Revelation 8:1–13

The seven-sealed book, or scroll, is in the open hand of Jehovah (5:1-2), and the Lamb opens its seals one by one… Now He opens the final one, and the book of God's counsels about the earth lies open before us. The plans and counsels of our God about the vast interests of earth are no longer a secret. Neither are the means and manner by which they will be carried out. All are disclosed. But why is the seventh seal separated from the preceding six?… A whole chapter (Rev. 7) comes in between the sixth and seventh seals, breaking the orderly sequence of events. The seventh seal opens the way to still further and severer judgments. Before it is opened, the veil is drawn aside, and two great companies out of Israel and the nations are brought into the scene — the fruit of a wide work of grace carried on even while judgment is devastating the earth.

When the seventh seal is opened, what follows is not the judgment that came with each of the earlier seals. It is silence in heaven for the space of half an hour. This surely shows how solemn the crisis is that has now arrived. It is, as it were, a divine pause before the last and most awful judgments fall on the inhabited world.

"Silence in heaven" does not mean that the songs and praises of the redeemed are silent. We must read the silence alongside the subject in hand, which is judgment… The course of judgment is halted. There is a pause both in the announcing and in the carrying out of further punishments… "Half an hour" means only a very brief period in which judicial action is held back. The breaking of the seventh seal brings not judgment, but an ominous silence. It is a calm before a storm, like a stillness in nature preceding a tempest.

There have been many guesses about what this "silence in heaven" can mean. Perhaps no one has suggested a better thought than this. Every intelligent being in heaven stood in solemn awe, because the Lord Himself was now about to go out in flaming fiery vengeance, to judge the world in righteousness, and to put all enemies under His feet.

The seventh seal must come after the sixth… There was a brief pause of solemn expectancy, the lull that comes before the storm about to blow… Heaven takes note of God's ways. The silence was there, not on earth. Signal judgments were hanging over all creation. How strange to imagine that silence in heaven for half an hour could picture the millennial rest!

The seventh seal was not so much a judgment in itself, as that which contained in it the seven trumpets, and was the signal for their sounding.

Divine judgment, when it falls, is not only sure but swift, yet it is never hurried. During this interval of silence the seven angels prepared themselves to sound their trumpets. There is a calm serenity about the divine action in judgment, and God postpones it to the last possible moment.

When the seventh seal is opened, the judgment that came with each earlier seal does not follow. Instead there is silence in heaven for half an hour. This surely shows how solemn the crisis is that has now come. It is a kind of divine pause before the last and most terrible judgments fall on the inhabited world. Then the seven angels who stood before God appear, and they receive seven trumpets. Notice that the trumpets grow out of the seventh seal.

These angels are clearly a distinguished and select group. The definite article shows it — "The seven angels." So does the honoured place given to them — "who stand before God." These seven are not the same as the seven who pour out the bowls (Rev. 15:1). Only about the trumpet angels is such a position stated: "before God."

There are distinctions among the angelic hosts. They are arranged in various orders and ranks, but all, from the archangel down to the least, are servants. They have no relationship to God founded on redemption. They are servants, and never rise out of that position, nor do they wish to. What the angel Gabriel said of himself — "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God" (Luke 1:19) — is said here of these seven angels who stand before God. As for the number seven, they represent the full power of God in judicial judgment.

Even the highest of God's creatures always stands in the place of subjection; the trumpets were given to them. Only the Creator has the right to act as sovereign. But why trumpets? No wind instrument was more widely used in the national life of Israel than the trumpet. It called them together in public assembly. Its loud blast summoned them to war, and directed them when to advance and when to retreat... Its loud warning notes announced that danger or an enemy was near... "The seven trumpets" mean a complete and full announcement. The mystic trumpets of Revelation must not be confused with the literal trumpets of Old Testament times.

