Spiritual Meaning of REVELATION 8:6
Jehovah spake unto Moses to make trumpets of silver for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps; and that they should sound with them on days of joy, festivals, new moons, over burnt-offerings and sacrifices; also, that when they went to war against enemies that infested them, they should blow an alarm with the trumpets, and that then they should come into remembrance before Jehovah God, and should be preserved from their enemies (Num. 10:1-10).
From these words it may be seen what is signified by "sounding with trumpets." That here by "the seven angels sounding," is signified the exploration and manifestation of what the state of the church is with those whose religion is faith alone, is evident from the particulars of this chapter, and from the particulars of the chapters that follow as far as the sixteenth inclusive, when understood in the spiritual sense. From the use of trumpets with the sons of Israel may also be seen what is signified by "trumpets," and by "sounding with them," in the following passages:--
Sound ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound in the mountain of holiness, for the day of Jehovah cometh (Joel 2:1, 2).
Jehovah shall appear upon them, and His arrow shall go forth as the lightning, and the Lord Jehovih shall sound the trumpet (Zech. 9:14).
Jehovah shall go forth as a lion and sound (Isa. 42:13).
In that day the great trumpet shall be sounded, and they shall come that are perishing in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall bow themselves down to Jehovah in the mountain of holiness (Isa. 27:13).
He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. 24:31).
Happy is the people who know the sound; they shall walk, O Jehovah, in the light of Thy countenance (Ps. 89:15).
When the morning stars sing, and the sons of God sound (Job 38:7).
Since "the sounds of trumpets" signify such things, and as, in the Israelitish church, all things were represented to the life according to correspondences and thence significations, therefore it came to pass:--
When Jehovah came down upon Mount Sinai, that there were voices, and lightnings, and a heavy cloud, and a vehement voice of a trumpet, and the voice of the trumpet going and strengthening itself greatly, and the people in the camp trembled exceedingly (Exod. 19:16-25).
And for the same reason it came to pass:--
When the three hundred with Gideon sounded with the trumpets against Midian, then the sword of a man was against his companion, and they fled away (Judges 7:16-22).
In like manner, that:--
Twelve thousand of the sons of Israel with vessels of holiness and trumpets in their hands overcame Midian (Num. 31:1-8).
As also that:--
The wall of Jericho fell down, after the seven priests with seven trumpets compassed the city seven times (Josh. 6:1-20).
Wherefore it is said in Jeremiah:--
Sound against Babylon round about, her walls are destroyed (Jeremiah 50:15).
And in Zephaniah:--
A day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and sounding against the fortified cities (Zephaniah 1:15, 18).
| Author: E. Swedenborg (1688-1772). | Design: I.J. Thompson, Feb 2002. | www.BibleMeanings.info |