Revelation: Week Four—Chapters 8-14:7: Seven Trumpets

“…the judgment and the end of the world cannot be read and understood except in terms of the judgment which has fallen upon the Son of God; and those who are condemned in the final destruction are not men but the rebellious powers who are described for us in the central section, upon whom men depend and whom men represent only figuratively. It is indeed the action of these Satanic powers that in every circumstance provokes death in the Apocalypse, and not at all, never directly, the action of God upon men.” –Jacques Ellul, Apocalypse, p. 65

This third section of the Book of Revelation is meant to reflect the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ—that is, the Incarnation in its totality. As we discussed previously, if the entire book is divided (more or less) into five sections, this is the book’s axis, pivot point, upon which everything else turns. The judgments and “end” which follow this section are meant to be read and interpreted in the light of the life of Christ and the effect that life had, has, and will have on the life of the world and the Kingdom of Heaven.

As Ellul says above, the judgment and condemnation come down not upon humans, but the powers that represent humans, ARE represented by humans, but are not the powers of God. These are the powers whom most humans serve, wittingly or unwittingly. These powers are named, variously named Satan (the accuser), the Serpent (the one who urges humans to usurp the power of God), the Devil (the divider; the one who creates rupture), and the Dragon (the one who represents chaos).

But first, we hear trumpets. How do trumpets function? What do they signify?

--they announce the presence or the coming of a leader (military, royal, political)

--they call together a group of people to be united in a cause

--they sound a warning

--they call for decisive action and set that action in motion

--they sound to mark a victory and announce the victor

So clearly, when we read of each trumpet being sounded, we are meant to pay attention to who or what shows up next, to what we are being called, to a present danger, and so on.

In addition to the seven trumpets, we are alerted to eight major events in this section of Revelation:

1. A series of cosmic catastrophes (8:6-13)

2. A series of human catastrophes (9)

3. The revelation of the scroll (10)

4. The apparent victory of humans over God (11)

5. The fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecies (Isaiah 11:6, 65:17-25; Revelation 12)

6. The appearance of the two beasts (13)

7. The victory of the true Lamb (14:1-5)

8. The seventh trumpet and the “Last Judgment”

All of these events outline the life of Christ and the repercussions felt in the Kingdom of Heaven as they were (and are) on earth. Remember—Revelation is, to a large degree, a statement about the terrestrial life becoming the celestial life. What happens, then, when God gives up all power to become fully human, vulnerable, persecuted, and crucified, for the sake of a total relationship with Creation? What happens when God makes the decision to succumb to the power of death?

“…the general catastrophic disturbance, described to us as cosmic plagues, is the allegory of the disturbance of the world, of its perturbation because of the fulfillment of this intolerable mystery of God. It is intolerable, impossible, that God in his fullness abandon himself, cease to be God and become man. It is intolerable, impossible, that God die in Jesus. It is intolerable, impossible, that a man truly dead be raised and that death be conquered. It is this triple impossibility that brings about the general upheaval of all creation and the celestial powers.” –Ellul, p. 68

So this incredible upheaval kicks the powers of death and separation forever away from the Kingdom of Heaven—there is no death, no pain, no strife there—but it doesn’t eliminate them. Instead, they try to gain ground on earth. They hide themselves in violence, cold-heartedness, separation of humans from humans and humans from God. When we allow that separation, when the demands of God become unrealistic or unreasonable to us, we lose our true freedom and become subject to slavery and death. Our “personal liberty,” our decisions to act away from God, bind us up more and more.

To emerge from this false freedom and see those powers for what they truly are (and we’ll discuss them more when we get to the two beasts); to give up what worldly powers demand of us; to see with clear eyes the suffering that we inflict on each other and ourselves, is very painful! Ellul compares it to an operation, and I’ll paraphrase. Let’s say you were very sick, but you didn’t know it. A surgeon recognizes how ill you are and, in your best interests, performs surgery. It’s painful. It’s confusing. You’ll end up feeling much, much better; your life will be immeasurably improved, but the recovery and recognition of what got you there in the first place is so difficult.

This is how we’re asked to see the “plagues” of the Apocalypse. Something is terribly wrong, but we don’t know it. Every action that works healing on ourselves and on the world seems, at first, unfamiliar and painful, and we may not even know why we’re being asked to do it. The results are swift and sometimes frightening, but the healing that ultimately comes is what we’ve been created for.

In addition to that, we have to remember that at least one reason Christ came into the world was to be the ultimate representative figure of all humanity. And so all the terrible things which happened to him

affect all of us, throughout all time. Once we know his true identity, the story of his life, work, and death, we can’t help but be affected by these things and feel the resonance of them.

The First Five Trumpets: The Story of the Incarnation

God has blended Himself with Creation. He has abandoned his power and come among us first as an infant, then a humble teacher, then an apparent criminal crucified between thieves. This shakes up the cosmic order of things, changes all things. More so than if God had come in fury and power to purify and destroy. God has done (and is doing) such an unexpected thing that “the entire order of creation totters.” (Ellul, 74)

Chapter 8:6-12 brings to mind the plagues of Egypt, but also a kind of “de-creation;” trees and grass disappear, living creatures disappear, even the separation of darkness from light is affected. In 9:1-12, chaos, that which prevailed before the Spirit of God separated and organized all things, is unleashed on the earth and disorder reigns. But this again takes us to an opportunity of new creation:

“…when God undertakes by his Incarnation to save humanity, when he becomes Immanuel, it is really the equivalent of the recommencement of All, of the new creation, and there must be in some way a starting again from the situation of chaos, a spiritual chaos that amounts to revealing, moreover, the reality of the disaster that his own creation has become for God.” –Ellul, pp. 74-75

We are again at the moment of a new beginning, Christ’s appearance and Incarnation.

In regard to the boundaries of Creation dissolving AND with regard to the fearsome locust-creatures: remember that particularly in Old Testament thought and law, condemnation often comes up against MIXTURE, syncretism, blending the pure laws of God with the pagan traditions of the surrounding tribes and cultures. The locusts in 9:3-11 signify the worst of this mixture. They are false, confusing, and their scorpion tails indicate that when they attack, they attack from behind—you never know it’s coming until it’s too late; it’s not a fair fight.

Note, though, that even in the midst of this chaos and risk of de-creation, the creatures and the powers that control them are limited!

Chapters 9:13-11:14: Ministry, Death, and Resurrection

Starting with 9:13, we see the arrival of the cavalry—they, like the locusts, are limited in their powers to destroy. And they, too, embody a deadly mixture. We’re told that those who are left have a choice to make. They can continue to cling to their lifeless idols of earthly materials (gold, silver, bronze, wood, stone), or they can repent and turn away from all power except for God’s. The sword of the cavalry can be compared to the sword that Jesus speaks of, the one that divides people from each other (and even from themselves) for the sake of following God.

After the cavalry has done its work and moved on, the angel with the “little scroll” appears. This little scroll is the Word of God, which is a mystery hard to relate in words written or spoken, but must be taken in and consumed. It has to become a part of us. It is sweet at first, its concepts and laws and ways

of living. But when we’re called to live it, it can taste very bitter. We can’t take it in and ignore it, but begin to live by it and speak to it immediately and constantly.

We see a couple of numbers pop up frequently here: 1,260 days and 42 months. This is about three and a half years—the number of years popularly believed to be the length of Jesus’ earthly ministry (according to the early Church).

The Two Witnesses

As we read about the two witnesses in 11:3-12, remember the dual nature of Jesus Christ: fully human and fully God. And not just those two natures, but also of Israel (the people) and the Church (the body of Christ); of the two natures of time that we’ve discussed in the life of God, kairos and chronos.

These two witnesses are subject to persecution and death, but are raised after three and a half days. As the dual nature of Jesus Christ in the two witnesses pass through these experiences, so do the people of the nations throughout time; the Church; the history of humanity; the non- history of the Kingdom of Heaven.

11:15-19 is like the Incarnation in miniature. We see the greatest covenant and its revealing; the “already and the not yet” coming to fruition. This means that we now know exactly who God is and how God has chosen to be revealed. God is not far away, in an unattainable Kingdom; God is present with us. The way that we respond to a God who chooses not to be a figure of fear of admiration, but one who gives up any show of power and indeed becomes helpless, shows our own nature. How do we reveal ourselves now? How do we respond to “the least of these” in our midst?

