Recap

So far in Revelation we've read through the messages to the seven churches, the courtroom scene, and started the three sets of seven divine judgements. Revelation, the final book of the Bible, is attributed to John. Rather than predicting future events, it offers a peak behind the curtain at the spiritual battles behind earthly struggles that every generation faces. Its core question: will you choose light and life or darkness and death?

Addressed to seven churches in Asia, John introduces Jesus as the ruler of kings, who cleanses believers through his blood and makes them a kingdom of priests. He envisions Jesus coming on the clouds, uniting Daniel 7's imagery of God and the Son of Man.

John described seven golden lampstands, symbolising the churches, and seven stars representing their angels. Jesus commissioned John to deliver messages to these churches. Ephesus had lost its love and needed renewal. Smyrna, though persecuted, was encouraged to stay faithful. Pergamum and Thyatira resisted persecution but allowed corruption.

Sardis was spiritually dead, needing revival. Philadelphia was faithful and was promised protection. Laodicea, complacent in wealth, was urged to recognise their spiritual poverty. These messages reminded believers of the spiritual battle behind their struggles. They called them to repent and live in light of Jesus’ victory.

After addressing the seven churches, John described a vision of heaven’s throne room, drawing on imagery from Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Daniel. Around God’s throne were twenty-four elders, representing a divine council of humans and spiritual beings. This highlighted humanity’s restoration to their original role as co-rulers with God, as intended in Genesis 1:28.

John saw living creatures, echoing Ezekiel, worshipping God alongside the elders. He then noticed a scroll with seven seals, symbolising judgement, and wept when no one was found worthy to open it. An elder assured him that the lion of Judah could open it, but John saw instead a slaughtered lamb with seven horns, representing complete authority. The lamb’s blood redeemed people from every nation, making them a kingdom of priests. Worship of the lamb then spread to angels and all creation.

The lamb began opening the seals, initiating the first of three cycles of seven judgements. The first four seals summoned the four horsemen, bringing war, conflict, famine, and death, reflecting ongoing struggles faced by every generation. The fifth seal revealed martyred believers crying out for justice, reassured by God to wait for his plan to unfold.

The sixth seal unleashed apocalyptic imagery of earthquakes, darkened skies, and cosmic upheaval, mirroring Day of the Lord passages from Isaiah and Joel. All people, great and small, hid in fear, acknowledging the arrival of God’s wrath and final judgement.

Revelation 7-9

In between seal six, which depicted the Day of the Lord, and the seventh seal, we turn to focus on God’s people. John notices four angels holding back the wind to produce a stillness across the earth.

A fifth angel appears with a new seal ready to mark the servants of God, human believers, with God’s seal. His stamp. Those who have this seal are not to be saved when the judgement comes. This is drawing on similar imagery in Ezekiel 9.

John then hears the sound of the twelve tribes of Israel. Each tribe has 12,000 members, which symbolises wholeness and completeness. There are a few things notable with this list of the twelve tribes. Judah is listed first despite being the fourth born. Ephraim is referred to as Joseph, which is a habit picked up from the Old Testament (Numbers 1:32-33, Psalm 78:67-68, Ezekiel 37:16-19).

And Dan is missing. Remember, Dan was the most northerly tribe and chaos and evil was seen as coming from the north. All chaos and evil, including that within the camp of Israel, is being done away with.

The list also reads like a census, and censuses often had a military context to them. They were used to count how many men were ready to go to battle (see Numbers 1:2-3, 1 Samuel 11:8, 2 Samuel 24:1-10). The people of God are lining up and being counted for battle.

So John hears the twelve tribes of Israel and turns to see instead a great multitude of every nation and tribe all dressed in white. Just like in John was told about a conquering lion and turned around to see a sacrificed lamb in Revelation 5:5-6, here he hears the fulfilment of the promise to Israel and turns around to see all nations included in that.

This sparks another round of worship from the multitude, the angels, the elders, and the living creatures. One of the elders asks John who are these people robed in white and John pointed out the elder is the one who knows.

The elder explains these are the one who have been washed by the blood of the lamb. They will no longer hunger, thirst, or suffer. Instead, they will worship God for eternity and the lamb will be their shepherd.

Having sealed God’s people, we turn back to the final seal. The lamb opens this seventh seal and there is a great silence. There’s lots of debate over what this silence means. Some have argued that the silence is a reference to Isaiah 52:14-15, where all creation is an awe of the authority and power of the lamb.

Others argue it’s a liturgical silence that reflects the silence that would come when people made offerings in the temple (see Psalm 62:1 and Habakkuk 2:20). Still other suggest it is an appalled silence as everyone stands in shock at the destruction that came from the sixth seal.

An angel comes before the altar to offer up incense, which is prayers of all the believers. This is drawing on Day of Atonement language (see Exodus 30:8-10, Leviticus 16:12-13) The prayers raise before God and then the angel takes the fire of the altar and throws it on to the earth and we get more Day of the Lord imagery.

This leads straight into the next set of seven judgements, this time represented not by seals but by trumpets. These judgements bear a similarity to the plagues of Egypt in Exodus 7-12.

The first trumpet brings hail and fire similar to the seventh plague of Egypt (Exodus 9:23-25). The third is drawing on Old Testament prophet imagery for partial judgement that allows a remnant to survive (see Ezekiel 5:2, Zechariah 13:8-9).

The second trumpet has a mountain being thrown into the sea, turning it into blood, drawing from the first plague of Egypt (Exodus 7:15-24). The mountain is likely drawing on the imagery of oppressive empires being described as mountains (Jeremiah 51:25). God will destroy these kingdoms and empires.

The third trumpet throws a star into the rivers, making them bitter. This is a reference to the bitter waters of Marah where the Israelites first questioned God along with bitterness being associated with judgement (Exodus 15:23-25, Deuteronomy 29:18, Jeremiah 9:15).

The fourth trumpet has the destruction of part of the sun, moon, and stars leading to darkness like the darkness of the ninth plague of Egypt (Exodus 10:21-22). The sun, moon, and starts are also references to spiritual beings. Even the spiritual beings are being judged.

The fifth trumpet refers to a start that falls from heaven to earth. This star is clearly a spiritual being, but there’s some debate over whether this is an evil spiritual being cast down to earth, or a good spiritual being sent down to earth.

Either way, this spiritual being is given keys to the bottomless pit, sometimes referred to Tartarus. This is the same place referred to in 2 Peter 2:4, where the rebellious spiritual beings are kept captive. These beings are now set free and swarm the earth like locusts, just like the eighth plague of Egypt (see Exodus 10, Joel 1:2-4).

The spiritual beings are allowed to torment the earth, leaving those who have been given God’s seal. They are given gruesome depictions showing their unnaturalness. These don’t fit into God’s created order.

This unholy army has a leader called Abaddon. We saw Abaddon in the Old Testament as another name for sheol and death (see Job 26:6, Proverbs 15:11). It’s unlikely that this character is Satan, as Satan appears later. But the introduction of a leader shows that these spiritual beings are an army. This is a war.

The sixth trumpet leads to four more rebellious spiritual beings being unbound and set free. These four lead another army and bring death, destruction, and plagues.

But despite all this, the rest of humanity that were not killed and didn’t have the seal, did not repent. They continued their false worship and their wickedness.

Like the seven seals, these trumpets represent things that believers throughout history will have experienced, though in a more abstract way. The original plagues of Egypt were warning to Pharoah to repent from what he was doing and let the Israelites go, but he ignored them. Each generation faces its own ‘trumpets’. Moments of divine warning, whether they be natural calamities, societal upheavals, war, or the consequences of idolatry and injustice. 

All of this is in God’s hands. The evil spiritual beings were given permission to be set free. The chaos and destruction were caused by trumpets blown by God’s own angels. And believers should not be surprised if after all these things, people do not repent and turn to God, just as Pharoah didn’t.

Psalm 40

This psalm is attributed to king David, and can fit into two categories. The first half is a thanksgiving psalm, while the second half is a lament psalm.

Psalm 40:1-3 - You saved me from the pit

Psalm 40:4-5 - Blessed are those who trust in you, for your deeds are great

Psalm 40:6-8 - You desire obedience over sacrifice

Psalm 40:9-11 - I will not hold back my praise as you do not hold back your love and mercy

Psalm 40:12-17 - Deliver me from evil

The psalm opens with a reminder of how God has delivered in the past. He drew the psalmist out of a difficult situation and gave him firm ground to stand upon. 

The psalmist is able to say blessed are those who trust in the Lord, because of the good things that the Lord has done. In return, the best way to please the Lord is not through offerings and sacrifices, but through obedience. 

The psalmist’s confidence in God reaches a point where they cannot contain it. They have to share it with other people and tell them about God’s faithfulness and love.

Having given thanks for the Lord, and spoken his praise, the psalmist now turns to the issue at hand. They have built themselves up and reminded themselves of all that God has done, so now they can address their current struggles with confidence.

Just as God has shown he will not withhold his mercy, or his faithful love, the psalmist now asks God to intervene in this situation. It feels like the psalmist is surrounded by their enemies and their own sin.

They ask the Lord to deliver them and put to shame all those who would seek them harm. But may God bless those who have supported the psalmist. 

The psalm then ends with a declaration of trust. While the psalmist may be poor and needy, God will always be their help and deliverer.

This psalm shows us the benefits of encouraging ourselves in who God is and what he has done for us before we bring our troubles to him. This allows us to come to God in confidence.