June 18, 2025 • 28 mins
Dive into Revelation Chapter 8, where the Lamb opens the seventh seal, ushering in a profound silence in heaven and the beginning of the seven trumpet judgments. Join me as I explore the eerie calm before the storm of God’s divine judgment, drawing parallels to the plagues of Egypt and the undoing of creation itself. From hail and fire mixed with blood scorching a third of the earth to a blazing mountain turning the seas to blood, and the bitter star Wormwood poisoning the waters, these vivid images paint a sobering picture of devastation. We’ll unpack the symbolism of the seven archangels, the golden censer, and the prayers of the saints rising like incense, while reflecting on what this silence and these judgments mean for humanity today. As an eagle cries, “Woe, woe, woe,” signaling worse to come, this episode challenges listeners to confront the reality of sin and turn to the hope and salvation found in Jesus Christ. Don’t miss this powerful study of Revelation’s call to repentance and faith!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Well as always.
Thank you for joining me inthis Bible study podcast.
I'm Randy Duncan and we'retackling Revelation, chapter 8.
But just as a quick reminder ofwhat we covered in chapter 7,
we discussed how chapter 7served as sort of this
intermission between the intenseevents of the 6 and 7 seals,
and it offered us a moment tosort of catch our breath after
(00:31):
the catastrophic visions of thefour horsemen.
And we explored how the chapteranswered that haunting question
from chapter 6, who can standin the face of God's wrath and
introducing the sealing of the144,000 servants from the tribes
of Israel.
We talked about thatsymbolizing divine protection
and completeness, and it sparkedthat debate over whether this
(00:53):
group represents literal Jewishbelievers or all redeemed
Christians.
And so, with that brief recap,we now turn our attention to
chapter 8, which will see Jesusopen the seventh seal.
We now turn our attention tochapter 8, which will see Jesus
open the seventh seal.
Now, this isn't a long chapter.
It only has 13 verses, and sowe begin with the first two
verses, which read and when theLamb opened the seventh seal,
(01:14):
there was silence in heaven forabout half an hour.
Then I saw the seven angels whostand before God and seven
trumpets were given to them.
Now I want to go ahead andpause right here because, as you
remember, we saw the first sixseals open in chapter 6.
Then we had a pause in chapter7 to explain who will be spared
from the wrath of God during thefinal days.
(01:36):
But now the seals resume andJohn describes what he saw with
the opening of the seventh seal.
And what you're going to see is, with the opening of this
seventh seal, it sets off thisseries of seven trumpets.
These trumpets are part of theseries of the seven seals, but
before we get into that, noticethat John says that after Jesus
(01:57):
opened the seventh seal, therewas silence in heaven for about
half an hour.
Now, scholars debate the meaningof the silence that's described
here.
Some believe that God stopsrevealing truth for a period of
time.
Others argue that we havesilence similar to that which
hung over the world prior tocreation, so that the new
creation will mirror the old.
(02:18):
However, the context here isjudgment, not creation.
The context here is judgment,not creation.
Another thought is that all ofheaven is silenced to allow the
prayers of God's people to beheard, and they'll point out the
fact that in the temple inJerusalem, the incense and the
sacrifices were to be offered upin silence.
And although there arearguments to be made from each
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perspective, my personal thoughtis that this silence in heaven
signals that sort of that eeriecalm before the storm, the calm
before the storm of God'sjudgment, sort of like we see in
Zephaniah 1-7, where it says besilent before the Lord.
God, for the day of the Lord isnear, and this is in reference
to God calling Judah to silencebefore God brings about his
(03:04):
judgment.
This is in reference to Godcalling Judah to silence before
God brings about his judgment.
That day is portrayed as asacrifice.
Only this time the victimsaren't the animals, but
unrepentant leaders in Israel.
And so you might compare thissilence to the silence in a
courtroom right before theforeman of the jury reads the
verdict.
For a moment, there's perfectsilence as everyone waits.
(03:25):
And here in Revelation, the dayof judgment will be upon those
who oppress believers and bringabout and practice evil.
And so this silence inRevelation, it comes from the
heavenly angels who are about toinflict God's judgment on the
earth.
And one last note here Verse 2mentions the seven angels who
stand before God.
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Verse 2 mentions the sevenangels who stand before God.
For those in John's day, theymost likely thought of the seven
archangels of Jewish traditionas described in the Tobit, where
the angel Raphael states I amRaphael, one of the seven angels
who stand in the gloriouspresence of the Lord, ready to
serve him.
Now, these seven angels areoften identified as the
(04:07):
archangels, who hold a specialrank in the divine hierarchy.
The book of Tobit is part of thedeuterocanonical text in some
Jewish and even in someChristian traditions, but even
it doesn't explicitly name allseven angels, but later Jewish
texts, particularly from some ofthe more mystical traditions
like the Kabbalah and othertexts like 1 Enoch, they provide
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the names for these angels.
The seven angels' names areMichael Gabriel, raphael, uriel,
raguel, sariel and Remiel.
Again, these names are found inDeuterocanonical text, and when
I say that Deuterocanonicaltext, it sounds like this long
and formal name, but don't letthat confuse you.
(04:51):
That term comes from the Greekwords deutero, which means
second, and canonical, whichmeans a rule or a standard,
meaning a second canon, and soit refers to a set of biblical
books that are consideredcanonical, authoritative
scripture by some religioustraditions but not by others,
and so, in the context of Jewishand Christian traditions.
(05:12):
These texts are part of the OldTestament in Catholic and some
of the Eastern Orthodox Bibles,but they're not included in the
Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh that'sused in Judaism or in most of
the Protestant Bibles, becausemost of the Protestant
denominations they typicallywould classify them as apocrypha
and view them as valuable forhistorical insight, but not
(05:35):
divinely inspired.
And so I'll tell you all that,just so you're aware.
