Silence in Heaven

When the Seventh Seal is opened, seven angels prepare to sound their trumpets to unleash judgments on the Inhabitants of the Earth – Revelation 8:1-6.

The saints have been “sealed” and washed “in the blood of the Lamb.” The full complement of witnesses for the Lamb is being assembled, and the time will soon arrive for the judgment of the “Inhabitants of the Earth” who slew “the witnesses under the altar.” Their plea for vindication will be answered.

The opening of the Seventh Seal provides a transition to the next sevenfold series, the Seven Trumpets. Furthermore, the two series, the Seven Seals and the Seven Trumpets, include literary features common to both sevenfold series. They are inextricably linked.

[Calm Sea - Photo by Benoît Deschasaux on Unsplash]

Both sevenfold series compare “the prayers of the saints” to incense, and both foresee the arrival of the final judgment accompanied by “voices, claps of thunder, and flashes of lightning” - (Revelation 6:12-17, 8:5, 11:19).

In both series, the first four events are separated from the final three, and both include a literary break and interval between the sixth and seventh events when the saints are prepared for future challenges - (i.e., the “sealing” of the saints of Revelation 7:1-17, and “the measuring of the sanctuary” and “the Two Witnesses” of Revelation 11:1-15).

• (Revelation 8:1) - “As soon as he opened the seventh seal, there came to be silence in heaven, as if, half an hour.”

The return to the opening of the seven seals after the saints are sealed indicates that the vision of chapter 7 was parenthetical. Up to this point, events have been noisy, and the sudden silence is unexpected.

What is called “silence” is not complete silence in heaven but the temporary cessation of the “flashes of lightning, claps of thunder, and voices.” These phenomena will resume when the angel casts the coals of fire onto the earth as described in verse 5. This quiet interval is so that the prayers of the saints can be heard before the Throne.

Elsewhere in Revelation, the period of an hour refers to the decisive moment of judgment at the end of the age. In several Old Testament prophecies, silence precedes the Day of the Lord. In Revelation 8:1, the first half of this hour is set aside so heaven can receive the prayers of the saints.

The half hour of silence alludes to two passages from the Book of Zechariah. First, the vision of four different colored horses with riders that travel throughout the earth and report that “all the earth is silent.”

Second, the vision of a man holding “a measuring line in his hand” with which he “measured the length and breadth of Jerusalem.” Yahweh exhorted His people to flee from “the daughter of Babylon” since He was about to judge her, and the prophet summoned “all flesh to be silent before Yahweh, for he is roused out of his holy habitation” to execute judgment. The command to measure Jerusalem will echo again in Revelation 11:1-2 - (Zechariah 1:7-16, 2:1-13, 6:1-8).

• (Revelation 8:2) - “And I saw the seven angels standing before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.”

THE SEVEN ANGELS

The Seven Angels are possibly identical to “the Seven Angels” assigned to “the Seven Churches of Asia.” Previously, they were represented by “the seven torches of fire burning before the throne” – (Compare Revelation 1:4).

• “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are seven churches” – (Revelation 1:20).

• “And out of the throne proceed flashes of lightning and voices and claps of thunder. And there were seven torches of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” – (Revelation 4:5).

These same seven angels are given trumpets when the Seventh Seal is opened, but they will only begin “to sound” them after the prayers of the saints have ascended before the Throne.

The judgments about to be released against the Inhabitants of the Earth and the empire of the Beast were anticipated in the letter to the Church of Philadelphia. The ‘hour of trial’ is coming for the unrepentant men of the World Empire:

• “Because you kept the word of my endurance, I also will keep you from the hour of trial, which is going to come upon the habitable earth, to try the Inhabitants of the Earth. I come quickly! Hold fast that which you have, that no one take your crown” – (Revelation 3:10-11).

When the Fifth Seal was opened, the witnesses who were slain for their testimony pleaded with God to judge their persecutors - “O Master, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on the Inhabitants of the Earth?” (Revelation 6:10). Their cry is about to be answered.

• (Revelation 8:3-4) - “And another angel came and took his stand at the altar, having a censer of gold. And there was given to him much incense, that he might give it for the prayers of all the saints on the altar of gold that is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense ascended with the prayers of the saints, out of the hand of the angel before God.”

The petitions of the people redeemed by the Lamb must be heard before the seven trumpets can be blown and heard. Two different altars are in view in this passage. The Altar of Burnt Offerings and the Golden Altar on which Incense was offered to God.

When the Fifth Seal was opened, John saw the martyrs underneath the Altar of Burnt Offerings. In the ancient Tabernacle, this altar was the place where the priests poured out the remaining blood of sacrificial animals. The Golden Altar of Incense was located just beyond the veil that covered the entrance to the inner sanctuary, “the Holy of Holies.”

