God of war (Judges 15)

After some days, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in. And her father said, “I really thought you had utterly hated her, so gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.”

And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.”
Judges 15:1-3

Samson isn’t the kind of guy you want to upset. You want to make sure he is always happy. You want to make sure he never ever loses his temper. Because Samson’s a lot like the Marvel cartoon character, the Hulk. “When Samson angry... Samson smash!”

And that’s the reaction of his father-in-law in the beginning of the story here in Chapter 15. Samson visits his wife with a gift – a young goat (maybe she might have appreciated some chocolates instead, but a young goat was a thing of value) – and this picks up from the events of his wedding day back in Chapter 14. There in verse 19, Samson in “hot anger” went back to his father’s house, but not before killing thirty men to steal their clothes in order to repay a bet he had lost on his wedding day.

But now Samson is back. The goat’s probably his way of saying, “Sorry for leaving you at the altar, honey... oh, and for killing all those cousins of yours on the way home. No hard feelings.” What Samson doesn’t know, of course, is that his wife has been given to another man (his “best man” according to 14:20) by his father-in-law.

The reason for this? Verse 2: “I really thought you utterly hated her.” After all, Samson was the one who walked out on his wife – on his wedding day of all days. The marriage was not even consummated (hence verse 1, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber” – that’s what he had come to take care of). So, Daddy thought, Samson must not have wanted her at all and gave her away. It all sounds rational. It all sounds reasonable, even. After all, Dad managed to save his daughter from dying an old maid. But then look at what Dad says next, “Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.”

You see, these two daughters were to their father as that goat was to Samson. They were just things of value. “Take this daughter instead,” Dad said to Samson in an attempt to placate him, to appease his psychotic murdering son-in-law who could easily tear him limb from limb. Samson brought a goat; Dad brought out his younger daughter. Same thing.

But it didn’t work. Verse 3: And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.” Meaning: “Now, I’m really mad.”

But also, what Samson meant was, “Now, I’m right to get mad.”

So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards.
Judges 15:4-5

How he did this, I have no idea. Samson rounded up 300 foxes, tied them up in pairs by their tails, somehow attaching a flaming torch between each pair. Presumably the foxes would then try to run off in opposite directions but end up zig-zagging through the fields setting fire to the grain in the process. It was mad and yet it was also quite brilliant. Samson single-handedly destabilised an entire nation’s economy. He destroyed all their food supplies (both the “stacked grain” as well as the “standing grain”). He even targeted their olive orchards, which, for an agrarian society, was at the very heart of their wealth. There was method in his madness.

Samson wanted revenge and he knew where to hit where it hurt.

Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.
Judges 15:6

Last week we saw how Samson’s wife was forced into the impossible situation of either betraying her husband or risk being burned with her father’s household. “Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is,” they said to her in 14:15, “lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire.” She did what they told her to and yet here we read that they burn her anyways. Notice that it wasn’t just Dad’s fault for making Samson mad. “The Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.”

For Samson, it was yet another reason to get mad.

And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you and after that I will quit.” And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
Judges 15:7-8

Samson was not out for justice. He wanted vengeance. He says, “I will be avenged.” You have done this – not to my wife; not to her family – you have done this to me. What followed was more violence and more death.

At the heart of all this is a guy who simply does whatever he wants. Worryingly still, he gets away with it. When kids throw a tantrum, they might hold their breath or start chucking food on the walls, but there’s a limit to the destruction they can cause. The adults know that, and more importantly, the kids themselves learn that over time. But this guy doesn’t. He does whatever feels right. In Chapter 14, he sees a Philistine girl he likes and that’s reason enough to take her as his wife – irrespective of his parents’ wishes, irrespective of God’s wishes. That’s what his father-in-law was getting at when he pushed his younger daughter in front of Samson, “See, see... isn’t she more beautiful in your eyes?” The people around Samson know him well enough. They know that he is one huge walking appetite that constantly needs filling up. There is no right or wrong for Samson. Everything is about what Samson wants and what Samson needs. That’s his justification – for anger, for rage, even for murder.

And yet what we are going to see next is God using Samson’s appetite and sinfulness for God’s sovereign purpose. What we are going to see is God’s will fulfilled not in spite of Samson anger, but through his selfish anger – to reveal God’s plan and to bring about God’s salvation.

But first, in order to do that, God is going to use Samson to spark a war!

Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi. And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.” Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.”
Judges 15:9-11

Samson’s really done it now. What started out as a bar-room brawl has now escalated into a full-fledged war between two nations. The Philistines deploy their tanks and military forces to the borders of Judah in an attempt to find and capture Rambo, and understandably, the people of Judah are freaked out to wake up the next morning only to find a battalion of  tanks parked up their front driveway! “Why have you come up against us?” they ask. The answer? One single man is responsible: Samson did this to us and we have come to repay the favour.

