Chapter 6.
Getting really uncentered: The trumpets blow.
It seems to me that while we are becoming uncentered, it will be in keeping to point out that we will not proceed on a chapter-by-chapter basis. Oh sure, we have pretty much done so up to now (but not a verse at a time), but now we will be looking at the structure of Revelation, the skeleton of it. We will at some points ignore important content, and sometimes skip entire chapters. We may study the meat later, but I may let you do that on your own. We'll see.
To recap: Chapter One describes the vision that John had while in prison. Chapters Two and three are letters to the seven churches which more than likely were John's "circuit." These were not letters from John, but letters which were given to him by Christ to write down.
It is my contention that these three chapters are what John saw and heard. These are what happened to John in this world of time and space. These are what he could describe well and accurately in human linear language.
But our language doesn't do as well with communicating stuff we "just know." The knowledge which came to John during his vision was the height, depth and width of God's plan for the world. And to describe the contents of a three (plus) dimensional reality with two dimensional language is an ultimate challenge. It was a challenge that required the help of the Holy Spirit.
You may be wondering when do we get to the trumpets. Be patient. I am still recapping. It may be important to note that patience is one of two qualities, along with endurance, recommended to the seven churches by Christ.
While we are centered, experiencing something of what heaven is like, God is at the center of our experience. But when we move from our inner room and enter into the world of time and space (the scroll, the book of life being opened by the Lamb) we somehow are no longer centered upon God. By the time the seventh seal is broken we barely notice it has happened. The half hour of silence decreed is read in a second or two. We not only do not observe it, we miss the fact that we are being drawn back to the centered place, the scene of heaven.
Drawn back to God.
It would be a great experiment if you would read the description of the centered scene of heaven, beginning at Revelation, Chapter Four, on through the breaking of the seven seals, and then, at the breaking of the seventh seal, at the beginning of Chapter Eight, actually wait the half hour. Perhaps, in doing so, you will experience a Holy Moment. Well, that’s right. A Holy Moment probably won’t take the half hour, but it might take a half hour to let the Holy Moment overtake you.
The odds are, of course, that you won’t do the half hour of silence. That’s alright because you get patience points just for having read this far. But I’m not quite finished with patience yet. I promise that trumpets will soon blow.
When we think of patience, we usually are thinking of situations where someone we are waiting for hasn’t arrived long after the appointed time, or children waiting for Christmas to arrive. That is, of course, how we usually experience the need for patience, but there is much more to it than that.
Patience, put to work in our actual life experience, has much to do with trust, and trust has much to do with remembering.
If we think about having to wait for someone who is late for an appointment, the length of time we are willing to wait depends upon how important they are to us, either personally or professionally. Our mental state while we wait depends upon how well we manage to remember that importance.
The first Christians are urged by Christ in the letters to the churches to be patient. Is he urging them to be patient waiting for his return? I think it is more than that. While on earth he had given us instructions on how to live as children of God, or the Way to live.
Being true disciples requires remembering that Way and trusting it. You know - turning the other cheek, going the second mile, taking the last place, that kind of stuff. While we are centered the Way is obvious and understood. But when we are in the world of time and space, trumpets do blow. We feel the need to defend ourselves, to strive and get ahead.
We become impatient. Patience is a main ingredient for Christlike living
Patience is also required to read and understand the Revelation to John. When the trumpets blow, and they are going to do that right now, bad stuff (b.s.) starts to happen. We are going to want to get all wrapped up in the b.s. What we are going to do is put off (have patience) trying to figure out what is going to happen and when. Instead, we will pay attention to what or whom the b.s. is happening to.
Our attention has been directed back to the scene of heaven. The seven angels who stand before God are each given a trumpet.
The first angel blows the trumpet and b.s. happens to the earth.
The second trumpet sounds and b.s. happens to the sea.
The third trumpet sounds and b.s. happens to the fresh water.
The fourth trumpet sounds and b.s. happens to the heavenly bodies, those parts of creation thought at the time to be in the air.
The fifth trumpet blows and b.s. happens to people.
As the sixth trumpet sounds creation begins to come apart, the four binding forces have been loosed and the way is prepared for the wrath of the Lamb. Definitely b.s.
The seventh angel sounded, and great voices in heaven followed, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ. He will reign forever and ever!” Well, no b.s. here, but a reminder from heaven as to who is in charge.
Where do we find ourselves? As the first four seals were broken, the four living creatures were shown to call forth actions, each of a different type. The four are clearly a group. What kind of group they are is pointed to as the first four trumpets blow. The first creature directs action directed at, or involving the earth. The second involves the sea. The third, the fresh waters, and the fourth, the air, or those things which are in the air, according to ancient understanding.
It only takes the tiniest bit of interpretation to relate these four to another bit of ancient understanding. The sea, in the Hebrew mind, represents chaos, which has in other cultures been represented as fire. But fire in Revelation is a refining, purifying agent, and the sea represents more the out of control randomness of chaos. So earth, air, fire and water appear, in a slightly altered way, in the scene of heavenly perfection.
The powers of creation, if that is what they represent, are shown to be intelligent, knowing servants of the Creator, not mindless forces, set in motion and forgotten to do their mindless tasks. Not only do they carry out the will of the Creator, but they worship the One on the throne. And when they do, the humans, the twenty-four elders worship in response.
Ah yes, the humans, represented by the twenty-four elders in the scene of creation as God made it. Worshipping the Creator in concert with and response to creation itself. Not holding on to power, but willingly forgoing it, leaving their thrones, prostrating themselves before God.
We have already noticed that as our experience leaves the centered perfect creation the living creatures, the powers of creation itself, become that which tear away at us: war, conquest, famine, plague, death.
But what happens to the humans as the fifth seal is broken? Instead of the elders centered upon God, we are shown martyrs, killed for their witness for Christ.
Revelation 6:10 They cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"
Please don't confuse these folks with the saints before the altar mentioned later. These are martyrs, but they are under the altar, not on it or before it. They cry for vengeance, and they are not patient in waiting for it. They are neither patient nor enduring. How can we see them as anyone other than those who have lost their focus upon God and the teachings of Christ?
The actions following the sounding of the fifth trumpet are centered upon people. Dreadful things are allowed to hurt people, but not to kill them. What? Why? Ah, that is getting to the meat. We are doing bones.
As the sixth trumpet sounded we are brought back to awareness of four. When the sixth seal was broken and all creation seemed to be coming apart, four angels were assigned to hold back the "wrath of the Lamb." with the blowing of that trumpet those four are withdrawn. The voice which commands them comes from the altar which has four horns. No, that detail isn't mentioned - look it up. Even if four weren’t an almost world wide, pan cultural number associated with the world, or creation, the association is clearly made here in Revelation. I’ll not belabor the point. It’s there.
There is really nothing to add to what happens at the sound of the seventh trumpet. What I quoted a few paragraphs above, Rev. 11:15 is all that is given. It halts the action and brings us back to God, the Beginning and the End.