With that in mind, we are going to be in Revelation chapter 8, verses 6 through 12. Revelation chapter 8, verses 6 through 12, and the title of the message may seem kind of odd to you at the beginning, but you'll understand as we get into it. The title of the message is Conquering Jericho. Revelation chapter 8, verses 6 through 12, and the title is Conquering Jericho. And the seven angels, who had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound them. The first sounded, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood. And they were thrown to the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. The name of the star is called Wormwood, and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters because they were made bitter. The fourth angel sounded, And a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it and the night in the same way. Father, we just thank you for your word and we thank you for your goodness and grace that you. That you give this word to us and that you. Lord, that we can look into your word and we can study and we can draw near to you. have shared your purpose and your plan for history in your word and that you have told us what your purpose is for us in your word. And Lord, as we strive to draw near this evening and understand, we just ask that you be with us, that you give us eyes to see and ears to hear and give us spiritual understanding. Help us to see what you're showing us through these visions. Lord, we thank you for these things in Jesus' name, amen. So we're going through Revelation. We're in chapter eight, and Revelation is a book of symbols. It's a book of symbolic, apocalyptic literature. It's pictures, and the pictures aren't photographs. It's not showing you photographs of actual things. It is showing you images that are meant to portray meaning to you of something else. Last week we came to the end of the seven seals that were on the rolled up scroll containing God's plan for history. It's very important for us to remember that the scroll and the seals are symbolic. In that vision, the Holy Spirit was showing John symbols of what was happening, images, but not the actual things. It's not a photograph and it's not a video. of literal events. In the vision, which began back in chapter 4, John sees the throne room of heaven with God seated on the throne in an angelic court. And the throne of God is the center of everything. It's the center of the universe, all of creation. The throne of God, if you can imagine all of creation and all of the universe, the throne of God is right at the center and everything else goes out from it. Everything is focused on and toward the throne, the throne of God at the center. And everything that happens in all of creation comes out from the throne of God and is directed by the one who sits on the throne in the center. And so John sees the scroll of history in the right hand of him who sits on the throne in chapter five. And the scroll is completely sealed. There are seven seals. Seven is the number of completion, and seven is used over and over again in Revelation. Seven spirits of God is used many times. It doesn't mean that God has seven spirits. It means that the Holy Spirit, in His fullness, in His completeness, Seven seals means completely sealed. Seven eyes means omniscience. Seven horns means all power. So anytime you see the number seven, it means all of it. It means fullness, completion. So John sees the scroll in the right hand of the Father, and it's completely sealed. There are seven seals, and there is no created being worthy to open the scroll and reveal or execute its contents. But then John sees the lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God. So let me ask you a question. What does John really see there? Right. He doesn't see a baby lamb. He doesn't see a baby sheep. that is deformed, by the way, because it has seven eyes and seven horns, and so a deformed sheep would not have been acceptable for the sacrifice anyway, if you're being just real literal. So he doesn't really see a baby sheep with seven literal horns and seven literal eyes. That's not what he sees. What he sees is Jesus, the God-man, having full power, all of it, all authority, omniscience, all knowledge, everything. He has the Spirit of God in its fullness. And he gave himself as the perfect sacrifice and thereby he purchased for God men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And then he rose from the dead. And he's worthy because he could and did bring about God's purpose in history, which is the redemption of his people and the restoration of his perfect creation. Of course, John sees Jesus symbolized by a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes. And through his life and death and resurrection, the lamb, Jesus, takes the scroll from the Father's hand, breaks its seals, and executes its purpose. So, can you see how the atonement of Christ is pictured through this lamb that has died and then is raised. And then the working out of God's purpose in history is pictured as this lamb, which symbolizes Jesus, operating in the fullness of God as he takes the scroll and he breaks the seals. So see, the focus of everything in the visions that John sees following chapter