The Seventh Seal: Quiet before the Storm
Revelation 8:1-12
January 7, 2007

Pat Robertson has stated that God told him that 2007 is not the year for the revealing of the Antichrist or the return of Christ, so if anyone says that will happen, Robertson states that we’re not to believe them. He may be right about this; or maybe not. But are we to believe Robertson’s or others’ predictions? In 2006, after his New Year’s prayer retreat, Mr. Robertson stated that something like a tsunami would hit the American coast; didn’t happen. In 2004, he predicted that George Bush would have a cakewalk to reelection and win by a landslide; again, didn’t happen. He further said that Mr. Bush would be able to accomplish his legislative agendas regarding major tax and Social Security reforms. That doesn’t appear on the horizon either!

I don’t know how far back it goes, but evidently, for centuries, people have sought to predict the future. As early as the time of Moses, Israel was warned of the characteristics of false prophets. They were to know how to recognize them and avoid following them. Yet false prophets have multiplied through the centuries as have “good old boy” prognosticators who think they have figured out God’s so-called “prophetic calendar.” There appears to be an innate craving to know the details of the future; so plenty of predictors have accommodated. The amazing thing is that many cling to the predictions, counting them as good as gold.

Unfortunately, the book of Revelation has become fodder for prognosticators. Clever charts and timelines, carefully worked out dates, and the like, make up much of the teaching on this marvelous, last book of the Bible. Meanwhile, the very ones that ought to be receiving instruction from this book are confused by the Hollywood-style hype that shows up in novels, movies, and prophecy conferences. It is a shame for the church to be carried away by the siren tones of those that turn a book of worship and encouragement into a confusing parade of prophetic mishmash.

In that regard, let me point out a few things that Revelation is not. (1) It is not a linear timeline. Revelation is not an A-Z chart that fills in all the information craved concerning end-times. Instead, it provides a series of vivid pictures, many of which overlap the same events, in order to stimulate our hearts to worship the Lord and press on as Christians. (2) It is not a comfortable book nor does it intend to even make Christians comfortable. Comforting, yes; but comfortable, no. That was part of the problem in Ephesus and Laodicea; Christians had grown comfortable while they needed to persevere. Perseverance is unsettling to the apathy and presumption that marks many professing Christians. Because Revelation shows the triumph of the Lamb, believers find fresh motivation to stay faithful to the gospel of Christ.

(3) It is not a guide to predicting dates. Amazingly, the return of Christ has been predicted by so many different people and groups for so many different dates, and yet people still fall for such tomfoolery. John doesn’t even hint at dates. He pictures events and both national and cosmic happenings, but not dates. Our responsibility is not to figure out dates but to be faithful in our walks with Christ. (4) It is not a call to fanciful end-time discussions. Rather, the book of revelation is a call to battle for Christians through the arms of prayer, worship, biblical proclamation, and perseverance to the point of laying down one’s life for the gospel.

Yet with these musings on Revelation, we do find an interesting question posed by martyred saints gathered under the heavenly altar. “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (6:9-10). In other words, when will believers be able to take their rest from the opposition and antagonism of the world toward Christ and the gospel? Be patient, be faithful, and count on God’s righteous and timely judgment, they were told. There are more martyrs to follow. But, don’t despair; God has all under control. That’s the message that follows through the explanations pictured in the 6th and 7th seals as well as the seven trumpets. God will vindicate His people as He vindicates His great name. Do you believe this? If so, ponder this truth with me, and I believe you will find fresh motivation to press on in faithfulness to Christ.

I. Silence in heaven
Keep in mind that chapter 6 unveils for us the opening of six of the seven seals that bound the book that the Lamb of God took from Him who sat on the throne. Here we have pictured the sovereign rule of Jesus Christ over all creation. The breaking of the seals shows us the unfolding decrees of God that our Lord sovereignly governs. The first seal encourages us to see the spread of the gospel in the midst of great opposition and difficulties. It prepares us to understand that through all of the trials of life, Christians will persevere and the gospel will spread. The second seal reveals the spread of war, the third—famine, the fourth—death by violence, famine, disease, and wild beasts. The fifth seal takes us to heaven to hear the cry of the martyrs, beseeching God to judge those that oppose the gospel (6:1-11).

The sixth seal takes a jump to the end (6:12-17). While the other seals reveal the ongoing course of human existence through the centuries, the sixth takes us to the reality that the precursors to judgment have their culmination. It is a cataclysmic event affecting earth, sky, and universe. No kingdom or nation or strata of people are excluded. The day of God’s wrath comes, and “who is able to stand?”

The interlude in chapter 7 helps us to understand what God is doing on behalf of His people who live through the trials, tribulations, and vexations of a world under God’s judgment. He seals His bond-servants (7:3), i.e. He marks them out as belonging to Him and not objects of His wrath. This is pictured for us in two ways. First, we see the 144,000 numbered as an army prepared for battle (7:4-8). That points to the church militant, set apart by God to go forth conquering with the gospel of the Lamb. The multiples of 12, a number of completion, depicts the total number of the church—not a literal 144,000 people but rather the complete number of those elected before the foundation of the world, redeemed through the work of Christ, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, having repented of their sins and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ alone as their Redeemer.

