Trumpets of Judgment
Revelation 8:13-9:12
January 14, 2007 

Movie directors make great use of the effects of musical scores during their productions. Take away the music and many movies will fall flat. Viewers are clued to approaching scenes by the style and intensity and tone of the music. Who can forget the heart-pounding when the deep bass tones in a musical crescendo warned of the sudden approach of a giant shark in “Jaws”? Who failed to shudder at the sudden, alarming, discordant sound of brass when Frodo first saw the gates of Mordor in “Lord of the Rings”? Musical scores can signal ominous or terrifying scenes.

In similar fashion, each of John’s seven trumpets signals the crescendo of terror and judgment culminating in the grand finale of Revelation 11:15-19 in the 7th trumpet, as the end of divine wrath upon the unbelieving and the declaration of divine reign forever. The first four trumpets give way to the last three that John describes as the three woes. From a literary viewpoint, John intensifies the tone in the same way that a producer does with music. The crescendo of the trumpets signals terror and doom for the unbelieving world.

Why does John use these intense pictures and devices? First, some of his first readers flirted with idolatry and compromised with the world (cf. chapters 2-3). He seeks to make absolutely clear the distinction between those whom God has set apart as His own (noted by the seal on their foreheads, 7:4-8; 94) and those who will face eternal wrath. The effect of these scenes on Christians steers them to repentance and perseverance. Second, other believers lived under great duress. They felt like they were under God’s judgment! They may have feared that they would be swallowed up by God’s wrath on the world. So John presses the point with the trumpets that the Lord exercises sovereign control, even in judgments. No judgment misses its appointed target. The Lord preserves His own! Even if everything seems to be coming unglued, don’t despair: the Lord reigns.

Revelation reminds us of the ongoing temporal judgments throughout history, showing them in overlapping form rather than in a linear progression. It shows us that while Christians will suffer hardships, persecution, and oppression in this world, Christ has shouldered God’s wrath on our behalf at the cross. We need not live in fear but rather in quiet confidence that our God reigns, and that we are accepted before God because of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God on our behalf. How does John work this out for us with regard to the fifth and sixth trumpets? Observe three questions with me.

I. What is happening in the fifth and sixth trumpets?
The first four trumpets were stated rather briefly (8:6-12). But these two demand extended treatment. If we think of Revelation as a giant jigsaw puzzle, these two descriptions supply a lot of pieces to make the point of the Lord’s reign in judgment.

1. Intensified judgment
Both of these pictures convey through apocalyptic language the terrors of judgment (note repeated use of “like” and “as”; he calls this a “vision” in v. 17). Some popular interpreters have tried to take these pictures literally by identifying certain pieces of 20th and 21st century military hardware and certain world armies that they believe are depicted. Yet, as with the earlier portions of the book, John continues to use figurative language to heighten our imaginations and imprint concepts on our minds.

In the previous four trumpets, judgments affected the natural order, with natural calamities or disasters or economic catastrophes. Now things change. Humanity is directly affected, first with torment—whether physical or mental or spiritual; the second with plagues of massive death.

2. Horrifying pictures

The Fifth Trumpet

The fifth trumpet opens the “bottomless pit” as an instrument of divine judgment. “Then the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth; and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit.” How does a star hold a key? In John’s symbolism, this indicates an angel, not a literal star. While we normally think of angels serving God’s purposes in purity, this seems to indicate an angel cast from heaven to earth. The verb, “had fallen,” is a perfect participle to show that this star fell forever, never to return to heaven. That leads us to see that John speaks of either, Satan and his fall, or else of one of Satan’s emissaries. This same figure is later identified as king over those coming out of the abyss (v. 11). He is called “the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.” Both of these names describe him as the “destroyer.” I believe that it is clear that John refers to Satan.

He is given the key to the bottomless pit. The term literally means a place unfathomably deep. In ancient literature, it was pictured as a narrow shaft that flared out wider as it went deeper. John said that the smoke that came out of it was “like the smoke of a great furnace,” and so much so that it spread darkness everywhere. Here he pictures the pervasiveness of evil when God removes the restraints for the purposes of judgment. Multitudes have laughed at God’s holy laws, and have given themselves to the pursuit of wickedness in every imaginable shade. But when God removes the restraints, even those who pride themselves on their sin and flaunting of God’s laws will cower in terror.

