Though these realities might not have been felt by most of us in this room, the persecution of believers from the ascension of Christ until now has been consistent. Almost all of the apostles were reported to have been martyred. Under the Roman emperor Nero there were stories of believers being set on fire so that they might serve as lanterns for his outdoor parties. Under the rule of Marcus Aurelius, Eusebius tells us a lady named Blandina was tortured over days in front of large crowds of people until her torturers were exhausted, the she was hung on a post so that she might be exposed as food for wild animals, until she was finally thrown to a wild bull who tossed her around until she died from his attacks. And we know, I believe, that this is just a small sample. We could tell of believers being whipped until bones were exposed, made to sit on a hot seat until they were cooked, or having molten lead poured down their throats. Or we could simply turn to Hebrews 11 where we are told of believers being made to wonder about in the skins of animals, being afflicted and mistreated, being sawn in two, stoned, and killed by the sword. And all of these persecutions came because they held to the gospel and their testimony that Jesus Christ is Lord.
But let’s not let these stories remain distant. After all, these persecutions came to our brothers and sisters in Christ, didn’t they? These sufferings were faced by people just like us in a world just like ours – that is hostile to Christ. So, imagine for a second that we’re facing these possibilities right now. Imagine that because we are known to hold fast to Christ, our lives are under threat. Imagine that as you woke up each day you wondered if your husband or your wife could be snatched away and publicly tortured to death. Imagine if you had to fear that your children could be taken and tortured before your eyes while their abusers told you they would stop if you’d only renounce your faith in and allegiance to Jesus Christ. Imagine how you’d pray in those moments. Among other things, wouldn’t we cry out for justice? Perhaps we’d echo the words of David from the psalm we looked at last week: “My foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully. Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after God. Do not forsake me, O LORD! O my God, be not far from me! Make haste to help me, O LORD, of my salvation! (Ps. 38:19-22).
And when we’d pray, “Make haste to help me,” we would be crying for God to put a stop to our enemies, wouldn’t we? We would recognize that our salvation was dependent on the Lord putting a stop to our enemies. This is what the church has always recognized – that one element in our final salvation is the judgment of God’s enemies. God’s first promise of salvation in the garden was a promise that he would judge the serpent, crushing his head. Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage meant the judgment of the Egyptians. This is why, as I’ve noted before, when Mary realized that the Christ had been conceived in her womb she praised God in prayer, saying that God had “scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts” and “brought down the mighty from their thrones” (Luke 2:51-52). She was rejoicing that the Lord was bringing salvation to his people, and that involved the judgment of their enemies.
This is why when the Lord gives us the book of Revelation, sending a message of comfort and hope so a people who are persecuted, downtrodden, oppressed, and perhaps wondering if they can continue to hold fast and persevere, Jesus declares to them that their (and his) enemies will face judgment. The one who locked their husband away in prison until his death or tortured their mother publicly will be stopped, and they will be vindicated. This is why Revelation 8-9 is such an encouraging section of this book.
Yes, it’s about judgment. Yes, it speaks of the Lord’s wrath against his enemies. But it’s the Lord’s message to a persecuted and oppressed people that he will not allow them to bear their suffering at the hands of Christ’s enemies forever. In fact, it’s that note that I think helps us understand what these two chapters are about, especially in contrast to what we’ve seen in chapters 6-7, with the opening of the seals.
You’ll remember that with the opening of the seven seals, the Lord unveiled much suffering that would come upon the earth during the entire time between his two comings. As the first four seals were opened, there were riders on horses that symbolized the fact that this entire age until the Lord’s return would be characterized by warfare (as one nation would rise up and conquer another), civil unrest and bloodshed, famine and pestilence, and death. And all of this would fill this age until the final judgment would come, which was shown with the opening of the sixth seal.
However, the perspective which we were given concerning this suffering that would fill the age is provided for us in the opening of the fifth seal, as the martyrs under the altar ask the Lord, “How long?” until he brings it all to an end. And they are told to wait. That is, the message of the seals was that though suffering will fill this age, these are mere trials we’ll have to face. But we don’t have to fear because, as chapter 7 reminded us, we have been marked out by Christ as his own. We bear his seal on our foreheads so that no matter what trials we face in this life, we are preserved by him. He won’t let the trials that we face in this life, no matter how daunting, make shipwreck of our faith. He keeps us in his hand.
So, the seals focused largely from the perspective of and concern for the believer. God’s people will suffer in this age as they live in a cursed world, but they must endure in faith, knowing that they are kept by the preserving hand of their Lord.
