Sound the Trumpets (Rev. 8:7-9:21)

Today we are continuing our slow and steady trek through the book of Revelation. This morning we’ll be covering chapters 8 & 9 which deals with the trumpet judgments of God. As more and more of the apocalyptic curtain is being pulled back, we can start to see some really concerning things. And honestly, these next several chapters are why so many people either gravitate to the book of Revelation or they avoid it all together. There are seven trumpets in total and the first four trumpets are found in chapter 8. Only six verses are dedicated to their description. The next two trumpets take up the entire 9th chapter. The seventh and final trumpet won’t sound until late into the 11th chapter and when it’s blown there will be another set of seven judgments (7 Bowls, 16:1ff) more severe than what we will see today.The last time that I spoke the seventh seal of the scroll had been broken, but much to our amazement, not a single sound was heard. Every voice which had previously been lifted in praise and adoration to our God and King was muted. Only when the sacrificial prayers of the saints had been thrown down to the earth did we again hear anything. And when that happened, “the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound” (Rev. 8:6).What we will see in these two chapters today is very important and incredibly appropriate for our time. 1) We will see the hardness and rebelliousness of the hearts of humanity. 2) We will see the patience and grace of our God. 3) We will see the judgment of God against those who choose to reject His grace and who make light of His patience. 4) We will see His sovereignty on full display and the preservation of those who have trusted in Jesus for their spiritual lives.Now, I want to transition by reading the words of Jesus which He spoke to his disciples concerning the end of all things.Luke 21:25–28 (NKJV)25 “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26 men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

Trumpets

In scripture we can find different types of trumpets and different uses for the many trumpets. For example, in Num. 10:1-10, Moses was commanded to make for himself two silver trumpets to be used when gathering the congregation and giving them direction. In  Joshua 6:4-13, seven priests used ram’s horns (shophars) against the city of Jericho. Shophar (ram’s horn) is mentioned in the Bible 72 times, more than any other Hebrew instrument. It is the only instrument of ancient Israel which survives in its original form and is still used in Jewish liturgy.[1]Let’s quickly take a look at the first four trumpets mentioned in Revelation 8. Something to make note of is that these trumpet judgments mirror the Egyptian plagues in Exodus.

Trumpet #1

Revelation 8:7 (NKJV)7 The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.This trumpet resembles the fourth plague that fell on Egypt (Ex. 9:23-26) affecting all vegetation.  

Trumpets #2 and #3

Revelation 8:8–9 (NKJV)8 Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. 9 And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.Revelation 8:10–11 (NKJV)10 Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning 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 men died from the water, because it was made bitter.These trumpets resemble the first plague that fell on Egypt (Ex. 7:20-21) affecting the global water supply.

Trumpets #4

Revelation 8:12 (NKJV)12 Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.This trumpet resembles the ninth plague that fell on Egypt (Ex.10:21-23) affecting people’s visibility and possibly having an affect on the seasons. Now, earlier in Revelation 7:3, the four angels who hold the four winds of the earth were commanded “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.””Well, 144k people are marked with the seal God in chapter 7. After God’s protection has been placed on those who belong to Him, the trumpets of His judgment are blown and a wake of devastation and destruction are left behind. Notice also the repetition of the word third. What we can gather from the way in which this word is used is that our God is longsuffering. Chuck Swindoll comments here that,“The limits placed on these judgments remind us that God will still be exercising restraint in the early stages of the Tribulation, allowing room for repentance and salvation in the midst of wrath”[2].I love how the Message Bible words 2 Peter 3:9, “Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.However, what we will see in the next two trumpets is that the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”” (Rev. 8:13).

