The Four Trumpets: Revelation 8:6-13

Then the angel who had the trumpet came and said, “Woe, woe, and woe to the inhabitants of the earth, for the remaining three trumpet blasts of the three angels who are about to blow their trumpets!” Then the first sounded and hail and fire followed, mixed with blood, and they were thrown down upon the earth. One-third of the earth was burned up, and one-third of the trees was burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

Then the second angel sounded and something like a burning mountain was thrown into the sea. One-third of the sea became blood, and one-third of the creatures in the sea died, and one-third of the ships were destroyed. Then the third angel sounded and a star fell from the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell upon one-third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. One-third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the waters, because they were made bitter. Then the fourth angel sounded and one-third of the sun was struck, and one-third of the moon, and one-third of the stars, so that one-third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for one-third of it, and the night in the same way. I heard a eagle flying in mid heaven saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, and woe to the inhabitants of the earth, on account of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the other angel who is about to blow his trumpet!”

Why We Keep Coming Back to Judgment

We’re going to take a break next month from this exposition to look at the birth of the Lord Jesus and talk about why we celebrate Christmas. It’s not just a holiday.

But that’s not because we have run out of Revelation. In what I consider a bit of an understatement, Leon Morris says a good deal of Revelation is taken up with judgment. Fourteen chapters of Revelation, in fact, are taken up with God’s judgment.

The Old Testament Is Full of Judgment

That is the Old Testament, and the book of Genesis opens with two people in the garden who have been put there for their own good, and God has warned them not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And they eat. And the judgment begins. Adam and Eve are expelled from the garden, and the ground is cursed because of them, and they are sent out into a world that will be a struggle to live in.

Then Cain kills Abel. And Cain is judged, and he is put under a curse, and he is put out of the garden. And then the violence spreads, and the earth is full of violence, and God says, “The earth is corrupt.” And judgment comes in the flood. The judgment of the flood wipes out nearly all human life on the face of the earth. And then, when the survivors, the people of Noah, come out of the ark, they build a tower and they rebel, and God judges them at Babel and scatters them across the face of the earth. And that is where the nations come from. So the very origin of the nations is a judgment.

And then, in the story of Abraham and Lot, Lot is taken out of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire and brimstone from the sky. And that is the judgment of God upon sin. And then, as you go on, you have the story of Abraham and the tension between Sarah and Hagar, between Isaac and Ishmael, between Jacob and Esau. And then Joseph and his brothers, who cast him into a pit and sell him into slavery. And God judges that. And God brings Joseph up to a position of power in Egypt. And then, in the book of Exodus, God judges Egypt with the ten plagues. And the judgment of God breaks the power of the Pharaoh. And then, when the people of Israel come out of Egypt and go through the wilderness, God judges them in the wilderness. And the whole generation that came out of Egypt dies in the wilderness. And that is a judgment.

And then, when they come into the land of Canaan, they are to take possession of it. And the conquest of Canaan is a judgment. And then the book of Judges, and the cycle of rebellion and judgment and deliverance. Gideon judges the Midianites. Samson judges the Philistines. And then, in the books of Samuel, Saul is judged by God and taken from the throne. And David, although he is a man after God’s own heart, still sinned, and his family is torn apart by violence and rebellion. And then, in the books of Kings, Solomon begins well and ends in idolatry, and God splits the kingdom. And the ten northern tribes go into exile. And the southern kingdom of Judah is eventually carried off to Babylon. And that is judgment.

And the psalms are full of it. Psalm 46, God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. In the time of trouble, the nations will fall, the kingdoms will fall, but God will judge. And the prophets, the whole book of the prophets is a cry of “Return to me, for I have judged you, and I will judge you again unless you return.” And Jeremiah laments. And Ezekiel laments. And Daniel, although he is a righteous man, sees the fall of Babylon, and he is in the lions’ den, and he is in a land of exile. And that is a judgment.

