Revelation 8
v.1
When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
The OT associates silence with divine judgement. In Hab. 2:20-3:15 and Zech. 2:13-3:2, God is pictured (as in Rev. 8:1) as being in His temple and about to bring judgement on the earth. That the temple is in heaven is to be assumed from texts such as Ezekiel 1. At the moment this judgement is to be delivered, God commands the earth to be silent. In Zeph. 1:7-18, silence is likewise commanded in connection with the “great day” of the Lord and of His judgement (Zeph. 1:14, 18, forming part of the OT background to the phrases “the great day of their wrath” in Rev. 6:17).
v.4
The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand.
See more in on Revelation 8 4 Revelation8 v 4.
v.7
The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
The first trumpet of hail and fire, mixed with blood, is patterned after the Egyptian plague of hail and fire (Exod. 9:22-25). The scope of the plague is widened throughout the earth (affecting parts of the whole world rather than simply Egypt): only a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees. The fire is not literal, but figurative (as elsewhere in Revelation, most clearly in 4:5, but also in 1:14). This is consistent with 1:1, where the visions are said to be communication by symbols (see the comments there).
v.8
The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood,
In Revelation, mountains speak of kingdoms, both good and bad, earthly and heavenly (14:1; 17:9; 21:10), but in the OT, mountains as representing nations are often used to portray the objects of God’s judgement (Isa. 41:15; 42:15; Ezekiel 35; Zech. 4:7). Hence this picture speaks of judgement against an evil kingdom. Jeremiah speaks of Babylon as a destroying mountain which will be burned by fire (Jer. 51:25), and later in the same chapter (vv. 63-64) speaks of Babylon sinking into the waters, never to rise again. Clearly Jeremiah’s vision lies behind the trumpet judgement here. Babylon is also described as a stone being thrown into the sea in Rev. 18:21. Jeremiah’s prophetic pronouncements thus lie behind both of John’s visions. This mountain burning with fire represents God’s judgement on Babylon, the great city holding sway over the whole evil world system. The third of the sea turning to blood is a direct allusion to Exod. 7:20-21; just as the fish in the Nile died, so also now a third of the creatures in the sea die.
v.10
The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water—
v.11
the name of the star is Wormwood. a A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
v.12
The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
The allusion is to the plague of darkness in Exod. 10:21-29. The Jews interpreted the Exodus plague in a symbolic sense, as a spiritual, cultural, or mental darkness. The darkness here may refer to a series of divine judgements which plunge men into despair as it causes them to realize the futility of their idolatry and that disaster is rapidly coming upon them. Fear, terror, hopelessness, and depression may be their response. That the interruption of light sources in v.12 is figurative is pointed to by the fact that the vast majority of such imagery in the OT is clearly not literal but metaphorical. When Jeremiah speaks of the judgement which came against Israel because of Manasseh, he alludes to the sun setting while it is yet day (Jer. 15:9). Amos likewise speaks of Israel’s historical judgement, part of it being that God will make the sun go down at noon (Amos 8:9). There were not climactic end-of-the-world events but figurative references to the depths of the effects of God’s judgement which actually came upon the nation and were compared to the decisive destruction of the cosmos at the very end of history.