Revelation 8

CHAPTER 8THEME: Opening the seventh sealIn chapter 8 we have the opening of the seventh seal which introduces the seven angels blowing seven trumpets. Four of the trumpets will be dealt with in this chapter. After the parenthetical matter of chapter 7, the sealing to two companies, we now have the opening of the seals resumed. Only the seventh seal remains to be opened. This is the pattern that John sets for the remainder of the Book of Revelation so that we cannot be led astray. There will be series of sevens and, in fact, there are four such series which relate to the Great Tribulation period.

John will give the first six of whatever the series is. Then he will present parenthetical material that contributes to the understanding of that particular series. Finally, the opening of the seventh of the series will introduce the next series of seven, which means that these series are interrelated, tied together, and actually belong to the same period. There is no reason to get bogged down or to be sensational at this point. To begin with, we have said that everything from chapter 4 on is future"the things that shall be after these things" (see Rev_1:19). We are living in the things that are present, the church age, and in one sense these things do not concern us. Many people say, “Oh, it frightens me to study the Book of Revelation!” I will admit that, beginning with the riding of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, these are terrible, terrific judgments that are coming on this earth. They are so tremendous that they boggle the mind just to read about them. But we can at least know where we are: these are things that will take place after the church has left the earth.

If you are a child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit to be delivered to Christ when the church goes out of the world before the Great Tribulation period. This is what is called “the blessed hope” of the church. These seven trumpets will bring us to the full intensity of the Great Tribulation. The seven seals bring judgments which are the natural results of the activities of sinful man apart from God. The sixth seal brings the judgment of nature. The seven trumpets reveal that God is directly and supernaturally judging a rebellious race. The seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven personalities, and the seven vials or bowls of wrath all concern the same period, but from a little different angle. (1) In the seven seals we see the judgment which is the result of man’s willful activity. The judgment of God will be coming upon sinful man. In the first seal we saw the riding of the white horsea false peace; “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them …” (1Th_5:3). The second seal was the riding of the red horse of war. War comes because it is in the heart of man. A great many people think that if we took all the guns away from people, if there were no arms and no atom bombs, then we would have peace on the earth.

My friend, war is in the heart of man, and you have to change the heart of man before you can get rid of war. Frankly, I would have more confidence in a real, born-again Christian who has a gun than an unsaved man who does not have a gun, because if he is unarmed, he can still choke his victim to death. We are seeing that murder is in the human heart. (2) In the seven trumpets, to which we are coming in this chapter, we see the judgment which is the direct activity of God. (3) When we come to the seven personalities, we will see the judgment which is the result of Satan’s fight against God. Satan will be brought out in the open at that time. (4) In the seven bowls of wrath, we will see the final judgment of the Great Tribulation, which is the direct activity of God because of man’s and Satan’s rebellionGod will judge both, by the way. As we come to this section in which symbols will be used, let us remember that a symbol is a symbol of a fact. We will find that there is a strange and strong similarity between the plagues of Egypt in Moses’ day and the trumpet judgments. It is quite reasonable and logical to conclude hat if the plagues of Moses were literal, then the plagues that are coming in the Great Tribulation period are going to be literal. The symbols that are used are symbols of the reality which is coming. Plain language could not make it clear to our minds how terrible and tragic the Great Tribulation will be. It beggars description, and so God exhausts language and brings in symbols.

It is well to keep in mind that this book is a revelation of Jesus Christ. We see Him now in a new role of Judge. The symbols that are used are not hazy and shadowy symbols which can be dissipated into thin air by some specious system of hermeneutics. When symbols are usedand they are used in this bookthe key to their meaning is supplied. Scripture will furnish the explanation, and you do not need to draw upon your imagination. The Book of Revelation is the last book in the Bible because a working knowledge of the sixty-five books preceding it is the basic requirement for an understanding of its vivid language. I get a little irritated when I see a new Christian immediately start teaching a class in the Book of Revelation. Why doesn’t he go back to the beginning and start with Genesis? Take some other book, but do not begin with Revelation. I come to the teaching of Revelation only after having taken nearly five years to go through the rest of the Scriptures. I believe that gives us the right to teach the Book of Revelation; I would not want it otherwise.

