The Seventh Trumpet : A Beautiful Woman, a Baby Boy, a Bad Dragon, a Beast, Another Beast, and Seven Bowls

For the third Big Trouble, the seventh angel blew his trumpet. Dooooo-to-dooooo-to-dooooo-to-dooooo! Then there were loud voices in Heaven saying,

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Anointed One, and He will Reign and Rule forever and ever.”

Then the 24 shepherds bowed down and worshiped God saying,

“We give You thanks, Lord God, All-Powerful, the one who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and begun to Reign. The time has come, the time for judgment, and the time to give rewards to Your Heaven-Seeing servants, Your saints, Your people and to all those who respect Your name — from the smallest to the greatest. and the time has come to destroy those who have been destroying the earth.”

Then the temple of God in Heaven was opened and John saw the ark of His covenant — God’s Holy Box! And there were flashes of lightning, roaring, crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a huge hailstorm.

Then some amazing things appeared in Heaven. There was a beautiful woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head was a crown of 12 stars. And she had a baby boy.

But there was also an ugly red dragon. The dragon tried to get them, but God took them to safety — the baby to God’s throne, and the woman He gave a good hiding place.

Did you know?

Remember what we told you a couple of stories ago: These things John was seeing are pictures representing other things, like systems and powers. So you don’t need to be afraid of the dragon and beast. But if you’re little and you want to skip the next story or two, that’s okay.

Then war broke out in Heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But the dragon was not strong enough to win, so there was no more room in Heaven for him and his angels. So that ugly dragon — satan, who lies to the whole world — was thrown down to the earth, and his bad angels along with him.

Then John heard a loud voice in Heaven saying, “The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the ruling authority of His Christ, have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, the one who accuses them day and night before our God, has been thrown down. But they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by telling others what they knew to be true. And because they said “no” to loving their lives, even to the point of death.

“So rejoice you Heavens, and rejoice all who live in the Heavens! But woe, woe, woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has come down to you! He’s filled with terrible anger, because he knows that he only has a little time left!”

Now when the dragon realized that he had been thrown down to the earth, he was mad and went looking to cause trouble for the woman. He tried to flood her with water, but the ground gulp, gulp, gulped up the water to keep her safe.

So the mad dragon went away to make war on the rest of her children (her children are those who keep God’s commandments and hold tight to the truth about Jesus).

Then John saw a beast coming up out of the sea. It was uuuuugly with an unholy name on its head. The dragon gave the beast his power and stuff. And the whole world followed and worshiped the dragon and beast, saying, “No one is as strong as the beast.”

The beast said proud and unholy things. Speaking to and against God in a mouthy way — bad-mouthing God’s name and His dwelling place and those who live in Heaven.

All those who live on the earth will worship the beast — everyone except those whose name has been written in the Book of Life.

This requires steadfast endurance and faith from the saints.

Next John saw another beast coming up from the earth. It was terrible too. It tricked a lot of people. It had two horns like a lamb, but he talked like a dragon. He forced everyone to get a mark on their right hand or on their forehead. People couldn’t buy or sell things without that beast’s mark on them.

Could it be?

These times aren’t just going to be physically painful or hard. Satan is the deceiver, a trickster, a liar. He knows he’s running out of time, so you can expect that satan will be trying every lying trick he’s got to attack God’s Family. We’re gonna have to listen, listen, listen for Jesus, our Shepherd’s voice. We’re gonna have to be clear-minded, alert, and stable, not emotional.

Remember what Jesus told His followers right before His night of confusion and pain and lies? He said, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, and believe in Me.”

And this beast’s mark? There are a lot of people who like to guess what this mark will look like. They think that if they just know what the mark is, then they’ll be sure not to get it. But remember what we told you before about how people can’t just “decide” for themselves that they’re a person who Sees and Understands God. The only way we become someone who Sees Heaven and Understands these things will be if we have let Jesus be the boss over our lives. So the only way we’ll avoid getting that beast’s mark is if we bury our life in Jesus and never let satan the dragon and those living in his likeness tell us what to do. Never compromise and never back down from what God says, and we won’t end up with that beast’s mark.

So yeah… that beast is mean and ugly, and he’s even got some power (because God let him have some for a little while).

But he ain’t nothing compared to our Jesus and seeing His face. So hang in there and hold tight to Jesus. If seeing Jesus doesn’t mean anything to you, then you won’t hold on. If you aren’t hungry to see God’s face because you’ve filled your belly with Esau’s soup or tickled your senses with the wicked city’s senses-ticklers — then you won’t hold on. But if you’ve kept your spirit hungry for God Himself to fill you — then when you see Him you’ll be one of those shouting HOLY, HOLY, HOLY!

Then that beast and his ugly buddies can’t do anything to you. Instead, you’ll be part of those two witnesses with fire coming from your mouth or calling down whammies any time you want.

And yeah, you might die. But, no worries, you’ll get back up again.

Then John looked, and Jesus was standing on Mount Zion. And He wasn’t alone. With Him were 144,000 people! And these people didn’t have that ugly beast’s mark. These people had Jesus’ name and His Father’s name written on their foreheads. Oh yeah!

And John also heard a sound coming out of heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder… and like harps… And there was singing! But not just any kind of singing. This was the singing of a new song.

No one was able to learn this song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who have stayed clean and follow the Lamb, Jesus, wherever He goes. These were purchased as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. No lie was found on their lips; they are blameless.

Then an angel flew directly over John’s head shouting out some forever Victory News to every nation, tribe, language, and people. He shouted: “Fear God and give Him glory, because His judgment time is here! Worship the one who made heaven and earth, the salty sea and the springs of fresh water!”

A second angel followed the first, declaring: “Fallen, fallen is that wicked, worldly, immoral, sensual and seductive city with its ‘great power’ that caused all the nations to drink up that sin.”

A third angel followed the first two, declaring: “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and takes that beast’s mark, that person is in big trouble. Yup. Smoking hot forever and ever, with no rest day or night.”

This requires the steadfast endurance of the saints — those who obey God’s commandments and hold to their faith in Jesus.

John heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: ‘Blessed are those who die in the Lord Jesus from this moment on!’”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they can rest from their hard work, because their deeds will follow them.”

Then John saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man! He had a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

Then another angel shouted in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, “Use your sickle and start to reap! The time to reap has come! The earth’s harvest is ripe!”

So the one seated on the cloud took His sickle and swung it over the earth, and all the good stuff on the earth was gathered up together.

Then another angel came out with a sharp sickle, and an angel called in a loud voice, “Hey! Use your sharp sickle and collect the bad sour grapes. It’s time.”

So that angel swung his sickle over the earth, collected the bad grapes, and tossed them into the grape crusher of God’s anger.

Go to the next story to hear what happens next with the seven bowls…