Sin permeates creation
We tend to have a major separation in our minds between animate and inanimate objects that may be overstated.
In Exodus 4, when Cain killed Abel, “The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.””
In Luke 19, as Jesus makes His triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and the pharisees ask him to rebuke the crowds, He says, “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
All of creation has a voice and our sin and the sin of our ancestors has permeated and distorted the resonance of that voice. What once was a beautiful melody is now noise.
We think of sin as ephemeral, while we know it has long lasting repercussions. We think of it as intangible at the same time we feel the weight and pain of it.
Sin has corrupted not only mankind, but all of God’s creation. The sounding of the first four trumpets touch this corruption. They yank it out and destroy it.
They also serve as a sign for God’s call to the assembly. He does not need trumpet blasts, they are not for Jesus, they are for us as a sign and a calling to repent. He does not need an eagle or vulture flying in the mid heavens calling out a warning of Woe, Woe, Woe, that is for us. He did not need to start with the soil and water and plants, he could have started with the ones causing the corruption instead of the corrupted, but, again, these are signs to repent.
To repent is to turn away from all that we would like to be right, but isn’t, and turn only to the truth. To acknowledge the truth is to acknowledge our sin, our weakness, our corruption. It is easier to blame something or someone else.
How is God calling you to repent? We all have sin and all need to repent.
My Answers:
6.
1st: came hail and fire mixed with blood hurled down on earth, 1/3 of earth, 1/3 trees, all grass burned up
2nd: like mt, all ablaze, thrown into sea, 1/3 of sea turned to blood, 1/3 living sea crtrs die 1/3 ships dstr
3rd: great star, blazing torch, fell on 1/3 of rivers/springs WORMWOOD 1/3 waters turned bitter, many die
4th: 1/3 sun, moon, stars turn dark. 1/3 of day without light 1/3 of the night
7.
To allow the people of earth to repent and turn back to God
8.
a.
Patient, Just, Righteous, Glorious, All-Powerful, Mighty, Creator, Willing to Forgive, Jealous
b.
An appreciation of God’s power and might and that He holds this back, although all we deserve is wrath.
The Notes are Good 