Wake-up call for the coming meeting between mankind and God

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The Feast of Trumpets (aka Rosh Hashanah) is a festival of remembrance for Israel. It’s not a feast of the Chinese or of the Aztecs — unless they were to have joined the Commonwealth of Israel. Its celebrations and its warnings are for Israel to hear and understand. If you are serious about understanding the lessons of this feast and apply them to your eschatology, keep this truth in the back of your mind as you study.

What’s with the trumpets?

Trumpets in Scripture represent God’s prophets. More specifically, the “voice” of a trumpet is a symbol of prophets who proclaim God’s warnings and speak in His name with His authority. When we hear this kind of trumpet, we are hearing God’s voice instructing us to either come to Him or to perform some task in God’s service.

Back in the days when cities had walls around them for protection, watchman would walk on top of the walls, patroling them for signs of danger. When the watchman was alerted to dander, he would sound a trumpet to warn of an incoming army or other enemy. If the watchman or a prophet fails to issue a warning, than God holds them guilty of the blood (Ezekiel 33:1–9).

God has given us two ways to test a prophet: we look to see if his/her prophesies come true and we also look to see if he uses his prophetic office to lure people to worship a god other than YHVH. A prophet has to pass both tests for his/her word to be valid. This is important because sometimes a person may feel they have been given a word from God for us. They feel so strongly that they have the same duty to warn us and give what they believe is God’s instruction for us. My advise? Just take their instruction aside and test its veracity the way Torah tells us.

If we choose to ignore a warning from God, if we fail to repent and come back to Him, that is on us, not on Him, or on the person He sent us to warn us.

The phrases “end of days,” “Lord’s day” and the “Day of the LORD” are synonymous, and all are full of trumpet imagery. We also associate the book of Revelation with trumpets.

“I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.””

Revelation 1:9–11 NASB

Messiah Yeshua appears to the Apostle John in a vision. At this point, John is an old man, and sees Yeshua towards he end of His life and Yeshua starts telling him about what is going to happen at the End of Days. Starting in Revelation 8, Yeshua tells John about seven trumpets, and these seven trumpets represent different events that lead up to the End of Days.

“And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them.”

Revelation 8:6 NASB

First trumpet: Hail and trees burned up

“The first 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.”

Revelation 8:7 NASB

However, this is not the first time we read about trumpets in response to a supernatural punishment from God. When you read the book of Revelation, you will be reminded of things you have read before in the TaNaKh.¹TaNaKh is a Hebrew acronym for Torah, Neviim (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings), i.e., the Hebrew bible.

Where have we read about hail and fire before? Fire mixed with hail was the seventh plague that God inflicted on Egypt in the time leading up to the Exodus (Exodus 9:13–17). The fact that the seventh plague of Egypt corresponds to the first plague leading up to the End of Days is significant.

By this point, the servants of Pharaoh were starting to understand that Pharaoh was no match for the God of Israel, but Pharaoh was blinded by his own arrogance and power. The heart of pharaoh was power. You can be a king if you have no people to exercise power over, if there are no people to follow you, you aren’t really a king. This plague is the first plague that really targets what Pharaoh loved most, which was the power he exercised other his subjects and this is the first time his subjects, at least some of them, are trying to protect themselves, their servants and lifestock from death, in a subtle defiance of Pharaoh’s stubbornness.

What does the green grass and the green trees symbolize? They represent people in Torah.

“And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest. ‘I dug wells and drank waters, And with the sole of my feet I dried up All the rivers of Egypt.’ Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.“Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.”

Isaiah 37:24–27 NASB

So God is pointing out that green grass is that which fades quickly. It has no power, no heart or strength. Grass has no endurance so when this trumpet, the first trumpet burns al the green grass, it’s burning up those who have no strength or power behind them. They don’t have deep roots to keep them strong.

Second trumpet: Water turned to blood

“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, and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.”

Revelation 8:8–9 NASB

The point of this trumpet to reveal who God is and to take away the money and power of those are in rebellion. The judgement focuses on the oceans and seas.

Where have see seen water turning to blood before?

“Thus says the LORD, “By this you shall know that I am the LORD: behold, I will strike the water that is in the Nile with the staff that is in my hand, and it will be turned to blood. “The fish that are in the Nile will die, and the Nile will become foul, and the Egyptians will find difficulty in drinking water from the Nile.”’” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their reservoirs of water, that they may become blood; and there will be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’””

Exodus 7:17–19 NASB

This was given to show that this was not a natural phenomenon and it was something only God could do to rebuke those who were given the judgement. Just as the Nile was turned to blood in Egypt, the Mediterranean will be turned to blood in the End of Days.

Ships have always represented wealth, the merchant class. Here in the second trumpet, they are targeted for God’s judgement. A third of the ships being destroyed would decimate the economy.

Third trumpet: Wormwood as a rebuke of disloyalty to God

“The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. 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.”

Revelation 8:10–11 NASB

This judgement focuses on the rivers and streams.

What is wormwood’s nature, and what does it symbolize?

“(for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; moreover, you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which they had with them); so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. “It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.’ “The LORD shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. “Then the LORD will single him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law.”

Deuteronomy 29:16–21 NASB

Wormwood is an example of a person who doesn’t follow God’s law but presumes the blessing of following His law (Jeremiah 9:12–16).

Amos also calls out those who live under this delusion (Amos 5:4–10).

