Revelation 5

Chapter 5. The Trumpets and the TribulationThe seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of ourLord and of his Christ,and he will reign far ever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15)The opening of the seventh seal leads to a new series of developments in which seven angels appear upon the scene with seven trumpets, and as they successively sound them, judgment after judgment rolls over the earth, until at length the seventh angel sounds his trumpet and the heavenly voices proclaim the mystery finished, the crisis over, the tribulation ended and the kingdoms of the world transformed into the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. It is quite certain from the close of the series that it leads right up to the millennial appearing and reign of our Lord. Therefore the series must represent the tribulation time and the judgments which it is to bring upon the earth. This is still more evident when we bear in mind the interpretation already given to the section immediately preceding, which we have seen represents the first coming of our Lord and the translation of the saints just prior to the opening of the seventh seal. That, as we have seen, gives us the vision of the sealing of the tribes of Israel on earth and the translation of the saints of heaven. Of course, it must be conceded that much of the prophetic description of this whole period must necessarily be more or less obscure. The exact nature of these terrific events cannot be comprehended until their fulfillment. At the same time the general features of this period can be plainly discerned, and these four chapters, Revelation 8-11, give us a general view of the various judgments that are to roll over the earth during these terrible times.

The Awful Silence

The Awful SilenceIt will be noticed that this whole series of judgments is preceded by an impressive hush of awful silence that fell upon the heavenly world for half an hour. This was perhaps the hush before the storm. It was also perhaps one of God’s mighty pauses, marking the close of one great period and the beginning of another. God punctuated the dispensation with a mighty period, and heaven stopped to take its breath before the beginning of the next chapter of the prophetic scroll.

The Solemn Prayer Offering

The Solemn Prayer OfferingNext comes the solemn offering up of the prayers of all the saints by the mighty Angel who seems to represent the Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly High Priest. It would seem as if these prayers had been long accumulating, and now, at last, were solemnly summed up and formally presented before God for His answer. It was a mighty holocaust of prayer. The cries of the martyrs under the altar, the tears and sighs and breathings of the saints that had been treasured up in vials before the throne are now taken by Christ Himself, and formally presented before His Father, while He claims that the answer long deferred will now at length come and this world will be taken out of the hands of the wicked, and given over to Christ and His saints. As these prayers are formally presented to God they are next poured back upon the earth mingled with coals of fire from the sacred altar; and as they fall upon the earth, there are voices, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake, and the seven angels bearing their seven trumpets prepare themselves to sound their notes of solemn warnings of judgment. How beautiful and encouraging the picture here given of the power of prayer! Long may our supplications wait before they seem to be fulfilled, but God has not forgotten them. Every breath of true intercession will yet reach the Father’s ear. Indeed, perhaps the hush of silence that fell upon the heavens was in order that nothing might interrupt the hearing of these prayers. How comforting to know that, notwithstanding the imperfections of our petitions, our great High Priest presents them mingled with His perfect incense and makes them acceptable even amid the purity of heaven! But still more striking and impressive is the picture of the return of these prayers to earth again as they come back from the heavenly altar, and become the mighty and moving forces that set in operation the whole procession of angelic ministries, and earthly providences that is to usher in the reign of Christ.

Hail, Fire and Blood

Hail, Fire and BloodNext we behold a series of natural judgments upon the physical realm represented by a storm of hail and fire mingled with blood, suddenly cast upon the earth, by means of which the trees and grass are burned up and the earth is scorched and withered. This follows the sounding of the first trumpet and marks the beginning of the tribulation judgments.

The National Judgments

The National JudgmentsThe second angel sounds, and we next behold a series of national judgments. A great mountain burning with fire is cast into the sea and part of the sea becomes blood and many of its living creatures perish and multitudes of the ships that crowd its waters are destroyed. A mountain always represents a great nation, and this undoubtedly describes some tremendous political convulsion, which covers the earth, and especially the sea, with blood and desolation.

