Big God, Small World
Take a deep dive into the book of Revelation! Our hosts, Elizabeth Bristol and Christine Hobbs, take you verse by verse in order to lead you to a deeper understanding of the hope we have as Christians!
Big God, Small World
Episode 8 :Trumpet - Chapter 1 verse 10-11
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
God speaks to different people in different ways. When John was on Patmos, he heard one who had a voice like the sound of a trumpet. Throughout the Bible, trumpets have been used in a myriad of ways, from heraldry to bringing down the walls of Jericho.
For the child of God, the trumpet is a sound of hope!
When John was caught up into Heaven, he described and wrote down what he saw. While much of what he observed seems scary, we can take comfort in knowing that whether it's current events or future happenings, God is in control and HE will win in the end!
Watch Christine's Revelation Study video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4RhT30BP0o
==========
A Coffee With Jesus Production
Visit our Website: https://coffeewithjesus.info/
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cwj2011/
View us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsQBybBdPxlSxvmWYfcMzQ
View us on Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/CoffeeWithJesus
Check out our Substack: https://coffeewjesus.substack.com/
Thank you for tuning into Coffee with Jesus. We're back again. My name is Elizabeth Bristol, and Christine Hobbs and I are back to continue our discussion about chapter one in the book of Revelation. Today we're picking up in verse 10. And this companion podcast partners with Christine's series, where she breaks down each chapter line by line. So you will see that the podcast that goes with this one in the show notes if you haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. And our goal is to be awake and ready for Jesus when he returns. So if you know of others who are aiming to do the same, please click the like button and share the podcast because it helps us reach more people who might be interested in learning what the Bible says about end times. That way they too can be prepared. Thank you. And it may seem like we're taking a while to get into the meat of the book, but that's because we feel like it's really important to understand the groundwork, right, Christine? Like if we drove right into the letters or the prophecies, we might not understand where it's all coming from.
SPEAKER_00Correct. It does build upon itself. And chapter one, I personally is the hardest chapter to read and understand because it's very detailed and it's, you know, really talking about who God is, who Christ is, who the Holy Spirit is, and you know, why is John there? And this is such a book that really fits all together like a puzzle. So we need to know history. We need to understand, you know, how Christ is described because it comes into play when he talks to the churches, how he describes himself to the churches. And so chapter one's a difficult chapter, and it does feel like it takes a long time to get through, but it's so important to understand because it's a piece of the entire picture. And we do refer back to it as we study the rest. Plus, I think it's important to have a really good foundation because we can get into the wack-adoodle stuff. And if you don't have the foundation, yeah, it can really be interpreted wrongly. And so if we know the Bible and we know the scripture and we take the time to understand exactly what it's saying line by line, word by word, we won't get pulled astray into some of these weird theories and weird thinking. And um, you know, there's just a lot of that out there. Right.
SPEAKER_01And I rule some of it out, right? You know, because you're why it's not true if you've got the first right.
SPEAKER_00So that's why we're doing what we're doing. And I know it seems like people always want to hurry up and get to chapter four. Oh and chapter five. Yeah. You know, it's like, but we really need to understand the the whole process and its entirety.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I get that. I want that.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Where do we start today? Let's see, we're doing verses 10 and 11.
SPEAKER_00Let's start with our text. Let's start with scripture. And um, like I said, um you've already mentioned we're starting in verse 10. We'll try to get through verse 11. Um, but it says, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like the sound of a trumpet. So it's not a regular voice, right? It's it's referring to the voice sounding like a trumpet. And that voice says, Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches. And then it names those churches. It says Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.
SPEAKER_01They're representations of um not just those particular churches, right? I just wanted to remember that.
SPEAKER_00Yes. So they're talking to seven specific churches, and we'll get more into this as we get to chapter two because we'll we'll start talking about the very specific churches, but it it's doing multiple things at the same time. It's talking to an actual church, it's talking to um the readers who will come down the road like us all these years later and read what was written. And it's also prophetic. So it's three and one. Um, so he's writing these letters, and these letters are super important. And people, again, breeze by them. They don't spend the time to really dissect them because they're anxious to get to the future stuff. But we have to understand why the future stuff, and that's in chapters one, two, and three. So we'll be dissecting those in in great detail too. But, anyways, so he's in the spirit, John, and he's been, you know, sent to this island, and he's um in the spirit after experiencing all the tribulation that we spoke about last week, that everybody's experiencing tribulation. And it says, here he is in the spirit. And I thought, well, what exactly does that mean in the spirit? Because it's an interesting thought. Like he's not in church, and yet clearly he's spending time doing something, and he's in the spirit. What do you think? What's your thoughts?