So the Old Testament is full of the judgment of God. And when you read it with blinders on, you miss half of it. You miss the fact that the God of the Old Testament is a God who judges. And that is not a bad thing. That is a good thing. Because a God who does not judge is not a good God. And that is why, when we come to the book of Revelation, we should not be surprised to find that judgment is a major theme.

A Word on the Election

I have to be careful this morning. I do not mean to suggest that we should not be concerned about what happened in the election. Two-thirds of the people in this state voted for the abortion. You’re telling me there’s only four out of ten people in this state that are Christians? Or is it that a whole lot of Christians stayed home and some others who call themselves Christians voted yes when they should have voted no?

And what happens there, I believe, this is my opinion, this is the point of the service that’s my opinion and my opinion only. I think there were a lot of Christians who thought Donald Trump was the Savior. And before he gets through his second term, everything he did at the beginning is going to be overturned. Our faith must not be in politicians. It must be in the Lord God Almighty.

The Trumpets Echo the Plagues of Egypt

Now, when we look at the four trumpets, we see something striking. The first three trumpets all involve fire. Hail and fire mixed with blood are thrown upon the earth. A burning mountain is thrown into the sea. A star, burning like a torch, falls upon the rivers. Fire is the recurring symbol of God’s judgment in the Old Testament. And here it is again, in the trumpets.

But notice what all four trumpets strike. They strike the staples of life. They strike food and water. One-third of the earth, one-third of the trees, all the green grass. One-third of the sea, one-third of the ships. One-third of the rivers, the springs of water. And then one-third of the sun, the moon, and the stars, so that the light of the day and the night is darkened. All of it comes down to the same two things: food and water.

You and I have to ask, why does God strike at food and water? It is because they are the most fundamental of human needs. Before you have a roof, before you have a bank account, before you have a position of power, you have to eat and you have to drink. And when God strikes at those, he strikes at the foundation of human life.

The First-Century Mediterranean World

Now, you have to remember that this is being written for a first-century Mediterranean world. In that world, the trees were not just trees. The trees were food. The fig tree, the olive tree, the date palm, the almond, the walnut, the pomegranate. The olive tree gave them oil, and the oil was used for food and for light and for anointing. The fig tree gave them fruit. The date palm gave them dates, which were a staple of the diet. And when one-third of the trees is burned up, that is not just an environmental disaster. That is a food crisis.

And the green grass, the pasture, the hay. According to my AI search, and AI can be wrong, it says that in Virginia, we already have a greater demand than supply for hay. That is a down-to-earth fact. When the grass is burned up, the animals that depend on the grass die, and the people who depend on the animals and their milk and their labor are affected. And that is judgment.

The Sea, the Ships, and the Sun

And then the sea becomes blood, and one-third of the creatures in the sea die, and one-third of the ships are destroyed. Now, in the first-century Mediterranean world, the sea was the highway. The ships were the means of commerce, of trade, of movement. And when one-third of the ships are destroyed, the commerce of the world is disrupted. And notice, the disciples of Jesus were fishermen. They knew the sea. They knew the ships. And when the sea is struck, it is not an abstraction. It is their livelihood, their world.

And then the fourth trumpet. One-third of the sun is struck, and one-third of the moon, and one-third of the stars, so that one-third of them would be darkened. Now, in our modern world, we think of the sun and the moon and the stars as distant, as far away, as not having much to do with our daily lives. But in the first-century world, the sun and the moon and the stars were the clock. They were the calendar. They told the farmers when to plant and when to harvest. They told the sailors when to set out to sea and when to come home. And when one-third of them is darkened, the whole order of the world is disrupted. And that is judgment.

And it may be, and I do not know, it may be that this is a reference to something like nuclear winter, or an asteroid, or some other cosmic event that darkens the sky. But the point is not the mechanism. The point is the effect. When the light of the world is darkened, when the sun does not shine, when the night does not give its light, then the world is in trouble. And that is the judgment of God.

