The Seventh Trumpet - A Summary of the Final Events.
The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your people who revere your name, both great and small — and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” Revelation 11:15 – 18 NLT
If you read that passage without knowing where it came from you would think you are back in Revelation 4 and 5. God’s justice and sovereignty are being contrasted with the devil’s destruction. Two characters are being put in juxta position.
Notice the pattern that we have been following. It began in Daniel. Every cycle of repetition and enlargement ends with the Second coming and the establishment of God’s kingdom that is without end! Through the play and counterplay of human history, as we followed the 4 cycles in Daniel, they each added detail but always ended with the coming of Jesus. We have been experiencing the same pattern in Revelation – even though we are not quite halfway through the book. The seven seals bring us right to the end, then we will step back again in Chapter 12 and follow another cycle.
The 24 elders are an obvious reference to the 24 cycles of Priesthood in the Old Testament Hebrew Sanctuary.
In Revelation 4:9 we noticed the 24 elders giving continual thanks to God for creation and for His mighty acts of salvation. Now they praise God for His end-time invasion of the kingdom of this world, and for replacing it with His own kingdom, grounded in the monumental acts of Christ. When we fully grasp what Christ has done for us, it changes our attitude toward everything. This is one of the major functions of Revelation. By raising our perspective from our own little world to the grandeur of God’s universe, we become aware of how deeply grateful we should be.
This passage offers a summary of the final events of earth’s history. There are five main parts to these events. The nations are angry, the wrath of God has come, and also the time to judge the dead, reward the righteous and destroy those who are destroying the earth. Is this a time when the nations are angry? Are we destroying the earth?
God responds in kind to the anger of the nations. The “wrath of God” here is a nutshell summary of the seven last plagues of Revelation 16. God’s final word in this trumpet is judgment. In the judgment, the wrongs of this world will be made right. The oppressors will be defeated, and the victims will be rescued and vindicated. It will not be a time of pointless violence; it will be a time of setting things straight.
No matter how you paint it, the Bible is right about the injustices of this world. If this life is all we have to look forward to nothing will ever change. If there is no such thing as judgment or resurrection, there will never be any justice in this world. The Bible writers believed that there was a judgment to come and a resurrection and that is the only hope we have.
The resurrection and the judgment tell us that, someday, God will set everything right. While His justice may not be visible to many eyes just yet, we are nearer than ever to the time spoken of in this text.