It was Peter who said, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation” (2Pe_1:20). You do not interpret Revelation by itself; there are sixty-five books before it. The symbols are going to be given to us, but we need to remember that the symbols stand for awful realities. The opening of the seventh seal introduces the seven trumpets, and that is the way this entire book is built. If the structure of the book is followed, it will prevent you from going off into fanaticism and sensationalism and, as a Christian, it certainly ought to keep you from saying, “The Book of Revelation is so frightful! It terrifies me!” It ought not to terrify you. Actually, it ought to be a comfort to you. I thank God that He is going to judge this world that is running wild today. The way that mankind has blundered and gotten this world into a mess makes it look like it is filled with madmen. I thank God He is going to judge it, and He is going to judge it rightly. It is very comforting to recognize that. People often urge me to speak out on my radio broadcast against certain things that are taking place. It is not my business to get on radio and denounce every wrong. My business is to give out just the Word of God, and that is what I am going to do. He is going to straighten this world out someday. I wouldn’t have that job for anything in the world. I am glad it is His job. He is going to straighten out this world, and He is going to move in judgment. Maybe you don’t like the fact that the gentle Jesus is going to judge. We have already seen that the wrath of the Lamb will be terrifying to those on earth. My friend, when you talk about the gentle Jesus, you had better get acquainted with Him. He died for you, He loves you, and He wants to save you, but if you will not have Him, I tell you, there is waiting ahead of you a terrifying judgment. Someone will say to me, “You are trying to frighten people.” I would like to scare you into heaven if I could, but I know you are too sophisticated and cynical for that. But, my beloved, judgment is coming on this earth. I say, Hallelujah! I am glad that it is coming and that God is not going to let the world go on like it is now. It has gone on long enough.

Revelation 8:1

OPENING OF THE SEVENTH SEALINTRODUCTION OF SEVEN TRUMPETSThe first verse of this chapter describes what takes place as the seventh seal is opened. Here is my translation of this verse: And when (ever) He opened the seventh seal there came to pass a silence in heaven of about a half hour. “There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” Many years ago I was speaking at a conference to about three or four hundred young people here in Southern California. I was out on the grounds of the camp, and coming toward me was a group of girls, and in the middle of them there was one boy. It looked like the girls were going to take him apart, and they were making a great deal of noise about it. Finally, they came up to me, and the girls wanted me to hear what this fellow had said. He said to me, “Dr. McGee, did you know that there are not going to be any women in heaven?” I said, “No, I didn’t know that. Do you have Scripture for it?” He said, “Yes. The Bible says that there is going to be silence in heaven for the space of half an hour. If there are any women there, there couldn’t be any silence for that long!” That young man was surrounded by a bunch of girls who were attempting to correct him on that particular interpretation, and frankly I agreed with the girls that that is not the meaning here at all. This verse does not mean that there are not going to be any women in heaven! I probably did wrong to open this passage on that very light note, because here is a passage that has to do with a great solemnity and great seriousness. The Lord Jesus Christ is still in command. He opens the seventh seal, and there is introduced a fanfare of seven trumpets. He directs the action now from heaven. We need to keep that before us through the entire book. Do not lose sight of the fact that Revelation presents Him in His glory as the Judge of all the earth. It may deceive you to have Him presented as the gentle Jesus who went about doing goodwhich He did, but we are also going to see the wrath of the Lamb some day. The Lamb is the One of whom John the Baptist said, “…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (Joh_1:29). Men are not lost because they are sinners; they are lost because they have rejected Jesus who died for them. Even if you go into a lost eternity and have not accepted Christ, He died for you, and you simply made His sacrifice for you of no avail. You have trodden underfoot the blood of Christ when you take that kind of attitude and position toward Him. This is a very solemn scene. The Lord Jesus Christ orders a halt on all fronts: heaven, hell, and earth. Nothing can move without his permission. He had already ordered the cessation of natural forces on the earth when He ordered the sealing and saving of two definite groups. Now, for a brief moment, there is a lull in judgment activity; there is a heavenly hush. Godet defined it: “This silence is a pause of action.” It is the lull before the storm. Why is there this strange silence? God’s patience is not exhausted. When the sixth seal was opened and nature responded with a mighty convulsion, brave men weakened for a moment. Christ gave them opportunity to repent. But like the Pharaoh of old who, when the heat was taken off, let his willful heart return to its original intention, many men will go back to their blasphemous conduct when there is a calm. They probably will even rebuke themselves for showing a yellow streak.