The fire of the altar in John’s vision points to the presence of these two altars. In the Tabernacle, the fire was taken from the Altar of Burnt Offerings and used to ignite the incense on the Golden Altar.

In the passage from the eighth chapter of Revelation, the angel adds a vast amount of incense to the prayers of the saints that ascend as incense from the altar. The prayers of the saints are added to the earlier pleas of the martyrs under the altar, and the incense represents the prayers of all the saints (the “golden bowls full of incense” were previously identified as “the prayers of the saints” – Revelation 5:5-8).

The Golden Altar places this scene before the Throne, where the Lamb received the sealed scroll and began to break open its seven seals in preparation for the opening of the sealed scroll itself - (Revelation 5:7-8):

• “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals…”- (Revelation 6:1).

• “And I saw another strong angel descending from heaven, arrayed with a cloud, and a rainbow upon the head, and his face as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire, and he had in his hand a little scroll, opened”- (Revelation 10:1-2).

The blowing of the trumpets by the Seven Angels borrows imagery from the fall of Jericho when Israel marched around the city, accompanied by the priests blowing their trumpets. In Revelation, the Church is portrayed as the Twelve Tribes of Israel assembled in the wilderness for the journey to the Promised Land in Chapter 7. Now, the saints are poised to enter and conquer the land, a stage in the drama of the Book of Revelation that will include the overthrow and fall of “the Great City, Babylon” - (Numbers 1:1-16, Joshua 6:1-27, Revelation 7:1-8).

• “Rejoice over her, you heaven, and you saints, and you apostles, and you prophets, for God has judged your judgment on her. And a strong angel took up a stone as it were a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus, with a mighty fall Babylon, the great city, will be cast down, and will be found no more at all” – (Revelation 18:20-21).

On each of the first six days of marching around Jericho, the men of Israel marched once around the city, led by seven priests with horns. The people kept silent during the first six days (“You will not shout or let your voice be heard”), and so Israel marched around the city in silence, except for the blast of the trumpets by the priests.

On the seventh day, the people marched around the city seven times, the priests blew their seven horns, and the people shouted as one, causing the walls of Jericho to collapse. In the Book of Revelation, it is not Jericho that falls, but the great city “called Sodom and Egypt,” identified elsewhere as the great city, Babylon - (Joshua 6:9-22, Revelation 11:8-19, 16:19).

Previously, the martyrs were told to wait for judgment until the full number of witnesses was assembled. Now, “the prayers of all the saints” actualize the judgments asked for by the martyrs:

• (Revelation 8:5) - “And the angel at once took the censer and filled it from the fire of the altar and cast onto the earth, and there came to be claps of thunder and voices and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”

Casting fire onto the earth symbolizes the execution of God’s judgments in response to the prayers of the saints. The “claps of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning and the earthquake” now unfold, pointing to the earlier vision of the Throne and forward to the final judgment, only now, an earthquake is added to the series of phenomena.

The order of the thunder, voices, and lightning is reversed. The same noisy events repeat with slight variations at the end of each sevenfold series - the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls of wrath - (Revelation 11:15-19, 16:17-21).

In the present passage, the “thunder, voices, lightning and earthquake” mark the end of the series of seven seals and the commencement of the seven trumpets. The addition of an “earthquake” signals an intensification of events, probably in response to “the prayers of all the saints.” The seismic event also links the passage to the Sixth Seal with its “great earthquake” on the day of wrath, to the Seventh Trumpet, and to the Seventh Bowl of Wrath - (Revelation 6:12, 11:13-19, 16:18).

In each sevenfold series, the visual and audible features intensify as each series reaches its conclusion. Since each of the series ends with a scene of final judgment, they are not presented in chronological sequence. They run concurrently.

• (Revelation 8:6) - “And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves that they might sound.”

Thus, the Seventh Seal ends with the Seven Angels prepared to blow their trumpets. The next four chapters describe how the seven trumpets affect the Inhabitants of the Earth and the infrastructure of the World Empire, a process that will culminate in the final judgment when the Seventh Trumpet is heard.

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SEE ALSO:

• The Seven Trumpets - Overview - (An overview of the seven trumpets and the several intervening events between the Sixth and Seventh Trumpets– Revelation 8:7-11:19)

• The First Trumpet - Hail - (The first trumpet blast unleashes forces that impact agriculture. It is modeled on the seventh plague of Egypt – Revelation 8:7)

• Second Trumpet – the Burning Mountain - (The second trumpet harms the commerce on which human society and political institutions must depend for survival – Revelation 8:8-9)

• Martyrs under the Altar - (The Fifth Seal opening reveals the souls of martyrs kept underneath the altar as they plead with God for vindication and justice – Revelation 6:9-11)