Revelation 8:1–6 (ESV) — 1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, 4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. 6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.
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We are learning in our study that this book is not about doom and gloom, though we read of great judgment. This book is about the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. This book is about God governing and moving all of history to fulfill His Plan of Redemption for His purified, blood-bought people. No matter what it looks like on earth. The Lamb of God Wins! That is the theme. We will see that theme in our scripture text this morning.
When we read our scripture text, what are we reading? Our symbolic pictures of heaven have featured mixed choirs of saints and angels, and giving glory to God and to the Lamb. Celebrations by innumerable saints and angels. Then the page turns to Chapter 8 and drama, great drama, is the scene in heaven.
Again, the spotlight is on the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus. He is opening/breaking the final, seventh seal that has kept the scroll shut until its time. The final seal is broken to unfold the final and completed Plan of Redemption. The plan that was set in motion before all of creation, before all time. We find ourselves in our reading on that edge of the history of man, the final edge.
It appears that Verses 1 and 5 are bookends of the seven trumpets. Why do I see it this way? Verse one is the opening of the last seal that holds the contents of the scroll closed. Now look at the description in verse five.
… and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
Now turn to Revelation 11:19, the 7th trumpet has been blown. Same description.
… There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
Verse one is the breaking of the 7th Seal, and verse 5 describes the 7th (last) Trumpet. We conclude that verses 1-6 are a view of what is happening in heaven during the 7 trumpets.
Let’s look at heaven’s reaction at the breaking of the 7th Seal, which is holding the contents of the Scroll closed.
In verse one, we have silence in heaven for ½ an hour. Heaven does not have clocks. It does not operate on time as we know of time. A half-hour is symbolic of a short period of time. I will come back to verse one later.
In verse two, the Apostle John sees seven angels standing before God.
In ancient rabbinical Judaism, the seven angels are named in their apocryphal books of Tobit 12:15 and I Enoch 20:1–7. The names of the angels are, Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Saraqael or Sariel, Gabriel, and Remiel. It is believed by some that these seven angels were high-ranking, archangels.
Please do not run off giving angels names. This is from ancient rabbinical writings, not from the Word of God. We don’t want to start calling on angels or calling them by name. The Scripture tells us to call on God. Angels are His servants, not ours.
Sadly, there are extreme groups within some churches that do that sort of thing. They think they can talk to angels, even treat them like their servants. This is unbiblical. Jesus says to “pray to your Father in heaven.” The Bible never tells us to talk to angels, or to order them around as servants.
Then our scripture text says, “seven trumpets were given” to the seven angels. In the Old Testament, trumpets were often used to communicate to God’s people, either religiously or militarily (cf. Exod. 19:16; Num. 10:1–10; Isa. 27:13; Jer. 4:5–9; Joel 2:1; Zeph. 1:16; Zech. 9:14; 2 Esdras 6:23). As in the Old Testament, trumpets are used here to communicate a religious and military message and action from God.
In verse three, “Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer.” What is a censor? It is a vessel used to burn incense. It is usually a cup-shaped vessel on the end of a long handle or a bowl sitting on a pedestal. Censers were filled with incense and burning coals in order to emit a pleasant odor. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest was to burn two handfuls of incense in the censer within the Holy of Holies before the Lord (Lev 16:12).
In verse four, “The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God …” In the Old Testament, incense was a symbol of prayer, and the symbolism continues here. (cf. Ps. 141:2; Rev. 5:8) Throughout the book of Leviticus, incense rose to God’s presence; therefore, incense came to represent the prayers of God’s people.1 We’ll come back to this later.
In verse five, “Then the angel filled the incense burner with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake.” Why did the angel do that? This was a response to the prayers of the saints.
Then we have verse six, “Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.” This verse takes us back to the first trumpet.
Let’s return to our view in heaven, notice a few details, and draw some practical applications. The first one is in verse one when the Lamb opened the seventh seal. We should pause here and notice what happened. He opens the seal, and there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. There was silence in heaven!