But we continue with verses 3through 5, which read and
another angel came and stood atthe altar with a golden censer
and he was given much incense tooffer with the prayers of all
the saints on the golden altarbefore the throne, and the smoke
of the incense with the prayersof the saints rose before God
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from the hand of the angel.
Then the angel took the censerand filled it with fire from the
altar and threw it on the earthand there were peals of thunder
, rumblings, flashes oflightning and an earthquake.
Now, the altar of incense andthe golden censer that are
described here they were templeinstruments and they imply
impending judgment.
(06:18):
A censer was this metalcontainer and in this case it
was made out of gold and it wasdesigned to hold burning coals
and incense, and it could beeither a vessel shaped like a
bowl with a handle, or it couldbe suspended by chains which
would allow the priest to carryor swing it back and forth to
spread around the fragrant smoke.
(06:39):
In the Old Testament thesecensers were used in the
tabernacle and in the temple toburn incense as an offering to
God and this incense itsymbolized prayers rising up to
heaven and into God's presence.
And we see this link betweenprayer and incense even with
David back in Psalm 141, wherehe says Lord, I call upon you,
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hasten to me, give ear to myvoice when I call to you, let my
prayer be counted as incensebefore you.
And so David's praying that hisprayers would be acceptable to
God and answered by him.
And this fits with what we seehere in Revelation as well,
because David is actuallypraying as a person in
desperation because he's beingsurrounded by wicked people, and
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he prays that the wicked peoplewill finally be judged and
destroyed.
And here in Revelation we'llsee that judgment and
destruction are described in thetrumpets that follow.
And in verse 5, we see that theangel took the censer and
filled it with fire from thealtar and threw it on the earth,
and there was thunder, flashesof lightning and an earthquake.
(07:43):
Now some people have suggestedthat this angel is Michael.
When we get to chapter 12,we'll see that Michael is
specifically mentioned.
But he's not specificallymentioned here, so there's
really no way that we can knowfor certain.
But the fire from the censerthat the angel cast down to
earth represents God's judgmentsthat are going to be unleashed
(08:04):
in the seven trumpets thatfollow, and we begin with the
first trumpet in verses 6 and 7,which read Now the seven angels
who had the seven trumpetsprepared to blow them.
The first angel blew histrumpet and there followed hail
and fire mixed with blood, andthese were thrown upon the earth
and a third of the earth wasburned up and a third of the
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trees were burned up and allgreen grass was burned up.
So the first angel gives thesignal, the trumpet is blown and
we see the severe consequencesthat follow A third of the earth
is burned up, a third of thetrees are burned up and a third
of the green grass is burned up.
Now, as we go through theseseven trumpets and these
judgments, I want you to keep inthe back of your mind the
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plagues that God brought uponEgypt just before the Exodus,
because the judgments that we'regoing to read about here in
Revelation resemble those inExodus.
For example, the first trumpetin judgment, where this hell and
fire mixed with blood are castdown upon the earth, resembles
the seventh plague on Egypt.
In Exodus, chapter 9, we read,starting with verse 23,
(09:22):
continually in the midst of thehell, very heavy hell such as
had never been in all the landof Egypt since it became a
nation, the hell struck downeverything that was in the field
in all the land of Egypt, bothman and beast, and the hell
struck down every plant of thefield and broke every tree of
the field.
And so that's an example ofwhat I mean when I say that
(09:43):
these judgments resemble thosethat we see in Egypt and the
Exodus.
Now, when John says that therewas hell and fire, most
commentators believe the firereferred to here is actually
lightning Because, as we justread in Exodus it says there was
hell and fire flashingcontinuously, and so it seems
reasonable to assume John isdescribing lightning here.
(10:05):
And just as we saw in Exodus,where the hell struck down every
plant of the field and everytree of the field, we see here
in Revelation that a third ofthe earth, a third of the trees
and a third of the green grassis burned up.
So one of the differences hereis that the damage is limited to
one third.
But with that, there's goodnews and bad news.
The good news, it's only athird and not everything.
(10:28):
The bad news, it's only thefirst trumpet, and so the
judgment isn't over.
But another note here is that,in addition to the hell and the
fire or possibly lightning, isthe mention that it was mixed
with blood.
Now, some people will arguethat this is a reference to the
rain that is blood red as itgets mixed with the red dust
from the Sahara Desert.
(10:48):
Others argue more for volcaniceruptions that turn the sky a
red color.
Now, both of these arespeculation, of course, and so
I'm only mentioning them foryour awareness, but in the Bible
, blood typically refers to life, as we see in Leviticus 17.11.
And so if we consider the bloodin a judgment context, it might
(11:09):
refer to the death that willensue as a result of this plague
.
Because think about the resultof such destruction.
A loss of a third of the treeswould result in shortages of
essential staple items likefruit and olive figs and grapes.
The destruction of the greengrass would result in the death
of sheep and goats and cattle,and so that would impact the
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world's supply of meat andcheese milk, and so what's
presented here is sort of a grimpicture of the devastation of
the world's vegetation and theresulting consequences of that.
I mean, think about it A thirdof the world's vegetation.
I mean think about it A thirdof the world's vegetation,
gardens, parks, forests, allgone, and many people think that
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this would also include graincrops like wheat, rice, oats and
that sort of thing.
And with a third of vegetationgone, you could also extrapolate
to other areas of destructionlike soil erosion, mudslides,
floods.
I mean the air pollution fromthe fires would be massive, and
so the vegetation that didremain might be incapable of
absorbing all of our normalpollution plus all of that.
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And so what you end up with isbasically having ecology as a
whole thrown completely out ofbalance, and, trust me, this
isn't the type of climate changeanybody wants.
But, as I mentioned, the badnews is that this is only the
first trumpet, and we read aboutthe second trumpet in verses 8
and 9, where it tells us thesecond angel blew his trumpet
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and something like a greatmountain burning with fire was
thrown into the sea and a thirdof the sea became blood, a third
of the living creatures in thesea died and a third of the
ships were destroyed.
And so with the second trumpetcomes another wave of
destruction.
