Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Sunday December 26, 2010

      All Heaven & Hell Break Loose

      Revelation 8:6-13

Most of us have a least favorite angle from which we like to be photographed.  Revelation presents an angle of God most don’t like.  From the angle of the cross we see grace/He looks pretty good.  But here emerges a side of God we’re not familiar with – His wrath.  To know God, is to know Him from all angles.  Marriage begins w/ being on best behavior - ends up w/ make-up off/hair matted/face creased/morning breath - see all angles.   

I am unsure of the detail of what follows, but I understand the general drift: some stuff is going to hit planet earth and you don’t want to get caught in it – ruin your whole day.

1st trumpet   6-7

In creation, after land was separated from the waters, the 1st things created were the trees/vegetation.  Here, 1st things destroyed.  Cf. Ex. 9:18-25.  Not only was God putting pressure on Pharaoh to let Israel go from Egyptian bondage, He was also showing  Egypt that her gods were no gods – Nile/frogs/cows.  Only God  is God. Some have made an idol of earth.  Earth should be cared for, but not worshipped.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (If it’s created, it’s not God)

At the end, God de-created the heavens and the earth.

At the very end, God will create a new heaven/earth.

There was no blood in the Exodus plague.  Where does blood come from here?  In C6 the martyred saints, whose blood had been shed, pray for judgment/C8 judgment is cast to earth in answer to their prayers.  Could this be the blood of the martyrs?  The blood that was shed is the blood that rises up to judge them.

I will show wonders…blood and fire and billows of smoke… Joel 2:30   

Some think that this results from the depletion of the ozone layer and the harmful rays of the sun devastating the planet.  But it seems plain from the passage that this is a sudden, and not a gradual, event.   

1/3 of the earth –if we knew that a great earthquake was coming/that California was going to finally slip into the sea, there would be a mass migration eastward.  Millions of people would be uprooted/on the road.  Infrastructure would quickly break down – there would not be enough gas/food/lodging.  Prices would skyrocket/violent riots.  Road rage would rule the day. Travel to L.A. day b4 Thanksgiving

1/3 of the trees – the reduction of the food supply will result in panic/ hunger/rising prices/starvation.  Oxygen production?

All the grass – sustains the animals that sustain man.  In the ancient world grass was not ornamental, but necessary for life.

Sin will eventually shrink our planet/squeeze the survivors.  This is what sin does to a life – sin diminishes the possibilities of what a life can become.  This morning there was a phone message from an inmate in a CA state prison/release soon – any prospects for housing/job?  For years, his life had shrunk.  You can be in prison of addiction/bitterness/hatred/self-pity

The fruit of tress/grass of the field is good, but once these are gone, you have to become a billy-goat/settle for rotting garbage.  Our culture has turned away from the Word of God/feeding on garbage.

A man attempting to siphon gasoline from a motor home in Seattle, but didn’t get too far.  Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man.  A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline, but he plunged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.  

2nd trumpet   8-9

1/3 sea became blood - 1/3 of sea life died - 1/3 of ships were destroyed -  

J. Cousteau estimated that the vitality of the seas, in terms of fish and plant life, has declined 50% between 1950 & ’70. He predicted the possibility of worldwide ecological disaster before the year 2000 to be 100%.  He expected 9 out of 10 people would die.   

Thor Heyerdahl said that a dead ocean means a dead planet.   

Cousteau/Heyerdahl are speaking of gradual processes.  Whether  our text describes a meteor/whatever - this is a sudden cataclysmic event.  Food supply/prices/commerce/weather patterns affected.   

3rd trumpet   10-11

1/3 of water supply is poisoned…Meteor? - fouling water supplies.  I heard somewhere that Chernobyl means ‘wormwood’.  A radioactive substance from space fallen to earth?  Again, not just ecological, but humanitarian disaster.

Though we can produce enough food for every woman/man/child on the face of the earth, people starve daily in a loveless/technological world. Technology has not rid the world of evil that breeds in the depths of human hearts. Somehow modern people thought it would.

(from Apologetic Preaching © 2000 by Craig A. Localzo. Published by IVP)

If we can produce enough now and gov’ts don’t have the incentive to get it to the people, how much less then?

4th trumpet   12

1/3 of sun/moon/stars darkened – nuclear winter?  Darkening result of earlier judgments?

    * Krakatoa’s explosion was heard a thousand miles away and the fallout gave colored sunsets around the world for a year.
    * Mt. St. Helens certainly blocked out the light for a season.

No doubt, many will not see the hand of God in all this, but attribute it to environmental damage/cosmic occurrences.   

Eagle   13

Why an eagle?  They have great eyesight/piercing vision.  The eagle says, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet”.  Maybe the people of the earth will say, “The worst is over.  What else could possibly happen?”

C8 is the shortest C in many commentaries because these are such unusual phenomena/difficult to pin down the details.  We may not be clear on the details, but we can be clear on the theme/general intent.  I know a forest when I see one.  I may not be able to label every tree as to whether it is an oak/cypress/maple/pine/redwood.  But I know it’s a forest and if one of those pines/redwoods were to fall on you, it would ruin your whole day.

God takes no delight in the death of the wicked/neither should we.  Today isn’t the day of wrath, it is the day of salvation.  Noah preached righteousness for 120 years.  “God is going to destroy this earth and bring forth a new one.  Judgment is coming, but the door to salvation is open.” There came a time when God says, “That’s it – let’s get on w/ the program.” There’s going to come a day when God says, “OK, that’s it.  I am about to create a new heaven/earth.  To do that, I am going to destroy the old heavens/earth.  Are you with/against Me?”