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1st
trumpet
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Rev.
8:7 By the fire and blood he signifies the wrath of God, which devours
the multitude of the impious.
A third of the earth and the trees and all the grass is said to be
burned up. The "earth" represents everything terrestrial, while persons
who wave about through unfaithfulness are depicted as "trees." For
those blown about by "every wind of doctrine" are mentioned by the
apostle Jude, "fruitless trees in late autumn, uprooted, twice dead."
The green grass represents flesh fattened with luxury, for "all flesh
is grass." Although in an earlier passage three fourths were set
against one, that is, the church, this passage confines those opposed
to the church to two thirds. One third consits of the false brothers
who are mixed in among the good within the church, and another third
that is separated by the error of the Gentiles or by heretical
depravity or by open schism. And so the church (namely, the one third)
must struggle against a double evil, as though it were simplicity
resisting duplicity. It is as we read in the Gospel that a king with
ten thousand went out to war against twenty thousand. And God did make
a promise concerning this through Zechariah, saying, "In the whole
land, says the Lord, two thirds shall be dispersed and perish, and one
third shall remain in it; and I shall lead the third part through the
fire, and I shall refine them as one refines silver, and I shall test
them as gold is tested. It shall call my name, and I will answer them
and say, "you are my people," and they will say, "The Lord is my God."
The "trees" and the "earth" represent people who are the internal
enemies of the church and whom [God] shall punish by a future judgment
to everlasting punishment. The "grass" represents the flesh, which is
fattened through the vices of sins and whose strength and beauty have
dried through the heat of the sun. To be sure, the third part which it
said was destroyed by being burned up refers to the heretics. For
anyone who is found outside of the true church shall be condemned to
perpetual torments, along with the devil, who is the author of such
division. And so through Zechariah the Lord promised to strike the
false shepherds and to free his sheep from their difficulties and to
separate the third part, which he says is like the nations and "Sodom,"
from the midst of his sheep, that is, from the midst of the pious.
"Awake, O sword," it says, "against the shepherds and those who are
next to me, says the Lord Almighty. Strike the shepherds and scatter
the sheep," that is, my people. And I shall test it as gold is tested.
It will call me and I will answer it and say, 'You are my people,' and
it will say 'You are my God." Before this separation occurs, all are
regarded as the people of God. However, after the separation has
happened, then it will become apparent who are the people of God and
who are of the devil.
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2nd
trumpet
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Rev.
8:8-9 He speaks of the devil as a burning mountain, for he consumed
those near to him as though he were a fire. He is called "great"
because he is one angel among others and is himself a creature... He
calls the world a "sea." in which he saw the devil who had been cast
down from heaven as a burning fire.
Rev. 8:9 Another edition has the reading "[a third of] those who have
souls" and shows thereby that they have died a spiritual death, similar
to that which the apostle said about the widow, "She who is
self-indulgent is dead." And so the passage suggests that one third has
killed another third by a poisonous tradition and by imitation of a
useless teaching.
When he speaks customarily of the part that has a soul, he refers to
persons who are spiritually dead and separated from the kingdom of God.
"And a third of the birds fell to the ground." Therefore, that third
that died in the sea destroyed by its own death another third. He is
describing the devil and those who are of one mind with the devil, who
after the manner of birds fly around and deceive or wish to deceive all
by their trickery.
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3rd
trumpet
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Rev.
8:10 The "great star" is the devil, of whom the Lord spoke in the
Gospel, "I saw Satan fall from heaven as fire or lightning." It is
possible that this passage also refers to ecclesiastical people, who
living the spiritual life of the church, have become forgetful of
themselves and like animals bend down to things of the earth and fall
from their positions of authority. We read what has been written of
such persons: "Although he is in honor, he does not understand; he is
compared to the senseless cattle and has become like them."
Rev. 8:11 The rivers and fountains of waters signify the teachers of
the divine Scriptures who instruct others but turn themselves away from
the way of truth. Indeed, the name Wormwood indicates either the
bitterness or the sweetness of sins, which give a present sweetness to
those who desire them but afterwards change themselves into bitterness.