But let's first take a look atverse 8, which says that Now,
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the first thing to point outhere is that it doesn't say a
great mountain was thrown intothe sea.
It says something like a greatmountain.
And so if it wasn't a literalmountain, then what was it?
Well, opinions among scholarsvary on this, but there seems to
be basically three differentviews.
One of the views is that thisis describing either some cosmic
(13:25):
or natural disaster, like avolcanic eruption or a meteor
strike, and you could visualizeeither of those glowing red and
fiery as they erupt or theycrash to earth, and each would
cause this widespreaddestruction.
Another view, though, sees thisgreat mountain as symbolizing a
great political or religioussystem, and this system is being
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judged by God and has been castdown.
And it's true that, in theBible, mountains sometimes
represent kingdoms or powers.
So, for example, in Jeremiah 51, 25, babylon is called a quote
destroying mountain, and it'sinteresting, god declares that
he will make it a quote burntmountain.
But the last interpretation ofthis great mountain that I'll
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mention here is the view thatthis mountain represents some
demonic or supernatural force,meaning some fallen angel or
perhaps even Satan being castdown to earth.
When we get to chapter 12, we'regoing to read in Revelation 12
9,.
And the great dragon was throwndown, that ancient serpent who
was called the devil and Satan,the deceiver of the whole world.
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He was thrown down to the earthand his angels were thrown down
with him, and so this couldalso symbolize God's judgment
upon them.
Now we've just touched on thefirst part of verse 8, but
remember what the second halfsays, as well as verse 9.
Something like a great mountainburning with fire was thrown
into the sea and a third of thesea became blood.
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A third of the living creaturesin the sea died and a third of
the ships were destroyed, and sowe see a third of the sea
turning into blood.
And once again we see theallusion to the plagues in Egypt
.
Remember the first plague onEgypt was the Nile River turned
to blood when Moses struck thewaters with his staff.
We also see that more than justa third of the waters are
(15:19):
impacted here because a third ofthe life in the sea died, and
we mentioned the consequences ofvegetation being destroyed and
the result on the availabilityof meat, but most people at this
time ate more fish than meat,so this plague may prove even
more devastating on the foodsupply than the first.
In addition to that, a third ofthe ships on the sea are
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destroyed.
Now some people may just glossover that part of the verse, but
consider this there's anaverage of about 50,000 merchant
ships navigating the Earth'sseas and oceans at any given
time, and so a third would beabout 17,000 ships destroyed.
And on those 17,000 ships, howmany people are on board each
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one?
And this number doesn't eveninclude smaller boats or
military ships, because thatdata simply isn't there.
And so the actual fallout froma further disrupted food supply,
coupled with all of the deathand destruction at sea, starts
to paint a grim picture of thissecond plague.
But there's more judgment tocome, and we look now at the
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third trumpet in verses 10 and11, where it says the third
angel blew his trumpet, that athird of the seas were impacted,
and again here we see morewater affected.
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But whereas the second plagueimpacted the oceans and the seas
, the salt water.
This plague now affects therivers and springs, the fresh
water supplies, and this is thewater supply that humanity
depends on.
But we read that a great starfell from heaven, blazing like a
torch, and we're told the nameof the star is Wormwood.
(17:15):
Now, images of stars fallingfrom heaven are used in
different ways, including divinejudgment, like we see in Isaiah
, chapter 34, or Revelation 6,daniel 8.
But we also see the sameimagery associated with fallen
powers or authorities, and maybethe most notable is seen in
(17:35):
Isaiah 14, starting in verse 12,where it says how you have
fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn, you have been
cast down to earth, you whoonce laid low the nations.
This is usually interpreted asreferring to the king of Babylon
or metaphorically even to Satan.
Interpret as referring to theking of Babylon or
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metaphorically even to Satan.
And so the morning star fallingsignifies the collapse of a
proud ruler.
And we'll see in the nextchapter that John sees a star
fall from heaven because hetells us I saw a star that had
fallen from sky to the earth,and we know this is a metaphor
for an angel, because hecontinues by saying the star was
given the key to the shaft ofthe abyss.
(18:17):
And so what we see is that thefall of a star usually reflects
spiritual or some sort of moralcorruption, and it emphasizes
the consequences of turning awayfrom God.
And so here in Revelation 8,wormwood's fall could carry a
secondary meaning, representinga sort of physical manifestation
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of the spiritual bitternessinfecting humanity.
Now, just for the sake ofthoroughness, there are other
interpretations of what thisfalling star represents, because
there are some who believe it'sa meteor or a comet that falls
to the earth, breaks up and thenpollutes the water.
Meteor or a comet that falls tothe earth, breaks up and then
pollutes the water.
And still others think thatperhaps this is a description of
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another thermonuclear weapon.
But the main point here isn'texactly what it is, but what the
result is.
What's the physicalmanifestation that we see here?
It says that a third of thewater became wormwood.
Now, wormwood was a bittertasting plant known in the
ancient world for both itsmedicinal and its toxic
(19:19):
properties.
In small doses wormwood wasused medicinally, but in larger
amounts it could be poisonous,causing sickness and death.
But not only is wormwood a realplant, it was also used as a
metaphor for sin and forbitterness and judgment.
And so, for example, inJeremiah 9 and Jeremiah 23, god
(19:40):
promises to feed his peoplewater poisoned with wormwood as
a punishment for theirunfaithfulness, and so it was
associated with suffering andjudgment.
So the use of wormwood here inRevelation draws on this imagery
as an instrument of divinejudgment that brings bitterness
and death.
But let's move on now to thefourth trumpet, where John tells
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us in verse 12,.
And likewise a third of thestars, so that a third of their
light might be darkened and athird of the day might be kept
from shining, and likewise athird of the night.
Now, this fourth trumpet andplague may be the most difficult
to understand.
(20:23):
There's a change we see fromthe land and sea to the sun,
moon and stars, and what we seeis a darkening for a third of
the time.
And this plague of darkness.
It would definitely conjure upvisions of the plague of
darkness over Egypt and Exodus.
Now, one of the interestingthings about the ten plagues of
Egypt, by the way, is that theywere divine judgments sent by
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God, demonstrating his supremacyover Egypt's gods, and so each
plague targeted Egyptian godslike Hapi, who was the god of
the Nile, which was struck byblood or the sun, god Ra, when
Egypt was obscured in darkness,or the plague of hell and fire,
which challenged Nut, who wasthe sky goddess, and even the
(21:10):
death of the firstborn, judgedPharaoh's divine status as well
as Osiris, who was the god ofthe firstborn.
Judged Pharaoh's divine statusas well as Osiris, who was the
god of the afterlife.
And so, by orchestrating theseplagues, god exposed the
impotence of Egypt's pantheon,of these so-called gods, and in
Exodus 12, 12, god says and onall the gods of Egypt, I will
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execute judgments.
I am the Lord.
And here in Revelation, we seejudgments that are reminiscent
of those plagues on Egypt.
Now, some commentatorsunderstand this plague to be
literal, but it's difficult tosee, just from a physics
standpoint, how the sun, moonand stars would not produce
light only a third of the time.
(21:52):
Now, certainly God could causethat to happen miraculously.
I mean, he's God, he can dowhat he wants.
But perhaps a betterexplanation, if you take this in
a literal sense, is to imaginethat for some reason, the sun,
the moon and the stars areobscured for a third of the time
.
And what I mean is, for example, even though the sun doesn't
(22:12):
literally stop shining for athird of the time.
It may be the case that it'ssomehow obscured from our vision
for a third of the time,perhaps by heavy cloud covering
or dust and debris from theother plagues.
If you've listened to my Genesisstudy and if you remember the
days of creation, we discussedthe creation of the sun, moon
and stars on day four and that'sbeen a point of attack for
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non-believers for years.
Remember I explained that it'spossible that the sun wasn't
actually created on day four butthat it became visible on earth
on day four.
But as we look at this trumpetseries so far, we now have four
trumpets and plagues.
But have you noticed what'sbeen impacted by these plagues?
But have you noticed what'sbeen impacted by these plagues?
These first four plagues exhibitremarkable parallels with the
(22:57):
first four days of creation inGenesis, but in a mode of divine
judgment that reverses or sortof disrupts the created order.
And so, for example, on thefirst day of creation, god
creates light and he separatesit from darkness, while the
fourth trumpet darkens a thirdof the celestial lights and
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symbolizes sort of this partialundoing of God's cosmic order.
The second day of creation iswhere we saw separation of
waters above and below, and itcontrasts with the second and
third trumpets, where the seaand the fresh waters are
corrupted by this blazingmountain and wormwood, and so it
turns the life-giving watersinto agents of bitterness and
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death.
The third day's creation of dryland and vegetation it's
partially destroyed by the firsttrumpets, hail and fire, which
burn a third of the earth, treesand grass.
And then, finally, the fourthday of creation of the sun, moon
and stars is now disrupted bythe fourth trumpet's darkening
that we just saw.
And so these parallels seem toframe the trumpets as a sort of
(24:05):
a deliberate de-creation, if youwill, where God's judgments
target the elements of hisoriginal creation.
But this signals both hissovereignty over the universe
and it also recalls the plaguesof Egypt as acts of divine power
over those false gods.
Now one other observation hereregarding the judgments that
(24:25):
we've seen so far.
If you remember, when wediscussed the four horsemen of
the apocalypse, in chapter 6,the fourth horseman was given
power to harm a fourth of theearth.
But as this series now of thetrump, in chapter 6, the fourth
horseman was given power to harma fourth of the earth.
But as this series now of thetrumpets and plagues have begun,
the destruction has intensifiedbecause it's now one-third that
is affected.
The judgments are intensifying,but we finish this chapter with
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the last verse, verse 13, whichreads Then I looked and I heard
an eagle chapter, with a pausein the series of trumpets, as
(25:11):
John sees an eagle flyingoverhead.
Now the eagle symbolizedstrength and speed.
But it also symbolized theRoman Empire.
The primary emblem of a Romanlegion was an aquila, a silver
or gold eagle carried on a pole.
But more important than whatthe eagle represents is the
message it brings, and itclearly brings a message of
(25:34):
continued judgment, because theeagle cries out Woe, woe, woe to
those who dwell on the earthbecause of the trumpets the
angels are about to blow.
And this three-fold repetitionof woe does a couple of things.
It serves to emphasize theseverity of each, but also we
see three woes because we stillhave three trumpets remaining.
(25:57):
In both the Old Testament andthe New Testament we often see
woes warning of God's impendingjudgment.
And this verse also serves as asort of a transition in what
John has seen, because it marksthe escalation of divine
judgment from the first fourtrumpets.
The first four plagues affectedthe natural world.
The final three plagues willbring intensified suffering
(26:22):
directly upon humanity, becausewhat we're going to see over the
next three chapters is that thefifth, sixth and seventh
trumpets will bring demonicforces and widespread death upon
the world, which is why Johnsees and hears the message of
woe to those who dwell on theearth.
And so, as we conclude ourstudy here of Revelation 8,
we're confronted with thesobering reality of the trumpet
(26:46):
judgments which echo the plaguesof Egypt and sort of this
partial undoing of God'screation.
And all of these imagesunderscore the seriousness of
humanity's rebellion and theurgency of the times, and it's
warning us of the consequencesof turning from God.
So let this serve as a wake-upcall to turn from sin to seek
(27:15):
God's mercy and forgiveness andturn to Jesus Christ, who offers
salvation to all who trust Him.
The ground is sinking.
Sand Across the solid rock, I'mstanding.
Yes, lord, you're the only onethat I will build my life on.
(27:36):
Through it all you remain.
The sun goes up, sun comes down.
This old world keeps spinningaround and I'm here traveling
down this long and wide new road.
Seasons come, seasons go.
