If you thought the seven seal judgments were bad, wait 'til you see what happens when the seven angels start blowing on their seven trumpets!
The seventh seal seems to usher in the seven trumpets after "silence in heaven for about half an hour."
Whereas the fourth seal judgment affected one-fourth of the earth (6:8), the trumpets increase in magnitude to now affect one-third of creation.
The first trumpet brings a plague of bloody, fiery hail that burns up a third of the earth, trees, and grass.
The second trumpet precedes "something like" a huge mountain being thrown into the sea with a resulting disaster of a third of the sea turning to blood, a third of the sea creatures dying, and a third of the ships destroyed.
Things don't get any better with the third trumpet as a great, blazing star falls on a third of the rivers and springs, poisoning their waters.
The fourth angel sounds his trumpet and signs appear in the heavens: a third of the sun is struck, as well as a third of the moon, and third of the stars.
What precisely these events indicate isn't sure - but the disaster will be an ecological cataclysm of incredible devastation.
As if all this isn't bad enough, Revelation 8 ends with the foreshadowing cry of an eagle calling out "Woe!" because of what is about to be sounded by the other three angels.
Lot of 3's in the chapter.
ReplyDeleteOne that stood out to me was the "Woe, woe, woe" of the eagle. Earlier we heard the praises of God being sung "Holy, Holy, Holy." I have read that the three Holy's represent the magnitude of God's holiness. God is not just holy, but holy holy holy. It makes me wonder if we can apply that to the woe's as well. This will not just be some ordinary woe (if there is such a thing), but instead is a woe that is 3x worse!