I, however, believe the words of this revelation as it comes to a close and Jesus Christ says in Revelation chapter 21, I am the Alpha and the Omega.
I am the first and the last. I am the beginning and the end. I am, in other words, the starting point of life.
It wasn't on the banks of the Nile, it was within the council of triune God. For God created the heavens and the earth. The worship of the stars and planets, by the way, are going to one day utterly, completely collapse. What if the very earth we strive to save becomes the instrument of judgment? Revelation 8 reveals a future when God uses nature itself to bring devastating consequences upon a world that's worshiped that creation instead of the Creator. Today, Stephen explores the trumpet judgments that scorch the earth, pollute the oceans, poison fresh water, and darken the skies. This vivid scene reminds us that humanity's idols, nature and self-reliance, cannot save us.
Instead, they will crumble under the weight of God's sovereign power. I found it interesting researching this subject this week that every day when the sun rises over Washington, D.C., its first rays fall on the eastern side of the city's tallest monument by design. It's the Washington Monument, 555 feet in the air, and the architects and the committees wanted those first rays to catch and reflect the eastern side of that aluminum capstone where these words are inscribed, Laus Deo, which is Latin for praise be to God. I think it's in Latin so most people can't read it and sue the state to have it removed, frankly. But imagine, the first thing to catch the sunlight in our capital are words that speak praise to our God.
Do you think that happened today? It probably would be declaring some kind of praise to the sun, S-U-N, or to Mother Nature. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, there is no question that fallen man, and we're not dealing with this in our sermon, but I will say it because it's true, there's no doubt that fallen man has failed and has God-given stewardship over the earth. We, under him, steward earth.
We are to enjoy the earth, we failed in our ability to enhance the earth, it's beauty and resources. However, and I'm not excusing mankind's failure, but you need to understand this shocking truth, the damage mankind has done to this planet is in no way comparable to the damage that will be done to the planet by God. He will destroy more water than man ever polluted.
He will level more trees than we ever planted. He will destroy more species of animals we ever preserved. In fact, he will destroy most of the earth and the universe until in the summation of his judgment, he will destroy the rest of it and then recreate a new heaven and a new earth for us to enjoy forever. Here's the greater irony though to me is that God will use nature, mankind's chief source of idolatry, he will use nature to punish mankind. The very thing that man revered will turn and bite him in these coming judgments. The very earth that man placed all of his love and cherished attention upon will one day become the very weapon of judgment in the hand of creator God. Mankind has come to cherish and revere the earth and God will use the idol of earth to judge the human race. They will have worshiped mother nature.
She will not be benevolent. Their idol mother will be used by God to destroy them. We've arrived at even more terrifying judgments in our study in Revelation. Let's pick it up at chapter 8 as the first archangel blows on that first trumpet and this first trumpet, if you're taking notes, impacts the earth's surface. We're going to deal with four trumpets all in one sermon at lightning speed and that is a miracle in and of itself.
All right, look at verse 7. 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. Now at this point, remember ladies and gentlemen, we are well into the tribulation. We're actually over the halfway point of the tribulation and you notice here the implication is there are plenty of trees, there is plenty of water, plenty of foliage implying rainfall, water and the normal cycles on the planet. It's in full working order all the way into the middle part of the tribulation and then following the tribulation Christ will reign at the end of that thousand year reign, a new heaven and a new earth will be created. So we're well into the tribulation here.
Let me make a couple more comments. There isn't anything about this language by the way that shows us that these plagues are just symbolic, that they aren't literal, that they don't literally happen. There isn't anything in the language of that sort. They are no more symbolic than the plagues of judgment on the land of Egypt centuries earlier. Real frogs, real hail, real lice, real locusts, real darkness, real death. Now many commentators like to read into Revelation chapter eight everything from nuclear war to nuclear fallout and it is even more sensational just taking it to face value. There may very well be a nuclear war sometime in the future of the planet but there's no reason to believe that these judgments here are anything more than literal God ordained judgments in which he uses the elements of nature to carry out his judgment. In fact, if you look at verse seven, the syntax indicates that the blood and the hail and the firestorm were created in heaven and literally hurled to the earth.
