The First Trumpet

RV138-01

The breaking of the seventh seal on the scroll, which has been held by Jesus Christ, brings forth the seven angelic trumpeters. The point in time for this event is after the middle of the tribulation era, in the last three-and-a-half years. The seals have carried us from the beginning of the tribulation period, past the midpoint. The last half of the tribulation period is called, in the Bible, the great tribulation, indicating the rising intensity of God's judgment upon mankind. We have that indicated, for example, in Matthew 24:21 and Revelation 7:14.

Each of the seven trumpeter's signals the arrival and the release of unimaginable horror and suffering on mankind for its rebellion against God. The judgments of God during the first half of the tribulation have certainly been bad enough, as we saw under the seals. There we found the conquest of the antichrist, which placed him in political power over the Western world. We saw widespread shedding of blood as homicide was rampant upon the earth. We saw that there would be shortages of food, creating the agony of famine all over the earth. We saw that human death, in one way or another, reached such epidemic proportions from various causes as to almost make it impossible to get people buried fast enough. Believers suffer martyrdom for their faith in Jesus Christ during that period, in the first part of the tribulation, and for their testimony concerning Him. And the seals also indicated that there would be some frightening disruptions taking place in nature, which so terrorize people that they seek to hide from God in caves in the earth.

John, furthermore, saw the prayers of the tribulation saints, for the judgment that they were asking against the antichrist and his New Age society, rising up to God from the heavenly altar of incense. The angel in heaven takes some fire now from the altar of sacrifice. We went through this heavenly reproduction of what was the original prototype for Israel's earthly temple and tabernacle setup. There is a brazen altar of sacrifice in heaven, in God's throne room. There is also the golden altar of incense. Now the angel apparently goes out to what would be comparable to the altar of sacrifice here on this earth, and takes that fire, and casts upon the earth. This indicates a time of intensified divine judgment has arrived for the tribulation earth in response to the prayers of those saints asking for justice.

We saw that in verse 5 where, we read, "And the angel took the censer (the shovel), and filled it with fire from the altar (the altar of sacrifice), and cast it upon the earth." And suddenly, there were ominous indications of some terrible things about to happen. The imminency of evidence of renewed judgment indicated was by certain agitations in nature.

As the angel threw the fire to the earth, there were voices. The Greek word is "phone." It means "sounds." Here it refers to rumblings of nature, which indicates that something unusual is about to happen. Furthermore, we're told that there were thunderclaps. The Greek word is "bronte," which refers to peals of thunder resounding around the earth. Thunder symbolizes the power of God crashing down upon a rebellious humanity.

Furthermore, there were outbursts of lightnings. The Greek Bible calls this the "astrape." This word means "flashes of electricity" discharging across the sky. Lightning symbolizes the fiery wrath of God against evil.

Finally, one of the most frightening things that any human being perhaps can go through is to feel the earth moving under your feet, with fissures appearing in the earth (wide cracks), and all the consequences when the earth's surface dislodges itself. So there will be great earthquakes. The Greek word for that is "seismos," a violent shifting of the earth's crust. These tremors, of course, create terror and death among the inhabitants of the earth who have no place to flee from God's wrath.

So, verse 5 tells us that the scene has been set for a new series of divine judgments against the tribulation society. There has been, perhaps, but a short period of quietness again following what happened under the seals. This has carried people through three-and-a-half to maybe four years, to somewhere past the midpoint of the tribulation period. As you get closer to the end of the tribulation period of seven years, the judgment of God comes in more rapid succession and with greater intensity. So, now the trumpets are going to step up the judgments of God. The seven angelic trumpeters have been standing by, awaiting God's signal to blow in each new judgment upon the earth.

Preparation

To Sound the Trumpets

Each trumpet judgment is an expression of the wrath of a holy God against the humanity which gives its support and allegiance at this time to Satan's antichrist instead of the Lord Jesus Christ. These judgments are going to be very, very bad. They're going to be worse than what has come before under the seals. Remember that there are people who carry upon their foreheads and in their right hand the mark of the beast, the antichrist.

