Revelation 8

Re 8:1-13.

SEVENTH

SEAL.

PREPARATION FOR THE

SEVEN

TRUMPETS.

THE

FIRST

FOUR AND THE

CONSEQUENT

PLAGUES.

1. was--Greek, "came to pass"; "began to be."

silence in heaven about . . . half an hour--The last

seal having been broken open, the book of God's eternal plan of

redemption is opened for the Lamb to read to the blessed ones in

heaven. The half hour's silence contrasts with the previous

jubilant songs of the great multitude, taken up by the

angels

(Re 7:9-11).

It is the solemn introduction to the employments and enjoyments of the

eternal Sabbath-rest of the people of God, commencing with the Lamb's

reading the book heretofore sealed up, and which we cannot know till

then. In

Re 10:4,

similarly at the eve of the sounding of the seventh trumpet, when the

seven thunders uttered their voices, John is forbidden to write them.

The seventh trumpet

(Re 11:15-19)

winds up God's vast plan of providence and grace in redemption, just as

the seventh seal brings it to the same consummation. So also the

seventh vial,

Re 16:17.

Not that the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven vials,

though parallel, are repetitions. They each trace the course of divine

action up to the grand consummation in which they all meet, under a

different aspect. Thunders, lightnings, an earthquake, and

voices close the seven thunders and the seven seals alike

(compare

Re 8:5,

with Re 11:19).

Compare at the seventh vial, the voices, thunders, lightnings, and

earthquake,

Re 16:18.

The half-hour silence is the brief pause GIVEN

TO JOHN between the preceding vision and

the following one, implying, on the one hand, the solemn introduction

to the eternal sabbatism which is to follow the seventh seal; and, on

the other, the silence which continued during the incense-accompanied

prayers which usher in the first of the seven trumpets

(Re 8:3-5).

In the Jewish temple, musical instruments and singing resounded during

the whole time of the offering of the sacrifices, which formed the

first part of the service. But at the offering of incense, solemn

silence was kept ("My soul waiteth upon God,"

Ps 62:1;

"is silent," Margin;

Ps 65:1,

Margin), the people praying secretly all the time. The

half-hour stillness implies, too, the earnest adoring

expectation with which the blessed spirits and the angels await the

succeeding unfolding of God's judgments. A short space is

implied; for even an hour is so used

(Re 17:12; 18:10, 19).

2. the seven angels--Compare the apocryphal

Tobit 12:15,

"I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels which present the prayers

of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy

One." Compare

Lu 1:19,

"I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God."

stood--Greek, "stand."

seven trumpets--These come in during the time while the martyrs

rest until their fellow servants also, that should be killed as they

were, should be fulfilled; for it is the inhabiters of the

earth on whom the judgments fall, on whom also the martyrs prayed

that they should fall

(Re 6:10).

All the ungodly, and not merely some one portion of them, are

meant, all the opponents and obstacles in the way of the kingdom of

Christ and His saints, as is proved by

Re 11:15, 18,

end, at the close of the seven trumpets. The Revelation becomes more

special only as it advances farther

(Re 13:1-18; 16:10; 17:18).

Christ's universal kingdom. The first four are connected together; and

the last three, which alone have Woe, woe, woe

(Re 8:7-13).

3. another angel--not Christ, as many think; for He, in

Revelation, is always designated by one of His proper titles; though,

doubtless, He is the only true High Priest, the Angel of the Covenant,

standing before the golden altar of incense, and there, as Mediator,

offering up His people's prayers, rendered acceptable before God

through the incense of His merit. Here the angel acts merely as a

ministering spirit

(Heb 1:4),

just as the twenty-four elders have vials full of odors, or

incense, which are the prayers of saints

(Re 5:8),

and which they present before the Lamb. How precisely their ministry,

in perfuming the prayers of the saints and offering them on the altar

of incense, is exercised, we know not, but we do know they are not to

be prayed TO. If we send an offering of tribute to

the king, the king's messenger is not allowed to appropriate what is

due to the king alone.

there was given unto him--The angel does not provide the

incense; it is given to him by Christ, whose meritorious

obedience and death are the incense, rendering the saints' prayers well

pleasing to God. It is not the saints who give the angel the incense;

nor are their prayers identified with the incense; nor do they offer

their prayers to him. Christ alone is the Mediator through whom, and

to whom, prayer is to be offered.

offer it with the prayers--rather as Greek, "give

it TO the prayers," so rendering them efficacious

as a sweet-smelling savor to God. Christ's merits alone can thus

incense our prayers, though the angelic ministry be employed to

attach this incense to the prayers. The saints' praying on earth, and

the angel's incensing in heaven, are simultaneous.

all saints--The prayers both of the saints in the heavenly rest,

and of those militant on earth. The martyrs' cry is the foremost, and

brings down the ensuing judgments.

golden altar--antitype to the earthly.

4. the smoke . . . which came with the prayers

. . . ascended up--rather, "the smoke of the incense

FOR (or 'given TO':

'given' being understood from

Re 8:3)

the prayers of the saints ascended up, out of the angel's hand, in the

presence of Gods" The angel merely burns the incense given him by

Christ the High Priest, so that its smoke blends with the ascending

prayers of the saints. The saints themselves are priests; and the

angels in this priestly ministration are but their fellow

servants

(Re 19:10).