Trumpet #5 (Woe #1)

This brings us to Trumpet #5. Up until this point, no humans have been directly impacted by God’s judgment, but now the 5th trumpet blast introduces the torment of humanity. Three things to take away from our lesson today: 1) God is ALWAYS in control. Even when it seems like your life or things in this world are in chaos, you need to know that God is fully aware of what’s going on and He has the whole thing under control.  2) God WILL bring judgment up us one day. Don’t think for a moment that because it hasn’t happened yet that it won’t happen at all. It’s coming! 3) God WILL deliver His people. According to 2 Peter 2:9 “the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment...”Now let’s find out what actually happens when the 5th trumpet is blown.Revelation 9:1–6  (NKJV)1 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. 2 And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. 3 Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them. Beginning with verses 1 and 2, we can see that God is in total control. Earlier in Rev. 1:18 Jesus declared, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” Here in these first two verses of chapter nine He hands over the keys to the star which had fallen. Notice here that the star is not falling (present tense), but had fallen (past tense). This is a perfect participle in the active voice which means that the star fell sometime in the past and that this past event has a continuing and recurring effect on the future. It’s sort of like when someone commits a felony. The crime was done years prior, but that crime has a direct impact on future housing, employment and other opportunities. Who is this fallen star? Well, that’s open to interpretation to some degree. Possibly it’s the Destroyer of verse 11 or Satan (Isa. 14:12; Lk. 10:18; Rev. 20:1). Whoever he is, keys are given to him that he might open the bottomless pit, the abyss. When he opens the pit, these incredible creatures come crawling out. John describes these creatures as locust. He gives a better description of what they looked like in 9:7-11. But these aren’t your ordinary locust. They sting like a scorpion and they don’t eat anything green, no grass or trees.These locusts come out of the bottomless pit and they are given power in verse 3, but they are denied power/authority in verse 5.  What did Paul say about authority in his letter to the Romans? “..there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God” (Rom. 13:1b). Jesus Himself said in Matt. 28:18, “all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth”. Unless God signs off on it, the enemy can’t do anything.To further prove God’s sovereignty over ALL things, the power of the tormenting locust-scorpions is time-sensitive. They can only torment for 5 months (vv5,10). That might seem a bit arbitrary, but 5 months is the average lifespan of locusts. In verse 6 the tormenting of the locust-scorpions is so bad that people try to kill themselves but because we have no power over our own lives,  death flees from those people who try to escape the judgment of God through suicide. We often like to boast that, “this is MY life. I can do with it whatever I want!” But folks, if God does not allow it, we have no power. “You are not your own” (1 Cor. 6:19). “You were bought at a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). “Not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pt. 1:18-19).What’s the purpose for this tormenting? To produce repentance in the rebellious. The prophet Ezekiel was instructed by God to tell the people, "As I live,' says the Lord GOD, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?' (Ezek. 33:11).Now, let me be honest with you this morning, and this is not at all an attempt to scare you straight, but I want you (us) to realize the seriousness of these events. If you are a follower of Christ. Like Lina Chen last week or Judge Bridwell a couple weeks before that, as you come to the pages of Revelation you should rejoice over your salvation. You should give praise to the Lord because He has written His Name upon your forehead sealing you for the day of your redemption. But folks, and there may be some of your here today, if you are not a follower of Christ, if you do not belong to Him. If you have rejected the salvation of the Lord and you consider the cross of Christ to be foolishness, then you should be incredibly concerned about approaching the end of your life. When people fail to respond to God’s gracious invitation and set themselves in opposition to his purposes, then they become the prey of horrifying demonic forces. They suffer the consequences of their choice.[3]Do not put your hope in this life! “Do not love the world or the things in the world, because this world is passing away” (1 John 2:15, 17).Chuck Swindoll said that“whether we take these visions as literal or more symbolic, one thing is clear. The judgments described in Revelation 8 [&9] will be so dreadful that no amount of government aid, relief efforts, or advanced preparation will be able to bring recovery.”[4]Not only is that true, but no attempts to escape the judgment of God by suicide will satisfy. But listen, if anyone suffers it will be their own choosing. Jesus Himself admitted, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (Jn. 3:17). The only question that remains is, Will you trust Him?