The trumpet stands for a loud and solemn call from God. It is God summoning men. If they have rejected His grace, they must hear these sharp warnings of His judgment, even if they forget them. People might not have so easily seen the seals as God stepping in, if He had not told us beforehand that this is what they were... But when we come to the trumpets it is not so necessary to announce that they are heaven-sent judgments. Their sound or summons is quite plain and urgent. Their appeal to men is far clearer.

The judgments that follow are God's answer to the cry of His people. Yet they were in His heart for them before they ever cried. This is what the order teaches... So God prepares everything beforehand. Even so, He must be asked before He acts for them, and that is why we next have the prayers of all the saints going up to God. There is now a union of all hearts together: the common distress leads to united prayer.

"Another angel." Who is he? We are satisfied that the angel priest is Christ, our great High Priest. The service at the altars proves it, for both the bronze altar and the golden altar are named here. No mere creature could make the prayers of saints effective. Only One who has in Himself an independent right and ability could do that. Further, the action at the altars is the work of a mediator, standing between suffering, praying saints on earth and God. Since Christianity knows of only "one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5), the proof is undeniable that the angel priest is Christ and Christ alone, not a representative person or company, as some interpreters take it. The words "another angel" are used of Christ three times in these visions (Rev. 8:3; 10:1; 18:1). The title suggests reserve and distance. Under the trumpet judgments Christ steps back and takes an angel's title and character.

Wherever "the altar" appears with nothing added to describe it, I believe it always means the bronze altar — the first point of contact between God and people on earth. There the whole burnt offering was burned, along with the other sweet-smelling offerings. The fire was taken from there to make the incense rise from its own altar in the holy place… If the same altar were meant at the start of verse 3 as at the end, the full description would surely have come at the first mention, not the second.

The incense used in the tabernacle was made of four ingredients, listed in Exodus 30:34-36. It was mixed to a formula God gave. Anyone who made it or used it without God's permission was put to death… No doubt the four precious ingredients, three of which are named only once, show the moral beauties and perfections of Christ as seen in the four Gospels. But it needed the fire of judgment to draw out the full fragrance of Christ, and only the cross could do that.

Then another angel — Christ — comes and stands at the altar, and gives efficacy (this is, I believe, the force of it) to the prayers of the saints. It struck me, the other day, that when we see the saints as priests, they do not pray at all. But here, when Christ is priest, He adds incense and gives efficacy to the saints' prayers. These are suffering saints on earth.

The altar stands before the throne — not the mercy-seat here, but the throne of judgment. From this golden altar of incense the prayers of the remnant for deliverance and judgment rise to God, perfumed with all the fragrance of Christ, and draw down a speedy answer.

We are told that His incense is offered with "the prayers of all saints." May this not show that in these judgments we see an answer to the prayers of all the saints of Old Testament times, as well as those of the great tribulation?

There is always the happy thought that thousands of hearts may be quietly talking with God when even the eye of a prophet can find none. It is a great comfort to remember, too, that there is One at least who never grows tired of praying for all saints… His incense added to our prayers is what makes the weakest words of our faith rise with welcome from the altar of our worship (Rev. 8:3).

This scene is clearly in heaven, as marked by the golden altar and the throne. So the angel can be no one less than the great High Priest, the Mediator between God and His people. The prayers of all saints — saints on earth, of course — rise up to God on the golden altar. But it is the "Angel" adding the incense that makes their prayers effective.

The royal priests in Revelation 5 present the prayers of the saints as incense. The angel high-priest in Revelation 8 adds much incense to the prayers of all the saints. No creature could do that — only He could. Where would be the sense in adding the prayers of the saints to the prayers of the saints?

They are priests and offer the prayers, but they offer no prayer, no incense of their own. They add nothing and give efficacy to nothing.

In Revelation 8:4 the smoke of the incense going up is the sign that God approves of the incense.

The incense burned on the golden altar at the hour of prayer (Luke 1:10) stood for the perfect acceptance of Christ, which made the people's prayers effective. So it is in this picture. The altar stands before the throne — not the mercy-seat here, but the throne of judgment. From this golden altar of incense the prayers of the remnant rise to God, asking for deliverance and judgment. All the fragrance of Christ perfumes them, and they draw down a quick answer.

May this not show that in these judgments we see an answer to the prayers of all the saints of Old Testament days, as well as those of the great tribulation?

The effect of intercession in this case is to bring down judgment. There is something of mystery here. "The fire of the altar," the judgment of God which Christ suffered, is turned against the earth. What had been a burnt offering to God with a pleasing aroma becomes man's very judgment.

A priest, saints, an altar (both altars, as it seems to me), incense, the censer, and the fire are all here in their proper order. Yet all of it is communion with God as He chastises the earth. If the Lord is brought out at all, it is as an angel, not in His full dignity as the Son of God consecrated forever.

In themselves the praises are weak and cold. But the High Priest has "much incense" to offer with them, so they go up to God with all the energy and perfect acceptance of Christ. He Himself says, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." Here is the Priest with the priestly family. He is not ashamed to call them brothers, and He leads their praises up to God. How this dignifies and elevates all true worship.

The angel here is Christ Himself, for He acts as priest. He presents the prayers of saints to God as a sweet aroma, and He adds a further abundance of incense to them. More than this: He also fills the censer with fire from the altar and casts it upon the earth (v. 5). No priest of the line of Aaron was ever called upon to do such a thing.

Burning coals from the altar go into the censer, and are cast down upon the earth. They come not from the golden altar of intercession, but from the bronze altar of judgment, where the consuming fire of God's righteousness always burns. How unsuited to God's present ways of grace! How suited to the coming day of judgment, and to the state of His oppressed and suffering saints then! The saints offer their prayers from that same censer, so the fire of God's righteous judgment matches those prayers in character as it is hurled down upon the earth.

Here intercession has the effect of bringing down judgment. There is something of mystery in it. "The fire of the altar" is the judgment of God which Christ suffered, and it is now turned against the earth. What had been a burnt offering to God, a sweet aroma, now becomes man's very judgment. These are not only acts of providence. They are religious dealings with the world. The opening of the seals brings out the counsels of God, while the trumpets announce God in judgment.

And what is the fire of the altar? Is it not that wrath of God which consumed the holy One made sin for us?... So those who have refused the mercy of God, which comes through the atoning death of Jesus on the altar, must endure that same wrath against sin. My reader, you and I must be either purified by that fire, or judged by that fire forever.

Some find it hard to believe that this fire means judgment, because it comes from the altar. They remember how a live coal from the altar cleansed Isaiah's lips. They cannot see how fire that has fed on the sacrifice can still be wrath against people. But this is easily answered. Where the heart turns to God, that is certainly true. It is in no way true for those who do not turn. For them there is no sacrifice that avails. Instead it pleads against those who reject it. The cross did not set aside the wrath of God against sin. The cross showed that wrath to be an awful reality. And where the precious blood has not cleansed from sin, the wrath of God rests all the more heavily on those who slight it.

The angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth. He did this as an answer to the prayers of the saints. That is, God is pleased to associate His saints with Himself even in His ways of judgment... They are the saints left on earth after the Church has been caught up to heaven. They are the remnant who appear so often in the Psalms, praying for vengeance on their enemies.

Today God is acting in sovereign grace. Those who have the mind of heaven pray for the salvation of sinners, and God answers their prayers by blessing souls. In the day to come, God will be acting in judgment. Those who have His mind will then be right to use the Psalms that call down judgment on enemies.

There were lightnings and voices and thunders in Rev. 4, but there is more now. Besides those we find an earthquake added. The effect among men becomes more intense.

Earthquakes point to the upheaval of the lower masses of society, overthrowing the social system either partly or completely.

