removing his hand…that restrains the sinfulness of humanity by the power of the Holy Spirit...

allowing humanity’s sin…to run wild…and the results are catastrophic...

The first four seals…the four horsemen of the apocalypse...

White horse = went out to conquer

Red horse = took peace from the earth

Black horse = scales, hyper-inflation, a days wage for a loaf of bread.

Pale-green horse = brought death and hades; 1/4 of the earth killed by sword, famine, disease, and wild beasts...

These are followed by the...

5th seal = slaughtered saints; prayers-crying out to God for God’s justice / judgement.

6th seal = world-wide great earthquake; all people tried to hide themselves from the results of their sin and the judgment of those sin (rocks fall down on us)…who can stand?

and finally chapter 8:

7th seal = silence in heaven for half an hour; magnitude of the judgement; fire thrown down on the earth from the altar of God…preparing to hear the trumpet judgments…

We don’t want to be around when the time comes for God’s judgement (or removal of God’s restraining influence on humanity’s sin)…it will not be pretty...

This is pretty scary stuff to consider…we talked last week about how the three series of 7 judgments come right after one another and the seal judgments are a general view of God’s judgment…and the trumpet and bowl judgments…elaborate on these judgments…that show our world in utter evil and chaos...

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As many of you know…the slogan for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is...

“Out of chaos; Hope!”

Last week you may have noticed we skipped over Revelation 7…mainly because we read and preached on that chapter during the Easter season…

Revelation 7…along with chapters 10 and 12…are considered interludes…or interruptions... in the telling of the prophesy of Revelation…chapter 7 comes after the 6th seal is broken and before the 7th…why?

Because it is a chapter about hope…about the saints being…sealed by God...as it says in Revelation 7 “the seal of the living God” will be put on the foreheads of the servants of God…marking them as God’s own…under God’s protection...

The interludes or interruptions are reminders of God’s providence and protection of God’s people…they…give us hope…even in the midst of chaos all around us...

Let us take all of scripture seriously…but let us never lose heart…even in reading the events of the book of Revelation…because this is a book of hope…of new beginnings…

But just like in basic training…where they break you down to build you back up…before the new heavens and the new earth of chapter 21…we first hear of God’s coming justice…on the world…which breaks apart quite violently…before God’s eternal peace comes to all who believe...

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After the Silence

As we heard read this morning of the first 5 trumpet judgments on the earth…we must remember that the trumpet judgments are God’s answer…God’s response the prayers of the saints in ch. 6 and the scene in ch.7…

God brings His justice in the form of the trumpet and bowl judgments...

One thing I hope to get across in these sermons on Revelation…is that this book is not a “one-off” or a “throw-away” book that’s completely out of place in the New Testament or the Bible in general…quite the contrary...

As I mentioned earlier in this series…the book of Revelation has more allusions to the Old Testament than any other book in the New Testament…it is rooted in the history…the stories…the prophetic nature of the people of God in the Old Testament...

The first four trumpet judgments are similar to the plagues of Egypt back in Exodus 7-10…remember those?

Why did God send the plagues against Egypt? Sure…to set God’s people free…

But in doing so…God was showing Himself to be sovereign over all things…God was showing He was more powerful than the Egyptian gods…and more powerful than Pharaoh himself...

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The power, systems, and mechanisms behind the empire of ancient Egypt…that was used to oppress and conquer…God was flipping the script…showing them for what they really are…NOTHING…Idols…the flimsiest of things…in which to place one’s trust…loyalty…or fear...

Do we not do the same thing today? Putting our trust in our money, our nation, our own power, strength, and intelligence…or the goodness of humanity to save our world? …

Why do we do that? Becasue we don’t want to accept the God of the Bible as presented to us in the Bible…Oh we want the attributes of God we like…but the judgment and wrath…no thanks…we’ll just pull a little from this faith tradition and a little of that theology…in order to tame God…making God into an image of our own likeness…(instead of the other way around)...