four is that everything that happens in history originates at the throne of God and is executed by the Lamb, by Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that God brings about his judgments, his providences, in this world by sending his messengers to perform them, his angels. But the first general idea that is being transmitted to the people of God, see, Revelation is written to the church. It's addressed to the seven churches in Asia Minor. But we remember seven, it means all of it. Seven means the fullness thereof. So this letter is sent initially to these seven churches in Asia Minor, and it really was. but it is intended for the whole church. Those seven churches represent the fullness of the church. And the idea that's being transmitted to the church, to us, is that everything that happens in this world, both pleasant and unpleasant, comes directly from the throne of God. And it's all achieving his purpose of redeeming, renewing, and preserving his people, judging and destroying his enemies, and restoring his creation. So when the Lamb breaks the seventh seal, and that's what's pictured in these seals being broken. And when the Lamb breaks the seventh seal and the scroll is opened, there's silence in heaven. And then we begin to see another vision. In chapter eight, verse two, we see seven. Imagine that. We see seven angels standing before the throne of God. And each one of them is holding a trumpet. So the vision is of seven angels standing around the throne, facing out with their trumpets, ready to blow. We had seven seals. And now we have seven trumpets. But wait a minute. We haven't seen the contents of the seventh seal yet, have we? Actually, we did last week. There's just been silence, but then we saw it, we see it. Another angel who came and stood at the altar and he offered up much incense, which the word incense means fragrance, fragrant aroma, he offered up this fragrant aroma on the altar of heaven, and he mixed his offering with the prayers of the saints, and the smoke of the offering went up before God. Well, who's the high priest who makes offering on the throne of heaven? And who's the high priest through which the prayers of the saints ascend to God? It's Christ, it's Jesus. He goes to the altar. And he presents his atonement, his perfect sacrifice. And the prayers of the saints go up through him. And then he took fire from the altar and he cast it on the earth. And I went to Luke and read from Luke where Jesus actually told his disciples, I've come to cast fire on the earth. He said exactly those words. And then here in Revelation, we see a vision of that happening. And in the context, Jesus is telling them, I'm gonna cast fire on the earth through my, what? My gospel, my life, death, burial, and resurrection. The gospel is going to separate people. In the context it was written in Luke, he said it's gonna separate people. It's gonna call my people out of the world and there's gonna be, your family's gonna be against you. Your friends will be against you because My gospel, what I'm doing is gonna bring my people out to me. And he envisioned that as casting fire on the earth. Well, we see it in a picture form. They're imaged here in Revelation 8. So, that's the seventh seal. And that's recapitulation, by the way. We talked about recapitulation last year, last week, which is where we get the word recap. And at the end of a ballgame, you know you have a recap, and they kind of tell you what happened in the ballgame. It's not exactly the same words that they would have used while they were given a play-by-play, but it's basically the general idea of what happened, the gist of it. And recapitulation is telling the same story over and over again, sometimes using different words, different pictures, different symbols, and Revelation is full of recapitulation. It's over and over again. And the seventh seal is recapitulation. How's that? Well, the breaking of the seven seals itself, when Christ takes the scroll from the hand of the Father and breaks the seals so that he can open the scrolls, how does he do that? He does it through his incarnation, through his life, his perfect life, and then his death, and then his resurrection and ascension to heaven. And that breaks the seals and it opens the scroll so that all of God's purpose can play out in history. But what are we seeing here in the seventh seal? That exact same thing. We see Christ taking the offering and offering it up to God. and it's a recapitulation of what's already happened. So, like the great high priest, Christ, it's symbolic of Christ's atonement, the casting of the fire on the earth, it's symbolic of the fire of the gospel going forth in the world and separating Christ's sheep from the world. Jesus is the alpha and the omega. And so that's what we're seeing. The first cycle of seven symbols, the seals, It begins and it ends with the atonement. And that's recapitulation. So it begins with the atonement. Jesus, it says, you are worthy. The only one worthy to take the scroll and break its seals is the Lamb because he gave himself to purchase for God men from every nation, tribe, and tongue. So the breaking of the seals begins with the atonement. and then it ends with the atonement, the