5. cast it into the earth--that is, unto the earth: the

hot coals off the altar cast on the earth, symbolize God's fiery

judgments about to descend on the Church's foes in answer to the

saints' incense-perfumed prayers which have just ascended before God,

and those of the martyrs. How marvellous the power of the saints'

prayers!

there were--"there took place," or "ensued."

voices, and thunderings, and lightnings--B places the "voices"

after "thunderings." A places it after "lightnings."

6. sound--blow the trumpets.

7. The common feature of the first four trumpets is, the

judgments under them affect natural objects, the accessories of

life, the earth, trees, grass, the sea, rivers, fountains, the light of

the sun, moon, and stars. The last three, the woe-trumpets

(Re 8:13),

affect men's life with pain, death, and hell. The language is evidently

drawn from the plagues of Egypt, five or six out of the ten exactly

corresponding: the hail, the fire

(Ex 9:24),

the WATER turned to blood

(Ex 7:19),

the darkness

(Ex 10:21),

the locusts

(Ex 10:12),

and perhaps the death

(Re 9:18).

Judicial retribution in kind characterizes the inflictions of the first

four, those elements which had been abused punishing their abusers.

mingled with--A, B, and Vulgate read, Greek,

". . . IN blood." So in the case of the

second and third vials

(Re 16:3, 4).

upon the earth--Greek, "unto the earth." A, B,

Vulgate, and Syriac add, "And the third of the earth was

burnt up." So under the third trumpet, the third of the rivers

is affected: also, under the sixth trumpet, the third part of

men are killed. In

Zec 13:8, 9

this tripartite division appears, but the proportions reversed, two

parts killed, only a third preserved. Here, vice versa, two-thirds

escape, one-third is smitten. The fire was the predominant element.

all green grass--no longer a third, but all is burnt

up.

8. as it were--not literally a mountain: a mountain-like burning

mass. There is a plain allusion to

Jer 51:25;

Am 7:4.

third part of the sea became blood--In the parallel second vial,

the whole sea (not merely a third) becomes blood.

The overthrow of Jericho, the type of the Antichristian Babylon, after

which Israel, under Joshua (the same name as Jesus),

victoriously took possession of Canaan, the type of Christ's and His

people's kingdom, is perhaps alluded to in the

SEVEN trumpets, which end in the overthrow

of all Christ's foes, and the setting up of His kingdom. On the

seventh day, at the seventh time, when the seven

priests blew the seven ram's horn trumpets, the people shouted,

and the walls fell flat: and then ensued the blood-shedding of

the foe. A mountain-like fiery mass would not naturally change water

into blood; nor would the third part of ships be thereby

destroyed.

9. The symbolical interpreters take the ships here to be

churches. For the Greek here for ships is not the common

one, but that used in the Gospels of the apostolic vessel in which

Christ taught: and the first churches were in the shape of an inverted

ship: and the Greek for destroyed is also used of

heretical corruptings

(1Ti 6:5).

10. a lamp--a torch.

11. The symbolizers interpret the star fallen from heaven

as a chief minister (ARIUS, according to

BULLINGER, BENGEL, and

others; or some future false teacher, if, as is more likely, the event

be still future) falling from his high place in the Church, and instead

of shining with heavenly light as a star, becoming a torch lit

with earthly fire and smouldering with smoke. And "wormwood," though

medicinal in some cases, if used as ordinary water would not only be

disagreeable to the taste, but also fatal to life: so "heretical

wormwood changes the sweet Siloas of Scripture into deadly Marahs"

[WORDSWORTH]. Contrast the converse change of

bitter Marah water into sweet,

Ex 15:23.

ALFORD gives as an illustration in a physical

point of view, the conversion of water into firewater or

ardent spirits, which may yet go on to destroy even as many as a

third of the ungodly in the latter days.

12. third part--not a total obscuration as in the sixth

seal

(Re 6:12, 13).

This partial obscuration, therefore, comes between the prayers

of the martyrs under the fifth seal, and the last overwhelming

judgments on the ungodly under the sixth seal, at the eve of Christ's

coming.

the night likewise--withdrew a third part of the light which the

bright Eastern moon and stars ordinarily afford.

13. an angel--A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic

read for "angel," which is supported by none of the oldest manuscripts,

"an eagle": the symbol of judgment descending fatally from on high; the

king of birds pouncing on the prey. Compare this fourth trumpet and the

flying eagle with the fourth seal introduced by the fourth

living creature, "like a flying eagle,"

Re 4:7; 6:7, 8:

the aspect of Jesus as presented by the fourth Evangelist. John

is compared in the cherubim (according to the primitive interpretation)

to a flying eagle: Christ's divine majesty in this similitude is

set forth in the Gospel according to John, His judicial

visitations in the Revelation of John. Contrast "another angel," or

messenger, with "the everlasting Gospel,"

Re 14:6.

through the midst of heaven--Greek, "in the mid-heaven,"

that is, in the part of the sky where the sun reaches the

meridian: in such a position as that the eagle is an object

conspicuous to all.

the inhabiters of the earth--the ungodly, the "men of the

world," whose "portion is in this life," upon whom the martyrs had

prayed that their blood might be avenged

(Re 6:10).

Not that they sought personal revenge, but their zeal was for the honor

of God against the foes of God and His Church.

the other--Greek, "the remaining voices."