They will say, “It was only nature reacting. It wasn’t God, after all. Everything can be explained by natural causes.” This, my friend, is the lull before the storm. As someone has said, “The steps of God from mercy to judgment are always slow, reluctant, and measured.” God is reluctant to judge for He is slow to anger. Judgment is His strange work. Isaiah writes: “For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act” (Isa_28:21). What is strange about God? That He judges, that He is a God of love, judging His creatures. “For I have no pleasures in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD …” (Eze_18:32). This silence marks the transition from grace to judgment. God is waiting. By the way, He is waiting for you today if you have not come to Him. You can come to Him, for He is a gracious Savior.

Revelation 8:2

BLOWING OF THE SEVEN TRUMPETSJudgment is getting ready to come upon the earth. This is the lull before the storm of judgment which is coming on the earth during this particular period. When I was a boy, my dad built a storm cellar wherever we moved. I spent half of my boyhood, during the spring and early summer, sleeping in the storm cellar. Late one evening my dad and I were standing in the storm cellar doorway. He was watching a storm come up, and he saw that it was not going to hit our little town in southern Oklahoma.

It hit one just about ten miles away. We could see the funnel as it let down near that little town. But before that storm hit, there was a certain stillness. The wind had been blowing, the rain had been coming down, there had been a great deal of thunder and lightning, but suddenly all of that stopped, and for a few moments there was a deathlike silence. Then the wind began to blow like I’ve never seen it blow. It was not a funnel-shaped hurricane or a tornado, but just a straight wind.

