Revelation - Before the Final Trumpet Blast
7: Revelation 10:1-11:14 Fate of God’s People The seals and the trumpets both follow a 4,2,1 format—4 depictions of the world, 2 of God’s people/God’s response, a digression, and 1 depiction of the final days/end of the earth. Just as the recital of seals being opened was halted for a look at God’s people, so the sounding of trumpets stops before the seventh. John has heard how the world’s disasters function as warnings to all the people opposed to God; he knows they don’t heed the warning; he sees the angels begin to pronounce the woes. God’s protection, which kept the disasters so limited, is removed in the first woe, and the evils familiar from Joel’s prophesy rise up from hell (but only for a while). The angels—the same ones who previously held back the penalty for disobedience in Eden—now come to punish the earth. And John asks, “What about us?” The Angel with the Little Scroll The imagery again would remind the readers of Old Testament (and sometimes New Testament) references and...