Revelation 8:1-13.
The 7th Seal.
In the previous two chapters, we have seen a description of the 7-year Great
Tribulation period, as God’s judgment is poured out upon sinful man.
Through the apostle
John, the Lord Jesus reveals to us things about the Tribulation period in
series of 7’s.
7 seals/7 trumpets/7
bowls of wrath.
We have already seen 6 of the seals
broken in God’s scroll, and each one ushered in a detailed judgment of a Holy God
upon a Christ-rejecting world.
The 4 horsemen of the
apocalypse delivered the first 4 judgments: Dominion, Division,
Depravation, and Death!
The 5th and 6th seals revealed the
people left on earth praying to the rocks of the mountains to fall on them, they
were wishing they were dead.
Then in chapter 7 there is a break between the 6th and
7th seals, the lull before the storm, and judgment was withheld
from the earth for a space of time that God might seal the 144,000 Jewish
Evangelists, and letting them loose on the earth, winning souls in great
numbers, souls who had never heard the Gospel before the rapture took the
church away!
One seal is yet to be opened, the 7th
and it is by far the most terrible of the Tribulation horrors. The opening
of the 7th seal brings to pass 3 intense results:
Preparation, Desolation
and Liberation
Preparation of the 7th seal.
Let us look at the strange silence, and then the awesome request.
The strange silence
verse 1:
1 When He opened the seventh seal,
there was silence in heaven for about half an hour” Revelation 8:1 (NKJV).
A strange, uncanny, but awesome silence. It is no doubt the longest
silence that the joyful place of Heaven has ever known. This silence will
stand in stark contrast to the Heaven we see in chapters 4 and 5,
as those gathered around the throne cry, “You are worthy,” and a choir
of 100 million declare: “Worthy is the Lamb, and they cease not day and
night crying holy, holy, holy!”
And then for 30 minutes all of heaven
is dead silent!
What does this silence
stand for?
Why does heaven come
to a standstill?
What does this
silence represent?
I believe that all of Heaven is holding
its breath. I believe that what they see at the opening of the 7th seal
is so terrible, so terrible, so incredibly frightening, that no one in heaven
dares to breathe a word.
Like the silence in the courtroom, just before the verdict is read, it
is like the silence in the executioner’s chamber, just before he pulls the
switch, or administers the lethal injection!
It reminds me of Zephaniah 1:7 “Hold
your peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand.”
And Zechariah 2:13 “Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for He is
raised up out of His holy habitation.”
And Habakkuk 2:20 “But the LORD is in His holy temple: let all the earth
keep silence before Him.”
At this point in the book of
Revelation, judgment is about to come to the earth like never before. The
storm is about to break in all of its fury, and the horror of what is about to
happen causes even God to pause, and seriously assess what must be done, and so
for 30 minutes, nobody says a word! Takes a breath or moves!
What do they see at the opening of the 7th seal that is
so awesome it brings about this strange, deafening silence? We are given
just a glimpse of it in
Verse 2.
2 And I saw the
seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets” Revelation
8:2 (NKJV).
In the Bible, a trumpet stands for several things.
A trumpet is very important
when it comes to the nation of Israel.
The trumpet was used
to sound the alarm, to call God’s people to work, to war, to worship.
The trumpet sound
meant that God was getting ready to intervene into the affairs of men.
It was a trumpet that
sounded on Mt. Sinai and the giving of the 10 commandments
A trumpet was sounded
in I Kings and 2 Kings, when kings were anointed and enthroned.
Trumpets were blown when
the walls of Jericho came tumbling down.
In Revelation 1,
the voice of Christ was like the sound of a trumpet.
In Revelation 4,
the sound of the rapture trumpet called the apostle John to heaven! No wonder
heaven stood still for half an hour, when they saw 7 angels preparing to sound
7 trumpets in a row! Something big was about to happen! In huge proportions!
Verses 3-4.
3 Then another
angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much
incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon
the golden altar which was before the throne.
4 And the smoke of the incense,
with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand” Revelation
8:3-4 (NKJV).
After 30 minutes of strange silence, another angel appears on the scene,
and he is standing at the golden altar in Heaven. We know from the Old Testament
that the golden altar is used for burning incense, a picture of prayer
ascending to God.
With that in mind, look back at Revelation
5:8 “Now when He had
taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell
down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense,
which are the prayers of the saints” Revelation 5:8 (NKJV).
Do you realize that our prayers are manifested in Heaven as incense? That
is a great encouragement to me. That is means that no prayer that I ever
pray is wasted. No prayer is unnoticed. My prayers are actually being
saved in Heaven in golden bowls, in the form of incense.
Now look at verse 3 “Then another angel, having a golden
censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should
offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which
was before the throne.” Look what
the angel does with our prayers:
This 8th angel, which many Bible scholars believe to be Jesus,
functioning in the capacity of our High Priest, takes our incense, our prayers,
and He adds to it “much incense” as He places it on the altar.
Question: Whose
incense is being added to our incense? Whose prayers are being added to
our prayers? It is the intercessory prayers of Christ Himself, on our
behalf!
See Hebrews 7:25 “Therefore He is
also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He
always lives to make intercession for them” Hebrews 7:25 (NKJV).
What an
encouragement!
What a blessing!
What a thrill!
To see Jesus, mingle His prayers with ours and offer them to God on the
altar! Let us never forget, that the purpose of prayer is not to get men
will done in heaven, it is to get God’s will done on earth. For centuries
now, the prayer of believers has been:
“Your Kingdom come, Your
will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven!”
Verses 3-4.
3 Then another
angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much
incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon
the golden altar which was before the throne.
4 And the smoke of the incense,
with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand” Revelation
8:3-4 (NKJV).
Now, with the opening of the 7th seal, those prayers are
answered! They are offered, and they ascend upward God the Father. And
like it or not, the prayers of God’s people are involved with the judgments
that He is about to send with the 7 trumpets.
The altar of incense teaches us 3
things about our prayers:
1. Our prayers must be
passionate.
Notice the incense was placed upon burning coals. You will never move
the heart of God to action with half-hearted, lukewarm prayers, it is like
placing incense on cold, burned-out coals. It just sits there, and does not
even hit the ceiling, it never rises to heaven.
Jesus prayed in the garden a prayer which brought sweat to His
brow. When is the last time you watered your prayers with tears? Agonized? Wept
over a lost soul? Put some passion in your prayers.
2. Our prayers should be
persevering.
Exodus 30 says the priest offered the incense every morning and every
evening. Just as half-hearted prayers will never move the heart of God, inconsistent
prayers will never move God’s heart!
The priest did not just offer prayers on the days he felt like it or remembered
or had enough time or it was convenient, or it fitted his schedule. No, he was
consistent, and persistent, and persevering. The Bible has a lot to say about
persevering prayer. There is an entire parable about it in Luke 11.
Let me encourage you, keep praying, it is always darkest before the
dawn, keep praying, you are on the verge of a breakthrough, the answer is just
around the corner!
Put some perseverance in your prayers
and put some passion in your prayer life. Then:
3. Put some praise in
your prayers
Hebrews 13:15 “Therefore by Him let us continually
offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to His name” Hebrews 13:15 (NKJV).
A very interesting verse is the one which says that God inhabits the
praise of His people, which means, when you praise Him, He is all over you! That
is a place He likes to be!
When the priest came out of the temple from burning incense, everyone knew
where he had been and what he had been doing, because of the smell! The
aroma told the story.
There are some precious people, and
when you walk in there is a glow, a radiance, an aura that says, you have been
with God, but others are so gloomy, so negative, and critical, they might as
well wear a sign that says, “I have not been with God for a long time!”
Question: How do you smell? To God?
That is the lesson of the altar of
incense. God is storing your prayers and mine in heaven, and verse 3
says they will be offered to God Almighty along with the prayers of Jesus
Christ for us. How is your prayer life?
This is just the preparation for the
opening of that 7th seal. There is a strange silence, and then
there is awesome supplication, and all of the prayers of the ages will be
answered through God’s final judgment, His once-and-for-all evidence of His
Holy Name for all eternity!
Revelation 8/9 tell the story of the 7th seal, and they lend
themselves to outline very readily.
Verses 1-6 of chapter 8,
we see the PREPARATION for the 7th seal.
Verses 7-13 of chapter 8,
we are going to see the DESOLATION of the 7th seal, which is
made up of those first 4 trumpet judgments.
And later in Revelation chapter 9 we will see the
LIBERATION of the 7th seal, as the armies of hell and forces of
Satan from the bottomless pit are set free on the earth for a space of time.
As we open the 7th seal, and let those 7 trumpets blow
one by one, I would like to issue a warning: This is going to sound
far-fetched!
Some of this seems hard to believe, but do not be
discouraged. Before Jesus came the first time, there were some prophecies
that sounded pretty far-fetched too! And they all came true!
In Isaiah: a
virgin will conceive
In the Prophets: when/where/how Jesus would be born, how He would
be rejected by His own, and how He was betrayed, how He would die, and how He
will rise from the dead on the 3rd day
Wisdom begs us to believe these
prophecies literally. So, let us open the 7th seal and
listen to these trumpets sound:
These first 4 trumpets announce
judgments against physical nature: the land, saltwater, freshwater, and outer
space.
The last 3 trumpets are judgments against mankind himself.
1st trumpet,
verse 7:
7 The first angel sounded: And hail
and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a
third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up” Revelation
8:7 (NKJV).
The target of this judgment is vegetation. According to this verse,
during the tribulation period, most of the earth’s vegetation is going to be crushed. “Grass”
here is an all-inclusive word which means all vegetation, inc. grain, rice,
wheat, corn, oats, all plant life. In Genesis 1, the plant life was
the first to be created, and in the Tribulation, it is the first to be
destroyed. It says 1/3rd of the trees will be burnt up.
There will be famine, floods, erosion and mudslides, and air pollution
and solar blackouts like we have never imagined possible. The bottom
line: you do not want to be here!
2nd trumpet,
verses 8-9:
8 Then the
second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with
fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.
9 And a third of the living
creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed” Revelation
8:8-9 (NKJV) .
This judgment is targeted against the oceans and seas. “as it
were” = something like a huge mountain. Could represent an enormous meteor
or asteroid, or something of which we have not thought. Whatever it is, the
result is 3-fold:
1/3rd of marine life is killed / 1/3rd of
water turned to blood, 1/3rd of ocean-going ships destroyed (we
are quite dependent upon on merchant ships).
A lot of cargo will be lost, food supply, not to mention the environmental
problems resulting from destroyed oil tankers, and other hazards, and these are
nothing compared to the blood spoken of here!
The bottom line: you do not want to be here!
3rd trumpet
verses 10-11:
10 Then the
third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch,
and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
11 The name of the star is
Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the
water, because it was made bitter” Revelation 8:10-11 (NKJV).
Now God’s judgment reaches inland, and it affects the freshwater.
1/3rd of all the freshwater on earth is poisoned, by a great “star”
from heaven. Man has never
appreciated fresh water like he will when it is extremely scarce.
The water will be so bitter, no one will want it, but evidently many
will become so desperate, they will drink it anyway, and die.
The bottom line: you do not want
to be here!
4th trumpet
verses 11-12:
11 The name
of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men
died from the water, because it was made bitter” Revelation 8:11 (NKJV).
12 Then the fourth
angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a
third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day
did not shine, and likewise the night” Revelation 8:12 (NKJV).
All-natural light is diminished by 1/3rd. The sun,
moon, and stars take this judgment also. There is a third less light by day,
and the night is 33% darker than usual. This could be the result of air
pollution, the dust cloud resulting from nuclear war.
1/3rd less light will have a major effect on nature as
well. Think of the dramatic temperature changes. (global cooling). This
will not help the food supply. The lack of loss will affect the climate,
rainfall, etc., which will further affect the food supply, which was already
reduced to 2/3rd’s normal, and could not be transported by ship
conveniently anyway!
The bottom line: you do not want to be here!
Now, all these 1/3rds add up in succession, and all of the
balance of God’s nature is out of order, what is more terrifying is the pause
which takes place in verse 13, prior to the last 3 trumpets:
Verse 13:
13 And I looked, and
I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe,
woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of
the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!” Revelation 8:13 (NKJV).
Angel: “the worst is yet to come…you have not seen anything yet” Those
first 4 judgments were targeted against physical nature, but the next 3 are
against mankind himself.
Conclusion:
Over and over, I have said that the bottom line is you do not want to be
here! The good news is you do not have to be!
I have done my best to share these visons given to John by Jesus Christ
Himself as a warning to its readers. What are you going to do with Jesus?
Accept Him as Saviour reject Him? Only by accepting Christ as Saviour can you
be shared what is written in these chapters of Revelation.
I have done my best to write what I understand to be in the text of the
Book of Revelation. Study it for yourself, maybe the Lord will reveal even more
of the truth written in these chapters.
End of chapter 8.
