The First Trumpet - Hail

The first trumpet blast unleashes forces that impact agriculture. It is modeled on the seventh plague of Egypt – Revelation 8:7.

Fire from the golden altar was cast onto the earth in response to the prayers of the saints. This was followed by “claps of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake,” phenomena that concluded the series of seven seals and signaled the start of the seven trumpets. Thus, we now find seven angels poised to sound their trumpets and unleash their plagues.

The first four trumpets employ imagery from two events in the history of Israel - the “ten plagues” of Egypt, and Jeremiah’s judicial pronouncement against Babylon:

• “Behold, I am against you, O Destroying Mountain, says Yahweh, which is destroying all the earth. And I will stretch out my hand upon you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain” - (Jeremiah 51:25).

[Photo by Joanne Francis (Nipawin, Canada) on Unsplash]

The “plagues” inflicted on the World Empire by the first four trumpets are modeled on the first, seventh, and ninth plagues sent against Egypt by the word of Moses. The Book of Revelation combines features from these three plagues, then distributes them over the first four trumpets.

The cause of the plagues unleashed on Egypt was Pharaoh’s refusal to let Israel leave the country. However, each plague only caused Pharaoh to further harden his heart. Likewise, the plagues of the first four trumpets only harden the hearts of the “Inhabitants of the Earth”:

• “And the rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. And they repented not of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” - (Revelation 9:20-21).

The Egyptians would have perceived this as the defeat of Osiris, the god of agriculture and fertility, who was believed responsible for the annual flooding of the Nile River on which Egyptian farmers depended for irrigation. Similarly, at the time John was recording his visions in the Book of Revelation, the Roman god of farming was Saturn, who was depicted holding a sickle.

In either historical context, such an event would be perceived as the failure or defeat of one or more gods by the surrounding pagan society, especially if the destruction resulted in food shortages and famine.

The background of the Book of Exodus provides a picture of the new people of God marching from “Egypt” to the new Promised Land, “the holy city, New Jerusalem.”  Just as ten plagues preceded the release of Israel from Egyptian bondage, so also, the plagues of the seven trumpets prepare the way for the release of the saints from the dominion of end-time Babylon and the World Empire.

• “And upon her forehead a name written, ‘Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of whores and of the abominations of the Earth’. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” - (Revelation 17:5. Compare Jeremiah 51:47-48).

• “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that you have no fellowship with her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” - (Revelation 18:4-5).

There are literary parallels between the first four trumpets and the first four bowls of wrath of Chapter 16. The plagues of the First Trumpet are cast upon the earth, the great mountain of the Second Trumpet is thrown into the Sea, the great star of the Third Trumpet falls upon and pollutes the sources of freshwater, and the Fourth Trumpet blast darkens a third of the sun, moon, and stars.

Likewise, the First Bowl of Wrath is poured on the earth, where it afflicts men with grievous sores. The Second Bowl is poured onto the Sea, which causes the death of every living thing in it. The Third Bowl of Wrath is poured onto “the rivers and fountains of water.” And the contents of the Fourth Bowl of Wrath are emptied onto the sun, causing men to be scorched – (Revelation 16:1-9).

The number ‘three’ dominates the first four trumpet blasts. The First Trumpet destroys a third of the earth, trees, and grass. The Second Trumpet destroys a third of the Sea, sea creatures, and ships. The Third Trumpet pollutes a third of the rivers and “springs of waters.” And the Fourth Trumpet darkens a third of the sun, moon, and stars.

THE FIRST TRUMPET SOUNDS

• “And the seven angels that had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. And the first sounded, and there came to be hail and fire mingled with blood, and it was cast onto the earth. And a third of the earth was consumed, and a third of the trees were consumed, and all green herbage was consumed” - (Revelation 8:6-7).

The First Trumpet destroys things but does not kill men. The effects of this plague echo those of the angel who ‘threw’ (Greek, ‘ballō’) “fire onto the earth” (‘eis tén gén’) after the prayers of the saints had ascended to Heaven from the altar - (Revelation 8:3-4).

