Revelation 8: The Seven Trumpets

 Revelation 8: The Seven Trumpets

v1-5: The Seventh Seal and Golden Censer.

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for half an hour. Then seven angels were given trumpets. Another angel came with a golden censer with incense to offer the prayers of the saints at the altar in front of the throne. The prayers rose with the smoke before God. Then the angel filled the censor with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there was an earthquake with thunder and lighting. (v1-5)

The seventh seal will bring great destruction to the earth, through the trumpets, so much so everyone in heaven was in solemn for half-an-hour, which is a long time. As mentioned the incense symbolize the prayers that was offered to God. Trumpets were used for war and calling for an assembly. It is used here to declare war on evil forces on earth. 

v6-13: The First Four Trumpets

The first angel blew his trumpet. hail and fire, mixed with blood, are thrown upon the earth. A third of the earth burned up, including the trees and grasses. (v7)  The blood may be referring to the red color of the hail. As said om previous chapter, these are the details of nuclear war that was summarize in the sixth seal. 

The second angel blew his trumpet and something that looks like a giant mountain on fire dropped into the sea. The sea became blood, and a third of the sea creatures died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. Note that it is not literally a mountain, as John use the word "like." It's probably something else that he was not familiar with. A nuclear weapon targeting the enemy ships will also cause these impact.  During a war with Israel, the enemies' navy will have their ships in the Mediterranean sea. Perhaps the sea is referring to the Mediterranean sea. 

Phillip J. Long

When the third angel blew his trumpet, a great fiery star fell from the sky ("heaven"), and fell into the rivers, and damaged one third of the water. The name of the star is called Wormwood, and many died from drinking the water. The Greek word for wormwood is “apsinthos”, which is used to symbolize bitterness, or figuratively, calamity. This can potentially be a chemical warfare, where the missiles bring in poisonous chemicals into the drinking water. 

The fourth trumpet brought in darkness to the earth, as the sun. moon, and stars were darkened by a third. As Jesus said: "the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light" (Matthew 24:29). Again, this is the typical affect of nuclear explosion, that will bring smoke and dust into the atmosphere and darken the sun and stars. 

If all these are from the hands of God, and not from nuclear weapons, then He can easily use meteors to crash into the enemies and poison the water.  

David Guzik commented: "The first four trumpets also reveal the mercy of God’s judgment; these are partial judgments striking only one-third, and are meant to warn and lead a rebellious world to repentance before the final curtain. For now, God spares more than He smites."