Chapters 10-14 Seals, trumpets, vials and woes
CHAPTER X
SEALS, TRUMPETS, AND VIALS
It is a question needing to be answered, why the three series of disclosures should be given these names: to be sure, seals have to be broken to make it possible to open the Book, and to that extent the symbol might not have any special appropriateness of its own. But trumpets and vials are freely chosen signs, and there must be some good reason for selecting them. And so there is, and for the seals too. For if a Book is unsealed its contents can be read. There may not be anything in the contents of the Book which speaks of special action on God's part, but at least there is His foreknowledge of what is to come, and it is this pre-eminently that the Seals do disclose. Horsemen will be at large as forces of good and evil compete in the world. One of them may denote the witness to the gospel of God, but he does not symbolize any particular sets of actions on God's part. Even the Fifth seal with its souls under the altar does not speak of God's dealings with the world, but only gives an assurance that the deaths of the martyrs will not have been in vain. And though the Sixth Seal speaks of the terrors of God's judgements shortly to come, it is occupied with the fears of men in anticipation, and not with those actions themselves. So the breaking of the seals does what the action implies — unseals the events about to come to pass; but not until the Seventh Seal is broken is God seen to be taking an active part in world events.
It is the Seventh Seal which ushers in the Trumpets, and these Trumpets are sounded by God's angels. Trumpets sound alarms to call people together, or they sound the note to assemble armies to battle; or they issue a warning of dangers against which precautions must be taken. In the Old Testament the silver cha:tsots:rowth were used to summon Israel in the Wilderness to make or strike camp (Numbers 10), and accompanied the dedication or rededication of the Temple, while the shophar was used both in religious services and in calling people to battle (e.g. Leviticus 25.9; Joshua 6.4-20; 2 Samuel 2.28, etc.) . So here in
the Apocalypse the Trumpets sound alarms and warnings. Here is action by God, which people can heed if they will, and in heeding might avert the worse things yet to come.
It is a commonplace to say "shophar, or ram's horn", but there seems to be nothing in Scripture to say that this is what it was. The name bears no resemblance to that for 'ram', which is 'ayiyl, and there appears to be nothing in the etymology to support the notion. The related verb might mean "beautiful, shining", which would seem more appropriate to an object made of bright metal.
But if Trumpets are warnings, Vials or Bowls are outpourings. We have gone beyond mere disclosure, and again beyond the sounding of the alarm, and have reached the point where there is no return, nothing provisional: the end has come. God is pouring out His final judgements on the world, and there can be no turning back. There are a number of parallels in the Old Testament, where the verb shaphak is used in just such a way of the ultimate emptying out of God's irreversible judgements on His own or other people (see Psalm 69.24; 79.6; Isaiah 42.25; Jeremiah 10.25; Lamentations 2.4; 4.11; Ezekiel 7.8; 9.8, etc.; Hosea 5.10; Zephaniah 3.8).
This analysis itself supports the position at which we have arrived in this discussion of the meaning of the Book. It relates the major course of human history as a fact; it approaches the end and issues a warning. The warning is ignored; and it then describes the pouring out of the final judgements. It would not be easy to make logical sense of this if the period between the Trumpets and the Vials were to be prolonged.
THE TRUMPETS: GOD'S WARNING VISITATIONS
That God's own specific intervention in world affairs is now in issue can be brought out again if we summarize briefly the symbolic events of the Trumpets:
8.7
1st
Trumpet
i
Hail, fire, and blood cast on the earth from heaven.
8.8
2nd Trumpet
A great mountain cast on the earth from heaven.
8.10
3rd
Trumpet
A burning star cast on the earth from heaven.
8.12
4th
Trumpet
The heavenly bodies themselves are darkened.
9.1
5th
Trumpet
A star falls to earth from heaven.
9.12
6th
Trumpet
The four angels at Euphrates are loosed by divine command.
10.1
Seven thunders sound at the voice of an angel.
11.4
Two witnesses have God-given power to smite the earth with plagues.
11.15
7th
Trumpet
The Kingdom of God takes over from that of men.
Similarly miraculous events accompany the pouring out of the Vials. The parallel between some of these visitations, at least, and
the plagues of Egypt and the miracles of Elijah seems to put them into altogether a different category from the events of the first five Seals, and to demand a recognition that God is now actively at work, bringing about precise judgements on a world which, having first been warned, must on its rejection of the warning then be punished.
It may not be possible to show that the events listed under Trumpets and Vials will be evidently miraculous in the way that Moses' plagues were. But it would be foolish to deny that they could be so: if it pleases God to intervene as dramatically as we know He will when the Lord Jesus returns, it would be folly to close our minds to the possibility that He will prepare the way for that return by actions no less miraculous. At least it seems quite plain from the record that the events in the Trumpet category will be so plainly the work of God to every perceptive eye that, when coupled with the witness of preaching with which it will be associated, the world ought to perceive God's hand and repent, and will be held guilty when it fails to do so.
CHAPTER XI
THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL BETWEEN TRUMPETS AND VIALS
It has already been intimated (Page 151) that the period between Trumpets and Vials will include a witness, which will convict the world of deliberate guilt when it rejects it. Perhaps the following, slightly repetitive, analysis will make the point plain:
Trumpets: Partial but severe visitations on Earth, Sea, Fresh
water and Heavenly bodies (8.7-12); Vials: Complete visitations on Earth, Sea, Fresh
waters and Sun (16.1-9);
and between the two the following plain calls to repentance and faith:
10.11
Thou must prophesy again over many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.
11.3
I will give unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy.
14.6-7
I saw another angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal gospel to proclaim . . . Worship Him that made the heavens, the earth, and sea, and fountains of waters.
The parallel is unmistakeable. If the order of the spheres in 14.7 has been slightly changed to put the heavens first (no doubt to bring the thought of creation into line with "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, Genesis 1.1), the terms are so carefully chosen that we cannot doubt their purpose to link together Trumpets and Vials, by way of this warning to take heed to the message of the Creator of all those spheres of operation on which the first judgements have already been visited, before the pouring out of the later and more severe punishments if no repentance is forthcoming.
The situation is very like that when Moses confronted Pharaoh when, as has often been pointed out, there is a progression, more or less, in the manner of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, thus:
Episode
Miracle
Outcome
Genesis
Preliminary
Rod into serpent
Pharaoh's heart was hardened.
7.13
First plague
Water into blood
Pharaoh's heart was hardened.
7.22
Second plague
Frogs
Pharaoh hardened his heart.
8.15
Third plague
Lice
Pharaoh's heart was hardened.
8.19
Fourth plague
Flies
Pharaoh hardened his heart.
8.32
Fifth plague
Murrain
Pharaoh's heart was stubborn.
9.7
Sixth plague
Boils
The LORD hardened his heart.
9.12
Seventh plague
Hail
Pharaoh hardened his heart.
9.34
Eighth plague
Locusts
The LORD hardened his heart.
10.20
Ninth plague
Darkness
The LORD hardened his heart.
10.27
All the first five plagues result in a spontaneous refusal by Pharaoh himself to learn the lesson. "Pharaoh's heart was hardened" may in itself allow of the possibility that the hardening came from without, but the further comments that "Pharaoh's heart is stubborn, he refuseth to let the people go" (7.14), "neither did he lay even this to heart" (7.23), and "he hearkened not to them" (8.19), all suggest that the unrepentant attitude was wilful. In three ot the remaining four plagues, however (for no repentance was possible after the tenth), we are told that God Himself took the initiative, as He had said to Moses He would (7.3). If this presents a moral problem, this is dealt with in Romans 9.17-24, where it is apparent that Pharaoh was "a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction", whose perversity God endured through repeated tests until, the man having established by convincing evidence that he was truly unrepentant at heart, God deprived Him of the possibility of avoiding the destruction to come, and compelled him to go on to the bitter end along the road he had willingly chosen for himself.
No doubt the same thing was true of Judas Iscariot, whom the Lord appointed as one of the Twelve in the clear knowledge that he would betray Him (Matthew 10.4 ; John 6.64-71), and who yet had abundant opportunities to repent of his treacherous plan until at last he took his freely-chosen decision to sell his Lord for gain, and became beyond redress "the son of perdition" (John 17.12). God does not predestine to incurable evil men who are willing to repent, but He may and does raise up for His purpose those whose mind He knows to be set against accepting His will, and whom without injustice He can consign to the end they have chosen for themselves.
What is true of individuals like Pharaoh and Judas is true of groups and of nations too. The longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, apparently for 120 years, until it became an established fact that only the family of Noah would respond to His call (Genesis 6.3,5; 1 Peter 3.20). Sodom would not have been destroyed if there had been ten righteous persons there, and Lot's intercession for his sons-in-law might well have been the last of many attempts which this righteous man made to get the men of Sodom to change their ways (Genesis 18.32; 19.14; 2 Peter 2.7-8). Abraham's descendants were not allowed to dispossess the Canaanites immediately, for "in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full" (Genesis 15.16). Judah was not dispossessed of its land until its consistent rejection of the prophets brought about a situation for which "there was no remedy" (2 Chronicles 36.16). The Jews of the Lord Jesus' day were not told that their "house was left to them desolate" until they had decisively rejected the Lord's oft-repeated attempts to "gather them and keep them, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings" (Luke 13.34; 19.42). Even the former abandonment of the heathen world to a "reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient" was not done until men had established that they "did not like to retain God" in their knowledge (Romans 1.16-32).
