Not only can the book of Revelation be seen as a giant tapestry of pictures and symbols that all interlink with one another as we have previously discussed, but another great way to view this book is as a magnificent opus, symphony or musical composition. A musical composition has many similar patterns that are repeated, they have a familiar rhythm to them yet the words are different each time and they grow in depth and intensity as they are developed and near their final end and grand finale. In the same way, we see the visions of John repeated with a familiarity and yet with newness offering us more detail and a deeper insight as the opus continue to its grand finale. There are magnificent pauses of silence within it and great crescendo’s throughout in the saint’s worship. The more I study the book of Revelation, the more I am convinced this is not intended to be read in a linear, time line like fashion as we have a tendency to view things but more like a Jewish timeline which sees time not as a linear time line, but more like a spiral time line as time repeats itself in cycles which spiral upward like a giant slinky. John’s visions repeat themselves. They are similar yet different and add more detail to the ones before. There is a familiarity about them and newness as they give us fresh information. They all end the same, with Christ being revealed, the victory of Christ, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Rev. 11:15) No matter how you cut it, the Lamp triumphs. Jesus wins. There is victory.
The book of Revelation is quite a magnificent piece of art any way you look at it. It is as a great piece of literature that draws all things to its final conclusion and end in Christ. Jesus on the throne is in the center of the entire book and the chapters seem to spiral around this truth drawing everything towards its center like a spiraling storm. On the outside, we have every kind of destruction that seems to be up in the air and on the inside, in the center where Christ is, there is a perfect peace and perfect calm orchestrating it in the eye of the storm. For those who have taken shelter in him and stand behind him, they share and enjoy his calm and peace during this time. For those who have rejected him and stand apart from him they are caught in the midst of his four spirits, his four winds, his four forces that ride out and wreck havoc on everything that can be shaken, tearing up every structure that was not built on his foundation. They are caught without a shelter to hide in to protect them from the wrath of the Lamb.
Last week in Revelation chapter seven we saw the answer to the question that chapter six had ended with asking us: who will be able to stand during the great day of wrath of him who is seated on the throne and the wrath of the Lamb?
We had ended chapter six with the opening of the sixth seal in which we saw a vivid shaking of not only the earth like a rag doll but also of the heavens in such a violent manner that the mountains and the islands are displaced. The “earth dwellers” those who live their lives not as sojourners on earth but as permanent residents hide themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and cry out not to God to save them, but for the mountains to save them from him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. At this point the heavens were opened, the sky had vanished being rolled up like a scroll and there was no doubt in their minds of who was shaking them out of their hiding places, who was shaking them loose from everything they so hopelessly clung to for salvation because they had refused to cling to Jesus Christ, the Lamb, the one way of salvation. He who they had once poured out their wrath on without mercy is now openly pouring out his wrath upon them without mercy. The time of grace is over and the time of recompense has come. It is the wrath of the Lamb, whose meekness and gentleness they had previously mocked. The Lamb of God who alone has the right to pour out and dispense God’s wrath because God’s entire wrath was poured out on him.
A couple of weeks ago we saw that although the sixth seal could be taken symbolically as a shaking up of the government and economical systems of the world, since the same symbolism was used in the Old Testament when the Israelites would be taken into captivity and their entire worlds would be shaken in such a violent manner that it appeared that their world as they knew it had come to an end. Their sun and moon had not literally gone black, but their leaders and their prophets did and they would go through times of darkness and distress from the judgment of God on their nation. Their entire cities would be destroyed and laid in ruin. Could this symbolism and interpretation be correct for our time in Revelation? It could. With the presence of the Antichrist, the removal of peace and entrance of wars, famine, persecution, plagues, pestilence and widespread massive death all across the globe, I have no doubt this is a possibility of our own government and economic systems being shaken in a violent manner. You can easily make a case for symbolism. But I would also say that is still prophecy, there is a day when this will take place literally, a day that has been prophesied for thousands of years, called the Day of Wrath, (Job 21:30, Pro. 11:4, Zeph. 1:15, Isa. 13:13) the Day of Judgment (Matt. 10:15, 11:22,24, 2 Peter 3:7), the Day of the Lord, (Isa. 2:6, 13:6, 13:9 Eze. 30:3, Joel 1:15, 2:1, 31, 3:14, Amos 5:18, 20 Obadiah 1:15, Zeph. 1:2, 14, Acts 2:20, 1 Cor. 5:5, 2 Cor. 1:14, 1 Thess. 5:1-2, 2 Peter 3:1, 10)
See, the day of the Lord is coming —a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger— to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it…. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. (Isa. 13:9, 13)
By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (2 Peter 3:7)
Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light… Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light— pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? (Amos 5:18, 20)
“I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. (Zeph 1:2)
The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. (Joel 2:31)
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. (2 Peter 3:10)
For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? (Rev. 6:17)
Man has had his day, and now it is time for the Lord to have his day. This is a real, literal day at the end of the age that all the prophecies and all the symbolism in the Old Testament points to. Even if this is symbolism in this verse, I would still say this is also prophetic pointing us to the end of the Tribulation, the final outpouring of God’s wrath against the powers in the heavens and on earth.
