1. These seven angels stand waiting before the throne, and till they be called to the service that is subjoined, they go not: teaching men who are so called to wait in like manner for the Lord’s vocation of them, and not to run before they be sent.
2. Those who are thus called have trumpets given them: even so whom the Lord calls and sends out to any work, He furnishes them with gifts meet for the work, which neither man nor angel can have until the same be given them from above.
3. By trumpets the Lord forewarns the world of the judgments to come upon them, before they come, that they might repent: wherein the great mercy of God is seen tothe very wicked, forewarning them to flee from His wrath to come.
4. As by the trumpets of these angels He forewarned the world, even so does He yet by the ministry of those who are called angels, and by the trumpets of the law and gospel (Isa_58:1). (Wm. Guild, D. D.)
The trumpet-symbol
I. God has a message for us.
II. The manner of that message. Such truths as these are suggested by this trumpet-symbol.
1. How urgent! It is no mere matter of indifference, but life and death hang upon it.
2. How warlike! The trumpet-note was emphatically the music of war.
3. How terrible! The hosts of Midian fled in dismay when the blast of Gideon’s trumpet burst on their startled ears. And God’s Word is terrible to those who know Him not. The Bible is a dreadful book to theimpenitent man when awakened, as one day he will be, to his real condition before God.
4. How animating to the hearts of the people of God! God’s Word is full of heart-cheering truth to all them that trust in Him.
5. How joyful was the sound when it proclaimed, as so often the trumpet did, the advent of some glad festival, some “acceptable year of the Lord,” the jubilee especially!
6. How irresistible is the trumpet-sound! The lofty, massive walls of Jericho fell down flat before thetrumpet-blast. (S. Conway, B. A.)