Where the One-Third Comes From

The Seals: Famine and Death

Now, if you look at the seals, you will see the same theme. The third seal, the black horse, and the rider has a pair of scales in his hand, and the voice from the midst of the four living creatures says, “A denarius of wheat for a day, and three denarii of barley for a day, and do not damage the oil and the wine.” That is famine. That is a food crisis. And the fourth seal, the pale horse, and the name of its rider is Death, and Hades follows after him, and they were given authority over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and with the wild animals of the earth. That is the full package. Sword, famine, pestilence, and the wild animals. That is judgment.

And the seals and the trumpets are not sequential. They are concurrent. The seals and the trumpets are two different ways of looking at the same period of time. And that is why the one-third in the trumpets echoes the one-fourth in the seals. They are describing the same crisis from two different angles.

The Plague of Hail in Egypt

And now, here is where it gets interesting. When you look at the plague of hail in Egypt, in the book of Exodus, chapter 9, you will see something that is very close to what we have in the first trumpet. The hail and the fire, the hail mingled with fire, and it rained hail upon the land of Egypt. And the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the ear and the flax was in bloom. But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late blossoming. That is the one-third. One part of the crop is struck, and the other part is spared. And that is the pattern of the trumpets. One-third is struck, and two-thirds are spared. And that is not a random number. That is the number of judgment, the number of partial, not total, destruction. And that is why God does not destroy all of the earth, but he destroys a part of it. And that is the judgment of God.

Fire, Famine, and Ezekiel’s Hair

And fire, as I said, is the recurring metaphor of judgment. And fire is always associated with famine. When God judges with fire, he judges the food. And in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 5, God tells Ezekiel to take a long knife and to shave the hair of your head and your beard. And when you have shaved it, take a third part and, at the midst of the fire, burn it with fire. And take a second part and strike it with the sword. And scatter a third part to the wind, and I will draw out my sword after it. And that is the threefold judgment. Fire, the sword, and the wind. And that is the threefold judgment that we see in the trumpets. And in the same book, Ezekiel, God says, “I will do with you what I have never done before and will never do again.” And that is the language of the trumpets. And that is the judgment of God. And it is so severe, in the book of Ezekiel, that it says, “Fathers shall eat their sons, and sons shall eat their fathers. They have been reduced to cannibalism.” And that is the judgment of God.

The Unraveling of Worldly Security

Now let me read this. Joel Beeke says, “The unraveling of worldly security is the first message of the trumpet. That echoes how God used Moses to bring plagues upon Egypt. The plagues were designed to break the power of Pharaoh and to demonstrate the sovereignty of God. And so the trumpets are designed to break the power of the world and to demonstrate the sovereignty of God.” And that is the point. The trumpets are not just a disaster. They are a message. They are the message of God to a world that has forgotten him. And that is the judgment of God.

Three Conclusions

Refrain From Cryptic, Limited Interpretations

So let me give you three conclusions. Number one, you and I must refrain from cryptic interpretations that are limited in application. I do not want to sit here and tell you that the first trumpet is about the Pentagon, and the second trumpet is about the United Nations, and the third trumpet is about the European Union. That is alarmism and stupidity. That is the kind of interpretation that does not apply to anybody. And it is not what the text is saying. The text is saying that when God judges, he strikes at the foundations of life. He strikes at food and water. And that applies to everybody. That is not limited to one country, or one organization, or one group of people. That is universal.

And I love the Bible. And I love the fact that the Bible tells us that when God judges, he judges everybody. And that is the point of Psalm 2. The nations rage, and the people imagine a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast their cords from us.” But he who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will hold them in derision. And that is the point. No matter what political party you are, no matter what country you are from, when it comes to not having food or water, we are all even. And that is the judgment of God.

Americans, Guilty of Thinking We Are Untouchable

And I have to say, we, as Americans, are more guilty than anybody of thinking that because we are Americans, because we are in the free world, because we have the best economy, because we have the best military, that nothing can get to us. But God can get to us as a nation and as individuals. And John Calvin said that when God wants to judge a people, he gives them wicked rulers. And that is a sobering thought. And that is the judgment of God.