Second, John takes us before the throne of God where we see “a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands,” loudly confessing that their salvation is all of God (7:9-10). Here we see the church triumphant, having already found the eternal rest that Christ secured through His bloody death on the cross. Of all those He has redeemed through His death, He has lost none. The innumerable multitude encouraged the little churches under persecution to realize that Christ’s work is global, and remains undaunted by Emperor Domitian or Julian the Apostate or Stalin or any other earthly ruler.

1. Heaven’s norm
“When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” If there’s one thing we’ve already noticed about heaven, it is that heaven is not a silent-kind of place! John saw Christ whose “voice was like the sound of many waters” (1:15). The four living creatures around the heavenly throne, “day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come’” (4:8). The twenty-four elders cast their crowns before the throne, repeatedly saying (as the Greek text shows), “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created” (4:10-11). The four living creatures and twenty-four elders join in singing a new song extolling the worthiness of the Lamb who was slain (5:8-10). They are joined by innumerable angels “saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing’” (5:11-12). All of the created order chimes in praising God and the Lamb amidst the repeated “Amen” of the four living creatures (5:13-14).

The martyrs cry out from underneath the altar (6:9-10). The innumerable multitude of the redeemed “cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’” (7:9-10). The angels, elders, and living creatures join them in vocally expressing worship to the Lord God (7:11-12). That’s the norm of heaven!

2. Shocking silence
Then everything goes silent. The Lamb opened the seventh seal on the book of God’s decrees, and all of the loud praises, singing, and joyful confession stops. All is quiet for a brief period, which is the meaning of “about half an hour.” Why the shocking silence in heaven?

The opening of the 7th seal pictures the finality of divine judgment. Since the fall of man recorded in Genesis 3, heaven has waited for the day when all sin would be judged, all the redeemed gathered into heaven, and evil removed forever from the world. No more opposition to God remains. No more cries of “How long, O Lord,” will be uttered. No more waiting for God’s name to be vindicated and the blood of His faithful avenged.

Silence on the part of heaven’s citizens represents the sense of awe at the righteous and complete way that God answers the prayers of His people. The response to the prayer of 6:10 where the martyrs pray for justice is answered in 8:1, 3-5.
The 7th seal is opened. Therefore the last barrier to the completion of divine judgment has just been removed. Heaven’s silence indicates a suspension of all heavenly activity to hear what God is declaring. Both the silence and the half-hour period are intended as devices to intensify our perception of God’s faithfulness to His Word. What He has declared concerning sin and judgment, He fulfills [cf. Greg Beale, NIGTC: Revelation, 446-452].

3. Prayer and incense
The contents of the 7th seal are found in 8:3-5. It continues the final judgment begun with the opening of the 6th seal. It is another look at what is happening; a certainty that God’s judgment is certain and thorough.

We see that this seal is a vindication of the martyrs’ cry in 6:9-11. The angel “stood at the altar, holding a golden censer.” The eight uses of “the altar” in Revelation have to do with judgment (6:9; 8:3, 5; 9:13; 11:1; 14:18; 16:7). It begins with the scene of martyrs underneath the altar. Now from that same altar “which was before the throne,” judgment comes forth. This indicates that the judgment is not by chance but by divine design. The angel that throws the coals of judgment to the earth does so by God’s command.

Some might question the kind of God that judges and condemns. If He were not a holy and righteous God, then I think questioning judgment would be fitting. But because He radiates with truth, righteousness, and holiness, to fail in executing justice would be to fail at being a God of righteousness.

Revelation 5:8 explains the picture of incense as “the prayers of the saints.” The angel standing at the altar holds a golden censer in his hand. “Much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand.” The use of “incense,” which was commonly part of the worship in the ancient temple, indicates that which is pleasing to the Lord. Here the Lord accepts the prayers of “all the saints” as a sweet aroma before His throne. And what were these prayers? It was the many cries of “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It was the cries for God to display His righteousness, to vindicate His great name, and to bring justice to His suffering people. It was the prayer to end the evil in the world; to bring an end to sin and its effects on the world.

“Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.” The four-fold response to the coals thrown on the earth represents cataclysmic judgment. John’s language is borrowed from the scene in Exodus 19 when God descended on the mountain to give His righteous law to Israel. “So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled… Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder” (Ex. 19:16-19).

The just Judge of the universe descended with smoke, fire, thunder, lightning, and earthquake to give His law. The law or the Ten Commandments, express the moral character of God which He has commanded of all those made in His image. Yet the history of the world is the history of breaking God’s laws. John pictures this God who exercises absolute sovereignty over all the earth, descending with His judgment to vindicate His law. That is the judgment of the 7th seal. God will vindicate His righteousness through judgment upon the world. Every believer that has met with persecution, opposition, and antagonism can be certain that not one threat or injustice will pass the severity and totality of His judgment.

II. The trumpets sound
Revelation 8:2 introduces seven angels that will sound seven trumpets of judgment. But their work doesn’t commence until 8:6 since, as we’ve noted, the description of the 7th seal’s contents must first be disclosed. Now, let’s be honest. Seals seem odd enough to us, but now what do we do with trumpets?