sacrifice, the offering to God, the pregnant aroma. So, the first cycle of seven symbols, seals, begins and ends with the atonement, and then the second cycle of seven symbols, the trumpets, even though it has been displayed to us, it cannot begin without the atonement. See, we already see the display of the second group of symbols, the trumpets, but none of them have been blown yet until we see the atonement, until we see Christ coming to the altar and offering up his sacrifice. And then we're gonna see the beginning of the We're gonna see the beginning of the trumpets. Jesus prepared his disciples for the fact that there were gonna be many cataclysmic events in human history. He prepared them for it. There were going to be many wars and rumors of wars. Let's look at Matthew 24 right quick before we get into our text here. In Matthew 24, It's called the Olivet Discourse, and the disciples actually asked Jesus. We'll see the questions that they asked him. What we talked about is the, it's the one question, it's the thing that everybody wants to know about eschatology. When? When? In Matthew 24, starting in verse three, as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered and said to them, see to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in my name saying, I'm the Christ and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not frightened for those things must take place. But that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains. See, it says there's gonna be wars and rumors of wars and famines and earthquakes and all these temporal judgments that we see through the opening, the breaking of the seals and the picture of the four horsemen going forth with limited judgments. And we're gonna see the same thing with the trumpets. These things are gonna come. However, these things that are happening won't mean that the end has come. They'll be the birth pangs signaling the beginning of this long labor that will eventually deliver God's consummated kingdom into the world. This is the message of the trumpet visions to the church. Turmoil and tribulation must come. But the end is not yet here. Let's start with verse six. and the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them. So if you can picture the scene at the beginning of the trumpet visions, the atonement has been made, the gospel has gone forth into all the earth, and the angels of God are gathering the elect from the four corners of the world. The people of God are being delivered out of Egypt They've been delivered out of Egypt, and they've crossed the Jordan, and we're ready to enter the promised land. But there's an obstacle in the way. In Joshua 6, it was Jericho. I'm gonna turn over to Joshua 6. You don't have to turn over there with me, but you might want to if you wanna see the symbolism here. So in Joshua 6, Jericho is an obstacle that's in the way of this massive army of the children of Israel that are marching toward the promised land that God has promised them. And it says, now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel. No one went in, out, and no one came in. The Lord said to Joshua, see I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and the valiant warriors. You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also, seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. Then on the seventh day, what did the ark hold? The manna. The covenant. It was the Ark of the Covenant. It held God's covenant with his people. The Ark is, for us, the Ark is Christ. The Ark represents Christ. He is the author of the new covenant in his blood. So, the seven priests with the Ark, with all of the army of Israel, they're gonna march around the city once a day for seven days, blowing the trumpets, They're gonna blow the seven trumpets. And so I'm gonna skip down through the six days and get to the end. So, the seven priests carrying, I'm gonna start, pick up in verse 13. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of ramshorn before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew the trumpets and the armed men went before them and the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord while they continued to blow the trumpets. Thus the second day, they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did so for six days. Then on the seventh day, they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. Only on that day, they marched around the city seven times. At the seventh time, when the priest blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, shout, for the Lord has given you the city. The city shall be under the ban, and all that is in it belongs to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban so that you do not covet them and take some of the things under the ban and make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it. But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord, they shall go into the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets, and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat. So that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city. They utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and oxen, sheep, and donkey with the edge of the sword. So, the Lord told