A Holy Prayer and a Heavenly Answer

Revelation 8

Immanuel – 3/20/22

As we walk through the book of Revelation, we see much that is strange and much that is terrible. The book is filled with frightening images of disaster and death. We will see more of that today.

But let us not forget the One who delivers this Revelation to the church. It is Christ – the Almighty Son of God. He came to the Jews with meekness and gentleness, healing and feeding, calling them to repent, calling them to believe in Him. He testified, as did all of Scripture, that with the coming of the Messiah the old age was ending, and a new age had come.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” -Mark 1:15

Many Jews did repent and believe; they came to faith in Jesus Christ. But many more did not. The religious establishment, the very establishment that is supposed to know God better than any on earth, rejected their Messiah: and they led the people to likewise reject Jesus. And at the end, all their voice mingled together in that terrible cry, “Crucify Him!”

But knowing Jesus would be rejected, He said:

“I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” -Matthew 21:43-44

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.”

-Matthew 23:37-38

Today we come to the beginning of the end for Jerusalem and the desolation of her house. The sum of all these horrific events is the sounding of the divine trumpet: the kingdom no longer belongs to the Jews; but to all people through Jesus Christ – Jew or Gentile. The Chosen People continue to exist, but they goes by another name now: the Church.

Purpose

What are these trumpet judgements?

What are we to do today?

Read Revelation 8

Christ’s messages to the 7 churches were written in a chiastic structure that creates two sets, dividing the first four churches from the last 3: so that you get a set of four and three. We saw the same structure with the 7 seals – the 4 horsemen and then the other 3.

The 7 trumpet judgements are arranged in the same manner. The first four trumpet judgements are blown upon Israel as a whole, both in terms of the land and in terms of the covenant. That’s what we have just read about. The final three trumpets, which are also called woes, are blown upon Jerusalem and the Temple. You’ll see what I mean in following weeks.

As we come to chapter 8, six of the seals have already been broken. These seals do not unleash judgement. Rather, these are both summaries and announcements of the gathering judgements against Apostate Israel. The horsemen are restless, ready for the trumpets to signal their furious release. The black clouds of judgement have gathered over the Promised Land, pulsating with wrath, flashing with white-hot anger.

But the cherubim hold back doom so Christ can mark His church. Salvation comes before judgement. Christ does not remove His elect from the impending storm; He warns them and seals them with His Holy Spirit. And should they die, yet will they live!

And after people from every nation, tribe, and tongue are marked and sealed; the Lamb breaks the final seal of the scroll. But when it is broken, a very unexpected thing happens.

Read vs 1

Silence

The scroll is ready to be opened. The contents of this new covenant, with all its salvation and judgement, are ready to be unleashed upon the earth. But for a moment, there is a pause. When each of the preceding six seals were broken, it was accompanied by some great sound: a cherubim’s call, the cry of the martyrs, earthquake and thunder. But with the 7th seal comes silence; for this is a holy moment.

The next few verses show us what fills this silence.

Read vs 2-4

Imaginations have run wild over what this 30-minute silence is all about; but that is because we are not first century Jews, and we are not familiar with temple life. But the primary readers of Revelation would have immediately understood what is being symbolized; because they lived it, they saw it happen in the earthly Temple.

Remember, John’s vision is taking place in a symbolic temple in heaven. God’s throne is in place of the Holy of Holies. There is a golden lampstand with seven flames, cherubim, a glassy sea, and an altar of sacrifice. The elders and the sealed multitude serve as priests. Now we read about another temple feature: the altar of incense.

Twice a day at the temple crowds gathered for a ceremony of prayer, at 9AM and 3PM. The ceremony began with a company of priests entering the temple; with one designated to carry a censer of sweet-smelling incense, already burning. Once within, the priests would prepare the inner room called the Holy Place. The incensing priest approached the curtain that veiled the Holy of Holies, where the altar of incense was located. An assistant would spread coals on the altar. Then all the priests withdrew from the temple, leaving only the incensing priest behind.

Once outside, another priest gave a word of command, at which time the incensing priest would ignite the altar of incense and begin offering up prayers on behalf of the people. The temple was filled with a sweet smell and the sound of prayer. Meanwhile, outside the temple, the whole crowd of people fell into a deep silence as they bowed to the ground and entered into reverent prayer.

The ceremony ended when, after about 30 minutes, the incensing priest exited the temple.

The gospel of Luke gives us a little picture into this twice-a-day ceremony.

