Prayers in Heaven / Judgment on Earth

“Prayer is not getting man’s will done in heaven, but getting God’s will done on earth. It is not overcoming God’s reluctance but laying hold of God’s willingness.”—Richard Trench

The angel takes the incense burner filled with fire from the altar and hurls it to the earth. There follows “rumblings of thunder, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.” A storm is coming, flowing out of the prayers of verses 3-4. The language of these verses is reminiscent of Sinai with its thunder, lightning, and earthquake (Exod 19:16-19), and the vision of Ezekiel 10:2-7 where a man clothed in linen fills his hands with coals and scatters them over the city. Intercession has turned to judgment not according to man’s timetable but God’s! The angel priest casts fire onto the earth followed by harbingers of impending storm and disaster. The cosmos trembles before the presence and power of its Creator. A day of reckoning has arrived: “The seven angels are prepared to blow” (8:7).

Romans 12:19 reminds us, “Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for His wrath. For it is written, ‘Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (see Deut 32:35; Heb 10:30). A day is coming when God will make things right. The trumpet judgments are a portion of that day. We need to wait on Him. He hears our prayers. He will not be late. He will be right on time.

REVELATION 8:7-12

“God’s delays aren’t God’s denials.”—Adrian Rogers

In Matthew 6:9-13 we find what we call “the model prayer.” There Jesus tells us in verse 10 to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That prayer is once more being answered in the trumpet judgments of Revelation 8–9. The seal judgments of chapter 6 saw the destruction of a fourth of the earth (6:8). The trumpet judgments will see the destruction and devastation of a third of the earth. The word third occurs thirteen times in chapter 8, and each is like the tolling of a bell with the knell of judgment.

The precise nature of each trumpet is not altogether clear, though the end results are plain and tragic. The judgments recall the plagues of Exodus, which God visited on Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The first four trumpets of chapter 8 are natural in that they affect the land, salt water, freshwater, and stellar bodies. The fifth and sixth trumpets of chapter 9 unleash demonic forces that torment and then kill. The seventh trumpet (11:15-19) will constitute the seven bowls of chapter 16. In the blowing of the first four, facets of God’s sovereignty over His creation are revealed as He acts in response to the pleas of His people.

“When we depend on our organizations, we get what organizations can do; when we depend on education, we get what education can do; when we depend on man, we get what man can do; but when we depend on God, we get what God can do.”—A. C. Dixon

The first of the angels “prepared to blow.” He blew and “hail and fire, mixed with blood, were hurled to the earth. So a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.” The imagery is that of the seventh plague God brought on Egypt in Exodus 9:13-35, with allusion also to Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:31; Acts 2:19). “Burned up” occurs three times in just one verse. Blood is probably symbolic of terrible judgment. Whatever this is, great devastation follows this cosmic storm that had its genesis in heaven (Mounce, Revelation, 178). That it is a third indicates that,

although God is bringing punishment on the earth, it is not as yet complete and final. The purpose of the visitation is to warn people of the full wrath of God yet to fall, and in so doing to bring them to repentance. (Ibid.)

Tragically, most will not repent, as 9:20-21 painfully reveals. These words fulfill what Jesus promised and prophesized in Luke 21:25-28. Patterns of this judgment have occurred throughout history. However, in the Day of the Lord, it reaches a crescendo. As Osborne says, “Nothing will escape this terrible judgment” (Revelation, 351). Whatever these images represent, the impact should rattle our bones in awe of this God.

“Prayer releases the grip of Satan’s power; prayerlessness increases it. That is why prayer is so exhausting and so vital.”—Alan Redpath

Romans 8:22 reminds us that all creation has been groaning since Adam and Eve were defeated by Satan in the garden of Eden (Gen 3). One can only imagine its pain during this time of horrific and cataclysmic judgment. However, in response to the prayers of the saints, these judgments are actually Satan’s defeat and a prelude to creation’s redemption.