SPEAKER_01I think it can be a lot of things, right? Um, yeah, well, oddly enough, it's something I've been working on lately because again, I I want to be in the spirit. So, what does that mean for me? And um, I don't know, I do speak in tongues. It wasn't a gift I wanted, but God gave it to me and I'm grateful for it now. And I feel like sometimes that helps me when I don't know how to pray or or thinking. And so there's that, but like you said too, when we were talking beforehand, he does get it get our attention in dreams and you know, even visions of um knowing things that we wouldn't have known without God. Um so I think it could be several things as I try to think about John.
SPEAKER_00I also think about the the upper room when they were all there and the and the Holy Spirit came upon them, like the the you know, as you're mentioning tongues, you know, the fire of tongues came down and the fire of the Holy Spirit came upon them. It doesn't really say it, just says he's in the spirit, you know. I assumed he was worshiping, um and and he hears this voice, but I think the main point is in spite of everything that he's been through, right? Um, he's not discouraged. Yeah, he's still he's worshiping, he's in the spirit, whether it be the Holy Spirit's coming upon him, or whether he's not embittered. Um, and yeah, I think the Lord speaks in different ways. I know people who have these very vivid dreams. We saw that with Daniel. Daniel was able to interpret dreams and he would have dreams. Same with Joseph. Joseph would have these dreams that would tell him future things. So is he in a dream state? Uh, you know, we just don't know exactly. The scripture um doesn't tell us here. Um, but something of that realm, I would say. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um so I like when God leaves things a little bit vague because I think it speaks to us, you know, it speaks to each of us in a different way, maybe. I like that.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And I do think, uh don't you, that God speaks in different ways to different people. I'm an auditory person, you're a visual person, I think. Yep, yeah. Yeah. So um uh, you know, I I have heard for myself um in different seasons, I have heard one time in particular, I heard his voice so strongly that to this day I always say, I don't know if it was audible. I heard it as if it was audible.
SPEAKER_01I actually similar, yeah. I felt I would I would say he touched me. I was laying down in bed, I was crying out to him, I was in a really hard space, and I can almost feel it even as I say that. Like up on my left shoulder, I felt this slight touch, and yeah, I yeah, I I know what you mean.
SPEAKER_00Wow, yeah, so it's it's profound when it happens. It's it's like you know it's out of the ordinary. Um but it it didn't happen to me, but that one time, like I'll get promptings, I'll I'll I'll hear the voice of God in my head with a sense of peace or a sense of discomfort, like don't go that way, go this way, you know, that kind of thing. But this one time it like busted into the room. I wasn't I I wasn't expecting it, and it did sound almost audible to me. So I that's the picture, anyways, that I see when I read this text. And so, yeah, and it sounds like a voice of a trumpet. And so here's where we need to do a little background study on trumpets because this comes into play. It's not, you know, we could just fly right past the statement, but we would lose a lot of meaning here. Um, and trumpets and scripture um have a connection to the book of Revelation. If you go back to the book of Exodus, chapter 19, um, there's very specific instructions, and it says, so it came about on the third day when it was morning, that there was thunder and lightning flashes, interesting, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud trumpet sound. So all the people who were in the camp trembled. And I always think that's really interesting because so this trumpet sound, which is a voice, was accompanied by thunder and lightning. And isn't it interesting how people get really frightened when thunder and lightning happen? Animals too. Like a lot of people have this animals too. And so it it's like I question whether there's something about that that's innately in us to recognize oh, there's someone way more powerful, um, you know, that it frightens people when they hear thunderstorms, you know. Um, and so in verse 17 of Exodus 19, it says, Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. So I I it's an interesting little story, but it plays in here because here we're hearing a voice and we're told it sounds like a trumpet. So if we connect those two thoughts, we know that this isn't just a trumpet, right? So again, if we go to Numbers chapter 10, um, the Lord tells Moses, make yourself two trumpets of silver, of hammered work, you shall make them, and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for having the camps set out. When both are blown, at the congregation shall gather themselves and to the doorway of the tent of the meeting. So here in chapter 10 of Numbers, we're seeing trumpets again in a specific purpose. Once again, they're used for gathering and summoning and sending them out. So when we see the sound of a trumpet used in scripture, it it's used in the old testament for assembling people and going to war, remembering that God is with them. But in the book of Revelation, we hear it being spoken by God Himself with a voice like a sound of a trumpet. And so we know that he sets up earthly things to represent heavenly things. Yes, he does. So we have to pay attention because if God is speaking, then it's it's summoning, it's gathering, and it's alarming the sound, it's sending out the alarm for war. So we're gonna see in chapter four uh a tr a trumpet, the gathering of God's people, if you believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. When we get to later chapters, when we start talking about judgments, there are seven trumpet judgments. Yeah, and that's God going to war with wicked man.