It need not be surprising then if, before the most final of all His judgements, God should take steps to ensure that the world had been properly informed of its responsibilities, and had heard and rejected the invitation to reform. Indeed, it might be surprising if this were not done, in view of the examples just given, and the Book of Revelation gives convincing evidence that this is indeed God's purpose. The same thought is adumbrated in the Lord Jesus' earlier words, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then shall the end come" (Matthew 24.14). It is true that the Roman world had heard the gospel even in the days of the apostles (Colossians 1.6), but this was prior even to the destruction of Jerusalem, and in no way fits the chronology of the events now being discussed, where the preaching referred to lies between the first six Trumpets and the final outpouring of the wrath of God revealed in the Vials.
The analogy with Pharaoh is, therefore, that the world wittingly hardens its own heart during the admonitory punishments of the Trumpets, and God give it no opportunity of repentance during the final visitation of the Vials.
THE TEMPLE OF GOD CLOSED.
After these things I saw, and the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened, and there came out from the temple the seven angels that had the seven plagues, clothed in pure and bright linen, and girt about their breasts with golden girdles. And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who livethfor ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and none was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels should be finished. (15.5-8)
This passage, preparing the way for the last judgements, points the same way. After the preaching of 14.7 John sees a vision of the saints in the temple (15.2) which resembles that of the sealed multitude (7.4, 9, etc.). But as these saints, like the souls under
the altar (6.9), await their assured blessing, for the rest of the world the "temple of the tabernacle of the testimony" is closed. The angels come out to pour God's vengeance on the world (15.6), but only those who have already repented and received the gospel have now any right to His care and protection under the visitations to come. A very clearly written NO ADMITTANCE notice is posted outside the sanctuary, and, like the unrepentant Pharaoh of the Exodus, the world must now accept and endure the tribulations which it has brought upon itself by its refusal to listen to the final appeal.
It is difficult indeed to believe that this overall survey of chapters 8 to 16 can be upset, and so, before attempting any more detailed analysis of these chapters, let us summarize the general position arrived at:
a At a time when the saints have been told that the end is not far away (6.11), and men are recoiling in fear from the anticipated pouring out of God's wrath (6.15-17), the saints are reminded that they are secure in God's care whatever now may come (7.1-17), and whatever may befall them (8.3-4).
b Under the symbolism of the Trumpets, God then proceeds to pour out severe and destructive, but not final, judgements on every sphere of human interest — earth, fresh waters which may be drunk, salt waters for navigation and fishing, and the heavenly providers of heat and light (8.1-12); followed by yet more severe judgements in the shape of the last three Trumpets, the "three Woes" (8.13, 9.12; 11.15).
c In the course of the Sixth Trumpet, the Second Woe, the gospel is powerfully preached throughout the world (10.11; 11.3, 6; 14.7), to which men in general decline to respond by way of repentance, just as they did during the judgements (9.20, 21; 11.7) which precede this witness, d As a result, the world is now told that the door to fruitful
repentance is to be closed (14.7, 15.5-8).
e The last, inescapable, judgements are then poured out on the
impenitent world, and finally, after the "battle of the great day
of God Almighty" (16.1-16), the "kingdom of this world" is
abolished, and replaced by "the kingdom of our God and of His
Christ" (11.15-16, in anticipation; 16.17-20, in realization).
This summary shows clearly how much this Book concentrates
on the last days. It needed but one chapter (6.1-11) to bring us
within eyeshot of the end-times, but then it takes nine (7-15) to
prepare the scene, by way of the preliminary judgements of the
Trumpets, before the final outpourings which herald the coming of the kingdom, no less than two of which represent interludes (7, 15), designed to reassure the saints of their remembrance by God in the trials to come. We then have four more chapters (16.1-20.3) in which the last crisis is worked out in detail, and we are taken to the installation of the Lamb and His saints on the thrones of the kingdom. The nearer we approach to the culminating events, the larger the time-scale becomes, much as in turning the pages of an atlas designed for a particular region we move from a map of the universe on a minute scale, through progressively larger-scale and smaller-scope maps of the world, a continent, a country, and a state or county, until we reach the feature of particular interest.
CHAPTER XII
THE FIRST FOUR TRUMPETS (8.1-13)
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast on the earth; and the third part of the earth was burned up; and the third part of the trees was burned up; and all the green grass was burned. (8.7)
The affliction under the First Trumpet is in some ways like that of the Plague of Hail (Exodus 9.22-26). In both the hail is mingled with fire, and in both it injures trees and crops. Ezekiel (38.22) threatens a similar judgement on the hosts of Gog, and the obviously supernatural character both of the plagues on Egypt and of the judgements on Gog raises the very important question as to whether it could be right to interpret the event of this Trumpet — or of the remainder — as being merely human political or military actions symbolically represented.
Once again the point emerges (as on page 151) that these are divinejudgements, and we might think that the world should see them to be such, as clearly as Pharaoh did the signs wrought through Moses, and as clearly as we believe will be the judgements wrought against Gog. In these circumstances it is doubly difficult to make any confident guess as to what the signs will prove to be on fulfillment: because they will be inflicted in some way by God Himself, and because we have not yet reached the point referred to. What we can confidently say is that it is the earth which is the scene of the present affliction, the earth on which man has his home, grows his crops and rears his beasts, and pursues his ambitions and pleasures.
When this Trumpet sounds, the very core of man's daily life will be painfully touched, with damage comparable with the wreck of the agriculture of Egypt by the Plagues of Hail and of Locusts. If the Exodus type is followed further, it might even be the case that, as Goshen escaped the hail, so the saints of God may have peace within their dwellings — at the very least peace of mind — while the hearts of other men are failing them for fear (Luke 21.26; Psalm 46.2; Isaiah 26.3, 20-21).
As fire and hail are found together in the passage just quoted, so are fire and blood combined in Joel 1.20, and though the first application of this passage may be to the dreadful events which occurred at the destructions of Jerusalem, some years after the Pentecostal outpourings (Acts 2.17-21), accompanied by the deliverance of those who fled to Pella — "in mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape (2.32 RV and RSV; Luke 21.21) — yet its link in Joel with the days when all nations will be gathered against Jerusalem to battle (3.1) takes us also inescapably to its greater fulfillment in the time of the end.
The second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and there died the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, even they that had life; and the third part of the ships was destroyed. (8.8-9)
The Second Trumpet (8.8-9) concerns the sea, an indispensible source of food, and an important medium of international trade and communication. With this, man is bound to be affected at yet another point in his precariously balanced economy.
The sign is in some degree based on the First Plague of Moses (Exodus 2.14-24), but extends beyond the river of a single land into the oceans of all the world. The great mountain (8.8) reminds us of Jeremiah's description of Babylon as a "destroying mountain", and, in view of the prominence of a power called in this Book 'Babylon' (Jeremiah 51.24-25; Revelation 14.8; 16.19; 17.5; 18.1-24), this suggests that the infliction may well be brought about through the evil designs of this power, whatever it might prove to be. There is no difficulty in imagining what forces, already available to the 'nuclear powers', might be put into operation to bring about, with terrible literalness, the desolations spoken of under this Trumpet. It has to be said again, though, that the structure of this section of our Book seems to require that man will be able, if he is willing, to see the finger of God in what will happen, so that he can, if he will, repent and turn to God and His ways.
The third angel sounded, and there fell from heaven a great star, burning as a torch, and it fell on the third part of the rivers, and on the fountains of the waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died because of the waters, because they were made bitter. (8.10-11)
The Third Trumpet extends the visitations to the "rivers and fountains of waters", which become bitter like those of Marah in Exodus (15.33). The symbolic cause of the bitterness is a "star from heaven" (a phenomenon repeated in the Fifth Trumpet, 9.1). Such a phenomenon again has its contacts with Babylon in Isaiah 14.2, in the famous passage, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning (Daystar, Son of Dawn, RV)". The phenomenon of falling stars is not new to the Apoca-
lypse either, since it appeared in the Sixth Seal (6.13). It will also be met again in connection with the activities of 'the Dragon' in 12.4, 9. Apart from the Lucifer prophecy, the symbol is also rooted in the Old Testament in Isaiah 34.4, "all the host of heaven shall fall down", if the A. V. reading is accepted; and is anticipated in the Olivet Prophecy (Matthew 24.29). In all these cases it is associated with the judgements of God upon nations. The name 'Wormwood' (apsinthos), given to the star, is never used in LXX to translate the Hebrew la'enSh, wormwood, so we have no linguistic clue to the interpretation. On a purely literal level, though, it is easy to see how this infliction could be brought about when we reflect on the pollution of water supplies already being produced on a frightening scale by the hand of man, and on the ability of scientific warfare to contaminate waters by bacterial or chemical means.
The fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; that the third part of them should be darkened, and the day should not shine for the third part of it, and the night in like manner. (8.12)
With the Fourth Trumpet we return to more familiar symbolism, with signs in sun, moon, and stars, which we have several times seen to be closely associated with events leading up to the return of the Lord Jesus. The reference to darkness, though, once more takes us back to the Plagues of Egypt (the Ninth Plague, Exodus 10.21-23). There the darkness was physical and supernatural, and while we cannot yet determine the extent to which this may be true on the occasion to come, there have been enough examples of darkness in daytime caused, say, by volcanic eruptions, for the possibility by no means to be excluded. There is no mistaking the contrast, however, between the effect on the heavenly bodies in the Fourth Trumpet, and the effect on the Sun produced in its companion Fourth Vial (16.8-9). Here darkness covers the earth as the light of sun, moon, and stars is temporarily extinguished (see Genesis 1.16; Joel 2.10; 3.15), as the people who walk in darkness refuse to see the bright light (Isaiah 9.2; 60.2); but in the Fourth Vial the effect on moon and stars is ignored (for the former has no light of its own, and the latter are dimmed by distance), because of the overwhelming brilliance there displayed by the sun as it burst out into preter-
Since a falling star always indicates the discomfiture of the power concerned, no less in Revelation than elsewhere (see especially 12.4, 9), it seems that we are to look for afflictions associated with the downfall of some authority. The lamentation of the nations over the fall of'Babylon' in 18.1-24 seems to provide a parallel.
natural light and heat, and men are scorched with the intensity of the sun's exaggerated brightness. God may blind men's eyes to the saving truth if this is the way they have chosen for themselves, but He may also wither them with His excess of brightness when in their last rebellion they turn against Him. It is this that the Fourth Vial says He will do when His warnings and appeals have been ultimately rejected.
Whatever the partial darkness of the Fourth Trumpet may prove to mean, it denies to men the light they have come to take for granted, and plunges the arrogant race, which has come to suppose that with its inventions it can turn night into day, into a groping and bewildered night in which not only its Broadway glitter is extinguished, but even its basic amenities, at least for token periods, are taken away. Those who have experienced some taste of this in the blacks-out of war, or the forced economies of industrial unrest, may have some faint idea of the helplessness it will signify. Only those who have the light of life can appreciate that "he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness" (John 8.12). What the world endured for three hours when it crucified its Lord (Mark 15.33 ), must in some manner be experienced again shortly before they "look on Me Whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12.10).
None of this is intended to reject the possibility that sun, moon, and stars, which are sometimes intimately associated with Israel, may prove to have some such import in the fulfillment of this Trumpet. Had it not been for the links between these Trumpets and the Plagues of Egypt, as well as later prophecy (Joel 2.10; 3.15) this might even have been the preferred solution. But in the present context we are concerned with God's judgements on the unbelieving world at large, and to restrict any of these signs to Israel uniquely seems alien to this context.
CHAPTER XIII
THE THREE WOES
/ saw, and I heard an eagle (angel, AV), flying in mid-heaven, saying with a great voice, Woe, woe, woe for them that well on the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels who are yet to sound. (8.13.)
The manner in which the last three Trumpets are introduced shows very clearly that what they portend is far more painful to the earth even than the grievous things which have already been signified. "Woe, woe, woe!" might have been taken (like "Holy, holy, holy" in Isaiah 6.3, Revelation 4.8; and "Overturn, overturn, overturn" in Ezekiel 21.27 (perhaps), as simply emphatic indications of how deep the woe would in general be, were it not that the three Trumpets severally are now designated as the first, second, and third woes (9.12; 11.14). The word "woe" seems to be an onomatopoeic word, ouai, and occurs in the following places:
Matthew 11.21; 18.7, 7; 23.13,14,15, 16,23, 25, 27, 29; 24.19; 26.24; Mark 13.11; 14.21; Luke 6.24, 25, 25, 26; 10.13; 11.42, 43,44,46,47,52; 17.1; 21.23; 22.22; 1 Corinthians 9.16; Jude 11; Revelation 8.13, 13, 13; 9.12, 12; 11.14, 14; 12.12; 18.10, 10, 16, 16, 19, 19.
In every case except the ones in Revelation 18 the word is rendered "Woe!", but in these the translation "Alas!" is substituted. In all cases except these the meaning is plainly that the subject of the woe is warned of judgement to come because of sins, or else (on one occasion) of suffering to be experienced when judgement fails on others (Mark 13.7). The last cases are only different in that the mourners express their own grief and sense of loss when 'Babylon' falls victim to the Lord's judgements, and they themselves participate in the outcome. The occurrence in Revelation 12 is singular in that the sufferings are brought on the inhabitants of the earth by 'the devil', now dethroned from a position of power (see pages 211-212), but even so the sufferings arise because of the outworking of God's purposes against sin.
The present passage is unique, though, in using the interjection as a noun. "The three woes" are three particularly severe inflictions which the world must endure, evidently exceeding all that has gone before. Since the last of them (if the same pattern as before is followed) also includes within itself the Seven Vials of the "seven last plagues" (chapter 16) there can be no surprise
about this case, but we must be prepared for suffering on a scale not before experienced even in the case of the first two of the Woes, the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets.
The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven fallen to the earth: and there was given to him the key of the pit of the abyss. And he opened the pit of the abyss; and there went up a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And out of the smake came forth locusts on the earth; and power was given them, as the scorpoions of the earth have power. And it was said to them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only such men as have not the seal of God on their foreheads. And it was given them that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months; and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when it striketh a man. And in those days men shall seek death and shall not find it; and they shall desire to die, and death fleeth from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like to horses preparedfor war; and on their heads as it were crowns like to gold, and their faces were as men's faces. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was on the sound of chariots, of many horses rushing to war. And they have tails like to scorpions, and stings; and in their tails is their power to hurt men five months. They have over them as king the angel of the abyss: his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he hath the name Apollyon. The first Woe is past: behold, there come yet two Woes hereafter. (9.1-12)
As with the Seals, much more space is given to the three last Trumpets than to the first four. In fact, it will help us to see the true perspective if we note the relative space devoted to each member of all the principal series, using numbers of verses in the Revised Version, thus;
Number
Seals
Trumpets
Vials
1
2
1
1
2
2
2
1
3
2
2
4
4
2
1
2
5
11
12
2
6
6
9
5
7
5
5
5
In other words, in every case the first four revelations are greatly condensed in relation to the other three: two per unit as against at least 7 for the seals; l'/2 as against at least 9 for the Trumpets; and 3 as against at least 4 for the Vials, which are themselves exceptional since there is no subdivision to follow them. The figures marked are minima since it is possible to put the interludes which follow under the same heading and so enlarge them greatly.
This might be regarded as mere barren statistics, but it is more than this. It shows that in each case the first four parts out of seven are a general description compared with the relatively great detail of the remaining three. In the first four of each series an overall picture is given of what things are, or will be, like: the Seals of a world with various forces, of good and evil, at work until the end draws near; the Trumpets of kinds of judgement to be poured out on the world until the last opportunity of repentance is ushered in by a severe visitation, followed by an intense campaign of witness; and the Vials of similar but more devastating inflictions preceding the destruction of earthly systems of government and of apostate religion, and their replacement by the kingdom of God. Such a division into the brief and the detailed would be hard indeed to explain on any 'continuous historic' system of interpretation.
The Fifth Trumpet (9.1-12)
As, in the Seals, the Fifth brought us very close to the end on the time-scale of that series ("Yet a little while", 6.11), so here we are moving at an accelerated pace towards the climax by the time the Fifth Trumpet is reached. It may even be that the visitations of the first Four Trumpets will parallel the events of the first Four Seals in operating together, announced by the four trumpet-blasts but combining their forces. At all events, though "yet a little while" is not repeated, there is one of the few notes of time in the Apocalypse at this point, as we learn that during its period men are to be "tormented five months". If this period is to be understood literally, it is also very short, which is in accordance with what we have increasingly come to expect. But if it is not literal, and is to be interpreted on the basis of a day for a year, then it becomes unconscionably long, for 150 years at this point, when the world has just been warned of impending doom (8.13), would lack all the elements of horror and fearful expectation with which these chapters are charged. This Trumpet is, moreover, followed in the next with the declration that "there shall be time no longer" (10.6).
It is true that there was a comparable period of 120 years "when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah" (Genesis 6.3; 1 Peter 3.20), but then human longevity was such that this was a mere fraction of a lifetime, compared with the three or four generations it would represent here. It is hard to see the appropriateness of warning one generation of something which would come upon their great great grandchildren.