John sees “something like a great mountain ablaze with fire was hurled into the sea.” The apocalyptic vision cannot be fully captured with human language. The results, however, are “a third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.” The judgment recalls the first Egyptian plague where “the rivers were turned to blood, killing the fish and making the water undrinkable” (Exod 7:20-21) (Mounce, Revelation, 180). Osborne notes:

The sea lanes were called the lifeblood of Rome because the Romans were so dependent on the sea for both food and commerce (see also Rev 18:17-19). Thus, this is even more devastating than the first plague. It is difficult to imagine such an extensive apocalyptic judgment. (Revelation, 353–54)

However, the judgment is partial not total. Time is running out for the defiant and idolatrous earth dwellers, but it is not completely gone. Not yet.

“No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil; not that he practices it, but he suffers from it.”—Guy King

Now the third trumpet blows and a great, blazing star named “Wormwood” falls from heaven on a third of the rivers and springs. The waters become wormwood, and many people die from its bitter poison. This judgment is both a parallel to the first Egyptian plague that contaminated the fresh water supply (Exod 7:20) and a reversal of the experience of the children of Israel in the wilderness at Marah, where the Lord made bitter water drinkable (Exod 15:22-25). The word “wormwood” appears only here in the New Testament. It “is mentioned eight times in the Old Testament, where it is associated with bitterness, poison, and death (Deut 29:18; Prov 5:4; Jer 9:15; 23:15; Lam 3:15,19; Amos 5:7; 6:12)” (MacArthur, Revelation 1–11, 249).

That it is a “third” again tells us it is partial. That it comes from heaven tells us it is a sovereign act of God in response to the pleas of His people in 8:3-4. It is not clear whether John intends the star to be understood naturally or supernaturally, as an angel (see 9:1) or possibly an asteroid. Again, its end result is indisputable. The springs and the rivers that provide our drinking water are poisoned, and many die as a result. The water becomes bitter and poisonous, and the inhabitants of the earth become even more familiar with the bitterness and death of God’s just judgment.

“God does nothing but by prayer, and everything with it.”—John Wesley

The fourth trumpet sounds, and a third of the starry heavens are darkened with an accompanying effect of darkness on the earth. This plague looks back to the ninth plague in Egypt (Exod 10:21-23). Amos 5:18 teaches us that the Day of the Lord will be darkness, not light. Joel 2 says the Day of the Lord will be “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and dense overcast.” The darkness of the fourth trumpet anticipates the demonic activity of chapter 9 and even greater sorrow.

We would be foolish to press the details of what we read in a crassly literal way. We would be equally foolish to simply symbolize these images away. They are symbols, but they represent real and catastrophic eschatological realities. The bottom line, as David Platt well says, is this: “Do not put your ultimate hope in created things. All things—even the most secure things like the light of the sun—all things in heaven and on earth are passing away” (“Life of the Christian”). Osborne summarizes well the impact God intended to make on finite humans who too often wish to shake their fist in God’s face and scream, “I’ll live my life my way!” He says,

The purpose of the first four trumpet judgments is primarily to disprove the earthly gods and to show that Yahweh alone is on the throne. By recapitulating the Egyptian plagues, God wants to make his omnipotence known to the world and to show the futility of turning against him. Each of these judgments addresses a different aspect of life in the ancient world and in the modern world as well. The first shows that the material world is no answer; the second and third address the sea trade, including food supplies; and the fourth focuses on life itself in the heat and light of the celestial bodies. The four together prove that those who live only for this world have chosen foolishly, for only in God is there true life. Earthly things turn on us, and we dare not depend on them. (Revelation, 357)

Prayer is an action of finite sinful humans that in some amazing and mysterious way moves into action a sovereign and omnipotent God. I cannot explain it, but I do believe it. Spurgeon said,

Prayer is a gift from God as well as appeal to God. Every prayer for mercy is not a cause, but a result! Divine grace is at the back of prayer and at the base of prayer. (“Song for the Free”)

This is true on the cosmic level. It is also true on the personal level. Prayer is what moves God to judge the world and vindicate His saints. Prayer is also what moves God to save souls and bring them into His kingdom. A day is coming when you will either have the mark of the beast (13:16-18) or the mark (the name) of the Lamb (2:17; 14:1). Time is short. Judgment is coming. Salvation is as near as a prayer: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:13).