It was all my dad could do to get that storm cellar door down, and I helped him hold onto the chain. The storm broke in all its fury. This is the way the Great Tribulation will break upon the earth, and it is presented to us in this way in the blowing of the trumpets, which is the subject of chapter 8, verse Rev_8:2, through chapter 11. ANGEL AT THE ALTAR WITH CENSER OF INCENSE And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and there was given to them seven (war) trumpets.These “seven angels” are introduced to us as a special group. I believe that Gabriel is in this group because we are told that he stood before God. When he announced the birth of John the Baptist to Zacharias, he said, “…I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God …” (Luk_1:19). The seraphim are also identified as beings who stand before God (see Isa_6:1-2). However, these seven angels are seemingly a different order from the seraphim as their mission and service are altogether different. “Seven trumpets” have a special meaning for Israel. I don’t want you to miss this; I consider this all important. Here is where it is essential to have a knowledge of the Old Testament. In the Book of Numbers, Moses was given instructions by God for the making of two silver trumpets. Two was the number of witnesses. The Lord has said on several occasions that in the mouth of two witnesses a matter would be established. These two trumpets were used on the wilderness march in a twofold way. They were used for the calling of the assembly, and they were used to start the procession moving on the wilderness march. “Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps” (Num_10:2). When Israel entered the land, the trumpets were used for two other purposes: “And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the LORD your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God” (Num_10:9-10). A single trumpet was blown on the wilderness march to assemble the princes: “And if they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee” (Num_10:4). This single trumpet is, to my judgment, that which corresponds to “the last trump” which Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15. This trumpet was for the bringing together of a certain group out of Israel. Paul writes: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1Co_15:51-52). Unfortunately, there are some who assume that “the last trump” of 1 Corinthians 15 is the seventh trumpet of Revelationthere is no relation at all. Listen again to Paul: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1Th_4:16). The “shout” is the voice of the Lord Jesus. “The voice of the archangel” means that His voice is like that of an archangel. “The trump of God” is still His voiceHis voice will sound like a trumpet. We see that from chapter 1, verse Rev_1:10, where John says that he heard a voice like the sound of a trumpet, and he turned to see the glorified Christ. The glorified Christ is going to call His own out of the earth. When Paul speaks of “the last trump"“the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised"he means the call of the Lord Jesus. It is the last call that He makes to the church, and it is therefore called “the last trump.” But the Old Testament type of it is the calling of the princes from out of the children of Israel. One trumpet is blown, and it has no relation to the movement of the children of Israel on the wilderness march. However, the trumpets did sound an alarm which moved Israel on the wilderness march, and an alarm was sounded to move each division. The tribes were divided into four groups of three tribes each which divided into four groups of three tribes each which camped on the four sides of the tabernacle. In addition there were three separate families of Levi who carried the articles of furniture of the tabernacle: Kohath, Gershon, and Merari. Four and three make seven. There were seven blowings of the trumpets to move Israel out. When the first trumpet was blown, the ark moved out with the Kohathites carrying it.

Then the tribe of Judah moved out with the two other tribes under the banner of Judah, and so on until they were all on the march. Every man knew his place and stayed in his station. There was no disorder in the camp of Israel whatsoever. (The apostle Paul says that everything is to be done decently and in order in the church. I wish the church were as orderly as Israel was on the wilderness march.) But note particularly that it took seven trumpets to move them out. The seven trumpets of Revelation will likewise have the positive effect of moving Israel into the land of Palestine. I believe that it will take these seven trumpets to get all of Israel back into that land. This is another reason I do not believe their present return to the land is a fulfillment of prophecy. Rather, it will be fulfilled in the Great Tribulation with the blowing of the seven trumpets as they were on the wilderness march. After the seventh trumpet, Israel is identified for us in chapter 12 as the special object of God’s protection. An understanding of the trumpets, therefore, will prevent us from identifying “the last trump” of the church with the seven trumpets of Revelation. As the trumpets of Israel were used at the battle of Jericho, so the walls of this world’s opposition to God will crumble and fall during the Great Tribulation. When the Lord Jesus comes, He will put down the last vestige of rebellion against Himself and against God and establish His Kingdom here upon this earth. This is a book of triumph and of victory for our God. At the end it has the Hallelujah Chorus, and maybe you and I can sing it when we get there!

Revelation 8:3

And another angel came and stood over [Gr: epi] the altar, having a golden censer (bowl); and there was given unto him much incense, that he should add it unto (give it unto) the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.“Another angel” is positively not Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is no longer in the position of intercessor for the church. We saw in chapters 4-5 that He moved away from that position and was given the seven-sealed book. He is in charge of everything that happens from there on in Revelation. He is not moving as one of the actors down on earth’s stage; He is in heaven with the church, and He is not the intercessor. He is now in the place of judgment.