Specific judgments were ready to follow, and the seven angels prepare to sound. This is how God's ways and dealings with His saints connect. Everything is ready for judgment. But they, however weak, represent God on the earth. So the wicked aim their wickedness at them, and that wickedness must be judged. Their cry brings the judgment. Christ offers up that cry with all the value of the incense He can add to it.

But why trumpets? No wind instrument was more widely used in the national life of Israel than the trumpet. It called them together in public assembly. Its loud blast called them to war. It told them when to advance and when to retreat… Its loud warning notes announced that danger or an enemy was near… Both Joel and John speak of the blast of the trumpet. It shows that God is about to punish the sin before Him, openly and in front of everyone — a public and loud announcement that He is about to do so. "The seven trumpets" mean a complete and full announcement.

In general the seals seem to reach further, but the blows were not so severe. With most of the trumpets it is a third part that is struck. So the trumpets may reach less far, but they prove more intensely judicial than the seals… The very name shows a difference. The trumpet represents a loud and solemn call of God. It is God summoning men; for if they have rejected His grace, they must hear — even if they forget — these sharp warnings of His judgment. Unless God had told us beforehand, we might not so readily have seen the seals as acts of God… But with the trumpets there is less need to say that they are judgments sent from heaven. Their sound or summons is quite plain and urgent. They appeal to men far more unmistakably.

"Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them." These seven angels do not themselves carry out the judgments they announce. The four judgment angels (Rev. 9:14) are not the same as the seven trumpet angels.

God's judgment, when it falls, is not only certain but swift. Yet it is never hurried. During this silence the seven angels "prepared to blow" their trumpets. There is a calm serenity about God's action in judgment. He puts it off to the last possible moment.

We are not to take these things only in their obvious or physical sense. Suppose you take something like a mountain falling into the sea (verse 8) literally. Would that ever turn the water into blood? Nothing of the sort. The fact is that these were pictures that passed before the eyes of the prophet. What the figures meant we have to gather from the general tenor of the word, by the teaching of the Spirit.

We can also look at the sounding of the seven trumpets as a section of its own. It runs from the sixth verse of chapter 8 to the end of chapter 11… Notice too what happens at the seventh trumpet. There are lightnings, voices, thunderings and an earthquake. The Lord Jesus comes out in glory with His saints, to take the kingdom and judge the world in righteousness. The voices in heaven say, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever."

The trumpet sets forth a loud and solemn call of God. It is God summoning men. If they have rejected His grace, they must hear these sharp warnings of His judgment, even if they forget them. We might not so easily have seen the seals as God stepping in, unless He had told us beforehand that this is what they were... With the trumpets there is less need to say that they are heaven-sent judgments. Their sound or summons is quite plain and urgent.

The seals in general appear to have a larger extent, but the blows were not so severe... The trumpets, then, may be less extensive in their range, but it will later be clear that they are more intensely judicial than the seals.

Hail signifies a sudden, sharp, and overwhelming judgment from above, with God carrying it out (see Isa. 28:2, 17; Rev. 11:19; Rev. 16:21). Fire is the expression of God's wrath... Fire stands for thorough, unsparing, agonising judgment... Blood signifies death, both physical and moral. Moral death would take the form of apostasy — a complete abandonment of revealed truth, all religious profession given up.

Hail with fire is one of the most solemn pictures of God's judgment that nature gives us. It was one of the plagues of Egypt... Cold, like darkness, stands for God withdrawing. Fire, which is both heat and light, stands for the glow of His presence — and against sin that presence is wrath. The two can come together, however contradictory they seem: "hailstones and coals of fire" poured out at once. When God forsakes, it is always in anger. So what would have refreshed becomes a storm of judgment. There is a concord of contraries against those that cast off God; as for those who love Him, all things work together for good.

In both cases (vv. 5 and 7) the term "cast" implies irresistible power behind. The judgment of the hail and fire with blood cannot be traced to natural causes. They were cast down. They did not fall from the heavens in an ordinary way — an unseen but powerful arm drove them... The earth here means the part of the world that is civilised and under settled, established government.