The people of Judah are shaking in their boots. So what they did next was motivated purely by fear – they were fearful of war. They were fearful of destruction by a superior force. And yet, what we also see is that the men of Judah were immensely fearful of Samson. They gather 3000 men, not to face the enemy, but to betray a fellow countryman. There at Samson’s hideout, the rock of Etam, 3000 men stood surrounded one man, Samson, just to bring him in and turn him over to the enemy.

If you look back to the very beginning of Judges Chapter 1, there we see Judah leading the charge into enemy territory. Judah was the strongest and bravest of all of the clans of Israel, defeating an army of 10,000 men in Bezek (Judges 1:4). And if you look ahead to verse 16, we find out the number of Philistine soldiers encamped at the border of Judah – one thousand men. That is, here are 3,000 men of Judah fearful of an army one-third its size; here is Judah, 3,000 men strong but fearful of one man, Samson. In the book of Judges, the tribe of Judah start out bold and courageous. They end up fearful and cowardly.

They say to Samson – almost matter-of-factly – “Don’t know the Philistines are rulers over us?” Here is a generation that has accepted defeat. Here is a generation which has chosen not to fight. They have given up and given in to another power – not God, but man. The Philistines are rulers over us – that’s a pretty damning statement. The Philistines are in charge now, not us. And definitely, not God. In their minds, it’s Samson who needs to get with the program.

For the past few months at Rock Fellowship we have been journeying through the book of Judges and what we have encountered again and again are cycles of our sin and God’s salvation. Each generation of God’s people go through cycles of (1) rebellion against God through idolatry and sin; they face (2) judgement from God who hands them over to their enemies; they then (3)cry out to God for help in repentance; (4) God answers by sending a judge to save them; (5) there is momentary peace in the land; (6) the judge dies and the people soon forget God’s help and fall back into sin.

Look how this generation of Israelites began back in Judges Chapter 13.

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
Judges 13:1

It is the beginning of a new cycle. Israel did evil before God. God punished Israel by giving them over to their enemies. But then? Nothing. No cry for help. No repentance before God. God does, however, raise up Samson as a judge – from birth, I might add – but this is not in response to any form of repentance or call for help. And two chapters later, here in Chapter 15, we find out why.

“Don’t you know the Philistines are rulers over us?”

The Israelites had given up. God was no longer in charge over their lives; the Philistines were. It was a pitiful situation. The fear of man had led a whole generation of believers to compromise their faith in God. The fear of man had led these Israelites to betray one of their own brothers. Even Samson could see this. He had to ask them for an assurance that they would not kill him themselves. For the first time in the story, we see a hint of fear in the mighty Samson, or should I say, shame. He is fearful of their betrayal and ashamed of their cowardice.

And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
Judges 15:12-13

“We will surely not kill you,” they say to Samson. All they would do was hand him over to be killed. All they would do was tie him up, escort him outside of their border and surrender him into the hands of the enemy. That’s all they would do. They were rationalising their sin: “We aren’t going to hurt you.” They were justifying their sin, “There is nothing else we can do. The Philistines are in charge.”

But the truth is: God is the one who is in charge. And God would do something about the situation.

When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men. And Samson said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey,
heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
have I struck down a thousand men.”

As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi.
Judges 15:14-17

Samson takes down the entire Philistine army – single-handedly! It’s like the opening scene of one of those Hollywood movie trailers where the deep-voiced commentator goes (ala James Earl-Jones), “One man... against impossible odds! One man against an army, armed with nothing else.... but a jawbone!”

Now, in case we miss the turning point of the story, don’t forget that just moments earlier, Samson was fearful of his own people’s betrayal. Moments earlier, Samson was bound “with two new ropes” and escorted to the border by 3,000 Israelite soldiers.

And as he approached the Philistine forces , they celebrated their victory over Samson! “The Philistines came shouting to meet him” (Judges 15:14). “We have won!” they thought.

But then we read, “The Spirit of the LORD rushed upon (Samson)”. God empowered Samson with super-human strength. And in case we missed how extraordinary God’s intervention was, it even tells us that his hand-cuffs turned to jelly: “The ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire.” God unmistakeably did this. God turned the tables on the Philistines.

You might even say: God caused this war.

Not Samson. Yes, his selfishness and thirst for vengeance led him from one conflict to another. But God chose this guy to be the judge. God empowered him with his Spirit. God made the ropes on his hands fall apart. Samson was God’s means to God’s end.

Not the Philistines. Yes, they had overpowered this generation of Israelites. But right from the beginning of Judges 13, it reads, “The LORD gave them into the hands of the Philistines”. God empowered the Philistines, too, enabling them to rule over Israel.

And certainly not the Israelites. They shrank away from the fight. They had given up the fight, even though God had commanded them to subdue the land. But God steps in, raises a judge and trouble-maker who is Samson – a man who, certainly loves to fight – and starts a war between the two nations.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Samson is far from perfect. In fact, Samson is downright selfish, impetuous, proud and sinful. But that does not mean that God is unable to use Samson for his purposes to save.

To save? Yes, to save. In fact, that’s the word Samson uses in the very next verse. He calls it a “great salvation”.

And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the LORD and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore, the name of it was called En-hakkore; it is in Lehi to this day.
Judges 15:18-19

Salvation means rescue. Rescue from harm. Rescue from evil. Rescue from death. That’s what it means to be saved. Salvation means rescue.

But here the bible is giving us a bigger picture of what it means to be saved. It is the defeat of evil. It is the defeat of God’s enemies. It is the defeat of death. The picture the bible paints of salvation here in this episode of Samson’s life is that of war and conflict.

The “great salvation” by the hand of Samson was a great act of violence. He killed 1,000 men and pilled their bodies in a mound so high, he could even sing, “Heaps upon heaps... have I struck down a thousand men.” It was a brutal, bloody, gory scene of death. But in that we see a picture of the great salvation God had given Samson – the death of this army. Samson marks his victory by naming the hill, Ramath-lehi, which means Jawbone Hill (We’ll look at the significance of that in just a few moments).

But also, we see God’s great salvation in a second scene right after – in the giving of the water to quench Samson’s thirst. “And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it.” Samson names that place too, En-hakkore – “The spring of him who called”. That too, was God’s salvation come to Samson, but this time it was a scene of God’s great patience and generosity with Samson.

Samson is still Samson. He is doing what is right in his own eyes – he isn’t thinking, “How can I do God’s will and help my people turn back to God?” Absolutely not! He is taking revenge on his enemies and boasting about his own strength. “With the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men.” I did this. Me.

Also, don’t miss the significance of the jawbone. The narrator takes great pains to describe how “he found a fresh jawbone... and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men.” The fact that it was fresh meant that it was probably still bloody and was part of a corpse. And Samson’s parents had been instructed since his birth to make sure that he kept his vows as a Nazirite, one of which involved never-ever touching a dead corpse (well, actually this was a blanket prohibition for all Israelites). Samson goes out of his way to defy God’s word. Yet the amazing thing is he ends up doing God’s will.

Even when calls out to God in thirst, it looks like a ridiculous situation doesn’t it? “God, you have saved me, but now are you going to let me die?” We might be tempted to give him two tight slaps to wake him up from his stupidity. What does God do? God miraculously splits a rock to open a fresh spring of water. What does Samson do? He boasts! He names that place “The Spring of the One who Called”. Not “The Spring of the One who Answered”. No, it’s Samson who rang the right number, who got God to answer on the phone, and who was responsible for this miraculous spring of water. This was Samson’s spring.

Samson is still Samson. But God is still God.

He is the God who saves his people even when they reject him. He is the God who hears his people when they cry out to him. He is the God who is patient, gracious and loving towards men and women who are sinful, rebellious and ungrateful. God is still God.

We forget that often and easily. When circumstances change. When we change. We forget that God is unchanging in his holiness, his power and his love. God is always holy. God is always in charge. And God is always gracious and loving even when we are not.

And what the bible does is remind us again and again that God is God.

1.       God is our ruler
Not the Philistines. Not your overbearing boss at work. Not even if you live in a country run by dictators and corrupt politicians who oppress you because of the colour of your skin or the God whom you worship. God rules over all kingdoms, all parliaments, all presidents. He establishes all governments to ensure justice and peace. They may fail in this regard, and leave them in power long enough, they will fail. But God is always in charge.

The truth of this hits home when you consider nations with rulers and governments who do not acknowledge God’s sovereignty. Romans 13:1 says, “There is no authority except from God.” That includes the United States. That includes North Korea.

In such situations we remember Jesus who said to Pilate, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.” (John 19:11) God had given Pilate, the Roman governor, the authority to execute Jesus on the cross. Even through the events of the murder of his Son, God was sovereign. God was in charge.

And like the Israelites in Samson’s day, so the Israelites at Jesus’ trial, denied that God was in charge over their lives. What did they cry out before Pilate when he taunted them, “Shall I crucify your King?” (John 19:15)

“We have no king but Caesar.”

With that last damning statement, they crucified Jesus. They had rejected him as the Christ. They had rejected God as the King. Yet in doing so, Pilate and the chief priests and the people of Jerusalem and the Roman guards and the executioners and the friends who abandoned Jesus and even Judas who betrayed Jesus, were all doing the will of God. God was sovereign over the cross. Jesus was crowned through his crucifixion.

The cross reveals the ultimate rejection of God as King. The cross displays the ultimate sovereignty of Jesus as the Christ.

2.       God will defeat all his enemies
The salvation of God’s people means the defeat of God’s enemies. That was what happened in the Exodus – the Red Sea which gave safe passage to Israel was the same waters that swallowed up the entire Egyptian army. That was what happened here in Judges: one moment the Philistines are rejoicing over their captive, Samson; in another, Samson is standing over a mountain piled with their bodies.

And the bible tells us the certainty of this final judgement comes to us through the cross of Jesus Christ.
“He had fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
(Acts 17:31)

The cross is God’s announcement, not simply that Judgement will come, but that Judgement has already come. God has fixed the day. God has appointed Jesus, the man. We know this how? Because God has raised Jesus from the dead.

3.       God will save his people
The last verse of Judges 15 reads, “And he (meaning, Samson) judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.” (Judges 15:20)

Samson is the anti-hero. No one voted for him. No one asked for his help. Yet God chooses Samson from birth to be saviour and judge over a people who do need help; who do need a saviour, whether they are willing to admit or not. In the face of man’s rejection and sinfulness, God is still gracious to save.

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance,” the apostle Paul begins in 1 Timothy 1:15, as he summarises the message of the gospel, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” And then he adds, “of whom I am the foremost.”

Who did Jesus come to save? Sinners. Who are you if you call yourself a Christian? A sinner.

Jesus did not come to save good people, moral people, righteous people – because there are none. He came to die for and to take the sin of rebellious people. Bad people. And if you are a Christian, that’s you. That’s me.

God is gracious. I am sinful. And Jesus came for me. That’s how the gospel works.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
(Ephesians 2:4-6)

As tempting as it is to stop here, I think this passage from Judges 15 requires us to think more about how God works in response to our fear of man and our inaction over sin. In particular, many may read these verses and be troubled by a blood-thirsty character like Samson and how God actually uses him to stir up trouble at a time of relative peace. And yet as uncomfortable and perhaps, as embarrassed, as we may be as Christians, with such descriptions of violence and war today, we forget that this is the context of the book of Judges. Indeed, it is the very language of the bible.

Each generation of believers in Judges finds new reasons to shrink back from the mandate given by God to subdue the Promised Land. Each generation shrinks back from the battle. And in each and every generation, God raises an Othniel “who went out to war” (Judges 3:10), an Ehud who assassinates the Moabite king (Judges 3:12-30), a Deborah who has to kick general Barak in the backside to get him to launch an attack on the Canaanites (Judges 4-5), the timid pimple-faced Facebook-addicted hacker, Gideon, whom God calls a “mighty warrior” (Judges 6:12) and ends up taking down over 120,000 men in battle (Judges 8:10), and now a Samson, the superhero with a short fuse. With each judge in each generation, God is leading his people back into, and not away from, the war.

Some dismiss such language as archaic. It’s just the Old Testament, they say, when God was angry and men were uncivilised. They say that Jesus came to preach peace, love, joy, happiness – not war, destruction, death. And yet this is the same Jesus who says to his disciples, “Do not think I have come to bring peace on the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34) Or at Christmas-time when we read that the angels proclaim Jesus’ birth to the shepherds, singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” we miss the verse before describing them as a “multitude of heavenly host”, which could be just as accurately translated as a multitude of “armies” – a reference to the common expression found in the Old Testament of God as the “Lord of hosts”, which simply means the God of armies. These are God’s angelic military forces announcing the coming of the Commander-in-Chief, the birth of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the most striking image of war and conflict is found in the pages of the last book of the bible. Revelation 12:7 reads, “Now war arose in heaven,” followed by a great struggle between God’s angels and the devil, pictured as a red dragon in opposition to God, and especially towards Jesus. Almost immediately, however, we find out that the dragon and his minions are defeated (Revelation 12:8), and Satan is thrown out of heaven. “Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them!” There is victory in heaven. Not so, on the earth. “But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows his time is short!”

The devil is defeated. But precisely because he knows this, it tells us that he goes off to “make war... on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 12:17)

It is saying this: If you are in Jesus; if you hold to the message of cross – the devil has you in his sights. What do you do? Verse 11 says you overcome the devil with the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross.

And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Revelation 12:11

The Christian life is a battle. Against the devil. Against the world. Against sin. And the only weapon we have at our disposal is the only weapon we need. It is the gospel. Jesus Christ has conquered the devil. Jesus Christ is the true king of heaven and earth. And Jesus Christ has taken my sin, given me new life and lives in me through his spirit. The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ is the victorious saviour over the devil, death and sin through his work on the cross on my behalf.

And until he returns on that final day of judgement and salvation, Jesus Christ enables me to stand by grace, through faith, on this gospel of peace.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
Ephesians 6:10-13

Our call to war to love the captive soul
But to rage against the captor
And with the sword that makes the wounded whole
We will fight with faith and valour
When faced with trials on every side
We know the outcome is secure
And Christ will have the prize for which He died
An inheritance of nations
(“O Church Arise”, by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend)

Silence in Heaven (Revelation 8)

Armistice

Millions of people across the United Kingdom observed a two-minute silence on Friday to mark the 93rd Armistice Day. Wikipedia defines “armistice” as a situation in a war where warring parties agree to stop fighting. The key aspect in an armistice is the fact that “all fighting ends with no one surrendering”.

Armistice Day commemorates the first armistice signed during World War I on 11 November which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918. Since then, it has become an annual day of remembrance for all soldiers killed in the line of duty.