Now while [Zechariah] was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of people were praying outside at the hour of incense. -Luke 1:8-10

Every first-century Jew would have understood the symbolism in Revelation 8. This is the hour of incense, a time of reverence and prayer.

An angel appears in the role of the incensing priest, to lift the prayer of the saints up to the Ancient of Days, like a fragrant offering. Once again, this angel is a symbolic representation of Jesus – the same angel that sealed the elect. Because Jesus is the only one who stands before the Father, offering our prayers, interceding for the saints.

[Christ] holds His priesthood permanently, because He continues forever. Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. -Hebrews 7:24-25

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

-Romans 8:34

Christ is the great intercessor for the church. He prays, even in this very moment, for each one of us who are His elect. But what fills Christ’s prayers here in chapter 8? I believe it to be the prayer we heard a chapter earlier.

When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” -Revelation 6:9-11

They pray for justice. They pray for vengeance. But they are told to wait a little while. In response God announced the Day of Wrath, He has gathered the clouds of de-creation, of vengeance for apostate Israel; but He has yet to release it. The elect first needed to be sealed.

But here in chapter 8 the wait is over. For as a hush falls upon the heavenly temple and Christ lifts the prayers of the saints, seven angels have been given seven trumpets. Very soon, like the seven trumpet blasts that brought down the walls of Jericho, the walls of Jerusalem will lay in ruins.

Here we see that the seven trumpet judgements are contained within the seventh seal.

The time for the furious clouds of wrath to burst upon the land has come. The martyrs need not wait any longer.

Read vs 5

What great power God puts in the prayers of His saints! How responsive He is to His people! God brings judgement upon Israel in response to the prayers of His saints. The destruction of Jerusalem, the felling of the temple, and the end of the old covenant come – in part – as an answer to prayer.

And there are thunders, lightnings, and an earthquake.

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered in thunder. -Exodus 19:16-19

He Comes! First Trumpet

What we read in Revelation is not about literal thunder and lightning and earthquakes on earth. It is about God coming. When God came to Mount Sinai, it was to make covenant with His chosen people. Now, wrapped in symbolism from Sinai, He descends before His people once more. This time not to make covenant, but to destroy those who destroyed the covenant. The God who comes in judgement is Christ Himself!

And as the trumpets grow louder and louder, the clouds of wrath finally spill their fury on the land. No longer will God withhold His judgements. The people of the city tremble.

Read vs 6-7

Some see a future nuclear war with the first trumpet – something first century Jews could never have conceived of. Instead, the Jews would have thought about the judgements God rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah, or Egypt. This is apocalyptic language of judgement, like the curses of old. Indeed, Israel has become Egypt, and Jerusalem Sodom.

The great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. -Revelation 11:8

All the language that follows, all the trumpets blasts, are the final judgements upon Israel and the covenant they so corrupted. These are all symbols announce that Jesus causes the land, once flowing with milk and honey, to become a smoldering wasteland. The divine bombardment of hail and fire are the hot coals and flames thrown down from the altar of incense – thrown by Christ Himself: the One they crucified.

Mixed with the hail and fire is blood; for all the innocent blood spilled upon this land is now being avenged: just as the martyrs prayed for, just as Jesus prophesied.

“On you [will] come all the righteous blood shed on [the land], from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” -Matthew 23:35-36

The saints have prayed and in response, God has answered with the Days of Vengeance. It has come to the very generation that crucified their Messiah. Like God descending upon Sinai in thunder and lightning, Christ had come to judge.

It would be wrong for us to think of these judgements coming to Israel sequentially, like the cars of a train. Though they are listed in an order, they come together in a furious release.

Notice that a third of the land was burned up. A third of something is ruined with each one of the first four trumpets. Let us not think of this literally. Everything we are reading is symbolic.

Back with the seven seals, those judgements are given authority over a fourth of the land. Here we see a third. Obviously, a third is larger than a fourth. This reveals a pattern of escalation, of increasing devastation, an intensification of judgment.

None-the-less, it is interesting to note that the land was indeed engulfed in flame as the Romans went scorched-earth all throughout Galilee and Judea.

The countryside, like the city, was a pitiful sight, for where once there had been a multitude of trees and parks, there was now an utter wilderness stripped bare of timber; and no stranger who had seen the old Judea and the glorious suburbs of her capital, and now beheld utter desolation, could refrain from tears or suppress a groan at so terrible a change. The war had blotted out every trace of beauty. -Josephus, Jewish Wars, Book 6, Chapter 1

The grass and trees, the Promised Land, was set alight. The storm clouds of judgement have burst, raining down the curses for covenant unfaithfulness. Israel is Egypt. Jerusalem is Sodom. And then the second trumpet sounds.