I've been high and I've beenlow, but I'm standing on the
(27:58):
only rock I know.
You're my cornerstone, nomatter where I go.
You're my cornerstone, nomatter where I go.
No matter where I go, the sungoes up and the sun comes down,
(28:19):
but I feel my life On this solidground oh, the only rock I
stand on.
Well as always.
Thank you for joining me inthis Bible study podcast.
I'm Randy Duncan and we'retackling Revelation, chapter 8.
But just as a quick reminder ofwhat we covered in chapter 7,
we discussed how chapter 7served as sort of this
intermission between the intenseevents of the 6 and 7 seals,
and it offered us a moment tosort of catch our breath after
(00:31):
the catastrophic visions of thefour horsemen.
And we explored how the chapteranswered that haunting question
from chapter 6, who can standin the face of God's wrath and
introducing the sealing of the144,000 servants from the tribes
of Israel.
We talked about thatsymbolizing divine protection
and completeness, and it sparkedthat debate over whether this
(00:53):
group represents literal Jewishbelievers or all redeemed
Christians.
And so, with that brief recap,we now turn our attention to
chapter 8, which will see Jesusopen the seventh seal.
We now turn our attention tochapter 8, which will see Jesus
open the seventh seal.
Now, this isn't a long chapter.
It only has 13 verses, and sowe begin with the first two
verses, which read and when theLamb opened the seventh seal,
(01:14):
there was silence in heaven forabout half an hour.
Then I saw the seven angels whostand before God and seven
trumpets were given to them.
Now I want to go ahead andpause right here because, as you
remember, we saw the first sixseals open in chapter 6.
Then we had a pause in chapter7 to explain who will be spared
from the wrath of God during thefinal days.
(01:36):
But now the seals resume andJohn describes what he saw with
the opening of the seventh seal.
And what you're going to see is, with the opening of this
seventh seal, it sets off thisseries of seven trumpets.
These trumpets are part of theseries of the seven seals, but
before we get into that, noticethat John says that after Jesus
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opened the seventh seal, therewas silence in heaven for about
half an hour.
Now, scholars debate the meaningof the silence that's described
here.
Some believe that God stopsrevealing truth for a period of
time.
Others argue that we havesilence similar to that which
hung over the world prior tocreation, so that the new
creation will mirror the old.
(02:18):
However, the context here isjudgment, not creation.
The context here is judgment,not creation.
Another thought is that all ofheaven is silenced to allow the
prayers of God's people to beheard, and they'll point out the
fact that in the temple inJerusalem, the incense and the
sacrifices were to be offered upin silence.
And although there arearguments to be made from each
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perspective, my personal thoughtis that this silence in heaven
signals that sort of that eeriecalm before the storm, the calm
before the storm of God'sjudgment, sort of like we see in
Zephaniah 1-7, where it says besilent before the Lord.
God, for the day of the Lord isnear, and this is in reference
to God calling Judah to silencebefore God brings about his
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judgment.
This is in reference to Godcalling Judah to silence before
God brings about his judgment.
That day is portrayed as asacrifice.
Only this time the victimsaren't the animals, but
unrepentant leaders in Israel.
And so you might compare thissilence to the silence in a
courtroom right before theforeman of the jury reads the
verdict.
For a moment, there's perfectsilence as everyone waits.
(03:25):
And here in Revelation, the dayof judgment will be upon those
who oppress believers and bringabout and practice evil.
And so this silence inRevelation, it comes from the
heavenly angels who are about toinflict God's judgment on the
earth.
And one last note here Verse 2mentions the seven angels who
stand before God.
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Verse 2 mentions the sevenangels who stand before God.
For those in John's day, theymost likely thought of the seven
archangels of Jewish traditionas described in the Tobit, where
the angel Raphael states I amRaphael, one of the seven angels
who stand in the gloriouspresence of the Lord, ready to
serve him.
Now, these seven angels areoften identified as the
(04:07):
archangels, who hold a specialrank in the divine hierarchy.
The book of Tobit is part of thedeuterocanonical text in some
Jewish and even in someChristian traditions, but even
it doesn't explicitly name allseven angels, but later Jewish
texts, particularly from some ofthe more mystical traditions
like the Kabbalah and othertexts like 1 Enoch, they provide
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the names for these angels.
The seven angels' names areMichael Gabriel, raphael, uriel,
raguel, sariel and Remiel.
Again, these names are found inDeuterocanonical text, and when
I say that Deuterocanonicaltext, it sounds like this long
and formal name, but don't letthat confuse you.
(04:51):
That term comes from the Greekwords deutero, which means
second, and canonical, whichmeans a rule or a standard,
meaning a second canon, and soit refers to a set of biblical
books that are consideredcanonical, authoritative
scripture by some religioustraditions but not by others,
and so, in the context of Jewishand Christian traditions.
(05:12):
These texts are part of the OldTestament in Catholic and some
of the Eastern Orthodox Bibles,but they're not included in the
Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh that'sused in Judaism or in most of
the Protestant Bibles, becausemost of the Protestant
denominations they typicallywould classify them as apocrypha
and view them as valuable forhistorical insight, but not
(05:35):
divinely inspired.
And so I'll tell you all that,just so you're aware.
But we continue with verses 3through 5, which read and
another angel came and stood atthe altar with a golden censer
and he was given much incense tooffer with the prayers of all
the saints on the golden altarbefore the throne, and the smoke
of the incense with the prayersof the saints rose before God
(05:58):
from the hand of the angel.
Then the angel took the censerand filled it with fire from the
altar and threw it on the earthand there were peals of thunder
, rumblings, flashes oflightning and an earthquake.
Now, the altar of incense andthe golden censer that are
described here they were templeinstruments and they imply
impending judgment.
(06:18):
A censer was this metalcontainer and in this case it
was made out of gold and it wasdesigned to hold burning coals
and incense, and it could beeither a vessel shaped like a
bowl with a handle, or it couldbe suspended by chains which
would allow the priest to carryor swing it back and forth to
spread around the fragrant smoke.
