Trumpet Blast

686.  "Trumpet Blast"
February 6, 2013
Revelation 8-Part 10
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
Revelation 8:4 KJV

LET IT GLOW

We have a trumpet player in our church. One time, during a Bible lesson on Revelation, our teacher secretly and previously asked this trumpet player to blast his trumpet outside our door. He did so and did it ever bring to reality the trumpet blast when believers in Jesus will be raptured, taken up into heaven. There was nothing we could do to get ready at that moment. Either we were ready or we weren't.

Here is the seventh seal, which includes four of the seven trumpets. These judgments of God progress greater in intensity. They occur during the final 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation. The first four announce the divine destruction of earth's ecology (verse 6-12), while the final three involve demonic devastation of earth's inhabitants (9:1-21). (MacArthur)

The trumpet or horn, was an ancient instrument known as the salpinx was not a musical instrument used for entertainment. Rather, it was a horn employed on solemn occasions. It was used to call soldiers to battle (1Cor.14:8), to proclaim a sacred assembly (Matt. 24:31), or to call attention to the presence of an important person (Heb.12:19). These trumpet blasts were pronouncing solemn and somber occasions in Revelation 8 and 9.  (Swindoll)

Am I listening for the trumpet?

LET IT GROW

Instead of going into details of the destruction during this time, I want to focus on the prayers of the saints, mentioned in our key verse.

The setting is reverent silence of all in heaven for half an hour. when God prepares to intensify His wrath, every creature is reduced to open-mouthed silence. In fact, silence is the only proper response to looming judgment. It is spoken of in Psalm 76:8, Isaiah 41:1, and Zephaniah 1:7.
Then the silence ends.

Here we have an angel approaching the altar holding a golden censer of incense (verse 3). The offering of incense symbolizes the earlier impatient prayers of the martyred saints in Revelation 6:10. Here we observe that unanswered prayers are sometimes stored up until God chooses to answer in His perfect timing. Beginning in 8:5, the time has finally come to answer those desperate pleas for God's intervention (Deut. 32:35-36).(Swindoll)

John Phillips writes, "What a potent force is prayer! The saints go into their bedrooms, close the doors, kneel down, and pray. They spread out before God their petitions, and God hears. The prayers are placed in the scales of judgment."

This makes me realize that I should not be praying selfishly, but for others. Am I praying enough? What is enough?


LET IT GO

Listen for the trumpet of the Raptured.

Pry for others' salvation, for God's will in my life and in my church.