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The Master’s Trumpets
Revelation 8:6-12
June 7, 2020
Lord’s Day Worship
Sean Higgins
The sermon starts around 20:05 in the audio file.
Or, The Blasts of Blood, Burning, and Bitterness
The first four trumpets belong together, and also the next “And I looked” occurs in verse 13, compared with 8:2, so verses 6-12 will be our focus.
The trumpets belong with and are blown after the breaking of the seventh seal. In context, after the silence in heaven for half an hour in the previous paragraph, the trumpets initiate the next phase of apocalypse. The prayers of all the saints are presented to God, and God is so pleased that He cues the angel to throw down judgment, and the trumpets are blown.
There is a shift with the breaking of the seventh seal, and the completely opened scroll, with atypical silence in heaven and the prayers received. The trumpets are next level regimen (a prescribed course or system), not a unit of soldiers but a prescribed course of action (i.e., a “regiment”), and the final three trumpets bring woes “to those who dwell on the earth” (8:13). An eagle appears in verse 13 and announces woes before the last three.
These first four disrupt the earth’s ecology, and indirectly men. The fifth and sixth target men directly, the seventh is similar to the fifth and sixth.
In titling the sermon, “The Master’s Trumpets,” I’m playing on John Knox’s self-aware duty to “blow his master’s trumpet” and perhaps his most famous book, “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regimen of Women.” Of course, the seven trumpets are given to angels, but they are given by order of the Lamb (Revelation 8:1). This is the regimen of retribution (compared to revenge, retaliation) prescribed by the Master.
Are these “warning” judgments, or more “hardening” judgments? And are we willing, let alone eager, in our own context, for God to harden the hearts of the unrepentant to make His righteousness known? More signs against Pharaoh meant more of God’s power being shown, as Exodus 9:16, and quoted in Romans 9:17. What if God wants to show how stupid sin is? Judgments may lead to repentance, they may make a point about judgment itself.
Comparisons of the trumpet judgments to the Egyptian plagues are fine, but mostly to show that God’s arsenal has not been depleted. Similarities to the seventh (hail), the first (water to blood), and the ninth (darkness) plagues respectively show through the trumpets. It is also interesting that most who view the trumpet judgments in Revelation as symbols and who relate them to the plagues of Egypt do not take the plagues of Egypt as symbolic.
On the nature of the trumpet judgments, Morris says that it would be a “great mistake to read this fiery, passionate and poetic spirit as though he were composing a pedantic piece of scientific prose” (quoted by Mounce). For my part, I want all of us to keep reading the words of the prophecy and see what makes sense of John’s vision.
6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.”
The seven angels were introduced in verse 2, prior to the parenthesis of prayers adding fuel to the fire of God’s judgment. In verse 6 each angel has received his trumpet and is “prepared to blow” it. Instruments are up, lips are pursed. They are ready to sound off.
The verb (σαλπίζω) for “blow (a trumpet)” is a cognate with the noun (σάλπιγξ) for “trumpet.” But “blow” is fine, so is “sound” (KJV, NASB) or “publicize with fanfare” (BAGD). If we were John Knox, we might say “blast.”
The angels are unleashing God’s judgment, one trumpet blow at a time.
First Angel (verse 7)
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[...]
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By Trinity Evangel ChurchRevelation 8:6-12
June 7, 2020
Lord’s Day Worship
Sean Higgins
The sermon starts around 20:05 in the audio file.
Or, The Blasts of Blood, Burning, and Bitterness
The first four trumpets belong together, and also the next “And I looked” occurs in verse 13, compared with 8:2, so verses 6-12 will be our focus.
The trumpets belong with and are blown after the breaking of the seventh seal. In context, after the silence in heaven for half an hour in the previous paragraph, the trumpets initiate the next phase of apocalypse. The prayers of all the saints are presented to God, and God is so pleased that He cues the angel to throw down judgment, and the trumpets are blown.
There is a shift with the breaking of the seventh seal, and the completely opened scroll, with atypical silence in heaven and the prayers received. The trumpets are next level regimen (a prescribed course or system), not a unit of soldiers but a prescribed course of action (i.e., a “regiment”), and the final three trumpets bring woes “to those who dwell on the earth” (8:13). An eagle appears in verse 13 and announces woes before the last three.
These first four disrupt the earth’s ecology, and indirectly men. The fifth and sixth target men directly, the seventh is similar to the fifth and sixth.
In titling the sermon, “The Master’s Trumpets,” I’m playing on John Knox’s self-aware duty to “blow his master’s trumpet” and perhaps his most famous book, “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regimen of Women.” Of course, the seven trumpets are given to angels, but they are given by order of the Lamb (Revelation 8:1). This is the regimen of retribution (compared to revenge, retaliation) prescribed by the Master.
Are these “warning” judgments, or more “hardening” judgments? And are we willing, let alone eager, in our own context, for God to harden the hearts of the unrepentant to make His righteousness known? More signs against Pharaoh meant more of God’s power being shown, as Exodus 9:16, and quoted in Romans 9:17. What if God wants to show how stupid sin is? Judgments may lead to repentance, they may make a point about judgment itself.
Comparisons of the trumpet judgments to the Egyptian plagues are fine, but mostly to show that God’s arsenal has not been depleted. Similarities to the seventh (hail), the first (water to blood), and the ninth (darkness) plagues respectively show through the trumpets. It is also interesting that most who view the trumpet judgments in Revelation as symbols and who relate them to the plagues of Egypt do not take the plagues of Egypt as symbolic.
On the nature of the trumpet judgments, Morris says that it would be a “great mistake to read this fiery, passionate and poetic spirit as though he were composing a pedantic piece of scientific prose” (quoted by Mounce). For my part, I want all of us to keep reading the words of the prophecy and see what makes sense of John’s vision.
6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.”
The seven angels were introduced in verse 2, prior to the parenthesis of prayers adding fuel to the fire of God’s judgment. In verse 6 each angel has received his trumpet and is “prepared to blow” it. Instruments are up, lips are pursed. They are ready to sound off.
The verb (σαλπίζω) for “blow (a trumpet)” is a cognate with the noun (σάλπιγξ) for “trumpet.” But “blow” is fine, so is “sound” (KJV, NASB) or “publicize with fanfare” (BAGD). If we were John Knox, we might say “blast.”
The angels are unleashing God’s judgment, one trumpet blow at a time.
First Angel (verse 7)
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[...]