Did you get the drama in those words? We have read at the end of Chapter 7, as well as in Chapters 4-5, of the myriad of innumerable saints, angels, and heavenly creatures singing and musical instruments being played in honor of the Lamb of God. Revelation 6:9-10 says there was waving of Palm branches and singing with loud voices, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the lamb!” Then the Lamb, Jesus Christ, opens the seventh seal, and suddenly, there was silence in heaven. In all of heaven. The music stopped. The singing and shouting stopped. Silence. You could hear a pin drop. Every breath is held. Silence.
There is the story of the English journalist Bernard Levin attending a classical music concert featuring Schubert's songs. Levin reported that the recital was particularly moving. Great performances are usually met with loud applause, Levin reported, but on this occasion the audience sat in silence. Finally, still awed by the music, the audience rose and quietly departed.
Most often, we think of silence as merely the absence of noise. Perhaps silence is more than that. As Bernard Levin realized, silence can be a profound, still, deep experience. In silence, a person can sense aspects of reality which are normally drowned out by chatter and babble, and distracting noise. How often do we miss capturing a fresh sense of awe and expectation, a fresh sense of what is truly important, because we never seek the treasure of silence?
How many people have lost the healing wonder and peace that comes from an oasis of a quiet and calm mind? I argue that “Silence is Golden.” And sadly, it is as rare as gold.
1 Robert James Utley, Hope in Hard Times - The Final Curtain: Revelation
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven. The inhabitants of heaven stand spell-bound, lost for a time—in breathlessness, in silent amazement.”3 Why did everything stop? All of heaven was in awe and expectation. Awe and expectation from all of heaven of what was about to happen on earth. They knew what was about to happen.
The prophets Zechariah and Zephaniah shouted warnings to the peoples of the earth to stop! Be Silent! Do you not realize the magnitude of God’s judgment?
Zechariah the prophet commanded: “Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling” (Zech. 2:13).
The prophet Zephaniah warned: “Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near” (Zeph. 1:7).
All of heaven held its breath in awe and expectation. This is it, the last Seal is broken. We can travel to the Shenandoah Mountains and be awe, breathless awe; still and silent. We can stand on the beach and gaze out across the ocean as far as the horizon, and be in utter wonder at the ocean’s power, depth, and size. Breathless awe; still and silent. But none of this compares to the awe of the silence of heaven at the opening of the Seventh Seal. The Lord “has roused himself from his holy dwelling.” The final Seal, broken. The final act of the Lamb is at hand. Those who belong to Him—deliverance is at hand. Those who have refused His salvation and forgiveness—holy vengeance is at hand.
Just a note about what is not obvious but is brought out later in Revelation. Heaven is silent in awe and expectation of what is about to happen to the inhabitants of earth. Yet, the unbeliever continues to ignore the warnings, ignore the Church that warns them. “Where is your God? He has forgotten you!” they mockingly shout. The unbelieving world has no clue that the window of repentance is about to close for good.
As someone in the church texted me a couple of weeks ago with the impending ice apocalypse, which didn’t happen, people were panicking in fear of a snow and ice storm, but when they hear the preacher speak about the coming judgment of the Lord, they ignore it.
I recently read the testimony of missionary Julia Wells. There is something in her testimony that struck me that pertains to this subject. She wrote, “I was born into a Catholic family with a committed mom and dad who always loved each other. Growing up, my older sister and I were taught good morals and were brought mass on a semi-regular basis.”
Her parents made sure she was prepared for communion and confirmation. She said that even after completion of all of that, “my life did not reflect a personal relationship with Jesus.” She said, “My family never read the bible. When I was in high school, I remember having a strong desire to truly know God and would even drive alone to mass on Sunday mornings. In the end, I was left with so many questions that I didn’t know how to answer.”
