The Trumpet Judgments (Revelation 8 and 9)

Chapter 5
In the beginning of chapter 8 we see the breaking of the seventh seal, which is the introduction to the trumpet judgments. There is silence in heaven for thirty minutes. It’s difficult for us to imagine complete silence in heaven for a half hour. Myriads of myriads of angelic beings, the four living creatures, so many martyred saints they can’t be counted (7:9), Jesus and God the Father on their thrones, and the seven angels waiting to get their trumpets to inaugurate the next seven judgments. Yet, not a creature was stirring. There was complete silence.

In verse 3 we see another angel appear who is holding a golden censer. He has a whole lot of incense given to him (representing the prayers of the saints), that he adds to the incense already on the altar that is before the throne of God. This same angel fills his censer with fire from the altar and throws it to the earth; “and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake”. Remember, a great earthquake ended the seal judgments (6:12).

In chapter 8 we see the first trumpet angel send hail and fire, mixed with blood to the earth, destroying one third of it, one third of the trees, and all of the green grass. When the second angel sounds, something that looks like a great mountain, possibly an asteroid, is thrown into the sea, killing one third of the fish and mammals living in it. The third angel’s focus is on the fresh waters of the earth. He sends a great star to the earth which apparently breaks into millions of pieces and lands in the waters of the earth, polluting them, making them bitter, unpalatable. The fourth angel’s focus in on the sun, moon, and stars. He strikes them in some fashion that causes them to darken and lose a third of their light. Imagine that during the day, one third of the available light that has been enjoyed by the earth’s inhabitants for centuries has disappeared. I’m not sure how we can measure such things. I know there are instruments that can measure the amount of light our electronic devices emit, so I am quite certain the concept exists, but personally, I can’t imagine what it will be like on planet earth with one third of the light we now enjoy gone.

Verse 13 of chapter 8 is truly scary. John looks, but he hears an eagle flying in midheaven (that’s the place we call space), “saying with a loud voice, ‘woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth (a reference to unbelievers), because of the remaining blasts of the trumpets of the three angels who are about to sound!’” In contemporary language, they are indicating that what we have read so far is insignificant when measured against what is about to come. All of the destruction and death heretofore reaped on planet earth was only a prelude to what is coming. It was the tip of the proverbial ice berg. When the fifth angel sounds, a demon, referred to as a star which had previously fallen to the earth, is given the key to hell where myriads of demons have been locked up waiting for this day to come. When the demon opens this bottomless pit, smoke, like the smoke of a furnace rises, and from the smoke rises demons who look like locusts. The locust looking demons, have a rather unique power. They can sting a man, inflicting such pain that he will cry out for death, but death will not come. It seems that with the agonizing pain will come paralysis, because the people stung by these locusts will not even be able to commit suicide, thereby acquiring relief from the agony and the pain of the sting (9:6).

Verses 7-11 indicate these locusts looking creatures may be quite large. It also seems this first assault will focus on Israel. Note, they were not allowed to harm those Jews who had the “seal of God on their foreheads.” (cf. 9:4 with 7:4-8) Our military has had helicopters for a long time that John may well be describing here. Of course he was using the only language he had available to him to describe what he was seeing. His description of the crowns like gold and the hair like that of a women are a little difficult to reconcile, but the rest of his description fits some of our military helicopters to the tee. I suppose the key phrase here has to do with the sound of their wings, which John describes as “like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle.” That is exactly what one of our military helicopters sounds like. And we have had chemical weapons for decades that have the ability to inflict enormous pain and paralyze people at the same time.

It seems their leader, called the angel of the abyss (possibly Satan, though not necessarily), acquires this chemical weapon and uses it on Israel first and then moves to those nations throughout the world which allow Israelis to live peacefully within their political boundaries. Imagine hospitals all over the world filled with victims of this nerve gas assault. And then imagine that there are two more woes coming that are going to be worse than this one. Also imagine that the first woe is sufficiently cataclysmic as to dwarf all of the previous seal and trumpet judgments.

So, when I suggested hospitals around the world will be filled with the victims of this chemical assault, I was probably being an optimist. It is most likely there will not be sufficient space in the hospitals around the world to house the number of victims who will be afflicted by this nerve gas. It is quite likely many will lie in the streets, slowly dying of the pain, unable to get food or water to sustain them in their pain. As they slowly die from malnutrition, the stench of death from their rotting bodies will add to the incredible horror already being faced by any who have not inhaled the paralyzing gas.

Now, to add to this horror, the next angel sounds, releasing the four angels at the river Euphrates, politically the current location of the nations of Iraq and Iran, who have been waiting for the hour and day and month and year to kill a third of mankind (9:13-15). There have been countless books written which attempt to indicate exactly who these specific nations are. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the current president of Iran, is bragging almost daily that he will start world war III, which he believes will usher in the Muslim messiah. Ezekiel 37 and 38 are often quoted indicating they are an alliance of nations including Russia, Iraq, China, and Iran. That is certainly possible. Today, these nations have more in common than they did even twenty years ago.

I don’t believe it is as critical for us to identify the nations as it is to realize they will be going after all those in the people of the world who are not their allies and who were not affected by the nerve gas they already released. It is important to understand that this two hundred million man army will kill a third of what is left of mankind. They will use fire, smoke, and, what John calls, brimstone, which proceeds out of their mouths. There need be no debate about whether or not this military is riding on horses. It is not likely. John had no words to describe current military weapons or their delivery systems. Great soldiers rode horses into battle in John’s time. Whatever a soldier was using to deliver destruction to his enemy was a horse to John. Certainly, what he describes does not fit the description of any horse I have ever ridden.

A contemporary tank has power in its mouth (the top front part of the machine) and in its tail (possibly a machine gun mounted on a turret at the rear of the tank). These tanks can fire fifty caliber explosive devices from the barrel and when they hit their target, they would certainly appear to a man living 2,000 years ago to be fire, smoke, and brimstone. In verses 20-21 we discover that those left on the planet still do not repent of their ungodly ways. They are not moved to repentance even when it appears likely all they have worshipped and done will soon cease to exist.