How long does the Day of the Lord last? 3.5 years? 1 year? 24 hours? 1 hour? 15 minutes? We don’t know.
A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. (Pas. 90:4)
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. (2 Peter 3:8)
We know man’s day has been 6,000 years and Christ is going to rule here on earth during the millennium for a 1,000 years, a Sabbath Day, a Day of Rest so this time of pitch darkness, is symbolically the night before the day. It’s always the darkest before the dawn. The Jewish day, unlike our day which starts at midnight, always started the evening before at sunset and so it’s no surprise that the Day of the Lord starts as the sun goes down for the last time here on earth for we will have no need of a sun when he reigns, he will be our sun.
The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. (Isa. 60:1-20)
There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:5)
This pictures the same truth to us, as it pictured to the Jews then, that light always follows times of darkness. Times of darkness are always temporary by the grace of God, but morning is coming and one day darkness will be no more. As Christians, we know when the sky and our life gets darker, it is a precursor for God’s victory and salvation, not defeat. God does his greatest work in the dark, in places we cannot see. Think of a new life of a baby in a womb, or of salvation in the heart, or of Christ on the Cross. Just because our lives and our world has gone dark, does not mean there is no hope, all victory is lost. It is always darkest before the dawn and we will once again see that on this Day of Judgment that is described as being pitch black. All other lights have gone out. The sun, the moon, the stars, the church, the preachers and teachers, and the world has gone completely dark, given over to itself and the antichrist in such an extreme way that it would appear to all those on earth that there is no hope left. But this only sets the stage and the dramatic background for Jesus Christ to appear. His appearance will be like a shining diamond on a velvet backdrop making his brilliance and entrance as the Light of the World rising from the East all the more glorious as He breaks forth and brings an end to all darkness.
During this dark time, there will be the 144,000 but even their light in such deep darkness will be somewhat dulled. Imagine the night sky with only 144,000 stars in it? No sun, no moon. How deep would the darkness be? This is God’s grace that he yet keeps a remnant to share the gospel in a world that refuses to listen to it like in the days of Ezekiel.
4 The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ 5 And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them. 6 And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions. Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. 7 And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house. (Ezek. 2:4-7)
This will be the condition of the world during the great tribulation. The book of Revelation is often seen as a book of judgment and it is. However, the further we progress into it, instead of seeing increased judgment I see yet deeper grace as God continues to extend it and yet people still refuse to listen and refused to repent of their works. We are going to see this especially after the sixth trumpet when Revelation 9:20-21shares with us the response of the earth dwellers to these trumpets:
The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. (Rev. 9:19-20)
We are about to see the next vision of John which contains the blowing of seven trumpets by angels. Trumpets in the Old Testament were a common instrument to gather the people together for worship, or for war. They were used to get the attention of the masses and turn them towards one source either for a message, for direction or for a warning. These trumpets that we are about to see blown by the angels can be seen as being blown for the purpose of additional warning of the coming judgment of God.
In many ways these seven blasts of the seven trumpets by seven angels signals the same final judgment and destruction that the city of Jericho faced when its 11 feet high 14.5 feet wide impenetrable walls came tumbling down from the seven blasts by the seven trumpets of the seven priests after the sevenfold march on the seventh day. Only instead of seeing a single city’s fortress fall, we see the world’s seemingly impenetrable fortresses fall that people take their shelter behind thinking they are secure and protected by Mother Earth and her resources,
No judgment of God has ever come without warning. God gives us warnings over and over and over again. He constantly gives us messages of the dangers that our sins will bring down upon us if we choose to continue in them. He continually cautions us to turn around, when the way we are running full speed ahead ends very badly with death. He gives us advance notification in signs through various ways, through people, through shared experiences, through his word, through wisdom and common sense and yet when we see something we want we often ignore all the signs, all the trumpets along the way, so hard are our hearts, so death our ears, so blind our eyes, so ignorant our minds that we would run straight towards our death anyway instead of towards him. This is our miserable condition and yet God still does not give up but continues to warn us even up to the very last step of our own demise giving us every opportunity to turn back towards him and avert our death.
Judgment rarely comes on us by surprise or suddenly. Our marriages fall apart over a period of years. We know we should get help but we ignore the signs and pretend things are going to change. We fall into debt over a period of years by repeatedly making purchases we know we cannot afford. We refuse to look at the warning signs of our out of control spending or shopping habits. We gain weight not from eating one piece of cheesecake but through weeks, months, and years of eating several pieces of cheesecake. We know we should stop, we saw the warnings but we ignored them and each time we said just one more, what is one more step going to hurt? Each time we take one more step in sin towards our own death and each time God begs us to turn around, to go the other way towards life but we harden our hearts and plug our ears and refuse to listen and we get further and further away and who knows if we will be able to free ourselves? Who knows if we will wake up at the last minute and come to our senses before we take that final step and cause our marriages and our finances and our health to fall off the cliff. Who knows if God will grant us repentance tomorrow if we ignore his offer of repentance today? God’s grace gives us lots of leeway for falling and getting back up. However, too many times, we refuse to turn around after the first couple of steps in the wrong direction.