In chapter 12, we see a Woman appear. She is Eve, the first woman; she is Israel as bride to God’s bridegroom; she is Mary; she is the avatar of Creation itself as one in complete covenant and engagement in the work of creation with God. As she brings forth this new creation, God and human fully combined and fully present, an outburst of violence and fury occurs as those powers of death are forever cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven. As we noted earlier, death and chaos occur when there is separation between God and humanity. When God becomes, willingly, united to and with humanity in the Incarnation, those powers no longer have superiority (although they do still exist).

A few words about the casting of these powers onto earth, and how they do NOT constitute God’s judgment upon us:

“When there is talk, somewhat thoughtlessly, of the judgment of God, with condemnation and damnation for certain men … it is completely forgotten that this would be not the expression of the justice of God but, rather, the success of the infernal powers. If God condemns, he does what Satan suggests to him. If he

delivers man to death, it is exactly what the Dragon demands. If he delivers the creation to destruction, the Devil has finally succeeded in his work of breaking decisively the relation between the Creator and the creation. Thus the ‘apocalyptic’ judgment, which is too often depicted is not at all the realization of the justice of God but of the victory of the infernal powers.” –Ellul, p. 88

In relationship with God, we are not asked to enter into competition or combat, but only to express love for God, to recognize God’s love for us, and to respond to it accordingly. Our work is, should be, to act in love so that there IS no separation; not with fighting and exclusion, but with a loving refusal to allow the powers of death and destruction to work on earth.

We see also in these chapters a return to the desert and to the wilderness. That is where we are now. Like the Israelites after the Exodus, like Jesus during his temptation, we’re never abandoned by God or by God’s messengers, but being tested, tempted, and called to make a choice.

The Two Beasts

The Beasts come by sea and by land, indicating that they can only act upon earth. The first represents authority, political power in the global sense. The second represents the agents of that large-scale political power; that which seeks to establish a stronger relationship between political structures and humanity than the relationship between God and humanity.

The first beast has ten horns; horns indicate power, and the number ten here indicates that power carried to its absolute earthly limit. Its seven heads are an affront to the perfect power of God, further emphasized by the diadems, or crowns and the blasphemous names inscribed on them. While it’s easy enough to connect this beast to the power of Rome at that time, remember that while we can use specific examples to prove the larger point, the point itself is universal. This beast is not one particular, named power, but generalized power which manifests itself in every political power. But this beast only gets its power from the Dragon, the force of chaos and destruction—the power given to it never comes from God.

This first beast is wounded, but carries on, inspiring adoration and amazement from the humans that follow it. “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” (Revelation 13:4) What nation could you insert in place of the word “beast” in that verse? How does political power assume and direct spiritual power now? Who do we turn to when we want to solve social issues, violence, when we want to judge and punish members of society? How does all of that affect the work and mission of the Church?

The second beast imitates the Lamb, but its voice is pure Dragon! This beast acts as a mouthpiece of the first: persuades humanity to worship the first beast, shows signs and wonders in direct opposition to the Gospels (see Luke 9:51-56). Anyone not living by the rules of the first beast can’t survive, won’t survive, because of all the words and ideas spouted out by the second beast. An idol, a fundamentally dead image, is animated and made to seem not just alive, but all-powerful.

The marks on the right hand and the forehead are signs of belonging to this ungodly set of powers. They’re a perversion of what’s set forth in Deuteronomy 6:4-9; we’re asked to leave that covenant

behind and enter into a new one. And if we don’t, we can’t even provide for ourselves and participate in society. The first commandment given, the one called to mind in that passage from Deuteronomy, is an injunction against loving anything or anyone more than we love God. What the Beasts call the world to is absolute idolatry. God is not enough; the Church is not enough; only other humans can really protect and save us. This line of thinking isn’t confined to one leader, one nation, one time; it is worldwide and has been for a very long time!

“Who is, today, the imitator of God who is proclaimed Saviour or Father of peoples? What political power uses propaganda to bring about unanimity, to inspire adoration, to produce loyalty without fault? … It is necessary to discern in the world where we find ourselves the successive incarnations that are the inversion of the Incarnation of the Lord.” –Ellul, p. 98

Next time … JUDGMENT! (Don’t be scared!)