“When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 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. Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter. The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night. 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!’”

Last week we looked at chapter seven of Revelation and the first of what is known as the three interludes. I made the case as we worked through the passage that I see this as less of a pause from judgment (interpreting the pausing of the four winds during the sealing of the 144,000 as literal, which would actually cause increased destruction to the people on the earth), and more a pause in focusing on what’s happening to the earth and turning our attention back to the throne room in heaven. It’s interesting that as we end what is commonly thought of as a pause, we pick back up with a pause. Jesus breaks the seventh and final seal on the scroll that He alone was worthy to take from the hand of God, and there’s a pause, an approximate half hour where there is silence in heaven. This means that the continual praises of the living creatures and the twenty-four elders are all quieted for a time. We’re not given an explicit reason why, we move from the silence to the seven angels receiving their seven trumpets, but I think the context of it all provides a motivation for the quiet. It reads to me as a stunned, reverent silence, and I say this because we’re about to see an increase in the intensity of God’s glorious wrath unfolding upon the world. The seven seals began by showing us the world essentially being handed over to itself – false peace, war, famine, plague and death are all things that mankind is well versed in, these things only stayed on a limited scale because of God’s common grace. As the Lord steps away from the earth His judgment begins simply through His absence. We then see the martyred saints crying out, asking when God’s vengeance will be leveled, when the Lord will be justified against those who have made themselves His enemies. The martyrs are comforted, clothed, and told that the time is coming, that the world is building up this wrath for itself as it continues to slaughter the children of God. The sixth seal marks the beginning of the shift toward what we will see unfold more broadly in today’s passage as creation begins to be broken apart. John 1:2–3 says of Christ,

“He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

And Hebrews 1:3 says,

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power…”

Each moment of our reality is not just set in motion, but sustained by the power and will of mighty God, and so as He withdraws, as the provision of His common grace lessens, we see creation itself begin to break, we see cracks in the world start to form. The earth shakes, the sun’s light begins to fail, the moon is turned bloody, and stars cascade from the heavens. The sky itself seems to vanish (this could be a mass obstruction, but I also wonder if this is a pulling back of the veil, that the world might glimpse the throne room and the One who judges), and every island and mountain is shifted from its place. The people despair and to revisit it again, Revelation 6:15–17 says,

“Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’”

Last week we looked at exactly who it is that can stand – those who are redeemed, those who stand, not in themselves, but in Christ. But what’s interesting and tragic is how wrong the world is again. “For the great day of their wrath has come,” the people cry out… But no, it hasn’t. This calamity they find themselves in after the sixth seal, hiding in caves and begging the inanimate rocks to shelter and hide, or to kill them, they think that they’ve arrived at the pinnacle, that they’ve reached the peak of what the tribulation has to bear, and they’re wrong. Because as we look at today’s passage, we see something that merits a silent, reverent pause in heaven’s throne room, as God is about to go from withdrawing His hand, to laying His hand upon the world in active judgment. When John first witnesses the throne room Revelation 4:5 says,

“From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God…”

But today we see the seven before the throne, the symbol of God’s completeness and perfection, described as “angels” – messengers. God’s Spirit shown as active messengers, holding trumpets, instruments of declaration. And we see this language that’s repeated in today’s passage of lightning and rumbles of thunder – themes we’ll see repeated again in Revelation 11:19 after the seventh trumpet is blown and the temple in heaven is opened. This is the glory of God moving, this is a moment of His divine force coming to bear, a new stage in the perfect, holy judgment that is unfolding against the world, as His mighty hand begins to actively unmake what He Himself had wrought.

The Continued Breaking of Creation

1. The Broken Earth

“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.”

As Christian’s we can look upon what is holy with delight – we are redeemed, made new, made right before God. Our broken wills are replaced with His perfect one, and so His righteousness, while still vast and humbling, is glorious in the eyes of His children – the same cannot be said for a broken world. To the wicked, the Light of God is a burning destructive force. As Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3:17–19,

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

So after the seventh seal is broken, and after the end of the silence in heaven, we see the fragrant smoke of prayers and incense offered up before God, and we see a censer filled with holy fire cast upon the world, we see glorious judgment enter into the world, and as the trumpets are blown, the earth, and waters, and sky that God spoke into existence in the beginning begin the destructive process of being broken down and unmade.

“Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.”

Under the first trumpet we see as a third of the land is destroyed. “Hail and fire, mixed with blood,” could give us an image of volcanic eruptions. Burning stones and lava could certainly fit this description, and it would certainly explain the burning that follows. However, it’s also entirely possible that we’re seeing a literal description of flaming hail and burning blood falling upon the earth. It’s not that Scripture doesn’t hold poetic language, and a wealth of symbolism, but we must always be cautious in applying this when it’s not clearly the case. The waters of Egypt weren’t turned into lava under the first plague, but blood, and neither should we assume that it is somehow beyond God’s power or providence to strike down a third of the land He made with fire and blood poured out from above. Genesis 1:9–13 shows us the third day,

“And God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.”