Joshua to appoint seven priests, each with a trumpet. And the priest in the city, they're gonna, and the people, they march around the city for seven days, the full time. It's the full time. And they're gonna blow the trumpets. And on the seventh day, the last day, They're gonna march around the city seven times, the full number of times. And they're gonna blow the trumpets and then they're gonna shout for victory because the Lord has given the city into their hands. They're not to covet the things of the city or try to take and keep them for themselves because everything in the city belongs to the Lord. but the Lord was going to deliver Rahab and her household out of the city, and they would become part of Israel, and they did, citizens of the kingdom of God. Rahab actually married one of the Israeli spies and became the grandmother of David, the great king. Can you see the imagery in what's being pictured here? See, as the people of God, we're marching toward heaven. Our spirits go to heaven to be with the Lord when we die and wait underneath the altar until the resurrection. That's what happens when we die physically. But that's not our ultimate end. Our end is not heaven. Our end is the new heavens and the new earth. We're marching to the promised land. the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness dwells. And on the last day at the last trumpet, we will be raised and we will shout because the walls of Jericho or Babylon or Rome, the beastly city of destruction that stands between us and the consummation of the kingdom have fallen. And our father has given us the kingdom. Until then, the author of Hebrews says, we are strangers and aliens living in the land of promise. You know, a lot of people think that Christianity is just about, it's about getting saved or whatever so you can go to heaven when you die. They don't know the half of it. Our spirits go to heaven to be, and the only reason they do is because that's where the Lord is. Our spirits go to heaven to be with the Lord when we die. But they're not staying there. They're just waiting. We read about them underneath the altar, under the blood of Christ, in heaven, wearing the righteous robe of His, the white robe of His righteousness, and waiting until the last day, when all the dead in Christ rise first. But until then, Until that day, the trumpets will blow, and we'll continue to obey God and march around the city. And God will redeem his Rahabs out from among the residents of Jericho, Babylon, the residents of the city of destruction. And God will glorify himself by delivering us from our attachment to and our desire for the things, the riches of the city, that all belong to him. Instead, he'll deliver us and we will be his treasure. Instead of desiring the perishing things of this world, the silver and the gold, we'll desire him. and history will continue to march on day after day until its full journey is complete. And all this comes from God for our good and his glory. And so that's what we see here in verse six in the angels, these seven angels who are gonna blow these trumpets. They're a picture. They're a looking back to what has already happened and what is happening, and God is telling the same story over and over again. You know, in Scripture, God doesn't yell. I don't know if you notice that or not. Jesus never raises his voice, he just repeats himself. There are several Proverbs, and some of them are pretty funny, that are repeated more than once. And that's the way that God makes a point. He repeats it over and over again. When you read through the Bible, you see the same pictures. The same pictures are painted in the words of scripture over and over again, and the pictures are all the same. They're all the gospel, and they all point to Jesus, and they all point to the redemption of God's people and what we're talking about here. So, let's get to verse seven. Verse seven. So the first trumpet sounded, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. Well, the judgment that comes upon the earth with the first trumpet has a parallel. in the seventh plague that comes upon Egypt in Exodus chapter 19, or chapter 9 actually, verses 18 through 26. So let's look at it. What happened in Exodus chapter 9? Well, you know that God sent Moses to be the deliverer, to bring God's people out of Egypt and take them to the promised land. And so he's in Egypt and he is And the Lord is bringing plagues against Egypt, which represents also the city of destruction. Jericho, Babylon, Rome, the city of this world where the people of God are at. They're enslaved in the city of this world, and the Deliverer comes and brings them out. And he brings them out by way of these providences, these judgments, these plagues upon the world. And so we see a parallel to this plague that we're looking at here in verse 7 in Exodus 9, verses 18 through 26. And it's the plague of hail. Behold, about this time tomorrow, the Lord tells Moses, I will send a very heavy hail, such as has not been seen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Now wilt thou therefore send, bring your livestock and whatever you have in the field to safety. Every man and beast that is found in the field and is not brought home, when the