Revelation 8 Commentary: The Seven Trumpets

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We have now come to Revelation 8 commentary. It is about the seven trumpets found in
the book of Revelation.

Please click here for the previous study on Revelation 7 commentary: God’s Seal on His
People.

Revelation 8 Commentary and Study: Seven Trumpets

Revelation 8:1: When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about
half an hour.

What would cause such “silence”?

Chapter seven has been inserted between the events of the sixth seal and the opening of
the seventh seal. During the sixth seal, we saw many people, great and small, crying to the
rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that sat on the
throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. “Who is able to stand?” they cried.

The answer to that question is that no one is able to stand except those who have received
the seal of God, the sign of yielding self to be crucified with Christ. Chapter seven is
inserted as Good News to answer that question of questions. But the vast majority of
earth’s inhabitants have rejected the cross, and have chosen to perish. And as they perish,
there is “silence in heaven.”

How can God wipe away all tears from the eyes of His redeemed until He has first wiped
away His own tears? Can God see all these lost ones perish in their agony of despair and
not feel a great sorrow? Every joyful harp in heaven is stilled. The victory of the Lamb has
brought eternal salvation to those who have believed; but it has brought eternal loss to all
those who have disbelieved. God has dearly loved each one, and so have the angels.

If this “half an hour” is prophetic time, that is, a day equal to one year, the “silence” will
last about a week. It may be an indefinite time.

The final triumph of the Lamb in opening the seventh seal cannot take place until His
people, the 144,000, submit to receive the seal of God in their foreheads. This is the
import of chapter seven. His servants are not unimportant; they can hasten or delay His
triumph.

Revelation 8:2-4: And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were
given seven trumpets. Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the
altar. And he was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the

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saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense,
with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.

In this portrayal we return for another view of events on earth since the time of Christ.
The seven churches and the seven seals gave us glimpses of the progress of God’s
salvation work on earth as it relates to His people, culminating in its triumph as His
servants receive His seal. Now we are to see world history in a different light. Trumpets in
Bible prophecy are a symbol of war. The blowing of trumpets is a call to prepare for
trouble, a warning.

These trumpets warn of events that are similar to the seven last plagues of chapter 16, but
they cannot be identical for several reasons:

(a) The trumpet disasters are mixed with mercy whereas the last plagues are unmixed
with mercy;

(b) trumpets are a warning to people to prepare whereas once the last plagues begin to fall
there is no more opportunity to prepare. All the disasters of previous history are a
foretaste of the final disasters of the seven last plagues.

Thus the seven trumpets will be a view of the “kingdoms of this world” (Revelation 11:15)
in their strife among themselves—always of course, in relation to God’s work on earth.

But first, a message of hope and Good News! While “seven angels” overrule the war and
strife on earth, “another angel” is commanded to remember the needs of God’s people, to
offer “much incense . . . with the prayers of all the saints.” The clash of arms is never so
loud that it drowns out the prayers of God’s saints. We are assured that there is mercy
mingled with the judgments about which the seven trumpets warn us. Indeed, all through
the agonizing times when the seven trumpets are blown, God has remembered His
mercies.

The “golden altar” and the “incense” take us again to the sanctuary in heaven. Incense is
fragrant to breathe. It masks disagreeable odors. It was offered continually on the altar in
the Hebrew sanctuary, representing the fragrance of Christ’s righteousness which covers
human selfishness and sin. When we pray, heaven does not see us as sinners unworthy to
be heard. Rather, heaven sees us in Christ, and our prayers are rendered fragrant and
sweet to the Father in that Christ takes our place.

This is what it means to pray in Jesus’ name. He knows the trials of His people living in a
world of pain and strife. Christ has put His arms about all of us, so that when the Father
accepts Christ, He receives us also. In Christ’s perfect righteousness, the Father has gladly
accepted the whole human race of sinners. You are Christ’s kin, His own flesh and blood.
So, whoever you are, do not fear to pray in His name.

Do you hesitate to pray because you do not know how to do so acceptably? Here is
encouragement: “The Spirit also helps our weaknesses. For we do not know what we
should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with

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groanings which cannot be uttered. … He
makes intercession for the saints
according to the will of God” (Romans
8:26, 27).

