The scroll was almost completely unrolled. The text revealed by the broken seals was described in the drama of John's vision before God took any action. When John saw the Lamb break open the seventh seal, all heaven fell silent.
The seventh seal has been broken and the scroll is now fully open. As it was broken, the wrath of God began to be unleashed upon a rebellious world. In his vision, John sees seven angels each with a trumpet to announce the different ways in which God's anger would be experienced on earth. These are like the plagues God sent to rebellious Egypt, but worse, in that they affect a third of the world.
Two trumpets have already been sounded in heaven (Revelation 8:6-9). Like heralds in a royal court, the trumpets are the command for the unleashing of God's wrath on a rebellious world. The first trumpet signalled a huge eruption of the earth belching out its contents into the sky and searing the earth as it fell, burning everything in its path. The second was a massive disruption of the sea.
As the divinely authorised trumpet calls ring out from heaven, so John sees the effect which God's plagues will have on the earth. The fifth trumpet announced another cosmic event with global consequences. Another great star (Revelation 8:10) fell to earth. Instead of a massive piece of extra-terrestrial matter descending through our atmosphere, the star seems to have an intelligent quality. It is authorised to open the world of the unbelieving dead and demons.
The fifth trumpet signalled the release of locusts from the world of the unbelieving dead and demons. The were not the voracious insects so much feared by rural communities: they obeyed God's instruction not to eat any plant-life. They had the sting of a scorpion but were barred from stinging those who belong to God (Revelation 9:3-4). As the description continues it is clear that the locusts are pictorial images of multitudes of demons.
The sixth trumpet was sounded by the sixth angel. These herald messengers were appointed by God to dramatically introduce the scenes of forthcoming judgement. John saw these graphic images in his vision as the Lord Jesus entrusted terrible future events to him, for John to write down. The purpose was to prepare the church for the time when God takes obvious command of the wheel of history, steering humanity towards His mercy through what might be called plagues.
The sixth trumpet call, from the sixth angel, started a scene of destruction in which a third of the people remaining on earth after other 'plagues' would die through catastrophic military conflict. Today's reading enlarges John's description of what he saw (Revelation 9:13-16).
The escalating tribulations, which God promised to unleash on the world in the Last Days, as shown by Jesus to John in the vision, were truly dreadful. From 'natural' disasters to cosmic events and global warfare, the catalogue was woeful.
Just to remind ourselves: we are at the point in the Revelation when the sixth angel has blown the sixth trumpet to announce the death of a further third of the world's population, and only half of the people are left alive. But Revelation 9:20-21 sees that, despite the severe and insuperable plagues, people continued to spurn God and refused to repent – while continuing their arrogant self-sufficiency and demon worship.
John is watching the drama in his vision, given to him by Jesus Christ. The scene has changed from the throne room of heaven to earth, where a mighty angel stands astride the land and sea with the authority of God (Revelation 10:1-2).