The pit of the abyss (9.1,2,11). We meet the expression for the first time in the Apocalypse here, but the term "abyss" is not new to the Scriptures. It is found in Luke 8.31 of the place to which demons feared to be sent, and in Romans 10.7 of the hidden place where Christ lay in death (but where the allusion is to Deuteronomy 36.12-13 in which "beyond the seas" is the equivalent expression in LXX). The Greek term abussos, of which it is a transliteration, occurs some 35 times in LXX, where it corresponds to "the deep" of the Hebrew , sometimes apparently in the sense of wells of water. It is found in Revelation in 9.1,2,11; 11.7; 17.8; 20.1, 3. The word here translated 'pit' is found in Luke 14.5 ('well' RV); John 4.11, 12 (of Jacob's well), and in Revelation 9 three times, though on the other occasions 'abyss' stands alone, evidently as a condensed expression for the same concept. The corresponding term occurs over 50 times in LXX, but never in association with abussos.
It would be very unwise to attempt to interpret the expression without reference to the other occurrences in the Apocalypse, which are therefore set out below:
9.1,2
A star from heaven opens the pit of the abyss,
from which emerge smoke and locusts.
9.11
The king of the locusts is the angel of the abyss, named Abaddon or Apollyon.
11.7
The Beast from the abyss will slay the Two Witnesses (doubtless the same Beast as that which emerges from the sea in 13.1).
17.8
The Beast on which the Harlot is seated will come out of the abyss and go into perdition.
20.1,3
An angel binds the Dragon and, armed with a key, locks him in the abyss, so that he shall deceive the nations no more for 1000 years, after which he is to be released, and then cast into the Lake of Fire where the Beast (and False Prophet)
In Genesis 1.2; 7.11; 8.2; Deuteronomy 8.7 (depth); 33.13; Job 28.14 (depth AV); 36.16 (?); 38.16 (depth AV); 41.22, 22, 23 (?); Psalm 33.7 (depth AV); 36.6; 42.7, 7; 71.20 (depth); 77.16 (depth); 78.15 (depth); 104.6; 106.9 (depth); 107.26 (depth); 135.6; 148.7; Proverbs 3.20 (depth); 8.24 (depth); Isaiah 44.27; 51.10; 63.13 (depth RV); Ezekiel 26.19; 31.4, 15; Amos 7.4; Jonah 2.6 (?); Habakkuk 3.10. Where ? appears there is no exact correspondence with the Hebrew. The thought is often that of an inaccessible and therefore mysterious place deep below the surface.
have already been confined (20.10).
In the light of this list it seems plain that the abyss has a consistent meaning throughout. Thinking simply of the story told in symbol, when the abyss is opened the Beast emerges, and by means of its locust forces brings affliction on the world. It then assumes dominance over the world, and slays the Witnesses of God. It is subsequently dominated for a short time by the Harlot, but the kings who have given their power to it destroy her, and the Beast remains to make war with the Lamb, loses the war, and is sent into 'perdition' in the Lake of Fire. The abyss from which it has emerged, however, becomes the temporary abode of the Dragon (evidently possessing authority greater than that of the Beast, 13.2, 4), but the Dragon emerges at the end of the 1000 years, leads a rebellion against the saints of God, and is in its turn, destroyed in the Lake of Fire.
This makes a consequential story in symbol, and ought to be taken as the basis of any interpretation of the meaning of the abyss, and of the Beast which emerges from it. Any interpretation — and such interpretations do exist — which gives totally different meanings to the abyss in chapters 9 (sometimes associated with a geographical location in the near east), and 20 (nearly always, and very understandably, associated with the condition in which sin is restrained), should be scrutinized with the utmost care. It will not be sufficient, even if it is possible, to show that historical events can be discovered which fit the symbolism attractively: it will be necessary to show, even if this is done, why scriptural consistency should be sacrificed to such attractions. Meantime this scriptural consistency seems to show most clearly that we are talking in these passages about one abyss, and one Beast, only.
Everything else points to the Tightness of this conclusion. We have already seen convincing ground for believing that the Beast as this Book reveals it is a latter-day phenomenon; what is more likely, then, that it should assume sovereignty over the nations at the time of the last-day preaching of the gospel, and so be able to accomplish the martyrdom of the Witnesses (11.7)? It would then be in the position in which we find it in 17.13-14, to lead the nations in their antagonism to the Lamb, so laying itself open to the destruction of 19.20. This is not the place to say what can be said about the identity of the Beast, which is first described to us in chapter 13, but at least we see it emerging at the right time for the tasks to be performed, before the Lord shall destroy it with the brightness of His coming (2 Thessalonians 2.3-12).
In 13.1 the Abyss is identified with "the Sea". It may represent humanity in all its unfathomable iniquity, lying latent until it is opened up when a suitable leader arises (the "angel of the abyss" of 9.11), or to which evil may be consigned when it pleases God to bring it under control. The evil represented by the 'demons' of Luke 8.31 could be submerged in it when the swine were drowned in the Sea of Galilee. It would be the place of eternal death had not the Lord Jesus risen from the dead (Romans 10.7). When the Beast to whose uprise we are being led comes to prominence, it represents something which was active once before, has lapsed and been consigned to this limbo for a while, and emerges for its last fling before being totally extinguished in the Lake of Fire (17.8, 11; 19.20).
It may be, nevertheless, that a geographical location is to be considered as the place of uprise of the Beast, since the 'sea' of 13.1 is to be compared with that of Daniel 7.2-3, from which the beasts of Daniel's world empires arise. This, though, should wait until chapter 13 is considered.
The king of the abyss (9.11). We have seen the likelihood that this leader is to be identified later as the Beast of chapters 11, 13, 17, and 19. His Hebrew name of A:bhaddown, and his Greek name ofApolluon, point the same way. The former is found in Job 26.6 in connection with the extinction of the dead in the grave, sh':"owl,, the same is true of 28.22, while destruction remains the theme in 31.12. Psalm 88.11, Proverbs 15.11; 27.20, repeat the message of Job 26.6. As for apolluon, this is derived from the very apollumi, destroy, and to the noun apoleia, destruction, the word rendered 'perdition' in Revelation 17.8, 11, and also used of the 'son of perdition' in 2 Thessalonians 2.3 (see above).
In fact, a strong case is beginning to emerge for seeing in the events of the Fifth Trumpet the development of a power which corresponds to the 'man of sin' of 2 Thessalonians, and as we see the characteristics of the Beast and its agent unfold in the chapters which remain, up to its final destruction in chapter 19, the case for this will be strengthened yet again. In Thessalonians the evil power is "according to the working of Satan" (2.9); here it receives its authority from "that old serpent called the devil and Satan" (12.9; 13.2). There it exalts itself above God and demands worship (2.4), and here it is the same (13.3, 4, 8). There it is supported by apparently miraculous signs, effective in the minds of those who refuse to obey the truth (2.9-12); here it is those whose names are not written in the Book of Life who fall down before it in worship (13.8), not being sealed by God in their foreheads (9.4). There it is restrained for a while before it comes to view: here it is released from the abyss at the appropriate time
(9.1). There the Lord slays and destroys it (2.8); here the Lamb prevails against it and its associate kingdoms, and overcomes them (17.14).
These are startling and irresistible parallels. Once again we see the evident hand of God in establishing such detailed unity between two apparently unrelated parts of Scripture from different authors, and written in very different circumstances, each without any explicit reference to the other, and yet they are so inextricably interwoven that we must see the common Hand providing the revelation given to both.
They should not hurt the grass (9.4). This is a strange Power which emerges from the abyss. Unlike those visitations already sent by God Himself in the first Four Trumpets, this power does no damage to the environment, but operates exclusively against those "who have not the seal of God in their foreheads." It emerges from the world, but the unbelieving world is its victim. If it were not for events which have now become commonplace we might be hard put to it to think that this could possibly mean. Even now we cannot be certain, but so much has been seen since 1917 of the uprise of peoples' liberation movements which, even if they got rid of one tyranny, only replaced it by another as bad or worse, from which escape is infintely harder, that such things may provide our clue. If Rehoboam could threaten to chastise his own countrymen with scorpions instead of whips (1 Kings 12.11, 14), we can see how appropriate such language is to the slavery of the 'Peoples' Democratic Republic' of the world, in which the Big Brother is paramount, onerous, and irresistible. The very practice of sealing the borders of whole countries to that those who live there shall be unable to escape to freedom reveals how hard the bondage already is. Imagine such a power in control of the whole world, and how hard would then be the lot of those groaning under the yoke of their supposed liberator?