These first four trumpeters are going to bring judgments which, like the first four seals, are directed against natural objects on earth, while the last three (like the last three seals) are against human beings. Each trumpet will step up the intensity of God's punishment of the New Age society that the antichrist has created upon the earth.

Unbelievers in our day, as always, have a very distorted view of God's character. So, they don't think that a God of love will ever punish people for their evil with the intensity that the book of the Revelation describes, and which we will see under these judgments. Most people, including preachers, simply dismiss these trumpets as being some kind of symbolic, poetic expression, but certainly not actual real events. That is because the human suffering that is going to come about is just unbelievable, and they say that God surely cannot do that.

We have the same thing with people today who refuse, for example, to connect the epidemic of AIDS with God's plague upon sexual immorality and perversion. Instead of recognizing that this is a divine judgment, and to back off from violating the moral code of God, the only discussion you hear in society today is how to take steps to protect yourself from becoming infected while you continue doing the evil that God says, "You must not do." That's the way it works today. And when somebody suggests that the terrible consequence of AIDS is an act of God, they are very quick to dismiss that as unbecoming of a God of love. But as we go through the book of the Revelation, you will discover that the God of love even exercises grace in the midst of the sound of these trumpets, as we shall see in a moment.

The suffering for their sinfulness and for their sinful ways is not met with repentance by the people who are suffering under the trumpet judgments. Instead, it increases their hardness and their hatred against God. We have this indicated to us in Revelation 9:20-21, when we read, "And the rest of the men who were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk; they neither repented of their murders nor their sorceries (and that's the word for drug use), nor of their fornication (sexual immorality of all kinds), nor of their thefts. They just did not say, "It's what we are doing that is bringing this judgment of God upon us. So, let's stop doing that which is evil in the sight of the God who has made us, and who is in authority. He is a holy God. We cannot live like this. He will not permit us to get away with this. We are suffering these terrible things because of that. Let us back off, and recognize His sovereign authority, and He will turn from a god of wrath to a God of blessing. But they don't do that. They only hardened in their position.

The Lord Jesus Christ predicted that God, the Father, would indeed avenge the abuse of His people in a world which (when the Lord returns at the Second Coming) will be a world that is devoid of faith in Him. Luke 18:7-8 says, "And shall not God avenge His own elect who cried day and night unto Him, though he bear along with them. I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?" And the implication is, "No." Instead of as the result of the tribulation disasters, people turning back to God and believing the Word of God, Jesus says, "Yes, My Father is going to bring vengeance. He is going to exercise His wrath, but it's not going to bring these people back. When I come back, there are not going to be people believing. There are going to only be people who want to resist God all the more. He will not find faith.

This indeed compares to the poetic description which we have in Psalm 18:6-15. This is a poetic description of God's intervention in behalf of His own people. Here, it is in behalf of King David, who called upon God to save him from his enemies. It is a prophetic description of what God is going to do in protecting His people in the tribulation when He brings vengeance upon those who are attacking those who are believers: "In my distress, I called upon the Lord, and cried into my God. He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because He was angry." When God gets mad, it has an effect upon the forces of nature, and that's how He expresses His anger:

Hail

That's a powerful picture of a God who is fed up. His anger has come to the point of expression, and as the psalmist says, "God just lets a blast out of His nostrils, and He rips up everything on earth, and everything that comes in its way. And He uses all of the forces of nature to come crashing down around mankind.

The significance of that is, as you well know, that when forces of nature go berserk, there's nothing we can do about it. We cannot go up and turn it off in some way. When the forces of nature take over, all you can do is hunker down and hope to survive, and hope to be able to come through it somehow, because it is under the control of a power that's completely beyond man. So, that's why God uses the forces of nature, because it makes it very clear that someone out there, who is greater than nature, is making all this happen, and we human beings can't do a thing about it.

