Jeanie C. Crain http://crain.english.missouriwestern.edu
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Jeanie C. Crain http://crain.english.missouriwestern.edu
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Revelation 8–14. Seven trumpets of warning
Before the opening of the seventh trumpet--and after the first six seals opening into conquering power, war, famine, death, martyrs giving their lives for their commitment, an earthquake, and a seventh seal opening into trumpets announcing new convulsions in nature leading into the plague of demonic locusts and a demonic cavalry--and following John's being told to take the little scroll and eat it (chapter 10), John is instructed to measure the temple of God and its altar (11.1). This is followed by the seventh trumpet and the announcement that "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah and he will reign forever and ever" (15). The twenty-four elders worship God (16-18), and God's temple in heaven is opened (19). The NRSV ends the third of seven parallel sections with 11.19 (section one ends with seven churches, two with seven seals). The reader should remember that the last three trumpets contain woes: "Then I looked and heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew in mid-heaven, 'Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow" (8.13). The first woe has passed (9.12) with the appearance of a demonic swarm of locusts the second ends with the beast coming up from the bottomless pit and making war on two witnesses (11.14). The seventh angel now blows the seventh trumpet announcing the kingdom of God (11.15). But even this consummation of the kingdom of God is not without conflict: war breaks out in heaven (chapter 12), and a beast rises out of the sea (chapter 13). A respite in final events is given is in chapter fourteen's vision of the Lamb standing on Mountain Zion before seven angels and seven plagues are introduced in chapter fifteen. These bowls of wrath are poured out in sixteen, quickly in succession with no delay between the sixth and seventh; Babylon is conquered in seventeen and eighteen, followed by rejoicing in heaven in nineteen. Heaven is opened (19.11), the beast is captured and with it the false prophet and thrown into the lake of fire (19.20). Only in chapter twenty is the dragon , "that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan... bound for a thousand years, and threw him into a pit, and locked and sealed it over him so that he would deceive nations more until the thousand years were ended" (20.3). John next sees the martyrs ("those who had been beheaded for their testimony for Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not received its mark... They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years" (20.4-6). For the sufficient earthly time of a thousand years in God's control, the martyrs reign with Christ; after this, Satan is released and comes out again to deceive; only in 20.10 is he thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur. Judgment follows (20. 11-15), and chapter twenty inaugurates a new heaven and earth. Charles R. Williams outlines the seven trumpets in the following way:
V. THE SEVEN TRUMPETS (8:3-11:19) What I find interesting here is that the seventh trumpet culminates in a grand finale in which the conflict is between metaphysical forces--Christ and Satan--and that all of history has spun itself out into the paradox of cosmic catastrophe equals cosmic resolution. This surely is the element of a projected mythology--seeing beyond history into ultimate destiny--on the part of John, who tells the story in terms of Christianity. Thus Revelation rounds out what Genesis 1-12 began with its narration of primordial beginnings. In reading John's account of the measuring of the temple, one should recall its similarity to the measuring which Ezekiel recorded:
One might note that in Ezekiel, the measuring occurs in a vision brought to Ezekiel by God; the purpose of the measurement is preservation. The outside court of the Gentiles is not to be measured, "for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months" (2). During that time, two witnesses, wearing sackcloth, will prophesy for 1,260 days. This 1,260 days is a literary repetition of forty-two months or three and one half years. Some readers will recognize the same formula which appears in Daniel 7.25 and 12.7:
One might wish to think about how the Hebrew mind thought about time in interpreting time:
An understanding of the way time is regarded in the Bible should certainly arouse caution in the reader relative to the way exact numbers are interpreted. F.F. Bruce in The International Commentary points out two interesting historical facts: 1. that the Romans occupied the outer courts in actuality before they took the holy house itself in 70 C.E. and 2. forty-two weeks "is the traditional apocalyptic term of Gentile domination." He refers to Luke 21.24: "they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." The little apocalypse in Mark 13 refers to "the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be" (14) and predicts that those in Judea will flee to the mountains. Mark also predicts false messiahs (22), the darkening of the sun, the moon not giving light, and stars falling from heaven (24). After this, he says "They will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and great glory" (26). What should one make of the measuring of the temple? First, recall that Revelation 5 contains a scroll which is the Word of God closed with seven seals; these are opened one by one by the Lamb. By chapter seven, the sacrificial Lamb has become the Shepherd (7. 17). The seventh seal is opened, and convulsions of nature begin. In chapter ten, a mighty angel has come down from heaven holding a little scroll open; it is this scroll the prophet is told to eat. This scroll, apparently not the same one, as the one in chapter five whose seals are opened by the Lamb, must contain a message to John. The Oxford Annotated marks this as a second part of the book, chapters 12-22 containing these prophesies. F.F. Bruce makes essentially the same two divisions: Vision of Conflict and Triumph (1:9-11:19) and Tableaux of Conflict and Triumph (12.1-22.5). F.F. Bruce suggests John had in his use an existing apocalypse which he interpreted and incorporated into his own. Section two carries the reader back to the beginning of the events outlines in chapters 5-11.The important point, though, should be that before the full onslaught of the apocalypse, the temple is measured for preservation, in the tradition of Ezekiel and Zechariah. For a period of time, then, one is to experience sacrilege; during this time, two witnesses are to appear; these two remain nameless, but again, they resemble the tradition established by Zechariah as well as that Elijah and Moses. The two are explicitly connected with Zechariah 4 with the description "These are two olive trees and two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth" (11.4). In Zechariah 4, the two olive trees are identified with Joshua and Zerubbabel, holding important positions in the restoration of the Jewish community:
The testimony of the two witnesses is followed by a time of war made upon them and the result being their death for their testimony (9, 10). After three and a half days ( a sufficient earthly time), God restores breath to the two witnesses, and they are commanded to "Come up here" (12). John reports they went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies watched them. There follows an earthquake by which a tenth of the city falls and the rest are terrified and give glory to the God of heaven (13). Not coincidentally, at exactly this point, the seventh angel blows the seventh trumpet. Recall, when the seventh seal had been opened, silence followed before the beginning of the blowing of trumpets and convulsions of nature leading to the demonic plagues and cavalry. The seventh trumpet announces triumph: "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever" (15). This announcement is then greeted by worship on the part of the twenty-four elders who proclaim, "you have taken your great power and begun to reign...your wrath has come, and the time for judging the dead... for rewarding... and for destroying" (17-18). That the Day of the Lord is darkness and not light, or at least a day in which darkness precedes light, is clearly in the tradition of Joel: 2.1-12: "for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near--a day of darkness and gloom... a great and power army comes... fire devours n front and behind them a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them, a desolate wilderness.. people are in anguish... the earth quakes... the heavens tremble.. The sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their light..." With this vision of the terrible wrath of God, John ends his chapter by exclaiming, "Then god's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple, and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail" (19). This is the climatic follow-up to what began with the opening of the seventh seal, after a half hour of silence in heaven, when the angel with a golden censer from which have arisen the prayers of the saints throws it to the earth and "there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake" (8.5). Surely, as predicted with the release of four angels in chapter ten, "who had been ready for the hour, the day, the month, and the year to kill a third of humankind" and with the announcement of chapter 10, "There will be no more delay" (6), judgment has come in chapter eleven. Finally, chapter eleven should end some of the controversy about where the ark of the covenant resides: "Then God's temple in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple" (19). Consider:
It should not be surprising to find the ark revealed within the holy temple of God. Since Jeremiah, God as presence has come to reside in the hearts of individuals; localized, however, judgment, mercy, forgiveness, and love reside with God within His temple.
F.F. Bruce says of the mention of the ark in Revelation, "it is the archetype of the ark in the Mosaic tabernacle and Solomon's temple. Its exposure now is a token that God will fulfill to the last detail His covenant-promises to His people."
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