The seventh seal is about to be broken, what are your expectations?
When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half (½) an hour. No praise, no harps, no shouts or thunders, no angelic voices, no adoration of the 24 elders or of the four living creatures, no voice of God (8:1). Pause for a minute and imagine the scene ... a ominous silence ... something dreadful is about to happen!
The scroll would be unrolled, contents read and revealed!
The John saw the seven angels standing before God and they were given seven trumpets (8:2). The seven trumpets do not follow the seventh seal; they are the seventh seal.
An angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar. He was given more incense to add to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar (8:3). These saints were probably the same (souls of) martyrs under the altar calling out to God for vengeance in Rev. 6:9-10.
The martyrs had asked, "How long, O Lord, until you judge those who dwell on the earth and avenge our blood?” The censer thrown became a symbolic instrument of judgment in answer to prayer of the martyrs; the time had come for God's vengeance to begin.
Then the seven angels prepared to sound the trumpets.
Remember the four angels holding back the winds of judgment in Rev. 7:1? Now that the 144,000 Jews had been sealed, the angels presumably released the winds to blow on the land and sea and we can see the devastation (of the winds) of the first four trumpets.
Rev. 8 closed with an eagle flying in midair calling out, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth (8:13), because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!” suggesting that the worse is yet to come!
Locusts from the Bottomless Pit - The fifth trumpet sounded and John saw a star fallen from the sky to the earth. The fallen star was seen as having qualities and performing actions of a person (9:1-2).
Smoke arose from the Abyss and darkened the sun and sky. Out of the smoke came locusts who had the power to harm (not kill) people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads (9:3-4).
The pain from the sting of the locusts must be excruciating that people sought death for relief (9:5b-6) but they were not able to die. All the peoples (except those with the seal of God) were tormented for five months.
The demonic locusts had a king over them the angel of the Abyss (9:11) whose name is Abaddon (in Hebrew) and Apollyon (in Greek). Both names mean "destroyer". This angel of the Abyss is probably the fallen star (9:1). And this fallen star is Satan who was hurled down from heaven after his defeat (Rev.12:7-9).
Invasion of an Army of Two Hundred Million - The sixth angel sounded his trumpet and a voice from the golden altar told him to release the four angels who are bound in the River Euphrates (9:13-14). The release of the four angels unleashed an invasion of 200 million (9:16).
These angels were kept ready for a specific assignment at a specific hour in history (9:15) highlighting the preciseness of God’s divine plan ... showing God as acting according to an exact timetable.
This human or demonic army killed a third (⅓) of mankind. Earlier in the fourth seal, a quarter (¼) of the earth’s population died. This means the earth’s total population was reduced by half (½) by these two judgments alone.
One would think by this time men would be crying out for mercy from God yet the survivors did not repent of their idolatry and sins (9:20-21).
The souls of the martyrs under the altar prayed for vengeance. This is in stark contrast to the prayers of Jesus (Luke 23:34) and Stephen (Acts 7:60) in which they asked God to be merciful to their would-be murderers. The difference is that the time of God’s longsuffering had now ended and He had begun to pour out His wrath on sinners in response to the prayers of the martyrs.
Has God been speaking to you and showing you the errors of your ways? Do not harden your heart and resist God like the survivors above. Repent while there is still time; seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near (Isa. 55:6).
The fourth angel sounded his trumpet and a third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night (8:12). Charles Ryrie believes this means the day-night cycle is changed from a 24-hour day to a 16-hour day.
In the Old Testament, there are two events that show God's control of time.
How can one explain the effects of the fourth trumpet?
The following is a postulation that I came across in my study: An asteroid grazing (hitting) the earth on the equator in the same direction of the earth’s rotation causing the earth to spin faster ... and shorter days and shorter nights.