< Revelation 11a
TABLE OF CONTENTS for this study series
The Seventh Trumpet
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Mashiach, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
[When Israel crossed the sea in dry ground its redemption from Egypt was accomplished and the children of Israel sang the song of the sea. Being taken out of Egypt was symbolic of being taken out of the natural, the life of Adam, and translated into the spiritual, the life of Mashiach to come.
Something of Egypt, of the life of Adam, remained in the hearts of the children of Israel, even though they sang the song of the sea. Indeed, their complete redemption would not prove to be accomplished until far in the future. It would be completely accomplished through the blood of the Lamb before the throne of God in heaven on the day of the resurrection of Yehoshua from the dead. And that redemption would be completely revealed on earth and completely accomplished on earth in the day of the Two Witnesses.
The city of Yerushalayim would come to repentance in the fear of the One who sits upon the throne in his Temple in heaven and in fear of the Lamb who was slain, through the testimony of his two witnesses. Then, just as Israel escaped from Pharaoh's Egypt through the sea, the heart of Israel shall finally escape fully and completely from the love of this world. The redemption of Israel shall be complete. And All-Israel shall be saved and shall be the witness of God.
Because of this, the seventh trumpet shall be sounded. We may say this sounding corresponds spiritually to the sounding of a gold shofar with a silver trumpet on either side. See a picture of this on the Temple Institute's website. http://www.templeinstitute.org/rosh_hashana/three_priests.htm
According to the Revelation, the secret of Jerusalem's conversion was kept very quiet on earth. But in heaven it is the most complete and total announcement and celebration of salvation made at any time so far in the Revelation!
There were loud voices in heaven... These correspond to the Seven Thunders, that is, to their message now not concealed. What the Seven Thunders said before was kept secret from the world until the time of the blowing of this trumpet. But, as the Seven Thunders were loud and were multiple voices, there are now, in the echo of the blast of the seventh trumpet, loud and multiple voices like those of the Seven Thunders. These are indeed the Seven Thunders and all the choirs of heaven accompanying them, declaring that the secret of God has been revealed, as promised. Now!
Now that Jerusalem has been judged and has repented, now “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Mashiach, and he shall reign forever and ever!” On earth among those who, like Pharaoh, do not want to hear that the redemption of Israel is taking place, what the Seven Choirs of Heaven are thundering is not heard. Not because it cannot be heard, but because of the hardening of their hearts. But in the heart and soul of every child of God in heaven and earth it is now, at that time, heard loudly and clearly.
It is at this point that Jerusalem has become prepared in her heart to say of Yehoshua, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of Hashem." The testimony of the Two Witnesses has succeeded in accomplishing this. For it was in their being resurrected and called up into heaven after being observed by all the world as being dead for 3 1/2 days laying in the streets of Jerusalem, together with the earthquake of God's wrath upon the city, which produced this change of heart in Jerusalem.
At this time, the new heaven and the new earth, the word of God's new and eternal and incorruptible order of creation, will have entered into the hearts of All Israel. Judgment can now come in full measure upon the nations, to destroy their armies and their idols, their god, Mammon, embedded in their flesh, and all their devices for worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator. The judgments coming now, through the blowing of the seventh trumpet, will cut all nations off from their roots, without destroying Israel, without cutting her off from her roots.
Later, when the nations are revived from the dead, it will be through the corporate life of Adam that has been saved only in the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, through the blood of the Lamb that they are saved and they will have a new head. For the world is not condemned but saved through judgment, the judgment of the cross, the judgment of the Revelation, the Apocalypse, which redeems Israel out from among the nations.
Through the testimony in Jerusalem given by the Two Witnesses, God has, at the time here foretold, removed the blindness from Israel's eyes. The way for the return of the Lord has been prepared. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Mashiach, and he shall reign forever and ever.”]
And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.
The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
[Again we see that, with the twenty-four elders, we are still in the Temple, in the presence of the One who sits upon the throne and with the Lamb.
Who are those who are destroying the earth? Those who rule in the legislatures and courts without the Gemara and the Gospel... There are those who attempt to rule the world without God's Torah, and only with Godly dialogue, as modelled in the Gemara, is it possible to be led by the Torah to Mashiach. And there are those who attempt to rule the earth without the Gospel, and only through the Revelation of the true Messiah is it possible to rule the world through the Good News.
Those who try to rule the world without the word of God are following in the footsteps of Adam in their sin. They would be themselves like gods and would attempt to rule the world by their own word, only to destroy it.]
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
[The visions that now follow in chapters 12, 13, 14 are not any kind of interlude in a chronological account of judgments proceeding from the blowing of the seven trumpets to the pouring out of the seven bowls of wrath in chapter 15. Just the opposite! The visions of chapters 12-14, together with the seven bowl judgments and all visions of judgment to the very end constitute the third woe, and all these visions come as a result of the blowing of the seventh trumpet.
Everything, all the mystery of God, is revealed at this point, in heaven.... As a result a series of full story visions, up close visions, will come to explain all judgments for the sake of the understanding of those who have faith, as the Lord explained his parables with his talmudim privately... before the final judgments commence upon the nations, (now having been set apart from Jerusalem).
It is in accordance with the blowing of this, the seventh trumpet, that the Scripture shall be fulfilled which says:
"The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 1:1ff.)
And also that Scripture which says:
"He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:1-4)
And this shall be when Israel takes possession of the Land by faith, fully rectifying the sin of the spies. When she, by faith, is justified by the Torah in the blood of the Lamb, the truth of God, the truth which is the seal upon the forehead of His people. For the truth shall be made known on the earth, by which Israel shall be set free, for it is the truth of the justification of life. And the one testimony shall be given by two witnesses, revealing the unity of both houses of Israel, as being one house in its testimony, that the God who redeems Israel from among the nations is the One true God, Creator of Heaven and earth, who judges and saves as He will.]
Why a Temple?
"Thus says the LORD: 'Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool; what is the house which you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the man to whom I will look, he that is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.'" (Isaiah 66:1)
"Am I a God at hand, says the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD." (Jeremiah 23:23, 24).
Thus it is for our sake and not for his sake that God builds a Temple to dwell in. That we might know him in our midst, with intimacy and love, and learn from all his judgments and all his ways to love one another as he has loved us.]
