Hail, Fire, and Rivers of Blood: The Seven Trumpets of Revelation
Dissidents Guide to Revelation, Part 30
Into the Wilderness with God
From Genesis to Malachi, the recurring story that echoes is the intervention of a God who calls them to a new and unknown existence. He fittingly calls them to leave thier home and follow him into the wilderness, a place of great danger and an unknown future.
The people of Israel are born when God calls out to Abraham in the city of Ur and invites him to follow him into the wilderness. He promises that he will do something new, something that the world has never seen, that he will create new people, a new land, and eventually a new world out of them. But their inability to trust and remain faithful to Yahweh results in golden calves being worshipped, wandering in the desert for forty years, prophets being killed, and multiple exiles.
The first generations of Christians were Jewish. They knew the stories of their ancestors by heart. One story stands out as the most defining and celebrated: the Exodus from Egypt. In the Exodus story (Exodus 7-12), we see two major themes:
Undermining the King of Egypt: Pharaoh, the sun-god Ra in human form, is humbled.
Undermining the Gods of Egypt: Through the ten plagues, God demonstrates His power over the Egyptian deities.
The Ten Plagues: A Battle Against the Gods
Each plague was a direct challenge to an Egyptian god:
The Nile to Blood (Exodus 7:14-24) - Hapi, god of the Nile
Frogs (Exodus 8:1-15) - Heqet, goddess of fertility, depicted as a frog
Gnats/Lice from the dust (Exodus 8:16-19) - Geb, god of the earth
Flies (Exodus 8:20-32) - Khepri, god of creation, who had the head of a fly.
Pestilence on Livestock (Exodus 9:1-7) - Apis, the bull deity
Boils (Exodus 9:8-12) - Sekhmet, goddess of healing
Hail (Exodus 9:13-35) - Nut, goddess of the sky
Locusts (Exodus 10:1-20) - Osiris, god of crops
Darkness (Exodus 10:21-29) - Ra, the sun god
Death of the Firstborn (Exodus 11:1-10, 12:29-32) - Isis, goddess of motherhood
These plagues symbolized God’s victory over the Egyptian gods, proving their powerlessness.
So, the Exodus story became the story they told each other when they found themselves in bondage and exile, felt that God had abandoned them, and were in desperate need of hope. These stories were where they found their identity and faith to continue to follow Yahweh, and in their darkest times, they retold these stories, reminding themselves of God’s power and faithfulness.
John's Vision of the Trumpets: A New Exodus
Now, let’s fast forward to the Book of Revelation and imagine that you were John and you were tasked with writing to these Jewish Christians in the seven churches enduring persecution and oppression under a brutal empire. What would you say to stir hope in God once again?
John returns to the old Exodus story, taking hold of the language and imagery of God’s defeat of Pharoah and the deities of Egypt and inserting them into his fanciful vision of the Seven Trumpets. If you look closely, you can see the dissident message of the defeat of Emperors, their armies, and their deities.
Revelation 8:7–13
7 The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on 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.
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, 9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
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—11 the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
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.
13 As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”
Here are just a few of the parallels the plagues:
First Trumpet (Revelation 8:7): Hail and fire mixed with blood – connects to Exodus 9:23-25.
Second Trumpet (Revelation 8:8-9): Sea turns to blood – echoes Exodus 7:20-21.
Third Trumpet (Revelation 8:10-11): Bitter waters – reminiscent of Exodus 15:23-25.
Fourth Trumpet (Revelation 8:12): Darkness – mirrors Exodus 10:21-23.
John uses these images to remind his audience: “What was true then is true now! Oppression will not prevail, and God’s power will triumph.”
“It’s Our Turn”
It is a favorite pastime of each generation to wonder what it would have been like to live through the tragedies of recent history, wondering what we might have done if we had been in their place.
”Would we stand against the evil powers of this world?”
”Would we have remained committed to love and justice, or would we have gone along with those in power, either to benefit from or to escape their violence?”
In a brilliant literary turn, John brings the past to them and says, “All of this has happened before, and now it is our turn to make the decision.”
“Will we follow Jesus into the unknown?”
”Will we embody the lamb and take up the power of the cross?”
”Or will we go along with evil, embodying the beast and taking up the earthly power of the sword?”
”Will remain faithful to the teachings of Christ to love our enemies? Will we continue to bear the fruits of the Spirit in such desperate times? Or will we turn away towards wandering, exile, and enslavement once again?”
John wants them to dig deep and find the hope and strength to remain faithful to goodness in dark times.
The emperor is their Pharaoh.
The trumpets are their plagues.
The Lamb has won the victory through the cross and with the people's prayers.
For those of us facing tough times, these ancient stories offer hope. They remind us that just as God acted powerfully in the past, He continues to be present with us today, guiding us through our own wilderness.
May we look back in order to see the way forward.
Quick question… do you think John wrote these letters in a manner which was understood by the Christians, but not by Romans (who didn’t have an understanding of Israel history)? Dissidence in sort of a code so that it wouldn’t get shut down by the Empire if read by them? Just curious
Great message of hope!