Prayers
and Trumpets
Revelation
8:1-13
March
17. 2024 YouTube
In chapter seven of the book of Revelation, there is a rest
or an interlude, between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals. During this pause, we saw that the Church
from the Garden through the Great Tribulation is at war with evil, and, as the followers
of Jesus, we suffer tribulation, suffering, of various kinds and degrees until
Jesus returns. The Church is the Church
militant – fighting against the evil in the world until Jesus returns. When He does return, His Wrath is against the
wicked, and He makes the Church, the Church Triumphant – the Church Victorious
– through the Work of Jesus – glorified and brought into the restored Creation.
Remember this is a book of hope and comfort. Despite the truth that there will be
suffering for believers on the earth now, we will be delivered into the Kingdom
of Jesus where there will never be suffering again.
We open chapter eight in silence.
“When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence
in heaven for about half an hour.”
Silence is normally associated with judgement.
We saw what the Church is now – fighting against evil in
the world, and we saw what the Church will be in the restored Creation –
glorified in the Kingdom with Jesus. We will soon see the judgement of God on
the wicked of the earth. Not the final
judgement, but the judgement that comes as the Church fights against evil in
the Name of Jesus.
And we notice that the seventh seal of the scroll is the
first trumpet. And, Lord willing, we
will see that the seventh trumpet is the first woe. There is an overlapping of
what is being said in these images.
But first, John sees what happens when the saints pray –
when believers – the Church – prays.
“Then
I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to
them.”
We
have seen that the number seven signifies perfection and completion. What does it mean here? Perhaps seven angels
and seven trumpets.
Who
are the seven angels? We don’t know for
sure, but there is a distinction here between these angels and the other
angels. These may be archangels. Only
two archangels are named in the Bible:
Michael and Gabriel.
Trumpets
are most often understood to signify the call to war against the wicked.
“And
another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was
given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden
altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the
saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.”
We
will remember we are told in Revelation 5, “And when he had taken the scroll,
the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb,
each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of
the saints” (Revelation 5:8, ESV).
Another
angel, not one of the seven, is given a censer – a device to burn incense – we
may be familiar with the censor used in the Roman Catholic Church in which
incense is burned. And the smoke of the burning incense is or symbolizes the
prayers of the people. The prayers of
the people have a pleasant smell and God receives them – symbolically – through
His nose.
Quickly,
we should ask ourselves, what does prayer do?
Why does God care if we pray?
Does prayer inform God of something He doesn’t know? No, if God is Sovereign, our prayer do not
inform God of anything, nor do they cause God to do anything. So, what is the
point of praying?
We
pray so we will become more alike with the Mind and Will of God. And somehow, God
uses our prayers to carry out His Eternal decrees. Prayer is the means by which God accomplishes
His Purpose on earth. The incense of our prayers is pleasing to God as we pray
what God wants for us and the world.
Do
you pray? Do you thank God for Who He is and what He has done for you? Do you
pray that you would be kept from sin and empowered to do all that God requires
of you? Do you pray for those you love and for those you hate? Consider what
prayer is for, and please God.
As
another angel comes before God and burns the incense, which is the prayers of
the saints, God receives those prayers as a sweet smell and God brings them to
pass as He has willed. If we pray
righteously, God will be delighted in our prayer and answer what we have prayed
– which is according to His Will.
This
other angel is either Christ or a representative of Christ who is given the
right to burn the incense before God. However, we require intercession between
our prayer and God – especially when we don’t know how or what to pray.
If
we want to pray and we know we should pray, but we don’t have the right words
to pray, the Holy Spirit will assist us and make our payers clear and
acceptable to God. Paul writes, “Likewise
the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we
ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for
words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because
the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans
8:26-27, ESV).
Let
us notice that the angel does not act until the saints pray. The angel waits for the prayers of the saints
before he presents the incense – which are the prayers of the saints – to God. And that may sound obvious – the angel
doesn‘t present our prays to God until we pray.
But it does show that God uses our prayers to accomplish His Will. Not that God cannot act without our praying,
but God chooses to act and accomplish His Will as we pray for what He wants.