Look at verse seven again. The first sounded and there came hail and fire mixed with blood and they were thrown to the earth. Can you imagine satellite networks picking up this storm hurtling toward earth, real hail, real fire, real blood?
It would be horrifying. And what's going to happen? Well you might circle the phrase or underline the phrase one-third in your text. It's significant here in this entire chapter and it will appear over and over and over again in verse seven, verse eight, verse nine, verse 10, verse 11 and verse 12. You'll see it appearing over and over. The repeated use of this phrase clearly communicates to us that the results of these judgments are not random, just sort of random natural events but they are carefully designed divine judgments. They are meted out for specific results and one-third of different things are affected. Now the amazing thing is that when you study these judgments, it's that two-thirds survive but we do know that God holds it back. In fact, it's a demonstration of his mercy and it can only go so far and only one-third will be affected. And so this first trumpet signifies a terrifying storm.
It will create forest fires all over the planet, destroying trees and foliage and there will no doubt be seminars and conferences and emergency sessions of the United Nations if it's not defunct by then, news documentaries and people everywhere desperately trying to cope with the incredible damage to earth's ecosystem. This is just the beginning of the archangel's trumpets. And while this first trumpet brings devastation to green foliage on the planet, the second trumpet brings terror to the oceans of our world. Look at the second trumpet which impacts the oceans in verse 8. 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.
A third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died and a third of the ships were destroyed. Now here's one of the similes, one of the few similes that John uses in this passage. This was something that he observed being thrown again from heaven as if from the hand of God. He said, it was like a great mountain burning with fire that fell into the sea, literally the ocean. Now this is a reasonable description by the apostle John then of an asteroid.
John doesn't have a word for it, he says it's like a mountain and it's burning and it falls into the ocean. It's interesting that scientists identify an asteroid as a mountain sized chunk of rock hurtling through space. In fact they track them even now, well over a thousand of them, they know their orbits and they can calculate when they think one may hit the planet. They're saying one will hit the planet in about 2036, somewhere around there. Well one of these will in fact, one author explained if such a rock came toward the earth, the friction of earth's atmosphere would cause it to burn. It'd be a fireball.
Astronomers are calculating the orbits of these known asteroids to see if any of them would come close enough to strike the earth. If one happened to land in the ocean, it could, quote, easily produce tidal waves, plural, 1,000 feet high. This ceiling is about 40 feet high.
A thousand feet high. Add to that the fact that John describes or records here something that is not just a natural disaster that can be just explained away but a divine miracle. The water, he writes, turns to blood. The Greek word is haima from which we get our word hema or hematology, the study of blood. This is reminiscent of the plague in Egypt where God turned the water of the Nile into what?
Into blood. One can only imagine the staggering death of sea creatures as one-third of the ocean is now affected. In fact, John specifically adds at the end of verse 8 that one-third of the ships are destroyed. The ensuing tsunamis that come from this large mountain, this chunk of rock hitting the ocean, that's going to capsize ships. These tidal waves, these megatsunamis will capsize freighters as well as other ocean vessels of all kinds. In fact, it's going to wash coastal cities away.
This is not a science fiction movie. This is reality when the judgment of God comes. You can imagine the naval fleets of every major country now severely crippled. You can imagine seafood which will now be rationed and coastal regions, depending on fishing, will experience difficulty as food is rationed. People are going to lose their source of income.
Their livelihood will be completely lost. God has scorched the earth. In fact, even at this time many believe that these trumpets are being blown one after another. These first four are almost simultaneous.
They're happening at the same time as it were. They're battling forest fires on one hand where crops and grass is being burned up as earth, its surface. The belief that its mother nature is now being scorched and then the second trumpet comes along and the very object that mankind believed was the womb of life, the ocean, the ocean which mankind is long revered as sort of the womb of mother nature, it will now turn and bring death. You can only imagine dead fish, dead whales, shipwrecked vessels drifting up on the shores of our planet.
It will be horrifying. That which man revered seems to have been turned, unleashed upon him. Verse 10, the third angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven. He tries to describe it as burning like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 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.
Now one third of rivers and lakes and natural springs are poisoned. A star falls from heaven. There isn't any reason to take this any other way than literally. In fact, the word star can be used for any heavenly body outside the moon and the sun, used by the ancients, used in the Bible that way. I found it interesting in researching this a little further to find help, ironically from the National Geographic Society, a society so well known for its creationism. This society records that there are only about 100 principles, 100 principle rivers in the world.
They range in length from the Amazon, which is about 4000 miles long, to the Rio de la Plata, which is about 150 miles long. And these 100 rivers supply the fresh water network of the world. In other words, this falling star could poison only a few of these principle rivers and literally affect one third of the earth's fresh water network. And did you notice in this verse the falling star happens to have a name? It's called Wormwood, Epsonthos. This is the word for a plant that grew in Palestine that had a very bitter, bitter taste. Throughout the scriptures this did have meaning. It referred to the judgment, the bitter judgment of God. Several times Jeremiah referred to people eating and drinking wormwood as a symbol of eating and drinking the judgment of God.
So now, folks, just try to imagine this scene. Oceans are reeking with blood and death. Coastlines are littered with carcasses. One third of the earth's surface is on fire.
Clean water is nearly impossible to find as rivers and lakes and private wells yield nothing but the bitterness of wormwood. I know one thing. There will be no more earth day. There will be no more happy banners to mother nature or the planet. The third trumpet impacts earth's rivers and lakes and fresh water supply and now the last of the four in quick succession, the fourth trumpet impacts sun, moon and stars.
Look at verse 12. 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 you need to notice carefully John isn't saying that a third of the sun no longer works. If that were true, earth would freeze in a matter of minutes I'm sure.
Don't know exactly the period of time but those that I've read said it would freeze over solid in a quick short amount of time. What I believe John is recording here is that God will only allow the celestial beings that provide light for the planet to operate at a diminished rate of time. Again this is reminiscent of the plagues of Egypt where God effectively gives mankind his wish. Mankind hates the light. Mankind loves darkness because his deeds are what? Evil. Okay I'll give you your wish. I'll give you more darkness.
This is what's happening here. The human race will go from the normal cycles of light and darkness to only having around eight hours of light a day. By the way this understanding fits perfectly with the prophecy of Amos who wrote of this day of judgment. Listen to what he said, and it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the sun to go down at noon and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
You can imagine the number of miracles of his sovereign hand as he manipulates the movement of the universe itself. But here's something deeper that's happening. This judgment once again strikes at the idolatry of the human heart. For centuries in fact going all the way back to Nimrod mankind has supposedly gathered direction and wisdom from where? The stars. The sun and moon. The stars and planets have not only been studied which is a wonderful study called astronomy. They are worshipped and revered and sought after for wisdom which is the basis of astrology.
An entirely different thing. Astronomy is a wonderful science of discovering the far reaches of the universe and I am amazed when I see the picture sent back by Hubble. The vast creative handiwork of God and astronomers study the calculations of the movements and it does exactly what David said it would do.
It gives glory to God for those of us who believe in him and our creator. But astrology is the belief that a star somewhere out there determines your fate and so you got to figure out what's happening. And so horoscopes are watched carefully by millions upon millions of people who consult them every day.
Leaders in nations determine the events of state based on the movements of the stars in our generation just as in the past. Astrology goes all the way back to Babylon. You consult any book on astrology and they will take you back to the learning of the Chaldeans or literally the Babylonians. They were the ones who originally developed the zodiac. They created the zodiac by dividing the sky into sections and then giving by virtue of stars within those sections meaning and so a person's destiny is determined by your star which is in a certain section of the zodiac which then determines your fate.
That sign you've been born under. But someone will say well Stephen didn't God say that the stars were created as signs in the heavens? Yes God said that in Genesis 1.14. However the word sign does not mean source of wisdom or even direction.
The same word was used for the plagues of Egypt. Moses called them signs. Deuteronomy 23 why? Not because they provided wisdom, not because they gave directive for your life but because they symbolize the hand of creator God and his judgment. The stars are signs in that they point to the glory of a creator God. Psalm 19 one they tell of the glory of God. The sun and moon are visual reminders of the power of a creator God.
Romans chapter 1 verse 20. But what has mankind done with this? What has mankind done is he's marveled at the moons of sun, moon and stars. He has revered them. He has gone to them for supposed wisdom.
