What are the trumpet judgements in Revelation?

Question 10033.

The trumpet judgements in Revelation are the second great series of judgements that fall on the earth during the Tribulation, following the seal judgements and exceeding them in severity. When seven angels sound seven trumpets, one after another, the natural world is struck with devastating blows, and I want to take the trumpet judgements in order so their pattern and purpose become plain.

The trumpet judgements flow directly out of the seventh seal, so they are not a separate story but the next stage of one unfolding drama. As the Tribulation deepens, the judgements grow fiercer, and the trumpets mark the point where the destruction turns from human affairs to the very fabric of creation itself.

How the Trumpet Judgements Begin

The trumpet judgements are launched from heaven, where seven angels are given seven trumpets, and an eighth angel offers incense with the prayers of the saints before the throne (Revelation 8:2-4). Those prayers matter: the trumpet judgements are, in part, God’s answer to the cries of His suffering people for justice. Heaven is not deaf to the martyrs beneath the altar.

The Greek word for trumpet, salpigx, was used in Israel for signalling, for gathering the assembly, and for sounding the alarm of war. That last sense fits the trumpet judgements well, for each blast is an alarm of divine warfare against a world that has refused to repent even under the seals.

So the trumpet judgements come as both answer and alarm. They answer the prayers of the persecuted and they sound a warning to the unrepentant, and they are poured out by the command of God, not by the whim of chance or the malice of the enemy.

The First Four Trumpets: Creation Struck

The first four trumpet judgements strike the natural order. At the first, hail and fire mixed with blood fall, and a third of the earth and its trees and all green grass are burned up. At the second, something like a great burning mountain is thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea becomes blood and a third of its creatures die (Revelation 8:7-9).

The third trumpet brings a great star called Wormwood, which falls on a third of the rivers and springs and turns them bitter, so that many die from the poisoned water. The fourth trumpet strikes the heavens, and a third of the sun, moon and stars are darkened, so that day and night lose a third of their light.

Notice the recurring measure of a third. The trumpet judgements are severe but still partial, striking a third rather than the whole. This is judgement with restraint, still leaving room for repentance, still short of the total devastation that the bowl judgements will bring. Even in wrath God remembers mercy and holds back His full hand for a time.

The Fifth Trumpet: The First Woe

After the fourth trumpet an eagle cries woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, warning that the last three trumpet judgements will be worse than all before (Revelation 8:13). The fifth trumpet opens the shaft of the abyss, and smoke pours out, and from it come locusts with power like scorpions to torment those who lack the seal of God on their foreheads.

These are no ordinary locusts. They are forbidden to kill, but permitted to torment men for five months so that people seek death and cannot find it (Revelation 9:5-6). Their king is the angel of the abyss, named Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek, the destroyer. This is a demonic scourge released under the judgement of God.

The fifth trumpet is the first woe, and it shows how the trumpet judgements have moved beyond striking creation to tormenting rebellious humanity directly. Yet even here there is a mark of grace, for those sealed by God are protected, a reminder that He knows His own even in the worst of times.

The Sixth Trumpet: The Second Woe

The sixth of the trumpet judgements releases four angels bound at the great river Euphrates, prepared for this very hour to kill a third of mankind (Revelation 9:14-16). An army of enormous size, numbered at twice ten thousand times ten thousand, sweeps across the earth, and by fire, smoke and sulphur a third of humanity is slain. The partial judgements are giving way to mass death.

What astonishes me most about the sixth trumpet is the reaction of the survivors. Even after a third of mankind has perished, the rest did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality or their thefts (Revelation 9:20-21). The trumpet judgements batter the world, and still the world shakes its fist at heaven. Judgement alone does not soften a hard heart.

This is a sobering lesson. We sometimes imagine that if God would only display His power dramatically enough, people would surely turn to Him. The these trumpets prove otherwise. The problem with the human heart is not a lack of evidence but a love of sin, and only grace can cure that.

The Seventh Trumpet: The Kingdom Announced

The seventh trumpet is unlike the others, for when it sounds, loud voices in heaven declare that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever (Revelation 11:15). It is the announcement of the end, the moment history has been travelling toward since the fall.

The seventh trumpet does not bring immediate calm, however, for it ushers in the bowl judgements, the final and most concentrated outpouring of wrath. As with the seals, the last member of the series opens the next series, so that the trumpet judgments hand on to the bowls, which I discuss in my article on the bowl judgements.

So the seventh trumpet is both a triumph and a threshold. It proclaims the certain reign of Jesus and it launches the last judgements that clear the way for that reign. The the sounding trumpets end not in despair but in the sure announcement that the King is coming to take His throne.

The Purpose Behind the These trumpets

Why does God pour out the trumpet judgments at all? They are, in one sense, His justice answering the accumulated wickedness of a world that has rejected Him. They are also His answer to the prayers of His persecuted people, a public vindication of those who suffered for His name.

But they are more than punishment. Each trumpet is a summons to repent, a lowering of the ordinary props of life so that men might look up to God. That the world largely refuses does not lessen the mercy of the offer; it only exposes the depth of human rebellion. The the sounding trumpets leave no one able to say that God did not warn them.

So I read the these trumpets as both righteous and merciful, terrible in their severity yet restrained in their measure, striking a third and sparing the sealed. Even the alarms of judgement carry an invitation to come home before the last trumpet sounds.

What the Trumpet judgments Teach Me Now

Living long before these events, I still learn from the the sounding trumpets. They teach me that God takes sin with deadly seriousness, that the patience which now delays judgement will not last for ever, and that the day of reckoning is fixed and certain.

They also teach me not to presume on signs and wonders. If a third of mankind can die and the survivors still refuse to repent, then no display of power will soften a heart that loves its sin. What people need is not more evidence but a new heart, and that comes only through the gospel, which I can carry to them now while the door of mercy stands open.

So the these trumpets press me to urgency. The King whose reign the seventh trumpet announces is the same Jesus who died for sinners, and He calls people to Himself today, before the alarms of judgement ever sound. That is a message worth losing sleep over and worth sharing without delay. If the day is fixed, and it is, then the time to speak is now, while there is still someone left to warn and still mercy left to offer.

So, now what?

Read Revelation 8 and 9 and notice the sobering refrain after so much devastation: the rest of mankind still did not repent. Let that puncture the myth that people only need a bigger sign to believe. The trumpet judgments show that the human heart is cured not by terror but by grace, and grace is offered now, before the trumpets ever sound. Who around you needs to hear that offer while the door of mercy still stands open?

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15, ESV)