Ch.8-9: Prayer and the Unwavering
The trumpets have inspired many people to think of end-time scenarios involving global catastrophes or even military action. But when we look closer, we see much about the role of prayer and how to deal with distress.
Our text
We are moving quickly forward and reached chapter 8 and 9.
What to pray for
The seventh seal is also the introduction of the trumpet series. And surprisingly, the trumpet series is triggered by the (weak) prayers of the saints, lifted up to God by a strong angel.
The angels wait with the trumpets until the prayers are fulfilled, but do our prayers really cause all the devastation caused by the trumpets? Or should we pray differently for all this to happen?
But what is really going on? There are six trumpets that cause all kinds of tribulations, but in the end, people harden their hearts. They did not repent, which was at least part of the purpose of the trumpets. But after the seventh trumpet, many people worshiped God. And they do so because there are believers who have gone along and are a testimony.
We often pray for people to see God’s blessing, we pray for people to find Jesus. But do we pray that God would bring (challenging) situations for them to see if their life has a solid foundation? And would they find a solid foundation in our daily lives? Do we have that courage, or do we ask Jesus to bless us to have a good life?
The first four trumpets
The trumpets remind us of the Exodus from Egypt, where God exposed the gods and leaders and showed that they couldn’t provide security and provision, but God could. It is the same with the trumpets:
- First trumpet: takes the harvest and food
- Second trumpet: takes drinking water
- Third trumpet: takes fish as food source
- Fourth trumpet: takes stars and moon for orientation and base for trade routes
The trumpets shake the world and reveal that certain things we rely on are not reliable. But others are: God provides for us even when things fall apart. We don’t have to worry or live in fear and we can be a testimony.
The fifth and sixth trumpet
The next two trumpets are much more challenging:
- They are caused by demonic forces.
- They cause people to lose the will to live and eventually kill people.
- God has a special protection for His people (the seal of chapter 7 protects them from giving up their lives).
This goes to the core. Health (mental and physical) is touched and even life itself. People must realize that even this is not safe.
But this does not bring them to repentance to God who is the Giver of all this, but leaves them to worship the demons who are the very ones who bring these disasters.
This is an irony that we should not laugh at, for we are not much better: We often trust this world (money in the bank, job, insurance, health care, …) more than God (generosity, serving the needy, forgiveness, humility, following God’s Spirit, …). But what does this have to do with demons? We will see in a few chapters.
The conclusion
We have seen that the view of these plagues is very different: While the seals describe the unmasking of the devil against the faithful perseverance of the saints, here the focus is on the transformation of the heart of the unbelievers. These stories are designed to open people’s eyes and hearts.
On the other hand: Hard times are not enough to change a heart. It needs more, and this will be revealed in the little book.
Reflection
- What is the content of your prayers?
- How would you pray for false securities to be taken away? How do you think God would answer that prayer?
- What would happen if your false securities were taken away? What are they? Are you willing to give them up?
- What are the unshakable securities in your life?
- What security cannot you give up? Would you not give them up if you lost your relationship with God?