Much like the seven churches of Revelation in chapters 2 & 3, there is way to much ground to cover in these passages, so I will focus in on one aspect of the passage.
The Lamb broke the seventh seal, which was the last on the scroll. When the seal was opened, there was silence throughout heaven for about half an hour (Habakkuk 2:20; Zechariah 2:13). This is the silence of breathless expectancy, as all of heaven waited for the hand of God to move. When the seventh seal was opened, the seven trumpet judgments were revealed.
Seven angels were given seven trumpets. The trumpet judgments, like the seal judgments, are only partial. God’s final and complete judgment had not yet come. The Lamb had opened the seven seals to set in motion events of judgment, but angels had been given the power to execute the trumpet and bowl judgments.
Throughout the Old Testament, trumpets had a variety of meanings and purposes. Moses was instructed to make two silver trumpets that would call the people together, move the tribes forward on their journey, sound an alarm, or signify the feast days (Numbers 10:3, 5-6, 9-10). The trumpets herald the arrival of the day of God’s wrath.
Then John saw another angel, not one of the seven, who had a gold incense burner and came to the altar. The angel was given a great quantity of incense, which was used to mix with the prayers of God’s people. The angel acted in the role of a priest, presenting the prayers of the saints to God. The incense symbolized the offered prayers, and the angel was merely the agent. The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of the saints, ascended up to God (Exodus 30:7-9). These prayers are most likely prayers for justice and deliverance, as described in 6:10. God brings judgment in response to the prayers of his people. One of the reasons for the trumpet judgments is God’s answer to the prayers of the saints.
The seven trumpet judgments call forth a series of God’s plagues on his enemies. These judgments affected every part of the world. Unlike the bowl judgments described in chapter 16, the first six trumpets were targeted on just a third of the cosmos and were intended to produce repentance (9:20-21).
The trumpet and the bowl judgments symbolically reenacted the plagues of Egypt recorded in Exodus 7–12. The plagues had two purposes:
They were directed against the gods of Egypt. Every plague was directed at a force that the Egyptians thought was on their side because they worshiped that force. For example, the Egyptians worshiped the sun, so God sent a plague of darkness (Exodus 10:21-29); they worshiped the Nile River, so God sent a plague to turn the sacred river to blood (7:14-24). The first purpose of the plagues against Egypt was to prove the powerlessness of the Egyptian gods.
The plagues were oriented to the cycle of nature. The Egyptians worshiped many gods representing the various forces of nature so that nature would feed and take care of them. The second purpose of the plagues was to show the Egyptians that God controlled nature and that Egypt’s gods controlled nothing. In the trumpet and bowl judgments, the world that these people are worshiping will turn against them. Through these judgments, God will once again bring punishment upon those who oppress his people, just as he did in Egypt.
The plagues showed the helplessness of the people of Egypt, who worshiped false gods. In the same way, through these trumpet and bowl judgments, God will show the people of this world their helplessness and hopelessness without him.
The seven angels who had been given the seven trumpets got ready to blow their mighty blasts. The picture is of these mighty angels raising the trumpets to their lips and then awaiting the signal to blow at the appropriate time. The trumpet blasts have three purposes: (1) to warn that judgment is certain, (2) to call the forces of good and evil to battle, and (3) to announce the return of the King, the Messiah.
The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were thrown down upon the earth. This compares to the seventh plague on Egypt when hailstorms killed anything that was outside (people and animals) and destroyed much vegetation (Exodus 9:13-35). Some have suggested that this could refer to volcanic activity; others say that this is a violent storm, with the fire representing lightning and the blood referring to the color of the sky.
The result is that one-third of the earth was set on fire, along with one-third of the trees and all the grass. Since only one-third of the earth was destroyed by these trumpet judgments, this was only a partial judgment from God. His full wrath was yet to be unleashed. The purpose of this judgment, and all other judgments, was to warn people to repent.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
In this great time of judgment, Revelation 9:20-21 tells us how people are going to respond. “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands. They did not stop worshipping demons, the idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood, idols that cannot see, hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
There’s three descriptions given here. They are rebelliously unrepentant. They just won’t repent. Just like in Egypt when God brought the plagues, Pharaoh, with every plague that came, had an opportunity to say yes to God. Every opportunity that came hardened his heart to say no to God. It made things very clear where his heart was. There was no doubt where his heart was. That is exactly what’s happening at the end of time. No doubt where people’s hearts are.
Every tragedy that happens, instead of turning to the God that can save them, they harden their hearts and they’re rebelliously unrepentant, they’re religiously idolatrous, they keep serving idols that can’t talk that can’t do anything. In the light of these things happening, that the God of the universe is causing to happen, they continue to resist Him and reject Him. And they are morally decadent which may be the reason they are rebelliously unrepentant and religiously idolatrous. Sometimes our worship grows more out of what we want to do than what we believe. They’re morally decadent. They keep murdering, they keep steeling, they keep being sexually immoral.
It’s the same as in Egypt. The same story on a worldwide scale. While God’s people are being set free, while our inheritance is being given back to us, which is what the book of Revelation is about, at the same moment those who are not God’s people are hardening their hearts against Him. Those who have their hearts too tied to this world they won’t be able to let go of it in the end. It’s like holding on to the rail of the Titanic while it’s going down. Gripping it as if it’s going to somehow be your salvation. That’s the picture that’s here. And they’re holding on tighter and tighter and tighter. And as the ship falls apart around them, they tighten their grip rather than loosen their grip and look for a life raft. That’s exactly what’s happening.
There’s two things from this we must get:
First of all we want to pray for the salvation of those who don’t know God that they’ll come to know Him that they’ll find in Him the hope that they need. It’s God’s desire that none should perish, God’s desire that all should come to Him. We can pray for that. And those prayers go straight to heaven to be in His presence, a sweet aroma before God.
Secondly there’s a personal application here I think. We’re caught up in this world. We happen to live in a country where we’re not persecuted a lot so it’s pretty easy to get caught up in worldly things. We’re believers in Christ and when the end came we know who we’d be with. We’d be with Him for eternity. But how about right now? As you read, as you hear these stories of what’s going to happen to this world in the end, does it cause worldly things to have a little bit less grip on you? That’s one of the things that should happen in our lives as believers. We start to realize, “I'm not a citizen of this earth.” And, by the way, I don't want to be a citizen of this earth. I want to be a citizen of heaven.
Revelation shows us that this world is a shaky place. But if that’s all you get out of the book of Revelation, you’ve missed the point entirely. That’s only half of the truth, the lesser half. Revelation shows us that this world is a shaky place but right along side of that it shows us that heaven is an unshakable place. Heaven is an eternal place. Heaven is a place of hope and you and I have our future assured with Him. And anybody who comes to Him can have their future assured with Him in eternity. As I realize that it causes worldly things a little bit to loosen their grip. I think that’s what God wants to happen as we read these stories, as we read these truths of what’s going to happen in the end.
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