How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
The verse is the anguished cry of one who keeps seeing the battle flag raised and hearing the war trumpet sound amid invasion and spreading destruction. Its question of how long means the mobilization continues without pause, standard still in sight and trumpet still sounding, with destruction upon destruction until the whole land is suddenly spoiled. It is a vivid portrayal of recurring, destructive, worldwide war in the last days as sin nears its final removal and a sign that the end is near. It stands within a prophecy of the earth made waste and void, without light and without inhabitants, laid desolate at the Lord's coming by His fierce anger. That desolation is the thousand years after Christ's return, when the wicked are slain, the righteous reign above in judgment, and the broken earth remains Satan's prison until fire makes it new.
Prophet's Cry and Symbols
The verse is the prophet's anguished question over how long he must keep seeing the battle standard and hearing the trumpet amid war, invasion, and spreading destruction. It portrays recurring sights and sounds of military preparation, with the alarm of war continually before him and destruction overtaking the land and spreading among nations. The cry belongs amid alarms of war and widespread warfare, with marching armies gathering and the land suddenly spoiled.
The standard is a battle flag and the visible sign of armies gathering, invasion, and military preparation. The trumpet is the alarm and call to battle announcing war and the devastation that follows. Together they place the prophet amid cries of destruction and a spoiled land, in a vision whose result is waste, emptiness, darkness, forsaken cities broken down, and no man left.
The question how long conveys continuance and prolongation. The standard remains visible and the trumpet keeps sounding, with destruction upon destruction until the whole land is suddenly spoiled in a moment. The alarm and signs of war thus continue onward before the coming desolation, describing continuing scenes of destruction and calamity in judgment.
The prophet feels the alarm inwardly, with pain at the heart, a pounding heart, and grief of soul. He is filled with anguish and agony as the sound of war and spreading destruction fills his soul. He cannot keep silent at what he sees and hears, and that inner sorrow is the reason war is spoken against.
Original Setting and Fulfillment
The opening of Jeremiah 4 is directed to Israel and Jerusalem in their own time, yet the desolating destruction that fell upon Jerusalem and Palestine is only a faint shadow of the rapidly approaching last-days scenes set forth in the latter part of the chapter to which this verse belongs. That latter part foretells terrible scenes in the last days when the world will be completely broken down, when mountains tremble and hills move lightly, the fruitful place becomes a wilderness, and all the cities are broken down at the presence of the Lord and by His fierce anger. The prophecy found a partial, incidental fulfillment in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, but its full application reaches the conditions the world is passing through in the last days, when the prophet's question of how long the trumpet and battle standard with their war and destruction must continue is again urgent.
The verse belongs to a prophecy of the coming destruction of ancient Jerusalem that also applies to the church in the last days, when the iniquity of Jerusalem will be repeated. Its vision of war, in which the prophet asks how long he must witness the battle standard and hear the trumpet alarm, was seen about 2,500 years before the carnage then devastating Europe in 1914 to which it is applied.
Last-Days Warfare Foretold
Jeremiah 4:21 is one of the most vivid Old Testament prophecies of latter-day conditions, portraying recurring, destructive, worldwide war as sin approaches its final removal from the earth. The terror of end-time war fills the prophet with anguish, pained at the heart with a pounding heart, unable to keep silent because the standard remains in sight and the trumpet and alarm of war keep sounding in his soul, with destruction upon destruction and the whole land suddenly spoiled in a moment. The vision continues to a devastated earth, with mountains trembling, fruitful fields turned to wilderness, cities broken down, and destruction spreading across the land. This worldwide spirit of war is a sign that the end is near and that people will soon answer to God, given at a time when even many of God's professed people do not understand the real situation.
The prolonged question of how long answers to the great international conflict unfolding in Europe, with marching armies and war spreading among nations. The continuing sight of the battle standard and sound of the war trumpet convey prolonged devastation, whose fulfillment was described as beginning in a striking way and as taking place in the European war and in other places. The same continuing scenes of destruction and alarm reach to local disasters, including the Black Tom Island explosion in New York.
The standards seen and war trumpets heard describe military mobilization among the nations on a scale never before seen in all ages, leading to the final judgment and the war of the great day of God. Present naval and military buildup fulfills this warning of preparation for war, and carried out to the ultimate it means the destruction of earthly kingdoms. No nation can become well prepared without stirring up a spirit of boasting and aggressiveness in its people that drives other nations to prepare in the same way.