This gracious ministry continues while

the seven trumpets are blown:

Revelation 8:5, 6: Then the angel took

the censer, filled it with fire from the Shofar (Jewish Trumpet)
altar, and threw it to the earth. And there
were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. So the seven angels who had the
seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

When Christ will cease His ministry as High Priest and clothe Himself with the robes of a
king, there will be no more sanctuary intercession for sinners. But this throwing of the
censer to earth apparently signifies that while the events of the seven trumpets take place,
Christ’s saving ministry continues for those on earth who choose to believe the light of His
gospel.

The disasters of which the seven trumpets warn us are not necessarily inflicted by God;
nothing in the Book of Revelation indicates that He is the one who sends them. Rather, in
mercy, He warns His people to prepare for disasters that Satan brings on the earth!

‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ” is always Good News, and this passage in chapter 8 can
be no exception. The picture we see is this: although there is great distress for those who
persist in rejecting truth, at the same time there is a constant ministry of intercession for
those who choose to repent. During the seven trumpets, judgments fall on those who
persecute and slay the martyrs of Christ, whose blood symbolically cries out for divine
vengeance during the fifth seal (Revelation 6:9-11).

Now with the seven trumpets we will be carried back in history again to behold another
parallel development of human events on earth. This time we see the outworking of wrath
and retribution within history itself among those segments of humanity which have
largely rejected the gospel:

Revelation 8:7: The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood,
and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green
grass was burned up.

The Christian era (which the book of Revelation covers for us) opens with the Roman
Empire as a beautiful, prosperous, and secure world. This first trumpet shows the
beginning of the long series of devastations and conquests which degraded and mined
that once beautiful empire.

The succeeding trumpets picture a progressive destruction of all that seemed secure in
that ancient world. It was as though Europe, America, and all civilized nations were
destroyed in our time, and a race of ignorant savages should take over the ruins and start

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a new Dark Ages era.

The prophet Daniel had predicted clearly that the Roman Empire, strong as it was, would
fall and be replaced with ten independent kingdoms (see Daniel 2:40; 42; 7:23, 24). The
citizens of the empire became rich and corrupt, and thus invited their own destruction. In
the north were many wild heathen tribes eager to seize the wealth and comforts of the
weak and corrupt people in the south.

The first serious invasion of the Roman Empire was by the Goths, led by Alaric in A.D.
395. He conquered many cities of Greece, and captured Rome itself in A.D. 410.

“Hail” may imply that the wild invaders came from the cold north; “fire” may describe the
fate that befell cities and farms; “blood” may describe the slaughter of the inhabitants.
“Trees” is a common Bible term for prominent men and leaders, an apt term when one
remembers how rare big trees were in ancient Bible lands (see Judges 9:8-15).

Revelation 8:8, 9: Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain
burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood; and a third
of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Immediately our attention is drawn to the sea, contrasted with the earth, to which the
effects of the first trumpet were confined. It is as if we are looking at a great map of the
civilized world of the Roman Empire. We see something taking place on the
Mediterranean Sea, anciently called The Great Sea or “the Roman lake,” over which the
ships and commerce of Rome brought great riches. We ask, after the time of Alaric, was
Rome punished by invaders who came from the sea?

Yes, it is a fact that the Vandals under Genseric repeatedly invaded the Roman Empire
from the sea, between the years A.D. 428 and 469. On a gigantic cinema screen their
conquests would appear like “a great mountain burning with fire, thrown into the sea.”

This powerful chief sailed from his headquarters in Africa and crossed the Mediterranean
to harass the rich Romans in Italy and Greece, and to destroy their ships. One Roman
emperor who plucked up the courage to resist built a navy of more than three hundred
ships in the harbor of Carthagena in Spain, prepared for war. Genseric learned of his
plans, stealthily penetrated the defenses of the harbor and destroyed the navy.

In A.D. 468 the emperor of the East tried to bring Genseric to his knees. One hundred
thousand soldiers and sailors embarked in 1,113 ships at an astronomical cost, to roust
him at Carthage, his headquarters in Africa. But again the Vandal chief outwitted them by
sending lighted fire ships among this huge fleet, which surprised the arrogant armies of
Rome and caused such utter confusion among them that again they were defeated.