hell comes down on them, will die. The one among the servants of Pharaoh, who feared the word of the Lord, made his servants and his livestock flee into the houses. But he who paid no regard to the word of the Lord, left his servants and his livestock in the field. And we know that that happened. So, There's a parallel there. The Lord sent hail with fire and lightning upon the Egyptians, their animals, and their crops. But the fire is lightning. It says fire, but it's flashes of lightning. It is fire, but that's what we need to understand. We need to understand what it means. So the hail and the lightning come down, and It came on the Egyptians, it came on their animals, and it came on their crops. But the judgment was limited, just like it is in our picture here in this trumpet. The judgment was limited. It was limited to what crops were destroyed. It didn't destroy all of them, it just destroyed the ones that were already up. The ones that sprouted up later, it didn't bother them. And it only destroyed the animals that were exposed. And it didn't destroy any of the animals or crops in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel were living at all. It didn't even hit there. So the judgment is limited, and it was limited to exactly the parameters that God set and sent it for. Well, the same principles that play here in verse seven. Although the destruction touches all trees, and grass, and grass means the crops. It means the grass of the field, which includes the wheat and the barley and all the crops that they depend on for food. So the destruction touches all trees and all crops, and it touches even the earth itself. It's still a limited destruction. The kind of destruction that's in view is the same thing that was presented by the four horsemen. The hail and the fire are accompanied by blood, which means that John is associated, he's associating the destruction that he has in view with warfare. He's associating it with Revelation 6-4. Which seal was that? Revelation 6-4, the fourth seal. No. The third, the second seal. the red blood, and another. When they broke the second seal, he saw a red horse that went out, and to him who sat on it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another, and a great sword was given to him." So in the vision that John has here of the trumpet, he sees this destruction coming from fire and hail, and it's mixed with blood. So it's associated with war. In Deuteronomy 20, verses 19 and 20, and I'm not gonna turn there, I'm just gonna tell you what it says. God told Israel in those two verses that when they besieged a city, they were not to destroy the fruit trees in the country around the city that they were laying siege to. However, most of the other nations in the world at that time did not have that practice because they didn't have God telling them not to do it. And so most ancient armies practiced what was called scorched earth warfare. We know what that is. It means the earth is literally scorched. Whenever they would invade and defeat another country, they would burn all the crops, and they would either haul off or kill all the livestock, and sometimes they would even salt the cropland. to try to prevent future crops from being able, or at least hinder for a period of time any future crops from being able to be grown there. And the purpose in doing that was to utterly destroy any chance that anybody who survived their invasion would be able to rebuild and present a future threat. That's why they did it. So the hail and the fire and the lightning coming down to the earth the vision make it very clear that the judgment and the providence comes from God and he's sovereign over it. However, the blood indicates that God is going to accomplish his purpose through the means of human conflict and war. The flames of war will bring about damage to the earth and its trees and its crops, but it's not a complete eradication because God, in His patience, giving His people time to repent, as 2 Peter 3 tells us, He restricts the destruction to a fraction of the creation rather than allowing for full destruction. I remember the question that we used to speculate about. We don't really think about it that much anymore because we don't think about the Cold War much anymore. But when I was a kid growing up, everything was about the Cold War. Everything was about, I mean, we did nuclear drills in school. I remember going, like what in the world good is it gonna do you to go get in a hall and put your hands over your head if there's a nuclear bomb goes off, you know, in your city? It's not gonna do any good, but we did that. I mean, I remember that stuff. And I remember that everything in the news was about that kind of stuff. And I remember those philosophical conversations that we sometimes had about how in the world did we manage? When you think about human depravity, how did we manage to have this face-off for all that time and with all this massive destructive power and not destroy it? each other, not just wipe out all life on the planet. How did it keep from happening? Why does it not happen today? Because most of those weapons are still in existence, even if the power structures that were there then aren't. One reason, the sovereign providence of God. It's not time. That full judgment is not coming until God says it's time for it to come. It doesn't matter how many weapons we build. We can't destroy the planet because it is God's sovereign providence that controls everything. Now, that doesn't mean that it's smart to have them laying around. It doesn't mean that it's smart to continue doing that. I'm not saying that it is, but what I am getting across is that these things are under the control of God. It is his sovereign providence that determines all of these things. So when we wonder, well, why is the destruction not complete? Especially now that we do have the ability to do it. We have the ability now to make that destruction complete, but it doesn't happen. And it doesn't happen because it's not time. And because God in his sovereignty limits the destruction. So let's go on to verses eight and nine. The second angel sounded. The second trumpet is blown, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died, and a third of the ships were destroyed." So we could see all kinds of things whenever we We read that, but a quick history lesson will tell us what the immediate recipients of John's letter, when he wrote Revelation, what they would have thought of. In 79 A.D., Mount Vesuvius blew up, and it completely buried Pompeii. It devastated the Bay of Naples with a flood of volcanic ash. And what John describes here in in this, in chapter eight, verses eight and nine, would be pretty well illustrated by what happened with Mount Vesuvius. And I mean, it just happened instantly. Most of you have probably seen, there were people who were eating dinner, and they're preserved, sitting at the table, you know, with the bowls and everything is there, because they were just instantly covered up with this volcanic ash. Well, The thing we've got to remember though is that this, this image is symbolic. The purpose of the vision is not just to say that the eruption of Vesuvius was a result of God's judgment against Rome. Now, it is no doubt part of it. It is no doubt part of it, but the picture's bigger than that. This scene, it also partially imitates the first plague that happened in Egypt in Exodus 7, 20 and 21. We won't turn there, but the waters of the Nile were turned to blood. And the fish died. But ultimately, this burning mountain thrown into the sea, like the hail and the lightning of the first trumpet, is meant to emphasize the fact that the source of the judgment, the source of the providence is divine. What John is saying in symbolic form is the disruption of the trade network that the Babylon of his day, which was Rome, is depending on. And it happens. Natural disasters like Vesuvius caused these plagues. The Mediterranean's waters are going to be bloodied. Its fruitfulness as a source of fish was damaged. Its fleets of merchant vessels reduced. But you know what? That's not the only time stuff like that happened. When we were looking at the four horsemen that go riding forth, bringing the judgment of God in a limited capacity to all the earth, back in chapter six. When we were looking at those, I pointed out that from a historical perspective, these things are just a record of the human condition from the beginning until now. You read what the four horsemen are doing in the world, and if you study history, you will see that those things have been going on from the beginning until now. So, and then also, these visions look forward to future visions of the final and complete judgment. They're not complete, but they also look forward to the final and complete judgment. In Revelation 18, there is a vision of the future utter downfall of Babylon. Babylon is the great city of the world in the scripture. In apocalyptic literature, Babylon represents this great city of the world. Pilgrim's Progress calls it the city of destruction. And Babylon, though, it's a symbol. The ruins of ancient Babylon are located in modern-day Iraq about 50 miles south of Baghdad. And it's just ruins, it's archeological ruins. It is not a center of world commerce. It, however, was a world-dominating power in the days of ancient Israel. Babylon, Egypt, Rome, They're all symbols of the same thing. It's the human rule system of this world that does not bow the knee to God and Christ. And so that's what Babylon represents. And in Revelation 18, there is a vision of this future downfall of Babylon, which is complete. And in that vision, the kings and the merchants of the earth weep and they mourn over the fall of Babylon because no one buys their cargoes anymore. The worldly system of commerce is done. It's over on the last day. So in this way, these visions are meant to remind and encourage us that the beastly evil and the brokenness that we see around us in the world in Babylon in this Babylon that we currently reside in, that all of that has an expiration date. It all has an expiration date, and these judgments and these providences that we see when they happen remind us that that final day is coming. But the judgments that we see now are limited. Let's look at verses 10 and 11. The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch. and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. The name of the star is called Wormwood, and a third of the waters became Wormwood. And many men died from the waters because they were made bitter." So understanding this trumpet is very dependent on our ability to think about it symbolically. We shouldn't strain our imaginations. I've heard so many theories. I've heard so many theories for what this thing is that ruins the fresh water supply, a third of it. But we shouldn't strain our imaginations trying to figure out if this star is a meteor, that's one theory, or a comet, or whatever that hits the Earth, and how it manages to affect a third of the fresh water sources on either the whole Earth, or all of the freshwater sources on a specific region of the Earth, because the Earth is round. And if a comet hits in one place, there's a whole lot more than a third of the Earth that is shielded from the blow. So the point is, all the theories of how this could be physically, literally worked out, they're just an exercise in futility, and that's not what was meant. We weren't meant to try to figure that out. We also don't need to worry about the fact that although wormwood does make water taste bitter, it isn't poisonous. So yes, wormwood makes water taste bitter, but it's not poisonous. It's not lethal. But we're meant to think about it symbolically. The star falling from heaven is the same as the hail and the lightning in the mountain. The point is that the throne of God is the ultimate source and the origin of the judgment that occurs. Wyrmwood is symbolic of lethal consequences resulting from idolatry and disobedience to God. And listen to Jeremiah chapter nine. I am gonna read this one. In Jeremiah chapter nine, verses 12 through 15, It says, who is the wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through? The Lord said, because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, nor walked according to it. but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals as their fathers taught them. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink." So the judgment, it's a symbolic judgment and the idea is, that this judgment comes from God and it also reflects the first plague on Egypt because the blood and the Nile both killed the fish and made the water unfit to drink. Now what does this look like for us? What would it look like in our day? Well in our day, when we think about the poisoning of fresh water, that makes us think of acid rain, industrial waste. I mean we live right here on Lake Charles and we got plants all around. We think about industrial waste being dumped into lakes and rivers. Or we think about improper sewage disposal. I remember when I took a class trip down to Mexico quite a while ago, actually, when I was in junior high. But anyway, we went to a silver mining town in the mountains of Mexico. They had no sewer system. The septic from the houses just ran out to the street, ran down the gutters, you know, into the storm drains. Of course, I'm sure it goes into the local river or creek or whatever. And so all of these things are corrupting and poisoning the water. But the original recipients of John's revelation would have immediately thought of warfare because One of the main strategies of siege warfare, and also one of the quickest ways to end the siege, was to either cut off or defile a city's fresh water supply. If you could do that, if you could get rid of the water, the city's gonna fall quick. We can do without food for a long time. We can't go very long without water. And if you can cut off or defile the water, you can stop, you can end the war pretty quick. Well, Hezekiah's tunnel in Jerusalem, it's recorded in 2 Kings 20, it was built specifically as a defense against that tactic to have fresh water. It was built through the mountain to a spring, popping water into the city so that the city could stand in case of a siege. Well, The truth is that whether it's through conquest, by war, or simply through greed for more wealth, without any regard for the environment, the corruption of fresh water is a clear example of the judgment of God that's brought upon the earth as a direct result of the sin of humanity. Verse 12. It's our last verse for today. The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened, and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way. Now man, you could get bogged down in that. And you could get so confused trying to figure out how can that even happen? Especially in light of the fact that all of these are temporary, temporal judgments and they're also limited, which means they're not the last day. These are not the last, the end judgments. So you could really get bogged down in that trying to understand how does that work? Well, let's look at it like this. This fourth trumpet, it affects the sky. so that somehow the light that the earth receives from the heavenly bodies is diminished by a third. And the first thing is that we know for sure at this point that the events that we're seeing in these visions is not chronological. In the vision of the sixth seal, back in chapter six, which was a vision of the last day, John saw the sun blackened. The moon turned to blood and the stars fell from the sky, and the sky itself was rolled up like a scroll. And yet, two chapters