Session 12 – Seven Trumpets of Revelations; Mark Lanier, 04/21/2024

Revelation 12
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[00:00:00] Have you been reading the newspapers? But I didn't even know they threw them anymore. But you can get them on the internet, that I do know that. I read this just this week. Jesus will most definitely return in 2024, maybe

And I, I, I love, I love to see these things about when Jesus is coming, especially by the people who have it figured out. Because they never have it figured out. And what they wind up doing is wind up almost making a mockery of the return of Jesus if they're not careful. Because our [00:01:00] tendency is always to take whatever it is in the world and interpret it through the lenses of our personal glasses Uh, it, it, to an extreme, it's called narcissism.

But in everyday language, it just is what it is. We tend to know, understand, and interpret things based upon our experiences and where we are in life. And where we are in life includes where we are culturally, society, as well as where we personally walk. And it makes a real difference when we read a book like Revelation, because Revelation was written in a different culture, in a different mindset, in a different historical era.

And if we aren't careful, we will just read it through our [00:02:00] own lenses and fail to understand what it meant when it was originally written for its targeted audience. That does not mean we're not part of the targeted audience. God's Holy Spirit has put into Scripture God's revelation for all time. So we are a target, but we were not the initial target, and our best understanding of Scripture will always be one that first tries to understand what it meant to its original audience and then understand how it applies to us, trying to not just see it through our own lenses, but see it through the lenses of its time.

Now, what's our agenda then today? We're going to do something a little bit goofy. We're gonna do Revelation eight through 11, but we're not even remotely gonna make it through Revelation eight through 11. But we're gonna [00:03:00] start it. And then, um, I didn't see Carol Wilson here. Is Carol here? Okay, Carol, do not panic.

Point one will get 85% of the time in class. She times my points, and if that first point starts going over, like, the 15, 20-minute mark, she knows we're in trouble. So this one intentionally will take up almost all of class. Then I'm gonna go back for a moment to where we've been studying in Revelation four through seven, and we'll conclude with some points for home.

Now, how we understand and read Revelation itself will set out and dictate much of what we understand the book to be saying My approach that I suggest to you is a very biblical approach, is to see the series of visions in Revelations, in the-- in Revelation, [00:04:00] the same way we see the series of visions or dreams that were given to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh had the dream of the seven cows that were fat being eaten by the seven cows that were lean. Then the next night, he has a vision of the seven plump grains-- ears of grain being eaten by the seven, uh, uh, small ears of grain. And, and Dan-- uh, uh, Joseph comes to Pharaoh and says, "Hey, they were two visions, but they're the same thing.

They're happening at the same time The same way the book of Daniel was written with its visions. They're visions that you read in Daniel 2, you read in Daniel 7, you read in Daniel 8, and, and these visions are all the same vision just from a different perspective. It's like Hebrew poetry, which a lot of Hebrew prophecy was.

Hebrew poetry is, is one of the keynotes of Hebrew poetry is parallelism. [00:05:00] The, a line will say one thing, and then the next line will say the same thing in different words. Um, um, or it might say something slightly different to emphasize a difference, say the opposite thing, but the two coexist together.

It's a parallel reading. And our tendency in our society, in our day, in the movie/TV era in which we live, is to do timeline reading, where you put things on a timeline, and you take them from the time of writing to the end of, of whatever it may be. And some people read Revelation that way. They say, "Well, this is it at the time John's writing it, and it goes to the end of days, which is apparent by Revelation 22, and so it just must be on a timeline."

Then you're focusing in on each event trying to figure out where in history they happened or where in contemporary life they are happening or where we anticipate they may happen in the [00:06:00] future. I do not read Revelation that way. I read Revelation like I read Daniel, as vignettes, as visions that happen that cover the same basic time period over and over and over.

So I think you need to read Revelation like you read Daniel, which is one of the source books for Revelation, for much of the symbolism, for, uh, um, uh, the idea and the concept that's here in apocalyptic literature. And so if we're reading the vignettes like Daniel, we're also reading them in the same way you would read other ancient apocalyptic writings.

I've urged you to consider reading 1 Enoch. It'll help you go to sleep at night because you will be gone after reading two chapters of that. It's dry as can be in places. Um, in other places it's pretty cool. I mean, you got all these angels fighting each [00:07:00] other. Um, but if you read 1 Enoch chapter six, you've got the fall of the angels and then the flood, and then you read chapter 12, and you've got the fall of the angels and then the f- the, the fall or before and then the fall, and then you've got the fall of the angels again in chapter 15.

You got these visions that just keep recounting the same period over and over but with a different perspective And that's what we have in Revelation. So we've got the first coming, we've got the age of the church, and then we've got the second coming. And you can take that first section of Revelation, uh, chapters one through three, and you can see where it speaks of the first coming.

You can see where it speaks of the age of the church with Jesus in the midst of the lampstands, and you can see where it speaks of the second coming. That age of the church is really intensely set out as letters to the churches, and there are seven churches. Not because only seven churches deserve a letter, but seven's a complete [00:08:00] number.

So it's written for all the churches for all time, and we've got lessons there that come to us. Then we have that second section we spent time on. It starts out with Jesus appearing as a lion and a lamb, s- referencing his first coming and his sacrifice. And then you've got the seals of persecution that are opened, and that's the age of the church, and these are things that we're experiencing now.

But those seals transform and ultimately become also the, the end of days, where God wipes away all tears. So we have that whole time period represented in that vision of Jesus coming, of the church existing, and of the church triumphant at the end. And that's the set of visions. Then you have a whole nother set of visions that we'll talk about today.

Those are the seven trumpets. Again, seven. Seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets. This represents the [00:09:00] totality. Seven is a total number, the totality of time, the totality of the story. And so here we've got it. Now, because of this, the seven trumpets speak to much the same as the seven seals we've already covered I was trying to think of a parallel, and the best parallel that I can, can find out there is one of a three-ring circus Now some of you here are too young to know what a three-ring circus is.

Um, a three-ring circus is where you have three big tops or three rings under one big top, and you have three things happening all at the same time. Over here, you may have the lion tamer and his stuff going on. Over here, you may have the, the [00:10:00] high-flying trapeze and the, the, you know, Cirque du Soleil type thing going on.

Over here, you may have the clown car and the clowns going on. And you choose which one you wanna go to because they're all happening simultaneously, and that's the way this section of Revelation is, uh, uh, th- these sections. While you've got-- You can spend your time in the, the circus tent of the seven seals, which we've discussed, or you can come over to this next tent where the seven trumpets are.

But the seven trumpets are happening at the same time as the seven seals. We're back in that t- same timeline. And so when we look at this, the Lamb opens the seventh seal. That's the end of the last set. There's silence in heaven for about half an hour. Now this is a classic example. I mean, come on. In heaven, all of a sudden, someone's up there and saying, [00:11:00] "Okay, everybody silent for 30 minutes.

Ready, set

Well, n-the time isn't time there. This is, this is a representative number. It's the concept that there is a, a, a pause. Take a deep breath. Something's about to happen again. This is the end of a show almost. There's silence and, and this is very typical of this kind of literature if we pull back the curtain on it.

Apocalyptic literature is laden with symbolism, weird use of numbers, visions and dreams and a cataclysm to come and an age to come, angels and demons fighting it out. And here we've got that peculiar use of numbers and, and so you've got a half an hour which tells you it's happening some, but it's, it's, it's an indefinite time.

I mean, [00:12:00] it's, it's a time th-that's just there. It's, it's not forever. Okay? It's like, hold on about half an hour, now let's go. And we began with the seven trumpets, and this vision starts with Revelation 8:2. "Then I saw," Kai idon. "Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them."

Now this is pretty cool. Kai idon, uh, kai means, uh, and or but or then, but, but idon, I saw. Here's the next vision. So he's had one, it's drawn to a close. Next vision, start it all over again. Let's go back to the start. "Then I saw seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them." [00:13:00] Now when we're talking about apocalyptic literature, again, we pull back the curtain on it.

I didn't mean for that transition to happen twice. Takes a little too long, sorry. But the symbolism is very important. What are trumpets? Well, you can go to the Arc of Tri- of Titus, where the, the Romans built a memorial to conquering Jerusalem. And in the Arc, you can see that they're hauling off the booty from the temple.

They've got the menorah. They're hauling off all of the stuff from conquering f- when the Romans conquered Jerusalem. And over here, you've got, what I'll blow up, some of these trumpets. They weren't shofar horns, but these were Greek trumpets. And, and that's just it. I, I mean, in the Old Testament, you would have had a shofar horn.

They didn't have Greek trumpets. But at this point in time, the, the Greek word at least are for these [00:14:00] trumpets. And what were trumpets in the Bible? What are they symbolic of? Well, a couple of things, but one of the core understandings of a trumpet is to sound a warning. If you look at passages like Ezekiel 33, Ezekiel 33:3 s- uh, speaks to trumpets as a warning

The watchman over the house The word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man, speak to your people. Say to them: 'If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them and make him their watchman, if he sees the sword coming upon the land, he'll blow the trumpet to warn the people See, trumpets are warning Not, not always, but [00:15:00] trumpets in, in prophetic and apocalyptic literature are warnings.

Look at the Joel passage, Joel 2, if you are so inclined

Joel 2 verse 1 Ah You probably know this. We have songs off this passage. Blow a trumpet in Zion. Sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants tremble of the land tremble. The day of the Lord is coming. It's near. Blow a trumpet. Warn people. It's coming. What's coming? Judgment. You can't know your Old Testament Bible and think about trumpets without thinking about What?

Jericho. Seven days [00:16:00] they march around, blow the trumpets. On the seventh day, they trumpet seven times, and the judgment has come, and the walls come tumbling down, and God is victorious. Judgment in Joshua 6 with Jericho. Trumpets in the Bible are a huge symbol of warning the judgment of God is coming. And so we've got these Bible trumpets, and I put up here, remember Revelation 1:10.

Jesus is-- says when He first speaks in Revelation 1:10, it says He s- someone who sounded like a trumpet "I was in the Spirit." Let's get it up here. "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet." [00:17:00] This book is a book of warning and judgment, as well as a book of consolation for the saints to help us understand the victory.

So, "I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them." Now, this is an interesting thing here. Seven trumpets were given to them. This is a passive in the English, but it's a passive in the Greek. It doesn't say God gave them a trumpet. It says a trumpet was given to them. It doesn't say who did the giving.

It's called a divine passive because God is the one who's doing the giving. God is at work. God is in control. And you might say, "My English teacher would have said, 'Well, why didn't you write God gave them a trumpet? It's better writing.'" No, this is in [00:18:00] some ways the way the Book of Revelation is... Let's see.

How to best say this? Okay, look, the Book of Revelation is written in Greek But the fella who wrote the Book of Revelation, John, is thinking a lot in Hebrew They're called Semiticisms by the scholars, where the Semitic, the Hebrew influence is being translated into Greek. And in the Hebrew world, a devout Jew did not say the name of God.

Just didn't happen. And so it oftentimes in Hebrew, you'll read a passive idea where you're talking about God doing the action because God's name's too holy just to throw it around lightly. After all, one of the Ten Commandments is not to take His name in vain. You just don't throw the name or the [00:19:00] title of God around lightly How many of us grew up in homes and live in homes where you, you know, you don't say, "Oh my God," unless you mean it?

Yeah, I was, I, I don't remember where I was, but sometimes I'm, I'm just, I'm not very nice. Confession

Sometimes to the embarrassment of my children. We were in, um, Washington, DC recently, and I'm about to cross the street. And there's a young fella and two young girls I guess he was trying to impress. And the, the air-- light turns red, so we're not supposed to cross. And he just says, "Come on," and they just walk across anyway.

And the cars are coming, and the cars have to [00:20:00] stop. One car stops and kinda honks the horn, and, and the kid just stands there and goes, "So? So?" And then he says to the girls as they continue to walk by, he says, "I don't care about them." And he says that after he's just done this, and he's walking right in front of me.

And so I muttered under my breath a little too loud- It's one of the early signs of narcissism. And, uh, he just kind of... So sometimes I say things that aren't very nice. And, um, I have a tendency sometimes when people say, "Jesus Christ," to respond with, "Where?"

Or if they say, "Oh my God," I say, "Hey, he's my God, too." Um, you know, y- because there's a consciousness about using these things lightly. So in the Hebrew mindset, you don't just say God. So a lot [00:21:00] of times the Hebrew written into Greek will have the verb in a passive sense. And it's, it's, it's a way in an- antiquity of conveying the, the fact that God is the author here, God is the actor, God is the subject.

And throughout Revelation 8, a really cool thing about these trumpets is you're gonna see over and over there-- this is all written in a divine passive. It's, it's written in a passive voice because we are to read and understand as we look at this warning and we look at this judgment that God is at work, that God is in control, that none of the things happening on this earth are serendipitous.

None of the things that happen are just, ah, wow, luck of the draw. This is God [00:22:00] at work. Um, I'm trying this case, as you all know, up in Helena, and, uh, uh, it was, it was really-- it's been a wonderful opportunity because I've got my team of 10 or so people up there, but there's a law firm that hired us to do this work, and they're up there.

And we had a big meeting right before, uh, the first day of trial, and we're in the big war room, and I told everybody, I said, "Okay, at this point, those of you who don't work on my team, y'all are welcome to stay in here. But you're also welcome to leave because right now, me and my team, we're gonna pray about this.

And I don't know where you are in your world, but I don't, I don't-- I'm not trying to force you into mine. But this is where I live." And they said, "Oh, no, no. We'd, we'd love to." And so it's a time to pray, pray for God's insight, pray for God's hand, pray for God's protection, pray for justice and God's justice, [00:23:00] pray for confusion among the enemy, pray for-

clarity among the saints, uh, you know. But, but, uh, uh, it, it-- God is at work. And at the end of the prayer one of these wonderful lawyers said, "Yes, knock on wood."

That's a good way to get your knuckles hurt, but I mean, th- th- that's not, hitting on wood not gonna do diddly squat God is at work. God is at work, and we need to know it. So another angel comes. He stands at the altar. Or he, angels, uh, are asexual. A- another angel comes, stands at the altar with a golden censer, and he's given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne.

First of all, look what happens here. He [00:24:00] was given It doth they. Do you know what that is? That's a divine passive. God's at work. God's in control. God gives him. He was given much incense. Now, what is incense? I mean, we can buy some of it, but generally when you buy it now, it just makes you think that you're either in the Far East or something, or that someone's trying to cover up the smell of pot.

I mean, what, what, w- w- what, what... We don't do that much with incense. But back in the biblical times and in the Old Testament, incense is both prayer, but it's even prayer plus. It, it, it's... Look at it in, in this way with Psalm, um, 142-- 141:2. Psalm 141:2 speaks of prayer as incense. Um, says, um, [00:25:00] uh... Oh, what did I do?

Somehow I have put this on capture mode And so that's not gonna work. All right, Psalm 141:2 says, "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you." See? That's hit Control, Alt, Delete. Turn it off, turn it back on. This boy grew up with a computer. "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice."

The idea being that incense is a, a fragrant aroma to God. Now, we, we think about fragrant aromas, we might have, you know, um, uh, cologne, perfume, um. My, my, my sweet wife made me, uh, breakfast tacos this morning, so I awakened to the smell of turkey [00:26:00] bacon, and it's so good, and it's a wonderful aroma. But back then?

Okay, think about this. You're going to the temple to sacrifice, and they're butchering meat there. They're cutting raw livestock, and the flies know it, and the aroma proclaims it. And you got a whole bunch of people who don't have deodorant, haven't taken a shower, and don't live with air conditioning- ... in the Middle East, and they stink.

So you got a bunch of stinky people around a bunch of stinky carcasses of a bunch of stinky dead animals with a bunch of flies and everything else buzzing around. Is it any wonder God said, "Here's a recipe for some fragrance, uh, some [00:27:00] incense I'd like to have burning and kinda helping the smell of the place."

A pleasing aroma, if you will. But as that incense rises to heaven, it's very quickly understood to be akin to both the sacrifices that are ascending in smoke and the prayers that are going up. So incense as a pleasing and pure sacrifice that takes the, the smell of this earthly decay And substitutes for it a pleasing aroma.

And that's really what sacrifice is at its root if we understand it from the perspective of Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. He has taken away the decay and the smell of this putrid [00:28:00] world of sin through a pleasing aroma that has ascended to the Father. And so we've got this here. By the way, that passage in Exodus is, is one that explains this is the role of the incense.

So, oh, I'm doing all this PowerPoint stuff, and y'all aren't even getting to see it, sorry. Um, so incense, a pleasing and pure sacrifice to God. Now what do we have here? Remember, we're looking at the same time period that we've already looked at in Revelation 4 and 5. It starts out with Jesus appearing as a lamb slain.

Lion of Judah, and then a lamb slain. Here, Jesus appears as an intercessor. Jesus is this incense. Look, "Another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer. He's given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the [00:29:00] saints on the golden altar before the throne." Jesus is the sacrifice, the incense that smells pure and is a fragrance that satisfies the nostrils of God, if I can use an anthropomorphism, that satisfies the divine justice of God.

Jesus covers up all of the decrepitness, and it mixes with the prayers of the saints that arise before God. This is a huge thing. We should not lose this idea that the incense mixes with the prayers of the saints because the incense-- Christ is our intercessor. This is-- Christ is, is-- L- look at these passages.

Look at Romans 8:34 in this light Romans 8:34 is a marvelous passage that you know, but I'm not sure you've put [00:30:00] it into this sense of understanding. "Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies. Who's to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died." More than that, He was raised like the, the smoke that arises from a sacrifice in a sense, and He sits at the right hand of God, and He intercedes for us.

See, the incense is being offered with the prayers of the saints. You do not pray to God because of who you are. We pray to God with Jesus Christ as our intercessor. His sacrifice co-mingles with our prayers and comes before the presence of God. 1 John 2 says it this way, verse one

1 John 2:1. Here it is. "My little children, I'm [00:31:00] writing these things so that you won't sin. But if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Jesus commingles with us. Hebrews 7:25 says the same thing. Jesus is our intercessor. So we've got this wonderful passage here that, that He's given much incense with the prayers of all the saints.

And so we're starting back with Jesus Christ crucified and rising up to God as a satisfactory sacrifice, as a, as a, a, an odor that is, is beautiful, that covers up the inadequacies of all that we are and all of our decrepit world. And so it mingles with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne.

This is the beauty of what we've got. This is the power of praying in the name of Jesus instead of in our own name. [00:32:00] And so the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth.

And there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, an earthquake You reading this? You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking, "Fasten your seatbelt. It's about to get bad." But there's an echo here of Psalm 77, "When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid. The deep trembled.

The clouds poured out water. The skies gave forth thunder. Your arrows flashed," that's the lightning, "on every side. The crash of your thunders in the whirlwind. Your lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and [00:33:00] shook." That's talking about the Exodus. And a lot of these trumpets come out of the Exodus.

They're, they're imbued with the symbolism of God's judgment and warning on, on Egypt. And so we've got here this-- the, the fasten your seatbelt because the justice of God... Look, we worship a loving Jesus who showed us the face of God, but it's not a different God than the Old Testament. There will come judgment.

Sin is cancer. It's uncontrolled, selfish growth that destroys thriving tissue And God says, "I'm gonna cut that cancer out. I'm gonna, I'm gonna chemotherapy like you've never seen. I'm gonna radiate, I'm gonna excise, I'm going to [00:34:00] destroy the cancer." And th- the beauty of Christianity is the redemption for the people who will turn to God.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Whoever believes in Him won't perish like the rest of them, but will have an eternal life. So God's coming in judgment, and it's a warning, and these trumpets are warnings of, of God coming and God's judgment because God wants everyone to repent.

So the seven angels, they've got the seven trumpets. They're prepared to blow them. First angel blows his trumpet and follows hail and fire mixed with blood. And these are thrown on the earth, and a third of the earth is burned up, and a third of the trees are burned up, and all the green grass is burned up All right.

If you're reading carefully, [00:35:00] these were thrown upon the earth. Do you care to guess what eblethe is? It's a divine passive. These were burned up. These were burned up. These are all divine passives. Why? God is at work here This is God at work. And what it's saying is, is in the age of the church we know this.

This world is not what it should be

Now the whole world's not being destroyed right now, only a third. And, and that's not, okay, one out of every three trees is gone. No, this is, this is a symbol. This is a movie scene being painted before there were movies. So it's just letting you know it's not a- it's not gonna affect everyone everywhere.

But this world is affected, and it needs to be a warning. And any time you see a problem in [00:36:00] this world that insurance policies will call an act of God, any time you see a, a, a, an issue in this world, let it be a warning. This beautiful world is not what it should be. And every time we see sin and every sign we see despair, A, we should battle against it.

But B, we should remember and be warned we wanna be on the right side of this Ten Commandments, they're being echoed here. I'm gonna, instead of putting the Greek on one side, I'm gonna put Exodus on one side. Look at the ... Here you've got the Revelation. First angel blew his trumpet, followed hail and fire mixed with blood, thrown upon the earth.

A third of the earth burned up, a third of the trees burned up, the grass. Moses stretched out his staff toward the heaven. The Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire rained down on the earth. The Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt, struck down every plant in the field, broke every tree of the field You've got the echo [00:37:00] here of Exodus.

That's the first trumpet. Now, while that trumpet's blowing, you've got another trumpet blowing. This is all happening together in the age of the church, in the age where we still live. The second angel blows his trumpet, and something like a great mountain burning with fire is thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea becomes blood, and a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships are destroyed.

And you're sitting there thinking, "Oh, man, this could be a movie." And you got the movie with the, the, the mount-- Okay. We gotta not just read it like people who grew up on Star Wars. We gotta read it like people would have first read it to understand it in its original context. And I'll guarantee you, there's not a person reading this at the time of John that had been around Rome that didn't immediately imagine Mount Vesuvius, which destroyed Pompeii [00:38:00] and Herculaneum.

So, um, there was a-- The head of the admiral of the Roman fleet was Pliny, Pliny the Elder. He had a nephew who he adopted as a son, Pliny the Younger. Pliny the Elder was killed in Vesuvius when it blew up. Seventy-nine, David Capes, AD. I think it was seventy-nine, August 24th. So Vesuvius, I don't have a picture of it blowing up, but this is as good as I could come up with.

I wasn't there. So Pliny the Younger writes about this, and he says, "You ask me..." This is in his epistles. It's a, a section of book, a letters he wrote. Um, "You ask me to send you an account of my uncle's death," Pliny the Elder. "My uncle was stationed at Misenum, where he was in active command of the fleet with full powers.

On the twenty-fourth of [00:39:00] August, about the seventh hour, my mother drew his attention to the fact a cloud of unusual size and shape had made its appearance. He'd been out in the sun, followed by a cold bath. After a light meal, he's lying down reading, but he called for his sandals. He climbed up to a spot from which he could command a good view of the curious phenomenon.

Those who were looking at the, uh..." Oops, there we go. "Those who were looking at the cloud from some distance could not make out from which mountain it was rising. It was afterwards discovered to have been Mount Vesuvius. But in likeness and form, it more closely..." Well, that wasn't very nice of you In likeness and form, it more closely resembled a pine tree than anything else.

For what corresponded to the trunk was of great length and height, and then spread out into a number of branches. The reason being, I imagine, that while the vapor was fresh, the cloud was borne [00:40:00] upwards. But when the vapor became wasted, it lost its motion, or even became

Okay. Became wasted, lost its motion, or even became, come on, come on, come on. You know, this was Pliny's problem. This is why he had trouble

it lost its motion or even became dissipated by its own weight and started spreading out laterally. At times it looked white, at times it looked dirty and spotty. But my uncle, he had the galleys launched. He gets on the ships. He goes on board himself in the hope of succoring not only Rectina, but many others.

He's trying to come help. For there were a number of people living along the shore, because it's so pretty, it's the Amalfi coastline today, uh, as long as so [00:41:00] pretty, and he hastens toward the place where everybody's trying to run from. And steering a direct course, he kept the helm straight for the point of danger.

So utterly devoid of fear, ah, this is not my happy place right now. So utterly devoid of fear that every place

This is, this is not my happy spot Yeah, he's steering a direct course. He keeps the helm straight for the point of danger, so utterly devoid of fear that every movement of a looming portent, every change in its appearance he described, he noted by his secretary as soon as his eyes detected. Ashes are starting to fall upon the ships, hotter and in thicker showers as they approach more nearly, with pumice stones and black flints charred and cracked by the heat of the flames.

The mountains blowing up. While their way was barred by the sudden shoaling of the sea bottom and the litter of the mountain on the shore, he [00:42:00] hesitated for a moment whether to turn back

And then when the helmsman warned him to do so, he said, "Fortune favors the bold." This is the last day of his life. "Try to reach Pomponius, Pom- Pomponius, Pomponianus.

The latter was at Stabiae, separated by the whole width of the bay. The sea pours in upon a gently rounded curving shore. Although the danger was not yet close upon him, it was nonetheless clearly seen. It traveled quickly as it came near." He'd gotten his baggage together on shipboard, and he decides he's gonna try and wait for the wind.

He sails into the wind. I'm not gonna keep reading it, 'cause I'm so frustrated over the way it's showing, but the bottom line is, is it reads so much like Revelation it's not even funny. And uncle dies. The mountain's blown up and falls into the sea, and a bunch of the ships are destroyed, and a bunch of the people are dead, and this is what we've got here.

And it's not only here, it's [00:43:00] also echoing at the same time people who saw the Ten Commandments. So you've got the second angel blew his trumpet. Something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea becomes blood, and the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships are destroyed.

But it's echoing the, the, the judgment. I'll strike the water that's in the Nile. It'll turn into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the Nile will stink, and the Egyptians will grow weary with all of this. This is God's judgment is unfolding. And while the first trumpet is blowing and the second trumpet's blowing, the third angel's blowing a trumpet, and a great star falls from heaven blazing like a torch, and it falls on a third of the rivers and the springs.

And the name of the star is Wormwood. And a third of the water becomes Wormwood. And many people died from the water because it'd been made bitter. Wormwood, Artemisia [00:44:00] absinthium is the Latin name for it, absinthe. It's a bitter herb, and it makes something really bitter. It's not technically fatal. I guess Paracelsus would say if you get an insufficient dose it would be.

But it's used in the Old Testament to speak of punishment for idolatry It's a bitterness. Jeremiah 9:15, Jeremiah 23:15. I'll leave them up there. You can read them. They'll make sense, but I wanna go on. I love what Dr. Blount said about this. He said, "The angelic poisoning of the waters is a deliciously ironic way of punishing a people who have so poisoned their faith."

You've got people who have put their faith in themselves, in their money, in their riches, in their status, in their education, in their relationships. If they put their things, their treasures on [00:45:00] earth, and it will become the bitter poison that consumes them. It's what Pastor Jared preaches about this morning out of the Matthew passage.

Don't store up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust can destroy it. Store up for yourself treasures in heaven. Where your treasures are, that's where your heart's gonna be. Don't, uh, the, the, the verb there in the Matthew 6 passage... I always get nervous over this with David Cape sitting over there.

Is he still here? Yeah, okay. He'll correct me after class if I'm wrong, but I think that the imperative verb there is built off of, um, thesorizo. Um, we get thesaurus from it, like a treasure chest of words, but it's a treasure chest that you're putting your treasure in, and Jesus says, "Don't put your thor- thora- [00:46:00] thesaurus, don't put your treasure in a, thes- don't thesorizomy your treasure in a treasure chest on earth."

It's just gonna rust and fu- Put your treasure up in heaven where God is. In, in, in, in Revelation speak, it's saying, you want to put your faith in things of this earth, then you will be poisoned by the things of this earth, and you need to be warned, and that's why the trumpet is warning you. And so now we've got those three trumpets.

You got a fourth angel blowing a trumpet, and a third of the sun is struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, and a third of their lights darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and a third of the night. By the way, I didn't point these out all the times, but I want you to see this word was struck It's a passive.

Might be darkened. It's a passive. Do you know what we call that in Greek? [00:47:00] A divine passive. God is in control. God is at work. And we should be warned about this. This is judgment of warning. It's also judgment and warning that echoes the Ten Commandments. What were all of those plagues that were brought on Pharaoh if they weren't judgments of God that were there to warn and move him to repentance to let the people go?

And so you can look at the passage out of Revelation, but compare it to Lord saying to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt." A darkness to be felt. There's pitch darkness over the land for three days. Instead of a third, it's three days. But it's the same principle Now those are just the first four trumpets.

We've got three more, and it's interesting because the first four trumpets kind of occupy themselves. And I told you that Revelation 8 and 11, the trumpets [00:48:00] parallel the seals. If you recall the seals, just as the trumpets are arranged with a group of four and three, so in Revelation the seals were arranged.

You had the four horsemen for the first four seals. And so it's this whole idea, and it's built within itself, and you just see layer upon layer upon layer. This is a three-ring circus where all of these things are happening at the same time. You've got repeated visions from different perspectives. This trumpet is from the perspective of the Divine One These are divine passives we're reading.

God is in control. God is at work. Don't think this world is pell-mell. Don't think this world is spontaneous. Know that God is in control, and that's the points for home. Number one, God is in control. Seven trumpets were given to them

When you think your world is falling apart, [00:49:00] when you think you're facing the end of your days, when your health is falling apart, when your relationships are falling apart, when your strength to face the day seems to be wasted, when the mountains in your life aren't just there, they're crashing around you, know that God is in control And just hold fast to the one who will never let you go.

Remember, He did not save Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from entering the fiery furnace. He saved them through the fiery furnace. He did not stop Daniel from going into the lion's den. He went with Daniel into the lion's den. We live in a world that [00:50:00] is not utopia or Eden. We live in a world under the sin and judgment that comes with sin And it's under God's control.

And don't ever lose your faith in that, because just as important as number two, Jesus is our prayer partner. I love it when I get your emails and texts and notes or encouraging words that you're praying for me, you're praying for my family. And I know many of you pray for us, and I-- we pray for you guys without even sending a text or a word.

But it's so encouraging to know that, that the prayers of the saints are with us. But consider all of our prayers are being intermingled with the sacrifice and the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our prayer [00:51:00] partner. The angel was given much incense to offer with the prayers that ascend before God. And last but not least, as I bring this class to a close, heed the warning Let all of the crises of life drive you to God, not away from God.

You have that choice. I have that choice. We can let the garbage and the crisis and the things that just rip us to shreds drive us from God or drive us to God. And if we're reading the Book of Revelation, we understand those things happen, period. We are in the age of the trumpets, these trumpets. We are in the age of these trumps.

Now we'll get to the trumpets that signal the end of time. They're coming. 'Cause this whole vision goes all the way to the end of time, and then we start again with chapter 12 with the incarnation of Christ, 'cause it's the next set of vision, the bowls [00:52:00] of wrath. But here we've got this incredible understanding that a third of the Earth can be burned up.

Anything bad that happens to us, we need to take it as a warning to turn to God

Because we escape his judgment at the end of the story. Amen? Amen. Amen. Let me bless us in Jesus' name, and then, uh, see you, uh, next time. Uh, Lord, thank you in the name of Jesus for everyone who hears this message. I pray that your trumpet will blow loud into not just our ears and our minds, but our heart, calling us to faithfulness with you, calling us to commitment to you, calling us to trust in you as we live in a world of cataclysm, darkness, and destruction.

[00:53:00] We rest and we pray through the sacrifice that is our Lord Jesus to give our prayers purity and rise before you in holiness. Amen.