Fifty Shades of Grace Chapter 21

21--Revelation Made Easy Part 4--The 7 Trumpets

This is going to be a rather long post since it will cover all 7 trumpets and you will need to read Revelation 8:6-11:19 in your Bibles so you know where we are. It is quite scary, but it is a delicious kind of scary because we know that God's people are under His protection and it will all work out OK. The trumpets are a series of plagues that the unbelieving Israelites will recognize from their knowledge of the Old Testament (OT). 

In each section I will include Old Testament references as well as excerpts from first century history, so that you can see how these things were fulfilled by A.D. 70. 

The first trumpet—hail and fire mixed with blood destroying 1/3 of the land, 1/3 of the trees and all the green grass. 

Joel 2–30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Exodus 9–22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt.” 23 Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25 The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. 

Josephus writes: “…for there broke out a prodigious storm in the night, with the utmost violence, and very strong winds, with the largest showers of rain, with continued lightnings, terrible thunderings, and amazing concussions and bellowings of the earth, that was in an earthquake. These things were a manifest indication that some destruction was coming upon men, when the system of the world was put into this disorder; and any one would guess that these wonders foreshowed some grand calamities that were coming.” (JW 4.4.5)

The second trumpet — a great mountain burning with fire, 1/3 of the sea will become blood, 1/3 of ships destroyed. 

Exodus 7 —17 Thus says the Lord, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood.

Josephus writes: “Now as those people of Joppa were floating about in this sea, in the morning there fell a violent wind upon them; it is called by those that sail there "the black north wind," and there dashed their ships one against another, and dashed some of them against the rocks, and carried many of them by force, while they strove against the opposite waves, into the main sea; for the shore was so rocky, and had so many of the enemy upon it, that they were afraid to come to land; nay, the waves rose so very high, that they drowned them; nor was there any place whither they could fly, nor any way to save themselves; while they were thrust out of the sea, by the violence of the wind, if they staid where they were, and out of the city by the violence of the Romans. And much lamentation there was when the ships were dashed against one another, and a terrible noise when they were broken to pieces; and some of the multitude that were in them were covered with waves, and so perished, and a great many were embarrassed with shipwrecks. But some of them thought that to die by their own swords was lighter than by the sea, and so they killed themselves before they were drowned; although the greatest part of them were carried by the waves, and dashed to pieces against the abrupt parts of the rocks, insomuch that the sea was bloody a long way, and the maritime parts were full of dead bodies; for the Romans came upon those that were carried to the shore, and destroyed them; and the number of the bodies that were thus thrown out of the sea was four thousand and two hundred.

The third trumpet — great star fell from heaven burning like a torch. The name of the star is Wormwood (bitter) and 1/3 of water became bitter and many people died from it. 

The great star falling from heaven represented the collapse of a nation. During the lifetime of Nero, there were 2 major comets that were believed to be ill omens by those who studied the signs in the heavens. 

Numbers 5 —23 “Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness. 24 And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain. 25 And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand and shall wave the grain offering before the Lord and bring it to the altar. 26 And the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering, as its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. 27 And when he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain, and her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people.

Josephus writes: “Sometimes the Romans leaped into their ships, with swords in their hands, and slew them; but when some of them met the vessels, the Romans caught them by the middle, and destroyed at once their ships and themselves who were taken in them. And for such as were drowning in the sea, if they lifted their heads up above the water, they were either killed by darts, or caught by the vessels; but if, in the desperate case they were in, they attempted to swim to their enemies, the Romans cut off either their heads or their hands; and indeed they were destroyed after various manners every where, till the rest being put to flight, were forced to get upon the land, while the vessels encompassed them about [on the sea]: but as many of these were repulsed when they were getting ashore, they were killed by the darts upon the lake; and the Romans leaped out of their vessels, and destroyed a great many more upon the land: one might then see the lake all bloody, and full of dead bodies, for not one of them escaped. And a terrible stink, and a very sad sight there was on the following days over that country; for as for the shores, they were full of shipwrecks, and of dead bodies all swelled; and as the dead bodies were inflamed by the sun, and putrefied, they corrupted the air, insomuch that the misery was not only the object of commiseration to the Jews, but to those that hated them, and had been the authors of that misery. This was the upshot of the sea-fight. The number of the slain, including those that were killed in the city before, was six thousand and five hundred.” (JW 3.10.9)

The fourth trumpet — 1/3 of sun, moon and stars were struck bringing darkness. An eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew overhead “Woe woe to those who dwell on the land.” 