Read vs 8-9

He Comes! Second Trumpet

Remember in 6:14 that every mountain was shaken and removed from its place? I said that the mountain being referred to was Mount Zion, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the place where God was to dwell on earth. But this once holy mountain had become putrefied. Jesus called it a den of robbers (Matthew 21:13). And as He stood with His disciples, looking upon Mount Zion, He cursed it, said that the Temple bore no fruit of righteousness, and prophesied that it would be torn down. The mountain would be shaken and removed from its place.

Now with the trumpet judgements we see the mountain not just removed, but engulfed in flame and thrown into the sea. I also mentioned in that past sermon that in the Old Testament the sea often symbolizes the gentile nations.

For instance, in one example from Daniel 7, Daniel sees four beasts that symbolize different empires: Babylon, Medio-Persia, Greece, and Rome. These beasts come up out of the sea. You’ll see the same imagery later in Revelation. The sea symbolizes the gentile nations from which these beasts arise.

This is no fiery comet falling from outer space. This is a symbolic expression of Mount Zion no longer existing in Jerusalem, but it is given to all the nations.

For we have not come to what may be touched…But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. -Hebrews 12:18,22,24

Brothers and sisters, we need no temple. The city of God is not one that can be touched; but it is made of living stones – from people of every nation, tribe, and tongue. We have come to Jesus. We have come to what is heavenly, and we worship Him in spirit and in truth.

The mountain, blazing in the holiness of God, just as in the days of Moses, has been given to the nations. A new covenant has come – a covenant of the blood of Christ.

The sea turning to blood is another representation of what we saw one chapter earlier.

Behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes…“They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

-Revelation 7:9,14

What a great sea of humanity washed in the blood of the new covenant! The second trumpet blast is a judgement upon the old covenant. It no longer stands. It has been removed. The covenant is given to the nations through faith in Jesus Christ.

Read vs 10-11

He Comes! Third Trumpet

The common literal interpretation is that a meteorite bursts apart upon impact with Earth’s atmosphere and its many fragments fall into a third of Earth’s lakes and rivers, poisoning them. You can almost see how that would work. But no original reader, no first century Jew, would have imagined such a scenario.

Do you know what they would have imagined? Egypt. The Exodus. Curses for covenant disobedience.

God cursed Egypt with poisoned water. During the Exodus, God had a log thrown into bitter water and the water was made sweet (Exodus 15:22-26): water that brought life to Israel. But because of their covenant disobedience, because they have rejected the Living Word of God, Israel’s once living waters has been turned to poison.

Wormwood is not the name of some still to be revealed comet speeding towards eventual collision with Earth. Every Jew would have understood Wormwood to be the name of a curse.

Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit…The Lord will not be willing to forgive him…and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. -Deuteronomy 29:18,20

Thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.” -Jeremiah 23:15

I am a man who has seen affliction under the rod of His wrath; He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light…He has filled me with bitterness; He has sated me with wormwood. -Lamentations 3:1-2,15

God was de-creating the covenant with Israel, just as He recreated it in Christ.

Read vs 12

He Comes! Fourth Trumpet

This is not about the sun, moon, and stars being reduced in brightness by 33%, or a third of the day being black as night. Again we see symbolic language of curses familiar to the first-century Jewish mind.

As I have explained in this sermon series; the Bible uses the sun, moon, and stars to symbolize rulers, governments, and religious systems. Think of Joseph’s dream, where the sun, moon, and stars all bowed down to him. The sun was his father, the moon his mother, and the stars his brothers. These were the patriarchs.

Or in Numbers we read:

A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.

–Numbers 24:17

In other passages we see God turning the sun and moon black and sweeping away the stars as He proclaims judgements upon Egypt, Babylon, and first-temple Jerusalem. These are judgements not against the heavenly bodies, but against the rulers of the land and their systems of rule. When He brings darkness to the sun, moon, and stars, He is bringing curses – judgements – upon Jerusalem’s leaders.