The First Trumpet

In any case, we were told that, following the angels blowing of the trumpet, something follows: "There followed." The word is "ginomai." This word means "to come." At the point that the trumpet blasts, this actually does happen. We have a statement of a fact here. What comes, first of all, we're told, is hail. The word "hail" is "chalaza." This is simply the Greek word for "hailstones" which are formed by water freezing in the upper atmosphere into stones of ice until they become heavy enough that the updraft can no longer carry them, and then they fall to the earth. The earth here is pelted with hard hailstones, which create fear in people as well as destruction. It is always frightful to be out in a hail storm, and it is even more frightful when the hail storms are very large.

In addition to the falling of the hail, as a result of this trumpet blast, there appears, we are told, also fire. The Greek word is "pur." What it refers to here is balls of fire that come raining down upon a third of the earth's surface. That's the picture you have – balls of fire. It's like old "Li'l Abner" cartoon strip, you might remember. This was one of the expressions that the mountain folks had when they wanted to express their astonishment. They would say, "Balls of fire." Well, this is what's going to happen. Along with the hail (which is wet), of all things, are balls of fire falling as well. It is a literal and ferocious firestorm that hits the particular affected area of the earth, which we are told is limited to one-third of the earth's surface. And it causes, obviously, great devastation. Fire may be caused by a lightning storm, but whatever, it is clearly a result of an action on the part of God.

The Exodus

"For now, I will stretch out My hand, that I will smite you and your people with pestilence, and you shall be cut off from the earth (dying). And in very deed, for this cause I have raised you up to show in you My power, and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth. As yet, you exalt yourself against My people that you will not let them go. Behold tomorrow, about this time, I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail such as has not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof, even until now." God says to Pharaoh, "You're riding very high. Yes, I raised you up to a position political power in the world so that I could demonstrate what happens to an arrogant human being who has great power over other human beings, but who thinks he has power over Me."

Verse 19: "Send, therefore, now and gather your cattle, and all that you have in the field, for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the fields and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die." And we may probably properly conclude that some of the results of this terrible hailstorm brought, about by the first trumpet, is going to kill animals and people: "He the feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses." There were some Egyptians who had more sense than the Pharaoh did. And when they heard what Moses said that God was going to do, they believed him. And they got their servants and their cattle under shelter:

"And he that did not regard the Word of the Lord left his servants in his cattle in the field. And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Stretch forth your hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon every man, and upon beast, and upon every herb the field, throughout all the land.'" It was going to destroy the vegetation – the crops as well. "And Moses stretched for his rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along the ground." This is the same scene again: the thundering; the hail; and, the balls of fire." And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt: "So, there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt, and all that were in the field, both man and beast, and the hail smote every herb the field, and broke every tree of the field." That's pretty heavy hail when it'll break trees.

So, we have before in Scripture a precedent for what God is doing here. The holy wrath of God against evil, and His power actually, are demonstrated by meteorological phenomenon. The Bible has previously indicated that, for example, in Isaiah 28:2. This is how God shows His wrath – by these phenomena in nature" "Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, who like a tempest in hail and a destroying storm, like a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand."

Isaiah 28:17 says, "Justice also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and water shall overflow the hiding place."

Isaiah 30:30 says, "And the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lightning down of His arm with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering and tempest and hailstones." That is exactly what is happening here in the tribulation.

Isaiah. 30:3:14 says, "And the sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. Who among us so dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burning?" So, Isaiah says, "All the cocky ones have the steam knocked out of them. All the cocky ones are suddenly placed in a position of fear by what they see happening in the world around them."

Fire

This is actually the experience that we read about in one of the Minor Prophets: Joel 1:15-20 says, "Alas for the day. For the Day of the Lord is at hand." The Day of the Lord is the tribulation era in part: And as the destruction from the almighty it shall come, is not the food cut off before our eyes? Yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God. The seed is rotten under their clods. The garners are laid desolate. The barns are broken down for the grain is withered. How do the beasts groan? The herds of cattle are perplexed because they have no pasture. Yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. Oh Lord, to You I will cry, for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field cry also unto You, for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness." What Joel is talking about is describing a judgment of God that Israel experienced, where God used flame (fire) of one kind of another, to devastate their crops; to dry up their water sources; and consequently, He created famine for both men and beasts.