For many who lived through the war; for those who lost loved ones in the war; for those who continue to live with the ravages and scars of war - the two minutes of silence is a moment to grieve, to remember and to be thankful.

We open our study today from Revelation Chapter 8 with just such a moment.

Silence in heaven

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Revelation 8:1

This silence is symbolic of the calm before the storm. What triggers the silence is the opening of the seventh seal. This picks up from Revelation 6 which we studied a couple of weeks ago, where Jesus opened six of the seven seals on the scroll which unleashes God’s final judgement on the earth. And here he opens the seventh, and “there was silence in heaven for about half and hour.”

Like the silence observed each year at Armistice Day, it doesn’t mean that the war has ended. It just means that fighting has stopped for the moment. The opening of the seventh seal is like Jesus hitting the pause button. It is a moment to reflect on what is going on: God is finally bringing all his purposes of judgement and salvation to pass. It is a moment to consider who it is we are dealing with: the Sovereign Lord who is Holy and True, who cannot tolerate sin and who will judge all who oppose his rule. It is a moment for us to evaluate our lives: what is our attitude towards this God. How do we respond to Jesus and his saving work on the cross?

In moments like these, it may be appropriate to cover our mouths; to be silent. To be careful with our words and actions before such a holy God. To listen to what he is speaking to us even now in his word. And to see what he is doing in our world and in our lives even today.

The prayers of the saints

And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.

Revelation 8:2-3

Notice that in verse 2, John sees “the” seven angels. He is referring to the same seven angels we met in Chapters 2 and 3: the seven angels of the seven churches to whom this book of Revelation is addressed. They stand before God, representing each church - and indeed, representing the whole church of God, such is the symbolic nature of the number seven - and they are given seven trumpets.

But then John’s focus turns to another angel in verse 3 who approaches God and stands at the altar. What he does next triggers an end to the silence. This angel stands at the altar to offers up the prayers of the saints.

The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Revelation 8:4-5

A censer is a pot which is used to hold burning incense. Back in Asia, many homes have altars with small pots where joss-sticks are placed. Some of you will remember how smoky the whole house would be, as the smell and smoke of joss-sticks and incense would get into every room, into your clothes and maybe even make your eyes start to water. (Smoke got in your eyes. Whoawhoaawhoaaa.)

We read in verse 3 that this angel at the altar holds a hand-held censer and is given a lot of incense - meaning, he is creating a lot of smoke - and in the next verse, we see that this smoke rises up before God “together with the prayers of the saints.” This is Revelation’s symbolic picture of how our prayers reach God. They are carried by the angel, they rise up to heaven and they are presented right before God’s throne in heaven. The prayers you said this morning. The prayers we say together as a church. The prayers we say to God privately in our hearts. God hears every word. God hears every prayer.

Every one of them, that is, offered up in Jesus Christ. That’s the connection with the altar. You see, there are two types of altars in view here. The first is the altar of incense, producing the smoke and the pleasing smell of the incense before God (Also worth noting are “the golden bowls full of incense” held by the seven elders/angels before God’s throne in Chapter 5, verse 8, “which are the prayers of the saints”). But then we read in verse 5 that the angel fills his censer with “fire from the altar”. This is now talking about the second type of altar - the altar of sacrifice. That is, God’s accepts our prayers because they presented to him through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His offering on the cross makes our offering acceptable. His death guarantees that our prayers are heard.

And what happens next is God’s answer to our prayers. The angels hurls the censer filled with fire taken from the altar unto the earth resulting in judgement: symbolised by the thunder, lightning and earthquake.

Now you’re probably saying, “But I never prayed for that! I asked God for a sunny day, or for my favourite singer to win on X-Factor.” The prayer that is in view here is the one we heard a couple of weeks ago in Chapter 6 at the opening of the fifth seal. There the souls under the altar - those who died in their witness to the gospel - cry out to God, “How long!”

How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?

Revelation 6:10

Remember God’s response to this prayer: Patience.

Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.

Revelation 6:11

God is infinitely more patient than we are. In the face of evil and unjust suffering, God holds back his righteous judgement. More specifically, here in the face of the death of Christians for the sake of the gospel, God is also patient.

Now, the kingdom of God advances not through military conquest, neither through human ingenuity and never through coercion or manipulation - but only through the testimony of the good news; the proclamation of Jesus’ death on the cross. But God knows that speaking this news gets us into trouble. People will reject the gospel and they will reject those who hold to the gospel to the extent, that some will lose their lives simply for speaking and holding to the gospel. God knows this. He has even ordained it.

I wonder if we are honest enough about this in our evangelism. I wonder if we are clear enough about this to our missionaries. God tells the souls under the altar to wait until the number of their fellows brothers who were to be killed as they were had been completed. The gospel is carried into the world through our speaking, but also through our suffering.

