This post on Revelation chapters 8 and 9 is based on material from my upcoming book, The Last Act of the Drama: A disciple’s guide to the end-times. Let me know if you find it interesting. rmb

THE TRUMPETS FOR THE UNRIGHTEOUS

The trumpet warnings blare loudly at the very end of the age, announcing that judgment is coming soon and urging the unrighteous to repent and to turn from their wickedness and to call out to the Lord. This is the scene that we see unfolding in Revelation 8-9, as, through the trumpets, the Lord again demonstrates that He “endures with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (Romans 9:22).” The Lord sends out His final warnings to the earth in the form of the trumpets, loudly proclaiming a warning to those who are perishing so that they may see their peril and repent, because “the Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23, 32; 33:11).” As the LORD spoke to Cain about sin crouching at his door and then spoke through Noah to the ancient world about the soon-coming judgment of the flood; and as He spoke through the Law and the prophets and through His Son Jesus, and as He has spoken through the church for two millennia, so He will speak for a final time at the end of the age through the trumpet warnings with the message that the unrighteous must repent and must call upon the Lord for salvation.

BUT FOR THE RIGHTEOUS?

For the unrighteous, then, the trumpets warn of a coming awful recompense, but for the righteous, these same trumpets are signs which promise a soon-coming reward. The disastrous foretastes of the final judgment on those in the world reveal to believers that the Lord is near (Matthew 24:33; Philippians 4:5), and that soon their faith will be sight, and that their waiting and their perseverance will be over.

The righteous will see and will recognize the trumpet warnings for what they are, but they themselves will largely be unaffected by the trumpets. The disasters will occur almost entirely among the unrighteous, while those who love the Lord Jesus will cry out, “Maranatha (1 Corinthians 16:22)! Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20).” The trumpets announce to the righteous that the Rider on the white horse (Revelation 19:11-21) will soon mount His steed and will bare His flashing sword and will come to gather all His people to Himself into heaven forever. The glorious day will soon arrive!

HAVE EYES BUT CANNOT SEE, EARS BUT CANNOT HEAR

The unrighteous have eyes to see the same disasters and have ears to hear the same wailings of misery and destruction, but they will not see, and they will not hear (Isaiah 6:9-10). Their sin and their wickedness have rendered their eyes blind and their ears deaf. As the trumpet warnings grow increasingly severe, so the willful blindness and rebellion of the unrighteous increases correspondingly. They will, therefore, ignore and deny the urgings for repentance and will continue in their headlong pursuit of wickedness (Revelation 9:20-21). And with the sounding of the seventh trumpet (Revelation 11:15-18), the opportunity for repentance will forever be lost . Their end is judgment and the lake of fire.

SDG                 rmb                 5/12/2021