He holds the book of the seven seals, and He directs all the activities from the throne. This angel is, as it is stated here, just “another angel.” I do not think the Lord Jesus would be identified as that. Although it is true that in the Old Testament the preincarnate Christ appeared as an angel, I do not believe He will ever appear again as an angel. He will be as He is in the glorified body, and we will see Him as He is someday. The “golden altar” is the place where prayer is offered. Christ is not in the place of intercession before the golden altar. He is now upon the throne. Incense is likened unto prayer and is a type of prayer. David said in Psa_141:2, “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense….” Incense speaks of the value of Christ’s name and work in prayer. “If you ask in My name” is His injunction. Many today who really believe the Word of God are falling into the habit of ending their prayer by just saying “Amen.” Someone said to me, “It is redundant to say, ‘In Jesus’ name,’ because in your heart you are praying in Jesus’ name.” I agree that to pray in Jesus’ name means more than simply putting on a tag end, “in Jesus’ name.” But I want to say that if you are making a prayer in Jesus’ name, and especially a public prayer, be sure to say that it is in Jesus’ name. I believe that is very important. Here they are offering incense, a sweet smelling incense. You and I are not heard for our much speaking or for our flowery prayer. We are heard when our prayer is made in Jesus’ name. It is interesting that the incense was given to this angel. Christ didn’t need anything given to Him when He prayed. The prayers of saints which were offered under the fifth seal (see Rev_6:9-11) are now being answered because of the person and sacrifice of Christ.

Revelation 8:4

And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. Prayer is going to be answered because of Christ.

Revelation 8:5

And the angel hath taken (takes) the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and he throws (casts) it upon (into) the earth: and there were (came to pass) thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and an earthquake. The high priest of Israel took a censer with him as he carried the blood into the Holy of Holies. Here the ritual is reversed, because out of heaven the censer is hurled upon the earth. In other words, the prayers ascended as incense, and now we have the answer coming down. The tribulation saints had prayed, “Oh, God, avenge us!” The people of the earth, having rejected the death of Christ for the judgment of their sins, must now bear the judgment for their own sins. The Great Tribulation is going to get under way. “Thunders” denotes the approach of the coming storm of God’s judgment. “Voices” reveals that this is the intelligent direction of God and not the purposeless working of natural forces. God is in charge. “Lightnings” follow the thunder. This is not a reversal of the natural order. We see the lightning before we hear the thunder due to the fact that light waves move faster than sound waves. Actually, the thunder comes first, but we do not hear it until after we have already seen the lightning. The “earthquake” is the earth’s response to the severe pressure which will be placed upon it during the judgment of the Great Tribulation period.

Revelation 8:6

And the seven angels having the seven trumpets prepared themselves that they should blow the trumpets. This is a solemn moment. The half hour of silence is over. The prayers of the saints have been heard. The order is issued to prepare to blow. The angels come to attention, and at the blowing of the trumpets, divine wrath is visited upon rebellious men. The blowing of the trumpets does not introduce symbols or secrets. The plagues here are literal plagues. This method today of evaporating the meaning of Scripture by calling it symbolic is just as bad as denying the inspiration of the Word of God. In other words, it is saying that God doesn’t mean what He says but that He means something else altogether.

Revelation 8:7

FIRST TRUMPETTREES BURN And the first angel blew the trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mingled in blood, and they were cast into the earth and the third part of the earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all the green grass was burnt up. This is a direct judgment from God. Judgment falls upon plant life, from the grass to the great trees. Every form of botanical life is affected first. Notice, however, that it is only one-third, but it makes a tremendous impact upon the earth. Fire, the great enemy, is the instrument God uses.

The Flood was used in the first global judgment; now it is going to be fire. This earth is to be purifed by fire. The forests and the prairies covered with grass are partially destroyed by fire. One-third of the earth denotes the wide extent of the damage. “One-third” means not one-fourth or one-half; it means one-third. Plant life was the first to be created, and it is the first to be destroyed. In the record given in Gen_1:11, God began with the creation of plant life after order had been brought into the physical globe. This is a literal judgment upon plant life in the same way that the seventh plague of Egypt was literal (see Exo_9:18-26). I called attention before to the fact that there is a striking similarity between the plagues in Egypt and the trumpet judgmentsthis is no accident. If you go back to the Book of Exodus, you will see that the plagues are literalevery believer in the Bible has to grant that; then you must also grant that these plagues in Revelation should be taken in the same fashion. I do not know by what flip-flop method of hermeneutics you could interpret one way in one passage and another way in another passageunless the Scripture makes it clear that you can do such a thing. When hail came down on Egypt, we are told that “…the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field” (Exo_9:25)it was 100 percent destruction in Egypt; it will be one-third of the earth.

Revelation 8:8

SECOND TRUMPETSEAS BECOME BLOOD And the second angel sounded (blew the trumpet), and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was thrown (cast) into the sea, and the third of the sea became blood; and there died the third of the creatures which were in the sea, (even) they that have life. And the third of the ships was destroyed. The sea, which occupies most of the earth’s surface, is next affected by this direct judgment of God. The separation of the land and the sea occurred on the same day in which plant life appeared (see Gen_1:9-10). I want you to notice the exact language used here. John does not say that a burning mountain was cast into the sea but rather he indicates that a great mass or force “as it were a great mountain burning with fire was [thrown] cast into the sea"as it were a great mountain. This careful distinction in the use of language should be noted, especially since it is the common practice to lump together everything in Revelation and call it symbolic. You might think that it gets you out of a lot of trouble, but it gets you out of the frying pan into the fire, by the way. The mountain represents something as literal and tangible as that which we have in Jer_51:25 where the Lord is talking about Babylon: “Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.” This literal mass falls into the literal sea, one-third becomes literal blood, and one-third of all the literal living creatures in the literal sea die a literal death. Nothing could be plainer than this. Also, one-third of the literal ships of all literal nations are literally destroyed. If we just let John say what he wants to, he makes it very clear. There is no use to try to find some symbol. John doesn’t say that this is symbolic. He makes it very clear that a great mass, a force, is put into the ocean. I do not know what this could possible be, and there are two reasons for that. First of all, John didn’t tell me; he didn’t tell anybody, and therefore, I do not think that anyone has the answer. The second reason is that I don’t expect to be here at that time to be reading the evening papers.

The bad news that we get in the papers and on television today will continue, only more so, during the Great Tribulation. I won’t be here to see it. Therefore, this does not concern me too much, other than it is an awful tragedy that is coming on a Christ-rejecting world which actually ridicules the Word of God today. This is something that certainly makes the believer sorrowful in his heartbut it ought to do more than that. It not only ought to affect our hearts; it ought also to affect our wills and our feet to start us moving to get the Word of God out to the world. That is our responsibility, and I believe it is a very solemn responsibility.

We cannot keep this judgment from coming to earth, but we can get the Word of God out and reduce the population that will be left on the earth so that fewer people will go through that terrible time.

Revelation 8:10

THIRD TRUMPETFRESH WATERS BECOME BITTER And the third angel blew the trumpet (sounded), and a great star burning as a torch fell from (out of) heaven, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of the waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood [Gr.: Apsinthos]; and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.We are living in a world today where a great deal is being said about pollution, and it is a real problem. Man seems to have gotten a head start on the star in polluting all the waters. Personally, I think that man is going to be forced to clean up the water of the world if he is going to be able to exist at all. Self-preservation is considered to be the first law of nature, and man wants to hang on to this little earth; so he’s going to do something about it. In the Great Tribulation, the fresh water is polluted, and the drinking water for mankind is contaminated, that is, one-third of it is. Those of us who live in Southern California know something of the scarcity of fresh water for drinking and domestic use. I am told that in Los Angeles it costs somewhere around $100 million just to turn on the spigot to get the water here to us. Fresh water is something that is essential for man and beast. I remember the drought of the ’50s in Dallas, Texas. The city’s water supply came from man-made lakes; the lakes dried up, and the supply was exhausted. It was necessary to get water from the Red River, but the oil companies had allowed salt water from their deep wells to drain into the river.