Darkness is a metaphor for the collapse of government. The eagle just happened to be the standard of the Roman army.

Exodus 10 — 21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.

Amos 5:20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,

    and gloom with no brightness in it?

Amos 8:9-10 And on that day,” declares the Lord God,

    “I will make the sun go down at noon

    and darken the earth in broad daylight. 

I will turn your feasts into mourning

    and all your songs into lamentation;

I will bring sackcloth on every waist

    and baldness on every head;

I will make it like the mourning for an only son

    and the end of it like a bitter day.

Joel 2:1-2 Blow a trumpet in Zion;

    sound an alarm on my holy mountain!

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,

    for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,

a day of darkness and gloom,

    a day of clouds and thick darkness!

Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains

    a great and powerful people;

their like has never been before,

    nor will be again after them

    through the years of all generations.

Zephaniah 1:15-16 — A day of wrath is that day,

    a day of distress and anguish,

a day of ruin and devastation,

    a day of darkness and gloom,

a day of clouds and thick darkness, 

    a day of trumpet blast and battle cry

against the fortified cities

    and against the lofty battlements.

Fifth trumpet (first woe) Smoke covers the land and locusts torment people for 5 months

The star from heaven is a reference to Satan. He is called the angel of the Abyss. 

Exodus 10 — 4 The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever will be again. 

The locusts are a metaphor representing demons swarming from the abyss. 

Matt. 12:43-45 — 43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”

Jesus had cast demons out from the people, but since they did not accept him, they would be tormented by many more demons. 

Interestingly, the final siege of Jerusalem lasted for 5 months and all the historians of the day including Titus (the Roman general) described it as the most horrific of scenes. They describe “terrible methods of torment” and “inward torment.” 

In JW book 5 Josephus describes atrocities and torments that are difficult to read and concludes with this:

“It is therefore impossible to go distinctly over every instance of these men's iniquity. I shall therefore speak my mind here at once briefly: - That neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world.” 

The sixth trumpet (second woe) Angels are released to kill 1/3 of mankind.

1. The four angels appear at the Euphrates—a God appointed border of the Promised Land. The number 4 is generally used in Scripture to mean the 4 points of a compass which seems to indicate here that the whole world is at was with Jerusalem. In fact Tacitus recorded that the world’s forces wanted to join with Rome against Israel and that Titus received many additional forces. 
2. The location of the angels at the Euphrates means that Israel’s borders will not withstand the onslaught and the rivers will not keep the armies out. 
3. The number of 200 million “twice ten thousand times ten thousand” mounted troops was the approximate population of the earth at that time according to some estimates. 
4. They wore breastplates the color of fire: Josephus writes: “Accordingly, as the usual appointed time when he must distribute subsistence money to the soldiers was now come, he gave orders that the commanders should put the army into battle-array, in the face of the enemy, and then give every one of the soldiers their pay. So the soldiers, according to custom, opened the cases wherein their arms before lay covered, and marched with their breastplates on, as did the horsemen lead their horses in their fine trappings. Then did the places that were before the city shine very splendidly for a great way; nor was there any thing so grateful to Titus's own men, or so terrible to the enemy, as that sight. For the whole old wall, and the north side of the temple, were full of spectators, and one might see the houses full of such as looked at them; nor was there any part of the city which was not covered over with their multitudes; nay, a very great consternation seized upon the hardiest of the Jews themselves, when they saw all the army in the same place, together with the fineness of their arms, and the good order of their men. And I cannot but think that the seditious would have changed their minds at that sight, unless the crimes they had committed against the people had been so horrid, that they despaired of forgiveness from the Romans; but as they believed death with torments must be their punishment, if they did not go on in the defense of the city, they thought it much better to die in war. Fate also prevailed so far over them, that the innocent were to perish with the guilty, and the city was to be destroyed with the seditious that were in it. (JW 5.9.1)
5. There was a public vision: Josephus writes: “Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the temple,] as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, "Let us remove hence.”
6. The historic reality reflects Rome’s mighty army. This was the first professional military army which had 4 brigades going out against farmers. 
7. The response to the horsemen is non-repentance. This represents a Jewish situation. Jesus had predicted that demons would be unleashed on the land, and the type of immorality fits the Jewish leaders of this time.
8. The idolatry represents apostasy. Men refuse to repent of “the works of their hands” which refers to idols made with hands and in this case is the temple itself. Even Titus remarked about this. Temple idolatry went back to the time of Jeremiah: Jer. 7:4, 14-15 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.

The Mighty Angel

John uses interludes to interrupt things for dramatic effect and to build anticipation. 

Contrast the appearance of the mighty angel in 10:1 with the star in 9:1 and we can see that while the star represents Satan, Christ is the angel. We see similar descriptions of Christ in Revelation. The imagery is linked with God—face like the sun, rainbow over his head, wrapped in a cloud, legs like pillars of fire, plants his feet on sea and land, like a lion roaring. 

The scroll — there is an OT referent: Ezekiel 3:1-3 And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.

The scroll gives both Ezekiel and John the strength to continue to prophesy. The scroll is written on front and back. 

The Angel strides land and sea. The land = promised land = Israel and the sea = Gentiles, showing His dominion over all. Remember the courtroom drama: 

1. The angel performs a legal transaction
1. he stretches his arm to heaven which is the posture of “swearing in” in a court
2. He swears an oath to heaven. Heaven is a witness. He swears by creation and anticipates a new creation
3. the oath declares NO MORE DELAY. Time has run out for Israel. The mystery of God is the inclusion of the Gentiles. (Eph. 1:9-10)

2. John ingests the scroll and its bitterness signifies jealousy. In the OT if a husband became jealous, his wife was forced to drink bitter water. 

3. The timing of the action is 42 months In the spring of AD 67, Nero commissioned Vespasian and a full scale war continued until August of AD 70—42 months. 

The Two Witnesses

The measuring of the temple. Measuring is a symbol of protection and John only measures the inside of the temple but the outer court is given over to the nations to trample for forty-two months. This measuring functions the same way as the sealing in Rev. 7 and its purpose is to protect true believers while false external worship is destroyed. True believers ARE the true temple. So the Christians will be protected from the coming destruction. Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical Histories 3.5 reports that the Christians were commanded by a revelation (an angel) to go to the region of Perea to the city of Pella. 

The two witnesses are not identified, but in a court of law two witnesses are needed to bring a charge. These witnesses have many similarities to Elijah (who shut up the sky causing a 3-year drought) and Moses (who turned water to blood). They have the same kinds of powers and although they are killed, they rise after 3 1/2 days and are brought up to heaven much like Elijah was. 

The seventh trumpet (third woe) brings the revelation of Jesus Christ as the King. 

In a way this would be like the coronation ceremony of the King. The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever…for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. 

Do you see that this is the event to which all recorded Scripture points? Every prophet looked to this day. Every king from David on looked for the Son of David to take the throne and reign forever. It is accomplished!!! 

The very last book in the Bible gives us what we have been looking for since Genesis 3:15 when God first promised Adam and Eve a Savior. What was promised in Genesis 3:15 is fulfilled in Revelation 11:15. And everything in between is about how God worked it all out. What an amazing story filled with grace upon grace! 

Here is part of my amazing story:

Fifty Shades of Grace Chapter 14

Chapter 14--Do You Want a Miracle?

Everybody wants a miracle, right? Wouldn’t you love to see someone do a real miracle that couldn’t be explained by slight of hand? Wouldn’t you like to see a loved one raised from the dead? 

Jesus did authentic miracles. He did them so his people would recognize him. The Israelites knew that God could perform all kinds of miracles because He performed them in the Old Testament. There were the 10 plagues which we don’t often see as miracles until we consider that 7 of them stopped at the doors of the Israelites and only affected the Egyptians. There was the parting of the Red Sea, manna in the wilderness, water from the rock and countless others.