The standard seen and trumpet heard are the alarms of the final storm of war breaking suddenly upon the nations just before the day of the Lord, after the nations have prepared for war by beating plowshares into swords and pruning-hooks into spears. The last days will therefore be days of battle and war, of trumpet and alarm, not of lasting world peace. Lulls of peace and quiet, conferences of the powers, pledges of disarmament, and universal cries of peace give no evidence of coming peace, but precede sudden destruction gathering like a storm over a world in rebellion against God.
The verse predicts the great coming war of Armageddon when all the nations of the earth shall be prepared for battle, belonging to warnings about the period just before the day of the Lord and the battle of that day. It shows the marshaled roll-call of that final antichristian warfare to enthrone Christ as a temporal king, depicting the aftermath of the final conflict when cities are broken down and the earth is left depopulated. Not one living man called to that warfare will escape, for those who have not already slaughtered one another will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's second advent when Christ and His heavenly army are arrayed against them, leaving the earth desolated and every city broken down. This desolation answers when the war will cease by carrying the war to universal desolation at the close of earth's history, when the whole land is spoiled until the earth loses its form and is made void, mountains and hills are moved out of their places, no man is left upon the scene, and utter desolation takes the place of a once beautiful spot of God's creation. That smiting is God's smiting of the nations in His anger, including the professing Christian nations of Europe, for their wretched returns for all His infinite mercies.
Earth's Coming Desolation
The cry of how long the battle flag must be seen and the war trumpet heard stands within a prophecy of the earth's coming desolation, amid destruction upon destruction that continues until the final waste. It is placed just before the earth is made waste and empty, without form and void, and left desolate at the Lord's coming and presence and by His fierce anger. The alarm of war therefore belongs to the terrors and conditions just before the earth is laid waste again, and to the time of Christ's second coming when the earth and its cities become desolate.
The surrounding scene is the whole land laid waste and suddenly spoiled, with dwellings destroyed in the cry of distress under destruction upon destruction. Cities are broken down and forsaken, with no man left and the birds fled and gone. The heavens are without light and darkened, the mountains tremble and the hills are moved, and the fruitful field and fruitful place are turned to wilderness. All of this comes at the presence of the Lord and by His fierce anger, until the whole land is desolate and every city forsaken.
That judgment falls at the beginning of the day of the Lord with destruction of the ungodly, leaving the earth entirely desolate. The wicked are slain by the brightness of Christ's coming, and the earth is emptied of inhabitants and made empty and waste at His second coming. This takes place after the righteous are taken away and taken to heaven, while the saints are in the New Jerusalem above.
The desolation is complete as far as the works of man and the beauty and formation of the earth are concerned. Yet the Lord does not make a full end and the desolation is not the earth's full end forever. He reserves the material for future use, as when the old world perished by water, preparatory to the entire renewal and restitution of the earth and its ultimate restoration for the saints.
Out of that awful confusion and trouble God will create new heavens and a new earth. That confusion comes when men are no longer worthy of God's favor and probation has ended, ending the regular course of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night.
Millennium and New Earth
Jeremiah 4:19-28 is a prophetic sketch of the earth's desolation during the millennium, when the land is spoiled and the cities are broken down. In that time the earth lies desolate and chaotic, without form and void like the earth at the beginning of creation. The battle standard and trumpet belong to that description of ruin and devastation, which brings the earth back to waste and emptiness. In the thousand years after Christ's return the earth remains in this desolate condition, with its inhabitants dead and no man left. That desolate earth serves as Satan's prison, where he is confined and bears the sins of God's people, with no one on earth for him and his fallen angels to tempt.
At the second advent all the living wicked are slain and all the righteous are made immortal. The righteous then ascend to the Father's house above, to the New Jerusalem Jesus has gone to prepare. There they reign with Christ in judgment for one thousand years while this earth lies desolate. While judgment passes upon the wicked, the saints remain in the New Jerusalem above and the earth is left empty and waste.
