In the yearly cycle of festivals that the Lord commanded Israel to observe, the Feast of Trumpets came shortly before the celebration of the final harvest (Leviticus 23:23-25). This feast was a warning of the approaching Day of Atonement, when the Lord would cleanse his people from sin (Leviticus 16:30). In Revelation, the trumpets are sounded shortly before the close of probation to wake up mankind and call them to repentance.

nd I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them. (Revelation 8:2-6)

Incense was offered evening and morning as a continual ministry of atonement: Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come. (Exodus 30:7-8).

Ellen White describes the incense in this way: "The incense, ascending with the prayers of Israel, represents the merits and intercession of Christ, His perfect righteousness, which through faith is imputed to His people, and which can alone make the worship of sinful beings acceptable to God" (Patriarchs and Prophets, 353:2).

John has seen seven trumpets being given to the seven angels who stand before God. The sounding of these trumpets, as described in Revelation 8 and 9, is calamitous to the earth. Before the trumpets are sounded, however, another angel comes forward to offer much incense, with the prayers of the saints, before God. When this angel has finished his work, he hurls his censer, filled with fire from the altar, to earth; and then the seven angels prepare to sound their trumpets.

To get an idea of the efficacy of the offering of incense, we can look to Numbers 16. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebelled against the Lord by rising up against Moses, the servant of the Lord, and Aaron, the Lord’s anointed high priest. Their accusation against Moses and Aaron was, "The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?" The upshot of this was that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and their followers in rebellion were destroyed.

The next day, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron, "You have killed the Lord’s people," they said.

But when the assembly gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron and turned toward the Tent of Meeting, suddenly the cloud covered it and the glory of the Lord appeared. Then Moses and Aaron went to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and the Lord said to Moses, "Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once." And they fell facedown.

Then Moses said to Aaron, "Take your censer and put incense in it, along with fire from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started." So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. (Numbers 16:41-48).

In this story, the people rejected the intercessory ministry of the high priest and brought on themselves the wrath of God in the form of a deadly plague. When Aaron went among them with the censer of incense, the plague stopped.

In Revelation 8, the sounding of the trumpets brings disaster on the earth. When the seven angels are given the trumpets, it is a sign that God's wrath is about to break out. However, just as the incense Aaron offered came between the wrath of God and the camp of Israel, the incense offered by the angel before the golden altar comes between the wrath of God and the world. This wrath is not that of the plagues; rather, this wrath is mixed with mercy, because all have not yet had an opportunity to hear the gospel. Ellen White wrote about this time:

"The time of God’s destructive judgments is the time of mercy for those who have had no opportunity to learn what is truth. Tenderly will the Lord look upon them. His heart of mercy is touched; His hand is still stretched out to save, while the door is closed to those who would not enter" (Testimonies for the Church, 9:97). Ellen White is not referring to the plagues, which take place after the close of probation, but to a series of judgments that fall before the close of probation. Probation has closed for those who have had the opportunity to learn the truth; however, mercy is still extended to those who have not yet heard the gospel.

In Selected Messages, Ellen White wrote, There are many souls to come out of the ranks of the world, out of the churches—even the Catholic Church—whose zeal will far exceed that of those who have stood in the rank and file to proclaim the truth heretofore…. When the crisis is upon us, when the season of calamity shall come, they will come to the front, gird themselves with the whole armor of God, and exalt His law (Selected Messages, 3:386-387).

In the Bible, the seven trumpets have at least a dual significance: First, as we have already seen, there was the Feast of Trumpets, which occurred shortly before the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, when all the harvest was gathered in. Second, when the children of Israel marched around Jericho, seven priests blew seven trumpets (Joshua 6). This is the only other place in the Bible that mentions seven trumpets.

In the story of Jericho, seven trumpets were blown when Israel marched around Jericho the seventh time. There are some interesting points about this story that shed light on the seven trumpets of Revelation:

Israel had already experienced a "shaking." Numbers 25 records the Moabite seduction of Israel, which resulted in the separation of those who were idolatrous from those who were faithful to God. In the same way, before God's people take the gospel to the world for the final time, they will have been tested and sealed.

The true worshippers of God had been counted. Numbers 26 records the census taken of those who would serve in the Israelite army. This parallels the counting of the worshippers when the temple is measured in Revelation 11:1, just before the two witnesses begin their work of prophesying to the Gentiles.

God's people had been circumcised. Joshua 5 describes the circumcision of Israel at Gilgal, just before their march around Jericho. At that time, the Lord's word to Joshua was, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you" (Joshua 5:9).

The Bible indicates that God will test his people before the trumpets sound and seems to suggest that he will give complete victory over the sinful nature to those who remain faithful to him. This is the fulfillment of the new covenant: