Bird's-eye view
The second trumpet blast continues the de-creation narrative begun with the first, escalating the covenantal judgment against apostate Israel. Whereas the first trumpet struck the land, this one strikes the sea. John sees a vision of "something like a great mountain burning with fire" being cast into the sea. This is not a literal volcano or asteroid; it is biblical imagery of the highest order. This great mountain is the apostate Jewish temple-state, Mount Zion, which was once the place of God's holy habitation but had become a mountain of corruption. Its fiery judgment is to be cast into the "sea" of the Gentile nations, specifically the Roman empire, resulting in immense bloodshed and the disruption of the political and economic world. The judgment is still partial, signified by the recurring fraction "a third," indicating that this is another phase in the escalating wrath of God that would culminate in the total destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
This passage is a graphic depiction of a stable political entity, a kingdom, being violently overthrown and plunged into the chaos of the pagan world. The consequences are threefold: the sea itself is corrupted (it became blood), the life within it dies, and the instruments of commerce and power upon it (the ships) are destroyed. This is the outworking of God's covenant lawsuit. The mountain that was supposed to be a light to the nations had become a source of fiery wrath, and so God hurls it into the very nations it was meant to bless, bringing death and destruction in its wake.
Outline
- 1. The Second Trumpet: Judgment on the Sea (Rev 8:8-9)
- a. The Agent of Judgment: A Great Burning Mountain (Rev 8:8a)
- b. The Sphere of Judgment: The Sea (Rev 8:8b)
- c. The Consequences of Judgment (Rev 8:8c-9)
- i. The Sea Becomes Blood (Rev 8:8c)
- ii. A Third of Sea Creatures Die (Rev 8:9a)
- iii. A Third of Ships Are Destroyed (Rev 8:9b)
Context In Revelation
The second trumpet is part of a series of four initial trumpet judgments that form a distinct unit (Rev 8:7-12), followed by the three "woe" trumpets (Rev 8:13). This sequence of trumpets follows the opening of the seventh seal, which revealed not an immediate end, but rather the unfolding of this next stage of God's judgments. Like the seven seals, the seven trumpets are not necessarily a strict chronological sequence of separate events, but rather different pictures of the same great cataclysm: the covenantal war of God against Jerusalem from roughly A.D. 66 to A.D. 70. The first trumpet targeted the "earth," representing the land of Judea. Now, the second trumpet targets the "sea," representing the wider political world of the Roman Empire into which Judea was thrown. This imagery is drawn directly from the Old Testament, particularly the plagues of Egypt and prophetic denunciations of proud kingdoms.
Key Issues
- The Symbolic Identity of the "Great Mountain"
- The Meaning of the "Sea" in Prophetic Language
- The Connection to the Plagues of Egypt
- The Significance of "a Third"
- The Historical Fulfillment in the Jewish-Roman War
The Mountain and the Sea
In the symbolic landscape of the Bible, mountains and seas are not neutral geographical features. Mountains are places of power, worship, and kingdom authority. God gave the law on Mount Sinai. His temple was on Mount Zion. But pagan kingdoms were also "mountains," and God promised to judge them (Jer. 51:25). When Jesus told his disciples they could say to "this mountain" be cast into the sea (Matt. 21:21), He was standing in the shadow of the Temple Mount, speaking of the corrupt system that was about to be judged. The sea, in contrast, is often a symbol of chaos, the abyss, and the Gentile nations in their political turmoil (Isa. 17:12; Dan. 7:2-3). The sea is where Leviathan dwells.
So when John sees a great burning mountain cast into the sea, he is seeing a kingdom judgment. A center of established power is being violently uprooted and thrown into the chaos of the nations. Given that the entire book of Revelation is about the judgment of the old covenant world, this mountain is none other than apostate Jerusalem, the Temple Mount establishment. Once holy, it is now "burning with fire," the fire of its own sin and the fire of God's wrath. And God's judgment is to throw it headlong into the turmoil of the Roman sea, the very pagan power it had colluded with to crucify the Messiah.
Verse by Verse Commentary
8 And the second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood,
The sounding of the trumpet signals the next wave of the divine assault. John is careful with his language: it is something like a great mountain. This is visionary, symbolic language, not a news report about a geological event. A mountain, in Scripture, is a kingdom or a place of rule. This particular mountain is Jerusalem, or Mount Zion, which should have been the holy mountain of God. But now it is burning with fire. This fire is twofold: it is the fire of its own internal strife, civil war, and zealotry that consumed Jerusalem from within during the Jewish revolt, and it is the fire of God's holy judgment against her for her apostasy. This corrupt and burning kingdom is then thrown into the sea. This represents the casting of the Jewish nation into the chaos of war with the Gentile Roman empire. The stable land-based entity is plunged into the restless, churning sea of nations.
The immediate result is that a third of the sea became blood. This is a direct echo of the first plague on Egypt, where the Nile turned to blood (Ex. 7:20-21). Israel, by rejecting her Messiah, had become the new Egypt, and so she receives the plagues of Egypt. The war with Rome resulted in unimaginable bloodshed, not just on land, but in naval battles as well, such as the slaughter on the Sea of Galilee described by Josephus. The political sea of the Roman world was stained with the blood of this conflict.
9 and a third of the creatures which were in the sea, those which had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.
The consequences of this judgment cascade. The bloodshed leads to death. A third of the creatures in the sea died. If the sea represents the political world of the nations, the creatures in it are the people. The Jewish-Roman war was horrifically costly in terms of human life, for both Jews and Romans. The judgment on the mountain brought death to the sea. This was not a localized event; the shockwaves were felt throughout the empire.
Furthermore, a third of the ships were destroyed. Ships are instruments of commerce, communication, and military power. Their destruction signifies a massive disruption to the economic and military stability of the Roman world. The Jewish revolt was no small skirmish. It was a major war that required a huge portion of Rome's military might to suppress. It disrupted trade routes and consumed vast resources. The grain shipments from Egypt, for example, were vital to Rome, and the conflict in Judea threatened the stability of the entire eastern Mediterranean. The destruction of the mountain brought chaos to the commerce of the sea. The fraction "a third" reminds us that this is still a partial, though severe, judgment. God's wrath is being poured out in stages, as a final warning call to repentance, a call which that generation ultimately refused.
Application
The principle here is that when a people specially set apart by God turn their back on Him, their judgment is severe and has far-reaching consequences. The church is the new Jerusalem, the new "holy mountain" (Heb. 12:22). We are meant to be a city on a hill, a light to the nations. But if a church, a denomination, or a Christian institution becomes corrupt from within, if it begins to burn with the fires of internal strife, false doctrine, and hypocrisy, it should not be surprised when God executes judgment.
And that judgment often takes the form of being "cast into the sea." God may remove His hand of protection and allow that corrupt church to be thrown into the chaos of the unbelieving world. It may be engulfed in scandal, torn apart by lawsuits, or simply lose all credibility and become irrelevant. Its fall will cause a bloody mess, harming the lives of those within it and disrupting the work of the gospel around it. This passage is a terrifying warning against institutional pride. The Temple in Jerusalem seemed eternal, a permanent fixture of God's plan. But God was perfectly willing to demolish it when it became a den of robbers. No church or Christian organization is indispensable. Our only safety is to remain faithful to the one who is the true temple and the cornerstone of the true mountain of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. If we build on Him, we are secure. If we build on our own glory, we are a mountain waiting to be set on fire.