The Prayers Of The Saints: The 7 Trumpets (4 Disasters)

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Revelation 8:1-13                                                                                                        Lesson 8

Key verse: 8:4                                                                                                            Kevin E. Jesmer 6-20-10

“The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went before God from the angel’s hand.”

    This passage opens with an awesome silence when the Lamb opened the seventh seal. An angel offered incense mixed with the prayers of the saints that went up to God. Their prayers seemed to signal an outpouring of God’s judgment upon the people of the earth. Even though our world seems dark and life is tough, we must know how to respond properly. Hard times are always a time for God’s people to pray and for all people everywhere to repent and come to God. The material in this passage may seem confusing to some.  Don’t throw your head down and say, “I don’t understand.”  The expectation that you will grasp all this material in one sitting is unreal. Bible scholars have been pouring over these things for a very long time. Keep your mind and heart engaged. Be content with getting a general overview of each passage we study. Walk away with one clear point to hold onto to and put into practice in your lives.  Then, if you don’t give up your seeking, God will bless you abundantly. Through a study of this passage may you find hope in God and a renewed conviction to offer up the sacrifices of prayer daily. May you learn what to pray for.

Part 1: The Seventh Seal Is Opened (1-5)

When the seventh seal was opened, something ominous happened in heaven. Look at Verse 1, “When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” For “half an hour” awesome silence fell upon the courts of heaven. This was the longest half hour in history. It seemed like the lull before the storm, just before the devastating destruction of a hurricane. The amount of tension at the moment was unimaginable for there was a heightened expectation of God’s awesome judgments to follow and everyone waited expectantly to see what God would do next. O.K. then…moving on.

The prayers of God’s servants filled the temple. Look at verses 3-4, “Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. ⁴The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand.” A censer filled with live coals was used in the temple worship. Incense was poured on the coals, and the sweet smelling smoke drifted upwards, symbolizing believer’s prayers ascending to God. (Ex 30:7-9)

What were the saints praying for?  They weren’t praying to win the lottery. Nor were they praying selfish prayers.  Mostly they were prayers asking for God’s justice like those in Revelation 5;10, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”  These prayers produced great unexpected changes on the earth. Look in verse 5, “Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.” God did respond to their prayers for justice.  It is revealed in the censer. This censer is a symbolic instrument of judgment in response to prayer. These coals produced symbols of catastrophe: thunder, lightning, and an earthquake. The fact is that no Christian’s prayer is forgotten, but has its effect in due time, in bringing about the Kingdom, that is, the return of our Lord Jesus!

The role of a believer’s prayer is very important. We tend to think that doing things is the most important thing in the work of God. But in my experience, most people who simply “do” things without praying, eventually loose momentum and stop their mission. But those who pray regularly and faithfully have staying power. They can remain true to their mission and their calling all of their lives. It is because God gives us vision, comfort and strength when we pray. He changes our hearts. The Bible says that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16) 2 Chronicles 7:13-15 is very appropriate here. It reads, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, ¹⁴ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ¹⁵ Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.” We are not yet in the terrible times that are ahead. Today is still the time of God’s grace. Today is the time of God mercy. Though we may have trials and tribulations, God’s judgment is stayed for the moment. Now is the time for all of God’s people to pray earnestly and faithfully. May God bless the Day of Prayer for the resolution of the Golf oil crisis.

Part ll: The Trumpets And The Woes (6-13)  

The trumpets, ushering in the judgment of God, were about to sound. In this chapter they are to warn the inhabitants of the earth that judgment is certain.  As the first trumpet sounded, terrible things began to happen in the world. Look at verses 6-7, “Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. ⁷The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.” Earlier this spring (2010) there was a hail storm with hail stones the size of softballs. I saw a video on YouTube where a swimming pool was churned up by falling hailstones until the pool looked like a boiling cauldron of water. In Exodus, one of the plagues was a hailstorm. Ex 9:18 reads, “Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now.” There was fire mixed with blood from the sky. Blood-red rain is not unknown in nature. In the spring of 1901 witnesses spoke of rain that looked like blood in Italy and Southern Europe. It was the result of air being full of particles of fine red sand from the Sahara. (Constable’s notes) What about the rain of fire? It could be a firestorm. American heritage defines firestorm as, “A fire of great size and intensity that generates and is fed by strong inrushing winds from all sides.” When a nuclear blast goes off there is a “firestorm.” A firestorm leveled Hiroshima after the atomic blast.The effects of the destructive elements of the first trumpet would be devastating. Crops would be crushed and burned. Raging fires would level metropolitan areas.