In such circumstances the world has already seen cases where men "seek death" (9.6), because there is no other deliverance. But such an approach to the interpretation of the promised reign of terror, even with the horrors of the world's ruthlessly executed revolutions of the past few hundred years to guide us, is inadequate to account fully for the extreme language used here. As with all prohecy which has not yet been fulfilled, we can at present only wait and see. The military symbols employed("horses prepared for war", 9.7; "the sound of chariots, and of horses rushing to war", 9.9; harmonize well with the glorification of military might in 20th-century tyrannies. The symbols are substantially drawn from the Old Testament, for the invading locusts of Joel are like horses too (2.4); they too have teeth as of a lion (1.6); and
they too make noises as the sound of chariots (2.5); and if this does not comprehend all the symbols used under this Trumpet, the correspondence is so close as to suggest, yet again, that the Trumpet is leading us in the same direction as Joel's prophecy, toward the "great day of God Almighty" (Joel 3.1-2; Revelation 16.14). As a step towards achieving power over the world, the despotic systems of our day use their military might to subdue their own and satellite peoples, before going on to conquer those around by the same means, or by the threat of them. When these words were first written, all countries save those in the southern peninsulas from eastern Europe to far-eastern China, had come under such a yoke, or were under threat. To attempt to identify other, similar developments, actual or anticipated, could only date this work. Every reader will be able to make his own additions for himself as the events unfold.
Such as have not the seal of God (9.4). In the face of the terror to come, the saints of God are again reassured that this is without prejudice to their standing before God. While it would be going too far to say that the saints are promised immunity from the sufferings, and quite contrary to the evidence of this Book to say that they will be spared the enmity of the world (13.7, 15; 14.13, etc.), it does seem quite plain that what God is inflicting on the world at this point will, indeed, spare His chosen ones. The means whereby the Beast will identify its own slaves have not yet been revealed (see 13.16), and so the matter is put negatively: the judgements do not fall on those wearing the seal of God. Later we shall learn of judgements which do fall on those branded with the mark of the Beast (14.9, etc.), and these are conversely worded statements of the same discrimination.
Five months (9.5, 10). We have already given good reasons why this period can hardly be supposed to signify 150 years (see pages 165-166). In the absence of any evident scriptural precedent for this figure in prophecy, we may find help in natural history: "The general period of a locust plague is about five months: 'As the natural locusts commit their ravages only for five months, so the ravages of these symbolic ones will be only for a short period' (Stuart)" (Ellicott, in loc.). A short and sharp tyranny comparable with, if not necessarily equal to, the duration of a locust plague, is the closest we can come to an identification of the period.
The Sixth Trumpet (9.12-21). In fact this sixth trumpet must continue through to 11.14, which is the first time we meet the Seventh and last Trumpet, but the passage is so long that it must be taken in stages. This is the last time we hear of the "third part" (9.15, 16) of the potential victim, and the sphere of injury is now widened from vegetation (8.7), marine creatures and ships (8.8-9), fresh waters (8.10-11), and light from the heavenly bodies
(8.12) to the persons of men themselves. It must represent a vast increase in scale now, compared with the "many men who died because of the waters" of 8.11.
9.13: The sixth and sounded, and I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound at the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which had been prepared for the hour, and day, and month, and year, that they should kill the third part of men. And the number of the armies of the horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand: I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates as of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are as the heads of lions; and out of their mouth proceedeth fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three plagues was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and the smoke, and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouth, and in their tails: for the tails are like to serpents and have heads: and with them they do hurt. And the rest of mankind, which were not killed with these plagues, repented not of the work of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood: which can neither see, or hear, nor walk; and they repented not of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, not of their thefts. (9.21)
The forces involved show close parallels with those of the Fifth Trumpet, though stopping short of identity, as the following list shows. They each have horses (9.3, 7; 16, 17); with resemblances to lions (9.8; 17); reference is made in both cases to breastplates (9.9; 17); in each case power is contained in the tails (9.10; 19) to hurt or kill men (9.10; 15, 20).
From the horns of the golden altar (9.13): this is the altar of incense as in 8.3, at which have been offered heavenly odours to reinforce the prayers of the saints, that they might be given strength and endurance to face the coming time of trouble. As this trouble now approaches its peak, and the angels of worldwide tribulation are about to be loosed (7.2; 9.14), the saints are again reminded that in all this they are not forgotten.
Bound at the great river Euphrates (9.14). The four angels of 7.2-3 were at "the four corners of the earth". These now about to be loosed are at the River Euphrates. But this does not so much reduce the scale of the operations as bring them to a focus. It will be from the typical Euphrates that the events will emerge. But why Euphrates? The river is referred to again in the Sixth Vial (16.12), where it is dried up to make ready the way for "the kings
from the sun's rising." Ever since Joseph Mede the opinion has been widespread that the reference in the latter case is to the downfall of the Turkish Empire, which was to be the last step in Revelation before the "battle of the great day of God Almighty", and the return of the Lord Jesus to the earth. This is already rendered improbable by the fact that the bigger part of a century has passed since Turkey ceased to control the Holy Land, in 1917, without the Kings from the sun's rising having made their appearance; and neither intrinsic probability nor the structure which we have found in the Book seems to allow for such a long delay, nor for the events which follow the Sixth Vial being so long-drawn out; and in any case to introduce the power of Turkey is not to provide a biblical solution of the problem, attractive though it might have seemed under the political conditions of the seventeenth century, when the Turkish Empire actually bestrode the literal River Euphrates where it passes through areas of biblical interest.
The biblical solution must surely go back to the Old Testament, where the river is mentioned by name 19 times. It is one of the four streams of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2.14); it was to form the north-eastern boundary of the Promised Land (Genesis 15.18; 2 Samuel 8.3). It is the river which must be crossed to reach the capital city of Nineveh, located on its twin river Tigris, the capital of an empire described in Isaiah 8.7-8 as "the waters of the River, strong and mighty", which was to overflow its banks and overwhelm unfaithful Judah. But it is preeminently the River of Babylon, especially in the Book of Jeremiah, and when that prophet sent Seraiah to bind a stone to the manuscript of the prophecy of the fate of Babylon and cast it into Euphrates, he linked the River with the fate of the city in a way which must provide the basis for the interpretation of both symbols (see Jeremiah 13.4, 5, 6, 7; 46.1, 6, 10; and especially 51.63).
Though we have not so far met the name Babylon in Revelation, we shall do so in 14.8; 16.19; 17.5; 18.2, 10, 21. Here Babylon clearly appears as a principal enemy of the gospel and of the saints, shortly before the Lord returns. In 16.19 the city appears in close proximity with the River, and when we recall that the literal city fell when a by-pass channel was constructed so as to dry up Euphrates, so that a way might be provided for the kings from the Sun's Rising, those of the Medes and Persians (Isaiah 41.2,25), there can be little doubt that the fall of the actual city in Old Testament times provides the model for the fall of a spiritual Babylon-on-Euphrates in the Apocalypse.
The hour and day and month and year (9.15). One can, of course, add these units together, and, assuming a 360-day year, arrive at a grand total of 391 days and one hour. One can then attempt to relate this to history by assuming that if signifies a period of 391 years and one month. But not only does the Book itself refer to no starting date for the supposed period, but RV and RSV convert the idea of a time period, which might possibly be read into AV, into that of a precise moment: God now sets in motion the activities of the angels which had been reserved for "this precise instant". The words then resemble those of 14.7, "the hour of His judgement is come", and the urgent "that there should be time no longer" of 10.6. The appointed crisis is now close at hand, and nothing shall be allowed to interfere with its outworking.
The number of the armies (9.16). That a worldwide conflict is intended by the symbolism seems very plain. John hears the number here, much as he heard the symbolic 144,000 of 7.4, but this time there is no surprise as he lifts up his eyes; what he hears corresponds with what he sees: "I saw the horses in the vision". It is almost as though we are being told that there is no illusion here: the numbers of those involved really are vast. If the number given were literal, it would mean that 200 millions of fighting men are involved. This would have been quite unthinkable with the world's population as it was in John's day, but it harmonizes remarkably well with the situation in our own.
If we assume that there are around 4000 million people on the earth, of whom about 50% are male, and of these again about 40% between the approximate military ages of 18 and 45, then there might be 750 million men of military age in the world, of whom 300 million would live in Asia. The figure in 9.16 is therefore a very reasonable approximation to the number of men who could be put in the field by, say, an eastern bloc, or the governments of the western countries. It may yet prove to be a mark of the inspiration of this ancient Book that it could speak so sensibly of the kind of numbers of fighting men with which the 20th century is concerned. In any volume written before the 19th century, at the earliest, such figures would have seemed absurd.
The nearest scriptural parallel to these numbers is found in Daniel 7.10 and Revelation 5.11, where the figure, slightly larger than 100 million, suggests the thought: "The numbers are so great as even to defy comparison with the numbers of the heavenly hosts themselves".
We find increasingly as we move out of the past into the soon-expected future, that exact interpretation eludes us. The words speak of massive warfare and vast carnage exceeding anything known before, such as should be enough to convince the survivers that the only alternative to the complete dissolution of the existing order is surrender to God. Yet we are told the plagues will fail to accomplish their purpose: the fact that repentance is refused shows that it has been demanded, an indication of the latter-day witness which we shall find fully established in what follows. When the plagues are inflicted, it is plain, the world will have abundant evidence that they issue from God, and this in itself is good reason for feeling that the import of the signs must await the time when they are actually fulfilled for its full elucidation. In the meantime the sharpening of the tribulation in the Sixth Trumpet compared with the Fifth is all too plain.