God doesn’t bless disobedience, He not punish immediately in His mercy but that is not the same thing God condoning disobedience. God is warning all of us the consequences of disobedience. He gives opportunity for repentance.

When God brings the people to bitter water, He uses it as a lesson that if we diligently obey God, we will be healed and preserved, but if we are not loyal, than our idolatry and disloyaty will become poison to our hearts and our souls.

Fourth trumpet: Sun, moon and stars are the people of Israel itself

“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. Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!””

Revelation 8:12–13 NASB

The sun, moon and stars are mentioned in one of Joseph’s visions as recorded in Genesis 37:9–11. Jacob defined the sun, moon and stars as himself, Joseph’s mother and his sons.

In Revelation we see a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child” (Revelation 12:1–6). The Virgin Mary, as a pure, righteous representative of the tribe of Judah and all tribes of Israel brought forth Messiah Yeshua in the world. It was Israel who was injured, and had to flee into the wilderness.

This text is also symbolic of the fact that about one-third of the Torah’s instructions were dimmed and not widely spread to the world. We see that one-third of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were killed.

Eagles are associated with God’s protection. It’s symbolic of God’s rescue of the children of Israel from danger, but in this text, the eagle is warning them, not delivering them. God is warning us that Israel will not be rescued from these trumpets, they will have to live through them.

Joel 2:1–11 records a prophetic event that had already happened and will happen again and God is warning Judah of a forthcoming military invasion. Joel uses similar imagery as that we see in the fourth trumpet.

Fifth trumpet: Death and the grave

A lot of people presume to know what these weapons are (Revelation 9:1–12). Some propose such things as helicopters, bullets, etc. But I don’t know of any military that produces weapons that don’t kill.

The bottomless pit is the grave, it can’t be filled up. It’s inexhaustible in its depth.

The first reference to locusts as a plague or punishment is recorded in Exodus 10:3–7. Moses warned Pharaoh that if he doesn’t grant freedom to the children of Israel then locusts would eat everything.

At this point, Pharaoh’s servants were more spiritually aware than Pharaoh was about what was really going on and wanted to figure out a way to avoid having to suffer from these punishments.

In Exodus, the locusts act in a logical manner, in Revelation, they don’t.

King Solomon gives us the solution to what to do when the locusts come, which is prayer, humility and repentance (1Kings 8:37–40).

Sixth trumpet: Sin and rebellion are sweet only for a short time

We see the colors of red, blue and gold in this trumpet (Revelation 9:13–21), which are colors associated with God’s temple. Again, we are being shown that these events will not occur in Canada, Brazil, Kenya, etc. This will happen in the Middle East. This warning is for the children of Israel.

What’s with this ‘little book’? (Rev. 10:8–11)

Ezekiel 2:1–3:11 tells us what is contained in the little book that made John physically ill. The script in the book included lamentations, complaints and woes. These are words of God and they are sweet at first, but when we don’t obey God’s words, they become bitterness in us. Sin is the same way, it’s sweet and fun at first but then makes our lives bitter and miserable once we reap the consequences. Living in sin has long-term negative effects on our physical and spiritual lives. God is cleaning His house, the house of Israel, before He cleans the world. He is trying to get Israel’s attention, to bring them to repentance and clean them up before He judges the world.

The two witnesses also appear during the sixth trumpet (Revelation 11:1–10). These witnesses are given a lot of power. One of the powers they were given is the authority to shut up heaven and prevented it from heaven.

This power was also given to Elijah. Elisha was given authority to bring down fire from heaven. Moses was given authority to turn water into blood.

Elijah was to teach the people who God is and Elisha was to teach the people how to worship God. Moses had come before them teaching the people who God was and how to worship Him.

All three of these prophets are also represented aspects of Messiah Yeshua. Messiah Yeshua also taught us who God is, what He wants of us. But one thing that Messiah Yeshua can do that Elijah, Elisha and Moses could not do is forgive our sins.

Seventh trumpet: The Temple of God is torn open

“… And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.”

Revelation 11:15–19 NASB

This already happened on a small scale when Yeshua died and the veil in the Temple was torn in half (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). This opened God’s temple and opened up the earth to God’s judgement. When we die, there is no barrier between our spirit and God spirit. If HaSatan could speak with God face to face, then we, when we are in our spirit form, will also be able to speak with God without a barrier. Yeshua’s death removed the barrier between mankind and God (Hebrews 10:19–22).

After the trumpets, we see in Revelation 12 the vision of the woman who gave birth to a son, whose was then persecuted and set to flight. At this time that John was writing this, all the events prophesied in this chapter had not happened yet.

The woman is the children of Israel. When they were in all location, they were vulnerable to genocide, but when they are scattered to all the ends of the earth, it’s much harder to kill all of them off. You don’t save people by gathering and hiding them, but by scattering them.

The dragon was not successful in killing the woman or her children so the dragon starts a war in heaven, which was not successful, either. Now, he has been cast to earth and now the people of the earth are the target of wrath as he knows his time is limited. The master of all lies is a liar, and unfortunately human beings love to hear lies, the bigger the better. Our job is to overcome him.

When it comes to understanding the events covered in the seven trumpets, focus your attention on the Middle East because that is where these events will be fulfilled. They will not be fulfilled in Canada, Kenya or Brazil but in and near the land of Israel.

Summary: Tammy