Behind the darkening effects “of the smoke came locusts upon the earth and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.” John mixes his pictures between locusts and scorpions. Both were dreaded in the ancient world. The locusts ravaged Egypt in the 7th plague and darkness covered the land in the 8th plague. Both plagues serve as background for John’s picture of judgment. What took place in microcosm in Egypt now takes place globally in John’s language (as in the previous trumpets). John describes the locusts. “The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads appeared to be crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.” Three times he uses “like” to show us that he’s not speaking literally, rather he identifies with something understandable to describe something incredible. What a sight! Locusts, the little insects with voracious appetites that are the bane of farmers, instead look like horses decked for battle. Whether the gold crowns and faces like men describe the horses or horsemen, it is difficult to tell; it seems that he describes the horses with golden crowns mimicking the triumphant Christ (14:14). The faces of men and “hair like the hair of women,” give these gruesome creatures the appearance of “intelligence, sagacity, and discernment,” as well as the pleasant appearance and charm of women [Simon Kistemaker, NTC: Revelation, 290]. Yet all of that is meant to deceive.

In contrast to the hair of women, the creatures had “teeth…like the teeth of lions.” The fierceness and savagery of the lion implies that these are not nice creatures! Their intentions are to devour and destroy. They cannot be stopped by those they attack for “they had breastplates like breastplates of iron.” They strike fear in those they pursue, described as “the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to battle.” Since they were not given power to kill, but only to torment (v. 5), John said, “They have tails like scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men for five months.”

The Sixth Trumpet


The language continues to intensify with greater horror when the sixth trumpet sounds (having been spoken “from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God” uses the number four to indicate universal authority of the one speaking). A voice from the golden altar tells the angelic trumpeter, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind.” The fact that these angels were “bound” and unable to release themselves, implies that they were evil angels—or ruling demons in charge of a demonic army. Since he locates them at the Euphrates River, it takes us back to how that river was often used as a point of war, opposition, and oppression. Both Assyria and Babylon were from across the Euphrates. In John’s day, the Parthians, that fearless enemy of Roman peace, lived beyond the Euphrates. The Euphrates was the boundary of the Promised Land in Solomon’s day, and it served as the boundary of the Roman Empire. “The name marks the boundary between good and evil, between the kingdom of God and that of Satan,” in John’s language [Kistemaker, 295]. So the metaphorical use of this river means a great disturbance and conflagration. War was ahead.

John moves from the four angels to “armies of the horsemen…two hundred million of them; I heard them number them.” Then he describes the horsemen and the horses of this massive army. “And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone [that’s fiery red, gray-blue, and sulfurous yellow]; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone.” It appears, in this picture, that the horses actually do most of the damage, and in a most unusual way. “Out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone,” which John calls three plagues (v. 18), that killed a third of mankind—a limited yet substantial number. While the demons in the fifth trumpet only torment, these demons under the leadership of the four angels that had been bound at the Euphrates, kill. John further explains about the killing power of the horses: “For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm.” So not only do they belch fire, smoke, and brimstone (hot, burning sulfur) out of their mouths but they also have venomous serpent heads as their tails.

We must refrain from trying to squeeze these pictures into modern military hardware! Rather we must see that what John sought to do is to picture something horrific and terrifying and destructive. The use of the number four as the symbol of universality, the massive army, as well as the large-scale deaths, implies that the entire world is engulfed in divine judgment

3. Destroyer destroys
Notice the point that John drives home. The star that fell from heaven to earth that served as the king of the abyss and its demonic horde, is none other than Satan. The locusts that acted like scorpions but looked like horses prepared for battle are the demons that came out of the abyss. The abyss is not their permanent dwelling. Luke tells us that the Legion of demons in the man of the Gerasenes begged Christ “not to command them to go away into the abyss” (Luke 8:31). It is the holding place for the demons until that time that the devil is cast into the lake of fire. Additionally, the armies of the horsemen whose horses belched fire, smoke, and sulfur with venomous tails picture demons as well.

What was John showing us? The devil destroys his own. Here is the great deception unknown by most of the world. Satan is “Abaddon” and “Apollyon.” He is “the Destroyer.” Jesus told the Pharisees that the devil “was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). The devil doesn’t even speak truth to those that he has enslaved in sin. He does not desire anything good or profitable or worthwhile for anyone. He lies, murders, and destroys.
Here is the horror of judgment: God removes His merciful restraint upon the world, and gives Satan freedom to destroy those that have rejected Christ and rebelled against the gospel. Even in the face of this kind of judgment, most remain deceived into thinking that the way of the cross of Christ is foolish.

The deceitfulness is evident in verses 20-21. “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.” Even when faced with the intense and vicious torment of demons from the abyss, and even when seeing a third of humanity savagely killed, men still think that their way is right and that they do not need God. They cling to their idols—“which can neither see nor hear nor walk.” The devil and his horde vent their hatred and destroy wantonly, yet men continue “to worship demons” through clinging to gods that cannot help them. They do not repent of their murders, sorceries (a term that implies drug induced devilry), immorality, and thefts. Just as Babylon’s King Belshazzar did not learn from the judgments leveled against his father Nebuchadnezzar, but continued to praise gods of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, “the same unchanging, nonrepentant attitude is reflected in Rev. 9:20,” as Greg Beale points out [NIGTC: Revelation, 519] (in Daniel 5 we see the problem of enslavement to our own depravity).

