Revelation 8:2-6

Revelation 8:2-6

Revelation 8:2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

Seven Angels

This begins the second set of judgments. Like the judgments released by the seals, the judgments of this set number seven, each revealed by and angel blowing a trumpet.

Seven angels that stand before God ... It is natural that many should understand these as the seven archangels, and Barclay named them (not from the Bible, of course, but from Tobit): "Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Sariel, Gabriel and Remiel.[21] Only one archangel is mentioned in the Bible, Michael; and it seems logical to conclude that there could be only one archangel, the one of highest authority.

  These "angels" are prepared to carry out God's orders. These "seven trumpets" were to sound the alarm.  Trumpets are loud and send out a clear note. There will be no question of the message. The trumpet throughout the Bible is used for two specific purposes:

1: To assemble the people for worship.

2: To assemble the people for war. At any rate, this is to alarm and prepare.

In the first period of the Tribulation the earth has known the wrath of the Antichrist; now it will begin to feel the wrath of God Almighty

The Seven Trumpets

The purpose of the trumpet is to draw attention, so people take notice.  In Exodus (Exodus 19), we see the trumpet of God proclaim God’s presence to Israel.  The trumpet is also used to call up the saints in the rapture. (I Thes. 4:16).

Here seven trumpet are given to seven angels to herald the judgments of God on the Earth.  In a prophetic foreshadowing of this event, before Israel entered the promised land 7 priests held seven

trumpets. 

Joshua, commands Israel how Jericho is to be taken.

   4 "And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.

   5 "It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat.

And the people shall go up every man straight before him." 

 Joshua 6:4-5

Most significant for an understanding of John's visions in Revelation is that the Israelites saw "thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain" and heard "a very loud trumpet blast" (Ex 19:16). When the people gathered, "Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder" (19:18-19). The letter to the Hebrews rehearses the whole scene at Sinai, including the "mountain . . . burning with fire," the "darkness, gloom and storm," and the "trumpet blast" (Heb 12:18-19), with a promise that earth and heaven would be shaken again one last time (12:26-29).

For Paul, the trumpet in particular became part of the scenario of Jesus' return, along with the resurrection of believers in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 ("with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first") and 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 ("in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed"). John, in the same tradition, combines the imagery of "fire from the altar" hurled to earth and "peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake" (8:5) with the familiar trumpet blast, now "serialized" as seven trumpets in keeping with the sevenfold character of many of his visions.

The Seven Trumpets of Joshua and Revelation

	Joshua Conquest	Jesus’ Conquest
Commanders Name	Joshua (Joshua 5:13)	Jesus (Mat 24:30-31)
Trumpets	7 Trumpets (Joshua 6:6)	7 Trumpets (Rev 8:2)
Days of Conquest	7days	7 year (Dan 9:27)
Location of Trumpets	Before the Arc (Joshua 6:6)	Before the Throne (Rev 8:2)
Silence	Silence until the sixth day (Joshua 6:10)	Silence in Heaven for ½ and hour (Rev. 8:1)
Invading army	Children of Israel (Joshua 6:1)	Saints with angels (Rev 19; 14,Mat 24:31)
Time of Invasion	End of 7th  Trumpet (Joshua 6:15-18)	End of 7th  Trumpet (Rev 10:7)
Holders of Trumpets	7 Priests before arc (Joshua 6:6)	7 Angles before Throne (Rev 8:2)
People’s reaction to 7TH Trumpet	Shout by Israel (Joshua 6:16)	Loud voices in Heaven (Rev 11:15)
Inhabitants spared	Rahab & all in her house waiting for Joshua’s invasion (Joshua 6:17)	Inhabitants on Earth waiting for Jesus’ Return (Matt 25:31-41)
Description of Rahab & Israel before invasion	Prostitute (Joshua 6:17)	Prostitute (Ezekiel 16:33-36,Ezekiel 23, Hosea 1:2.2:4,4:10)

Revelation 8:3-6

Revelation 8:3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne,

Revelation 8:4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.

Revelation 8:5 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,^[1] flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

Revelation 8:6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.

Another Angel  The identity of this angel has been a point of debate among Bible scholars, since this angel seems to intercede with the prayers of saints.  Some argue this is Jesus Christ appearing as an angel, interceding on the behalf of saints because he offers the prayers on the golden altar.

This was the function of the priestly office in the Old Testament.

Tim LaHaye disagrees with this view for two reasons,

1. The Lord Jesus, when appearing in the Old Testament to the children of God, is never referred to as “an angel.”  Instead, he is always introduced as “The angel of the Lord” or “The angel

of God.”

2. We have no record of the Lord Jesus appearing on earth as an angel after His incarnation and ascension to heaven.

Also, the 24 elders have 24 golden bowls with incense which we are told is the prayers of the saints

(Revelation 5:8). The angel could very well be merely administering and not interceding.

Golden censer    In addition to the scene, from the battle of Jericho (Joshua 6), Revelation 8 also corresponds to the shadow of the Temple worship (Hebrews 9;4,10:1, Exodus 37:25-28).  The censor would hold the fire when combined with incense, a fragment smoke would ascend upward.  This was a picture of the priestly office, and the smoke represented the prayers and worship going toward heaven.

Altar The altar of incense before the holy of holies was a picture of the original located in Heaven. 

Prayers of saints  During this time in the tribulation, many of the new believers are being pursued and killed.  Their prayers have come before God’s throne.  

Fire from the altar   God is now about the answer the persecution of his saints with His judgment.