(06:39):
In the Old Testament thesecensers were used in the
tabernacle and in the temple toburn incense as an offering to
God and this incense itsymbolized prayers rising up to
heaven and into God's presence.
And we see this link betweenprayer and incense even with
David back in Psalm 141, wherehe says Lord, I call upon you,
(07:01):
hasten to me, give ear to myvoice when I call to you, let my
prayer be counted as incensebefore you.
And so David's praying that hisprayers would be acceptable to
God and answered by him.
And this fits with what we seehere in Revelation as well,
because David is actuallypraying as a person in
desperation because he's beingsurrounded by wicked people, and
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he prays that the wicked peoplewill finally be judged and
destroyed.
And here in Revelation we'llsee that judgment and
destruction are described in thetrumpets that follow.
And in verse 5, we see that theangel took the censer and
filled it with fire from thealtar and threw it on the earth,
and there was thunder, flashesof lightning and an earthquake.
(07:43):
Now some people have suggestedthat this angel is Michael.
When we get to chapter 12,we'll see that Michael is
specifically mentioned.
But he's not specificallymentioned here, so there's
really no way that we can knowfor certain.
But the fire from the censerthat the angel cast down to
earth represents God's judgmentsthat are going to be unleashed
(08:04):
in the seven trumpets thatfollow, and we begin with the
first trumpet in verses 6 and 7,which read Now the seven angels
who had the seven trumpetsprepared to blow them.
The first angel blew histrumpet and there followed hail
and fire mixed with blood, andthese were thrown upon the earth
and a third of the earth wasburned up and a third of the
(08:24):
trees were burned up and allgreen grass was burned up.
So the first angel gives thesignal, the trumpet is blown and
we see the severe consequencesthat follow A third of the earth
is burned up, a third of thetrees are burned up and a third
of the green grass is burned up.
Now, as we go through theseseven trumpets and these
judgments, I want you to keep inthe back of your mind the
(08:46):
plagues that God brought uponEgypt just before the Exodus,
because the judgments that we'regoing to read about here in
Revelation resemble those inExodus.
For example, the first trumpetin judgment, where this hell and
fire mixed with blood are castdown upon the earth, resembles
the seventh plague on Egypt.
In Exodus, chapter 9, we read,starting with verse 23,
(09:22):
continually in the midst of thehell, very heavy hell such as
had never been in all the landof Egypt since it became a
nation, the hell struck downeverything that was in the field
in all the land of Egypt, bothman and beast, and the hell
struck down every plant of thefield and broke every tree of
the field.
And so that's an example ofwhat I mean when I say that
(09:43):
these judgments resemble thosethat we see in Egypt and the
Exodus.
Now, when John says that therewas hell and fire, most
commentators believe the firereferred to here is actually
lightning Because, as we justread in Exodus it says there was
hell and fire flashingcontinuously, and so it seems
reasonable to assume John isdescribing lightning here.
(10:05):
And just as we saw in Exodus,where the hell struck down every
plant of the field and everytree of the field, we see here
in Revelation that a third ofthe earth, a third of the trees
and a third of the green grassis burned up.
So one of the differences hereis that the damage is limited to
one third.
But with that, there's goodnews and bad news.
The good news, it's only athird and not everything.
(10:28):
The bad news, it's only thefirst trumpet, and so the
judgment isn't over.
But another note here is that,in addition to the hell and the
fire or possibly lightning, isthe mention that it was mixed
with blood.
Now, some people will arguethat this is a reference to the
rain that is blood red as itgets mixed with the red dust
from the Sahara Desert.
(10:48):
Others argue more for volcaniceruptions that turn the sky a
red color.
Now, both of these arespeculation, of course, and so
I'm only mentioning them foryour awareness, but in the Bible
, blood typically refers to life, as we see in Leviticus 17.11.
And so if we consider the bloodin a judgment context, it might
(11:09):
refer to the death that willensue as a result of this plague
.
Because think about the resultof such destruction.
A loss of a third of the treeswould result in shortages of
essential staple items likefruit and olive figs and grapes.
The destruction of the greengrass would result in the death
of sheep and goats and cattle,and so that would impact the
(11:30):
world's supply of meat andcheese milk, and so what's
presented here is sort of a grimpicture of the devastation of
the world's vegetation and theresulting consequences of that.
I mean, think about it A thirdof the world's vegetation.
I mean think about it A thirdof the world's vegetation,
gardens, parks, forests, allgone, and many people think that
(11:56):
this would also include graincrops like wheat, rice, oats and
that sort of thing.
And with a third of vegetationgone, you could also extrapolate
to other areas of destructionlike soil erosion, mudslides,
floods.
I mean the air pollution fromthe fires would be massive, and
so the vegetation that didremain might be incapable of
absorbing all of our normalpollution plus all of that.
(12:16):
And so what you end up with isbasically having ecology as a
whole thrown completely out ofbalance, and, trust me, this
isn't the type of climate changeanybody wants.
But, as I mentioned, the badnews is that this is only the
first trumpet, and we read aboutthe second trumpet in verses 8
and 9, where it tells us thesecond angel blew his trumpet
(12:39):
and something like a greatmountain burning with fire was
thrown into the sea and a thirdof the sea became blood, a third
of the living creatures in thesea died and a third of the
ships were destroyed.
And so with the second trumpetcomes another wave of
destruction.
But let's first take a look atverse 8, which says that Now,
(13:03):
the first thing to point outhere is that it doesn't say a
great mountain was thrown intothe sea.
It says something like a greatmountain.
And so if it wasn't a literalmountain, then what was it?
Well, opinions among scholarsvary on this, but there seems to
be basically three differentviews.
One of the views is that thisis describing either some cosmic
(13:25):
or natural disaster, like avolcanic eruption or a meteor
strike, and you could visualizeeither of those glowing red and
fiery as they erupt or theycrash to earth, and each would
cause this widespreaddestruction.