And many people want to interpret these things. Real hail, a volcano, an asteroid. But the problem is, those things do not affect everybody. A volcano does not affect everybody. An asteroid does not affect everybody. Hail does not affect everybody. But food and water affect everybody. And that is why the trumpets strike at food and water. And there is a saying, I think it is an Amish saying, but it could be from anywhere, that says, “We owe our existence to six inches of topsoil and timely rain.” And that is the point. We are not self-sufficient. We are dependent on the earth, and we are dependent on God. And when God judges, he strikes at that dependency. And that is the judgment of God.

We Have Ample Experience With These Threats

Thirdly, humankind has ample experience with these threats. Because we have seen this again and again and again in our world, in our culture, in our time. The struggle we have with these sorts of problems, these crises. I do not know if you thought about this, and this is why I am not predicting anything. I am not saying, hey, we are going to have a food shortage. You did not hear me say that. You heard me say that when judgment comes, it comes in practical ways, not mystical ways, that you have got to have a guru to figure out what the mystical thing means. It is fundamental, down to earth, rubber-meets-the-road kind of stuff. But we have ample experience with this. We should not be surprised.

We are in the third decade of the twenty-first century. In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, we had three major crises. 9-11 changed everything for a period of time. 2008, the market, the housing crash, that put hundreds of thousands, millions of people underwater on their mortgages. And without predicting again, I talked to a mortgage counselor. Most of us here know how the housing prices have gotten way out of hand in our area, from the influence of northern Virginia. I value a house at half a million dollars, and I could not buy that house today. There is no way I could even possibly think about buying a house like that today. And I talked to the mortgage advisor about this, and I said, do you think we are looking at something like 2008? He said, no, it will never fall that much, but there is got to be a correction. And many people are living like that day is never going to come. They are leveraging their equity out the door.

And if something like that happens. And the third one, which everybody here is quite familiar with, was COVID, the global pandemic. And yes, we know today that a lot of that was political hype. It was a lot of stuff going on that was against Donald Trump, or whatever else, and we could debate that till the cows come home. But the point is, there was a global crisis that upset everything.

And what we have to be careful of is not being looking for these outrageous events that are happening. Oh, that means, and this means, and the other means. And not seeing what is really happening all around us, and being prepared for it. When God speaks in this book, as complicated the language is, and Paul, I think it was Paul, one time asked, why does God say it like this? Why did he just say it right out? Why do you got to give us all this cryptic stuff? That is the way they talked in that part of the world, in that time period. And also the possibility, and we will get into this, that he is being intentionally cryptic because the powers that be could punish them if they came right out and said the kind of things we have the liberty of saying in our country at this moment.

Closing

If we are not careful, we come to all of this, and this will be especially true when we get down to the fifth angel, we talk about the locusts coming out of the pit. What is that about? Trying to make sense of that. But there are people who look for that exact thing to happen, and they do not see all these other demonstrations of God’s judgment that we are already coping with. Look at these fantastic things that we ought to be looking at. Down to earth things.

Now, I forgot to say this earlier, but we know about the trees, because every spring we deal with this, do we not? The fear of a late frost killing the apple blossoms and the peach blossom. We live with it every year. Well, what happened if that was something that happened four or five years in a row? How would that affect us? And you know all the rest. I do not have to tell you the rest. What I am saying to you is that when you look at these things from that perspective, it is very down to earth. It is not mystical. It is not far out. I do not need to see a conspiracy. I just need to be aware God is going to judge human sin, and when he does, it is going to be a judgment that affects everybody. And only those who have their eyes, ears open, their eyes open, will be prepared when that kind of stuff comes.

And it may be, cannot say anymore. Father, thank you for this day, and for giving your servant a chance to try to go for it to the next day.