This is the meaning of 1 John chapter 3 when it speaks of those who make a practice of sinning verses those who make a practice of righteousness. To practice something means to repeat over and over and over again until you get it better at it. You can choose to practice righteousness, even though it may feel unnatural and awkward at first, soon it will feel second nature. Or you can practice sinning and you will become more and more experienced at it becoming a better liar, you will become better at committing adultery and hiding your tracks, you will become a better murderer, a deeper cynic and so on.
Many see the judgment of God as harsh. Every time God’s judgment comes down we plead for mercy and that we will do anything if he would just take away our affliction. Then once our afflictions are removed, we go right back to our old ways. This is very much like Pharaohs’ response to the ten plagues of Moses and it is the response of the earth dwellers during the tribulation. They would have God take away their affliction, that is intended to bring them about to repentance but they have no intention of repenting or of following God, so hard and obstinate are their hearts. They have repeated their sins so often that God’s word does not penetrate their hearts. Their consciences which may have once been sharp are now dulled as they become hard of hearing. This is the effect and danger of repeated sin. It causes one to become death and blind to all warnings. Here we see seven trumpets blown. The earth dwellers are given perfect warning before the outpouring of God’s wrath is about to come through the bowls.
This is why; over and over again I see this book to be more of a demonstration of the outpouring of God’s great grace instead of an outpouring of his judgment. It started with John being given the vision in the first place in Revelation chapter 1. Hadn’t Daniel and Ezekiel been given such visions already and wouldn’t they have been sufficient? Hadn’t the Old Testament prophets already prophesied about such a day in the future that was approaching? And yet in God’s great grace, he warns us again by giving the Apostle John this vision recorded in the book of Revelation for our benefit, emphasizing what the prophets had already prophesied is going to happen.
Then we saw the letters to the seven churches. These were individual evaluations and reviews of the churches condition with commendations and condemnations. They were given opportunity to repent and to do things differently so that their lights would not go out. This was grace as Christ gave them warning.
Then we saw the seven seals being broken. What is the function of a seal? It is a restrainer. God’s judgment was restrained and has been restrained for a time giving us a period of grace through the work of Christ and an opportunity to repent, to avoid going through the tribulation. God continues to restrain his judgment until all his saints are sealed and safe as we saw at the beginning of chapter 7, when the four angels are told to restrain the four winds and not to harm the earth, or the sea or the trees until the servants of God are sealed. (Rev. 7:3) Once again we see God’s great grace as he protects his own from his own wrath being poured out. It is much like Lot was protected in Gen. 19:21 as he fled Sodom before its destruction. The angels were unable to do anything until he was safely out of the city. Or as with Noah, in Genesis 7:7 when he and his family entered the Arc to escape the coming of the flood and destruction of the entire earth. And as the Israelites in the city of Egypt as the plagues and the judgment were being brought down upon its citizens and Pharaoh for holding God’s people captive. Throughout the plagues God made a clear distinction between those who were his people and those who were not by protecting his people from the plagues. They were not hurt by the flies; their live stocks did not die as the Egyptians did. And in the final death of the first born, their son’s lived when the death angel came over the city if they had put the mark of the blood of the lamb on their doorposts the night before. (Exo. 8:23)
And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not. (Malachi 3:18)
If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the Day of Judgment. (2 Peter 2:9)
God’s restraint of his judgment giving us time to repent, and time to seal his own to protect them from the wrath to come is further demonstration of his grace.
Now we come to the trumpets being blown. And as we saw the intention of the trumpet is to warn. Once again we see the intention of the upcoming plagues is to warn the earth dwellers of the upcoming wrath of God. We still have not come to the pouring out of God’s wrath which is the seven bowls or seven vials being poured out. What is the function of a bowl? It is a container. It is these bowls that contain the wrath of God that is to be poured out on the earth and all mankind. (Rev. 16:1)
And an additional example of God’s great patience and grace I want you to see tonight is in the dispensation of his wrath. During the opening of the seven seals, one fourth of the world population was killed. During the trumpets that we are about to see, one third of the population is effected and killed and only during the final bowls do we see God’s wrath poured out on all and effecting all.
Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’ (Ezekiel 33:11)
Before we continue on with Revelation chapter 8, I wanted to take an opportunity and highlight for you the great extensive, mercy, righteousness and grace of God in his judgment. During this dark time, there is yet still so much light offered and I did not even mention the angel that will fly over the city proclaiming the message of the eternal gospel in chapter 14 and the two witnesses that will perform magnificent miracles like Moses and Aaron in the days of Egypt as the plagues are poured out on a disbelieving people. Plus as Penny taught last week there is the 144,000 sealed to share the gospel, guaranteed to be protected and to endure to the end to meet Christ on Mount Zion in chapter 14. While there is still life, there is still grace available and opportunity to repent, up to the very end, the very last step, warnings to turn back to anyone who would listen and take heed. But their hearts become hardened like Pharaoh’s and they refuse to listen and they run straight into the storm of the wrath of the Lamb.
