Rev 8:1When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. 3Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. 4The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand.
Christ opens the 7th seal and there is silence.
Before we go any deeper, look were we are...we stand at the final opening ....well before the end. Notice that we are actually at the end (of our world). The parenthetical chapter (chapter 7) brought us up to the end, chronologically. This seventh trumpet is the beginning of the world of our God and His son Christ Jesus and carries us up to the time the dead will be judged. This is now a shadow or a duplication of prophetic truth. From chapter 4 up to and including chapter 11 there is truth presented in a sequence, an orderly procession of what happens after the church is raptured continuing up to the end.
The 7th seal is opened in verse one, then verse 2-6 fall back into a parenthetical passage telling us what is happening in heaven after the seal is open and before the first trumpet.
What we see within the 7th seal is the 6 trumpets sounded and again we find ourselves with a parenthetical area. But, let's get into chapter 8 and explain from there.
Chapter 8:1
We start with silence. A quiet so void of any noise it is almost deafening it self. This last for "about half an hour". There is NO noise, no music, no breathing heard, no animal sound, it is so quiet as to be intense!
This might be the ultimate "quiet before the storm" (the revelation).
This is also the time where the prayers from the saints are about begin. It may be that quiet so all prayer is heard and nothing is missed.
Verse 2 is unique in that is seems out of place. So much so that it was suggested it might be a copyist's mistake. and should fall before verse 7. This is where it mentions the seven angels preparing to sound the trumpets. In verse 7, the first angel sounds the first trumpet.
Verse 3 is the verse where the angel (unnamed) offers the prayers of the saints to God. The angel is at the altar. But which altar? Since there is no animal sacrifices in heaven, it is not the altar of burnt offering. It is most likely the altar that stood in the Holy Place in the Temple. See Lev 16:12 and Num 16:46. More importantly we need to understand that our prayer is an offering to God, that we, (man) may have no other offering to give to God, but at all times our prayers will be brought to God like an sweet smelling incense carried to Him by angelic hands! Praise GOD ! For He is our Father in Heaven and desires to hear from us! DAILY !!! Verse 4 tells us the incense and the prayers go up together before God. Then things change. Stay with me for the next blog as we continue to go through the final book of the Bible.
Blessings on ALL,
Calabash
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