(2) THE VISIONS INTRODUCED BY THE SOUNDING OF SEVEN TRUMPETS.--The series of visions which is now introduced extend to the close of the eleventh chapter. There are some features which may be noticed here. There is a marked correspondence of arrangement between these and the visions of the seals. As there, so here, there are introduced two subordinate visions towards the end of the series. The sixth seal was followed by the vision of the one hundred and forty-four thousand and the countless multitude: the sixth trumpet is followed by the vision of the little book and the seven thunders and the measurement of the temple of God (Revelation 10 and Revelation 11:1-14). The general intention of these interposed visions is similar. In both cases they seem designed to give us an insight of the life within the life of Christ's Church. The main visions give us more external aspects; the interposed visions show the inner and more spiritual aspects. Thus the seals show the great outer features of world and Church history--the war, controversies, the famine and barren dogmatism, the death, and deathlike externalism, the persecutions and sorrows and revolutions of on-coming history; the interposed visions of Revelation 7 show us the calm and strength and the victory of the children of God. So also with these visions of the trumpets. The main visions give us the trumpet-voices of God's manifold providences summoning the world to surrender to Him; the subsidiary visions point to the witness and work of the true children of God in this world, and the more secret growth of the Church of Christ. Another similarity between the seals and the trumpets is to be found in the separation between the first four and the last three. The first four trumpets, like the first four seals, are grouped together. The first four seals are introduced by the cry "Come"; the first four trumpets are followed by judgments on natural objects--the earth, the sea, the rivers, the lights of heaven--while the last three have been described as woe trumpets, being introduced by the thrice repeated cry of "Woe" (see Revelation 8:13). There is thus a correspondence of arrangement in the two series of visions; but their general import is very different. We reach in the seventh seal the eternal quiet of God's presence. Through a series of visions we have been shown that the way to rest is not easy, that we must be prepared to see the great features of earth's troubles remain till the close, and that the children of God must through tribulation and even persecution enter into the kingdom of God's peace. The seals answer the question, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom?" But the kingdom will be restored. The Church may find her way a way of difficulty, delay, danger; but it will be a way to triumph. The kingdoms of the world will become the kingdoms of the Lord. Let the people of God go forward; let their prayers be set forth as incense; let them blow the trumpet, and summon men to repentance; they are not alone; the Lord still fights for His Israel. This is the assurance which we gather from the trumpets. In all l he wondrous providences which the history of the world discloses we may hear the trumpet-voice which heralds the kingdom of Christ, to which the Church is hearing constant and sufficient witness (Revelation 11:3-4). The seals close with peace; the trumpets close appropriately with victory (Revelation 11:15). The visions are not scenes of events which chronologically succeed one another. The one set shows us the way through trouble to rest; the other shows the way through conflict to triumph: the one set shows us the troubles which befall the Church because of the world; the other shows us the troubles which fall on the world because the Church advances to the conquest of the world, as Israel to the possession of the land of promise.
And I saw the seven angels . . .--Better, And I saw the seven angels which stand (not "stood") before God; and there were given to them seven trumpets. "The seven angels:" Who are these? The usual answer is that they are seven angels (or, according to some, archangels) distinguished among the myriads round the throne. The passages referred to in support of this view are two--one from the Apocryphal Book of Tobit, "I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One" (Tobit 12:15); the other, the well-known passage from St. Luke, "I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God" (Luke 1:19). This may be true, and the emphatic article (the seven angels) gives the view some support, but seeing that the number seven is to be taken throughout the book as symbolical, and not literal, it is perhaps better to view the seven angels as representatives of the power of God over the world. They are the seven, the complete .circle of God's power in judgment; for as we do not take the seven-spirits to be literally seven spirits, but symbols of the complete and manifest influence of the one Holy Spirit, the third person in the glorious Trinity, so neither need we infer from the mention of the seven angels here that they are literally seven preeminent angelic personages, but rather regard them as symbols of that complete and varied messenger-force which God evermore commands.
Seven trumpets.--It will help our understanding of the symbol here employed to recall the occasions on which the trumpet was used. It was used to summon the people together, whether for worship, or festival, or war, "for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps." "When they shall blow with them (the trumpets), all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee (Moses) at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation" (Numbers 10:4-8). For journeying an alarm was to be blown (Numbers 10:6). "And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies" (Revelation 8:9). And as for war, so also on festival days the trumpets were blown: "Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God." The reader will remember other illustrations. When the people were assembled to hear the Ten Commandments the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder (Exodus 19:19). The feast held on the first day of the seventh month was "a day of blowing the trumpets" (Numbers 29:1) among the people who would blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on their solemn feast day (Psalm 81:3). At the siege of Jericho seven priests bore before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns, and on the seventh day the priests blew with the trumpets (Joshua 6:4-5). For assembling, for journeying, for war, the sound of the trumpets was heard. The judgments which follow the blowing of the trumpets in this series of visions are the trumpet-toned calls of God, summoning mankind to assemble to the true tabernacle, bidding His people go forward, and announcing the overthrow of His adversaries. Every judgment, on earth, or sea, or river, by war, or by invasion, is a call which bids men listen to the still small voice, which they have neglected, perhaps resisted. Every judgment should rouse the true servant to greater vigilance and further advance: it is an alarm sounded on the great battle-field of life. Miracles have been called the alarm bells of the universe; no less are the strange and startling events of the world's history the alarm notes blown by God's angels across the world, to remind us of the war in which every citadel of evil must inevitably fall. It is mainly, then, as an alarm of war that these angel- trumpets are sounded. The land of promise is to be rescued from the tribes and peoples who corrupt it. As the Canaanites of old were swept away lest their wickedness, increasing beyond measure, should spread abroad a moral death, so are the judgments of these trumpets sent to undermine, purge away, and finally to destroy all evil powers which destroy the earth (Revelation 11:18). We may hear, then, in "each blast of the symbolical trumpet a promise and instalment of the victory" for which the groaning and travailing creation yearns, and which will be the banishment of earth's destroyers, and the manifestation of the sons of God.
Verses 2-6 form a preface to the vision of the trumpets, and serve both to connect this vision with what has gone before, and to indicate the cause of this further revelation. The series of mysteries embraced under the seals is completed, and has so far accomplished its purpose, which is to fortify the patience of the saints by the assurance of God's providence and their ultimate victory and reward. But this is only one part of the seer's mission; there is not only a message of encouragement to the faithful, but a warning for the worldly and apostate. No doubt the same ground is covered to some extent by both announcements; since what is encouragement and hope for the righteous is judgment for the wicked. But whereas, in the vision of the seals, the punishment of the wicked holds a subsidiary place, being only introduced for the purpose of demonstrating God's protection of the just, in the vision of the trumpets the destruction of the ungodly is the main theme, being intended, like the denunciations of the prophets of old, for a warning to those in sin, if haply any may yet be saved. It may, indeed, be said to be an answer to the cry in Revelation 6:10, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" The same lout suffering delay of vengeance tempts the "foolish body" to say in his heart, "There is no God." While by the vision of the seals God is careful not to break the bruised reed, in the vision of the trumpets he vouchsafes a call to those who are less deserving of his consideration and mercy.
(1) The trumpets then form a series of visions denouncing God's judgments against the wicked.
(2) They form an independent vision, and do not grow out of the seventh seal, in the sense of portraying what is intended to be disclosed under that seal. The number seven, alike in the case of the seals and in that of the trumpets, indicates the complete nature of each series, which is moreover demonstrated by their general character.
(3) The incidents depicted are synchronous with those of the seals; that is to say, they relate to the history of mankind front the beginning to the end of time and the commencement of eternity.
(4) As in the case of the seals, they are general indications of God's judgments; and though particular events may be partial fulfilments, the complete fulfilment is in all time.