The rest of mankind which were not killed with these plagues repented not of the works of their hands (9.20).
The huge size of the 'armies', the burning fiery breastplates in place of dead, cold iron, deadly serpents in place of painful scorpions, power in heads and tails in place of stings in tails alone; ability to kill in place of power to hurt: all these mark out the most dreadful affliction the Book has yet revealed, a fitting accompaniment to the pending call to repent before it is too late.
Two types of offence condemn the unrepentant here. The first is their idols, the works of their hands (9.20); the second is their deeds: murders, sorceries, fornication and thefts (9.21). As to the former, there is at first an air of unreality about the notion that men in our epoch should be accused of worshipping demons (as idolaters in the first century were in 1 Corinthians 10.20), or reproached for making Images of gold, silver, brass, and stone which cannot see, hear, or walk (just as though they were heathen of the 8th century before Christ, as condemned in Isaiah 40.18-20; 41.7; 44.9-20, or even earlier, as in words from Psalm 115.3-8 which are actually quoted here).
But we are accustomed to the prophets describing our days in terms which would have been understood in their own. If the reference is indeed to our own days, the horsemen of 9.16 presumably do not mean that such a war will actually be fought with cavalry, any more than the mention of cavalry and swords and spears in Ezekiel 38.4 and Joel 3.10 implies that the last battles before the Lord sets up His kingdom will actually be confined to hand-to-hand fighting. If, then, we may reinterpret such terms as referring to modern armaments, we may no doubt understand the idolatry here referred to in terms of its modern counterparts. The world is as guilty as it ever was of having other gods beside the LORD, and of making to itself graven or molten images (Exodus 20.3-6 ). The humanism of today consists in tacitly denying the work of God, and worshipping the powers of men to do with their own hands and heads whatever they will. The idolatrous worship of our cleverness, achievement and wealth, our buildings, even our homes, is as truly idolatry as that formerly expressed in obeisance before actual images of gods. Homo sapiens, in spite of persuasive evidence to the contrary, still professes that his salvation is in his own hands, and his goal attainable with his own powers alone. And although a large part of the world now officially professes atheism, that very profession makes gods of its leaders and of its race.
As to the second charge, there is nothing anachronistic about the vices here condemned. The first and third of them are increasingly rife in a violent and lustful world. So is the last, not only in petty larceny and great bank-robberies, but also in market rigging and selfish wage demands at the cost of jobs and the security of the aged, and every expression of human greed. Sorceries might seem more difficult to fit into our materialistic world picture; and yet it is a fact that decay of faith in the one true God, and His sober revelation in the Scriptures, has been accompanied by a resurgence of superstitions of all kinds, including spiritism, black magic and related so-called 'satanic' arts, astrology, and other pursuits which in Old Testament times might have come under the heaing of'necromancy', or consulting with those that had 'familiar spirits', and would have been visited with the capital penalty (Leviticus 19.31; Deuteronomy 18.11; Exodus 22.18). It is even possible that the offences here described will include giving heed to the apparant wonders and signs of the Beast and his False Prophet, which will shortly come into the picture (13.13-14; 16.14).
Since it is agreed by those holding the continuous historic interpretation of the Apocalypse that by the time we reach chapter 10 we are in a period close to (or actually after!) the return of Jesus to the earth, this might be the right moment to pause for the next of the historical surveys by J.B.N., to find out how well the historic interpretation stands up to critical analysis.
THE HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE TRUMPETS
The first Four Trumpets have been held to represent barbarian onslaughts on the Western Roman Empire during the fifth century, and the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets the attacks of" Arabs and Turks on the Eastern Roman Empire from the seventh to the fifteenth centuries. This view is succinctly expounded in R.R. and C.C.W.
THE FIRST TRUMPET. (Here A. V. does not make clear that in the original we have also "the third part of the earth was burned up". This is rectified in R.V. and modern versions). R.R. refers us to the division of the Roman Empire, following the death of Constandne in 337, among his three sons Constantine, Constan-tius and Constans. But this division was extremely short-lived and is of no sifnificance. Constantine lasted three years and Constans 13, and so within 16 years of the death of their father Constantius was sole ruler of a united Empire. After his death, and those of his two successors, the Empire was again divided, this time into two parts, East and West, a division which became permanent in 395 after a few years of union under Theodosius the Great. C.C.W. omits this part of R.R.'s interpretation.
It is then claimed that the hail and fire of the First Trumpet fell on "the Roman third", in particular on Rome itself and on Italy, the Goths being the instruments of the judgement. Alaric, the formidable Gothic leader, certainly harried Italy and sacked Rome itself, but 30 years before another Gothic host had wrought havoc in south-eastern Europe, which was part of the Eastern Empire, and had inflicted on the Eastern Roman army one of the worst defeats in all Roman history. This fact disposes, too, of the somewhat unimpressive idea in W.H.B. that the threefold division of the Empire comprised the Latin West, the Hellenic East, and the
Hellenized East, for the Gothic onslaught was directed against the Latin West and the Hellenic East alike.
THE SECOND TRUMPET. This is evidently a maritime judgement. In the works referred to it is attributed to the terrible ravages inflicted on the Empire by the Vandals, whose destructive barbarities have given their name to present-day people who delight in destroying property and amenities. The Vandals did indeed engage in maritime activity: "Almost alone among the Teutonic invaders of the Empire, he (Genseric) set himself to form a powerful fleet, and was probably for thirty years the leading maritime power in the Mediterranean." (Encyclopoedia Britannica, 11th Edition, under VANDALS). Having conquered North Africa, Genseric made Carthage a naval base from which his fleet plundered throughout the Mediterranean, twice defeating Roman fleets. This linking of the Second Trumpet with the Vandals might have been acceptable had the other Trumpets been interpreted with similar historical plausibility.
THE THIRD TRUMPET. For this we are referred to Attila the Hun, whose devastations, we are told, "were principally inflicted on the Alpine region of northern Italy, to which the description 'rivers and fountains of waters' is particularly applicable ... It could not apply to any other region of the Roman Empire". Further, 'wormwood' (apsinth) is the name of a river in the Illyrian region ruled by Attila, while 'the great star' is suggestive of "a meteor, which rushed and blazed with destructive brightness, and then disappeared in the midst of the destruction he caused" (R R page 75).
It is agreed that Attila's power and family disappeared as soon as his work was done; but it is hardly true to say that the description "rivers and fountains of waters" could only apply to the Alpine regions of Northern Italy. The Pyrenees, Dinaric Alps, and mountain areas of Anatolia and Armenia, especially the last, are possible candidates too. But suppose that the claim is accepted: were the devastations of the Huns concentrated here? Advancing from the steppes north of the Caspian Sea in 372, the Huns successively vanquished Alans, Ostrogoths, and Visigoths. In 433 the notorious Attila became their king, and pushed west to the Rhine, reaching the walls of Orleans; but in a decisive battle at Chalons he was heavily defeated by a mixed army of Romans and Visigoths under Aetius, the last western imperial general of note. Next year Attila ravaged northern Italy, and Rome itself was only saved by the courageous pleading of Pope Leo I. Attila died in 453, and his empire rapidly disintegrated.
It is therefore not correct to say that his devastations were principally inflicted on the Alpine regions of northern Italy; the Hunnish 'capital', moreover, was not in Illyria, but in upper Hungary near the Danube; nor was Attila an Illyrian, being born much further east. We have been unable to find the minor river
Apsinth , but a far better river-representation of the Huns would have been the Volga or the Danube. The only item in the description which at all fits the Huns would be the ephemeral, blazing meteor.
THE FOURTH TRUMPET. R.R. considers that the symbolism here is obscure, but applies it to the fall of the Western Empire in 476. This fall, however, was no sudden, catastrophic affair. The Western Empire declined steadily after the death of Theodosius the Great in -I- 395, and the murder of the great general Stilico in 408. The abdication of the last Western emperor Romulus Au-gustulus (called not only after the first emperor Augustus as stated by R.R., but also after Romulus, the founder of Rome itself), was merely the final, pitiful end of the old regime. Moreover, his two barbarian successors, Odoacer and Theodoric (476 to 526), retained much of the Roman system. In fact, under Theodoric, Rome and Italy enjoyed a happier time than they had seen for over a century. The result of the ending of the old Empire was certainly not "a state of things exactly answering to the symbol". Further, the Western Empire at the beginning of the fifth century was appreciably more than half of the Roman dominion, and so could not be called "the western third".
THE FIFTH TRUMPET. The sixth century is omitted in the historic interpretation, which passes to the third decade of the seventh. In this Trumpet a star falling from heaven to earth is given the key of the abyss, which it opens; a great smoke ascends, and armoured, crowned, horse-like locusts issue from this to torment for five months those not having the seal of God. The judgements so symbolized are identified with the rise of Mahomet, and the conquest of the East by Arab armies which had embraced the new religion. This view is Scripturally, geographically, and historically untenable.