1. Understanding the trumpets
Though some take the seven trumpets as the contents of the 7th seal, I don’t think that is John’s intention. The reason is quite simple. The 7th seal follows the 6th seal. Both of them picture total judgment not partial judgment or temporary judgment as we noted in seals two, three, and four. Aside from the limited range of these particular judgments in the trumpets (until the 7th trumpet which declares triumph, 11:15-19), the object of them is clearly the unbelieving world. The seals began with the white horse going forth conquering, which we interpreted as the spread of the gospel in the midst of the world’s tribulation and opposition. As the seals are opened to reveal war, famine, and death, the 5th seal comes again to believers who cry out for justice. The sixth and seventh seals demonstrate that final justice will be dealt out faithfully by the Lord.

The trumpets’ aim is toward the world in rebellion against God. We see this first in 9:4, when the fifth trumpet is sounded and the demonic adversaries can afflict “only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” That note takes us back to 7:3 where God sealed His bond-servants so that they were separated and spared from His wrath. Secondly, in 9:20-21, as John sums up the judgment in the first six trumpets, we find evidence that only the idolaters and ungodly of the world are afflicted by the judgment in the trumpets: “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

John’s symbolism in the trumpets parallels the language of Exodus as it describes the plagues against Egypt while God marked off Israel, distinguishing them with His favor and protection. Though not in the same order as the plagues, the trumpets on a global scale, resemble the same events that were prefigured in Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. “The first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth.” Exodus 9:24 recounts, “So there was hail, and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very severe, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.” “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, and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died… 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 waters. The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.” Exodus 7:20-21 records, “So Moses and Aaron did even as the Lord had commanded. And he lifted up the staff and struck the water that was in the Nile, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood. The fish that were in the Nile died, and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. And the blood was through all the land of Egypt.”
“The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.” Similarly, in Exodus 10:21-23, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt.’ So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings.”

What was the purpose of the signs in Egypt? Greg Beale explains, “These signs were not intended to coerce Pharaoh into releasing Israel but functioned primarily to demonstrate Yahweh’s incomparable omnipotence to the Egyptians… God continued to harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he could multiply his signs” [Beale 465]. Even the particular plagues that God chose corresponded with a particular Egyptian god [cf. Beale, 465-466]. Each plague revealed that God alone is omnipotent. Though a few Egyptians repented and became part of the covenant community, most did not. The plagues served as judgment against their idolatry and ungodliness.

In the same fashion, the trumpets cast judgment on the idolatrous and ungodly of the world. Some may repent when feeling the misery of judgment but most continue to defy the Lord God and so ultimately fall under His wrath. The reality of human sinfulness and hardness of heart is evident in 9:20-21 when men refuse to repent in the face of these judgments. They culminate in final judgment expressed by the 7th trumpet in 11:15-19. Just as God protected the Israelites though living in the land of Egypt, John’s language demonstrates that God protects His people from the judgment intended for the idolatrous and ungodly (7:4-8, 9-11; 9:4, 20-21).

The symbolism in the trumpets affecting a third of the earth or the trees or the seas, etc. demonstrates the limited scope of these particular judgments. In this fashion, they overlap the judgment found in the seals but particularly affect only the idolatrous and ungodly. The violence of the first trumpet, “disruption of the trade network” in the second, the defilement of water supply in the third, and the “providential disasters” in the fourth trumpet send a powerful message to Christians living under the strain of persecution and oppression [Dennis Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb, 143-146]. “World disturbance and the apparently evil occurrence of history,” writes Beale, “are not a sign that events are out of God’s control, but are an expression of holy war, coming as a result of the church’s prayers and God’s sovereign response to those prayers” [470].

2. Why trumpets?
As in so many cases in the Old Testament, the trumpets announce the presence of the Lord, but in this case, His presence in judgment. God has come to vindicate His name, to demonstrate His glory by judging sin and rebellion, and to bring justice to those that have persecuted His people.

The trumpets serve to call Christians to battle; not in a physical warring as expressed so often in other religions. But we are called to faithfulness, to prayer, to proclaiming the gospel, to holy living, to personal sacrifice, and to lay down our lives for the sake of the gospel. The sound of the trumpets evidenced in the temporal judgments of God upon this world call us to take seriously the gospel. We cannot be slothful or undisciplined or uninvolved when it comes to the work of God’s kingdom. The trumpets call us to action. With every temporal judgment, the time draws nigh when the 7th trumpet is sounded and final judgment consummated in the triumph of the Lamb and His bride.

Conclusion
Just as at Jericho, when Joshua led the children of Israel around the city for six days with the sound of the priestly trumpets blaring, the temporal judgments of God herald the divine victory that He will give. At Jericho, the Lord fought for His people. Our weapons of warfare are not of this world, as Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 10; they are spiritual weapons that hold high the cross of Christ, trusting in the sufficiency of His death and resurrection, and living in dependence upon Him. Throughout history, God’s trumpets of judgment have sounded, and they shall continue to sound until that great day when “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever” (11:15).

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