In Revelation 8 things start to get even more intense. Now begins a series of catastrophic events that serve to warn the people of the earth. As you read this don’t get caught up in wondering how such things could really happen; remember this is a vision, which, like the visions of Daniel, features symbolic representations of future events. What form this will really take, we don’t know. We aren’t told these things so we can map the future. God uses cryptic symbols like these to tell us something without telling us more than we need to know. So, we are not supposed to try and decode these things. One thing is clear though, many of these symbols invoke other biblical predictions and remind us of other plagues, most significantly, the ten plagues on Egypt (Exodus 14). The connection is important: just as the plagues on Egypt were instrumental in delivering God’s people and expressing God’s justice, so it will be with these plagues. This vision shows how God takes drastic action to deliver our world from evil, just as we might cut off a gangrenous limb, or cut out a cancer, to save a life. And, just as in Egypt, during the Passover, when the plague of death passed over the houses that were marked with the blood of the lamb, so here the plagues pass over those who have the seal of God on their foreheads (9:4). Psalm 91 pictures this situation: “A thousand may fall at your side…but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.”
Reflect also on the promises of Psalm 91.
Read Revelation 8:6-9:12.