Then the angel with the second trumpet began to sound. Look at verses 8-9, “The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, ⁹a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.”Following the blowing of the second trumpet “a great mountain” that was on fire, came crashing down from heaven into the waters of one or more of the seas. This resulted in a third of the oceans becoming blood. Whether the water became blood, or became a substance like blood, or simply looked like blood, is difficult to determine. This mountain-like mass, possibly a meteor, will provide that molecules resulting in a change in the chemical composition of these seas. A third of the creatures living in the sea died, and a third of the ships on the sea perished. People who avoided the firestorms in the cities, by fleeing to the sea shores, would go hungry. There would be fewer and fewer fish to catch. The means for their livelihood, their ships, would be destroyed. There would be economic collapse, famine and great poverty.

The third angel lifted a trumpet to its mouth. Look at verses 10-11, “The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— ¹¹the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.” “Wormwood” was the name of a bitter herb that was fatally poisonous to some people and was a symbol of divine punishment. This judgment is reminiscent of the bitter water that God gave the rebellious Israelites to drink in the wilderness. (Ex 15:23-25). In a simple survey of verses we can see that something was added to the water that made it bitter. It is some kind of pollutant. There will be no way to avoid it. We all need clean water, but what do you do when all there is polluted water? People would suffer from gastrointestinal illnesses, kidney stones, toxic poisoning, neurological diseases, birth deformities, and if they lived long enough…cancer. Maybe there will be water wars, competing for fresh water.

The fourth angel raised a trumpet to its lips. Look at verses 12, “The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.” In the ninth plague on Egypt, darkness covered the land of Egypt for three days (Ex 10:21-23). Evidently God will cut off light from the sun, moon, and stars from the earth by one-third. The text seems to imply that God will reduce the intensity of light from these sources by one-third (cf. Matt. 27:45). Perhaps a combination of a partial eclipse or pollution in the atmosphere could be the cause. Such a reduction in light, and consequent temperature drop and shortened growing season, would have a devastating effect on the earth. There would be global cooling.

     These first four trumpets were not the end, but the beginning. Look at verse 13, “As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”  Woe means “a condition of deep suffering from misfortune, affliction, or grief or a ruinous trouble.” Eagles are birds of prey that approach rapidly and are a sign of disaster (Matt. 24:28). This eagle flew all over all the earth, warning of the terrors yet to come.

Part lll: We Must Respond In Repentance And In Faith.

We need to ask ourselves, why did such calamities and great sorrows come upon earth? Their point is to lead hardened, and even hostile unbelievers to repentance and to announce further punitive judgments against those who continue in their hardness of heart. The sad reality is that few will repent. Revelation 9:20-21 gives us some insight. It reads, “ ²⁰The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

We tend to blame God for everything. Such a reaction is born out of our own self-righteousness or own idea that we know than God. But we learn that God wants to save people before the final judgment. He is trying his best. In this New Testament era he is drawing people to himself through truth, fatherly discipline and grace, which is God’s love. But as the time grows short and the end of this world draws near, God intensifies his efforts, not wanting anyone to perish.  (2 Peter 3:9)

It is also interesting to note that destruction was only brought upon a third of everything. Because of God’s mercy, there was only partial judgment. I think that a third is very significant. A third is not a whole. When there is third of possible destruction, then there is still 2/3 not destroyed. If 1/3 of a city is destroyed in war that city will still looks like a city and function as a city. If 1/3 of the environment is destroyed it can still look beautiful in some places and bounce back. People whose lives are 1/3 worn away because of their sins will eventually forget and try to cling to some sort of normalcy and have hope to recover. Why did God stop at 1/3? It is because he still hoped that a remnant of hard hearted people would turn to him in repentance and believe in him. He has every right to bring his judgment on an unbelieving and rebellious world, but he relents. Nowadays he pours out his grace on us and is very patient with us. Even in the last days, he holds back his wrath with the hope that someone may turn to him. But it is amazing that most of the people will not repent. Instead they will doubt God’s love. They will harden their hearts against God and raise their fists to heaven.

