The Trumpet Judgments

Revelation 8:7—9:21 NKJV

First Trumpet: Vegetation Struck  
⁷ The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.  

Second Trumpet: The Seas Struck
⁸ Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. ⁹ And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.  

Third Trumpet: The Waters Struck  
¹⁰ Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. ¹¹ The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.  

Fourth Trumpet: The Heavens Struck
¹² Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.
¹³ And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”  

Fifth Trumpet: The Locusts from the Bottomless Pit
 ¹ Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. ² And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. ³ Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. ⁴ They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. ⁶ In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

 

⁷ The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. ⁸ They had hair like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. ⁹ And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. ¹⁰ They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. ¹¹ And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

 ¹² One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.

Sixth Trumpet: The Angels from the Euphrates
¹³ Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, ¹⁴ saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵ So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶ Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. ¹⁷ And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. ¹⁸ By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. ¹⁹ For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.

 

²⁰ But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. ²¹ And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Revelation 11:15-19

Seventh Trumpet: The Kingdom Proclaimed
15 Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” 16 And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying:

      “ We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
      The One who is and who was and who is to come,
      Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.
       18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come,
      And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,
      And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints,
      And those who fear Your name, small and great,
      And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”

19 Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.

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First Trumpet: Vegetation Struck  
Many of the Trumpet Judgments are similar to the judgments God brought upon Egypt prior to the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt in the Old Testament. In this God may be sending a special message to Israel that the judgments they are witnessing will be, in the end, their exodus from this world system into the Millennial Kingdom of Christ. God will be bringing believers out of a world dominated by haters of God and at the end of the Tribulation Period, He will bring them into the promised Millennial Kingdom of Christ (Isaiah 2:1-4, 11:4-10, 35:1-10, 56:1-8, 60, 65:17-25, Micah 4:1-8, Revelation 20:4-6).

The first Trumpet Judgment is reminiscent of the fourth plague of Egypt which involved hail, only with added intensity being mixed with blood (Exodus 9:23-26). The blood is probably of both people and beasts. The hail of the Tribulation Period will be deadly to say the least. Revelation 16:21 states that the hail of the seventh Bowl Judgment will weigh one hundred pounds per stone. Whatever the size of the hail of this first Trumpet Judgment, the repercussions will be pointed, exact, and definite against those who reject Christ to follow Antichrist and his world system.

Second Trumpet: The Seas Struck
This judgment is reminiscent of the first plague of Egypt when the Nile River was turned to blood (Exodus 7:20-21).

Whatever it is that causes this oceanic destruction, it has the appearance of a great burning mountain being cast into the sea. The resulting destruction from this incident is so deadly that one third of all sea life dies. The tumult of this “burning mountain” being cast into the sea is of tidal wave proportion and destroys one third of all ocean-going vessels.

Third Trumpet: The Waters Struck  
The star that falls from heaven could be a comet. The damage appears to affect the earth’s fresh water which is necessary to sustain life and makes it bitter and undrinkable. The name of the star is called wormwood. Wormwood is a bitter herb common to the Middle East region (Jeremiah 9:15, 23:15, Lamentations 3:15, 19, Amos 5:7). This is the first direct reference to men dying; prior to this judgment mankind was only afflicted and tormented (Revelation 9:5).

Fourth Trumpet: The Heavens Struck
This plague is reminiscent of the ninth plague of Egypt where there was “darkness over the land of Egypt” (exodus 10:21-22).

Could there be man-made causes for the heaven not showing light? Possibly a nuclear explosion, with debris filling the atmosphere forbidding light to shine. Though God may use human devices, it is certain that He will use nature to accomplish His wrath upon mankind as evidenced by the use of hail and earthquakes (Revelation 8:5-6). The use of nature as a means of dispensing wrath is consistent with judgments seen handed down by God in the Old Testament against Egypt. On the other hand, God could supernaturally cause the lights of heaven not to shine. I am fully convinced that the Seal, Trumpet, and Bowl Judgments could come in a supernatural way directly from the hand of God without the use of nature or man’s devices.

The next three judgments are so extreme that the reaction in heaven by an angel is “woe, woe, woe,” one for each of the next three judgments.

Fifth Trumpet: The Locusts from the Bottomless Pit

Stars often refer to angels (Revelation 1:20). In this case, due to the star falling from heaven and being given a key to the bottomless pit, this is a reference to an angel. The angel referred to here is the angel of the bottomless pit which is also its king and has control of its contents (Revelation 9:11). The angel seems to be the jailer and the bottomless pit is the abyss, a place where evil spirits are confined until the final day of judgment (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6).

The angel of the bottomless pit now opens and releases demonic forces. These creatures are described as locusts. These locusts will rise out of the abode demons and  are in fact demons. These locusts don’t hurt the grass or any green thing, but only beast worshippers, those who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads (Revelation 9:4). Once again the sun and moon become darkened.

