INTRODUCTION
Today we’re returning to Revelation after a month’s break. This is my third talk. I’ve called the series ‘Revelation: The Hard Parts.’ I’m consciously diving into some of the hard parts of Revelation – the parts that preachers generally avoid. But these hard parts are in the Bible for a reason, and they are there for the good of God’s people. Today, I’m moving into Revelation 8 and 9. These are among the chapters of Revelation that preachers most assiduously avoid. That’s based on the number of sermons on these chapters uploaded to the website Sermon Central. It's to some extent understandable that preachers avoid these chapters. They present a bleak picture of what will happen in the world.
RECAP
In my first talk, I looked at Revelation 4 and 5. In Revelation 5, John sees a scroll in the hand of the one who sat on the throne. That looks like a judgment. John sees a lamb, Jesus. Jesus takes the scroll. In Revelation 6, Jesus, the Lamb, opens the first of the seven seals on the scroll. We then go through a set of tribulations as the seven scrolls are opened. In Revelation 7 John has a vision. He sees ‘a great multitude that no one could number.’ He is told that ‘THESE ARE THE ONES COMING OUT OF THE GREAT TRIBULATION.’ The very phrase ‘the great tribulation’ signals that this time in the world’s history will be very unpleasant indeed.
Today, I’m moving on to Revelation 8 and 9. I’ve decided to focus on this passage in Revelation 8. My reason is because it is, I think, the passage in Revelation in which the environmental dimension of God’s judgment on humankind is clearest.
Our passage starts off with seven angels blowing seven trumpets. This signals the start of the second series of woes in Revelation. The first set of woes was the seven seals, in chapter 6. Then we have the seven trumpets, which start here. Finally, there are seven bowls of God’s wrath, in chapter 16.
The three series of woes increase in severity and contain different kinds of woes. And, as I mentioned, this set of woes, announced by the seven trumpets, seems to have the greatest environmental dimension.
Let’s quickly review what happens. The first angel blows his trumpet. There is hail and fire, mixed with blood. A third of the earth is burned up, and a third of the trees are burned up, and all green grass is burned up. Not so nice. Then a second angel blows his trumpet. Something like a great mountain, burning with fire, is thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea becomes blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea die, and a third of the ships are destroyed. What could that great mountain, burning with fire, be? A volcano? I don’t know. But the result is clear. Among other things, a third of the living creatures in the sea die.
When the third angel blows his trumpet, a great star falls from heaven, blazing like a torch. Again, I don’t understand what this is. But the result is also plain. A third of the waters became wormwood – wormwood is a bitter herb – and many people die from the water, because it has become bitter. Then the fourth angel blows his trumpet. This has an effect in the cosmos. The result is periods of darkness.
It's a grim prospect. What are we to make of it? How are we to think about it?
I’m going to make eight points. They are all quite short.
1. GOD IS WILLING TO ALLOW HUMANKIND TO EXPERIENCE THE CONSEQUENCES OF ITS ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIONS
If humankind damages or destroys the environment, humankind will suffer. Let me give you an analogy.
Cain and Abel are in the Garden of Eden. Cain gets angry with Abel and kills him. God didn’t want Abel to die. But he does want a world in which a person’s actions have a consequence. So, God doesn’t prevent the murder from happening – but there are consequences for Cain.
Humankind is occupying the world God created. Humankind harms the world. God doesn’t want the world to suffer harm. But he does want a world in which people’s actions have consequences. So God doesn’t prevent humankind from doing damage to the world – but there are consequences for humankind.
2. GOD HIMSELF BRINGS HARM ON THE ENVIRONMENT WHEN HUMANKIND IS DISOBEDIENT
There are dozens of examples we can see of this in the Bible. Here is one, from the prophet Jeremiah (chapter 44:2-3). Judea was conquered by the Babylonians and a group of Jews flee to Egypt. God, speaking through Jeremiah, tells them:
‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, because of the evil that they committed, provoking me to anger, in that they went to make offerings and serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.’
God tells the people, as clear as day, ‘When you make me angry, I will bring disaster on you.’ The Old Testament clearly anticipates that in End Times the natural world will be devastated as God pours out his anger on the world.
3. GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL HARM IS AN INDICATION THAT WE ARE IN END TIMES
The prophet Isaiah anticipates a time when the whole world will be utterly devastated. This is in Isaiah 24. Isaiah writes:
Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate,
and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants
…
The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered;
for the Lord has spoken this word.
The earth mourns and withers;
the world languishes and withers;
the highest people of the earth languish.
The earth lies defiled
under its inhabitants;
for they have transgressed the laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant [verses 1,3-6].
The following chapter in Isaiah, chapter 25, is about End Times. For example, in Isaiah 25:8 Isaiah tells us that God ‘will swallow up death for ever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.’ That only happens in End Times. So, there is a period of global environmental destruction which comes in End Times and precedes the time when God swallows up death for ever and wipes away the tears from our faces.
Does that mean that the environmental problems the world is experiencing now ARE the problems that come in End Times? I don’t think we can say. All we can say is that environmental devastation goes with End Times – and therefore, if we are experiencing environmental devastation, it certainly could be a sign that we are entering End Times. When we take other indications into consideration, it seems very probable to me.
4. THIS IS HAPPENING NOW
I have two hardback commentaries on Revelation. One was written by someone called Robert Mounce. He comments on the figures in this passage. He considers the idea that ‘one-third of the land and its vegetation … is devastated by fire.’ He writes, ‘The fraction, if taken literally … borders on absurdity.’
Mounce wrote his commentary in 1977. It’s still regarded as one of the best. But 1977 is 45 years ago. A lot has changed since then.
In our passage today we learn that a third of the living creatures in the sea die. Is that absurd?
A couple of weeks ago there was a report in the news that the 2022 edition of the World Wildlife Fund’s ‘Living Planet’ report had been published. It stated that there has been a 69% drop in wildlife populations on average since 1970. I downloaded the report. I was interested to see what it had to say about living creatures in the sea. It didn’t give a specific figure for this. But it had some related figures. It said that of the FRESHWATER species that they’re monitoring, there has been a decline of 83%. It has been monitoring some marine species. The populations of sharks and rays have declined by 71% over the past 70 years.
Revelation says a decline of one third. That’s 33%. And of the species the World Wildlife Fund is monitoring, there has been a decline of 71%. That’s twice as bad as Revelation!
Of course, all marine species are not declining at the same rate. Scientists expect all coral reefs to be utterly dead – a 100% decline – by the end of the century.
Revelation isn’t giving us symbolic language with no relation to reality. What Revelation 8 describes is starting to happen now.
5. GOD DOESN’T WANT TO HARM THE ENVIRONMENT
When we see what’s happening in the natural world, we may suppose that God wishes to harm the natural world. Nothing could be further from the truth. God wants to pour out his wrath on humankind and he does so through the natural world.
There are two particular verses in Revelation that make this clear. In Revelation 7 [verse 3] one angel instructs a group of other angels, ‘Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’ Then in Revelation 9 [verse 4] God sends out an army of locust-like creatures. They are instructed ‘not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.’
6. HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND? TRUST.
Jesus’ disciples asked him about signs of the ends of the age. He told them:
‘But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven’ [Mark 13:24-27].
It will be very tough. It will be very alarming. But it’s a process the world has to go through. It will come to an end and Jesus will establish his kingdom.
7. HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND? LOOK AFTER THE ENVIRONMENT
Some Christians say, 'The earth is going to be destroyed. So, why waste our energy looking after it?' Two reasons. First, God gave humankind charge over his creation TO LOOK AFTER IT. When he placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, it was so that he would care for it and work it. God has never told humankind, ‘OK, that’s enough. Change of plan.’ Second, the very fact that God tells the group of angels and the army of locusts not to do harm – even in End Times – means that we shouldn’t either.
8. HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND? DON’T WHINGE.
Let’s go back to the prophet Jeremiah for a moment. Jeremiah is in Jerusalem when the Babylonians invade and destroy the city. He has a scribe called Baruch. Baruch appears quite a bit towards the end of the book of Jeremiah. He is clearly not happy about the way things are going. This is the start of Jeremiah 45:
'The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch: You said, ‘Woe is me! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.’ Thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord: Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up—that is, the whole land. And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord. But I will give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may go.”'
In End Times the world is going to be devastated. So, if you find your career isn’t shaping up as you’d like, or your garden is looking a bit dry, or your holiday has been cancelled because of a pandemic – DON’T WHINGE! God is working. You may suffer as a result. That’s just the way it will be. But you, like Baruch, will have your life. In fact, you will have a wonderful life. But for those of us who experience these End Times, there will be pain before we receive it. LET’S NOT WHINGE, but accept that God is doing what he needs to do.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 23 September, 2022 a.m. service