II. How do the trumpets serve God’s purpose?
Pay attention to both the language and the statements that John gives us. He sets forth important theological declarations upon which Christians must stand.

1. God orchestrates judgment
The series of judgments in the seals and now, the trumpets, began when Christ took the book of God’s decrees out of the hand of Him who sat on the throne, and began to open the seals and unleash the judgments. So, when the fifth and sixth angels sound their trumpets, they do so by divine command. Three times John uses the same aorist passive verb translated as “was given,” to show that God was the one orchestrating these events. In v. 1, the key to the bottomless pit was given to the devil; so he could not open the abyss or send forth his demonic horde apart from the divine permission granting it. In v. 3, “power was given” to the locusts, yet it was limited power so that they could not harm “the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” God limits their power according to His purposes. In v. 5, the span of this particular demonic activity of torment was limited, described here as “five months,” which was the normal lifespan of locusts: “they were not permitted to kill anyone,” is the same term found in the other two verses. It is the Lord God that limits their time and the extent of their actions. He also restricts them from tormenting those with the seal of God on their foreheads—that is, believers (cf. 7:4-8). Satan is not sovereign. As the book of Job shows us, he is limited by the purposes of God who works even Satan’s malicious ways to serve the glory of God and the good of God’s people.

The sixth trumpet shows the same truth. The four destructive angels were bound until such a time as God had “prepared” (perfect passive verb) for them to carry out His judgment against a rebellious world. Judgment takes place in God’s timing and by His command.

2. God demonstrates righteousness in judgment
As we noted in our previous study, if God were not holy and righteous, then He would have no right to judge the world. Yet He is altogether holy. Righteousness and truth are the foundations of His throne. Justice demands judgment upon all that have broken the Creator’s laws. And judgment falls only where it is deserved. That’s another point that John makes. For those that have “the seal of God on their foreheads,” those elected by God, redeemed by Jesus Christ in His bloody death, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, judgment has already fallen upon Christ on their behalf. So the demonic judgment is restricted to only those not marked by God through Christ. God does not judge where divine justice has already been satisfied through Christ’s death.

The Lord also gives us a clear picture of Satan’s evil intent for everyone—including all of those that wantonly follow the paths of sin and rebellion against God. Be sure that you understand: Satan has nothing good for any of you. All his ways are murderous and deceitful. Do not believe his lies concerning the ways of sin. This warning calls for your repentance if you do not know God through Christ the Lord!

III. What consolation, if any, can be found in the trumpets?
   
1. The seal of God preserves His own
In the midst of the ravenous destruction one group is set apart, protected from the severe judgment meted out: those with “the seal of God on their foreheads.” That is not a literal mark but rather it infers that God has placed His gracious favor on you by electing you before the foundation of the world. He has provided for your sins to be judged in the person of His Son at the cross. He has given His Holy Spirit to regenerate you and call you to Himself by the gospel. He has given grace to you so that you might repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those for whom He has done this out of His grace, He protects forever from His judgment.

2. Divine vengeance will not fail
We’ve already seen the prayer of the martyred saints underneath the altar, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (6:10) The fifth and sixth trumpets are answers to this prayer just as we saw in the sixth and seventh seals. Jesus warned against the fate of those that would cause one of the least of His little ones to stumble. How much more will He avenge the death of those tortured, persecuted, and killed for the sake of the gospel? Tens of thousands of Christians are killed each year just because they believe the gospel. God will not restrain His patience with the perpetrators forever.

3. Mercy calls all to repentance
The fact that God would clue us in on the process of divine judgment, that He would show us the evil intent of Satan and his demons, that He would restrain judgment so that others might see their need for God’s grace, all of that calls us to repentance. Yet that was the failure of men even in the face of torment and death by demons of the abyss! “They did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols…” Does that describe any among us? Have you spurned God’s many overtures of mercy? The fact that He has continued to restrain the jaws of the abyss from gaping wide and swallowing you up, speaks of immeasurable mercy. The fact that you have heard the gospel and been exhorted to repent of your sins and cast yourself upon Christ, believing in His death for you, reveals the infinite kindness of God. Amen.

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by South Woods Baptist Church.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy:

Copyright South Woods Baptist Church. Website: www.southwoodsbc.org. Used by permission as granted on web site. Questions, comments, and suggestions about our site can be sent here.