Seven angels were assigned to blow on seven trumpets (Revelation 8:6). The results of these trumpet blasts would be severe. When the first angel blew his trumpet, hail and fire mixed with blood would fall upon the earth, and a third of the land and a third of the trees would be burned, along with all the green grass (8:7). Similarly with the second trumpet, which would cause “something like a great mountain, burning with fire” to be cast into the sea, resulting in the death of a third of the creatures in the sea and the loss of a third of the ships (8:8-9).

The third trumpet would ruin a third of the fresh water, turning it to bitter wormwood, while the fourth trumpet would darken the light of the sun, moon, and stars by a third. One terrible calamity after another, wreaking pain and destruction on the earth: and it keeps getting worse.

With the fifth trumpet the shaft to the bottomless pit was opened, and deep smoke arose to darken the sun and moon even more (9:1-2). Then terrible locusts came out of the pit, ready to torture all people who do not bear the mark of God on their foreheads (9:4-5). And when the sixth trumpet sounded, mighty angels leading a troop of two hundred million cavalry came forth, to kill a third of the people of the earth (9:13-19): are these actual warriors, or is this a symbol of a series of plagues (9:18, 20)?

Yet with all this destruction, “the rest of humankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols … or of their murders or their sorceries or their fornication or their thefts” (9:20-21). It is so hard for us to accept that the wreckage around us could ever be, even partly, our own fault. Sure, we’re not perfect, we say: we have sins hidden in our hearts and acted out in our lives: but it’s not like we’ve done anything so bad that it would need “repentance.” We reassure ourselves that God will never allow anything really bad to happen to us. But the text here tells a different story, of severe judgment on the way. And we are completely unprepared to turn our hearts back to the Lord.

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Help us, Lord! We know so little of repentance. We presume so much on your grace, as though you owed us endless patience. Change our hearts, we pray, and turn us back to you. Transform us by the power of your Holy Spirit, that we may live in faithfulness to you, both in the days of blessing and in the days of judgment.

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