The First Trumpet blast unleashes “fire” that is mixed with blood and “thrown” [‘ballō’] onto the earth [‘eis tén gén’]” in response to the prayers of the saints. Moreover, the First Trumpet is patterned after the Seventh Plague of Egypt, which was celebrated later in the seventy-eighth Psalm:

• “And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven. And Yahweh sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down onto the earth. And Yahweh rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous <…> And the hail smote every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field throughout the land of Egypt” - (Exodus 9:23-25).

• “How he set his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan. And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink. He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. He also gave their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost” - (Psalm 78:43-47).

A third of the vegetation of the Earth is “consumed.” The Greek verb means to “consume, burn up completely” (‘katakaiō’, Strong’s Concordance, #G2618). The same word is applied to the destruction of Babylon in chapters 17 and 18:

• “And the ten horns that you saw, and the beast, these will hate the whore, and they will make her desolate and naked, and they will eat her flesh, and they will consume [‘katakaiō’] her with fire” – (Revelation 17:16).

• “Therefore, in one day, her plagues will come, death and mourning and famine. And she will be consumed [‘katakaiō’] by fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her” – (Revelation 18:8).

The verbal link is deliberate. The Greek verb, katakaiō’, occurs only in these three passages of Revelation. The destruction unleashed by the First Trumpet partially destroys the agricultural infrastructure of the Empire, and this anticipates the full destruction of the Babylonian system at the end of the age. Compare the use of this same Greek term by Jesus and Peter:

• “Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the weeds, and bind them in bundles to consume them [‘katakaiō’]. But gather the wheat into my barn <…> As therefore the weeds are gathered up and consumed with fire [‘katakaiō’]; so it will be at the end of the age” – (Matthew 13:30, 40).

• “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be consumed [‘katakaiō’]” – (Matthew 3:10).

Not coincidentally, the primary feature of this plague is “hail.” The seven seals closed with the angel casting fire onto the earth, and his action produced “claps of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.”

Likewise, the seven trumpets will conclude with various phenomena, including great hail. The occurrence of hail at the start and conclusion of the series of trumpets brackets the entire literary unit – (Revelation 8:1 - 11:19).

• “And there was opened the Sanctuary of God in heaven. And there was seen in his sanctuary the ark of his covenant. And there followed flashes of lightning, and voices, and claps of thunder, and an earthquake, and great hail” – (Revelation 11:19).

The “hail” of Revelation 8:7 is also a verbal link to the Seventh Bowl of Wrath that portrays the destruction of end-time Babylon. When the final bowl is emptied, a great voice declares, “It is finished,” the “seven last plagues” that will complete “the wrath of God” – (Revelation 15:1, 16:17).

• “And there were flashes of lightning, and voices, and claps of thunder. And there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty <…> And great hail, about the weight of a talent, comes down out of heaven upon men. And men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof is exceeding great” – (Revelation 16:18-21).

The areas affected by the First Trumpet are part of the food supply chain of the World Empire, its agricultural industry. And so, as we will see, the plagues of the first four trumpets target the economic infrastructure of the Empire.

Ironically(?), the primary weapon used by the Beast and its agents against anyone who refuses to give divine honors to the image of the Beast is economic sanctions - the denial of access to trade and commerce:

• “And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, that there be given them a mark on their right hand, or upon their forehead, and that no man can buy or to sell, except he who has the mark, the name of the beast, or the number of his name” – (Revelation 13:16-17).

The order of the first four trumpet blasts is literary, not chronological. Like the first four seal openings, the trumpet plagues represent concurrent processes and realities. The imagery and language borrowed from the Egyptian plague of hail prepare us for the later identification of Babylon as “the great city, spiritually called Egypt,” the imperial city that rejoices over the deaths of the witnesses of the Lamb - (Revelation 11:8).

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SEE ALSO:

• The Seven Trumpets - Overview - (An overview of the series of Seven Trumpets and the several intervening events between the sixth and seventh trumpets)

• Economic War - (The False Prophet employs economic pressure to coerce men and women to swear allegiance to the Beast from the Sea)

• The Second Trumpet - (The second trumpet harms the commerce on which human society and political institutions must depend for survival – Revelation 8:8-9)

• Silence in Heaven - (Revelation 8:1-6 - The seventh seal forms a transition to the next series, the seven trumpets)