Trumpets-Ch 7-The Loud Cry Intermission - Endtime Issues January 2006

“And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!” (Revelation 8:13).

John’s introduction to this new section of the Trumpet vision is very provocative. He saw and he heard an eagle (actou), not an angel, as the King James Version suggests. Every plague so far has originated somewhere in the heavens. Now in the sky he observes a bird!

Can you imagine the sensory transition John is going through? We really aren’t told how much time elapsed between receiving the fourth Trumpet message filled with darkness to the eagle flying in a daylight heaven. The written narrative strikes a dramatic contrast. God wanted it that way – it seems. Jesus had told John previously: “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter” (Revelation 1:9). So one moves quickly forward through God’s revelation of darkness into this vision of light with another “heavenly” anticipation.

There are many natural breaks in John’s writings that probably represent times when he finished a section of his manuscript. Then God proceeds to share a new study. How do we identify those? John repetitively uses “transitional” little phrases such as, “After this,” “I saw” or “Behold,” “And I looked,” “And I saw” or “And I heard” to mark a shift from one theme to another.

John has finished writing down the story of the first four Trumpets. He now transitions into a new section by saying: “And I beheld.” Now, in imagery that seems to center us in a great auditorium; the roof suddenly parts and straight overhead (the meaning of “in the midst of heaven” – like at noon) is this eagle flying (not soaring). It’s on a “Loud Cry mission.”

Eagles are interesting metaphors in two key Biblical areas:

1. Swiftness (Deuteronomy 28:49, Jeremiah 4:13, Lamentations 4:19, Habakkuk 1:8, Matthew 24:28)

2. Warning of doom – It is here that it is often translated as “vulture” (Luke 17:37), symbolizing a mission associated with death. Destruction follows. Residue can be devoured by any such birds (Genesis 15:19-21; Deuteronomy 28:26, 29; Proverbs 30:17; Jeremiah 7:33-34, 16:3-4, 19:7, 34:18-20; Ezekiel 39:17-20; Revelation 19:17-18).

This is understood better in a very descriptive oracle of Hosea: “Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law” (Hosea 8:1).

But – what is John’s eagle doing up there in the heavens? Our last “eagle message” was in Revelation 4:6! There, the fourth “living creature” had a face like an eagle. The symbolism there was rich and most informative. That bird represented the lead tribe of Dan to the north. Dan’s history was so terrible that the tribal symbol was a snake. Later it was changed to an eagle to present a better image. He liked to hurt and kill. That tribe became a great metaphor for the end-time evil power represented by the “north” – a “pale horse” or the “beast” of Revelation 13 and 17 – the papacy.

Is that what it means here? Not really.

God is using the eagle symbol, flying high in the heavens, to represent an urgent message that everyone around the world is to see and hear. It gives an announcement of warning and pending doom. It is a threefold alarm of terrible omens that are about to consummate.

Where else in Revelation is there a three-fold message that comes just before the end of time? Interesting, interesting, interesting. There are three angels (there aggelos – “angels” symbolizing God’s messengers) in Revelation 14:6-13. Those represent the final messages that are to go to a dying world. The three woes, which the eagle is sounding an alarm over, represent what will happen to those who do not heed those three angel’s messages. The parallels are amazing and of the deepest interest (see table below).

Angels’ Messages

First Angel:

Everlasting Gospel

Fear God the Creator

Give glory through a Sabbath rest

Judgment has come

Second Angel:

Babylon is fallen

Third Angel:

All who worship the beast or receiving

his mark will receive:

Wrath of God

His indignation

Punishment

EAGLES’ MESSAGES

First Woe:

Darkness—truth is veiled

Their god—the destroyer

No rest—mental anguish

Seek death—their own judgment

Second Woe:

Elements of Babylon kill each other

Third Woe:

Mystery of God finished

Kingdoms of heaven come

Death of wicked

Who will give this threefold woe message? The same people who “must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings” (Revelation 10:11). It is part of the loud cry of the 144,000. They are the same ones who give the three angels’ messages!

These woes unfold crescendoing judgments similar to a pattern of some of the Egyptian plagues. The description of the next two Trumpet woes is lengthy. It is as if God in His final plea of mercy and cry of pathos says: “Turn from your evil ways. This is what is about to occur if you don’t! Please, pay attention!”

The eagle, from its cosmic zenith, normally seeks its prey (Job 9:26). But here, flying in the “midst of heaven,” it anticipates world wide judgments which immediately precede the second coming of Christ. This eagle does not dive to its prey. From its vantage point it bellows out a loud cry “to the inhabiters of the earth.” This transition verse is a distinct interlude warning. From high in the heavens, so everyone will hear, comes its urgent appeal.

Why is this put here between Trumpets four and five? That could be one of the most important questions. When the woe Trumpets begin, only a few months of probationary time remain for the whole world – forever. That is it. No more mercy, longsuffering, second chance, “thief on the cross” opportunity. This time a repentance opportunity missed will be an eternal woe. That person will be lost. The cleansing fires of earth (Revelation 20:14-15) will finally bring them to an end.

These woes are worse than the first four because they strike directly at all the wicked. God is using, to expose the true character of evil individuals, the same method (devastating events) that He used on Job to expose the true character of the righteous (Job 1:8-12, 2:3-7). In the next two Trumpets direct demon involvement occurs.

The fifth and sixth Trumpets are called “woes” in the text because of how evil and destructive they are. “The Lord has a judgment against the inhabitants of the earth
[land] because there is no truth … therefore the earth [land] will mourn and be diminished” [Hosea 4:1-3 (LXX)].

God permits desolation to continue – now wicked-specific in its aim.

There is elsewhere in the Scriptures a beautiful “eagle” message that came as a promise of hope to ancient Israel:

“As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him” (Deuteronomy 32:11,12). God’s people, you and I, can claim that kind of care and protection, abiding in His presence when the “woes” come.

To those who defy God’s invitation of grace accelerating tragedies continue. Brace yourself – some of Scripture’s most sinister and frightful imagery is about to be shown. It is so descriptive, it feels like one is looking at a big cinema screen and you are right there, front and center! The curtain now opens on woe number one (the fifth Trumpet)!