The Ecclesiastical Judgments

The Ecclesiastical JudgmentsThe third angel sounds his trumpet and there comes a series of ecclesiastical judgments. A great star falls from heaven burning like a lamp, named “Wormwood” (Revelation 8:10), and as it falls upon the rivers and fountains of waters they become bitter, and multitudes die from their poisonous draughts. The star represents an ecclesiastical leader and power. Some false teacher, some mighty leader of religious excitement or fanaticism, or, perhaps some of the existing systems of error, is permitted to scourge the earth with delusion, perhaps with persecution as in the awful days when Islam offered to many the Koran or the sword.

The Darkness

The DarknessThe fourth angel sounds his trumpet and now the sun is smitten, and the moon and the stars, so that a third of their light is obscured, and men walk in darkness and confusion. This may represent an intellectual and social scourge and the obscuring of the human mind, the possession of the intellect and reason of man by some fearful delusion, some form of mania or madness or some terrible error that leads men into every excess and crime. We have seen such things before and how much more terrible they can become in earth’s last times when the holy are withdrawn from the earth and the devil is supreme, one can scarcely imagine now. These first four warnings and judgments are but the precursors of still more terrible plagues that are soon to follow; and so, before the next angel sounds, a voice is heard announcing in the heavens, “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!” (Revelation 8:13).

The Fallen Star

The Fallen StarThe fifth angel now sounds his trumpet, and, lo, a star falls from heaven, representing another spiritual force. This time it would seem to be one of the fallen angels, one of the spiritual rulers of the dark underworld. Immediately he is given the key of the bottomless pit, and there pours forth from the depths of hell a smoke so dense that sun and air are darkened. Out of the smoke there sweeps over the earth a brood of locusts like scorpions whose power is exercised, not over the grass or trees, but upon the bodies of men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads. They have not the power to kill but only to torment, and their torture is so terrible that “during those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them” (Revelation 9:6). A description is given of these terrible tormentors which will be like horses with crowns on their heads and faces like men, with hair like women and teeth like lions. They are winged creatures and the sound of their wings is as the sound of horses and chariots running to battle. They have stings in their tails and they have a king over them who is the angel of the bottomless pit, and whose name is Abaddon and Apollyon (Revelation 9:7-11). How this brood of hell can be identified as any body of men who have ever yet scourged this earth, whether Saracen or Turk, we cannot imagine. To us they seem to represent some diabolical swarm of tormentors and destroyers from the very depths of hell, such as can only be understood when the prophetic vision is literally fulfilled. We know already that the germs of disease are living things. Science has described the minute creatures that grow up in the human form until they have consumed and destroyed it with malignant sickness; and we know from the Scriptures that these sources of disease are not merely earthly, but they are devilish, too, for Satan is the author of disease and these myrmidons are but his servants. If, in this age, he is able so to torture the human form with sickness how much more may this become the case when all the restraints of this dispensation of grace will be removed, and the floods of hell will be let loose in the last days upon the devoted earth.

The Angels of Judgment

The Angels of JudgmentThe sixth angel next sounds his trumpet, and four great angels of judgment are loosed from the river Euphrates, and an army of 200 million marches forth to inflict upon men the last of the tribulation judgments. This army is too vast to be identified with any chapter of past history and it is too devilish to be compared with Turkish Pashas and modern potentates. These soldiers strike men with infernal fire and brimstone, and this judgment is the letting loose of all the power of hell on an impenitent world; for, notwithstanding all these judgments, earth’s inhabitants still did not repent “of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts” (Revelation 9:21).