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00And against the enemy and against the principalities. So we're gonna see that come into play, and that's why I thought it would be really important to go through some of the history of why God instructed Moses to assemble people using trumpets.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah, because it grabs your attention, unlike a human voice, and not only would that sound grab your attention of those who understood what it meant, you know, for these purposes of instruction, but it would intimidate, you know, the enemy who doesn't know what God's doing absolutely, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00It's a think of a trumpet sound, it is joltingly loud. Yeah, it can be joltingly loud, and it pierces like it's a sound that pierces right through all other sounds.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, didn't they use it at Jericho too when the walls came down walking around trying to blow the trumpet, yeah, with the sound that God is with them, right? The people were afraid of that. They knew that here he is, and they're hit their God shows up. Um those who are with God kind of get excited, right?
SPEAKER_00I mean, it shouldn't be exactly so if you're with God and you you think of the trumpet sound, it's a glorious sound. But if you don't know God, just like so many people who have fear of death or fear of, it's no wonder they would be fearful of the sound of a thunderstorm or or a a sound that innately would cause you to like, ooh, you know, that's a loud crack, or or not that that's a trumpet sound, but it's like this the lightning and thunder came before the trumpet sound.
SPEAKER_01And I know we're not going into some of the, you know, we're doing the groundwork, but this is so weird that we're talking about it because I think it was just yesterday. I saw this video online, and you know, we got to be careful these days. Is it AI? What is it? And I think it was a rant. Right. And it was really weird. All they showed in the video was like sky, you know, clouds, like you're saying, it was definitely looked, they didn't you couldn't hear thunder and lightning, but it looked like it was about to. And in this place, you know, where a lot's going on spiritually. I don't know if it was around exactly, but it was over there. And there were these videos and there were these trumpet sounds, right? And I'm like, okay, is this true? Is this not? You know, is but it would even make sense. God trying to get their attention. I don't know, and that just sort of stuck with me as I scrolled, and here we are talking about it.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's it could be, I don't know. You know, AI's tough today because it is so good. I mean, and it's getting harder and harder.
SPEAKER_01That's why we want this phone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So I, you know, I can't say whether it's true or not true. Um, but it wouldn't totally surprise me, right? That God's not trying to get the attention of those that he can. And there is a lot of um conversations in in the Christian world talking about how many people in that region are turning to God because they're having dreams. I love that. And he's showing up in dreams. And I heard, and I don't know where I heard it, um, but I'm sure you could check into it doing a search of some sort, um, that it is the fastest growing area of Christianity because people are converting.
SPEAKER_01We saw that when I lived in Jericho, it's Muslims, right? Same, same um religion. And they did, God was getting a lot of their attentions by, you know, we had this one guy girl, it was a girl who came with this dream, and she said, you know, I had this dream and I was wondering if you could interpret it for me. And I'm just like, you know, I that wasn't the church I grew up in. We didn't do that, you know. But I thought, okay, tell me what it is and we'll see. And she said, Well, I'm in a cave, and Jesus is outside the cave holding out his hand to me. What do you think that means? And I thought, okay, I could take a stab at that one.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_01Right. And so, yeah, and they were one guy, there was another man, same thing. Um, he had a dream and he came to Jesus, and he came to tell us all about it. And that was a common thing, so it is cool. God's getting people's attention and they're listening, right? So, yeah, so I don't know, it could be.
SPEAKER_00I thought it was interesting that in the last um in in the 2025 Rosh Hashanah, right? Um, at the Wailing Wall, 100 shofars were blown, yeah, which are a form of trumpet. It's an animal um horn trumpet, but it's a trumpet and it's that sound. Have you ever tried to blow one? I thought, wow, that's I have not, no.
