Revelation 8:6-12: The 7 trumpets

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Outline

• How to read the Trumpets
• The first 4 Trumpets

Introduction

Some of the scariest portions of the bible are those where God sends His ministers not to soften sinners for salvation but to harden sinners for judgement. We see an example of this in the ministry off Isaiah. In Isaiah 6 Isaiah has his throne room experience where he sees the Holy One and is then cleansed and then set apart for ministry. He is set apart to a ministry of hardening, 6:8-10, ‘And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”’ This is the effect of the judgement of the trumpets, we see after the 6th trumpet that this is the effect, 9:20-21, ‘The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, 21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.’ A common understanding of relating the seals to the trumpet judgements is to see the seals as a description of the general birth pains afflicting the earth and the church being persecuted. We saw the church cry out in prayer, and then last week we saw the central place that prayer has in the book of Revelation for God to bring about His will. This portion is also to be seen as God responding to the prayers of the suffering saints. Today we are going to continue observing God acting in the world for His people. His central concern is His people and it affects how history unravels. We want to make some important hermeneutical observances about how to read the trumpets, and then we will examine the first four.