TRUMPETING ANGELS

At the beginning of chapter 8 John describes seeing seven angels being given seven trumpets that the following context indicates will be used to signal the unleashing of seven more judgments against those on planet earth. Another angel appears holding a golden censer which he uses to offer incense mingled with the prayers of the saints before God. The angel acts decisively and confidently. He then fills the censer with fire from the altar and casts it to the earth; this results in the people on earth experiencing “voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.” (verse 5)

After this, the first four angels blow their trumpets one after another. The sounding of these trumpets result in great destruction from hail, fire and possible meteors poisoning the sea, rivers and springs of water. Indications are that 1/3 of the planet is impacted by these judgments. I can’t help but think back to the angels controlling the winds and wonder if these “natural” events are resulting from authority being exercised by other angels.

At this point John records seeing an angel flying through the heavens warning the inhabitants of earth to beware the judgments yet to come when the angels holding the last three trumpets give their signal.

When the fifth angel blows his trumpet (at the beginning of chapter 9), John notes that he sees a “star” falling from heaven to earth and “he” was given the key to the bottomless pit. Obviously, this is not a normal star; it is another angelic being. When he opens the bottomless pit, locusts appear out of a cloud of smoke to torment men for five months. Again, these are obviously not normal locusts. In doing my study of Revelation, I found this note by Darrell Young of Focus on Jerusalem Prophecy Ministry in an article on “Iran in Bible Prophecy.” It will reference Amos 7:1, so I am showing it as stated in the KJV to preface his quote.

Amos 7:1 Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.

“…an earlier translation of the OT into Greek, known as the Septuagint, embodies a different rending of Amos 7:1, “thus the Lord showed me, and behold a swarm of locusts were coming and behold one of the young devastating locusts was Gog, the King.”

It was already established in a previous post, that I believe Gog is a fallen angel of higher rank. It’s very interesting to me how each study can give a fresh perspective on previous study. I had not made a specific connection between Gog and Appollyon, the angel of the bottomless pit identified as the king of the locusts. If the Septuagint rending is correct, this would seem to be a correct deduction.

Revelation 9:11 “And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.”

When the sixth angel sounds his trumpet, John tells us that four angels that have been bound in the great river Euphrates are loosed to kill a third of mankind. Implied in the following verse is that they have a 200,000,000 man army at their ready to accomplish this objective. During my study of Revelation, I remember thinking that these angels were probably angels connected to nations bordering the Euphrates River in light of Daniel’s record of angelic princes in authority over nations that were ever engaged in battle with the angels of God in trying to prevent His will being done (as explained in a previous post). The one thing that can definitely be said about this army is that it is composed of enemies of God.

There is yet one trumpet to sound, but we will first encounter another explanatory section in the book of Revelation before picking back up in real time. I think it is already clearly evident that the angels, both good and bad, play a prominent role in bringing about the purposes of God concerning mankind and the events that affect those on planet earth.