At the end of the one thousand years Jesus returns to the earth with His saints to execute judgment upon all the ungodly. That execution cannot be until the second resurrection, when all ungodly sinners are raised. Then the wicked dead are raised and, with Satan, come up around the holy city after it has descended to this earth with Christ and the saints. They are utterly destroyed by fire from heaven, this earth becomes one vast lake of fire, and from it God brings a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Warning and Repentance Call
The standard and the trumpet are a warning of coming trouble immediately preceding and accompanying the return of Christ, showing that God gives warning before those events. The prophet's lamentation over war is heard in the question, for his inner grief at seeing the battle flag and hearing the call to battle is the reason war is spoken against in the Bible. The verse is a clear denunciation against sin, expressing sorrow of heart over the people's transgression and making a touching appeal to return to God that the mass of the people fail to answer. It belongs to one of the most vivid Old Testament prophecies of latter-day conditions, uttered in agony with pain at the heart and a pounding heart, unable to keep silent while seeing the standard and hearing in the soul the trumpet and alarm of war, with destruction upon destruction and the whole land suddenly spoiled in a moment, at a time when even many of God's professed people do not understand the real situation.
Its context describes God's people as foolish and knowing Him not, sottish children without understanding, wise to do evil but with no knowledge to do good. That is the condition of present cities in deep-rooted municipal corruption, growing worse with every investigation, showing wisdom only to do evil while good is banished from men's thoughts. The cry of distress is under destruction upon destruction when the whole land is laid waste and dwellings are destroyed suddenly, and the standard seen and the trumpet heard are the signals of the judgment bringing that waste. The same context identifies union with the world as spiritual adultery.
A just and merciful God cannot allow such evil to continue, and as He destroyed the old world and overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah for gross wickedness, and would have destroyed Nineveh without repentance at Jonah's preaching, so He must soon strike modern cities with divine justice and power. The verse applies to God's dealing with the wicked cities of the present time and reaches to the final doom when the whole earth is made a desolation with no man left, the heavens without light, the mountains trembling, the fruitful field turned to wilderness and the cities broken down before the fierce anger of Jehovah, while Zion gasps for breath in anguish before murderers. Every true Christian must earnestly turn men from the evil way before it is too late. The spreading forth of hands by the daughter of Zion in that time of destruction upon destruction is the remnant in the time of Jacob's trouble, when lifting up hands in prayer will be as universal as day and night prayer because their souls are wearied because of murderers.
The verse is the anguished cry of one who keeps seeing the battle flag raised and hearing the war trumpet sound amid invasion and spreading destruction. Its question of how long means the mobilization continues without pause, standard still in sight and trumpet still sounding, with destruction upon destruction until the whole land is suddenly spoiled. It is a vivid portrayal of recurring, destructive, worldwide war in the last days as sin nears its final removal and a sign that the end is near. It stands within a prophecy of the earth made waste and void, without light and without inhabitants, laid desolate at the Lord's coming by His fierce anger. That desolation is the thousand years after Christ's return, when the wicked are slain, the righteous reign above in judgment, and the broken earth remains Satan's prison until fire makes it new.
Prophet's Cry and Symbols
The verse is the prophet's anguished question over how long he must keep seeing the battle standard and hearing the trumpet amid war, invasion, and spreading destruction. It portrays recurring sights and sounds of military preparation, with the alarm of war continually before him and destruction overtaking the land and spreading among nations. The cry belongs amid alarms of war and widespread warfare, with marching armies gathering and the land suddenly spoiled.
The standard is a battle flag and the visible sign of armies gathering, invasion, and military preparation. The trumpet is the alarm and call to battle announcing war and the devastation that follows. Together they place the prophet amid cries of destruction and a spoiled land, in a vision whose result is waste, emptiness, darkness, forsaken cities broken down, and no man left.
The question how long conveys continuance and prolongation. The standard remains visible and the trumpet keeps sounding, with destruction upon destruction until the whole land is suddenly spoiled in a moment. The alarm and signs of war thus continue onward before the coming desolation, describing continuing scenes of destruction and calamity in judgment.
The prophet feels the alarm inwardly, with pain at the heart, a pounding heart, and grief of soul. He is filled with anguish and agony as the sound of war and spreading destruction fills his soul. He cannot keep silent at what he sees and hears, and that inner sorrow is the reason war is spoken against.
