Vision Two - The Seven Trumpets
Revelation Chapter 8

The first vision and the second vision parallel each other in structure to underscore the meaning -- how God will bring his faithful followers through the tribulation. Both visions start with a reassuring scene in heaven, both deal with how the tribulation affects Christians, both cluster the first four events together, and both have an interlude between the sixth and seventh events that promises God's protection to his people.

Throughout this vision are many parallels to the Exodus account, where Moses called down plagues on the Egyptians to convince the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. This account has a strong description of the tribulations brough about as a result of the trumpet soundings, but unlike the Exodus account, there is a strong sense of hope for Christians.

Opening scene in heaven (8:2 - 8:6)

2 And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.

The Greek identifies these angels as a specific set of seven, which Jewish tradition identifies as the archangels. These seven are identified by name in apocryphal literature, and are those of the highest order of angels.

This sounding of the trumpet was widely understood to be the sign that the end of time had arrived. Isaiah 27:12-13 promises that at the trumpet, the Lord will gather up his people one by one to come "home" and worship him in Jerusalem. In Joel 2:1-2, the writer calls for the trumpet to sound in warning that the day of the Lord is coming, " a day of darkness and gloom," and the proper response of the people in verse 12 is to "return to Me with all your heart." Jesus teaches in Matthew 24:31 that the Son of Man "will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds." Paul, both in 1 Corinthians 15:52 and in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, teaches the early church that "the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven..."

3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; ...

The word for "censer" has as its root the same Greek word for frankincense, as in the gifts of the Magi, clearly intended for worshipping God.

Worship in heaven is the perfect worship, after which worship on earth is an imitation. Heaven is seen as the model from which the Jewish temple was copied, complete with the altar of incense and the altar of sacrifice (the one referenced in the fifth seal), with the Throne, rather than the Holy of Holies, as the focus of worship. The act of worship in heaven, as on earth, involves both praise of God and prayers to God.

... and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

The incense was "added unto the prayers" (an alternate translation) to "package them" for God, the same idea that Paul portrays in Romans 8:26 when he teaches that the Holy Spirit "helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words."

4 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.

These prayers have power, because they are an essential part of bringing about the purification of God's people.

5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices [rumblings], and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

The action of the angel here uses the same verb as when the Lamb took the scroll from the hand of God -- purposeful, forceful, confident action. This confident action, picking up the incense holder that had been set aside, concluded the offering of prayers to God, since the prayers were answered and God had given the order to proceed.

The image of fire from the altar has been interpreted in many ways, often as expressing God's wrath. I think the more relevant image is of God's love for his people and his purification and setting aside of his people, just as in the first vision, God's seal was placed on his followers. See Isaiah 6:6-8 where Isaiah was forgiven, purified and set aside for God's work when an angel touched his lips with a coal from the altar in heaven. The imagery of burning coals from God's altar for the purification of God's people was also used in Ezekiel chapter 10. I also think of the thunder, rumblings, lightning, and earthquake as the power of God on the earth, as it was on Mt. Sinai when God wrote for Moses the ten commandments.

Wall provides another parallel to this passage in the story of Elijah's competition with the prophets of Baal, which concluded in 1 Kings 18:36-39. The prophets of Baal had tried for hours to call down fire from heaven for their altar, with no success. Elijah soaked his altar in water, then prayed that God would send down fire to prove that He was lord of all. God answered this prayer with a mighty fire that burned up the water with the sacrifice. Wall considers the prayers of the saints in this passage to be a continuation of the prayers at the fifth seal previous, asking for God to show His power to the unbelieving peoples, and the act of hurling the censer down to earth to be the vivid answer to those prayers.

6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

Because of the prayers of the saints, God's plan can be carried out! Just as we should never underestimate God's power and God's love, we should never underestimate the importance of our prayers to God or how God will choose to answer our prayers.

The first four trumpets (8:7 - 8:12)

In the context of the whole vision, and because the Christians are not singled out for these tribulations, these trumpets are bringing judgement to the entire world. The purpose of these judgements, as earlier, is to bring unbelievers into belief in the all-powerful Creator and the Lamb of sacrificial love.