But if any man lack wisdom let him ask of God. So this is idolatry. This is the replacement of God with a star. You go all the way back to the Babylonians who then perfected this system in Egypt by their application of the zodiac. In fact the pyramids were constructed with certain mathematical relationships to the stars which they revered and cherished and followed. They were the servants of the sun.
Their pharaoh was simply the offspring of the sun. Archaeologists in fact I found it interesting just as a side note they found that the Sphinx was in fact constructed to preach an astrological message. Just as the capstone of the Washington monument declares the glory of God so the Sphinx was designed to declare the glory not of God but of the zodiac, the stars of the heavens. It has the head of a woman.
You've probably seen pictures of it. That represents Virgo. And it has the body of a lion that represents Leo.
Virgo is the first sign of the zodiac and Leo is the last sign of the zodiac. In other words the Sphinx represented the alpha and the omega of the zodiac, the beginning and the end. In fact the word Sphinx in the Greek language simply means joining. They believed it was the meeting point of the zodiac. It indicated through the priest through this construction that the starting point of all of life on earth began there in Egypt in the womb of the Nile.
You can believe that if you want. I however believe the words of this revelation as it comes to a close and Jesus Christ says in Revelation chapter 21, I am the alpha and the omega. I am the first and the last. I am the beginning and the end. I am in other words the starting point of life.
It wasn't on the banks of the Nile. It was within the council of triune God for God created the heavens and the earth. The worship of the stars and planets by the way are going to one day utterly completely collapse. The bishops will one day be rubbish. Discarded by the millions who tried to follow them.
Why? Because God is going to dim the lights. Joel prophesied in Joel chapter 2 verse 10 and 31 and chapter 3 verse 15.
He says that this way the sun and moon will grow dark in this day and the stars will lose their brightness. Mankind has pursued every avenue within nature for wisdom. Pursued every avenue for direction except the creator of nature. Our Lord Jesus Christ by whom all things were created. Nothing was created apart or without him.
Colossians 1 10 or 1 16. So we go to him. We don't cause an affront to the sovereignty of God by seeking out some star some chunk of matter which will somehow direct our life. What an offensive thing to creator God.
No mankind will. He will seek wisdom from created things rather than the creator and on this coming day of judgment God will cause mankind in the darkness to scramble confused the cherished and worshipped the creature rather than the creator. Romans 1 25 and now their environmental idols all their ecological sermons their idolatry of mother nature. Yes I don't use that flippantly idolatry because nature and earth have replaced true worship of our creator and this creator in this day will turn their idols against them with horrifying effects.
There will be no earth day probably never ever again. The chapter ends with the appearance of an eagle. My text reads in verse 13. Let's look there quickly then I looked and I heard an eagle flying in mid heaven saying with a loud voice woe woe woe to those who dwell on the earth those earth dwellers that's a phrase used twelve times in the book of revelation to speak of those who disbelieve God they dwell on the earth they live for the earth they're subjugated by the earth. Woe to them because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound. In other words God here in his mercy is informing everyone on the planet that there's more judgment coming this is an act of his mercy. So if you're not ready by now get ready by getting right with God. Woe woe woe to those who dwell on the earth there are three more blasts of trumpets from three angels which are about to come. God has promised to create a new heaven and a new earth where his glory reigns. Will you be ready for the eternal future he offers that was Stephen Davey and this is wisdom for the heart today's message was called no more earth day if you haven't already sign up for friends of wisdom it's free and you'll receive weekly emails from Stephen filled with encouragement Bible insights and answers to questions people like you are asking you'll also receive a free resource every month to help you grow in your faith just visit wisdom online dot org forward slash friends fill out the short form and you're done as a bonus you'll get two of Stephen's most popular booklets blessed assurance and the coming tribulation these resources are designed to help you understand salvation and end time events join friends of wisdom today at wisdom online dot org forward slash friends and start receiving these valuable insights also be sure and visit our website wisdom online dot org there's a wealth of resources there designed to help you grow in the faith you'll find all of that at wisdom online dot org join us back here next time to continue through this section of revelation on wisdom for the heart.
