By: Tom Lowe Date: 7-22-16
Series: Verse By Verse Through Revelations
Title: Seventh Trumpet (Third Woe): The Victory of Christ and His Kingdom Proclaimed (11:14-19)
Revelation 11:14-19 (KJV)
14 The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.
15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
Introduction
The last trump is about to sound, and that will lead to the outpouring of the vials of God’s wrath. But first we are given a glimpse of the crowning in Heaven of God’s rightful king. It seems as though they never get tired of crowning Him in Heaven! The title deeds of earth were given to Him in chapter five, and the elders cast their crowns at His feet. Here He is acknowledged as earth’s rightful King. Later, in chapter 19, he comes forth as King of kings and Lord of lords, and on his head are many crowns.
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The scene is in Heaven, but news of what is happening is released on earth, with the result that the nations are enraged. They want no king but Caesar. One is tempted to linger long over this passage because the next two chapters are indeed deficient of blessings because they are occupied with the purposes of the evil one. Two truths are set before us here. The third woe on earth is described, and the thankful worship in Heaven is described. The two events stand in stark contrast to each other. Judgment on earth, jubilation in Heaven; rage on earth, rejoicing in Heaven; cursing on earth, crowning in Heaven; woe on earth, worship in Heaven. God balances the one against the other with expert skill.
OUR STUDY OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION REQUIRES THAT WE BEAR IN MIND THAT JOHN IS DESCRIBING THE VISION THAT GOD GAVE HIM OF FUTURE EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE END OF THE WORLD.
Commentary
14 The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.
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Verse 14 marks the end of the parenthetical portion of the vision; that includes everything that takes place between the sixth and the seven trumpets (10:1-11:14).
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The flying eagle had warned of three “terrors” or “woes” to come upon the earth: “As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!” (8:13). The first woe was recorded in 9:1-12; the “second woe” in 9:13-21 and 11:1-13. The “third woe” is coming very soon. Most likely, 11:18 hints at the third woe which will include the battle of Armageddon—the final battle between God and Satan. This will begin when the angel sounds the seventh trumpet.
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15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
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In verse 15 we have the resumption of the trumpet judgments. The sounding of the seventh trumpet is the official proclamation of the coming coronation of the King of kings and Lord of lords. Actually the change of rule, with Christ as King over all the earth, does not occur until the events recorded in chapters 12-18 have been fulfilled.
The Church is safe with Jesus in the air and at this time will have a grandstand seat in the heavens. The angel announced in Revelation [2]10:6 that God’s dealings with earth’s dwellers are almost over, and righteousness is about to take over. The Lord is taking over what rightly belongs to Him. There was now no turning back. The coming judgments were no longer partial but complete in their destruction. God unleashed His full wrath on the evil world that refused to turn to Him: “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts” (9:20-21). When His wrath begins there would be no escape.
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The seventh trumpet is not just one short event; it actually comprises the rest of the judgment of God and then the final end of the age, with the new heaven and the new earth. It also serves as a trigger for the next series of visions recorded by John. The seventh angel blows the seventh trumpet, and instead of immediate destruction there is loud praise from “voices in heaven.” The reference to loud voices implies a group, but we are not told the specific identity of the group. Perhaps it is everyone who is in Heaven, but most likely it is angels in Heaven, singing as they had in 5:11—“Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.” This event is so certain to happen that the angels sang of it as though it had already occurred. They were shouting that the whole world has now become Christ’s kingdom. These voices were declaring the triumph of Christ and His assuming His rightful place on the throne, reigning forever and ever. The focus of this praise is this: The kingdom of this world has become Jesus’ kingdom.
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Daniel had predicted a time when God’s kingdom would destroy the kingdoms of this world, “during the reign of those kings, the God of Heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed; no one will ever conquer it. It will shatter all these kingdoms into nothingness, but it will stand for ever” (Daniel 2:44). Zechariah had promised, “And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord—His name alone will be worshipped” (Zechariah 14:9). The kingdom is with God’s people spiritually but has not been fulfilled historically. This verse refers to that final consummation. This is a worship pageant, portraying in Heaven what will be unfolded on earth.
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The whole question of sovereignty is now settled. The revisers have changed the wording of this passage slightly so that it reads, “the kingdom (singular) of this world has become the kingdom (singular) of our Lord (the NASB, Revised Version, and Living Bible are some examples).” That is what the devil has been after for centuries—to unite the world into a single kingdom—but all his attempts have failed. He can no more overcome the disruptive, divisive power of sin than he can escape the ultimate judgment of God.
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Back in the beginning of human history, when men first began to organize in the rebellion against God, Satan attempted at Babel to build a world society from which God was to be excluded. Men planned a city and a tower—the city was to symbolize their political unity and the tower their religious unity. They had a common tongue as well, which emphasized their cultural unity. God came down and confounded the whole thing. Man, united without God, was the form taken by the first apostasy after the flood. It will be the form of the final apostasy too.
When the Lord was tempted in the wilderness by Satan, He was offered the kingdoms of the world, power, and Glory. The Lord rejected the offer. He had not come for the divided, disunited kingdoms of the earth; He had come for the kingdom. And so, the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our Lord. That is the theme of Heaven’s song. But if it is wonderful news in Heaven, it is awful news on earth, for the transition will take place not by evolution, but by divine intervention in wrath. The kingdom is to be arbitrarily imposed on men by God, and terrible judgments lie between the crowning of the King in Heaven and the crowning of that same King on earth. Satan, although he is fighting a losing battle, will not give up—without a fierce struggle—his evil hold upon the planet he has dominated for so long.
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16 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
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Jesus came the first time as a babe in a manger—a tender Lamb. He is coming the second time at the end of the Great Tribulation in great power, taking vengeance on them that do not know God. He will roar out of Zion, “the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.”
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When Jesus was born, and during His earthly life and at the time of His death, there were great wonders among the angels, the stars, the elements and on earth among men—both living and dead—which give us a divine story found only in the Word of God. However, none of these—or all of them combined—can compare with the overwhelming intensity of the manifestations which go along with and follow the sounding of the seventh trumpet. When the blast of the trumpet goes forth, John declares he heard “great voices (11:15).”
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At the present time the kingdoms of this world are in Satan’s control ([3]Matthew 4:8-9). Our Lord never said that they were not. On the contrary He called Satan “the prince of this world” ([4]John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), and admitted that the world was his kingdom ([5]Matthew 12:26). But the hour will come when God shall resume His power, and the Angel Gabriel’s words to Mary shall be fulfilled ([6]Luke 1:31-33).
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The judgments that follow after the sounding of the seventh trumpet are the most intense, the most ghastly, the most remarkable and the most numerous—both in heaven and on earth. Truly, these remaining chapters of Revelation record the time of Jacob’s Trouble, the time of Great Tribulation.
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The “twenty-four elders” are the “seniors of Heaven.” They know that the destroyer of earth (the devil) is not yet destroyed. They know the great White Throne Judgment is ahead. They know the rewards to all the faithful have not yet been given out. The meek shall inherit the earth—but they have not yet done so. The devil still remains out of the pit, and therefore the victory of victories is yet to be won. The elders know all of that.
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But—the trumpet which brings all this to pass and brings to a climax all judgments is now sounding in the ears of these “kings and priests.” They could not keep their seats. They fell prostrate on their faces before the Lamb.
Notice, the “elders” are instantaneous in their response to the Word of God. The twenty-four elders not mentioned since the last of the seals ([7]7:11), worship God and give thanks because:
He has begun to reign on earth.
His wrath has punished the rebellious nations. All of the kings that try to rule the world challenge God, and therefore God defends His honor by judging the nations.
He has judged the living and the dead. God gives each person the reward he or she deserves ([8]11:17-18).
The people in heaven are seeing God bring about the final day of reckoning. For this they worship the Lord. We are not told what they say as part of their worship of the Lord Jesus.
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17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
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“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.” (NIV)
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Notice also that they are intelligent in their relating of the ways of God. They acknowledge His titles. They say, “We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.” They are titles of remarkable majesty and power. Satan seeks to imitate these titles, and his wretched little puppet in doing this is called “the beast that was, and is not, yet he is” (17:8), but it is a poor and shoddy imitation of the titles of dignity and honor our Lord bears in Glory.
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They acknowledge His triumph. They say, “Thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.” “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come (11:18).” The throne rights of the Lord are not only asserted they are assured. Within a few more chapters (all of them more or less parenthetical) the wrath of God will be poured out in the emptying of the vials. Nothing will stand before that wrath. The Lord’s power is rightly called “great power.”
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The Lord is not coming to receive a mere constitutional monarchy, but absolute, unfettered, unhindered power. Heaven’s ideal form of government for earth is a totalitarian monarchy with complete power vested in the Person of the Lord Jesus. He is going to be Lord of all. “Thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
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18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
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This anger of the nations will be described in chapters 12-19. But the outcome was already determined. The nations would no longer be afraid (as in [9]6:15-17); instead, they would be filled with defiant rage that would manifest itself in an attempt to fight against Christ, as described in coming chapters.
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They acknowledge His timings, especially as those timings concern both the crowning of the redeemed and the crushing of the rebels. They say, “And thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” The martyrs of God, the messengers of God, the men of God, the multitudes of God all stand before Him for the time has come that they be rewarded for their faithfulness. The elders take note of it and rejoice. And the destroyers of the earth, His earth, are to be themselves destroyed. No one will escape judgment for Christ will even judge "the dead.” Unbelievers will be brought from the grave to face judgment and punishment for their sins.