Separating the waters, God brings forth dry land, the space that man, who He will make in His own image will live, be fruitful, and multiply. This land, and all the plants that it bore were a gift. Genesis 1:29–31 says,

“And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

And so creation existed, and what God had made was very good – until man sinned. Adam failed to work and keep as God had instructed and blessed him to do, he failed his wife when she was tempted and he did nothing to protect or defend her, but watched her sin and then joined her in the transgression. Despite the curse of sin, despite the exile from Eden, God still allowed man to multiply upon the face of the earth, and to benefit from its produce by the sweat of his brow. What we see now is the beginning of a reckoning, a leveling of judgment that has been long waiting, as a third of what God made that was good, which man tainted is burned up into ashes.

2. The Broken Waters

“The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.”

After a third of the earth is burned up, under the first trumpet we see the second blown and it’s now the waters that are affected. Genesis 1:6–8 says,

“And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.”

The seas of the earth, which God filled in the beginning, separating them from the sky above, have now been destroyed by a third, their waters turned to blood, the life they supported slain. We also see the impact on humanity mentioned, as this wasn’t addressed with the first trumpet, in that a third of the ships are destroyed. Oceanic trade as well as naval warfare have been crucial parts of humanity’s ability to prosper across the world, and despite the fact that the world is already in complete upheaval, the loss of the ships is no small thing, making a terrible position that much worse. Directly following and thematically related to the second trumpet comes the third. In this God shows His dominion not just over the vast expanses of the sea, but over the rivers and streams of fresh water as well. God is so great, His holiness, majesty, and ability so vast that we can sometimes look past His intimate knowledge and control over the smallest of things. The One who spoke, and from nothing, created everything, including the vast waters that fill the sea, could also bring forth water under impossible circumstances to provide for His people, isolated in the wilderness, as we see in Exodus 17:5–6,

“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.’ And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.”

Using His servant Moses, with the same staff that struck and corrupted the Nile, God brings forth abundant water from a rock in the desert. And now, through this falling star, through this “Wormwood,” we see as the water is taken away from the people, polluted, and made poisonous. The designation of the star that taints the rivers and streams is interesting. We’re given a name for it, “Wormwood,” which is different from the unnamed, burning, mountain-like thing that was thrown into the sea. It’s also interesting to see the tense that is used – the star “fell” from heaven, the waters then “became” wormwood, but the star’s name “is” Wormwood. The subtext is easy enough to understand, wormwood being a very real and very bitter plant. It also contains a neurotoxin that, while usually considered harmless in small doses, is fatal if consumed in large quantities. But we’re not just told that the star had wormwood-like properties, we’re told that its name is Wormwood – and it carries this same phrasing across nearly every translation I can find. This is a bitterness beyond a neurotoxic plant, and it’s something we can understand better by looking at Amos 5:6–9,

“Seek the LORD and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel, O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth! He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name; who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress.”

The world is corrupt, it has called what is righteous wicked, and what is wicked righteous, and as God breaks the world’s water supply, as He unmakes a third of the fresh water, He has given mankind, the drink that is given is one fitting for those who would malign justice – a drink of bitterness and death.

3. The Broken Sky

“The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.”

Many people will look to events in the Bible and attempt to find naturalistic explanations, things that we can understand through observation and scientific analysis of the world around us. This isn’t always a bad thing – God created the world, so the natural order of things is all part of His order. Understanding Biblical information through the lens of what He has made, through the biology of creation can be helpful. An example that comes to mind is Jesus sweating blood in the garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion, recorded in Luke 22:41–44,

