‘And I saw and I heard an eagle, flying in mid heaven, saying with a great voice, ‘Woe, woe, woe for those who dwell on the earth, by reason of the other blasts (Gk: voices) of the trumpets which are yet to sound.'
The eagle flying in Heaven presumably refers to the living creature who was in the form of a flying eagle (Revelation 4:7). (When a flying eagle is specifically described earlier in the book it is surely unnecessary to look elsewhere). Just as the living creatures were the ones who sent out the four horsemen, so it is one of them who declare the earth's woes. The last three trumpets are being prepared for, and an indication is given of the awfulness that will result, beside which what has happened before will be as nothing. The woes are upon the ‘earth-dwellers', a term regularly used in Revelation of non-Christians. The Christians are sealed against them. Eagles are often connected with judgment (Hosea 8:1. See also Deuteronomy 28:49; Jeremiah 4:13; Habakkuk 1:8). which makes the use of the eagle type ‘living creature' especially relevant.
The fact that the last three trumpets are described as ‘woes' in contrast with the remainder stresses their awfulness and the fact that supernatural agencies are more fully involved. It is saying that what has been previously described is as nothing compared with what is now about to be described. Here we have an intensification of all that has been described before, but taking the form of direct spiritual attack.
The Fifth Trumpet Sounds - The First Woe.