… seven seals focused in on what was happening to God’s people, the Christians.
… the seven trumpets, what is happening to those who do not yet follow Jesus.
How do trumpets 1-4 differ to trumpets 5 & 6?
…Judgement from above
… remove of the things we rely on
Trumpets 5 & 6
… result in things coming from the abyss and from evil angels.
Trumpet # 1
… from above, hurled down to earth, is hail and fire mixed with blood.
Trumpet # 2
… something like a huge flaming mountain arrives from above into the sea
Psalm 46:1-2, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,”
Trumpet # 3
… a star blazing like a torch fell from the sky into the rivers and springs of water
Trumpet # 4
… the light on earth is blanketed out
Trumpets 1-4
… the reach of God into all parts of the earth.
… impacting the things we rely on to exist.
A flying speaking Eagle
… what is unleashed comes from the abyss and from spiritual evil forces opposed to God
Trumpet # 5
… the first woe.
… what it releases comes from the abyss.
… a place that is inhabited by spiritual beings who are hostile to God
… their target is to torture those who do not follow God
Trumpet # 6
… four angels who had been bound are then released
… they are allowed to kill
… the rest of humanity does not repent before God.
For us today?
1) Do not go looking for literal fulfilments in our own period of history
2) Before final judgement falls
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our consciences, but he shouts to us in our pains, it is his megaphone to arouse a deaf world”. CS Lewis
… graciously exposing the false gods of our non Christian world and pushing people to realise their desperate need to come back to him before they face him at final judgement.
See Luke 13:1-6,
… using the actions of disaster and spiritually evil to give others the opportunity to repent.
A final few words to Christians
… God has not lost control.
Have we grown comfortable with the values (and gods) of the world?
Christians are not protected from everything that happens in the world
… although … spiritually evil and demonic forces cannot separate us from God’s love. (Romans 8)