So far we have already seen 6 of the 7 seals restraining the final judgment and wrath of God broken. The first four seals were the four horsemen. They were similar to the four spirits of heaven, also shown to be four multicolored horseman Zechariah 6:1-7 going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world. These are the Lord’s four dreadful judgments, sword and famine and wild beasts and plague, sent out to kill men and their animals as God decreed. (Ezekiel 14:21) Throughout history God sent out these four dreadful forces to discipline his people for disobedience and idolatry to bring them to repentance. They were to be dreaded, for they were fierce in themselves but in the time of Great Tribulation, these four dreadful judgments are only the beginning of birth pains…
The breaking of the fifth seal brought us to the throne room of God and drew our attention to the cry of the martyrs for justice for their unjust death’s that the earth dwellers had brought upon them. It is almost as if their prayers for vengeance are being broken open with the breaking of this seal.
The final seal that we saw broken open was the sixth seal, and in the sixth seal we saw a partial view of the great day of the wrath of the Lamb. It seems out of place at first because we know there is yet one more seal to be broken, the seventh seal. Yet at the same time, it seems to be in its proper place because we also know the number seven is the symbol of perfection, completion and rest and six is the number of incompleteness. For the disobedient and rebellious, those who come under the judgment of God, we see a picture that they find no rest from God’s wrath at the end. Death does not bring them rest. There is no peace for the wicked, only more wrath. Wrath to the third degree. While eternal rest meets the righteous at the end of their earthly pain and suffering, only more wrath, more pain and suffering will meet the disobedient and rebellious at their end and there will be no escaping it through death. There is a sense of incompleteness to their judgment.
Leviticus 26:1-46 speaks of the rewards for obedience and the punishment for disobedience according to the law given at Mount Sinai to Moses for the children of Israel. In this decree he speaks of four sevenfold punishments that are to be poured out on the children of Israel if they refuse to listen to God. Each time they refuse to listen to God, seven additional punishments are poured out upon them. It is in this same manner that we see the entire world who refused to listen to God being punished seven times over each time they still yet refused to listen.
1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
As this seventh seal is opened, which is a symbol of the last restraint holding closed the scroll containing God’s judgment on the heaven’s and the earth, and the scrolls is now entirely open and fully seen, the response is there is a silence in heaven for about half an hour. This is great contrast to the crescendo’s of worship we saw earlier in chapters four and five. Even the four living creatures of Revelation 4:8 who cry out day and night and never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” fall for the first time silent for thirty minutes which must have felt like forever.
I am normally a person who appreciates and seeks out silence, but there is a silence that weighs heavy and is louder than noise. I’ve experienced when my husband and I have fought and entered into the silent treatment. We use to be able to go for days and the silence was unbearable. It was not a peaceful silence but the type of silence that came before a storm. You knew once it was broken and a pin drop could break it, the storm would come, the fight would be on. I hated conflict and I didn’t want to be the one to break it and at the same time I couldn’t stand not breaking it and facing another day of weighty silence. Eventually it would break, the storm would come and pass and we went on. I am thankful that we don’t fight like that anymore. There is great advice in “do not let the sun go down on your anger.” (Eph. 4:26) We still have our storms but the clouds pass much more quickly than hovering over us for days at a time.
The silence we see here is much like that unsettling silence that is filled with tension. The silence alone shakes you up. I think the silence we see here coincides with the angels holding back the four winds in Revelation 7:1 so that they do wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. It doesn’t say how long this lasted and I don’t know the time difference between 30 minutes in heaven and 30 minutes on earth. Here on earth we see the leaves on the trees are completely still. The waters that are normally so restless and full of movement are still like glass with no so much as a breeze to blow across them. The giant windmills come to a standstill and the wind chimes become quiet, the dust settles without anything to blow them away. Everything has become unnaturally still and quiet as before a great storm that is coming…
As in heaven soon earth. The silence in heaven probably matches that on earth. I think it is a time of great heaviness, a time of holding back ones breath even before the judgment of God is poured out on mankind. It is the kind of silence that probably fills a small witness room of those who are watching an execution to take place in a death chamber. The punishment may be justified and called for and yet there is a heavy silence that takes place as the last few minutes begin to tick by as everyone waits for the coming judgment.
It is the last moments before judgment and heaven holds its breath, so that no winds blow upon the earth and no sound is made above for thirty minutes. This silence will soon be broken by repetitive trumpet sounds like sirens before a tornado’s approach.
2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
Here we see the seven angels stand before God. This is not just seven angels but “the” seven angels who stand before God. This gives us the impression that the permanent and proper place for these angels is before God. In Luke 1:19, Gabriel describes himself as “one who stands in the presence of God.” It is possible that Gabriel is one of seven elect angels who continually stand before God’s presence set apart for specific work.
These seven angels are each given a trumpet. I imagine these trumpets to be like the Old Testament shofar trumpets but who knows what they truly look and sound like except that they are awesome.
3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne.
In addition to these seven angels, another eighth angel, steps forward and in the fashion of the Old Testament temple priest. Some have claimed this angel is Jesus acting as our High Priest, but Jesus is never referred to as an angel in the New Testament and he is opening the seals. Also, another angel suggests that this eighth angel is similar to the first seven. This would not be Jesus.
This angel in the fashion of the Old Testament temple priest, carries a golden censer and comes to stand beside the altar where he is given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. In the Old Testament outside the Holy of Holies in the temple there was an altar called the Altar of Incense. It was customary for the priests to take a burning coal from the altar of burnt offering and to carry it in a fire pan called a censer and they would carry the burning coals and place them on the altar of incense to burn incense before the Lord . As the incense burned, smoke would rise up from the altar of incense and this symbolized the prayers of the saints. At the same time the priest would be burning incense, the people would be outside the temple praying.
8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. (Luke 1:8-11)
12 He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain. (Leviticus 16:12)
This should bring to mind Hebrews 8:5 which teaches us that the earthly temple is only a shadow of the heavenly one.
They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. (Hebrews 8:5)
And we have a High Priest who serves us in the Heavenly one instead of the earthly copy:
Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being. (Hebrews 8:1)
In Revelation 8:1 we get a glimpse into the real heavenly sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord and not by a mere human being as we watch heavenly incense being offered with our prayers.
4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand.
May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. (Psa. 141:2)
In verse 4 we see the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people go up before God from the angels hands. A fragrant, perfumed, sweet-smelling offering. Incense is a substance that produces a fragrant odor when burned. In the same way, we are called to be living sacrifices, as we are tried by fire here on earth, our lives, our sacrifices become fragrant offerings before God.
and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph. 5:2)
I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. (Phil. 4:18)
Here we see the prayers of the martyrs beneath the throne and our prayers for justice, for God’s will to be done and his kingdom to come and for Christ to return all united together and offered up before God as a fragrant offering.
5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
In the next moment the angel takes the censer, filled with fire from the altar and hurls it on the earth. Here we see that once again God works through our prayers and the power of our prayers as they are combined with the prayers of all God’s people. This is praying in unison. This is a petition of a multitude that finally brings about the outpouring of God’s judgment on all sin, all unrighteousness and the coming of his reign where righteousness will rule.
“More potent, more powerful than all the dark and might powers let loose in the world, more powerful than anything else, is the power of prayer set ablaze by the fire of God and cast upon the earth.” – Torrance
As the prayers strike the earth, peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake takes place. These echo those that come out from the throne of God in Revelation 4:5;
“From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.”
These are often associated with the movement of God. (Exo. 19:6, 20:18, 1 Kings 19:11-12, Isa. 29:6, Matt.28:2, Psa. 77:18, Rev. 4:5) Whenever God moves about on the earth, the earth and all of creation quakes before him at his presence.
It’s interesting to note that the vision of the seven trumpets begins with “peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake” before the first trumpet is even sounded and it also ends with “flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm” at the seventh trumpet when the temple of God in heaven is opened and within his temple the ark of his covenant his seen in Revelations 11:19 and also with the outpouring of the seventh bowl in Revelation 16:18, when the seventh angel pours out his bowl into the air and out of the temple comes a loud voice from the throne saying, “It is done!” Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.”
It’s also a reminder that all the outpouring of these judgments begins and ends with the movement of God.
There are those who believe these plagues and judgments are to be interpreted more symbolically then literally. Hail, Fire, blazing mountains and bloody waters and a third of creation and a darkening of the skies will not literally take place. The plagues were literal in Egypt. So I am confident that we be sure that they will be fulfilled literally in the Great Tribulation. But as the plagues in Egypt also had a symbolic meaning behind them, I believe that there is much to be gained from the symbolic interpretation view also. Most commentaries, preachers and authors I have been reading take one side or the other. They either show the symbolic interpretation of the plagues or they talk about how the literal interpretation of the plagues might be carried out. I haven’t read one that stands in the middle of the road of both views and says both are potentially correct. I normally don’t like standing in the middle of the road because you have a tendency to get hit by both sides. However, in this case I think it is a very good place for us to stand and provides us with a great spot to view the visions of the book of Revelation unfolding. Generally when two opinions collide they contradict one another and they will not allow you to stand in the middle of the road because logically both cannot be true at the same time. However, in this case both can easily be true at the same time and both sides complement one another and build upon one another.
Many times as God moves in the spiritual world, we see the physical world reacting with earthquakes and lightning.
And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. (Matt. 28:2)
11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kings 19:11-12)
The bible is full of spiritual truths being demonstrated by physical realities. There are way too many examples to list here. But consider the sun turning dark for three hours before Christ’s death on the cross and the great earthquake that occurred afterward, the graves being opened and the temple veil being torn apart. (Matt 27:45, 51-52 Luke 23:44-45) Consider what this great physical reality demonstrated spiritually. The out workings of the physical world cannot easily be separated from the workings of the spiritual world but are often driven by it. They are shadows and types and illustration of heavenly realities, which is the ultimate reality. And Jesus would teach us that what we do on earth effects what is done in heaven through the church and through prayer:
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matt. 16:18-19)
It is because of this that I think it is safe to stand in the middle of the road of both interpretations and say both the literal and the symbolic contain truth, but I would not say that these events are only symbolic or only literal. I do believe the bible teaches that these catastrophic events will take place literally in God’s timing and in God’s way however he has predetermined to carry them out. We can easily be wrong in how He chooses to carry them out, or the exact meaning of the symbolism but we cannot be wrong in that they will be carried out according to his word and will.
However a word of caution, we do have to be careful about creative symbolism. This can be dangerous as Clark & Seiss state below. There warnings should be taken to heart.
“Many eminent men suppose that the irruption of the barbarous nations of the Roman empire is here intended. It is easy to find coincidences when fancy runs riot.” (Clarke)
“The truth is, if earth, trees, and grass do not mean earth, trees, and grass, no man can tell what they mean. Letting go the literal signification of the record, we launch out upon an endless sea of sheer conjecture.” (Seiss)
However knowing this is apocalyptic literature and it is concepts that are being conveyed to us as well as prophecy, we should not throw the baby out with the bath water but only proceed with caution so that our imaginations do not lead us astray but are firmly grounded and demonstrated by the word of God. It is easy to see the bizarre as definitely symbolism because of their strange appearances as we will see with the locusts in chapter nine, The danger is just because we can imagine something happening literally and think we understand how it plays out according to our reason, and understanding that we can miss the concept and spiritual picture that is also being conveyed. There are often so many layers to be unpeeled when studying scripture which apply and speak to the whole man, his physical well-being, his spiritual well-being, his emotional well-being that we should be careful not to just grasp the one and neglect the other truths that are intended to be taken with it. The message of the bible is living, it is not flat and can often be read in 3D. It is saying this in one sense to one people but it is saying this in another sense to the church and in a third sense it is speaking directly to me and all can be true at the same time.
6. Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. 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.
Here we see the beginning of the seven trumpets being blown. Like the seven seals, the first four are grouped together. The last three are set apart by being grouped together into three woes, “Woe! Woe! Woe!” As each of the final three trumpets are sounded, the woes are counted off. “The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.” (Rev. 9:12) These final three trumpets will stretch out until chapter 11. We will see the first two in chapter nine and then the last one in chapter eleven with another pause in between as John tells us about two different visions in the middle of the three woes being poured out.
The first four trumpets that call forth the first four plagues are against the land, the sea, the rivers and the heavenly bodies of the sun and the moon. The last three plagues are against the body of man himself. This is much like the distress of Job when at first he is attacked outwardly as he loses everything outward but initially he himself, his body is not harmed. Then Satan receives permission to harm his person and Job breaks out in painful boils all over his body as he is tested. In the same way, the last three woe’s effect the person.
At the sound of the first trumpet, hail and fire mixed with blood is hurled down to the earth in such an intensity that and a third of the vegetation is destroyed. A third of the trees and all the grass is burned. Usually when we think if hail, we think of little or even semi large ice balls that are hurled to the ground during a storm and capable of intense damage. This hail is a bit different since it contains coals of fire being hurled down to the earth by the angel causing such wide spread wild fires that it destroys by burning up one a third of the earth’s trees and vegetation and laying the earth bare.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. (2 Ptr 3:10)
Burning the land is a strategy of war. When the enemy burns the land, the people have no place to hide, No shelter from the forest and the bushes to hide behind. Their crops and food supply are wiped out. Here we see our God of war, declaring war on the earth-dwellers. All the alliances of the world gathering together will not be able to overcome this Conqueror.
Hail and fire are associated with God’s divine judgment in the Old Testament.
????????Behold, the Lord hasone who is mighty and strong; ???????like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, ???????like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters, ???????he casts down to the earth with his hand. (Isa. 28:2)
Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. (Gen. 19:24)
This is what the Lord GOD showed me: behold, the Lord GOD was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. (Amos 7:4)
This divine judgment echoes the seventh plague of Egypt when Pharaoh refused to let the people of Israel go to worship of God.
Then Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.” (Exo. 9:23-26)
However, instead of being limited to one nation, a third of the world will experience devastation and once again those who are sealed by God, the 144,000 will not be touched or harmed. The Lord will make a distinction between the condition of his people and the condition of the earth dwellers.
????????“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, ???????or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, ????????which I have reserved for the time of trouble, ???????for the day of battle and war? ???( Job 38:22-23)
Just as strongly as want to know when this is going to take place, we also want to know how this is going to take place. We are not given the answers to either question and just know that it will take place. As the great plagues supernaturally rained down over Egypt and over Sodom, the great plagues of the tribulation will once again rain down over mankind displaying the glory and power of our Lord against sin.
As with the Egyptian plagues that had great symbolism behind each one of them showing the glory of God by destroying the Egyptian God’s and revealing himself to be the one True God so we also see God destroying everything that man looks to for life support: vegetation, shade of the tree, fresh water, the fish of the sea, light in the sun and the moon.
Symbolically grass often represents the fleetingness of men’s life, the shortness of our lifespan as we cover the earth today and are gone tomorrow, replaced by new grass. It shows our lowliness and almost insignificance it would seem to be compared to a blade of grass. (Isa. 40:6-7, Psa. 92:7. Psa. 90:5. Isa 51:12)
???????? A voice says, “Cry!” ???????And I said, “What shall I cry?” ???????All flesh is grass, ???????and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. 7 ????????The grass withers, the flower fades ???????when the breath of the LORD blows on it; ???????surely the people are grass. (Isa. 40:6-7)
????????Men are also symbolically pictured as trees in the bible. The concept this conveys is that we rise up in our pride and often must be cut down. Or that as a tree we bear fruit in season if we are planted by the water source otherwise we dry up. Also it is a picture of our taking deep root in our places and not being moved. The tree seems to represent man more in his God given splendor, but in that splendor we often grow prideful and need to be cut down or uprooted. (Isa. 65:22, Jer. 17:8, Mark 8:1)
I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare. (Ezek. 16:7)
In the first of the four divine judgments we see God indeed bringing man low and laying all things bare before him. Stripping us of our coverings, of our earthly dress and glory through his divine judgments which is only a small picture of what is to come in the final judgment.
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.
Something that looks like a mountain on fire was thrown into the sea. This sounds like it would be a large asteroid, on fire from entering through the earth’s atmosphere as it lands in one of the oceans, perhaps the Atlantic Ocean which happens to be a roughly a third of the ocean waters. The result of this is a third of the sea is turned to blood, which results in a third of the living creatures in the sea dying as result of this great calamity. It says a third of the ships will be destroyed, this would include a great loss of life of those on those ships and also from the earthquakes and the tsunami’s that will result. It is difficult to forget the 2004 tsunami that killed over 225,000 people with its hundred foot waves in Southeast Asia. That tsunami was triggered by 9.1 earthquake in the Indian Ocean, how much worse will this one be from something that looks like a mountain, all ablaze, striking one of the oceans?
Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish and also the beasts of the field
and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. (Hosea 4:3)
“I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. (Zeph. 1:2-3)
Again we see much of the world’s food supply greatly diminished with the destruction of the vegetation and now a third of the fish of the sea being gone.
The imagery of mountains in the Old Testament was often associated with the reign of kings and nations. Many see this “something like a huge mountain all ablaze” as a reference to the Old Testament prophecy of Jeremiah found in Jeremiah 51:25
“I am against you, you destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,” declares the Lord. “I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain. (Jer. 51:25)
Babylon was the ancient enemy of Israel, The rich merchant city full of idolatry that caused the whole earth to become drunk by drinking her intoxicating wine and brought the nation if Israel into captivity. Her judgment is said to reach the skies and rise as high as the heavens. So the Lord has predetermined destruction for her because of her great idolatry and will send armies against her like locust to devour her:
“Babylon will be a heap of ruins, a hauntof jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives.” (Jer. 51:37)
“Come out of her, my people! Runfor your lives! Run from the fierce angerof the Lord. (Jer. 51:45)
“Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon” (Jer. 51:49)
These same laments that are found in Jeremiah 51 over the fall of ancient Babylon is found also in Revelation 18
‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’
She has become a dwelling for demons
and a haunt for every impure spirit
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
3 For all the nations have drunk
the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her
and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries. (Rev. 18:2-3)
Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“‘Come out of her, my people,
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
5 for her sins are piled up to heaven,
and God has remembered her crimes.(Rev 18:4-5)
“The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore(Rev. 18:11)
Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. 18 When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, ‘Was there ever a city like this great city’ 19 They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourningcry out: (Rev. 18:17-19)
Then a mighty angelpicked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:
“With such violence
the great city of Babylon will be thrown down,
never to be found again (Rev. 18:21)
Consider her just punishment:
Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say:
“You are just in these judgments, O Holy One,
you who are and who were;
6 for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”
7 And I heard the altar respond:
“Yes, Lord God Almighty,
true and just are your judgments.”
Rev. (16:5-7)
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.
The next object to fall from the sky breaks apart over the land as it enters, turning into smaller particles or into dust but finds its way into the fresh waters, the rivers and the springs of water turning them “bitter” This could be a meteor shower tailing the asteroid. Or perhaps pieces of it that broke off entering the earth’s atmosphere. Or the earth could pass through the tail of an enormous comet, such as Halley’s Comet or something similar. Scientifically, we do not know how the Lord will bring any of these about. They are all speculations; we just know that he will bring these about.
Wormwood is a Middle Eastern plant that has a strong, bitter taste. A third of the waters turn bitter causing the death many people from drinking them.
