Revelation 8:12

Revelation 8:12. In this verse we have the contents of the fourth trumpet, which touches the sun, the moon, and the stars. Yet it must not be supposed that, because these heavenly bodies are now introduced, we are taken beyond the condition of men in the present world. Sun, moon, and stars are thought of only in their relation to earth and its life and comfort, so that when they are affected it also suffers. The idea of the judgment rests upon the Egyptian plague of darkness. Any attempt to connect particular objects upon earth with the heavenly bodies mentioned in the judgment is vain. As we have already seen under the previous trumpets, the objects judged are simply parts of the world in which men dwell, and it may be noticed that they are substantially taken up and gathered together as a whole when, in chap. Revelation 14:7, the Almighty is described as He ‘that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.' It may be further worth while to remark that the sun and moon and stars are by no means so seriously affected here as they were under the sixth seal (chap. Revelation 6:12-13). There ‘the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood; and the stars of the heaven fell unto the earth.' Now only a third part of their light is taken away. The whole series of the trumpets is more intense in judgment than that of the seals, but not to such a degree that the judgment of the fourth trumpet may not be lighter than that of the sixth seal. At the same time we are not to infer that the first four trumpets necessarily precede the sixth seal, except in thought.