Let’s compare some of the miracles Jesus did with the miracles in the Old Testament. Jesus changed water into wine. God changed water into blood in Egypt. Jesus fed the five thousand. God fed two million people in the desert with manna. Jesus made the blind see. God made Elisha’s servant see the hosts of heaven when they were surrounded by enemies. Jesus raised people from the dead. God (through Elijah and Elisha) raised people from the dead. Jesus cured lepers. Namaan was cured of leprosy in the Old Testament. Do you begin to see WHY the Jews should have recognized WHO Jesus was???

Jesus was doing everything he had seen the Father do first! That is called glorifying God. When we reflect God by doing what he does, we glorify him. We draw people’s attention to God, because they know we could never do those things on our own. 

Some people think God doesn’t do miracles in our day, but that is only because they are not paying attention. Every single time a person gets healed from something, it is God who does the healing.  He still uses medicine and doctors and things to help us get better, but without God nobody would EVER get better. Without God we could not even take our next breath. 

And then there is the GREATEST miracle of all. God changes hearts. When we are born, our hearts are already wrecked by sin. People think we are born good, but that is probably because they have not had children yet. All they need to do is work in a nursery for a while and they will know the truth. Nobody teaches children to be selfish or naughty. They just come that way. When my oldest granddaughter Alice was two years old, her parents were trying to get her to obey. They tried to motivate her by asking her if she loved them. Her response? “I don’t love daddy and I don’t love mommy and I don’t love Jesus. And I won’t obey!” You just gotta love two-year-olds! It’s a good thing Jesus loves us in spite of our attitudes. But God changes hearts and today Alice has grown into a beautiful young teen who loves God and all the rest of us too! 

Alice at 2

So Jesus did miracles to help the people understand that He was God. Many people believed in Him and they were saved. But the religious leaders who should have known better were jealous. They tried to turn the people away from Jesus and plotted to kill Him. Once they even tried to throw him off a cliff. When they saw his miracles, they said he got his power from Satan! That pretty much sealed their fate which we will discuss another time. 

Alice at 15

All of us need a heart change and if we don’t get it, we will not be saved. There is nothing we can do to change our own hearts. We can’t change by trying to be good or fighting to do better. It just won’t work. It requires a miracle. But if you ask God to perform this miracle in your heart, he will do it. He will not turn turn away anybody who comes to Him in true repentance. Do you know why? GRACE! OUTRAGEOUS, SCANDALOUS GRACE! 

Fifty Shades of Grace Chapter 13

Chapter 13 How Can Jesus Be God and Man?

To begin with, we have to understand that there is only one God. But there are three persons in the Godhead. I am not making this up. I know it is hard to understand. I remember one time when I took two of my granddaughters out to Panera for a treat and while I was getting their drinks, they were talking about God. Sadie said something about Jesus being God. Katy said “I thought God was Jesus’ dad.” To which Sadie replied, “Well, actually there are three Gods, but you can only trust one of them.” 

Junior Theologians

Katy and Sadie ages 4 & 5

See what I mean? These kids understood the Trinity about as well as most adults. At least they were talking about it and they were only 4 and 5 years old. But the doctrines of the Trinity and the dual nature of Christ are easily remembered if we can remember one, two and three. God is one being with three persons. Jesus is one person with two natures. Simple, right? 

Let’s start with the Trinity. No other god of any nation had three persons. But our God does have three persons and that is extremely important because it means that our God has always been a family. He has always been part of a community. He has always been able to love because there was somebody to love. He has never been selfish. He has always been welcoming and embracing. He has always delighted in someone else. If our God were not a Trinity, there would be no such thing as love or family or friends or teamwork or any of those things that we enjoy so much. Bet you didn’t know that! The Trinity is very important. 

Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. The Father is the first person and the Holy Spirit is the third person. Jesus has always been fully God from all eternity. But one day he became a man. When he became a man, he was still fully God and also fully man. Some people think that Jesus was a man with super powers, but that is not true. He was human with all the human weaknesses that you and I have. 

Jesus had a human body just like ours. He was born just like we were. He grew and he got tired and hungry and thirsty. He became physically weak when he fasted. And he died. And he had a real human body after he rose again. 

