Why Would a Loving God Hurt People?

Revelation 8

Proverbs 21:2 (ESV)

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.

Psalm 11:3 (ESV)

…if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

I. A SILENT ANTICIPATION OF

JUDGMENT

Revelation 8:1 (ESV)

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Revelation 8:2 (ESV)

Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

II. PRAYERS FOR JUSTICE ARE ANSWERED

Revelation 8:3 (ESV)

And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne,

Revelation 8:4 (ESV)

…and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.

Revelation 6:9–10 (ESV)

9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

Revelation 8:5 (ESV)

Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

Psalm 46:10 (ESV)

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”

III. GOD’S WRATH RAINS ON EARTH

Revelation 8:6–7 (ESV)

6Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. 7The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

Revelation 8:8–9 (ESV)

8The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. 9A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Revelation 8:10–11 (ESV)

10The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.

Revelation 8:13 (ESV)

Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”

Isaiah 13:10 (ESV)

For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.

Joel 2:2 (ESV)

…a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.

Amos 5:18 (ESV)

Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light,