The Seven Trumpets (Part 2) Series

We studying Revelation, Chapter 9, and are in the Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord:

9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. 10 For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. 11 I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. (Isaiah 13:9–11 ESV)

More precisely we are in the second half of the Tribulation when the full weight of God’s judgment comes in fury to destroy the word of Satan, his demons, his counterfeit kingdom, and all who chose to follow him through rejection of God.

We are in the second of 3 series of Judgements. The first is the breaking of the seven seals of the scroll - the title deed to the universe - being held by the Lord Jesus Christ. The seventh seal signals the sounding of the seven trumpets and we saw the sounding of the first four trumpets in Chapter 8:

The First Trumpet in Revelation 8:7 send hail and fire mixed with blood that burned up a third of the earth

The Second Trumpet in Revelation 8:8 brought a great asteroid crashing into the sea and killing a third of the sea creatures and destroying a third of the ships

The Third Trumpet in Revelation 8:10 sent a burning star named wormwood on the earth making a third of the freshwater undrinkable

The Fourth Trumpet sounds in Revelation 8:12 and the sun, moon, and stars are blackened.

After that, there is an eagle that flies over the earth and issues three woes for the remaining three trumpets that are about to sound. This is likely God’s constant merciful call for humanity to repent. Ezekiel 33:11 says, “God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” I suppose that’s why there are over six hundred warnings in Scripture about hell. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.:

?1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. 2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. 3 Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them. 7 In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8 their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; 9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. 10 They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. 11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon. 12 The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come. (Revelation 9:1–12 ESV)

The First of Three Woes

The first Woe is the Fifth Trumpet. As the fifth trumpet sounds, John says he sees a star falling from heaven to earth. This star is holding the key to the bottomless pit. The results of all of this unfold a very frightening scene as we will see.

Stars are often used to describe angels and this star is the scene of Lucifer falling from heaven to earth:

12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ 15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. (Isaiah 14:12–15 ESV)