Revelation 8

⁶ Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. ⁷ The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. ⁸ The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. ⁹ A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. ¹⁰ The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. ¹¹ The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter. ¹² The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night. ¹³ Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”

In 2003 a recording of Johnny Cash’s rendition of the song “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” was released. It has since become very popular. The song itself predates Cash’s version of it and was first recorded in 1937. It is a fascinating song that simply depicts the judgment of God coming upon the world. Here are the lyrics of the Cash version:

… Oh my God

… You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

… Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down

… Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news
My head’s been wet with the midnight dew
I’ve been down on bended knee
Talkin’ to the man from Galilee

… He spoke to me in the voice so sweet
I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel’s feet
He called my name and my heart stood still
When he said, “John, go do my will!”

chorus

… Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s down in the dark will be brought to the light

… You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

… Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down

… Oh yeah
Cut him down
Cut him down
Cut him down

It strikes me that this kind of talk about God is increasingly unpopular. Maybe, at some points in the past, the church overemphasized judgment to the exclusion of God’s mercy. The opposite is probably the case in our day. Of course, the correct approach is to emphasize both. God is perfect in all of His attributes, which includes both His judgment and His mercy. But as we progress through Revelation we are likely going to experience a jolt at the course correction it offers a lot of modern theology, for Revelation does indeed depict the wrath of God coming upon the earth. With the blowing of the trumpets, we begin to see this in chilling detail.

Just as human sinfulness is cosmic in its effect, divine judgment is cosmic in its scope.

The trumpets can basically be divided between judgments that fall upon the created order (trumpets 1-4) and judgments that fall upon lost and rebellious humanity (trumpets 5-6). And that division—creation and humanity—sets the scope and range of God’s judgment. In other words, it shows that God’s judgment is as wide as the effects of human sinfulness. Put yet another way, just as humanity’s rebellion had cosmic effects, so God’s judgment has cosmic application.

This is important to understand. God, being perfectly holy and just, will not allow His original design and intention for the cosmos to be ultimately and finally marred by human wickedness. We know that part of the created order—those human beings who repent and trust in Christ—are born again and redeemed. But for the rest of fallen creation, judgment comes. It comes for lost humanity in the form of judgment and for fallen creation in the ultimate form of destruction and new creation.

To understand the cosmic outpouring of judgment we find in the blowing of the trumpets we need to remember that Adam and Eve’s sin had cosmic implications. In addition to spiritual death and human pain and suffering, sin also brought disastrous effects upon the earth. Remember the wording of Genesis 3.

¹⁷ And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; ¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹ By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The cursing of “the ground” means more than just “thorns and thistles.” It means both that creation itself is now fallen in toto and that creation itself is now in decay. Not only is man at odds with creation (“[t]horns and thistles it shall bring forth for you” and “[b]y the sweat of your face you shall eat bread…”) but creation appears to be at odds with itself. Human sinfulness has thrown the entire natural order off kilter.

This is presented in many ways in scripture, but perhaps Romans 8 is most notable. Here, Paul says:

¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. ²³ And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Creation is personified in Romans 8 as bound, corrupt, groaning, waiting, and eager. Creation is fallen, and so the judgments fall upon creation. This is specifically seen in the first four of the trumpets of the last half of Revelation 8.

⁶ Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. ⁷ The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. ⁸ The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. ⁹ A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. ¹⁰ The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. ¹¹ The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter. ¹² The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night. ¹³ Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”

Notice that the scope of judgment is total in its cosmic application.

• Trumpet #1 earth / trees / green grass

• Trumpet #2 the sea

• Trumpet #3 rivers and springs of waters

• Trumpet #4 the heavens (sun / moon / stars / day / night)

Ramsey Michaels observes that “[t]he four areas affected—earth, sea, fresh water, sky—made up the whole of the human environment as the ancients perceived it” and that “[d]espite the discovery of new oceans and continents, even the exploration of space, these four—earth, sea, fresh water and sky—are still the natural components of the human environment as we define it today.”[1] Thus, these natural categories are meant to say one thing: calamity comes upon all of the unredeemed created order.

