The Seven Trumpets - Part 1

REVELATION 8 v 6-13

3 Purposes to the Trumpet Blasts::

1.  To warn judgement is certain

2.  To call the forces of good and evil to battle

3.  To announce the return of the king - Jesus

The seven trumpets were key warning signs. A lot of the ways and things that will happen to the earth line up to how God has judged people/nations in the past i.e. Babylon. 

1.  The First Trumpet

• The destruction of fire.
• Fire is regularly used to depict God's judgement in society and on TV. 
• The fire brings great destruction. It wipes the ground clean.
• This then allows for new growth.
• It also says blood came down with the fire, is symbolic of people rejecting the blood of the lamb or does it just symbolise death.
• The fire destroys the life on the surface of the earth.
• Ezekiel 38 v 22-23 - "²² I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. ²³ And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD."
• Ezekiel writes of this judgement that God will bring, the key is that God will be known. Through His just and upright judgement.

 2.   The Second Trumpet

• This judgement hit the sea, turning it to blood and destroying some living creatures. But it was only a third damage at all times. God doesn't fully destroy it.
• Jeremiah 51 v 25-26 - "²⁵ “I am against you, you destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,” declares the LORD. “I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain. ²⁶ No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone, nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever,” declares the LORD."
• Jeremiah prophesied the same judgement upon Babylon. God described Babylon as a mountain.
• Does this link to the modern day super power of evil? Because Babylon is used to describe Rome in the New Testament.
• Will the destruction of 'Babylon' affect the rest of the world?

3.   The Third Trumpet

• The star called Wormwood is named after a bitter tasting plant. It represents the bitterness of God's judgement on the earth.
• Isaiah 14 v 12 - "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!"
• God turns our source of life on earth into something undrinkable.
• God is pointing back to himself, getting people to fully focus on Him because that is all they can do in this time of judgement.
• Do we drink from a bitter pool of pain and hurt?
• Hurt people, hurt people!
• Or do we drink from the fountain of life - the Holy Spirit offers?

4.   The Fourth Trumpet

• The light starts to dim, the light starts to disappear. 
• Some people worship the sun because they think it is the source of all life, but we worship the source of the sun and of the Son - GOD.
• The world is already a dark place but God is making more dark and us as lights need to shine brighter.
• Jeremiah 23 v 15 - " “I will make them eat bitter food and drink poisoned water, because from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.” "
• The sin of the world spread rapidly and the dark keeps getting darker BUT the light keeps getting brighter. And when that light invades the darkness something amazing happens.

God's judgement is going to destroy the world as we know it, He still loves us. He hates what we have done to the world but He doesn't hate us.

Our reliance on God should be strong so if the water all around is bitter we drink a fresh of God, and if the fire (problems) is falling around us then we lean on God's understanding.

God is the source of life and so we should worship Him as the creator, author and perfecter of the world and our faith.