Nobody worried about it until they needed the water for drinking. It was so salty, it was barely possible to drink it. Many people traveled to surrounding little towns to get a bottle of water to bring home. These experiences teach man how dependent he is upon fresh water. When the children of Israel crossed over the Red Sea, they came to Marah where the waters were bitter. Moses was directed to take a tree and cast it into the waters to make them sweet. Here in Revelation, the sweet waters are made bitter by a meteor, a star out of heaven. The tree that Moses put into the water speaks of the Cross of Christ. “Wormwood” is a name used metaphorically in the Old Testament, according to Vincent (Word Studies in the New Testament, vol. 2, p. 506), in the following ways: (1) idolatry of Israel (see Deu_29:18); (2) calamity and sorrow (see Jer_9:15; Jer_23:15; Lam_3:15, Lam_3:19); and (3) false judgment (see Amo_5:7). This star is literal and is a meteor containing poison which contaminates one-third of the earth’s fresh water supply. The star’s name suggests that this is a judgment upon man for idolatry and injustice. Calamity and sorrow are the natural compensations that are coming upon man because of this judgment.

Revelation 8:12

FOURTH TRUMPETSUN, MOON, AND STARS SMITTEN And the fourth angel blew the trumpet (sounded), and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third of the moon, and the third of the stars; in order that a third part of them might be darkened, and the day not shine for the third part of it, and the night in like manner. Another phase of creation upon which mankind on this earth is solely dependent for light and life is the sun. To a lesser degree, man is dependent on the moon and stars. It was on the fourth day of re-creation that these heavenly bodies appeared. They had been created before, but the light broke through on the fourth day. Now the light is put out, as it were, over a third part of the earth.

God let these lights break through, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night, and they were to be for signs and seasons. The Lord Jesus indicated that in the Great Tribulation there would be special signs in these heavenly bodies: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken” (Mat_24:29). The laws of nature are radically altered by these disturbances. There is a definite limitationonly a third part of the light and of the day is affected. The intensity of the light has the wattage reduced by one-third. Talk about an energy shortage! Believe me, my friend, one is coming to this earth someday. I saw an arresting billboard in Seattle, Washington, when Boeing had shut down many of its plants, laid off several thousand men, and people were beginning to leave town. On this billboard on Highway 5, some wag put this sign: “The last one leaving town, please turn out the lights.” Well, God is getting ready to turn out the lights here on this earth. However, the Lord has made it clear, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen_8:22). A statement from Robert Govett (The Apoclypse Expounded by Scripture, p. 180) is intensely interesting in this connection, in view of present-day efforts to eliminate the death penalty: Hence day continues still, though its brightness is diminished. God shows His right to call in question man’s right to the covenant. He has not kept the terms. Blood for blood is not shed by the nations. By this time the command to put the murderer to death is, through a false philanthropy, refused by the world. This is another angle to the question of capital punishment. These judges with soft heads as well as soft hearts eliminate capital punishment and turn the criminals loose on us in this world today. Man continues to move in that direction, but God says, “I gave you a covenant that you were to protect human life, and you are protecting human life when you execute murderers.” Capital punishment is a deterrent to crime, and any person who says it is not a deterrent to crime must be like an ostrich with his head in the sand. I think that capital punishment will be abolished by Antichrist if it is not done so before.

Revelation 8:13

And I saw and heard one eagle, flying in mid-heaven (the meridian), saying with a great voice [Gr.: phone megale], Woe, woe, woe to them dwelling upon the earth, by reason of the remaining voices of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to blow the trumpet (sound).When the fourth trumpet is blown, the announcement is made of a peculiar intensity of woe and judgment that is coming on the earth. The last three trumpets are separated from the other four; they are “woe” trumpets. “And I saw and heard one eagle.” Somebody says, “This eagle is talking! Is it a literal eagle?” My friend, if God can make a parrot and a few other birds talk, I do not think He will have any problem at all with an eagle. It is interesting to note that our Lord used the eagle to speak of His coming: “For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Mat_24:28)that is after the great Battle of Armageddon.