“And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

For many years this was thought by non-believers to be a foolish exaggeration, while followers of Christ could only see it as a reality defying, miraculous occurrence. But we now know that what Luke is describing is a very rare, stress induced condition called hematidrosis where blood vessels around a person’s sweat glands rupture. This doesn’t diminish the event, but rather gives us deeper understanding and appreciation for the extreme stress and anguish Jesus bore in His human body in submitting to the Father’s will and taking on the sins of and the wrath of God on the cross. The problem with naturalistic explanations is when they’re used to explain away or reduce the miraculous nature of God’s hand, rather than to acknowledge His greatness and power. Historians will look for locations in the Red Sea where they’ll theorize that the water could have been shallow enough to permit a group of people to cross, rather than believe that the sea was miraculously parted during the Jew’s exodus from Egypt. They’ll seek records of climate shifts or volcanic activity to explain events like the flood, or the destruction of Sodom, trying to minimize a mighty act of God’s judgment and reduce it down to a natural event. Their explanations always fall short of capturing the true nature of what Scripture describes, but they serve the purpose that man always seeks when following the path of his flesh – to minimize or eliminate God, and to prop up the authority and importance of self. This is relevant now because we see the world plunged into periods of darkness that cannot be explained away through naturalistic means. People will try – they always try to explain away our Creator, to belittle and degrade His incorruptible glory, but in the face of the trumpets this fails spectacularly. Who has a rational explanation, a precedent of some kind to account for a third of the earth burned away, a third of the sea turned to blood, and a third of the fresh water turned to bitter poison? These things may have distant echoes in what we experience in the natural world – meteor showers, asteroids, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, polluted waters, and as we move into the fourth trumpet, we could try to draw comparisons to solar eclipses, meteor showers, and even the waxing and waning of the moon. But these are feeble comparisons and it would be foolish in the extreme to think that we could take the things we observe isolated in the natural world (of which we have limited understanding to begin with), and compartmentalize the judgments brought against the a third of the entire earth through the trumpets, to reduce them down to simple acts of natural disaster – we are witnessing a fallen and sin stained world being shaken apart under the right and righteous rule of almighty God. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen inexplicable darkness – all three synoptic gospels (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, and Luke 23:44) describe that from noon until three o’clock, as Jesus hung, suffering on the cross, darkness fell upon the land. Many will describe this as an eclipse, and technically speaking, it was, in that the light of the sun was eclipsed. What this doesn’t describe is what we think of as an ordinary solar eclipse, which at absolute maximum lasts for six or seven minutes. Jesus’ suffering on the cross was marked by a temporary breaking in nature, the wrath of God was poured out under a darkness that we can’t offer an explanation for beyond divine action. Returning to the creation account, Genesis 1:3–5 says of the first day,

“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”  

While the first day brought light, it’s on the fourth day that we see light given variation and distinction in Genesis 1:14–19,

“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.”

As with the yield of the land and the provisions of the sea, the light was a gift, a blessing upon mankind, that we might see and orient ourselves – and at the fourth trumpet this is broken, destabilized, and a third of what was light is plunged into darkness that no eclipse, or lunar phase, or meteor shower can account for. It’s interesting to note that God is, almost systematically working in reverse of His original order, having made light, then water, then land, He now begins to break the land, the water, and then the sky, unravelling creation as it once was seamlessly fit together.

“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!’”

Previously we looked at the four living creatures in Revelation 4:6–7,

“… And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.”

To revisit the significance of the appearances of these four, we have one with a face like a predator of the land, one like a beast of burden, one like a man, and one like a predator of the sky. It’s covering all the corners of creation, as through their images and through their eyes we can see that they’ve been given a deep and complete understanding of things. This is significant because in their great comprehension, in all that they see and know, they are entirely devoted to worshiping God and declaring His holiness. It’s significant that we now see the return of an eagle – not that I’m saying that the eagle in today’s passage is the living creature from around the throne, just that the imagery we assigned to the eagle-faced living creature before can help us understand the relevance and significance of this eagle now. This is an eye in the sky, a symbol of might, authority, and power, who can look over the land and assess on a scale that the human eye is not capable of – and its report is terrifying for those who are enemies of God. “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth,” says the eagle – not because of their present condition, not because of the calamity that has struck and destroyed a third of what once was – but because of what’s coming. Because the world is being judged, and in its broken, sin-stained condition, it’s being rent apart, and what’s to come surpasses what has preceded it. And this is a crucial moment where we have to stop and remember that through all the destruction and terror that we see described unfolding across the world, this is still good. God is still good, His judgment is still good. Do not become so mired in the details of the upheaval that we forget that after the breaking of the seventh seal, which heralded the beginning of the seven trumpets, we saw prayers and incense offered up together before God, and that the golden censer that was cast destructively upon the world was filled, not with something dark, twisted, or sinister, but with holy fire from the golden altar of the Living God. These prophecies are intense, the judgments are terrible beyond mortal comprehension – as Hebrews 10:30–31 says,

“For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

And to witness God’s judgment, on an individual or on the world at large is a fearful thing – Proverbs 1:7 tells us,

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

God in His awesome righteousness is worthy of fear and reverence, but we have to remember that if we are redeemed in Christ, then He has paid the price for our transgressions, we are made new in Him, and He calls us, not just servants, but His children, and even His friends. One does not wash away the other – He as our Father is still worthy of all reverence, fear and honor, but we do not enter into anything – not victory, or celebration, or tragedy, or grief in the same way that the world does. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:11–17,

“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”

The world, built upon itself, corrupted and mired in sin, falls apart and has nothing left. For the believer, built on Christ, we are held by our Father and are unbroken through the day of destruction. Romans 8:28 tells us,

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Not some things, not most things – all things. So do not let the tidings of the first three trumpets discourage you, nor the ones to come. Remember as the peril unfolds that God is good, at all times, and in all things, and remember that His children, His flock to whom He gives the kingdom are beloved and kept, even in the day of trouble.

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQc4S6s2HJ0