Revelation 8:6

The whole scene quite clearly symbolizes God sending judgment on the earth in response to His people’s accumulated prayers (cf. Exodus 3:7-10; Exodus 19:16-19; Revelation 4:5; Revelation 11:19; Revelation 16:18). The trumpet judgments to follow are what He will send. The storm theophany, therefore, apparently implies the awful calamities that will come in the trumpet and bowl judgments that are ahead. [Note: Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8-22 : An Exegetical Commentary, p. 12.]

All the trumpet judgments seem to proceed out of the seventh seal judgment. [Note: For proof that the trumpet judgments telescope out from the seventh seal rather than recapitulating the seals judgments, see ibid, pp. 3-5, 525-43.] In other words, when the Lamb broke the seventh seal John saw not just one judgment but a whole new series of judgments. There is every reason to conclude that these will follow chronologically. [Note: See Tenney, p. 71; and Ladd, p. 122.] We shall see that seven bowl judgments apparently proceed out of the seventh trumpet judgment in the same way. [Note: See the chart "The Tribulation Judgments" at the beginning of my discussion of chapter 6 for a visual representation of this relationship.] Some interpreters, however, believe the trumpet judgments merely recap and restate the seal judgments. [Note: E.g., Dale Ralph Davis, "The Relationship Between the Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls in the Book of Revelation," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 16 (Summer 1973):149-58; and Beale, p. 472.]

These are the judgments that the angel ascending from the rising of the sun held back until the bond-servants of God were sealed on their foreheads (Revelation 7:3). Therefore, they are more severe than the first six seal judgments. Their object is to lead hostile unbelievers to repentance and to announce punitive judgments against hardened unbelievers, but few will repent (Revelation 9:20-21).