These locusts come out of the smoke that arises out of the bottomless pit (Revelation 9:2). Because of their very origin, which is the abode of demons, we must conclude that these locusts are demons or demon empowered creatures utilized by God to inflict judgment this judgment. These locusts will have tails of scorpions with which they will inflict five months of incredible pain upon a beast worshipping world (Revelation 9:4-5, 10).

These demons (locusts) have limitations; they can only harm mankind, but cannot kill them. During this five month period, the torment will be so intense that men will want to die and will even seek death. Death shall flee from them. Because people will want to die, but will be unable to, God is ensuring that there will be no method of escape from this torment. Haters of God will not be able to short circuit His wrath.

In verses 7—10 we have a picture of the demonic prepared for battle. This description is indicative that these locust are of a supernatural origin. We also see a picture of demonic motive unmasked. Scripture states the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and though unbelieving mankind is blinded to this, the demonic world is motivated by it. The demonic motive for the lives of every human is death physically, psychology, and spiritually.

Verse 11 tells us the angel’s name of the bottomless pit is Apollyon in the Greek and Abaddon in Hebrew. Both words mean destruction. The angel could be given this name because by him is released destruction when he unleashes the demons of the bottomless pit.

One woe is passed. Mankind has been tormented. Two more woes are left to transpire.

Sixth Trumpet: The Angels from the Euphrates

We see a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. The four horns of the altar, that were in the Jewish temple, were regarded in the Old Testament as a place of refuge (1 Kings 1:50, Revelation 2:28). In Revelation 6:9 we see them again as a refuge for Tribulation Saints slain during the seven year Tribulation Period. Not only is this altar a place of refuge but the up-coming judgment is likely a response to the prayers of the saints of God for vindication.

A voice which is before the altar commands the sixth angel with the sixth Trumpet Judgment to loose the four angels bound in the Euphrates River. The sixth Bowl Judgment dries up the Euphrates River to prepare the way for the kings of the east to make their way to the battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16:12, 16). It is probable that the two million man army that will kill a third of the earth’s population in the sixth Trumpet Judgment will be the same army described in the sixth Bowl Judgment. One third of the earth’s population will be killed in 396 days.

The number of the army will be two million. Verses 16—18 appear to be a description by Daniel the prophet, of an army coming out of the east responding to Russian advancement into the Middle East (Daniel 11:36-45) and of the sixth Bowl Judgment of the Euphrates River being dried up for the kings of the east to make their way to Armageddon. If it is, then before the army gets to Armageddon it will commit a tremendous amount of destruction. The source of the destruction is not the horsemen, but the horsemen’s equipment. This destruction is being inflicted by their horses having power in their mouth, tails, and heads.

Here we see the consequences of rejecting God and living a life of rebellion against Him.

 

Note: We are going to skip chapter 10 and the first half of chapter 11 (at least for now)and move on to the seventh Trumpet Judgment.

Seventh Trumpet: The Kingdom Proclaimed

The seventh Trumpet Judgment [like the seventh Seal Judgment] is an introduction to the next series of judgments. The next series of judgments are the Bowl Judgments. The blowing of the seventh trumpet informs the reader that God is about to take control of the earth and that the time of judgment for unbelievers and rewards for believers will soon take place.

The twenty four elders seen worshipping God could be the twelve Patriarchs (sons of Israel [Jacob]), representing the Old Testament and the twelve Apostles of the Lamb (Jesus Christ), representing the New Testament.

When the seventh Trumpet Judgment announces that God’s wrath has come it is a reference to the coming Bowl Judgments that are the most severe of the three waves of God’s judgments that will be dispensed in the Tribulation Period. The Bowl Judgments will complete God’s wrath against those who have refused His mercy that was provided for them through the death of His Son.

Two judgments are declared in verse 18:

• The Great White Throne Judgment where all lost humanity will be judged and found guilty of rejecting Jesus as LORD of their lives. After this judgment, those present will be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death (Revelation 20:11-15).
• Second is the Judgment Seat of Christ where Jesus will give rewards to His servants the prophets, and to His saints, and them that fear His name (1 Corinthians 3:10-15, 2 Corinthians 5:10).

The ark of His Covenant talked about in verse 19 was the ark that was created by Israel at God’s command and was kept in the Old Testament tabernacle or temple (Exodus 25:10-22). Within the tabernacle the ark was kept in the Holy of Holies. Within the ark was kept the two stone tablets that had the Ten Commandments inscribed on them, a golden pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded (Hebrews 9:4). The ark of His Covenant is in heaven and continues to be a reflection of Jesus Christ as evidenced by the lightnings, voices, thundering, earthquakes, and great hail which commonly precede the judgment of God. The natural phenomenon that we see in this verse are a prelude to Christ’s judgment that is about to be poured out by was of the Bowl Judgments.

Source: Surviving the End Times by Willard Lawrence