Trumpet #6 (Woe #2)

Revelation 9:13–19 (NKJV)13 Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.Four angels are released from captivity to carry out the mission of killing a third of humanity. John says that what kills them is fire, smoke, and brimstone which came out of the mouth of horse-lions. If our total, global population is just around 8 billion people, then a third of humanity is about 2.5 billion people. If you combine the third mentioned here with the fourth mentioned in Rev. 6:8, then you have about half of the world’s population killed during the breaking of the seals and the blowing of the trumpets. And notice, it’s getting worse and worse as we go along. You would think, or you would hope, that events like these would draw people to God, that it would cause folks to stop and consider if living life by their own set of rules is really working out the way they intended, but it doesn’t.John tells us that all those who survive will double down on their rebelliousness.Revelation 9:20–21 (NKJV)20 But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.Doesn’t this paint a clear picture of our world today! Heaping up idols to ourselves, for ourselves and of ourselves? Hellbent on having our own way. Enjoying the pleasures of this life and refusing to surrender to the sovereignty of Almighty God!I’ve been reading a book by Hugh Halter entitled Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth; Learning to Be Human Like Jesus.[5] In this book Hugh tells a story about a time that a few buddies went on a backpacking trip together when one of the guys went off the path and got lost. It was about a 4 mile hike through oak thickets and rockslides to set up camp. At some point one of the guys (Lou) got separated from the group by 100 yards or so. After waiting for a while the guys decided to go back and look for Lou. They eventually found where his footprints went off the path and into the oak thicket. They tried to go after him but had to turn back because the path was just too hard to navigate through the thicket, but they could tell from the footprints that Lou hadn’t made the same decision.Eventually, Lou’s buddy Matt, got a hold of him on the walkie-talkie and asked Lou where he was, to which Lou replied, “Matt, I’m in hell!” “Lou had entered hell because he missed the trail by just thirty feet.”“Later as they were sitting around the fire, the guys asked [Lou], “What were you thinking?” Lou sheepishly said, “I just didn’t want to turn back. I was so far in there, and it was so hard getting to the spot, I couldn’t conceive of turning around … so I just plowed through.”Listen to me, so many people are living their lives this way. Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” They have worked so hard to climb the corporate ladder. They have worked so hard to get where they are in life. They have worked too hard to have the image they are known for. To live in the neighborhood they live in. To be the people they have become. They worked so hard to get to that spot that they couldn’t conceive of turning around. So they keep plowing forward! They reach for the next rung on the ladder.Hugh says that “The boys eventually got [Lou] back to the trail.” But not before a life-altering moment. “Lou, in frustration, just continued on until he realized he was no longer hiking through thickets but climbing up them. At that point he reached mental clarity: I am lost!How many in our world today are lost and just won’t admit it? After listening to chapters 8 & 9 some of you may be thinking that God is mean and unloving for bringing such a harsh judgment on the world. And I would reply by asking, hasn’t the Lord been gentle with you ? Hasn’t He been patient with you? Hasn’t He invited you into a better and more abundant life AND YOU REFUSED!!!Matthew 23:36–37 (NKJV)36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!So long as we have breath in this life, there is an opportunity to yield to the love and grace of God. Do not waste another second of your life contemplating your decision, CALL on the Name of the Lord why there is still time and He will write His Name upon your forehead and you will be saved!

Call to Respond

I want to close with this bit of encouragement. Our hope in the Lord is not in vain and “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). We’ve seen God’s judgment in this chapter, but we must remember that, as a Child of God, bought with the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 5:9), and sealed on our foreheads (Rev. 9:4) with the Holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:3), Who has been given to ALL Believers as a guarantee (2 Cor. 1:22) for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30), we ARE NOT appointed to the wrath of God (1 Thess. 5:9), the wrath which is “revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness...” (Rom. 1:[18]-19) because we have faith in His Son Jesus “who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10).Ezekiel 33:1–5 (NKJV)1 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. Cited Works[1] Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Shophar > Musical Instruments).[2] Swindoll, Revelation, p134.[3] Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary (f. The Fifth Trumpet (9:1–12))[4] Swindoll, Revelation, p135.[5] Halter, Hugh. Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth (p. 45). David C Cook. Kindle Edition.