(5) In their general features there are some points of resemblance and some of difference on a comparison with the seals.
(a) They may be divided into groups of four and three. In both visions the first group of four deals more immediately with the natural world, the last group of three has more connection with the spiritual life.
(b) They terminate in a similar way, in the victory of the redeemed, who sing the praises of God.
(c) In both, greater elaboration or episode occurs after the sixth revelation.
(d) The nature of the seventh seal is undisclosed, and this is to a certain extent paralleled in the trumpets by the silence concerning the third and last woe.
(e) In consonance with the general purpose of the trumpets, there is no preliminary assurance of victory as with the first seal; this is reserved to the end.
(6) Several reasons may be suggested for the employment of the figure of trumpets, by which to announce each vision.
(a) It was the instrument in use among the Israelites for assembling people, either for warlike or peaceful purposes (cf. Numbers 10:1, 9, 10).
(b) It was thus intimately connected with solemn proclamations or the delivery of God's messages of judgment or warning, and is thus used in the New Testament in describing the judgment day (cf. Leviticus 25:9; Amos 3:6; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16).
(c) The use of trumpets on seven days at the destruction of Jericho, the type of all that is worldly, may have suggested the form of the vision here, in the announcement of the judgment and destruction of the world. Verse 2. - And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets;which stand (Revised Version). "And I saw" introduces the new vision, as in Revelation 5:1; Revelation 6:1, etc. Probably not during the silence (as Alford), but subsequent to it. "The seven angels" probably refers to a particular order of angels, or rather to those with a special mission; though, with our limited knowledge, it is impossible to determine exactly who they are or what their mission is. The passage in Tobit 12:15 is so similar as to be at once suggested: "I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels which present the prayers of the saints." But here the seven do not present the prayers of the saints, but another angel does so (ver. 3). De Wette and others think the seven are archangels (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:16, "With the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God"). Arethas, Ewald, etc., identify them with "the seven Spirits of God" (Revelation 1:4; Revelation 4:5; Revelation 5:6). Others incline to the opinion that the seven are only distinguished from the other angels by being the seven who sound the trumpets, just as four others are alluded to in Revelation 7:1. (On the use of the number seven, see above; also on Revelation 1:4; 5:1, etc.)
8:1-6 The seventh seal is opened. There was profound silence in heaven for a space; all was quiet in the church, for whenever the church on earth cries through oppression, that cry reaches up to heaven; or it is a silence of expectation. Trumpets were given to the angels, who were to sound them. The Lord Jesus is the High Priest of the church, having a golden censer, and much incense, fulness of merit in his own glorious person. Would that men studied to know the fulness that is in Christ, and endeavoured to be acquainted with his excellency. Would that they were truly persuaded that Christ has such an office as that of Intercessor, which he now performs with deep sympathy. No prayers, thus recommended, was ever denied hearing and acceptance. These prayers, thus accepted in heaven, produced great changes upon earth. The Christian worship and religion, pure and heavenly in its origin and nature, when sent down to earth and conflicting with the passions and worldly projects of sinful men, produced remarkable tumults, here set forth in prophetical language, as our Lord himself declared, Lu 12:49.
And I saw the seven angels,.... Not the seven spirits of God, Revelation 1:4; their names, as well as their office, differ; nor the ministers of the word, though these are often called angels in this book, and blow the trumpet of the Gospel, and lift up their voice like a trumpet; but the angelic spirits, and these either evil ones, since they are the executioners of wrath and vengeance, and bring judgments on the earth; and who, are sometimes said to stand before God, 1 Kings 22:21; or rather good angels, who are sometimes ministers of divine wrath; see 2 Samuel 24:16; "seven" of them are mentioned, as being a proper number for the blowing of the seven trumpets, which would complete all the woes that were to come upon the world, and in allusion to the seven princes the eastern monarchs used to have continually about them, Esther 1:14, as it follows:
which stood before God; and denotes their nearness to him, and familiarity with him, they always behold his face; and their service and ministrations, and their readiness to execute his will: the allusion is to the two priests standing at the table of fat, with two silver trumpets in their hands, with which they blew, and another struck the cymbal, and the Levites sung, which was always done at the time of the daily sacrifice (p):
and to them were given seven trumpets: everyone had one; and which were an emblem of those wars, and desolations, and calamities, which would come upon the empire, and upon the world, at the blowing of each of them; the trumpet being an alarm, preparing for, proclaiming, and introducing these things; Jeremiah 4:19; these are said to be given them; either by him that sat upon the throne, about which they were; or by the Lamb that opened the seal; and shows that they did nothing but what they had a commission and order to do. Here is manifestly an allusion to the priests and Levites blowing their trumpets at the close of the daily sacrifice, and at the offering of incense (q) as before observed.