Another view, though, sees thisgreat mountain as symbolizing a
great political or religioussystem, and this system is being
(13:49):
judged by God and has been castdown.
And it's true that, in theBible, mountains sometimes
represent kingdoms or powers.
So, for example, in Jeremiah 51, 25, babylon is called a quote
destroying mountain, and it'sinteresting, god declares that
he will make it a quote burntmountain.
But the last interpretation ofthis great mountain that I'll
(14:12):
mention here is the view thatthis mountain represents some
demonic or supernatural force,meaning some fallen angel or
perhaps even Satan being castdown to earth.
When we get to chapter 12, we'regoing to read in Revelation 12
9,.
And the great dragon was throwndown, that ancient serpent who
was called the devil and Satan,the deceiver of the whole world.
(14:35):
He was thrown down to the earthand his angels were thrown down
with him, and so this couldalso symbolize God's judgment
upon them.
Now we've just touched on thefirst part of verse 8, but
remember what the second halfsays, as well as verse 9.
Something like a great mountainburning with fire was thrown
into the sea and a third of thesea became blood.
(14:56):
A third of the living creaturesin the sea died and a third of
the ships were destroyed, and sowe see a third of the sea
turning into blood.
And once again we see theallusion to the plagues in Egypt
.
Remember the first plague onEgypt was the Nile River turned
to blood when Moses struck thewaters with his staff.
We also see that more than justa third of the waters are
(15:19):
impacted here because a third ofthe life in the sea died, and
we mentioned the consequences ofvegetation being destroyed and
the result on the availabilityof meat, but most people at this
time ate more fish than meat,so this plague may prove even
more devastating on the foodsupply than the first.
In addition to that, a third ofthe ships on the sea are
(15:41):
destroyed.
Now some people may just glossover that part of the verse, but
consider this there's anaverage of about 50,000 merchant
ships navigating the Earth'sseas and oceans at any given
time, and so a third would beabout 17,000 ships destroyed.
And on those 17,000 ships, howmany people are on board each
(16:03):
one?
And this number doesn't eveninclude smaller boats or
military ships, because thatdata simply isn't there.
And so the actual fallout froma further disrupted food supply,
coupled with all of the deathand destruction at sea, starts
to paint a grim picture of thissecond plague.
But there's more judgment tocome, and we look now at the
(16:25):
third trumpet in verses 10 and11, where it says the third
angel blew his trumpet, that athird of the seas were impacted,
and again here we see morewater affected.
(16:54):
But whereas the second plagueimpacted the oceans and the seas
, the salt water.
This plague now affects therivers and springs, the fresh
water supplies, and this is thewater supply that humanity
depends on.
But we read that a great starfell from heaven, blazing like a
torch, and we're told the nameof the star is Wormwood.
(17:15):
Now, images of stars fallingfrom heaven are used in
different ways, including divinejudgment, like we see in Isaiah
, chapter 34, or Revelation 6,daniel 8.
But we also see the sameimagery associated with fallen
powers or authorities, and maybethe most notable is seen in
(17:35):
Isaiah 14, starting in verse 12,where it says how you have
fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn, you have been
cast down to earth, you whoonce laid low the nations.
This is usually interpreted asreferring to the king of Babylon
or metaphorically even to Satan.
Interpret as referring to theking of Babylon or
(17:57):
metaphorically even to Satan.
And so the morning star fallingsignifies the collapse of a
proud ruler.
And we'll see in the nextchapter that John sees a star
fall from heaven because hetells us I saw a star that had
fallen from sky to the earth,and we know this is a metaphor
for an angel, because hecontinues by saying the star was
given the key to the shaft ofthe abyss.
(18:17):
And so what we see is that thefall of a star usually reflects
spiritual or some sort of moralcorruption, and it emphasizes
the consequences of turning awayfrom God.
And so here in Revelation 8,wormwood's fall could carry a
secondary meaning, representinga sort of physical manifestation
(18:38):
of the spiritual bitternessinfecting humanity.
Now, just for the sake ofthoroughness, there are other
interpretations of what thisfalling star represents, because
there are some who believe it'sa meteor or a comet that falls
to the earth, breaks up and thenpollutes the water.
Meteor or a comet that falls tothe earth, breaks up and then
pollutes the water.
And still others think thatperhaps this is a description of
(18:59):
another thermonuclear weapon.
But the main point here isn'texactly what it is, but what the
result is.
What's the physicalmanifestation that we see here?
It says that a third of thewater became wormwood.
Now, wormwood was a bittertasting plant known in the
ancient world for both itsmedicinal and its toxic
(19:19):
properties.
In small doses wormwood wasused medicinally, but in larger
amounts it could be poisonous,causing sickness and death.
But not only is wormwood a realplant, it was also used as a
metaphor for sin and forbitterness and judgment.
And so, for example, inJeremiah 9 and Jeremiah 23, god
(19:40):
promises to feed his peoplewater poisoned with wormwood as
a punishment for theirunfaithfulness, and so it was
associated with suffering andjudgment.
So the use of wormwood here inRevelation draws on this imagery
as an instrument of divinejudgment that brings bitterness
and death.
But let's move on now to thefourth trumpet, where John tells
(20:02):
us in verse 12,.
And likewise a third of thestars, so that a third of their
light might be darkened and athird of the day might be kept
from shining, and likewise athird of the night.
Now, this fourth trumpet andplague may be the most difficult
to understand.
(20:23):
There's a change we see fromthe land and sea to the sun,
moon and stars, and what we seeis a darkening for a third of
the time.
And this plague of darkness.
It would definitely conjure upvisions of the plague of
darkness over Egypt and Exodus.
Now, one of the interestingthings about the ten plagues of
Egypt, by the way, is that theywere divine judgments sent by
(20:46):
God, demonstrating his supremacyover Egypt's gods, and so each
plague targeted Egyptian godslike Hapi, who was the god of
the Nile, which was struck byblood or the sun, god Ra, when
Egypt was obscured in darkness,or the plague of hell and fire,
which challenged Nut, who wasthe sky goddess, and even the
(21:10):
death of the firstborn, judgedPharaoh's divine status as well
as Osiris, who was the god ofthe firstborn.