So, people realize that something very serious happens when this first trumpet sound is blasted out through the universe. Down comes hail. Down comes fire. And if that isn't bad enough, suddenly, people are amazed to see that there is a red cast to everything that they see. As the fire is falling in balls, and the heavy hail is falling, there's a red rosy cast behind it, and then they feel something sticky on their hands as it hits them. We're told that these two are "mixed with." The Greek word is "mignumi." This word means "to mingle." The word refers to something mixed in with the hail and the fire pouring down on earth from the sky. This verb is in the perfect tense, which indicates that this is a condition that God has previously prepared, and now He has released it at this point in time. It indicates that it's passive – that it didn't just happen in nature by itself, but that God put these elements together in this way. And it is a spiritual principle that is being expressed:

Blood

For example, in Genesis 9:5-6, we have that indicated to us, where we read, "And surely your blood of your lives I will require. At the hand of every beast I will require it. And at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of man." This is the moral basis for capital punishment for willful, premeditated murder. Verse 6 says, "Whoever sheds man's blood," which is a way of saying, "Whoever is guilty of homicide (whoever is guilty of murdering a person:" "By man his blood shall be shed, for God made man in the image of God."

So, blood is falling as a symbol that death is being scattered upon mankind at the time. Of course, it's an element of terror that is now added to the devastating hail and the firestorm.

All of this, we are told, is: "Cast upon the earth." The word "cast" is the Greek word "ballo." "Ballo" means "to throw." The hail and the fire, mixed with the blood, rains down from God upon mankind. It is God who is throwing it out there, at the point where this trumpet has been blown. We are told that it is specifically thrown down upon the earth.

So, the first part of the trumpet judgment brings a terrible meteorological disruption. The second part tells us that the result is an ecological disaster. For we're told that a third part of the earth is affected by this judgment. Actually, your King James translation leaves out a part of the Greek text here. The Greek says, "A third part of the earth was burnt up." It says that first: "A third part of the earth was burnt up. It is important that we observe that only one-third ("pritos") of the earth is being affected by this first trumpet judgment.

The turmoil in nature affects this limited area of the earth's surface. The limitation is significant. I think that it indicates, probably, again the grace of God, which is allowing mankind to see what God can do in His anger, and what God will do in exercising His justice, so that two-thirds of the earth is getting all this on the nightly TV news. Two-thirds of the earth is seeing all the camera shots and the footage that has been created in the devastation of this one-third. That ought to be a message to that two-thirds to say, "Back off. Turn back to God. Repent, or you will suffer the same thing." But God's grace is rejected.

In the process of a third of the earth being devastated by this, we are told that it very naturally affects the trees. The Greek word is the "dendron." This refers to both fruit trees and lumber. The effect on the fruit trees again hits food supplies in a world that is already suffering from famine. All the trees, in effect, that are in that part of the earth are burnt up. The Greek word is "Katakaio." "Katakaio" is an intensive word. It has this preposition before it that we talked about in the previous session ("kata"), which intensifies the word, so that what this word is saying is, "It is burnt up completely." It isn't just a little bit of a burnt-over forest where most of the trees are left standing – a goodly number or less, so that they can recoup. I mean, it is devastated. There's nothing left but ashes. It means that the flames of fire destroyed everything. That means it kills the orchards, so it hits the fruit supply; and, it kills the timberlands, so it destroys the lumber supply. It is at the point in time when this judgment is blown. It is a passive voice. It is done to the trees by God through these forces of nature.