When
we pray for the overthrow of the wicked, God will overthrow the wicked
according to the plan He has forever planned.
And so, we read:
This
is the warning of the Wrath of God against the wicked. It is the warning that God is a Holy God and
will not tolerate sin in His Presence.
It must be done away with. It
cannot stand.
The
imagery John is seeing is what was seen in the history of the people of
Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. When
they arrived at Mount Sinai for Moses to receive the Ten Commandments, we read:
“On
the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightnings and a thick cloud
on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the
camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and
they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped
in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up
like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the
sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him
in thunder. The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And
the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up” (Exodus
19:16-20, ESV).
As
“the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it
on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning,
and an earthquake.”
The angel took the censer that gave forth the aroma of the
prayers of the saints and cast down fire from the altar of incense causing a
reaction like that on Mount Sinai when God came down upon it to tell the wicked
that God is coming with power and wrath against the wicked. The Church of God will be brought into the
Glory of God, but the wicked will suffer at the Hand of God. The prayers of the saints will turn the world
upside down, and God will hear them as they ask for what He desires, and He
will bring it to pass.
It has begun and will continue until the lats day. As we read, “And when they could not find
them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities,
shouting, ‘These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,
and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of
Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus’” (Acts 17:6-7, ESV).
“Now
the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.”
“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, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all
green grass was burned up.”
This parallels the seventh plague brought down upon the
Egyptians.
“Then
Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and
hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail upon the land of
Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail,
very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it
became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all
the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of
the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where
the people of Israel were, was there no hail” (Exodus 9:23-26, ESV).
“The
second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning
with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. A
third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were
destroyed.”
Of
the first plague, we read:
“Moses
and Aaron did as the LORD commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight
of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and
all the water in the Nile turned into blood. And the fish in the Nile died, and
the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile.
There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt (Exodus 7:20-21, ESV).”
“The
third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a
torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The
name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many
people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.”
The
name, “Wormwood,” is interpreted as “bitter,” and here it is of such a
bitterness that it is poisonous.
Jeremiah gives God’s threat of this: “Therefore thus says the LORD of
hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and
give them poisonous water to drink” (Jeremiah 9:15, ESV).
It
can also be associated with the first plague of Egypt when the Nile was poisoned
with dead fish and blood.
“The
fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third
of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be
darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a
third of the night.”
Of
the ninth plague we read:
“Then
the LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be
darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.’ So Moses stretched out
his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt
three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place
for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived”
(Exodus 10:21-23, ESV).
Just as Israel who lived in Goshen in Egypt were spared
from the plagues that God brought upon Egypt, God allows us – along with the
wicked – to hear the warnings of the trumpets, but God allows us to go on
through His patience and the Work of His Son – the Gospel. Our great prayer is for the coming of the
Kingdom – that we – through the Holy Spirit – will be victorious over the world
and its evil – and we will according to the promise of God.
“Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud
voice as it flew directly overhead, ‘Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the
earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to
blow!’”
The word “eagle” can be translated “vulture.” He flew
directly overhead – viewing those who die as the trumpets are blown. They become carrion – food for the eagle.
We will remember that emphasis is shown through repetition
– three times being the greatest emphasis.
So, the woes about to befall the wicked are the worst that can be imagined.
Remember this is a book of comfort and hope for the
Christians suffering persecution at the time John was writing and throughout
all time and space until Jesus returns.
What we see is that God hears our prayer and causes us to become more
like Him in heart and mind and will through them. God works through our prayers to carry out
His Will for us and against the wicked – those who never believe in Jesus
savingly.
As Christians suffered and suffer at the hands of the wicked,
God tells John and us, that the Church will be delivered into Glory, and the
wicked will suffer a horrible judgment beyond comprehension.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, comfort us that You will deliver us in these
days as You delivered Israel from Egypt and through the Sinai. Strengthen the
hope You assure us of – that You are bringing all of Your people into the
fulness of the Kingdom – though we will suffer for Christ’s sake to one degree
or another. Help us to pray that we
would be more like You. Help us not to
fear but to be in awe of the horror You will bring against the wicked. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment