Revelation 8: Final Seal & Four Trumpets

• v.1-5 The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer
• v.6-13 The First Four Trumpets

v.1-5 The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer

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

v.2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

v.3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne.

v.4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand.

v.5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

[Note: The last seal reveals a period of silence, and then seven angels with trumpets, but before the seven can blow, another angel offers incense, a sign of worship, mixed with the prayers of the saints, and the smell & the prayers wafted up before God. The angel then throws fire on the earth.]

[Additional Note: The prayers of believers being wafted up before God, are as if to remind Him of their presence, the fruit of the work of His Son, that contrast the evil on the earth committed by unbelievers, as if to confirm the rightness of the justice that is about to be imposed on the unbelievers on the earth. There is an implication that believers are still on the earth] 

v.6-13 The First Four Trumpets – a third of the world destroyed

v.6 Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.

v.7 The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

v.8,9 The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

v.10,11 The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— the name of the star is Wormwood.[meaning bitter] A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

v.12 The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, 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 turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

v.13 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!”

[Note: The seven angels prepare, and a third of the world is burned up, a third of sea creatures & ships destroyed, a third of the earth’s drinking water polluted, and a third of the sky turns black. The final 3 trumpets will bring greater woes.]

[Additional Note:  Observe, rather like the plagues brought on Pharaoh in Exodus, these judgments are gradual, seeking to bring mankind to their senses, with two-thirds of the earth remaining unaffected]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: