'Rev 8:6-13

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Rev 8:6-11:19 THE SEVEN TRUMPETS

First four trumpets (Rev 8:6-13)

In the visions revealed by the breaking of the seals, the judgments arose largely from human sin. But in the judgments announced by the blowing of the trumpets, the judgments seem to come direct from God without the use of a human agency. The trumpet visions reveal another way of looking at God’s judgment, but like the seal visions they build towards a climax.

The first trumpet announces widespread devastation on the land (Rev 8:6-7); the second, on the sea (Rev 8:8-9); the third, on the waters of the land (10-11); and the fourth, on the moon and stars (Rev 8:12).

The destruction of the symbolic ‘one third’ is slightly more extensive than the ‘one quarter’ in the seal judgments (cf. Rev 6:8), but is not a total judgment.

It is a warning of what will happen if people do not repent. The three woes (GNB: horrors) announced by an eagle correspond to the three remaining trumpet judgments (Rev 8:13; cf. 9:1,12-13; 11:14-15).