(p) Misn. Tamid. c. 7. sect. 3.((q) Maimon. Hilch. Tamidin, c. 6. sect. 5.
And I saw the seven angels . . .--Better, And I saw the seven angels which stand (not "stood") before God; and there were given to them seven trumpets. "The seven angels:" Who are these? The usual answer is that they are seven angels (or, according to some, archangels) distinguished among the myriads round the throne. The passages referred to in support of this view are two--one from the Apocryphal Book of Tobit, "I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One" (Tobit 12:15); the other, the well-known passage from St. Luke, "I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God" (Luke 1:19). This may be true, and the emphatic article (the seven angels) gives the view some support, but seeing that the number seven is to be taken throughout the book as symbolical, and not literal, it is perhaps better to view the seven angels as representatives of the power of God over the world. They are the seven, the complete .circle of God's power in judgment; for as we do not take the seven-spirits to be literally seven spirits, but symbols of the complete and manifest influence of the one Holy Spirit, the third person in the glorious Trinity, so neither need we infer from the mention of the seven angels here that they are literally seven preeminent angelic personages, but rather regard them as symbols of that complete and varied messenger-force which God evermore commands.
Seven trumpets.--It will help our understanding of the symbol here employed to recall the occasions on which the trumpet was used. It was used to summon the people together, whether for worship, or festival, or war, "for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps." "When they shall blow with them (the trumpets), all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee (Moses) at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation" (Numbers 10:4-8). For journeying an alarm was to be blown (Numbers 10:6). "And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies" (Revelation 8:9). And as for war, so also on festival days the trumpets were blown: "Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God." The reader will remember other illustrations. When the people were assembled to hear the Ten Commandments the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder (Exodus 19:19). The feast held on the first day of the seventh month was "a day of blowing the trumpets" (Numbers 29:1) among the people who would blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on their solemn feast day (Psalm 81:3). At the siege of Jericho seven priests bore before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns, and on the seventh day the priests blew with the trumpets (Joshua 6:4-5). For assembling, for journeying, for war, the sound of the trumpets was heard. The judgments which follow the blowing of the trumpets in this series of visions are the trumpet-toned calls of God, summoning mankind to assemble to the true tabernacle, bidding His people go forward, and announcing the overthrow of His adversaries. Every judgment, on earth, or sea, or river, by war, or by invasion, is a call which bids men listen to the still small voice, which they have neglected, perhaps resisted. Every judgment should rouse the true servant to greater vigilance and further advance: it is an alarm sounded on the great battle-field of life. Miracles have been called the alarm bells of the universe; no less are the strange and startling events of the world's history the alarm notes blown by God's angels across the world, to remind us of the war in which every citadel of evil must inevitably fall. It is mainly, then, as an alarm of war that these angel- trumpets are sounded. The land of promise is to be rescued from the tribes and peoples who corrupt it. As the Canaanites of old were swept away lest their wickedness, increasing beyond measure, should spread abroad a moral death, so are the judgments of these trumpets sent to undermine, purge away, and finally to destroy all evil powers which destroy the earth (Revelation 11:18). We may hear, then, in "each blast of the symbolical trumpet a promise and instalment of the victory" for which the groaning and travailing creation yearns, and which will be the banishment of earth's destroyers, and the manifestation of the sons of God.
(1) The trumpets then form a series of visions denouncing God's judgments against the wicked.
(2) They form an independent vision, and do not grow out of the seventh seal, in the sense of portraying what is intended to be disclosed under that seal. The number seven, alike in the case of the seals and in that of the trumpets, indicates the complete nature of each series, which is moreover demonstrated by their general character.
(3) The incidents depicted are synchronous with those of the seals; that is to say, they relate to the history of mankind front the beginning to the end of time and the commencement of eternity.
(4) As in the case of the seals, they are general indications of God's judgments; and though particular events may be partial fulfilments, the complete fulfilment is in all time.
(5) In their general features there are some points of resemblance and some of difference on a comparison with the seals.
(a) They may be divided into groups of four and three. In both visions the first group of four deals more immediately with the natural world, the last group of three has more connection with the spiritual life.
(b) They terminate in a similar way, in the victory of the redeemed, who sing the praises of God.
(c) In both, greater elaboration or episode occurs after the sixth revelation.
(d) The nature of the seventh seal is undisclosed, and this is to a certain extent paralleled in the trumpets by the silence concerning the third and last woe.
(e) In consonance with the general purpose of the trumpets, there is no preliminary assurance of victory as with the first seal; this is reserved to the end.
(6) Several reasons may be suggested for the employment of the figure of trumpets, by which to announce each vision.
(a) It was the instrument in use among the Israelites for assembling people, either for warlike or peaceful purposes (cf. Numbers 10:1, 9, 10).
(b) It was thus intimately connected with solemn proclamations or the delivery of God's messages of judgment or warning, and is thus used in the New Testament in describing the judgment day (cf. Leviticus 25:9; Amos 3:6; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16).
(c) The use of trumpets on seven days at the destruction of Jericho, the type of all that is worldly, may have suggested the form of the vision here, in the announcement of the judgment and destruction of the world. Verse 2. - And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets; which stand (Revised Version). "And I saw" introduces the new vision, as in Revelation 5:1; Revelation 6:1, etc. Probably not during the silence (as Alford), but subsequent to it. "The seven angels" probably refers to a particular order of angels, or rather to those with a special mission; though, with our limited knowledge, it is impossible to determine exactly who they are or what their mission is. The passage in Tobit 12:15 is so similar as to be at once suggested: "I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels which present the prayers of the saints." But here the seven do not present the prayers of the saints, but another angel does so (ver. 3). De Wette and others think the seven are archangels (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:16, "With the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God"). Arethas, Ewald, etc., identify them with "the seven Spirits of God" (Revelation 1:4; Revelation 4:5; Revelation 5:6). Others incline to the opinion that the seven are only distinguished from the other angels by being the seven who sound the trumpets, just as four others are alluded to in Revelation 7:1. (On the use of the number seven, see above; also on Revelation 1:4; 5:1, etc.)
which stood before God; and denotes their nearness to him, and familiarity with him, they always behold his face; and their service and ministrations, and their readiness to execute his will: the allusion is to the two priests standing at the table of fat, with two silver trumpets in their hands, with which they blew, and another struck the cymbal, and the Levites sung, which was always done at the time of the daily sacrifice (p):
and to them were given seven trumpets: everyone had one; and which were an emblem of those wars, and desolations, and calamities, which would come upon the empire, and upon the world, at the blowing of each of them; the trumpet being an alarm, preparing for, proclaiming, and introducing these things; Jeremiah 4:19; these are said to be given them; either by him that sat upon the throne, about which they were; or by the Lamb that opened the seal; and shows that they did nothing but what they had a commission and order to do. Here is manifestly an allusion to the priests and Levites blowing their trumpets at the close of the daily sacrifice, and at the offering of incense (q) as before observed.
(p) Misn. Tamid. c. 7. sect. 3.((q) Maimon. Hilch. Tamidin, c. 6. sect. 5.