later, here they are, still shining in the sky, and then they're struck with a partial dimming. That reinforces the conclusion that these things are symbolic. and they're not meant, they're not chronological and they're not meant as photographs or videos. This is not, this is not what happened. It's a description of what happened and it's pictured this way. So what this sixth seal, or, so the conclusion that we have for what we're looking at here is that since the sixth seal that we looked at when we're going through the seals, that's a preview of the dissolving of this creation, preparing for the new heavens and the new earth. Then the things that we're seeing in the blowing of this trumpet symbolizes providential disasters that occurred in human history before the last day. So this judgment is parallel to the ninth plague of Egypt. Another plague of Egypt that parallels this is in Exodus 10, 22 and 23. We don't have to turn there, but it's Exodus 10, 22 and 23, and it's the plague of darkness. There was darkness on the land. Well, there's no way to understand this vision except symbolically. 33% less sunlight would destroy life as we know it. It's not a literal, it's not a literal thing. It is a image thing. It is spiritual. It's meant to be understood spiritually, not physically. So the point of the vision is this. Man's disobedience to God pollutes the atmosphere and it blocks out the light. Jesus said in John 3 that the judgment against humanity was that light has come into the world, but men loved what? Darkness. Darkness. Rather than light, because their deeds were evil. So the darkness is God's judgment. It's a spiritual darkness. But if you do want to see a physical manifestation of this judgment, You can see it. If you go outside here and you look up at the stars and then you drive off out of town about 20 miles out in the country and you get out and look at the stars, you will see a definite difference because of all the light pollution that's here. And if you go somewhere with lots of smog and you try to see the sky on even a sunny day, now it's not as bad now because of regulations and things have improved it a lot. But I remember seeing pictures of San Francisco when I was a kid. I mean, it looks like the fog has rolled in and you can't see anything. It's not fog, it's smog. It's all the pollution in the air combined with water vapor and it just creates this blanket. What is that? Well, that's a manifestation of this judgment. The light is being blocked out because of greed. and because, basically because of irresponsibility. Well, the original readers of Revelation, they would have pictured a sky darkened by smoke from burning fields and burning cities due to military conquest. So there are physical manifestations of it in the world, but every bit of it, the true darkness is not physical, it's spiritual. The spiritual darkness is on this world because of the rebellion and the disobedience of the hearts of men toward God. So, to wrap this up, the visions that John is seeing in the trumpets are symbolic. And they're really the same thing as the judgments of the four horsemen. Now, they're not presented the same way. and they're different pictures, but it's the same judgments and it's the same providences that are on the world. They're limited and they're temporal. There are physical reference throughout history that align with and are compatible with the things that we see in these judgments, like Mount Vesuvius blowing up and polluting the waters and destroying the, the city there and destroying the bay, killing lots of fish, and probably sinking some ships. And so you see temporal fulfillments of these things. But the truth is they're a symbol of these judgments. They're not meant to portray specific events as much as they are the ongoing occurrence of these things throughout history. as parts of God's providence that bring about his purpose that are pointing us to the final judgment when all of this creation is going to be destroyed and the new heavens and the new earth brought in. They aren't full and complete judgments because the end is not yet come, but it is coming. And that's what we're looking at here. So let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. And Lord, we just pray that We just pray that you help us to see your glory through your word and the way that you are working out your purpose in history, that it's really all about you saving your people and that you are sovereign. And as we see all these things happening in the world, that they are actually all coming from you. They're coming through the agency of man, yes, and through your messengers, even through demonic forces, which are still under your control. That everything that happens is under your sovereign control, and that you are causing it all to work together to redeem your people, bring about your purpose in history. And Lord, we just Ask that you help us keep that in mind as we look through these things and that you help us to be encouraged by them and not to be worried whenever we see temporal. Manifestations of these different judgments in the world around us. Just let him remind us that the end is not yet here. Lord, we thank you for all of these things in Jesus name, Amen.