Revelation 8:1-9:21

Hunter McDavid

Revelation • Sermon • Submitted 4 months ago • Presented 4 months ago

Revelation 8:1–9:21

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8:1-5; The Final Seal

vs. 1-2: The final seal is a literary device where we are going to see the trumpets recapitulate the events in the seals in an intensified fashion.

-Leon Morris

John now returns to the seals. The final seal is opened. There is an impressive silence, which we cannot but think portends the End. But instead it begins a new series of visions heralded by angels with trumpets. This is typical of John’s method. He goes over the ground again and again, each time teaching us something new. There is more to the End than we can readily take in. Every series of visions brings out new facets of it.

-Schreiner

Hebrews–Revelation Comment

A seventh seal seems unnecessary, since the sixth seal led to final judgment and the end of history. The breaking of the seventh seal, however, leads to the blowing of seven trumpets. The trumpets don’t describe a new series of events but revisit, from a different perspective, the same period of time found in the first six seals. Revelation, like many texts in the OT, is recursive, revisiting the same period of time from a complementary perspective. When the Lamb opens the seventh seal, there is silence in heaven for about half an hour. What is the significance of the silence? In the OT we see silence before God acts in judgment (Hab. 2:20; Zeph. 1:7; cf. Wisd. Sol. 18:14–15). It is the kind of eerie silence we feel in the natural world before a tornado suddenly strikes.

v. 5: The prayers of the saints are answered by God through judgement.

v. 5 :The seals, trumpets, and bowls end with the same language of lightning, thunder, and earthquake ( 11:19, 16:18-21). This is another reason why I believe these three series of events are recapitulations not sequential.

8:6-9:20; The Seven Trumpets

These trumpets serve as an intensification in the unfolding drama of Revelation. The fourth seal affected one fourth of the earth (6:8) but here we see the trumpets increase the judgement to one third of the earth.

We will also see that these trumpets affect many of the same things the seals and bowls affect. There are not identical yet similar. Each series of judgement is broken up into a 4/2/1 format. (1-vegetation, 2-sea, 3-land/waters, 4-sun, moon, stars)

Lastly, “John likens the disasters of his own times to the plagues of Egypt. This is the first statement of a typological theme which he will develop in great detail in subsequent chapters. Like the other New Testament writers he believes that the church is the New Israel (1:6) and its redemption the new Exodus (15:2–3).”

-R.J. Rushdoony, Thy Kingdom Come: Studies in Daniel and Revelation (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1998), 151.

8:7 First trumpet : Compare with 9:4

8:8-9 Second trumpet - John uses Egypt in an apocalyptic manner

8:10-12 Third and Fourth trumpets - compare to 6:12-14

8:13-9:11 The Fifth trumpet (1st woe) - These locust remind us of Egypt. These locust are most likely demons, used by God to accomplish his decrees.

-Leon Morris

Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary f. The Fifth Trumpet (9:1–12)

Beasley-Murray thinks there may be in mind the fact that Domitian saw himself as an incarnation of Apollo.

9:12-20 The Sixth seal (2nd woe) - Humanity hardens their hearts despite God’s judgement.

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