You will notice that the third part keeps coming up in these divine visitations. What is the prophetic meaning of "the third"? The answer seems to be given us in Rev. 12 (that is, the distinctively Roman or western empire)... If this is so, "the third" would mean the varied wasting away of the Roman empire in the west... One able writer contends for the Greek or Eastern Empire, because the Macedonian was the third of the four great empires of Dan. 2 and Dan. 7. But "the third part" is quite another thought and phrase.

This clearly does not refer to the literal earth, trees, or grass. In Scripture grass is the symbol commonly used for man in his weakness, his very glory being like the flower of grass. Human prosperity, then, would be set forth by green grass. Here we have a judgment of God upon it. Not a certain part only, however large, but the whole of it is destroyed. The trees represent those who are high and exalted among men... So the blow falls on one marked-off part of the scene of God's moral dealings. All the lowly feel the ruin, and the higher classes feel it to a large extent.

The burning up of "all green grass" may refer to the withering of the means of support; or, if grass is here used as a figure of man in his frailty, it indicates a destruction of the choicest and most vigorous portion of the human race, such as the wholesale slaughter of young men called out to serve in war.

In the first trumpet, we see hail, fire, and blood cast on the earth, and some trees and all green grass burnt up. In the second trumpet, a great mountain, as it were — that is, something similar to a great burning mountain — is cast into the sea. In the first trumpet, the earth, trees and grass are affected; in the second, the sea, its creatures and its ships. Both are fiery, burning judgments.

The judgments fall on things rather than men. Yet the things listed — earth, trees, grass, sea and creatures in it, ships, rivers, fountains, sun, moon, stars — are not moral beings, and so are not accountable to God. Man is the rebel sinner who has to be dealt with. The things are symbols of man and of what is connected with him.

"Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares the LORD, which destroys the whole earth; I will stretch out my hand against you, and roll you down from the crags, and make you a burnt mountain." The LORD speaks against the Chaldean kingdom. It looked so firmly established in its might and greatness that no one could overthrow it. Yet He threatens it with consuming judgment, a "burnt mountain." … A mountain as a symbol represents a kingdom or a firmly established power. The key idea in these prophetic symbols is a strong, solid, established power. And this power is itself the target of God's governmental vengeance.

A mountain is the usual symbol of high, settled power. But here it is thrown into the sea, because it becomes the means of judgment to others, and not just the object of judgment itself.

A great mountain speaks of a great governing power, while burning with fire points to a fearsome character of oppression. Thrown into the sea speaks of God's own sovereign power inflicting this scourge upon the nations (the sea of the Gentiles). The waters of the sea speak of "peoples and multitudes and nations and languages" (Revelation 17:15).

First, all through the peoples (the sea) of the Roman earth, the "blood," the "deathful power of evil," prevails. A third part of the creatures in the sea that had life died. As another writer has put it, "I take dying here to be departure from the profession of association with God, public separation from Him, or apostasy." Unbelief and atheism always flourish in times of great disturbance, social earthquakes and revolutions.

Does blood here symbolise a violent natural death, or does it refer to the spiritual death of apostasy? In our judgment these two forms of death are here combined.

This trumpet seems to foretell the overwhelming destruction of a great world power. In its fall it will bring ruin and death on a third part of the nations. The destruction of the ships brings trade to a standstill, and so they lose their means of living.

The language is still highly symbolic. A feature common to each is that the judgments only fall on a third part of the things affected. This shows that for the moment the effects are not universal but limited. The phrase "the third part" occurs again in Revelation 12:4, where the Roman Empire is in question. So here it points to the Roman earth: practically the western European powers, or, we may say, Christendom.

In the judgment of the second trumpet John saw "something like a great mountain, burning with fire," thrown into the sea. In Scripture a mountain pictures a great and long-established power. So Scripture calls Babylon a "destroying mountain," and the LORD says to her, "I will roll you down from the crags, and make you a burnt mountain" (Jer. 51:25). The sea never stops moving, so it often pictures the nations in a state of unrest (see Rev. 17:15).

It is a power that is mighty, seated firmly and lifted high, yet full of volcanic forces in conflict. These will tear out her own insides and spread ruin all around. Thrown into the sea of the nations — already in commotion, as the word "sea" implies — this power produces death and disaster beyond that of the previous trumpet. It attacks human life more directly. Such a state of eruption was in France at the end of the eighteenth century, and it may well illustrate what seems intended. History is full of such warnings of what is coming, and we do well to take note of them. We may expect this all the more as the end approaches. Things grow towards it, and at last it takes by surprise those who have not heeded the warning.

The ever-restless sea is here the chosen figure for the peoples of the earth in terrible anarchy. They have no strong controlling power or firm hand over them. God ordains civil and governmental authority (Rom. 13:1). So the prophetic sea stands for the general state of the nations with no civil or spiritual government. Into these seething masses of mankind this burning power is cast.

Persons, and not peoples or nations in general as in the first judgment, are in question. The term "creatures" would imply as much... Moral, spiritual death is the undoubted force of the judgment carried out here. It is death towards God, and death towards the principles of truth and righteousness. In fact, it is moral death in its widest sense.

A great power that seemed settled is removed from its place. That power is not so much shattered itself as made the means of suffering to others. It is burning with fire, and the result is destruction to a third of the living creatures and ships in the sea. The whole thing is a figure taken from what a volcano would do if it were cast into the sea. In this way the Lord fills out the picture of destruction. A great consuming power falls on confused masses of people, and the result is human slaughter and political anarchy.

This trumpet appears to foretell the overwhelming destruction of a great world power. Its fall will bring ruin and death on a third of the nations. The destruction of the ships brings commerce to a standstill, and so destroys the way they make their living.

A feature common to each is that the judgments fall only on a third part of the things affected. This shows that for the moment the effects are not universal but limited. The phrase "the third part" occurs again in Revelation 12:4, where the Roman Empire, energised by Satan, is in question. This leads to the conclusion that here it shows the Roman earth — in practice the western European powers, or perhaps we may say, Christendom.

The trumpets may reach less far than the seals. But it will appear later that they strike with heavier judgment.

A star is the symbol of authority in government. It is not supreme authority — the sun stands for that — but authority held under another. So the very picture used shows a man who should have been a source of light and order to people. But he falls "from heaven," from the place where God had set him, for God appoints the powers that rule. By that fall he is now cut off from all connection with God. Yet he still burns — not as a star now, but as a lamp — and so he still attracts people by his light and brightness.

The Heaven is the source of authority, a fixed position; all spiritual, civil, and political authority has its source above… Under the two trumpets before this, the instruments of judgment were "cast" upon the earth and the sea. Here this apostate ruler "fell" out of the Heaven. "Cast" would imply that an unseen actor used irresistible power, and that the judgment was violent. "Fell" points rather to a sudden, unexpected downfall.

Waters are the symbol of peoples with no settled shape. Fountains are the sources of their refreshment, and a river stands for what marks the course they take… This blow seems less political than the judgment before it. It is rather the poisoning of everything that ought to bring blessing to people and that touches their ordinary life.

The name "Wormwood" shows his character… Everyone under the withering influence of this fallen being shares his character, "Wormwood." There is a reference here to that striking event in Israel's history told in Exodus 15:22-25. There God made the bitter waters sweet; here the sweet waters become bitter… It poisons their springs of action — their motives, principles, and moral life.

The heavens are the sphere of government, whether civil or spiritual, so this could point to a ruler of either kind… Yet the fall from heaven and the poisoning of the sources of refreshment seem to point much more strongly to an apostate teacher. His fall turns the springs of spiritual truth bitter, and people perish… They refused to love the truth and so be saved, so God sends them a strong delusion and they believe what is false. Here would seem to be the beginning of this.