Before Genseric died in the fulness of years and of glory, he saw the overthrow of Western
Rome. What a calamity for an empire which had grown to power for a thousand years!
Incidentally, we derive our word “vandalism” from the Vandals.

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Revelation 8:10, 11: Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven,
burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water; and the
name of the star is Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood; and many
men died from the water, because it was made bitter.

The work of destruction of the old world of Rome was not yet complete. Something worse
was yet to come; “springs of water” of future generations were to be made bitter. A new
warrior arose to destroy Rome, whose name was Attila. He led hordes of savage and cruel
men known as Huns (from which we get the name of the country of Hungary today).
Writers of history have described Attila’s appearance on the stage of history as a brilliant
meteor flashing in the sky. He came from the East, gathering his followers, and poured
them down suddenly on the Roman empire.

Attila devastated great portions of Europe. “It was the boast of Attila that the grass never
grew on the spot where his horse had trod. The scourge of God’ was a name that he
appropriated to himself. . . . The Western emperor with the senate and people of Rome
humbly and fearfully submitted to the rough Attila.”

After Attila died in A.D. 453, the army of the Huns almost immediately disappeared from
history. They were indeed like a flashing star that comes and goes quickly. The Huns, in
contrast with the Vandals, did not sail on the Mediterranean Sea, but came down from the
mountains, the source of Central Europe’s rivers. They fit the prophetic description.

Revelation 8:12, 13: Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a
third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened; and a
third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. And I looked, and I heard an angel
flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the
inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels
who are about to sound!”

The natural result of such calamities was “darkness.” It is commonly said that the
thousand years which followed the fall of Rome were the Dark Ages. Not only was there
darkness in the political world, but there was darkness in the professed church of Christ.
Civilization itself was dimmed. “The accession of the Roman Church to power marked the
beginning of the Dark Ages. As her power increased, the darkness deepened. . . .

“About the close of the eighth century, papists put forth the claim that in the first ages of
the church the bishops of Rome had possessed the same spiritual power which they now
assumed. . . . The darkness seemed to grow more dense. … In the 13th century was
established the most terrible of all the engines of the papacy—the Inquisition.

The prince of darkness wrought with the leaders of the papal hierarchy. In their secret
councils, Satan and his angels controlled the minds of evil men. The noontide of the
papacy was the midnight of the world. A moral and intellectual paralysis had fallen upon
Christendom. “

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But there were more woes to come! Next we behold the rise of another power of darkness
which was to punish those professed Christians who worshipped idols and turned away
from the pure gospel. For hundreds of years the trembling people of Europe cowered in
constant dread of conquest by the Muslims. To this day Islam remains as a scourge of
apostate Christianity. The fifth trumpet will now spotlight the rise of this well-known
power.

For a detailed, well researched and easy to read commentary on the book of Revelation I
urge to buy a copy of Revelation of Jesus Christ: Commentary on the Book of Revelation
This verse-by-verse commentary offers a text-focused and Christ-centered approach to
the book of Revelation.

Appropriate for personal study and as a college and seminary text, this volume provides
both in-depth notes and lay-oriented exposition for use by scholars, students, pastors, and
laypeople. An ever-increasing interest in the prophecies of the Apocalypse has resulted in
deeper understandings which are introduced in this updated edition.

Ranko Stefanovic is professor of New Testament at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological

Seminary at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. He holds a Ph.D. degree
from Andrews University and is a well-loved teacher, popular speaker, and author of
scholarly articles.

Please click here for the next study on Revelation 9 Commentary: What the Bible Says
About the Rise of Islam.

Revelation 8 commentary and bible study video

Below is a video of Pastor Kenneth Cox preaching on the seven trumpets found in
Revelation 8

Related:

An Introduction to The Prophecies of The Book of Revelation

Revelation Chapter 1 Commentary: The Mystery of The Seven Stars

The 144,000 in Revelation Chapter 7 – Professor Ranko Stefanovic

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trumpets about to be sounded on earth.

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