What we have in these four trumpets is a completeness in God's warning to the earth, with plagues affecting the lands, the salt water, the fresh water, and the sky. There are strong similarities to some of the plagues that Moses called down on Egypt, the dominant nation of that time, to convince the Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave, so we should interpret in these trumpets warnings the purpose of God to call his people to their heavenly home.

In the context of the numerology of Revelation, it seems odd when thinking of Moses in Egypt to identify the "ten" plagues. In Revelation terms, "ten" is a multiplier or amplifier, and doesn't have any meaning of its own. However, the Egyptians would have understood "ten" very differently, and these were the audience to whom God was speaking! Egyptians interpreted "ten" as a sign of completeness (like "seven" in Revelation), so that the ten plagues demonstrated the complete authority of the God of Moses and the Hebrews.

7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: (better, "the storm flung itself on the earth") and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

Trumpets were a sound of warning, a sound of a notice to follow, particularly the sound to pay attention to the "message" to follow.

In the seventh plague, described in Exodus 9:22-26, God caused a heavy hail mixed with thunder and fire to fall on Egypt, killing cattle, people, plants, and anything else outside.

Notice the repetition of three items burned for emphasis. The fact of one-third of things being destroyed sends a message of warning -- a third of something was significant enough to demonstrate power, but power restrained for a purpose.

There is also an escalation of the story line during this retelling, which was an expected literary device of the time. In the first vision, the last of the four horsemen was allowed to bring death to a fourth of the earth (6:8). Here in the second vision, the fraction increases to a third.

8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

Barclay paraphrases this as "what I can only call a great mountain." This imagery may have been an obvious reference to the first century hearers of the massive volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

In the the first plague, described in Exodus 7:17-24, God turns the water of the Nile into blood, and all the fish die, and the people have to dig wells to get drinking water.

10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

This third trumpet also mirrors the first plague mentioned above. The Revelation account distinguishes between fresh water and salt water, based on a culture dominated by seaports. In Exodus, the people of Egypt lived on the fresh water Nile river, so the one plague affected their drinking water, their source of food, and their transportation. There is also a strong parallel to this event given in Jeremiah 9:13-18. God promises punishment to those who had forsaken the law by "feeding this people with wormwood and giving them poisonous water to drink."

Wormwood is a bitter herb, closely related to sagebrush in the western United States. In the first century, the specific plant called apsinthos was used in making bitter alcoholic beverages, and this plant is still used today to make some brands of vermouth. The meaning in Revelation goes back to the Old Testament connotations for wormwood, based on the Hebrew word laanah, which was closely related to the word "curse" or "calamity," and when used literally, referred to either the wormwood plant or the poisonous hemlock plant. This word is used first in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 29:18, where those people in the nation of Israel that would deceive and lead the faithful into sin are called a "root sprouting poisonous and bitter growth."

12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

In the ninth plague, described in Exodus 10:21-23, God caused an intense darkness "that can be felt" that stayed over the Egyptians for three days, but that did not affect the place where the Israelites lived. It isn't clear in Revelation whether the light is dimmed by a third, or that the sun, moon, and stars are eclipsed for a third of every day and night, but that really isn't significant to the message that John brings and the parallel he uses with these first four trumpets.

The eagle proclaims three woes (8:13)

13 And I beheld, and heard an angel [eagle] flying through the midst of heaven [midheaven], saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

While the KJV translates this creature as an "angel", almost all modern translations consider this to be an eagle, an earthly creature rather than a heavenly creature. The eagle was the strongest of birds, sometimes used as a symbol of vengeance. (In Deuteronomy 28:47-50, the eagle brings punishment to Israel if they disobeyed. In Habakkuk 1:5-8, those who bring destruction will be as swift as eagles in surprising sinners.) The word "midheaven" literally means where the sun is at noon, so it is used here and two later times in Revelation to mean in the center of the sky where all the world can see and hear.

The "inhabiters" on earth are called katoikeo in the Greek, those who reside permanently, in contrast to the "sojourning" Christians. John uses this eagle to subdivide the twelve trumpets into the first four, with tribulations from natural forces, and the three remaining trumpets, the "three woes," that include tribulations from demonic forces. This escalation of tribulations is also illustrated by doubling (locust and war horses have power in both heads and tails, army of two million).

There is also a finality in the three woes, because they close with the final judgement and the new Heaven and Earth. In our vernacular, "three strikes and you're out!"