It is some person who claimed authority and then becomes an apostate. His fall produces the awful results given here. It may be the final Antichrist. He may first have claimed to be a great teacher for Israel with divine authority, and then he takes the awful plunge.

He corrupts the truth of God by his poisonous teaching (1 John 2:22). Many die through it — not in body, but by falling away, so that they become dead to any recognition of the living God.

One would think that such mighty displays of divine power would soften people's hearts. But it is not so… Love, God's own love to man as a sinner, in the cross of Christ, alone breaks and captivates the human heart.

A star, as we saw in an earlier chapter in another connection (Revelation 1:20), pictures someone who holds a lower place of authority. He may give light to others. He is under another himself, but he still rules. Here it is a degraded ruler, a dignitary fallen from his place of authority. Waters are the symbol of peoples not yet formed. Fountains are the sources of their refreshment, and a river is what gives their course its character.

But he falls "from heaven," out of the place where God had set him — for God appoints the powers that exist. His fall now cuts him off from all connection with God. Yet he still burns, not as a star but as a lamp, so he still attracts people by his light and brightness. He falls on all the sources of life, the moral sources, pictured by the rivers and fountains of waters. You can often see this when someone prominent in the church of God turns unfaithful or apostate and morally destroys his hearers by unbelieving teaching.

His name was Wormwood. Deuteronomy 29:19-20 speaks of the man who hears the curses of the law and says, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst." Scripture compares him to a root that bears gall and wormwood. See also the immoral woman of Proverbs 5:4, and Jeremiah 23:15. In Jeremiah 9:15, wormwood seems to be the bitter result of disobedience — even the scattering among the nations. Here, as in Amos 5:7, "You who turn justice to wormwood," it seems to mean the corruption of the waters, and the death of those who drank them.

The name "Wormwood" points to character... The fountains, the sources of national life, are poisoned. All who come under the withering influence of this fallen being share his character, "Wormwood." There is a clear reference here to a striking incident in Israel's history, told in Exodus 15:22-25. There the bitter waters were made sweet; here the sweet waters are made bitter.

The heavens are the sphere of government, whether civil or spiritual, so a ruler of either kind might be meant here... Yet the fall from heaven, the poisoning of the sources of refreshment, and the connection with the sixth trumpet — a parallel, if not something deeper — seem to point much more strongly to an apostate teacher. His fall would embitter the springs of spiritual truth and cause men to perish... People have not received the love of the truth so that they might be saved. So God will send them a strong delusion, so that they believe a lie. Here would seem to be the beginning of this.

The language stays highly symbolic. One feature is common to each judgment: it falls only on a third part of the things affected. This shows that for the moment the effects are not universal but limited.

One would think that such mighty displays of divine power would soften people's hearts. But it is not so... Love, God's own love to man as a sinner, in the cross of Christ, alone breaks and captivates the human heart.

It is the governments of the earth that are affected by the sound of the fourth trumpet (v. 12), and no form of it escapes. As pointed out before, the sun is a symbol of supreme authority. The moon stands for authority derived from the supreme, just as the moon takes her light from the sun and reflects it. The stars just as plainly speak of what is subordinate. Sun, moon, and stars, therefore, express every order of human authority in government… The effect is that confusion and darkness reign instead of peace and security. Little do men realise how much they owe to orderly and stable governments.

The day does not shine in a third part of the sphere of its rule, and neither does the night, in its moon and stars. This would certainly not be the natural result of darkening a third part of sun and moon. It shows us that we do not have here a literal event of the kind described, but figures of other things. Royal or imperial authority has collapsed, along with all the lesser powers that depend on it, within such limits as a "third part" may mark out; and with this, the first series of the trumpets ends.