Original Setting and Fulfillment
The opening of Jeremiah 4 is directed to Israel and Jerusalem in their own time, yet the desolating destruction that fell upon Jerusalem and Palestine is only a faint shadow of the rapidly approaching last-days scenes set forth in the latter part of the chapter to which this verse belongs. That latter part foretells terrible scenes in the last days when the world will be completely broken down, when mountains tremble and hills move lightly, the fruitful place becomes a wilderness, and all the cities are broken down at the presence of the Lord and by His fierce anger. The prophecy found a partial, incidental fulfillment in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, but its full application reaches the conditions the world is passing through in the last days, when the prophet's question of how long the trumpet and battle standard with their war and destruction must continue is again urgent.
The verse belongs to a prophecy of the coming destruction of ancient Jerusalem that also applies to the church in the last days, when the iniquity of Jerusalem will be repeated. Its vision of war, in which the prophet asks how long he must witness the battle standard and hear the trumpet alarm, was seen about 2,500 years before the carnage then devastating Europe in 1914 to which it is applied.
Last-Days Warfare Foretold
Jeremiah 4:21 is one of the most vivid Old Testament prophecies of latter-day conditions, portraying recurring, destructive, worldwide war as sin approaches its final removal from the earth. The terror of end-time war fills the prophet with anguish, pained at the heart with a pounding heart, unable to keep silent because the standard remains in sight and the trumpet and alarm of war keep sounding in his soul, with destruction upon destruction and the whole land suddenly spoiled in a moment. The vision continues to a devastated earth, with mountains trembling, fruitful fields turned to wilderness, cities broken down, and destruction spreading across the land. This worldwide spirit of war is a sign that the end is near and that people will soon answer to God, given at a time when even many of God's professed people do not understand the real situation.
The prolonged question of how long answers to the great international conflict unfolding in Europe, with marching armies and war spreading among nations. The continuing sight of the battle standard and sound of the war trumpet convey prolonged devastation, whose fulfillment was described as beginning in a striking way and as taking place in the European war and in other places. The same continuing scenes of destruction and alarm reach to local disasters, including the Black Tom Island explosion in New York.
The standards seen and war trumpets heard describe military mobilization among the nations on a scale never before seen in all ages, leading to the final judgment and the war of the great day of God. Present naval and military buildup fulfills this warning of preparation for war, and carried out to the ultimate it means the destruction of earthly kingdoms. No nation can become well prepared without stirring up a spirit of boasting and aggressiveness in its people that drives other nations to prepare in the same way.
The standard seen and trumpet heard are the alarms of the final storm of war breaking suddenly upon the nations just before the day of the Lord, after the nations have prepared for war by beating plowshares into swords and pruning-hooks into spears. The last days will therefore be days of battle and war, of trumpet and alarm, not of lasting world peace. Lulls of peace and quiet, conferences of the powers, pledges of disarmament, and universal cries of peace give no evidence of coming peace, but precede sudden destruction gathering like a storm over a world in rebellion against God.
The verse predicts the great coming war of Armageddon when all the nations of the earth shall be prepared for battle, belonging to warnings about the period just before the day of the Lord and the battle of that day. It shows the marshaled roll-call of that final antichristian warfare to enthrone Christ as a temporal king, depicting the aftermath of the final conflict when cities are broken down and the earth is left depopulated. Not one living man called to that warfare will escape, for those who have not already slaughtered one another will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's second advent when Christ and His heavenly army are arrayed against them, leaving the earth desolated and every city broken down. This desolation answers when the war will cease by carrying the war to universal desolation at the close of earth's history, when the whole land is spoiled until the earth loses its form and is made void, mountains and hills are moved out of their places, no man is left upon the scene, and utter desolation takes the place of a once beautiful spot of God's creation. That smiting is God's smiting of the nations in His anger, including the professing Christian nations of Europe, for their wretched returns for all His infinite mercies.
Earth's Coming Desolation
The cry of how long the battle flag must be seen and the war trumpet heard stands within a prophecy of the earth's coming desolation, amid destruction upon destruction that continues until the final waste. It is placed just before the earth is made waste and empty, without form and void, and left desolate at the Lord's coming and presence and by His fierce anger. The alarm of war therefore belongs to the terrors and conditions just before the earth is laid waste again, and to the time of Christ's second coming when the earth and its cities become desolate.
The surrounding scene is the whole land laid waste and suddenly spoiled, with dwellings destroyed in the cry of distress under destruction upon destruction. Cities are broken down and forsaken, with no man left and the birds fled and gone. The heavens are without light and darkened, the mountains tremble and the hills are moved, and the fruitful field and fruitful place are turned to wilderness. All of this comes at the presence of the Lord and by His fierce anger, until the whole land is desolate and every city forsaken.
