Revelation Chapter 8 Lesson 19
Opening of the Trumpet Judgments
Intro:
All the judgments, seal, trumpets and bowl are all connected. They
telescope from one to the other.
The sequence of Revelation.
- In ch 4-5 the vision of the Throne
- In ch 6-18 we find unfolded the wrath of the Lamb
- In
19:1-21 the Return of the Lamb
- In
chapter 20-22 Reign
of the Lamb
8:1 Opening of the Seventh
Seal!
The scene here is in Heaven!
- The Lamb, Jesus Christ, opens the 7th seal
Result = GREAT SILENCE for about half an
hour!
The implication of the Silence in Heaven!
- Praise and
worship is halted
- They sense very
vividly the awesomeness of what is about to take place
- What they are
anticipating is the vindication of the Holiness of God
8:2
& 6 The Seven Angels who administer the trumpet judgments
"who stand before God."
- Their responsibility here: Seven trumpets were given to them.
He knew that the
purpose of the trumpet:
- It was used to announce every important
event in
- It was very
significant in their daily function.
Num. 10:1-10
- It was used to convene the people; special
events/feasts.
- It was sounded
at Mt Sinai at the giving of the Law Ex 19:16-19
- It was blown
when it was time to move camp.
- It was also used to call them to battle,
to go to war!
- It was also used as a warning of
danger. Ezk
33:1-7.
- One thing that
we should note is that none of these trumpets are to be associated with any
other trumpet in NT
- 1 Cor
But before they
begin we have a short parenthesis; focus shifts during this silence to another
angel.
8:3-5 Prayers of
the Saints Answered!
- To understand
the imagery here we need to go back to the tabernacle
- The golden altar
had nothing to do with sacrifices but with worship
- Incense was put
on this altar and lit. morning and evening
- The sequence
here makes an important statement related to the significance for us as far as
worship is concerned.
Another thing it
says is that He is particular about where you get your fire for worship
Point is where did they get their motive for
worship?
> vs:3;
"that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the
golden altar which was before the throne."
- And its all about
to come to fulfillment; God is about to answer all of those prayers.
> In vs:4 we see
the smoke rise to God.
- As believers we
know that in the person of Christ we have salvation and therefore freedom from
the judgment of God because He already bore our judgment on the cross; depicted
by brazen altar;
redemption price has been paid.
Now in vs:5
judgment descends; man having rejected
God's gracious offer of salvation feels the weight of His judgment.
- The
clear implication here is that the response of judgment is related to the
prayers of the saints being answered.
The
Seven (6) Trumpet Judgments! 8:7 - 9:21
Some observations as we begin!
1. These are clearly supernatural judgments; demonstrates that
the source is clearly from God; should
get peoples attention, but doesn't.
2. Verse 13 makes
an announcement between the 4th and the 5th.
3. There is a similarity between the first 4 trumpets and some of the
plagues of
Revelation
Trumpet #1 8:7 hail and fire w/blood Plague #7 Ex
judgment of vegetation extent = Ex
vegetation and all unprotected
men
and animals
limited to 1/3 the earth focus of
=
Trumpet #2 Rev 8:8-9 Plague #1 Ex
1/3 of the sea became extent =
the
blood
marine judgment
Trumpet #3 Rev 8:10-11 Plague #1 Ex
drinking water
no drinking water
(much larger scale) judgment
of hydrosphere
Trumpet #4
darkness impacts
Darkness which can be felt
whole earth
Clearly there is a correspondence between
these judgments and those poured out on
#1 In both cases God is getting ready to bring
First out of
In the Tribulation its
out of the final Diaspora into fulfillment of the Davidic and the Land
Covenant.
#2 Both those living in
#3 The judgments
in Egypt were real literal judgments which had impact for generations; These in
Rev. are just as real and literal; the terms here are not symbolic, no
indication of that in context.
As we approach these trumpet judgments,
there is a line of thinking that we must guard against, that the Word of God
warns us about, and if we fall into this line of thinking the rest of
Revelation will become a closed book to us.
- The trap we need
to be careful of falling into is thinking that:
If something has not ever happened, it will not or cannot happen!