In it the abyss is identified with the exceptionally deep depression through which the river Jordan flows to the Dead Sea, a depression which continues on through the Arabah to the Gulf of Aqaba. But Scripturally the word abussos means a great deep. By the first century A.D., with Jewish thought now corrupted by contact with Babylon, Persia, and Greece, the term was also used to denote a supposed place of punishment for fallen angels, conceived of as far below the earth and connected with the surface by a long shaft. In the minds of first-century readers the term would denote a sink of evil, capable of releasing evil powers. Geographically it is obvious at a glance at a map that the Arabia from which Mahomet and his hordes came could not possibly be likened to an abyss, for "in general terms Arabia may be described as a plateau
The Times Atlas, the Times Historical Atlas, Chambers' Encyclopoedia and the 15th Edition of Encyclopoedia Britannica, are all innocent of the name. The last-named does, however, refer to the Apsinthii, "an ancient Thracian tribe", belonging both to the wrong area and the wrong epoch!
sloping gently from S.W. to N.E., and attaining its greatest elevation in the extreme S.W. The western escarpment of the plateau rises steeply from the Red Sea littoral to a height of from 4000 to 8000 feet. . . (E.B., 11th Edition, article ARABIA).
The towns of Mecca and Medina, the two centres of Mahomet's power, are in this western escarpment. When in the middle of the 19th century Sir Richard Burton travelled from Mecca to Medina, his route lay on a high plateau throughout. So the Mahomedan power did not come out of any abyss. This problem is avoided by explaining that the depression of Jordan and the Arabah was "the door through which the Mahomedan myriads passed from Arabia to Europe. Consequently it was more appropriate to take it as representing the whole region to which they belonged, of which they formed a part" (R.R., page 81). But the Jordan nft was not the door through which the Mahomedan hosts passed into Europe: the rift was neither an obvious nor an easy terrain to traverse. In fact the Arabs burst upon the Eastern Empire via Bosra, to the east of the Decapolis, the fate of the eastern territory being settled at the battle of Yarmuk, east of the Sea of Galilee, followed by the fall of Damascus and Antioch. All this area is well to the north of the Jordan-Aqaba rift.
As for the locusts, we are told that "Arabia is the native country of locusts" (R.R., page 81). This is misleading. While locusts breed naturally in dry, sandy areas such as the Arabian desert, the desert areas of Africa and Central Asia are just as suitable. In its article LOCUSTS, E.B. does not even mention Arabia. The locusts of this Trumpet, curiously, were not to damage the vegetation, their natural food, but to torment without killing those lacking the seal of God. But Arabs did kill, and not only Christians at that, and it would be difficult for them (as this interpretation suggests they did) to distinguish apostate from true Christians. Early in his career Mahomet slaughtered Jews, after its surrender a large part of the people of Damascus was killed, and much indiscriminate killing marked the conquest of Persia, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. It is true that on the eve of the Arab campaign the successor of Mahomet instructed the army not to destroy palms, fruit trees, or fields of corn: this was in the interests of the conquerers, but it was certainly not obeyed in North Africa, for according to the Arabs' own testimony fruit trees were cut down, means of subsistence extirpated, and fertile land changed into desert.
With regard to the statement that the locusts were only to hurt those not having the seal of God, it is said that "one of the reasons for their success in government largely consisted in the wise policy of toleration which they practised towards Jews and Christians" (Fisher, History of. Europe, page 138). But this was after the excesses of the earnest years. Moreover those movements in the Christian church known as Monophysitism (which held the more scriptural view that Christ had one nature, not two), and Monothe-litism (that He had a single will, not two), were strong in that part of the Eastern Empire, and were more akin to Islam than current orthodoxy, and so less likely to incur Moslem hatred. But in the heat of conquest Arabs would be unlikely to distinguish between
Christians of more or less scriptural persuasions.
Torment by the locusts was to last 'five months', said to mean 150 years. But Arab domination of the East and the Mediterranean lasted much longer, and so, despite being told that five months is the normal period for locust activity, we are told that the repetition of the period (9.5,10) means that there were 10 months, interpreted as 300 years. We are told (C.C.W., page 23), that in 932. 300 years after the death of Mahomet, Arab secular power fell. But the case is nothing like so clear-cut. After the death of the famed Harun-ar-Rashid in 809 there was a gradual break-up of the once united Arab power. In Persia three local regions with distinctly national flavour were established in 820, 867, and 892. In 868 Egypt broke away, and earlier still Spain (756), Morocco (788), and Tunisia (800) became virtually independent. In the 9th century the Caliphs in the Arab capital of Bagdad lost power to various army commanders, and later (945 on wards), to the mayors of the palace. "From the 11th century the world of Islam was in visible decay, and subject to attacks from 'Christians' in the west and Turks in the East. In 1055 Baghdad fell permanently to the Turks.
Two final points. It is said that the locusts had breastplates of iron. This was not typical of Arab armies, which consisted mainly of cavalry and archers, the lances and bows of whom were their main weapons (Hitti, History of the Arabs, page 173). Such defensive armour as they had was lighter than that of the Romans. Then "they had tails like scorpions, with stings." This is said (by R.R. and C.C.W., but not by W.H.B.) to represent the Greek fire with which they attacked their enemies. Greek fire was indeed used effectively, but not by the Arabs: it was rather used by their Roman opponents, enabling them to win the seven years' war against the Arabs threatening Constantinople (674 to 680). In the reign of the great Roman Emperor Leo III (717 to 741), Greek fire was a potent weapon in repelling a second Arab attack on the capital. The Greek fire was invented in Constantinople by a Syrian refugee, and was habitually used by the Roman forces, the secret of its manufacture being most jealously guarded.
THE SIXTH TRUMPET. The loosing of the four angels hitherto bound in the river Euphrates, with a view to a third part of men being slain during a set period by an immense host of fiery cavalry,
'Underlining the point here made, we quote the following from Encyclo-poedia Britannica, 15th Edition, article GREEK FIRE: "It apparently took fire spontaneously when wet, and could not be quenched with water. Greek fire launched from tubes mounted on the prows of Greek ships wrought havoc on the Arab fleet attacking Constantinople in 673. It was later used effectively by Leo III the Isaurian against an Arab attack in 717, and by Romanus I Lecapenus against a Russian fleet in the 10th century. Its deadliness in combat, especially at sea, has been cited as a prime reason for the long survival of the Byzantine Empire in the face of many enemies. The art of compounding the mixture was a secret so closely guarded that its precise composition remains unknown to this day." — A.D.N.
is referred to the various Turkish hordes which swept over the Eastern Empire from the llth to the 15th centuries. The four angels are said to correspond to the four waves of Seljuks, Mongols, Tartars, and Ottomans who, crossing the Euphrates, afflicted and at last overthrew the Eastern Empire. Apparently omitted are the Persians, Normans, and Crusaders, the last of whom inflicted more damage to the Empire than Mongols and Tartars combined.
It is correct that upper Euphrates "marks the natural line of communication between northern Persia and the West, a route followed by the nomad Turks, Mongols, and Tartars on their way to the rich lands of Asia Minor" (E.B. IX.895, article EUPHRATES). It is also true that the Seljuk Turks, held to represent the first of the four angels, invaded Asia Minor under Alp Arslan and crushed the Roman Imperial army at the decisive battle of Menzikat (1071), much of Asia Minor now coming permanently under Turkish rule.
The terrible Mongols from eastern Asia are held to represent the second angel. Under the leadership of Genghiz Khan, they established the largest empire the world has seen, extending from China to Central Europe. But the Mongols hardly came into contact with what remained of the Roman Empire, owing to some fortunate diversions. Neither did the Tartars, who are held to represent the third angel. These reached their zenith under Timur, and devastated India and much of Central Asia, and, by their crushing defeat of the powerful Turkish sultan Bajazet, actually prolonged the life of the Roman Empire by over fifty years. The fourth angel is held to be represented by the Ottoman Turks who, despite their heavy defeat by Timur the Tartar, recovered after his death and gradually subdued the rest of the Empire, until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 brought to an end an Empire which had lasted nearly fifteen centuries.
The four angels were prepared for "an hour, a day, a month, and a year" which, assuming a day for a year, is given as 391 years 1 month (R.R. and C.C.W.), or 396 years 121 days (W.H.B.). Constantinople fell on 29 May 1453. Subtracting the two periods we get figures a trifle earlier than 1057 and 1052. The Seljuks first invaded the Roman Empire in 1050, Armenia and Georgia being conquered in 1065 to 1068, but they were driven back over the Euphrates in 1068 to 1070. But in August 1071 the Roman army was decisively defeated by Alp Arslan, and most of Asia Minor fell to him. Yet if a time period is given in Revelation 9.15 it is exact, not approximate, and the attempt to make it fit the period in question is not only unconvincing from a chronological standpoint: it does little justice to what might be called the dignity of divine revelation.
Even if the huge number of 200,000,000 horsemen is accepted as a reasonable representation of the myriads of cavalry comprising a great part of the Seljuk, Mongol, and Tartar hordes (though a formidable infantry corps formed the strongest part of the Ottoman armies), the horsemen of Revelation 9 were no ordinary cavalry: fire, smoke, and brimstone proceeded from their mouths. This is said to represent the Turks prevailing over the Romans by
the use of the newly invented gunpowder, the Turks being said to be the first to use cannon drawn by horses. But Seljuks, Mongols, and Tartars did not use cannon, and Gibbon implies that at Angora, when the Turks were crushed by the Tartars, they did not then employ cannon, for he writes: "Had they borrowed from Europe the recent invention of gunpowder and cannon, the artificial thunder in the hands of either nation must have turned the fortunes of the day" (E.G., IV. Ixv). In the last days of the Empire the Ottoman Turks did use cannon effectively against Constantinople, but not horse-artillery, so heavy were the batteries used.
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER 10: The Sixth Trumpet (continued)
10.1: / saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, arrayed with a cloud; and the rainbow was on his head, and his face was the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.
This angel has evident associations with the Son of God Himself. The rainbow was around the heavenly throne (4.3) shortly to be approached by the risen Lamb (3.21; 5.7). His "face as the sun" is like that of 1.16, and that of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17.2), while the "feet as pillars of fire" express more vigorously the idea of "feet of burnished brass" in 1.15. Yet this is clearly not the actual return of the Lord Jesus to the earth, since the Book this Being bears (10.2), and the use to which it is to be put (10.11), still betoken activities to be performed by His servants before His literal second coming. We would not expect, either, the Lord who bears the name which is above every name to be described as indifferently as "another strong angel". There is nothing amiss in the use of the word 'angel' about the Lord (as in Malachi 3.1), but there He is the Messenger and compared with no other , a very different matter from making Him one angel amongst others. Yet this exalted Being is clearly acting intimately on the Lord's behalf as His special messenger, anticipating rather than fulfilling the promise of His return. He is to the Lord Jesus what the angel of God's presence was to Israel in the wilderness (Isaiah 63.9). He is announcing things so very soon to come to pass, with the fulness of the authority conveyed to him by the Lord Jesus Himself.
10.2: He had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot on the sea, and his left on the earth; and he cried with a great voice, as a lion roareth: and when he had cried the seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders uttered their voices I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying, Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not (-10.4).
The "little book" isabibliaridion, a term used in 10.8,9,10, and Ezekiel 2.9 in a closely similar episode. The book in Ezekiel is "written within and without" (like that in Revelation 5.1) and carries a message of "lamentations, mourning and woe", very much the theme of this part of Revelation. Ezekiel was required to eat the roll, as John is here (10.9); but though Ezekiel was to speak its message to Israel, John must prophesy "again over many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings" (10.11). For each the book was "sweet as honey", and while in John's case his "belly was made bitter", in Ezekiel's the prophet went about "in bitterness". Like Ezekiel, therefore, John learns that a message of woe must be given: in the prophet's case to Israel, in the apostle's to the world. Ezekiel must speak the unwelcome news personally to his people, and though John's message might be thought of as contained in the remainder of his Book (since RV and RSV speak of prophesying over nations rather than to them), this is hardly sufficient. It seems clear that the nations must be made to know what is being said against them, so that they will be accountable for their response. It is interesting to compare this situation with that of the prophet Jeremiah, who was "ordained a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1.5). It was evidently intended that his message should reach those whom it concerned, because the effect of his words would be to set him "over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant" (1.10). If when the nations heard his message, they should "turn from their evil", then, God assures them, "I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them" (18.7). Jeremiah had the authority to compel the nations to drink of the cup God had prepared for them (25. 15-31). In other words, his prophecies were not mere fulminations against the nations, given for the pleasure of his Jewish readers: in some way, whether by his own lips or by those of others, the nations were actually to receive his message, and were to be held to account for the way they reacted to it.
The same applies to the instructions to John, "Thou must prophesy again". Either in his own person (which in view of the time schedule could hardly be), or in some other way, the message concerning things to come must reach the nations, so that they may repent if they will — even though it is known to God that they will not.
The angel's feet were "on the sea and on the earth". The message concerns the whole world. No place is to be exempt from the events now to be disclosed.
The seven thunders (10.3). In other places Revelation reveals what Daniel keeps sealed up. In Daniel the prophet is instructed to "seal the book, even to the time of the end" (12.4), while Revelation is devoted to unsealing a book (5.1; 6.Iff; 22.10), which is an incidental confirmation that we have correctly recognized the main period with which Revelation is concerned, for the sealing up in Daniel was to be "even to the time of the end", at which the significance of the matters discussed would be disclosed. Here in the Apocalypse the disclosure is taking place. But the "thunders" constitute an exception. Their significance is not to be revealed at that time:
"Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not" (10.4).
In view of these words it seems wrong to try at this stage to arrive at the meaning of the Thunders. There were seven of them, as with the Seals, Trumpets, and Vials yet to come, and of all save the Thunders considerable detail is given. The instruction is categorical: Do not write them down! And if John was not allowed to describe them, it is inconceivable that we should be able to interpret them. We have the plainest of all possible indications that we must wait and see. All we are allowed to know is that, just before the Last Trumpet sounds, the Seven Thunders will burst unheralded on the world, and we shall know that the Lord is at the door. When the sounding takes place, saints will be in no doubt, for it heralds the end of the long ages of waiting:
It is agreed at least by some exponents of the continuous historic programme that we should not seek to interpret the Thunders at this stage. Though he adopts a different timetable for the events of this and other chapters, R.R. writes (page 82): "What is recorded is for the guidance of the servants of Christ during His absence. But at the time of the seven thunders He will not be absent. He will be amongst them (the saints), and they will be gathered around Him, and will themselves be the executioners of the seven-thunder or nation-breaking programme. The knowledge of what they will do then, would be of no special value to them now". This is not how we understand the position at the time of the Sixth Trumpet, not does it well accord with the tremendous leap backwards in history which the same author makes in dealing with the next chapter, which as far as 11.13 also lies within the period of the Sixth Trumpet. But it does accept that we cannot know the detail of the Seven Thunders in advance of their occurrence. A very different view is taken by H.A.W. He considers that the Seven Thunders are not interpreted here because they will be disclosed in detail later, in the seven disclosures of (1) 14.6,7; (2) 14.8; (3) 14.9,10; (4) 14.15; (5) 14.17; (6) 14.18; (7) 16.1. The view is developed with the author's customary wealth of scriptural detail, but seems to involve an unnatural interpretation of "seal and write not". That there is a sevenfold sequence in chapter 14 (and 16.1) may well be true, but it seems better to leave the Seven Thunder unwritten.
H.A.W. also takes the view that "time no longer" should be read "the time shall not be yet", but if that is so it is hard to see why it should be said at all. The Book itself would show that by its discussion of things yet to occur. Imminence, and not further delay, seems to be the very spirit of the message. (See H.A.W., chapters 24 and 29).
10.5: The angel which I saw standing on the sea and on the earth lifted up his right hand to heaven, and sware by Him that livethfor ever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein, that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which He declared to His servants the prophets (-19.7).
The promise is absolute. The angel who reveals the universal message "swears by Him" than Whom there is no greater (Hebrews 6.13,16), "Who lives for ever and ever" (10.6) that the period of waiting is at an end and, "no more time will pass". There will be no time for repentance even, no looking back, no stay in the momentous march of events towards a climax rushing on apace. All unrevealed mysteries will be disclosed. This is no doubt the burden of the message which those represented by John must declare to the nations (10.11). But it is not to be unrelieved. It is "the good tidings (or gospel) which He declared to His servants the prophets". It is "the eternal gospel" (14.6), and it really is good news if only men will repent in time. This is to be the world's last opportunity of accepting the blessings into which the faithful will enter when the indignation is overpast (Isaiah 26.20).
10.8: The voice which I heard from heaven, I heard it again speaking with me and saying, Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel that standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went to the angel, saying to him that he should give me the little book. And he said to me, Take it and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey: and when I had eaten it my belly was made bitter. And they say to me, Thou must prophesy again over many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings (-10.11).
The essential points of these verses have already been discussed. John represents those whose business it will be to remember again the sweetness of the gospel of salvation, and to make it known in this last hour to the nations. Yet the message will pain them within, not because of anything lacking in it, but because those to whom it will be preached will decline to heed it, and will thus bring on themselves the final aflictions awaiting them before the blessings are brought in. The preachers' sadness will be like that of Daniel before Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4.19,27), exhorting the king to a repentance which would avert the threatened disgrace, but knowing that he will not show it. It will be like that of the Lord Jesus weeping over a doomed Jerusalem (Luke 13.34-35), knowing how needless its sufferings were, and how readily averted if only the people had turned to Him and to their God. It will be like that of Paul, rejoicing that salvation had been offered to him and accepted, but grieving over the hardheartedness of those who had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God (Romans 9.1-5). And, of course, it will be like that of Ezekiel, whose prophecy forms the foundation for the symbol used here (Ezekiel 2.9).
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