When we come to the seven trumpets, the events that transpire with the blowing of each trumpet are very similar to the events that transpire with the opening of each seal. There is great catastrophe on the earth. Therefore, I think the trumpets are largely a repetition (or recapitulation) of many of the realities that are shown with the opening of the seals. However, what’s different about them, is that whereas the seals focused on these events with regard to the believer (noting that they are told to endure, will be sealed and protected, and ultimately will see vindication through these judgments – which we’ll see with the opening of the seventh seal this morning), the trumpets are focused on these events with regard to the unbeliever, stressing that these are the very judgments of God against his enemies. That is how I think we’re to understand the trumpets. Many of the same trials which believers are to endure and hold fast through, are seen as judgments against unbelievers that should serve to warn them to repent before the final judgment comes.
Therefore, this morning, as we look at the first six trumpets in chapters 8-9 (there’s an interlude between the sixth and seventh, as we saw with the seals as well), we’re going to consider what this tells us about God’s judgment against unbelievers.
However, before we get to the trumpets, we have the opening of the seventh seal in 8:1-5, and it is there that we see that,
I think one reason we see a delay between the opening of the sixth and seventh seal so that the sixth seal is opened in chapter 6 and the seventh isn’t opened until the beginning of chapter 8 is because the seventh seal aids us in this shift of perspective from the seals focusing on the upholding and salvation of believers through these trials to the trumpets focusing on the judgments against unbelievers. The seventh seal sends the message that God is certainly going to judge his enemies fully and finally and that he is going to do this so that he might bring justice, vindication, and salvation to his people. Let me show you why I think this is the message of the seventh seal.
Chapter 8 begins by noting in verse one that the seventh seal was opened and there was silence. The silence here probably serves to build up the drama and the message that is coming. Then, verse 2 lets us know that something else is coming, as it notes the seven angels with the seven trumpets standing before God. This verse effectively intertwines the seals and the trumpets, thus serving to transition our focus. However, the seventh seal and what occurs at its opening becomes the main focus of these verses (prior to the trumpets) as we read in verses 3-5, “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, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. 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.”
This is a scene of final judgment, as the angel throws this fire from the altar on the earth. And that message alone is nothing new. We already saw that the Lord was bringing final judgment on the earth with the opening of the sixth seal back in 6:12-17. What’s new here is that the Lord is explicitly telling us why this happens.
When the angels takes the golden censer to the altar and offers up incense with (or better understood probably, “as”) the prayers of the saints, it is then that the censer is filled with fire to be thrown down on the earth in judgment. Therefore, we’re to see that this judgment is a response to God’s people’s prayers. But what prayers? Well, the only prayers we’ve seen from the Lord’s people in this book so far were found with the opening of the fifth seal, where we saw the martyrs under the altar praying, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (6:10). Therefore, what we’re to see is that this is the Lord’s answer to that prayer. God will fully and finally avenge, vindicate, and deliver his people by fully and finally judging his enemies in the end.
As the years go by and believer after believer has suffered at the hands of Christ’s enemies and it seems that the Lord has sat silently, he wants them to know loud and clear – I’ve heard your prayers for justice, and I will answer them. The Lord has heard our cries for justice, and he will answer them. Even as was promised in the garden, the Lord wants us to know that our final salvation is sure as certain as he will one day fully and finally judge his enemies and deliver his people in the end.
But perhaps that leaves us asking a question that goes something like this: “If the Lord is going to show that his people are right (i.e., vindicate them) in the end and that all of those who persecute, mock, torture, harm, and kill his people are wrong and under his judgment, do we have to wait until the end to see the Lord do anything to show this truth? Does the one who hates and kills the Lord’s people suffer no judgment until that final day so that he is left to think that what he’s doing is okay and that God is sitting silent as he abuses the Lord’s people?” The answer to this question is, “No.” In fact, this is the message of the trumpets, namely, that even in this age the Lord is already showing his judgment toward unbelievers in preparation for that day when he will fully and finally judge them. Let’s look at that in these chapters. In the first four trumpets, we see that,
We see the blowing of the first four trumpets in 8:6-12, and they are admittedly a bit odd. With the first, hail, fire, and blood are thrown on the earth. With the second, a mountain is burned and thrown into the sea. With the third, a star with a name of a bitter-tasting extract falls into rivers and springs so that the water is contaminated. And with the fourth, a third of the sun, moon, and stars are darkened. What, then, do we do with these images?
Well, let’s begin by just making some observations. First, taken together, it’s obvious that the message is that the whole creation will suffer. The first affects the land, trees, and grass. The second affects the seas. The third affects the freshwater, like rivers and streams. And the fourth affects the sky (i.e., the sun, moon, and stars). So, we can first gather that the whole of the created order is affected – land, sky, seas, and freshwater.
Second, we can note that this isn’t final judgment. This isn’t a total and complete judgment of the world because we are told that only a third of the earth is burned, only a third of the creatures in the sea die, only a third of the waters are polluted so that they become lethal, and only a third of the sun, moon, and stars are darkened (to mention a few realities in these verses). The message clearly is that this isn’t total and complete final judgment.
Third, God is sovereign over these realities, isn’t he? It’s only as the trumpets are blown that these things come forth. And, finally, many of these images sound like the plagues that the Lord sent against Egypt in the Exodus. I won’t show these by having us turn back and forth, but if you remember the plagues of the Exodus, you’ll see a clear repetition of these events.
So, what are these images saying, then? Well, before I answer, I want to give one warning. I think we get into trouble by trying to interpret every element in some kind of literal way. Some have pushed this imagery pretty far by suggesting that these are images that John would use to describe nuclear war. After all, how would someone in the first century describe a vision of a nuclear bomb detonating? We might say that he’d speak of fire and blood coming from the sky so that the earth is scorched, the sun and moon is darkened from the rising smoke, mountains are burned and thrown into the sea, the water is polluted and many die. Others have suggested that this is merely the picture of warfare. When there is warfare of any kind, we see these images coming about. Still others have suggested this is a picture of famine and pestilence. And still others have suggested other specific possibilities.
But I don’t think we’re to try to discern specifics here as to precise details as to what these mean. Rather, I think this is showing us that throughout this entire age, the earth and its inhabitants are going to face all kinds of calamities (e.g, war, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, sickness, disease, plagues, death, etc.) that are going to wreak havoc on all of the earth, and even as such calamities served as judgments for the Egyptians during the Exodus, so they are to serve as judgments against unbelievers now.
That is, as we look around and say, “Why are there wars, famine, pestilence, natural disasters, disease, sickness, and death all over this world, leaving none of the creation unaffected?” one answer is because God is judging his enemies. The unbeliever should look around, see all the calamities that befall this creation, and say to himself, “If these are a foretaste of God’s final judgment, then I should repent, lest I face the fullness of his wrath on that final day.”
Isn’t this how Jesus taught us to look at natural disasters? Remember in Luke 13:1-5, how Jesus referenced this tower that fell so that eighteen people were killed? He brought it up to say, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Therefore, when a tsunami crashes onto a coast, killing thousands, our response, Jesus tells us, isn’t to be, “Well, those must have been really wicked people,” but rather to think, “If I don’t repent, I must one day face God’s wrath that is being shown in a shadow form as we live in this world that is cursed.”
Unbelievers should worship the creator. But instead, Paul tells us in Romans 1, they have chosen to worship the created order, much like the Egyptians did in the time of the Exodus. Therefore, even as the Lord afflicted the Egyptians by judging the very creation they worshiped, so he will do in this age toward unbelievers.
So, the Lord wants believers to know that he isn’t ignoring our suffering and persecution at the hands of his enemies. In fact, he’s already sending waves of judgment against his people, announcing there is more to come, with every calamity that occurs in this world. Therefore, first, we see that God pours out judgments on unbelievers in this age through the hardships of this world. But there’s more. Next, we see that,
The next section begins with us reading in 8:13, “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.”
The eagle is a symbol used here probably because he’s able to get a, well, bird’s-eye-view. That is, he’s able to see all that’s unfolding from a heavenly perspective. That is probably the idea of using the eagle. And he announces that these next trumpets are announcing even more destructive judgments. And I’ll acknowledge that the content that follows in 9:1-19, as we read of the fifth and sixth trumpets, is odd and hard to understand as we read it. But I think if we can get the vision in our head and then make a few observations it’ll help us understand.
First, then, let’s get the vision as a whole in our head. There are two parts – the fifth and sixth trumpets. With the blowing of the fifth trumpet, there is a star fallen from heaven who is given a key to open a bottomless pit from which comes a swarm of terrifying locusts who torment people for five months so that the people long to die, and their leader (or king) over them is named the Destroyer (which is a reference to Satan).
Similarly, with the blowing of the sixth trumpet, there are four angels who are bound at the Euphrates river who are released to go kill a third of mankind. These angels then get a number of troops (“twice ten thousand times ten thousand,” 9:16, which is 200,000,000) who go forth and kill a third of mankind violently.
So, what do these trumpets symbolize? Again, let’s make some observations. First, these judgments affect unbelievers and unbelievers only. We read in 9:4, “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.” So, in contrast to the calamities that befall the earth in things like famine, war, and disease, these affect only unbelievers. Second, this is only partial and not final judgment. We see that the locusts were only allowed to torment people and not kill them, though they’ll want to die. We read in 9:5-6, “They were allowed to torment them for five months [i.e., not forever – not finally judgment], but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.” Similarly, though the large army of troops kill, it is only partial, not final judgment so that only one third of mankind is killed.
Third, the locusts have a leader who is Satan. Satan is one who seeks to destroy. The king of this army’s name is Destroyer, so we should see him as Satan himself. Fourth, these locusts come from the bottomless pit. And, finally, there are two realities that would have put fear in people’s hearts at the time of the writing of this letter that are literal realities, though I don’t think they’re literal in this case. The first of these is locusts. If locusts attacked an area, they could torment the people by destroying what they need for life. And, interestingly, the life span of a locusts, so I am told, is only about five months. Also, east of the Euphrates river was a threat to Rome known as the Parthians. It was known that they could boast a large army of people, but they were bound from attack by the river itself.
So, here’s what I think these the visions symbolize. I think the Lord is saying that one way unbelievers will face judgment in this age is by the Lord giving them over to their sinful and demonic desires. Here’s why I say that. All sin is demonic in nature and ultimately leads to our torment and destruction. Now, we might be hesitant to label all sin as demonically influenced, but consider what Paul tells the Ephesians in 2:1-2. He says, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, 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.” That is, when we were unbelievers, making sinful decisions, we were following Satan himself, carrying out demonic disobedience. This is not to say that we sin because of demonic influence and not our fleshly desires. It is both. We carry out our own lustful craving and desires and, in the same act, follow the very course laid out by Satan and his demons. And sin leads to destruction and death, doesn’t it? So, James tells us in James 1:15, “Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” Therefore, we can see that sin is demonic in nature and leads to self-torment and death.
Here’s then what I think the Lord is doing. He’s using the imagery of locusts and this Parthian army east of the Euphrates as a terrifying and terrible image that the people would have rightly seen as horrifying. But instead of referring to literal locusts or some literal 200,000,000 person army, he is using them to represent the demonic world that torments unbelievers in their sin, leading to their death. After all, if you know anyone who has dived headlong into sin and kept after it, the thought of wishing you were dead (as we see in 9:6) is not uncommon. Sin is self-destructive. And Satan, whose path we follow when we chase after sin, is a destroyer.
So, with the fifth and sixth trumpets, I think the Lord is saying that one way unbelievers will see his judgment against them in this age is by the Lord giving them over to their sinful desires, which will torment and destroy them. This falls right in line with the teaching of Romans 1:24-27, where we are told that God gives men up to the lusts of their hearts so that they might receive “in themselves the due penalty of their error” (Rom. 1:27).
Let this be a warning to those of us who profess faith in Christ as well that sin is not to be trifled with. Sin is self-destructive, and we still have a foe who is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
So, we’ve seen that God’s judgments against his enemies will come ultimately as an act of deliverance for his people, that he judges unbelievers in this age through the hardships that befall this cursed world, and that he judges unbelievers in this age by giving them over to their sins, which leads to death.
But there is one more important note that we must see in this text.
Chapter 9 ends with this sad note: “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts” (9:20-21).
That is, the judgments in this age should serve as a warning, like a trumpet warns for battle. Unbelievers should look around at the judgments in the created order itself and repent. They should look at the destruction of sinful decisions in their lives and repent, turning from God’s wrath. But they don’t. Ultimately, our hearts are so hardened and deceived in sin that we are blinded from the warnings and not drawn to repent.
But there is good news. There is a message that is powerful enough to break us out of our hardness and blindness. It is the good news that while we were sinners, rightly under God’s wrath, God sent his Son into the world to take on flesh, live a perfectly sinless life, die on the cross to pay for sinners, and to be raised from the dead on the third day. And if you’ll repent of your sins and place your faith in him alone, the Lord will forgive you of your sins, cleanse you from all your unrighteousness, credit you with the perfect righteousness of Christ, and make you his own, sealed by the Spirit to dwell with him forever, never facing his ultimately judgment. But if you don’t believe, the judgment you’re facing now is only a shadowy foretaste of the eternal merciless judgment of God to come. Therefore, if you’re not a believer this morning, I plead with you not to remain in your sin but to trust in Christ alone.
And for those of us who know Christ, let us treasure the gospel that saves us from the wrath to come. And let us submit to God, resist Satan, flee from sin, and live a life of honoring obedience to the Lord who lived, died, and was raised for us. In fact, may that be our declaration as we come to the table now. Amen.