Furthermore, in this one-third of the earth that is so devastated, we're told that "all," which is the Greek word "pas", which means that everything that's in this third – "All of the green." The Greek word is "chloros," which is the word for "color," and from which we get our word "chlorophyll." He stresses that it's "green grass" (the "chortos"). "Chortos" (green grass) is the lawn that covers the surfaces of the earth – the vegetation that grows on the earth's surfaces. The term "green grass" indicates that this is living vegetation rather than just some dead, dried-up areas of the earth that have suffered from drought, or from overuse, or something else. This is lush territory. It is a major economic and ecological destruction for one-third of the earth to have its green grass completely burned up. The intensity of the fire is indicated by the fact that it burns up living green vegetation. It's not too hard to burn up something that's dried. It takes something more to burn up something that is a living vegetation.

So, suddenly agriculture is hit; ranching is hit; and, lumber production is devastated in all these areas, and it contributes, again, on the one hand, to creating shortages. Shortages will intensify. The inflation that we already found under the seals exists in the tribulation world, and it will contribute to the mounting judgment of scarcity that we saw under the third seal.

Furthermore, when you have this kind of hail mixed with fire hitting a portion of the earth, you may also logically expect that the buildings and other structures on the earth are going to be destroyed by the storm. This adds to the financial loss, and to the restriction of services that people need.

So, while the forces of nature are causing the disaster, it is God who is directly in charge of this destruction, and it is destruction to serve His purposes.

The Second Trumpet

A Burning Meteoroid

Furthermore, it is even more frightening because the thing is on fire. We're told that, "The second angel sounded, and as it were, a great mountain burning." The word is "kaio," which means "to be inflamed" or "burning with fire" (with "pur"). It is a flaming mass. It is a meteor of some type that is in view here, hurtling from outer space, and burning up from the friction in the earth's atmosphere. This meteoroid will probably be seen approaching the earth, and be followed by the TV news. This meteoroid will create great concern, because people aren't used to seeing meteoroids coming out of space.

Following the recent destruction of the first trumpet, the approaching meteoroid will create a new shock of panic on the earth. So, what happens to this thing? We're told that this burning meteoroid comes in and, "It is cast." And the word "cast" is "ballo," which means that "it is thrown." This is the word that you use to throw a ball. God has thrown this flaming meteoroid to the earth at the point of the blowing of the second trumpet. The meteoroid is not flying there on its own. This word "ballo" is passive. God is doing this. And the very language of the Bible makes it clear that God is in charge.

We were told that He throws this thing "into," indicating the target. It is the word "eis:" "into the sea" (the "thalassa"). This Greek word "thalassa" refers to saltwater areas. It refers to the oceans. Which oceans is not indicated. Perhaps it would be ironic and poetic justice were it the Mediterranean Ocean, which will be bordering the Western empire of the antichrist himself.

It Turnes into Blood

This is comparable again, obviously, to the plague that Moses brought down under God's power on the Nile River. I remind you of that in Exodus 7:19-20. Here you have God repeating again a thing that He has done before, in turning water into blood. Now, that is a very impressive thing. The Jews who saw that happen never could get over the awe of God's power demonstrated in that action. We have this indicated in one of their songs in Psalm 78:44. Psalm 105:29 also expresses the all of this devastation.

Well, the evolutionary human viewpoint scientists of the tribulation day are going to be driven crazy trying to explain what has happened by natural processes. They're going to have the nightly news, and all the big boys are going to be there, and they're saying, "Now, here's our science editor, our biological expert, who is going to explain to you this phenomena, which is, of course, perfectly natural. There is nothing unusual. It hasn't happened very often, but we certainly have some very good ideas as to why this is happening. And we are taking steps. Our big brother there in the headquarters of the Western Empire has assured us that we will very quickly be dealing with this matter, and it'll all be cleared up."

They're going to try to imply that all this has been something by natural processes, because they want to avoid crediting God with the power to do this. They do not want to believe in a Creator. So, they talk about evolution. They do not want to believe in a God who is in power over natural laws. So, they pretend that those laws are independent, sovereign laws unto themselves. So, you can imagine what kind of crazy things are going to be going out over the television programs in an attempt to explain this.

Well, with one-third of some prime area of the saltwater world completely turned to blood now, this causes something in this in terms of a marine catastrophe that is beyond anything that the human race has ever imagined, or has ever been party to. And we shall look at that next time.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1984

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