God response with mercy and patience in the face of evil and unjust suffering - even the suffering and death of faithful Christians in service to the gospel. He holds back his righteous judgement back in Chapter 6.

But here in Chapter 8, judgement finally comes.

For the rest of the chapter, this judgement is symbolised by four trumpets - and that is very significant. The trumpets announce God’s judgement - similar to a call to war (as we saw this week at Rock Fellowship as Gideon blew his trumpet to assemble the troops). Also, the seven trumpet ought to remind us of Jericho, when seven priests blew seven trumpets as they marched around the city seven times for seven days. God destroyed the walls of Jericho, not Israel. All they did was do a bit of walking - round and round - every day (Joshua 6). Or trumpets also signalled the God’s presence as God spoke the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai in Exodus 19 - “The sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him” (Exodus (19:19).

But here in Revelation, the trumpets are symbolic of God’s warning. Revelation 8 is God’s warning to us of certain judgement to come. And the remarkable thing Revelation does with these four trumpets is to warn us of a future certainty by pointing back to a past reality - specifically, the reality of the plagues in the Exodus.

Fire from heaven

Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.

Revelation 8:6-7

Like the seven seals, when the first four seals were subdivided from the rest - where we got the four horsemen; so here with the seven trumpets, the first four trumpets can similarly be grouped together.

These four trumpets in Chapter 8 bear a striking resemblance to four of the plagues in Egypt at the time of the Exodus. The first is the plague of hail and fire in Exodus 9. The second and third trumpets correspond to Exodus 7, when the Nile river was changed to blood. The fourth trumpet is the plague of darkness recorded in Exodus 10.

But let’s look closer at each of the first four trumpets, beginning with the first:

The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

Revelation 8:7

The hail and fire is thrown down to the earth, very much like the first angel at the altar who threw the golden censer filled with fire unto the earth. So, there’s a connection there. Yet at the time, there is also a connection with the previous chapters 6 and 7.

Last week in Chapter 7, we read of God’s instruction to the angels to hold back the four winds of judgement - to keep them from harming the earth “or … any tree”. But here, any such restriction has been lifted. “A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.”

Why a third? Some suggest a connection to the famine in Chapter 6. The destruction of a third, and not all of the vegetation means there is a lack of food resulting in a rise in the price of food. Interesting, the account of the hail and fire in Exodus 9 (some manuscripts even add the word “trumpets” making Exodus 9:23 read, “The LORD sent fire, hail and trumpets”) also includes a description of partial destruction of the food source: “The flax and barley were destroyed... the wheat and spolt however, were not destroyed”, Exodus 9:31).

More likely however, the one-third destruction formula found here represents partial judgement, as this formula is repeated in all four of the trumpets in Chapter 8 - one third of the earth, one-third of the trees, one-third of the sea, one-third of the waters, one-third of the sun, moon and stars. The one-third formula is Revelation’s way of saying: This is just a fraction of the judgement to come. It will get much worse than even this.

The judgement of the first trumpet is poured out specifically on the earth (as opposed to the sea and waters in trumpets 2 and 3). Looking at Exodus 9 and the plague of hail, fire and trumpets, we get additional insight into the purpose of this plague and judgement.

For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

Exodus 9:15-16

The plague announces God’s judgement over the earth, yes, but more so, God’s sovereign authority over the earth - “that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth,” is what God says to Pharaoh, King of Egypt. However, when Moses finally spread his hands towards the LORD “and the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land (literally, earth),” Pharaoh sinned again. He hardened his heart against God.

The first trumpet is God establishing is his authority over his creation in judgement over those who continually reject his authority.

Sea turned to blood

The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Revelation 8:8-9

A popular interpretation of this bit involves a meteorite crashing into earth from space - the huge mountain in verse 8 - polluting the sea water and killing all the dinosaurs - hence the death of the “living creatures in the sea” in verse 9. Or another theory suggests that this is talking about a volcano erupting red hot lava - turning the sea “into blood”.

Again, it is worth considering that these symbols build on the rich imagery already found in the Old Testament. In Exodus Chapter 7, Moses is commanded by God to strike the River Nile with his staff and “it will be changed into blood” (Exodus 7:17). Also the prophet Jeremiah pronounces God’s judgement on Babylon, described in Chapter 51 as a “destroying mountain”, which God would reduce to a “burnt mountain” (Jeremiah 51:25). (Revelation itself makes this connection to Babylon in Chapter 18 where an angel picks up a large boulder, throws it into the sea and then says, “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again.” - Revelation 18:21).

In both cases, God is pouring out judgement on proud and powerful nations which oppose God’s rule and oppress God’s people - Egypt in Exodus, and Babylon in Jeremiah.

Furthermore, this judgement is poured out upon “the sea”. The sea is consistently pictured in Revelation as a symbol of rebellion. We saw that back in Revelation Chapter 4 where God sits in judgement on his throne and before him is the sea. At the end of Revelation when John sees the new heaven and the new earth, he writes, “there was no longer any sea” - God has vanquished all opposition and rivals to his authority.