That judgment falls at the beginning of the day of the Lord with destruction of the ungodly, leaving the earth entirely desolate. The wicked are slain by the brightness of Christ's coming, and the earth is emptied of inhabitants and made empty and waste at His second coming. This takes place after the righteous are taken away and taken to heaven, while the saints are in the New Jerusalem above.
The desolation is complete as far as the works of man and the beauty and formation of the earth are concerned. Yet the Lord does not make a full end and the desolation is not the earth's full end forever. He reserves the material for future use, as when the old world perished by water, preparatory to the entire renewal and restitution of the earth and its ultimate restoration for the saints.
Out of that awful confusion and trouble God will create new heavens and a new earth. That confusion comes when men are no longer worthy of God's favor and probation has ended, ending the regular course of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night.
Millennium and New Earth
Jeremiah 4:19-28 is a prophetic sketch of the earth's desolation during the millennium, when the land is spoiled and the cities are broken down. In that time the earth lies desolate and chaotic, without form and void like the earth at the beginning of creation. The battle standard and trumpet belong to that description of ruin and devastation, which brings the earth back to waste and emptiness. In the thousand years after Christ's return the earth remains in this desolate condition, with its inhabitants dead and no man left. That desolate earth serves as Satan's prison, where he is confined and bears the sins of God's people, with no one on earth for him and his fallen angels to tempt.
At the second advent all the living wicked are slain and all the righteous are made immortal. The righteous then ascend to the Father's house above, to the New Jerusalem Jesus has gone to prepare. There they reign with Christ in judgment for one thousand years while this earth lies desolate. While judgment passes upon the wicked, the saints remain in the New Jerusalem above and the earth is left empty and waste.
At the end of the one thousand years Jesus returns to the earth with His saints to execute judgment upon all the ungodly. That execution cannot be until the second resurrection, when all ungodly sinners are raised. Then the wicked dead are raised and, with Satan, come up around the holy city after it has descended to this earth with Christ and the saints. They are utterly destroyed by fire from heaven, this earth becomes one vast lake of fire, and from it God brings a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Warning and Repentance Call
The standard and the trumpet are a warning of coming trouble immediately preceding and accompanying the return of Christ, showing that God gives warning before those events. The prophet's lamentation over war is heard in the question, for his inner grief at seeing the battle flag and hearing the call to battle is the reason war is spoken against in the Bible. The verse is a clear denunciation against sin, expressing sorrow of heart over the people's transgression and making a touching appeal to return to God that the mass of the people fail to answer. It belongs to one of the most vivid Old Testament prophecies of latter-day conditions, uttered in agony with pain at the heart and a pounding heart, unable to keep silent while seeing the standard and hearing in the soul the trumpet and alarm of war, with destruction upon destruction and the whole land suddenly spoiled in a moment, at a time when even many of God's professed people do not understand the real situation.
Its context describes God's people as foolish and knowing Him not, sottish children without understanding, wise to do evil but with no knowledge to do good. That is the condition of present cities in deep-rooted municipal corruption, growing worse with every investigation, showing wisdom only to do evil while good is banished from men's thoughts. The cry of distress is under destruction upon destruction when the whole land is laid waste and dwellings are destroyed suddenly, and the standard seen and the trumpet heard are the signals of the judgment bringing that waste. The same context identifies union with the world as spiritual adultery.
A just and merciful God cannot allow such evil to continue, and as He destroyed the old world and overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah for gross wickedness, and would have destroyed Nineveh without repentance at Jonah's preaching, so He must soon strike modern cities with divine justice and power. The verse applies to God's dealing with the wicked cities of the present time and reaches to the final doom when the whole earth is made a desolation with no man left, the heavens without light, the mountains trembling, the fruitful field turned to wilderness and the cities broken down before the fierce anger of Jehovah, while Zion gasps for breath in anguish before murderers. Every true Christian must earnestly turn men from the evil way before it is too late. The spreading forth of hands by the daughter of Zion in that time of destruction upon destruction is the remnant in the time of Jacob's trouble, when lifting up hands in prayer will be as universal as day and night prayer because their souls are wearied because of murderers.