Our sinful nature wants to ignore God, resist and put things off to the very last moment. We fail to respond even when our lives are 1/3 destroyed. This is true. Romans 1:21-24a reads, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over….”   If we insist on our own ways and fail to respond to the Lord’s chastening rod, then he simply hands us over to our sinful nature. He lifts his hedge of protection in our lives and initially approximately 1/3 of our lives start to crumble due to our own sinful nature. We suffer a lot. Will we respond when we are ½ or ¾ destroyed? How much will it take? Will we become one of the Great Multitude or one of those who will be shaking clenched fists at Christ?

The secret is to not make light of the Lord’s discipline and respond correctly.  Hebrews 12:5-6 reads, “⁵And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, ⁶because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” When faced with heavy discipline on our lives, even when 1/3 of our lives are adversely affected by life’s circumstances, may we never doubt the love of God. Know that God treating us as true sons and daughters and come to him in repentance and faith. What does God want us to repent of? Well, another glance at Revelation 9: 20-21 will make it clear, “ ²⁰The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.” Ask God and he will help you to understand what needs to be repented of and how. God will help you.

While both believers and unbelievers will experience these judgments, we learned last week that with the mark of God on our foreheads we will be protected from spiritual harm. Respond well to the times. These warnings urge us to make sure our faith is firmly rooted in Christ. We should examine our hearts daily to make sure that we are not putting our hope and faith in the things of this world. We must purge our hearts of anything that is an idol and stand firmly in Christ. I urge you, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to take hold of God’s salvation and prayer continuously. Pray for the souls of those who are hardened by the sins deceitfulness. Pray…trust and be faithful. The times may be tough for us now, but for certain they will get worse. We need to get right with God, almost with a soldier like attitude, for it is going to take all we have in order to get stand firm in our faith.

The Seventh Seal Is Opened (1-5)

1. Read vs. 1-5. When the Christ opens the seventh seal, there is silence in heaven.  (1)  What does it signify?  What does another angel offer to God at the altar? (3,4; Ex 30:7-9)  How does he signal the wrath of God to be poured upon the earth? (5)  Think about the role of the prayers of the believers (5:8)

Part ll: The Trumpets And The Woes (6-13) 

2. Read vs. 6-7.  At the first trumpet sound, what is hurled down upon the earth? (Ex 9:16-18)  What happens to the earth?  How would the people suffer?  What does “a third” signify about the trumpet judgments? (Zec 13:8-9,Eze 5:12)  What is the purpose of the trumpet judgments? (Rev 9:20)

3. Read vs. 8-9.  At the second trumpet sound, what is hurled down into the sea? (Jer51:25) What happens to the sea and the things in it? (9)  How would this disaster affect the lives of the people? (18:17-19)

4. Read vs. 10-11.  At the third trumpet sound, a great star falls from the sky on the rivers. What does the name of the star signify? What happens to the river and the springs of water? (11,Ex 15:22-25). How does this disaster affect the lives of the people?

5. Read vs. 12-13.  At the fourth trumpet sound, what happens to the sun, the moon and the stars? (12, Ex 10:21)  What happens to the day and the night?  How do the people suffer without light?  What are the three “woes” that an eagle announces? (9:12; 11:14)

6. In spite of what is happening on the earth, what is the situation of believers in the Lord?

(Rev 7:2-3) What must we do when we see the suffering of the inhabitants of the earth?

(Rev 6:10)

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