The Two Witnesses

The Two WitnessesThe series of tribulation judgments is arrested at this point for a little while and we next behold the future of this dark and dreadful time with peculiar interest. It is the witnessing for God of the few faithful ones who still represent on earth the cause of truth and righteousness. The 10th and 11th chapters of Revelation give us an account of the two witnesses. Who these witnesses are has been one of the puzzling questions and exegetical battles of the century. Even so wise and great an interpreter as Dean Alford is not ashamed to confess his inability to explain who they are. It seems enough for us to know that they are witnesses for Christ, and that in these dark times there will be those on earth who will not be afraid to speak for God and sacrifice life itself in their fidelity to the truth. These witnesses will be clothed with mighty power. They will be endowed with all the gifts of the Spirit, and the seal of God will be upon their heads and hands in all the signs of wonders of the apostolic ministry. They may be two individuals, perhaps Enoch and Elijah, coming back again to earth. Perhaps John himself may be one of them, for it is intimated in the 11th verse of the 10th chapter that he will prophesy again before many people, and nations, and tongues and kings. Or, it may be that they represent two churches or two companies of believers, one of the Jewish people sealed and saved and true to Christ during the tribulation times; the other, the remnant of the Gentile church, the tribulation saints who had not been caught up at the rapture, in the seventh chapter, but who have come to Christ or come nearer to Him during these trying times. At least we know that there will be witnesses, and they will be true. The power of God will rest upon their testimony; and at last their lives will be laid down as the seal of that testimony, and a wicked world will greatly rejoice because at last their power is destroyed and there is no voice left to rebuke them for their sins. But suddenly, these martyred witnesses are raised from the dead and they stand upon their feet before their persecutors, and a great voice from heaven calls them, “Come up here” (Revelation 11:12), and they ascend to heaven in a cloud in the sight of all their enemies. This is followed by fearful convulsions, a great earthquake in which the city falls and multitudes are destroyed, and men in terror, and perhaps repentance, fall upon their faces and give glory to the God of heaven. This resurrection of the witnesses seems to represent the taking up of the tribulation saints to the Lord in the air to join the translated ones who had already been caught up. And this resurrection scene closes the events of the tribulation and is immediately followed by the final catastrophe and the appearing of the Lord in the glory of His reign.

The Jewish People

The Jewish PeopleThe tribulation time will be a time of special interest and severe trial to the Jewish people, therefore they appear very prominently in these chapters. We see the apostle commanded to take a measuring rod and measure the temple of God and the altar and them that worship therein; but the court which is outside the temple he is commanded to leave out and not measure, for it is given to the Gentiles, and they will tread under foot the holy city for 42 months. Here we see a very clear representation of the down-treading of Jerusalem and the afflictions of God’s chosen people, but, at the same time, of the security of those that are within the temple and under the protection of His covenant and seal. According to other Scriptures, it seems certain that Israel will be one of God’s chief witnesses during these days of trial. “This third I will bring,” He says in Zechariah, “into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold” (Zechariah 13:9). And again in Daniel we are reminded that there shall “be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered” (Daniel 12:1).

The Coming of the Lord

The Coming of the LordAt length the seventh trumpet sounds the signal of the coming of the Lord. The mystery is finished, the crisis is passed, the Lord is here! The result is described not so much by a dramatic scene representing the events themselves as by a shout that rings throughout the heavens: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). Exactly what is meant by this event is made more clear in the ascription of worship, We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great— and for destroying those who destroy the earth. (Revelation 11:17-18) We learn from this that: a. The Lord has already come because the phrase “who is to come” is omitted from the 17th verse in the correct reading. It would be out of place because He has come. b. The reign of Christ on earth has begun. “Because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign” (Revelation 11:17). c. This is not a time of gradual conversion among the nations but a sudden shock by which they have been surprised and broken; for we read, “The nations were angry, and your wrath has come” (Revelation 11:18). It is the prophecy of the second Psalm, the breaking of the nations. “You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery” (Psalms 2:8). d. This is the time of the resurrection of the dead, as we are distinctly told that, “The time has come for judging the dead” (Revelation 11:18). e. This is the time when the saints of God are to be rewarded, “For rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great” (Revelation 11:18). We know the time of reward for the saints and servants of God is at the coming of the Lord Jesus to reign upon the earth. It is very comforting to note that these rewards are not wholly for the prophets and distinguished servants of God, but for “those who reverence your name, both small and great” (Revelation 11:18). Most of us, therefore, if we are but faithful, will have a part in that blessed hope and glorious recompense. f. It is the time when earth’s oppressors, destroyers and false rulers will be set aside, for it is added, “for destroying those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:18). It is quite certain, therefore, that it means the final crisis, the end of the age, the judgment of the nations, and the setting up of Christ’s millennial throne.