The language stays deeply symbolic. A feature common to each is that the judgments only fall on a third part of the things affected. For the moment the effects are not universal but limited. The phrase "the third part" occurs again in Revelation 12:4, where the Roman Empire, energised by Satan, is in question. This leads to the conclusion that here it means the Roman earth.

Under the sixth Seal (Rev. 6:12-13) the same symbols express a total collapse of all governing authority on earth. There, however, nothing restricts the breakdown of the whole social fabric and the overthrow of every seat of power… Here under the fourth Trumpet the judgment and its effects reach the "third part" of the prophetic scene, the western part of the revived empire. The term "third part" occurs five times in this one verse (v. 12). The effect of this judgment is that moral darkness settles down on the empire like a funeral shroud.

The public course of things was thrown into confusion and darkness, the day darkened in its sunlight. But more than that, the private and hidden life of man lost the light that guided it. There was darkness and stumbling. There was no perception of God's will, and no way or light to walk by that human understanding could use.

Of course this cannot be literal. The sun (which is the supreme source of light to the earth) speaks of the light of the glory of God. So this darkening speaks of people being plunged into the darkness of atheism, not seeing the sun. They become closed even to the reflected light of the moon and the stars. The light of heavenly testimony is gone from the whole kingdom of the beast.

We have had the preliminary judgments brought in by the first four trumpets… and last of all, the whole fabric of political rule, both supreme and subordinate, has to suffer a notable eclipse. So it was a judgment of circumstances, not a judgment falling on people themselves. But we also see a closing hint of still deeper blows. They are marked off in the clearest way from the series that came before: "Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth!"

I believe John saw an eagle here. In Revelation 14:6 it is an angel, and our verse may have been made to match that one. Or perhaps the two words were simply confused by carelessness. The eagle's flight in mid-heaven was the dark and most fitting herald of coming woe. Nor is there any real difficulty in its loud utterance; for the altar itself is, in the true text, made to speak in Revelation 16:7.

Both the eagle and the angel are messengers. Both are seen flying across the sky so as to scan the earth, even to its farthest bounds, and to proclaim their message aloud. The flying eagle is a herald of judgment, the flying angel is a messenger of mercy.

Judgment is about to fall on these "inhabitants of the earth." The eagle that announces the woes probably stands for the speed with which the blows will descend. For "while people are saying, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them." When God begins to judge, He makes short work of the earth.

The first four trumpet judgments dealt mainly with the circumstances of life. The trees, the rivers, the sun, moon, and stars stand for these. The last three trumpet judgments are more severe and terrible, since, as we shall see, they fall on people rather than on their circumstances. They bring woe to that special class called dwellers upon the earth. These are the people who, like Cain, go out from the presence of the Lord and try to build a world without God.

Woe is then announced. It falls above all on those who had their settled place on earth, unlike those with the heavenly calling. The judgments on the earth neither woke them nor moved them. They clung to the earth as their home despite everything. Threefold woe! The term "dwellers on," or "inhabitants of," the earth has not appeared before this, apart from the promise to Philadelphia and the cry of the souls under the altar. Both of those stood in contrast with such people. After all these dealings of God they are a distinct and clearly marked class.

It is a class who profess the light outwardly. They even admit that the testimony in the word of God is true, both to the present grace of the gospel and to the coming judgment on the world. Still, their interests lie entirely on the earth. There may be an actual crisis, as there surely will be, when this is plainly shown. Yet as a principle it is of the deepest practical importance to see how God regards "dwellers on the earth."

Then the fifth trumpet, or first woe judgment, falls on a Judaism that has turned away from God. It is the subject of Revelation 9:1-11. The sixth trumpet, or second woe judgment, deals with the guilty inhabitants of the Roman earth, who have also abandoned God. That is the burden of Revelation 9:12-21. The final blast of the trumpet, or third woe, touches the whole world. In the end it reaches to the close of the thousand-year kingdom reign, even to "the time for the dead to be judged."