The Hebrew word for bitter is “Marah” is also a place the Israelites came to in Exodus 15:23, where they could not drink the waters because they were so bitter:
“And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them.”( Exo 15:23-25)
In the story of Marah, the waters were not only bitter and distasteful; they were also full of disease. If the people would have drank from them they would have became ill and died. But the ‘waters of bitterness’ were made sweet and safe to drink by the placing of the tree into the waters which removed the ill effects of the bitterness and brought healing to them instead of death. The tree of course is representative of the cross of Christ and the effects that he has on our bitterness. God is able to provide a remedy for our bitterness and turn our waters sweet from all things that would otherwise hurt us. Not so for the disobedient. The bitter waters of their circumstances will bring illness, disease and eventual death as a judgment for their sins.
Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? And the Lord says: Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, 14 but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. 15 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food [wormwood], and give them poisonous water to drink. (Jeremiah 9:12-15)
Looking at this symbolically we see the fresh living waters of earth polluted, as false doctrines and the doctrines of demons prevail and pollute the fresh water throughout the land.
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.
Once again we do not know scientifically how the Lord brings this about, we only know he can, he is able and he will. It sounds as if as the earth is struck, the sun and moon are also somehow struck or the earth is struck in such a way that we only receive a third of the light coming from the sun and the moon and the stars. We lose a third of the day’s light from the sun a third of the moon and stars light at night.
The world goes dark, without the church, without the light of the world with only a few witnesses left in the world. The world gets what it wants, it wants darkness, and so God gives it darkness. But even in his judgment there is still grace, for God’s judgment only effects a third and not the entire creation.
His trumpets pouring out his judgments are warnings for those who are alive and remain to repent and to turn to God but as in the days of Pharaoh they will not. Opportunity to repent is still given. Grace is still seen but no one avails himself of it.
In Ezekiel 5 we read of God’s razor judgment against Jerusalem because of all of their detestable idols. God has Ezekiel shave his head and beard with a sharp sword and divide up his hair unto thirds. One third of his hair is to be burned inside the city. Another third is to be struck with the sword all around the city and the final third is scattered to the wind to picture what the Lord is about to do in his judgment of them as he himself shaves them. I myself will shave you; (Ezek. 5:11) A third of the people of Jerusalem is to die of the plague or perish by famine inside it; a third is to fall by the sword outside their walls; and a third God says he will scatter to the winds and pursue with drawn sword. In a similar way, the world is facing the razor of God’s judgment against it. It is having a close shave with death and is barely spared.
“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. (Luke 21:25-27)
In these first four plagues, we see God destroying everything that man looks to for life support on earth: vegetation, shade of the tree, fresh water, the fish of the sea, light in the sun and the moon. There will be a create panic throughout the entire world for ideas on how to “Save the Earth” as their god “Mother Earth” is being destroyed and showing that is only creation and no god at all. They will be able to see the coming destruction of the earth in slow motion as the asteroid approaches and be unable to stop it. People will be apprehensive.
The earth has no power to save anyone. No power to protect anyone. No power to provide for anyone. No power apart from God. Like all false gods and idols instead of protecting its worshippers, its worshippers are forced to try and protect it from destruction. But there is no protecting this created idol, no matter how great it is from the wrath of the One True Living God who created it. In the same way the Lord destroyed the false Egyptian gods, we see God destroying the earth god, the gods of creation that we worship and turn to for life instead of looking to him and to Jesus for life support.
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. (Romans 1:18-25)
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!”
Woe means misery resulting from affliction. Intense mortification. Three woes are still to come. Misery to the third degree. Just when it seemed as if it could be no worse.
Some translations say it is an angel flying in midair instead of an eagle. It could be a cherub angel with the face of an eagle that is crying out. God made a donkey speak and he can easily enough make an eagle speak and cry out. The eagles flying over in midair is also fitting as image of impending death as in Luke 17:37
“ Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.” (Luke 17:37)
This is the prophesied end of those who receive the mark of the beast and worship its image.
And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. (Rev. 19:21)
Jesus Priceless Treasure
Jesus, priceless Treasure,
Source of purest pleasure,
Truest Friend to me.
Ah, how long in anguish
Shall my spirit languish,
Yearning, Lord, for Thee?
Thou art mine, O Lamb divine!
I will suffer naught to hide Thee,
Naught I ask beside Thee.
In Thine arms I rest me;
Foes who would molest me
Cannot reach me here.
Though the earth be shaking,
Every heart be quaking,
Jesus calms my fear.
Lightnings flash and thunders crash;
Yet, though sin and hell assail me,
Jesus will not fail me.
Satan, I defy thee;
Death, I now decry thee;
Fear, I bid thee cease.
World, thou shalt not harm me
Nor thy threats alarm me
While I sing of peace.
God’s great power guards every hour;
Earth and all its depths adore Him,
Silent bow before Him.
Evil world, I leave thee;
Thou canst not deceive me,
Thine appeal is vain.
Sin that once did bind me,
Get thee far behind me,
Come not forth again.
Past thy hour, O pride and power;
Sinful life, thy bonds I sever,
Leave thee now forever.
Hence, all thought of sadness!
For the Lord of gladness,
Jesus, enters in.
Those who love the Father, Though the storms may gather,
Still have peace within;
Yea, whatever we here must bear,
Still in Thee lies purest pleasure,
Jesus, priceless Treasure!
