Revelation 8:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Revelation 8:7

Comments

The seven trumpets all have in common that the judgments that arise from them affect a third part. This means that they leave two thirds unaffected. The two thirds that are not destroyed witness what happens to the third, and though they are not destroyed, they are afraid. The minority are destroyed; the majority survive. It should be clear therefore that the trumpets have the character of warnings. The minority are punished in the hope that the majority may learn from this and repent of their sins. All these are judgements – all bar one – track the plagues of Egypt in the time of Moses very consciously, but whereas the plagues of Egypt were only against the Egyptians, these plagues are against all the world, and all society. It isn’t that difficult to interpret them because they’re all rooted in the Old Testament, and the symbols of judgement are all to be found elsewhere also. They are all drawn from the Old Testament; we are not just left to our own imaginations to interpret them. So the first angel sounded, and the first warning trumpet results in catastrophes poured out upon the land. They are all to do with the land: earthquakes and volcanoes, tornadoes and hurricanes perhaps, epidemics, droughts, blight; all manner of things similar to the plagues of Exodus. This does not mean of course that God is angry with the physical elements of the earth. His anger is only ever directed against moral agents. Indirectly, this is a judgment on mankind. The earth was cursed for man’s sake and the creation subjected to futility because of human sin.

Application

These are not natural catastrophes. To call them natural catastrophes implies they just happen as a result of various forces and influences of a physical nature in the world. No, in these pictures, God has brought these things about. He orchestrates or permits them. He unleashes them upon the world as a warning of judgement to come. You say, ‘This is very severe’, but when you think about it, it would be an awful thing if God never warned the world, if there was never any punishment of mankind now. If everything went on with no hardship, no catastrophes, no volcanic eruptions, no tsunamis, no problems; if people had never ever experienced anything outside their control, then when the final judgement came all society would have some right to rise up and say to God, ‘You never warned us.’ It is the kindness of God that gives these token warnings, these partial judgements. And yet mankind hardens himself, and he is so proud, and he explains all in terms of natural causes, so that he closes his mind to anything being of divine orchestration or origin. That is the pride of man.

With what great foresight the Lord does what he does! He knew from the start that those judgments on Egypt would model what he would later do to the entire world.

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Revelation 8:7 Commentary and Bible Study