What are the trumpets - introduction

"Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize that I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar." -- John 19:10-12

Why did Pilate try to save Jesus? Did he have a change of heart? Why would Jesus telling him that he had no real power of his own spark some sort of attempt at goodwill?

The answer is that Pilate didn't care whether Jesus lived or died. It was a challenge. When Pilate told Jesus that he was in control Jesus told him that he had deluded himself. The truth was that he had no real power of his own. God is in control. He didn't become governor over the region because of his own ability or machinations. It happened because an unseen God caused it to happen. At that moment Pilate was no more than a helpless pawn. God's will was to be manifest, and nothing could stop it.

Pilate was a materialist. He didn't believe in a God who intervenes in the affairs of men. His life was predicated on the assumption that he had to manipulate and control the people around him. He had used that belief to justify actions that made his conscience uncomfortable. When he tried to free Jesus he wasn't concerned with saving him, he was trying to prove him wrong. 'I told you I was in control'. Except he wasn't. His worldview was shown false in the death and resurrection of the man who stood before him.

The scriptures are a written account and description of the relationship between God and man. This appears as either an explanation (given through everything from narrative stories to laws to poetry to songs), or through a discussion of man's various objections to his covenanted obligations to God.

The trumpets in Revelation 8-12 are presented as events and periods of time that demonstrate the failure of these objections, just as John 19: 10-12 presented the death and resurrection as a failure to the worldview of Pontius Pilate. For each 'trumpet', John sees an array of images that represent an iconic event or set of social conditions.

The trumpets themselves represent a warning. Trumpets of this area had little value as musical instruments. Mostly, they could only blare out a single note, much like a car horn. They were most commonly used as signalling devices. For a city, they warned of approaching danger. A watchman seeing a hostile group would sound the trumpet, thus warning the city's inhabitants to close the gates and prepare for battle. The seven trumpets symbolize approaching danger. The first trumpet sounds and we are told, "danger is coming." The second sounds as if to say, "It's getting closer," and so on until the sixth trumpet. The sixth trumpet is a warning not that doom is approaching, but rather that it has arrived. It would be as if watchman sounded a trumpet call which warned, "the walls are breached, they are inside the city!" The final trumpet call is a different breed of animal, and we will address it when we get there.

Next, the first trumpet call, the first objection to God's covenant, and the first world war.