Though this is symbolic language, it did have a real world fulfillment. As F. W. Farrar writes, “Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, Herod Agrippa, and most of the Herodian princes, together with not a few of the leading High Priests of Jerusalem, perished in disgrace, or in exile, or by violent hands. All these were quenched suns and darkened stars.” -The Early Days of Christianity

And as we will see in future chapters, the leaders of Jerusalem in its final days all met a violent end. Christ was turning off the sickly lights of that abominable city – like Egypt, like Sodom.

The first four trumpets are something like general judgements upon the land of the Jews and the covenant they had soiled. They parallel a number of the 10 plagues God brought upon Egypt. They were curses promised to Israel in Deuteronomy 28 for covenant unfaithfulness. They were curses brought upon wicked nations in surrounding lands. To the original readers of Revelation, the point would have been painfully clear. Israel had come under the judgement of God.

The Son of God comes! Or as we read at the beginning of Revelation:

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the [land] will wail on account of Him. Even so. Amen.

-Revelation 1:7

But there are still three trumpets to be sounded. The pattern of escalation continues.

Read vs 13

Woes Declared

The cherubim that looked like an eagle (Revelation 4:7) proclaims three woes. The final three trumpet judgement are the three woes. They are woes because the misery they bring is far more potent, intensifying the death and destruction. And with the final trumpet will come the end of Jerusalem and its temple. Like the cursed city of Jericho, the seventh trumpet will bring down the walls of Jerusalem.

It will take three more chapter to work through the three woes, and you will see that the judgements have moved inward. The move from the land and the covenant in general, to the city and the temple specifically. The three woes regard the civil war within the walls of Jerusalem, the Roman siege of the city, and the final destruction of Jerusalem.

And it is significant that the eagle-cherub is the one announcing such horrific woes. For listed among the curses for covenant disobedience we find this:

The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand.

-Deuteronomy 28:49

How fitting that the flying eagle declare the coming destruction at the hand of a foreign nation – a nation that itself carried an eagle as its standard.

Brothers and sisters, I am saying that all these judgements came upon the apostate Jews in the first century, culminating at the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

These trumpets, much like the seals, like the whole of John’s vision, swims in symbols: symbols that would have brought to mind profound meaning to the first-century Jews, flooding the mind with Old Testament references. And as we use the Bible to interpret the Bible, the meaning of these symbols begins to explode with meaning and power.

But if all of this is about nuclear war, meteorites, and other modern understandings; Revelation would have had little meaning for the original readers – except to frighten them, just as Revelation strikes fear in the hearts of many today. Abandoning the symbolic world of the Old Testament means that the interpretation of Revelation needs constant revision as technology and geopolitics change – for the centuries have shown us that every generation believed they were living in the end times.

Why not just take Jesus at His word? For after using so much of the same symbolic imagery we hear in Revelation, He said,

“Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” -Matthew 24:34

Again, I am saying that Jesus’ prophecies of judgement were for the generation to which He spoke. He brought ruin upon Jerusalem for covenant unfaithfulness. He did it. It happened. It is done.

So what does all this have to do with today?

Wickedness has not been eradicated from the earth. Unbelief reigns in countless places. There are still wars and rumors of war, as we so painfully see in the news. There is still fear and insecurity and rampant wickedness. The kingdom of hell continues to thrive.

Christ has armed us with good new of great joy. The Spirit lives within us and flows with rivers of living water. The power of Christ in us is so great that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church.

Even still, it might all sound too big, too hard, and we are just little people in a little place.

Brothers and sisters, do not forget what precipitated the awful trumpet judgements of Revelation 8: the prayers of the saints. Even today Christ stands before the Father interceding on our behalf. Every prayer, however big or small, is brought to the attention of the Almighty. He hears every one. He knows exactly what is stirring in your heart.

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer.” -1 Peter 3:12

God is collecting these prayers, gathering them until His appointed time, until the censer is filled; and then He responds. And His response is not small, it is not insignificant, it is not late. It comes at just the right time, it transforms, creates, completes, reconciles; in ways that result in glory far greater than our prayers ever could have imagined.

And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know He hears us in whatever we ask, we know what we have the request that we have asked of Him. -1 John 5:14-15

Do not neglect prayer. Do not think prayer insignificant. Not only is God pleased when you come to Him with your needs and desires, He promises to act. You might not get what you think you want, but you will see glory beyond measure, you will know joy without lack, you will know life abundantly, for you will know God and His great power and grace!

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

-James 5:16

And do you know what is working, what God is doing with our prayers? Our Lord told us. Heaven is coming to earth, advancing through this planet. And more and more hearts are transformed as they hallow our Father who art in heaven.