Knowing God through His Word … Day by Day

Dr. Kim Riddlebarger helps us understand the seven trumpets in Revelation 9

Recall that the blast of trumpet is an important redemptive historical image throughout both testaments.

• Trumpet blasts accompany the giving of the law at Sinai.
• A trumpet blast announces the jubilee year as well as the coronation of a new king.
•  A trumpet blast announces the Day of the Lord and accompanies the return of Jesus Christ to judge the world, raise the dead and make all things new.
• But another critical moment in redemptive history when we find seven blasts of a trumpet is in Joshua 6 when the city of Jericho fell to the army of Israel. The fortified city of Jericho blocked God’s people from entering the promised land during the Exodus, just as in the Book of Revelation the city of man–Babylon the Great–prevents the establishment of the New Jerusalem on the earth.

It is not until the seven trumpet judgments are completed that the great city falls–just as Jericho did when Israel’s priests sounded the seven trumpets. Only then will God’s people enter the true promised land, that city whose architect and builder is the Lord God himself. Like the seven seals, when the seven trumpet judgments have run their course, the city of man will be destroyed and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. And all of this results–John tells us–because God hears the prayers of his suffering saints. When the prayers of his people ascend to his throne, God acts.