Scene Two of John’s vision ends at 8:1 as he writes of the Seventh Seal being opened. But nothing is said regarding the Seventh Seal or its meaning at this point in John’s narrative. He says only that there is silence in heaven when the seventh seal is broken. The seventh will be an ending. John’s description of the ending will have to wait.
Rev. 8:2 begins the Third of the Eight Scenes of Revelation. John writes, “And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.” These Eight Scenes are not to be understood sequentially. A vision is not necessarily linear. In the case of John’s Apocalypse, each scene should be understood as laid one on top of another. Thus, in this scene, when the first trumpet is about to sound, we should imagine it as a flashback to 6:1 where John describes the breaking of the first seal. Each scene speaks of the same truth – that God is in control as the history of the world unfolds – but does so from differing perspectives and vantage points. In Scene One, John saw seven letters from the Lord Christ given to the seven historic churches of Asia Minor. These letters are God’s Word of instruction and encouragement to the church in the world. In Scene Two John saw the scroll that tells the story of human history. But its meaning was obscured to our understanding by the reality of war, calamity, tragedy and suffering, symbolized by the seven seals that bound up and closed the scroll. Who can break the seals? Who can unlock the mystery of God’s purpose in our world? In John’s vision we learn that only one is worthy and able to do so. The Lamb of God takes the scroll, breaks the seals, and he discloses God’s purposes in history.
The opening image of chapter 8 is arresting. Note carefully the sequence. Seven angels are given seven trumpets (more on them later). Another angel takes a golden censer and fills it with incense. The incense, mingled with the prayers of God’s people fills the space before God’s throne. After which the angel takes the incense and throws it upon the earth, causing thunders, lightning and earthquake, and then the trumpeters go forth. It seems clear that John’s vision is telling us that the prayers of the saints of God (see 6:9-11) for vindication and vengeance are being answered. Their prayers bring forth the first four trumpets. Biblically, this is not so surprising. In the Exodus God hears the prayers of the Hebrew slaves and the result is calamity and judgment upon the Egyptians.
Trumpets have a variety of meanings in the Bible. They can signify the prelude to a battle, or the arrival of a dignitary, or the presence of a herald from the king. In general we can say that a trumpet signifies God’s intervention into history. When Joshua destroyed the city of Jericho1 the trumpeters of Israel marched around the city seven times. The trumpets served as a warning of God’s judgment about to fall. The trumpets of chapter 8 are a similar warning addressed to the world. They are a call to repentance. The destruction described in the following verses is vast, but not total. Those who remain are called to turn and repent. With the sounding of the trumpets we discern the intensification of the warning John is giving. Earlier, when the fourth rider of the Apocalypse rode out, the judgment he brought was over one quarter of the world (6:8). When the trumpeters blow, the result is that one third of the world is struck. The scope of judgment increases.
When reading the next verses, 7-13, we want to resist fanciful or literal interpretations. What John sees is hail, fire, blood (7), volcanic eruption (8), the destruction of fresh water (11),2 massive darkness and the loss of vision (13). The trumpeters strike earth, sea, fresh water, and sky. These are all terrible things. When terror strikes, foxhole conversions are common: men and women naturally turn to God seeking escape from their fears. These miseries, terrifying though they are, are in fact kindness, for they are intended by God to provoke repentance.
The Fifth and Sixth Trumpets
In a manner similar to the opening of the Seven Seals, the sounding of the fifth and sixth trumpets represent an escalation of the drama unfolding. The images are fantastic and impossible to interpret with certainty. The star that falls (1) is not Satan. He will make his appearance later. It seems best to see this as a further message of warning. The falling star opens an abyss and from the abyss arise locusts with the stinging power of scorpions. The first four trumpets blew judgment from above. The fifth brings judgment from below, from within the natural order. God remains sovereign: the stinging locusts are given (3) power for a limited time (5). In this we should view the world’s sufferings as like those of Job. He suffered terribly, but only because God permitted Satan to strike him.
Locusts, of course, are a biblical symbol of destruction. A plague of locusts normally would last only a few days. Here they are given a time span of five months. Again, we must resist the temptation to fanciful interpretation.
The locusts have human faces because much of the suffering and pain of this world is inflicted by humans upon humans. This is captured in the name given by the angel of the bottomless pit. In Hebrew Abaddon means destruction. But, in Greek, the equivalent, Apollyon is personalized, meaning destroyer. The truth of these names is born out in the history of the 20th century. Much of the human suffering of the past century was, tragically, of humankind’s own making.
The sixth trumpet is the final warning. The impact of the trumpet is found in vs. 13-19. Then, from v. 20 until 11:13 we read the sad recounting of the human (non)response to these warnings. The judgment of the sixth trumpet arises out of the Euphrates river basin. I do not think it wise to interpret this literally, applying this text to Saddam Hussein or other Middle East strongmen. No, the key is to remember that at the time of John’s writing the Euphrates was outside the Roman Empire. Historically the Romans were wary of the power of the Persian Empire. The sixth trumpet symbolizes the fear of the unknown, of those things beyond either our knowledge or control. And yet, John tells us, even when facing the unknown, God is in control. These forces are not self-generating. They are released at God’s command and they exist under his authority (13). Of the horsemen here described we resist idiosyncratic interpretations and note that they represent the chronic hardships faced in life: disease, accident, pollution, corruption, etc. Note that the first four trumpets brought fire to the earth, the fifth brought smoke, and the sixth, brimstone, sulfur.
Up until now, John has described the judgments, but not the human response to them. Now John will change his focus and explore how the human community responds to the broken seals and the warning trumpets. The chapter ends with the sad summary that in spite of these warnings and judgments “The rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts.”
This study first appeared in Theology Matters, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan/Feb 2001).