In other words, the old creation will itself be done away with in time and a new creation will come. Let us be clear on this: the fact that creation will one day be destroyed and we will be given a new creation in the consummation of God’s great plan does not mean that we should be callous or frivolous with the creation we have now. That would be both bad stewardship and blasphemous. God, in His own perfect timing, will burn the old and bring forth the new. It is not for us to do this. We should be grateful stewards of the goodness of creation even if it is fallen and decaying.

But we must not lose sight of this fundamental fact: all that has fallen will either be (1) redeemed or (2) destroyed and remade (in the case of creation) or (3) judged (in the case of the lost). This is a terrifying picture but there is a deep theological truth behind it. God will not have His original intent for creation thwarted by the wickedness of man. Mankind does not get the last word on the handiwork of God.

But divine judgment will be initially incremental with a possibility for repentance.

And yet, throughout this terrifying picture, there is a note of profound mercy. Notice a recurring refrain. It involves a number. Listen:

⁷ …And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

⁸ …and a third of the sea became blood.

⁹ A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰ …and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.

¹¹ …A third of the waters became wormwood…

¹² …and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.

Ah! Did you hear that?

A third…a third…a third…a third…a third…a third…a third…a third…a third…a third…a third…a third….a third.

Why on earth was that repeated so many times? Because God is wanting us to understand something: even the coming of His judgment is incremental because, in His mercy, He desires for the lost to be saved and the hard-hearted to repent.

The 6^th/7^th century commentator, Oecumenius, said beautifully of these verses:

And why is it said that only a third of what is on earth and in the sea and the rivers and only a third of the heavenly bodies endure these calamities that are mentioned here? This is certainly a clear proof of the goodness of God toward humankind that he calls to repentance the people [overtaken by the afflictions] of that time by the partial dissolution of the elements, rather than their total destruction. On those who do not repent he finally brings a complete destruction…For since the wrath of God is incrementally made clear and advances and progresses as though on a road, calling people to a change of heart through fear of that which is coming to pass. But when no change came from them, “he did not spare their souls from death.”[2]

In this midst of fire and destruction we find mercy. Here, at the outpouring of the wrath of God as the days of the coming of the Son approach, God measure His wrath, God portions His wrath, God metes our His wrath.

Why? So that seeing this display of His wrath many would cry out for mercy and be saved! Here is how Peter put it in 2 Peter 3:

⁸ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

He wants you to be saved! He is calling upon you to be saved!

There are many things you can say about God on the basis of the book of Revelation, but one of those things most certainly is not: “God is so unfair!” No, that cannot be said.

The prophet Joel, in Joel 2, said so many years ago:

³⁰ “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹ The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. ³² And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Ah! Here we see the trumpets of Revelation 8! Great calamity is coming upon the fallen world order. Fire and smoke and the shaking of the cosmos. And yet, Joel says, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Is it any wonder then that Peter, in his famous Pentecost sermon of Acts 2, decided to quote that section of Joel? Yes, Peter quotes Joel in Acts 2, and see what he does immediately after quoting Joel 2:32:

²¹ And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ²² “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— ²³ this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. ²⁴ God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Did you see that? “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved…Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth…”

How might we escape the coming wrath? Jesus! Jesus is how! Jesus, who stepped into fallen creation and bore our sins upon Himself: He is how we escape! Jesus who hung on a cross of wood on a hill of stone under a sky turned dark: He is how we escape! Jesus who was buried in the rock of the earth and who came forth like the rising of the morning sun: He is how we escape!

There is yet time, but we do not know how much. There may be much. There may be just a few more moments. This is why we must call on His name now!

Yes, God indeed is “gonna cut ‘em down.” But not quite yet. Not quite yet! Now God is calling the lost to be found and wayward to come home!

Now the Lamb is calling us to come to Him and be saved.

Now the King of Kings beckons us to flee into the safety of His arms.

 

[1] J. Ramsey Michaels. Revelation. The IVP New Testament Commentary. Vol.20 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997), p.121.

[2] Thomas C. Oden, ed. Greek Commentaries on Revelation. Ancient Christian Texts. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by William C. Weinrich (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011), p.39.