Sunday School Notes: Revelation 8:12

¹² And the fourth angel trumpeted, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon and a third of the stars, such that a third of them became dark. And the day [was] not lighted–a third part of it–and in the same was the night [was] not.

If you’re cringing at my translation of the Greek, you’re quite right to cringe. It’s awkward Greek and I hope I have conveyed that. In fact, it’s more awkward that this; English demanded I throw in at least a couple of verbs. Where the language is the most difficult is probably where John was trying to convey the intensity of the experience. It was just dark–it was really dark, both night and day.

Before we started into our study of the passage, we took a step back from the trees, so to speak, to look at the forest. Last time, someone asked about the chronology of Revelation, and particularly whether the fact that the seal visions and the trumpet visions were grouped separately, and the one follows the other, is significant. Does each seal vision have to take place in that order in time, and must those all precede the events taking place in the trumpet visions?

First, we set out the visions of the seals and the trumpets side-by-side:

SilenceThe coming of the Kingdom

Although we are only in chapter 8, so there is much still to come, it’s useful to take stock of where we are, and what clues there are at this point to the general meaning of the text. At this point we’re not looking for answers, but possibilities and clues. Perhaps when we’ve finished, we can do a similar exercise given all we’ve seen, and come to some more definite conclusions.

The first thing to note is the significance of the seals and the trumpets. We recalled that the seals were like a Roman will, wherein the executor was alone authorized to break the seal and execute the will. In Revelation, Jesus is the only one worthy to break the seals, since he is the one who executes the divine judgments contained therein. Everyone else is guilty of sin and under the seals’ judgments (although the penalty due to God’s people has been paid by Christ, so they escape the wrath of the Lamb). So it seems these seals execute judgment upon the earth, and we noticed the earthly nature of the seal judgments, versus the cosmic nature of the trumpet judgments. We have conquest, famine, and pestilence in the seals, but freak hail and fire, burning mountains, and giant locusts with the trumpets.

We also observed the break between the sixth seal/trumpet and the seventh. Someone in the group pointed out the connection between the seven days of creation in Genesis 1. There does seem to be a parallel in the fact that days 1-6 of creation are concerned with making all that is needed for life–human life, particularly–but day 7 is totally God-centered. Day 7 shifts the focus of creation back to God. We see a similar thing with the seals and trumpets. The silence in heaven is when the divine Judge takes his seat, and the courtroom is in silence awaiting His judgment. With the seventh trumpet comes the kingdom of God in all its glory.

The fifth seal is certainly an anomaly, since it isn’t a judgment but a cry for judgment, for vindication of God’s name and of His people. The Lord responds to this by giving His people white garments and telling them to wait. The sixth seal then seems to present an overview of events in the seven trumpets. There are similarities with what we’ll see in the fourth trumpet, but there are differences too which suggest a summary of the trumpets as a whole. Perhaps the sixth seal is a look ahead at what’s to come?

This would suggest, therefore, that the seven trumpets follow chronologically after the seals. First the events of the seals happen, then the trumpets. At this point, I see no reason to discard this view. The seals are, maybe, a preamble to the final judgment, and the trumpets are the cosmic working out of that judgment. Whether or not this view holds up when we’ve looked at the other visions remains to be seen.

Back to the trumpets, and the vision following the fourth trumpet blast. The first three blast heralded disasters upon the earth: the land, the trees, the plants, the seas, the rivers, the waters, and the springs. Here there is celestial disruption: the sun, the moon, and the stars are darkened. God’s judgment is comprehensive. No part of creation escapes. Everything is affected.

The obvious Old Testament parallel to this vision is Exodus 10:21-23, where the Lord, through Moses, plagues Egypt with total darkness for three days. We’ve already talked about the fact that the ten plagues can be seen as divine judgments against the Egyptian deities, with this one attacking Ra, their sun god. Idolatry was a big problem for the church at the time Revelation was written, and Christ has already addressed that in the letters to the seven churches (chapters 2 and 3). At the heart of idolatry is a trust in things as opposed to the Lord. In the judgments so far we’ve seen the Lord undermine that confidence by taking away their agriculture, their commerce, and their water supply. Now He takes away their light, so they can no longer go anywhere nor see anyone.

But not all the world suffers this darkness, only one-third. We’ve discussed how “one-third” points back to Old Testament prophetic pronouncements of judgment, underscoring the nature of these events. God is judging sinful mankind. In this case, it may also be a subtle reference to the three days of darkness in Exodus. Another Exodus reference can be found in the unusual way John describes the darkening of the sun: it was struck. The Greek verb translated “to strike” (plêssô) has a noun form, plêgê, which can be translated “plague.”

Looking back at the sixth seal, we should note that the cosmic disruption described there is total, whereas only one-third is affected in the fourth trumpet. This, again, suggests that the sixth seal is a summary of all that the trumpets describe.

We’ll pick up with the eagle in 8:13 next time, Lord willing.