Jesus had real human emotions. When other kids didn’t invite him to their birthday parties, he cried. When people told lies about him, he was very sad. The Bible says He offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears. His soul was troubled at times. Other times he was joyful—like maybe on special holidays and feast days. Just like us. 

Believe it or not, Jesus was not born knowing everything. He had to go to school. He increased in wisdom. One time he even said he didn’t know everything! He said he didn’t know when he was coming back!!! That is because Jesus' human mind was finite even though his God mind was infinite—at the same time! Try to wrap your mind around that one. 

Jesus also had two wills—a human will and a divine will. He would sometimes say things like, “I came to do not my will but the will of him who sent me.” He has an infinite divine will that he shares with his Father and a finite human will that is perfectly in sync with and submissive to the divine will. 

A lot of folks think that Jesus’s two natures kind of blended together, but that is wrong. Both natures were completely distinct. Fully God and fully man. Impossible, right? 

Jesus is just like us in his humanity except for one thing—he never sinned. When he died on the cross for us God gave us His righteousness. If we are in Christ, it is not only just as if we never sinned, but also just as if we did everything right! And there is that outrageous, scandalous grace again. It’s all grace!

Break Time--The Perfect Family

Every child wants to grow up in the perfect family. He wants to have the perfect mom and the perfect dad and the perfect brothers and sisters. Some people think the All-American family—the family that has a mom and a dad and smart, athletic kids, great jobs, and a beautiful home--is the perfect family.  But they are wrong. Let me tell you a story about the perfect family.

Once upon a time…or maybe I should say, once before time, there was a perfect family. There were three persons in this family and they loved each other very much. We know them today as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—or the Trinity. They existed from all eternity and this is what they were like:

They loved each other with the deepest most intimate love you could ever imagine—in fact, you cannot imagine it. They enjoyed and delighted in each other all the time. They were completely self-less — radically other-centered. They did not need anything or anyone else to make them supremely happy. They had uninterrupted fellowship with each other so they never ever had to say good-bye, not even to go to work. They did everything together. They never wanted to be alone. They never needed to be alone. 

Long, long ago, they decided to share what they had. God created people, not because he needed them, but because he wanted to bring others into his perfect family.  Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, capable of loving God and each other with a completely self-sacrificing love. They loved to serve each other and were not the least bit selfish. The Bible says they were naked but that doesn’t mean just “missing clothes”. They were naked in their souls; they were completely transparent and did not keep any secrets from each other. There was nothing to hide. 

Think about that. The reason God made us was so that we could be part of a perfect family. That is why every person who ever lived has longed for the perfect family. Every person who ever lived has longed to be loved, to be included, to be significant, to be part of a family that lasts forever without interruption—with no good-byes and no death. 

Well, we all know what happened to Adam and Eve. They lost their perfect relationship with God when they rebelled against him, and since that time no one has ever had a perfect relationship again. 

Nobody knew how to have a good relationship, and nobody could fix it. But God sent Jesus to show us. He was the perfect human being with the perfect relationships. He showed us the Father and sent us the Holy Spirit so we could experience what that perfect family must be like. He died so that we could be restored to fellowship with the Trinity. Now nothing can separate us from our forever family. 

Do you know why Jesus did this? Grace. Outrageous, scandalous grace! Because of his grace, we experience the steadfast love of the Father and the fellowship and comfort of the Holy Spirit. If you go to a good church, your pastor probably gives a benediction at the end of the service that  might go something like this: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (II Corinthians 13:14). I hope you are paying attention to this benediction because it means that you are part of this perfect forever family. It means you are included and you are significant and you are loved beyond measure. Because of God’s grace we never have to be excluded or unloved or insignificant again. 

That is why we sing

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise him all creatures here below

Praise him above ye heavenly hosts

Praise FATHER, SON and HOLY GHOST

Next time you sing this song, think about your perfect family—the Holy Trinity. You were made for them! Enjoy them forever. 

Our crazy "almost perfect" family

 Alice Katy Sadie

 Sweet Girls

 The whole crazy bunch

 Fun times!

 Grady boy

 LOL

 Krissy

 Cousins!

 Krissy

 Meagan

 Papa's harem (reading Sadie's card)

Photo bomber Katy