The second trumpet is God’s judgement on kingdoms which use their power to reject and rival God’s kingdom. The picture of the huge mountain being thrown into the sea is symbolic of God destroying all such opposition - powerful as they may seem. Again, as we saw earlier in God’s encounter with Pharaoh, he raised Egypt up precisely for the purpose of demonstrating his power.

Wormwood

The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

Revelation 8:10-11

At first glance, the third trumpet is very similar to the second. This judgement also involves a large object falling from the sky into “the waters”. But while Trumpet No. 2 focuses on powerful opposition against God, Trumpet 3 is about the those who practice idolatry, turning away from God. That is the symbolism of behind the “bitterness”, the poisoning of the waters and the name “Wormwood”.

Wormwood is not codename for some super secret meteor about crash into planet earth. It is the name of a plant native to Asia, Europe and northern Africa, which is bitter-tasting and produces a poisonous extract. It is this bitterness that becomes symbolic of God’s judgement.

The LORD said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them.” Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food (wormwood) and drink poisoned water.

Jeremiah 29:13-15

The same word occurs in Deuteronomy, this time describing the actions of the people of God turning away from God to worship idols.

Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison (wormwood).

Deuteronomy 29:18

Interestingly, when we look at Exodus 7 again at the poisoning of the waters of River Nile, we see there God’s judgement, but also Pharoah’s response to this judgement.

Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said. Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.

Exodus 7:22-24

The third trumpet is a judgement on stubborn and unrepentant hearts that continue to rebel against God to pursue false gods. The bitterness of this judgement, indicated by the name Wormwood, and the poisoning of the drinking waters is symbolic of internal nature of this punishment.

Darkness

The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

Revelation 8:12

The fourth trumpet is one of the reasons why the symbols in Revelation are unlikely to be sequential. For one thing, the sun, moon and stars were destroyed back in Chapter 6 at the opening at the sixth seal, and yet here we find only one third of the sun, moon and stars affected by judgement. Having said that, both symbols in Chapters 6 and 8 have a common theme: God is de-creating the world. He is reversing the order of the universe leaving it to descend into chaos.

Instead of a sequential order of events, Revelation presents us with repeated patterns building on a common theme - each time, reinforcing the point that God is sovereign over his creation; each time, bringing home the message that Jesus will bring all of God’s purposes for judgement and salvation to completion through his work on the cross.

The judgement brought by the fourth trumpet is darkness. “A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night”. Again the account in Exodus sheds light on the purpose of this judgement.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

Exodus 10:21-22

Notice that the Israelites had light while the Egyptians were covered with darkness - “darkness that can be felt”. It was so dark that they couldn’t even see one another (Exodus 10:23) such that everyone had to stay home for three days. The darkness here is equated with blindness - the inability to perceive your environment and surroundings. The plague of darkness in Exodus 10 ends with God causing a deeper form of darkness, blindness and ignorance to fall on the heart of Pharaoh, such that he could no longer perceive God’s presence or grace.

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go. Pharaoh said to Moses, “Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die.” “Just as you say,” Moses replied, “I will never appear before you again.”

Exodus 10:27-29

I find this to be very scary passage - even though there’s no blood or sickness or even death. For me, to read in verse 27 of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart, making him stubborn in his rebellion. And then to hear Pharaoh’s words telling Moses to leave his sight, with Moses simply saying, “I will never appear before you again”. And then for Moses to comply with his request - that is scary. Pharaoh gets specifically what he asks for - judgement from God.

This week, one of our friends at Rock said that her colleague wanted to teach her how to swear. He was feeling frustrated with a work situation and for him, swearing and cursing was a way of releasing stress. He was puzzled why this Christian girl refused to say any of the words he was trying to teach her.

I can only guess what it was he tried to teach her, but I think that much of it have been offensive to God. When we use God’s name in vain, when we talk about hell flippantly, when we foolishly refer to judgement as something trivial - much of this talk is foolish and ignorant. We think nothing of offending others. We think nothing of offending a holy God.

Compared to course joking and cursing, Pharaoh’s request is actually quite mild. “Get out of my sight.” That’s all he said. He didn’t want to see Moses anymore. Yet he had seen the plagues. He had seen first-hand the power of God and the judgement of God. This was not an innocent request. Pharaoh was fed up. He didn’t want to deal with God or with Moses anymore.

“Get out of my sight!” Pharoah said. “So as you say,” Moses agreed. He didn’t want to deal with Moses anymore. He didn’t want to hear God’s word anymore. In effect, Pharaoh wanted to separate himself from any trace of God. And finally, God complied. The darkness is symbolic of God pulling his presence away from Pharaoh.

What if God took you at your word? The things you said to him. The things you said about him. What if God dealt with you according to your words. The bible says one day he will. We will not be able to stand - our words will condemn us. We will have no defence - our guilt will be plain before us. Unless we take God at his word.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

John 1:1-3

Jesus is God’s word in the darkness, speaking to us and calling us into his marvellous light. He is the light of men - leading us to God. He is the light of life - showing himself as God. God sends Jesus as a light shining “in the darkness”. He wants us to respond. He wants us to see Jesus and come into his presence.