SPEAKER_01And your face makes really funny looks as you're trying, you know, almost like maybe a trumpet, you know, where you're trying to get that air. And it um it comes out even when they do it right. I always think it sounds funny, but um, but it is it is cool, and again, it serves multiple purposes, sort of really right in line with what you were just saying with the trumpets, you know, calling the kids worship, signaling important events, awakening spiritual awareness and repentance, you know, all those things, those similar things. So that's not surprising. Wow.
SPEAKER_00Right. I just thought it was profound that it was unique that they blew up 100 of them simultaneously. I know. And you know, it is there something spiritual there that that got.
SPEAKER_01No, it is, but I do know it it they have meanings for everything, you know. Right, right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that's interesting. And yeah, just lots going on. But this, you know, you'll see in Revelation how often the trumpet comes into play. Um, so that's interesting. Yeah, so let's see. Um, in in verse 11, um, God instructs John to write what he sees, and that's an important element too in um Revelation, because we have to remember that God is not dictating to John what to write, he's saying, write what you see. Oh um, so it's and so we have to understand that had he dictated, and this is why this book is not a book you can just breeze through, because each image has more meaning behind it than just you know the words. So he's writing what he sees, but there's an image, and then it's up to us to use scripture to interpret scripture what that image means as it exists somewhere else in the Bible. We go back to scripture and we say, is there somewhere else in scripture that this shows up? And then we look at the meaning of that, and then we have the correct interpretation of what John is seeing. Because again, otherwise we can read in some really crazy things to the text, right? But he's writing what he sees. Right now, he's writing more of what's familiar to him as we move into the future. He is writing about things that he doesn't even have the words for because he's seeing future things. And can you imagine what it would be like to write and Describe something well, is it right?
SPEAKER_01Like a plane. They don't have planes. And so, you know, like a bird in the sky. What I don't know, you know? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. So he's doing the best. I always say it would be like blind person born blind trying to describe color.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00Like it that would be hard to do, right? You have no point of reference. So again, this is why we go verse by verse, line by line, because you can get really crazy with this stuff, and a lot of people do. And we want to make sure that we interpret the Bible um as God intended. And we have all the other books of the Bible. And had John actually wrote it word for word rather than what he was seeing, it would be the Bible all over again because it really pulls all of it together. And um, and so again, this is why we're gonna spend the time really being very precise.
SPEAKER_01Um so yes, and I like some of the other things you and I have talked about, how there's a counterfeit for everything. So to take back to the word and and and you know, look what the meaning is, because so we don't get caught up in the weirdness, because it is some of it does seem possible, you know, and you get sucked into it with forget. And and so I appreciate that we have each other holding each other accountable, even and like, wait a minute, let's go see what this means. And also that Abraham is the father of all faiths, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And if you look at all of the things that God has given us to aid in our faith, how there is an enemy that counterfeits it, right? So so you know, music was created for worship.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Well, our music today is so foul. I mean, it is just, and the enemy has gotten in it and corrupted that, you know. There's I I think of astrology, like God placed the stars in the sky, and that's another study onto itself. But you know, the stars in the sky actually show the story of Jesus, and that's why we have similar backgrounds. Wow.
SPEAKER_01Well, once again, a whole lot to think about. Um, is there anything else, Christine, you'd like to say to wrap this up before I close us in prayer?
SPEAKER_00I think that we've covered it all. Um, I think we have an understanding of what we're doing and the background, and we'll just revisit the next verses in the next section. I think that's great.
SPEAKER_01It's a lot to take in. A lot to take in. So, Lord, I do. I ask you not only to protect us with your word, you know, not to get caught up in all the um these things we see on AI, but to have your discernment to know what's true and what's counterfeit. And I pray that you would continue to speak to each one of us as we um finish, as we close, that you would um give us revelation and understanding as we get closer to the time of your return. It is in your name that we pray. And I do I thank everyone for joining us. I know how I keep saying, send us your questions so we can address them and wonder together. And I totally want you to do that. Um, you may wonder why we haven't addressed any questions yet. We are recording uh ahead so that we can we'll have enough podcasts to share with you once we get going. So we do want your questions, and and that's why we haven't shared any yet. So thank you so much for joining us. And please come back.