Revelation 8-11 (The Seventh Seal & the Seven Trumpets)

8:1-6 – Seven (completeness) trumpets – a great announcement that will be heard everywhere
Signaling the end of the Jewish world (Matthew 24:3,14)

8:7 – The earth represents the home of the Jewish persecuting powers

8:8-9 – Mountains symbolize government
The sea represents the Roman powers

8:10-11 – The great star falling from heaven represents the downfall of Jerusalem’s ruling elite

8:12-13 – Three woes directed toward the “earth” – Jewish powers

9:1-12 – The siege
The star falling from heaven is here the power of Satan (cf. Luke 10:18; Isaiah 14:12)
The locusts are noteworthy for their destruction
Scorpions bring great agony to victims
The “angel of the bottomless pit” = Satan personified in the persecutor
Abaddon = Apollyon = “destroyer”

9:13-21 – The fall of Jerusalem by sword
Angels were restrained in Rev. 7; their release shows that God’s faithful recognized these events as those about which the Lord prophesied (Matt. 24) and took flight
Idolatry (Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5)
The four sins of v.21 were the same as charged against Jezebel (1 Kings 2:14-15; 2 Kings 9:22)

10:1-4 – “Unknown things are greater in seeming proportion than the things that are known”
Position of angel’s feet showed power of persecuting powers of Jerusalem (land) and Rome (sea)
God has revealed all we need to know (2 Peter 1:3)

10:5-7 – Examples of God swearing by Himself (Gen. 22:16; Isa. 45:23; Psalm 89:35; Heb. 6:13)

10:8-11 – God’s promises are sweet, but the pronouncements against the disobedient are bitter (Romans 11:22)

11:1-6 – 42 months/1260 days = 3 ½ years, the exact length of the historical siege of Jerusalem – one of the very few instances of a literal number in Revelation
The power = the miraculous manifestation of the Spirit in 1st century preachers (Matthew 10:18-20)
Testimony of two based on Moses (Deut. 19:15; Heb. 10:28) and Christ (Luke 10)

11:7-10 – The beast = persecuting emperor = “angel of bottomless pit” (9:11)
Sodom and Egypt are used to illustrate Jerusalem

11:11-14 – Resurrection of witnesses shows the power of God’s truth; HIS TRUTH CANNOT BE DEFEATED
Earthquakes = uprisings and upheavals in human affairs

11:15-19 – The appearance of the ark “symbolized that what was lost in the old is restored in the new”

Review
1. The seven trumpets signaled the beginning of the end of what?

2. What is represented by the star falling from heaven in chapter 9?

3. Why is the little book sweet to taste but bitter in the stomach?

4. What is the power in Revelation 11:3?