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In the Bible, God gives rewards to His people according to what they deserve. Throughout the Old Testament, obedience often brought reward in this life (Deuteronomy 28), but obedience and immediate reward are not always linked. If they were, good people would always be rich, and suffering would always be a sign of sin. If we were quickly rewarded for every faithful deed, we would soon think we were pretty good. Before long, we would be doing many good deeds for purely selfish reasons. While it is true that God will reward us for our earthly deeds [“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books” (20:12)], our greatest reward is eternal life in His presence.
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In this life we never see full justice meted out, but when Christ returns to take over all will receive their due deserts. When Christ comes again there will be winners and losers. His “servants the prophets,” those to whom a revelation was given and who spoke and wrote for Him, will be first to receive their reward. They were first in point of time. And what a price some of them paid! Then there were the “saints,” Paul, Peter, James, and John. These are the “greats,” but notice our text says, “small and great.” I think the Holy Spirit may have added “small,” just so I could be included; like Paul said of himself, I am the least of Thy servants. Do you feel the same way?
19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the [1]ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
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In verse 18 the nations of the earth are very angry. The time of God’s great wrath is come. God is about to judge the wicked in final judgment; He is about to reward all of His prophets and servants. There will be a new Heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. The saints will be put on display in the Pearly White City. Satan will be put in the pit. All sin and all unrighteousness must be removed from the earth. The Antichrist and the wicked will be put down. They become exceedingly angry, and in chapter 12 a great war breaks out between God and the devil.
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Over and over again, things are opened in this book. A door is opened (4:1), the seals are opened (6:1-9), the abyss is opened (9:2), the tabernacle of the testimony (the holy of holies) is opened (19:11), the books are opened (20:12), and the temple of God is opened (11:19). Here is opened up to human view, the true, eternal temple in the heavens. Did you know there was a literal [10]temple in Heaven? The opening of the temple displays the ark which in Old Testament times was always concealed, thus signifying that God is about to act on behalf of the beleaguered Israel. In the Old Testament, the ark was connected with the tabernacle and Moses, the land and Joshua, the kingdom and David, the temple and Solomon. It thus stood connected with Israel’s law, Israel’s land, Israel’s Lord, and Israel’s light. All the covenants and promises of God to His people are in that ark. God’s solemn promises cannot be broken—they are forever settled in Heaven. The ark was the symbol of God’s presence and God’s covenant with Israel. The ark of the covenant had to do with Israel, not with the Gentiles or the Church..
The appearance of the ark announces the speedy fulfillment of all that God has spoken, all that He has promised concerning the earth, the righteous, the wicked, and all creation. There is a lovely passage that speaks of the great anticipation of all creation for God to fulfill His promises, Romans 8:18-23. “Consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:18-23).
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The twenty-four elders are closely associated with the worship which takes place in that heavenly temple. Their praise is directly linked to the opening of the heavenly temple and the subsequent rumblings of judgment heard on earth. Their occupation with the Word, the ways, and the will of God is linked with the onward march of the divine purpose. What a lesson for God’s people in all ages!
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“And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” The thunder, lightning, and hail are reminiscent of the power of God that was present the first time He revealed His covenant with the children of Israel, at the unveiling of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19-20). The “lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail” all indicate God’s signature on these events. These events occur here, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and they also occurred at the opening of the seventh seal (8:5). This will occur again at the pouring out of the seventh bowl (16:18-21).
Whether we have received or rejected Christ will determine our future response to His day of coronation. Will you be filled with rejoicing or regretting? At the sound of the seventh trumpet, there will be no more deciding. The time to decide is now. Have you chosen joy with Christ or woe without Him?
Special Notes:
[1] The ark of the covenant was a gold-covered chest containing the original stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written, a jar of manna, and Aaron’s staff. The top of the chest served as the “atonement cover” (the altar) on which the blood would be sprinkled by the high priest on the Day of Atonement. The Most Holy Place was the most sacred spot on earth for the Jews. Only the high priest could enter; the other priests and the common people were forbidden to come into the room. Their only access to God was through the high priest who would enter the Most Holy Place once each year with animal blood to atone first for his own sins and then for the people’s sins (see Leviticus 16; Hebrews 10:19).
[2] (Revelation 10:6) “And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay!”
[3] (Matthew 4:8-9) “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
[4] (John 12:31) “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.”
[5] (Matthew 12:26) “If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?
[6] (Luke 1:31-33) “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
[7] (Revelation7:11) “All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,”
[8] (Revelation 11:17-18) “saying: “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 people who revere your name, both great and small—and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”
[9] (Revelation 6:15-17) “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
[10] At the close of John’s vision he says, “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22). The city is the New Jerusalem and the whole city is a temple; the Lord God and the Lamb surrounding, filling, and sanctifying all of it. They are more intimately present in every part of it, and with every individual, saint or angel, than had ever been known on earth. It was all temple—nothing but a temple. It was not like Jerusalem, where there was only one structure built expressly for divine worship, and where the inhabitants gathered to praise God; it was all one great temple reared in honor of His name, and where worship ascended from every part of it.