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4th
trumpet
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Rev.
8:12 The sun, moon and stars represent the church, a third part of
which is struck. This third is a designation, not a quantity. For there
are two peoples within the church, that part of God, which is compared
with the light, and that part of the devil, which is surrounded by the
darkness of shadows, as the Scripture says, "I have compared your
mother to the night." And this part was struck so that it might become
apparent who is of God and who is of the devil. It has been given over
to its own sins and desires, so that their faults that have remained
hidden and unknown to all might be revealed.
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5th
trumpet
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Rev
9:1 In this star he speaks of the body of those many pesons who have
fallen from heaven through agreement [with the devil] ... We ought to
understand the key to the pit to be false teachings that confine those
within it in such a way that they are not able to look upon the light
of truth. And so the devil fell from heaven and received the key to the
pit, and [he] opened his mouth in blasphemy and taught his followers
not to do the will of God but to do their own will.
Rev 9:2 "He opened the shaft of the pit" means that he revealed his own
heart and taught people to sin without any fear or shame. "And smoke
arose from the pit," that is, from the heart of a blasphemous people
which also persecutes the church. "And the sun and air were darkened by
the smoke of the pit." The sins that people constantly commit through
the world obscure among them the sun of faith and of righteousness and
in some produce blindness so that they do not see the light of truth.
Rev 9:3 In the locusts he signifies spiritual and adversarial powers
that we see flying around in the air in the manner of locusts for the
purpose of harming mankind.
Rev. 9:6 They say that death is a rest. And so, they seek death, not
that they may die but that they might have rest from the evil things
while the evil vices die a way. They desired to die, that is, that they
may die to the world and, as the apostle says, live again to God. "They
seek death but will not find it," it says. They desire to be changed to
better things, so that they might have rest after the labor of sins...
Therefore, "death will flee" while life is close by and we are truly
dying while we a re being freed from the chains of sins.
Rev. 9:7-8 In the image of the horses he shows the suddenness of
persecution that runs around so that it might oppress the innocent and
obstruct [their path] to the celestial kingdom... We recall that it was
written that upon the heads of the twenty-four elders, who were a
figure of the church, there were crowns of gold. However, these
[locusts] do not present a true figure of the church but one only by
way of pretense, and so they are not said to ahve crowns of true gold
but crowns similar to gold.... Likewise, they are not perfect human
beings but like human beings...And by the hair he speaks not only of
the effeminacy and laxity of women, but he speaks of those from either
sex who are given to wantonness and are stained by every baseness...[By
the teetj like lions' teeth] they daily devour the church.
Rev. 9:10 By the "tails" he speaks of the leaders who have fallen away
from the Head of the church, that is, from the Lord, and so those who
were the first have become the last. This is as God thought it worthy
to say through Isaiah, "The elders who are honored and admired are the
head; and the prophet who teaches iniquity is the tail." Therefore, the
"power" of the locusts refers to the character of the false prophets
who never desist from attacking the true church by their lying and
venomous doctrines."
Rev. 9:11 [The angel of the bottomless pit] is the devil, who possesses
his great power among the kings of the world.
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6th
trumpet
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Rev.
9:13 When it says that the first woe has passed and the trumpet of the
sixth angel has sounded, it announces the final preaching, that of the
sixth age.
In these four angels that are bound at the Euphrates River we
understand those adversaries that God will command to be loosed for the
testing of the church. To be sure, this passage shows that the winds
and the angels are the same thing, for it said that the winds were held
back by the angels and now that the angels are to be loosed by an
angel. "Loose," it says, "the four angels at the great river
Euphrates." Those whom above it said were at the "four corners of the
earth" it now says are "bound at the river Euphrates." The river
Euphrates indicates a people that persecutes [the church]. In this
people, Satan and his will are bound, lest he should accomplish
whatsoever he desires before it is time. [Text missing in source]
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