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God speaks to us…His church…through John…that during the closing days of human history…people will be idolators…lovers of self…hating what is good…loving what is evil…and what will be the result of our human idolatry?

The trumpet and bowl judgments…which are the contents of the unsealed scroll...

Grant Osborne notes that the plagues of Egypt had “a three-fold purpose:”

To prove God’s sovereignty

To show the powerlessness of the Egyptian deities...

To show that Pharaoh…could not win...

The equivalent to Pharaoh in the book of Revelation is Satan...

This prophetic book…proves to the faithful…that Satan cannot win…Satan will not win…even when its hell on earth…it won’t last...

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The keen observer…will notice that last week…the seal judgments…the 4th horse (pale green) who’s rider was death…was given authority over 1/4 of the earth...

Today in the trumpet judgments…you may have noticed a repeated fraction… 1/3 of the earth…indicating the intensification of the judgments... the bowl judgments (ch. 16) affect the whole earth...

God’s judgment intensifies…in order to make way for the new heavens and new earth...

The First trumpet sends hail…fire…mixed with blood...

I learned this this week…it sometimes rains blood-red in the Mediterranean (even today)…due to red sand particles from the Sahara…other say John was referencing a 1st century volcanic eruption in the Aegean islands…that was said to have turned the sky red…of course…whatever the connection to John’s own day…the point here is that it will be worse…much much worse...

The 2nd trumpet = something like a burning mountain falls into the sea

…turning a third of the sea to blood…and killing a third of all sea life…and destroying a third of all ships…the sea was considered the “lifeblood” to the Roman empire of John’s day (btw…according to the World Economic Forum: “an estimated 90% of the world’s goods are transported by sea...”)…perhaps this might relate to the hyer-inflation we read about last week (the 3rd seal)...

The first trumpet echos the seventh plague of Egypt (hail and fire)…the second trumpet echos the first Egyptian plague (turning the Nile to Blood and killing all the fish)…striking at the heart and lifeblood of Egypt...

The point? We’ve heard about this before…of God’s judgments…when they come again…they’ll be even worse...

The 3rd trumpet = a great star

…called Wormwood (a bitter tasting-shrub)...like a torch fell from heaven affecting a third of the rivers and turning fresh water bitter…again emphasizing the first plague of Egypt and a reversal of God’s provision for the Israelites in the wilderness when God turned bitter water…fresh..another sign of God removing his hand...

The 4th trumpet = a third of the sun, moon, and stars are struck

…similar to the 9th Egyptian plague (Ex. 10)…where God covered Egypt in deep darkness…bringing all travel to a stop…darkness is always associated with chaos and God’s judgment in the OT…Joel predicted the day of the LORD as a day of deep darkness…through Amos…God says “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the land in broad daylight”…but notice that the darkness IS NOT TOTAL…when we get to the 6th and 7th judgements next week…we’ll see how God is still calling people to repentance…and no doubt a third of darkness is God letting 2/3 of the light get through to people…inviting them to repentance...

And I think we’ll stop there for today…the 5th trumpet is the first of three “woes” or prophetic warnings…the first four trumpets…discussed the created order and natural disasters…the final three trumpet judgments are directed at people…specifically people who have rejected God…and persecuted his people…and…again…are God’s response to the imprecatory prayers of the saints...for God’s justice against God’s enemies...

The study of the book of Revelation is not easy…there are many ways that Christians have tried to interpret what these visions truly mean for living a faithful Christian life…

But I think its safe to say that human history does have an end…our scriptures…the Bible directly teaches about a time that will come upon the earth…that will be devastating... and a time like none other in the history of the world…or will every be again...

That’s not meant to scare the Christian…but as Jesus said to his disciples when he told them of the things to come...

Matthew 24:21–22 ESV

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Matthew 24:25 LEB

Behold, I have told you ahead of time!

He told them…and tells us so that we will not be caught off-guard by these things…and we will not be deceived by various explanations of the things that God says will happen...

That is true love…God…preparing his people…so that even in the midst of tragedy…we will continue to trust in Him above all else...

Thanks be to God…AMEN.