Audio Download

Rev 8:12-13 – Part 2, The Fourth Trumpet

[Study Aired July 28, 2024]

Rev 8:12   And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

Rev 8:13   And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Again we want to notice that the seven trumpets are all signifying the beginning of the seven last plagues. The judgment of this fourth trump signifies the beginning of God’s judgment upon our ‘sun’, our source of light and knowledge, and the plagues “fill up the wrath of God” on this ‘sun” part of our lives. This fourth trumpet begins to reveal just how ignorant of Christ we are, how ‘in the dark’ as we live in the light of our ‘sun.’ It begins to reveal how ‘in the dark’ we are while thinking our ignorance and ‘darkness’ is ‘light’ and understanding. Christ has already made us aware of this fourth trump with these words:

Mat 6:22   The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Mat 6:23   But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light [our ‘sun’] that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

The fourth vial is not limited to “a third part”. Therefore it is only when the Lord’s wrath against the kingdom of our old man is “filled up” in our lives that we are made to see and understand just how complete our apostasy from the doctrines of Christ is:

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

Rev 16:8  And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.

Rev 16:9  And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

The symbolism of blaspheming God for being scorched with the Sun is just another way of telling us that the Truth of Christ is beginning to show us just how great the darkness we are in is (Mat 6:23 ).

What is the moon that is smitten with darkness?

3) What is the ‘moon,’ and why is it “smitten with darkness?”

We have already shown that the moon is called “the lesser light,” and it was placed in the heavens “to rule the night.”

Gen 1:16   And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also.

The moon has no light in itself. All the moon can do is reflect some of the light of the sun and “rule the night” with its much “lesser light.” This ‘lesser light’ is displayed in the honor which thieves have for each other and the pride they take in their thievery, and the pride that a stumbling alcoholic takes in his drunkenness and the pride homosexuals loudly proclaim in their perverseness.

At times the earth comes between the sun and the moon, and there is no light at all from the moon. It is then that we realize that the light of the moon is of itself nothing more than darkness. The only ‘light’ the moon has is what it reflects from the Sun.

Once again it is Babylon’s doctrines in us which give us “the lesser light that rules the night” by reflecting a little of the light of the Sun. So the moon signifies our “bondwoman” mother, before we are, by the mercy of God, transformed into “the son of the freewoman.”  Once again, If our light is darkness, Christ is not yet ruling over His throne within us, and we are what very few have ever even heard of. We are “yet carnal… babes in Christ”:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

We have all been in “darkness and the shadow of death,” and at “our wits’ end.” That is an essential part of this revelation which is these seven trumpets.

Mat 4:16   The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

Joh 5:33   Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth.

Joh 5:34   But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved.

Joh 5:35   He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

Joh 5:36   But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.

Isa 13:10   For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

Isa 24:23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

Isa 60:19   The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

The sun and the moon are both heavenly bodies. It is obvious that they are being used to signify our thoughts and our consciences while living in Babylon and living under the law. The literal moon has no mind to ‘confound’, and the literal sun has no conscience with which to experience ‘shame.’ Yet this is what Joel was quoting when warning Israel what the Lord would do to them for their stubborn rebellion against Him and His laws and His commandments:

What are “the moon and stars [that are] darkened [by] a third part?”

Like Joseph’s brothers, we think we are honorable men who would never steal a silver cup (Gen 44:8-9), and at the same time it is we who refuse to repent of selling our own brother into Egypt as a slave. That whole story of Joseph signifies us putting Christ on the cross. Like Job, we all think of ourselves as very good men who are “eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, and a champion to the widows” (Job 29:13-15). Like all of Christ’s apostles, we all think that we would never, ever deny our Lord (Mat 26:35 ). Until our moon is smitten and shines not for a third part of it, we are never made aware that it was our sins that killed our Lord, and that we have denied Him with an oath. This is the sun being turned into darkness and the moon into blood before we become the house of God to begin our continuing judgment.

Joe 2:31   The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Eze 32:6  I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, [even] to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee.

Eze 32:7  And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

Eze 32:8 All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.

“Man[kind] shall… live… by every [one of these] words (Mat 4:4). Which of “the things written therein”; which “words of the book of this prophecy [will we dare to] take away?” Even the apostles of the Lord kept the things written in His Word. Peter denied Christ right in front of the Lord as the Lord “looked upon Peter” (Luk 22:61 ). Peter was brought “to his wits’ end” (Psa 107:27 ) and “went out and wept bitterly” (Mat 26:75 , Luk 22:62 ):

Luk 22:60   And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew.

Luk 22:61   And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord,