In Revelation Chapter 8 there are seven angels with seven trumpets of judgments, and we have seen that the first angel sounded his trumpet and a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up. Now the second angel sounds his trumpet and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea turned to blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea die and a third of the ships are destroyed (Revelation 8:8-9).
This huge object that looked like a mountain could be a meteorite or asteroid, blazing from the friction created by coming into the earth’s atmosphere. The judgment from the first trumpet fell on the land and this trumpet judgment falls into the sea.
Take a look at a map of the oceans of this earth and then try to get it into your mind how much of this water will turn into bloody water. And then one-third of the life in the sea dies! Just think about the smell this will cause, and remember, there are millions of people that depend on sea life for their daily food supply. And then one-third of the ships are destroyed! It is possible that this massive burning object smashing into the sea causes a huge tidal wave that destroys one-third of the ships. This will cause economic problems worldwide because of the loss of the ships to transport goods around the world. The first two trumpet judgments will bring judgment to the land and the seas.
“The third angel sounded his trumpet and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water—The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter and many people died from the waters that had become bitter” (Revelation 8:10-11). This could be a comet that comes to the earth and the tail of the comet is full of poison that falls on one-third of the earth’s fresh waters. In the Old Testament wormwood is used eight times where it is associated with bitterness, poison, and death. And here we see a wormwood-type of poison in the poisoning of the fresh water on this earth.
One-third of the wells, rivers, lakes, reservoirs and ponds will become poisonous and many people will die from drinking this polluted water. It is hard for us to get into our minds how important fresh water is for the survival of humanity on this earth. How often do you thank God for the fresh water you drink and use every day?
The fourth angel sounded his trumpet and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light and also a third of the night” (Revelation 8:12).
This trumpet judgment affects the heavens, the sun, the stars and the moon. Somehow, God is going to make a third of the sun, a third of the moon and a third of the stars to go dark. Some say that this will be some sort of an eclipse, but we really don’t know. This will have devastating effects on the temperature of the earth, the seas tides and the destruction of crops for animals and humans. Jesus predicted this when He said, “There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars” (Luke 21:25).
The New Testament is not the only place we see these judgments of God spoken of, the Old Testament prophets spoke of these signs in the heavens as being associated with the time of the end of this earth as we know it today. Isaiah wrote, “See, the day of the Lord is coming—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless” (Isaiah 13:9-11). We will look at more of the trumpet judgments next time, but for now I think we should consider a few things.
The judgment of God on sinful humanity is inevitable, but because we live in the age of God’s loving grace, could it be that we often have the tendency of saying, “Well, that is yet for a future time, and I don’t have to worry about it now.” But as I read and study the book of Revelation, I have to face the fact that according to the Bible those who reject Jesus Christ will be judged and what they are going to face is so awful that it is beyond human description. Now, God doesn’t want to punish anyone. It is not God’s desire that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), but for God to be a just and holy God, He must punish sin.
To solve this human sin problem God sent His Son into this world to live in a human body to live a perfect life and fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17) and take the sins of humanity upon Himself (John 1:29, 1 John 4:10). God put Jesus Christ on the Cross to be crucified and taste death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9). “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Now we have a choice, we can stand before God in our sins, or we can stand before God in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The choice is yours to make!