Julia went to college, and her roommate, Angela, loved Jesus. Julia said, “Angela would read her bible at night. I remember Angela sharing that Jesus would be returning one day, and it freaked me out. I thought, “How could I have not known any of this?”
That last statement struck me. “Jesus would be returning one day, and it freaked me out. I thought, “How could I have not known any of this?” If you did not know this about Jesus, you do now. The Bible says, “Whosoever calls upon the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved.” They will be saved from the judgment of God that is coming.
The second focus that I want to point out is in verse four.
Revelation 8:4 - and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.
3 William Hendriksen, More than Conquerors
This is the same picture of prayer that we read earlier in Revelation 5:8.
“… the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”
Some prayers are held in heaven until the perfect time. This picture is of a bowl filled with the prayers of the saints, rising before God. He has not forgotten them. He keeps them. They are before Him. They are rising before Him.
There are several lessons from this picture in verses 3-5. One, this picture reminds us that our Father God never forgets our prayers and requests.
We also learn that the prayers that rise as incense before God are prayers of “the saints.” Not of anyone, but of saints. Saints are not the spiritual elite, selected and approved by some earthly pope. Rather, in the Bible, saints are sinners who have been cleansed and sanctified by the blood of Jesus, having been set apart from sin and the world simply through faith in Christ (see 1 Cor. 1:2). If you have not come to Jesus to be saved from your sins, then you are not a saint and have no reason to believe that your prayers will be accepted by God. This is why non-Christians often ask believers they know to pray for them, since they sense their own lack of access to heaven. But the simplest Christian can be certain that his or her prayers are treasured by God and will be answered according to his good and perfect will.
Saints are those who have been washed clean of all sin and shame. They wear Jesus as their righteousness before God the Father. God only receives prayers from His own children. Can you imagine going to a stranger’s house and expecting them to listen to your dinner request?
Ps. 116:2, because the Lord inclined His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.”
1 Peter 3:12 — For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. (Quoting from Ps. 34.15)
Yet, those who do not belong to Jesus Christ do not have His righteousness. They stand before God covered in unforgiven sin, shame, and guilt. The rest of 1 Peter 3:12 tells us the other half of the story, “But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” In other words. A person has either found forgiveness from Jesus or remains unforgiven and unacceptable to a holy God. God only accepts the prayers of those who are forgiven through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only one who can forgive.
A second Lesson from this picture is that the prayers of the saints are as sweet a fragrance as incense that rises before our God. Meaning, they give the Father pleasure.
God wants us to come in faith and ask, to love Him, to commune with Him in His Word. He wants us to understand that our prayers are not bothering Him. They are not interrupting Him. They are pleasing to Him.
A third lesson is the picture in the angel filling the censor with fire and throwing it on the earth. This was God answering all the prayers in the bowl. From heaven to earth. From the Throne Room to the earth. From the unseen realm to the seen realm. God answers the prayers in the bowl. Therefore, here is my exhortation: Fill the Bowl. Fill the prayer bowl. Let your prayers rise before God like incense. Fill the bowl with your prayers.
Instead of wondering what God may do, we should pray. Instead of fearing or being anxious, we should pray. Instead of getting impatient for God to answer our prayers in our timing, we should pray. Fill the Bowl! Fill the Bowl! Keep filling the Bowl. Fill, fill, fill.
Some Christians have only a few prayers in the prayer bowl. While others are filling it up. How about you? If your prayer needs to be answered before that 7th trumpet, it will be. If God waits because the time is not for you to see in this lifetime, then we need to trust Him and keep filling the bowl. He will answer the prayers in the bowl. Someone said, “Prayer is the arena in which Christians have a greater power than that of the world.”
Samuel Chadwick wrote concerning prayer, “It would seem that the biggest thing in God’s universe is a man who prays. There is only one thing more amazing, and that is that a man knowing this, should not pray.”
Let’s think about that. Do not let that be said of you in heaven.
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