Yet as John writes in verse 3, “the darkness has not understood it.” Sometimes we see this light and turn away. Like Pharaoh, we say, “Get out of my sight”.

The fourth trumpet is a judgement of darkness. God pulls back the light of his salvation and grace. It is only partial: One third of the sun; one third of the moon and stars. Meaning: God is still merciful. There are still moments to respond to God’s grace.

The trumpets are warnings. The question is: have we taken heed of these warnings?

The fulfilment of the ages

As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”

Revelation 8:13

We will look at the final three trumpets next week in Chapter 9. For now, chapter 8 simply ends with a clear warning: it will get worse - much, much worse, in fact. “Woe! Woe! Woe!” says the eagle flying midair in a loud voice, almost as if to say, “You think this is bad? Wait till you get a load of Chapter 9!” While the first four trumpets are judgements poured out on creation (earth, sea, water, sun, moon and stars), the last three are poured out on people; the last three trumpets are personal.

But again, the trumpets symbolise warnings. They warn us to take God’s judgement seriously and the question is: Have we heard these warnings?

Now by warnings, I don’t mean speculation. Revelation is often a book used to speculate on world events: some try to predict which kingdom is symbolised by the burning mountain; some try to predict dates when a meteor will crash into earth’s atmosphere and then point to the falling star in Trumpet Number 3 and say that’s Wormwood.

But notice that while Revelation does point forward to future events it also points backwards. It keeps saying, “This has happened before.” The first four trumpets correspond to four of the plagues in Egypt. Even the name Wormwood is used again and again in the Old Testament to symbolised God’s judgement on idolatry and false worship. Meaning: the way to take God’s future judgement seriously is to take the bible seriously. We must be careful not to treat the Old Testament like fairy tales - only to be taught to kids in Sunday School but having no relevance to Christians today. Referring to the Exodus, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians:

These things happened to them as examples and were written as warnings for us on whom the fulfilment of the ages has come. So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

1 Corinthians 10:11-12

Do you hear what Paul says? These are warnings... for us. Today. On whom the fulfilment of the ages has come - meaning: it was always meant for us, who now understand Jesus and his death on the cross as the fulfilment of all God’s promises in the bible.

How does Chapter 8 begin again? With Jesus opening the seventh and final seal. The cross is the key. It is the only way we can understand salvation. It is the only way we take seriously God’s judgement.

And what happens when Jesus unlocks the final seal? Silence. It is an armistice. The war is still ongoing, but when we come to the cross, we find peace and we receive protection. On the cross, Jesus took my punishment on himself. On the cross, Jesus took God’s judgement on himself.

The cross is God’s declaration of peace to rebels like us - rebels who have rejected him, who have denied his authority, who have turned out backs on him. Did you know that Jesus was killed as a rebel? The cross was a political statement - a capital punishment invented to warn off all potential rebels - This is what we do to terrorists. Jesus’ body was hung on a pole to make that statement. The cross was invented a warning of sure and certain punishment.

Except Jesus was not a rebel. He was innocent. Yet when false accusations were made against him, he did not say a word. The bible says all this was in accordance to God’s will.

Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.

Isaiah 53:10

Why would God do this? Why would God punish his own Son for my sin? One, to show me my sin. I look to the cross and I see just how serious my sin is against God. Two, to show me his love. I look to the cross and see his wounds, his scars - I receive peace and forgiveness.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

By his wounds we are healed. The violent death of the Son of God results in peace between rebels and God. This is God’s love for us.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

We have looked at some pretty horrible pictures of judgement today and I do apologise if I have freaked you out. It is a scary passage. Yet friends, as scary as the pictures we have seen in Revelation 8 have been - and I must contend, that as a Christian, I do believe in the certainty of these events - they are real and they will happen; still, as terrifying as these four trumpets truly are, I want you to see God’s full and final judgement on our sin not in these trumpets but on the cross of Jesus Christ.

The cross is God’s warning to us: Judgement has already come. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s message to the world: Either your punishment and death was dealt with on the cross. Or you are filling up for yourselves judgement that will be poured out on that last and final day when Jesus returns as King and Judge.

The key is the cross. The cross is turning point of history; the turning point of judgement and salvation. There we see God’s punishment for our sin. There we see God’s forgiveness for our sin. There we God’s love for us through his Son.

At the cross, God demonstrate His love for us

While we were sinners Jesus came to die

So by His blood We could be justified.

So be not ashamed of the cross,

It bring salvation to all who believe,

God is revealed, Guilt is removed

forgiveness can now be received.

So be not ashamed of the cross.

Tell of its power to all who will hear.

Great is our joy, glory is ours

From death we can now be set free.

(“At the cross” by Bryson Smith and Philip Percival)