Judged Pharaoh's divine statusas well as Osiris, who was the
god of the afterlife.
And so, by orchestrating theseplagues, god exposed the
impotence of Egypt's pantheon,of these so-called gods, and in
Exodus 12, 12, god says and onall the gods of Egypt, I will
(21:31):
execute judgments.
I am the Lord.
And here in Revelation, we seejudgments that are reminiscent
of those plagues on Egypt.
Now, some commentatorsunderstand this plague to be
literal, but it's difficult tosee, just from a physics
standpoint, how the sun, moonand stars would not produce
light only a third of the time.
(21:52):
Now, certainly God could causethat to happen miraculously.
I mean, he's God, he can dowhat he wants.
But perhaps a betterexplanation, if you take this in
a literal sense, is to imaginethat for some reason, the sun,
the moon and the stars areobscured for a third of the time
.
And what I mean is, for example, even though the sun doesn't
(22:12):
literally stop shining for athird of the time.
It may be the case that it'ssomehow obscured from our vision
for a third of the time,perhaps by heavy cloud covering
or dust and debris from theother plagues.
If you've listened to my Genesisstudy and if you remember the
days of creation, we discussedthe creation of the sun, moon
and stars on day four and that'sbeen a point of attack for
(22:34):
non-believers for years.
Remember I explained that it'spossible that the sun wasn't
actually created on day four butthat it became visible on earth
on day four.
But as we look at this trumpetseries so far, we now have four
trumpets and plagues.
But have you noticed what'sbeen impacted by these plagues?
But have you noticed what'sbeen impacted by these plagues?
These first four plagues exhibitremarkable parallels with the
(22:57):
first four days of creation inGenesis, but in a mode of divine
judgment that reverses or sortof disrupts the created order.
And so, for example, on thefirst day of creation, god
creates light and he separatesit from darkness, while the
fourth trumpet darkens a thirdof the celestial lights and
(23:18):
symbolizes sort of this partialundoing of God's cosmic order.
The second day of creation iswhere we saw separation of
waters above and below, and itcontrasts with the second and
third trumpets, where the seaand the fresh waters are
corrupted by this blazingmountain and wormwood, and so it
turns the life-giving watersinto agents of bitterness and
(23:41):
death.
The third day's creation of dryland and vegetation it's
partially destroyed by the firsttrumpets, hail and fire, which
burn a third of the earth, treesand grass.
And then, finally, the fourthday of creation of the sun, moon
and stars is now disrupted bythe fourth trumpet's darkening
that we just saw.
And so these parallels seem toframe the trumpets as a sort of
(24:05):
a deliberate de-creation, if youwill, where God's judgments
target the elements of hisoriginal creation.
But this signals both hissovereignty over the universe
and it also recalls the plaguesof Egypt as acts of divine power
over those false gods.
Now one other observation hereregarding the judgments that
(24:25):
we've seen so far.
If you remember, when wediscussed the four horsemen of
the apocalypse, in chapter 6,the fourth horseman was given
power to harm a fourth of theearth.
But as this series now of thetrump, in chapter 6, the fourth
horseman was given power to harma fourth of the earth.
But as this series now of thetrumpets and plagues have begun,
the destruction has intensifiedbecause it's now one-third that
is affected.
The judgments are intensifying,but we finish this chapter with
(24:49):
the last verse, verse 13, whichreads Then I looked and I heard
an eagle chapter, with a pausein the series of trumpets, as
(25:11):
John sees an eagle flyingoverhead.
Now the eagle symbolizedstrength and speed.
But it also symbolized theRoman Empire.
The primary emblem of a Romanlegion was an aquila, a silver
or gold eagle carried on a pole.
But more important than whatthe eagle represents is the
message it brings, and itclearly brings a message of
(25:34):
continued judgment, because theeagle cries out Woe, woe, woe to
those who dwell on the earthbecause of the trumpets the
angels are about to blow.
And this three-fold repetitionof woe does a couple of things.
It serves to emphasize theseverity of each, but also we
see three woes because we stillhave three trumpets remaining.
(25:57):
In both the Old Testament andthe New Testament we often see
woes warning of God's impendingjudgment.
And this verse also serves as asort of a transition in what
John has seen, because it marksthe escalation of divine
judgment from the first fourtrumpets.
The first four plagues affectedthe natural world.
The final three plagues willbring intensified suffering
(26:22):
directly upon humanity, becausewhat we're going to see over the
next three chapters is that thefifth, sixth and seventh
trumpets will bring demonicforces and widespread death upon
the world, which is why Johnsees and hears the message of
woe to those who dwell on theearth.
And so, as we conclude ourstudy here of Revelation 8,
we're confronted with thesobering reality of the trumpet
(26:46):
judgments which echo the plaguesof Egypt and sort of this
partial undoing of God'screation.
And all of these imagesunderscore the seriousness of
humanity's rebellion and theurgency of the times, and it's
warning us of the consequencesof turning from God.
So let this serve as a wake-upcall to turn from sin to seek
(27:15):
God's mercy and forgiveness andturn to Jesus Christ, who offers
salvation to all who trust Him.
The ground is sinking.
Sand Across the solid rock, I'mstanding.
Yes, lord, you're the only onethat I will build my life on.
(27:36):
Through it all you remain.
The sun goes up, sun comes down.
This old world keeps spinningaround and I'm here traveling
down this long and wide new road.
Seasons come, seasons go.
I've been high and I've beenlow, but I'm standing on the
(27:58):
only rock I know.
You're my cornerstone, nomatter where I go.
You're my cornerstone, nomatter where I go.
No matter where I go, the sungoes up and the sun comes down,
(28:19):
but I feel my life On this solidground oh, the only rock I
stand on.
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