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Revelation
By Adam Bartlett
Chapter 8
1: And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
2: And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
The seventh seal reveals the next seven judgments which are the seven trumpets. Exactly what the silence represents is merely speculation on anyone’s part. I have heard many liken it to the “Calm before the storm.” Considering the judgments that are about to be poured out, I can see how it could be said of this calm in that sense. I have also heard it referred to as a time of reverent awe by the whole of heaven for what was about to happen. As I said, any attempt to guess would be speculation because we are not given any scripture to verify what it means.
I personally believe the silence represents a holy reverence and awe by the heavenly hosts which seems to agree with the following:
Psalm 39
2: I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.
Habakkuk 2
20: But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
Can you picture the heavenly hosts standing by and watching as this unfolds and wonder at the awesome power of God? There is no way we could imagine the scene from their vantage point nor their intense understanding of what is happening right before them. Just as we will be in total silence and complete awe when we stand before our God and see all the things that He says we cannot comprehend.
3: And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
4: And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
5: And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
We can see in this how that the pattern of heaven is set up as the pattern of the Tabernacle and Temple in the Old Testament. Look at these scriptures that indicate that the censer and altar were set up and even likened to prayers.
Exodus 30
1: And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it.
7: And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.
8: And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.
Here God gave Moses the directions for making the altar for burning incense upon. He told Moses that it was to be a perpetual act throughout all generations. This was a pattern of what God was saying and there was representation in all aspects of the sacrifice system and the Tabernacle and Temple themselves. The patterns represented a spiritual work and were compared many times to the aspects of Jesus’ role as redeemer.
Leviticus 16
12: And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail:
13: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not:
Here it is shown that the incense would rise and cause a cloud over the mercy seat and the belief was that this cloud would keep the priest from seeing the presence of God. God’s presence was present to forgive the sins on the mercy seat so the cloud was necessary to keep the priest from being in the direct viewable presence of God and dying as a result.
Psalm 141
2: Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
David here likens his prayer to incense and therefore ties together the relation as does the scripture in Revelation 5:8. This is also a reaffirmation that God does hear our prayers even though sometimes we do not feel that they make it past the ceiling. Imagine throughout all the years, through all the persecutions and slaughter of God’s people their cries are now to be heard. All the prayers by those of old that said, “How long O Lord wilt thou not avenge our blood?” All those that suffered and died cruel deaths at the hands of those that mocked them and God will now face that very God they defied.
The God that they refused to listen to and denied will now be heard and they will have no where to go to escape Him.
Romans 3
10: As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12: They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13: Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15: Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16: Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17: And the way of peace have they not known:
18: There is no fear of God before their eyes.
One thing is for sure, this is a description of the people of this time and they will most certainly “fear” God now. Unfortunately it is too late for them but they will have no choice but to acknowledge who He is and what He has done.
6: And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
7: The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
I believe that these seven trumpet judgments occur at the end of the first 3 ½ years because they are representative of God’s wrath being poured out on the earth. We see in the first six seal judgments that satan is pouring out his wrath on mankind and especially the Christians and Jewish population. These trumpet judgments start the outpouring by God and then there is a break in the action in chapters 10 thru 14 as we will cover later.
These seven judgments seem to usher in a very short era when God will deal with tempered mercy for a limited time through these trumpet judgments. I believe that because only a third of things are affected, enough to cause major catastrophic turmoil, yet leaving some for mankind to acknowledge that God is still in control. Because of their continual rejection His mercy will fade and the remaining judgments will begin finishing the task. What a dreadful time for those humans that are present during this time.
There are many similarities in the scripture regarding the elements used in this first trumpet judgment. I will list only a few for the sake of time and space.
Exodus 9
22: And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.
23: And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
24: So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
25: And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.
God used this same plague against the Egyptians and is now using it in the end of time to again punish the enemy of God’s people. The Egyptians were keeping God’s people captive and in the same manner in the end of time the enemy will be controlling the minds and hearts of people. God will smite the enemy with the same plague as He did in the early times.
Psalm 18
13: The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
There are some that believe that this judgment could also be a fulfillment of the scripture found in:
Ezekiel 38
18: And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19: For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
20: So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
21: And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.
22: And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23: Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.
It is quite interesting that the first three trumpet judgments deal with “fire” and we are told that “God is a consuming fire” in Hebrews 12:29. Notice the reason in vs.23 above for this judgment was simply for the world to recognize and acknowledge the fact that He is indeed Lord. The enemy is fighting to win the world over during this time and proclaim himself as king and lord. God is still trying to reach mankind through these judgments and show them that He alone is God, but they still refuse to acknowledge Him.
8: And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9: And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
Once again the Lord used a plague that is very familiar to those during the Egyptian captivity. Look at what was done as one of the ten plagues on Egypt.
Exodus 7
17: Thus saith the LORD, In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.
18: And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river.
19: And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.
20: And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
21: And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
22: And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the LORD had said.
23: And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also.
24: And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.
25: And seven days were fulfilled, after that the LORD had smitten the river.
It is virtually the same plague except in that day there were no ships to destroy and in our day the destruction of a third of the ships would amount to a major catastrophe. There are estimated over 100,000 commercial ships not counting military world wide. The destruction of them along with their crews would amount to well over 1 million people. That along with one third of the fish dying would cause major pollution to the world’s water sources. It is easy to see how this judgment could cause lasting effects on the human race and its survival.
We are not told what this mountain represents or whether it is an actual mountain. Without scriptural support it is impossible to speculate as to what this represents other than taking the scripture for what it says in that an actual mountain will be cast into the waters. If it is an actual mountain it is also a fact that it would cause major tidal waves to the surrounding areas.
10: And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11: And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
In the previous verses we seen that God judged the major seas of water and in this judgment the remaining water supply on earth will be contaminated. Again it is truly speculation but we know that God does use countries, armies, and other inventions of men to fulfill His Will. Could it be that this ‘star’ is a weapon of mass destruction that is carrying chemical or biological warheads that contaminate these waters? We know that there are many of these types of weapons all over the world and if they are launched during this time of calamity it is fitting that they would contaminate the water supplies of every continent. Keep in mind that only a third of the water supply is contaminated at this point which makes this a more viable probability.
12: And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
13: And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!
Darkness is always represented as the time of evil to shine or exploit itself on mankind as Jesus explains:
John 3
19: And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20: For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21: But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
This is a spiritual representation but it also correlates to the physical realm as we know to be true in this world we live in. Most crime, most evil is committed under the cover of darkness. Now it is only fitting that those left on earth at this time have chosen the powers of evil over God and therefore He causes them to dwell in their dark state. There are many other scriptures dealing with darkness and I will not show the complete scriptures but list them. Joel 2:31; Matthew 24:29, 27:45; Exodus 10: 21-23 and also again in Revelation 6:12 as the sixth seal judgment and 16:10 as the sixth bowl judgment.
Many believe that these three sets of judgments are actually just one set of judgments but they are being described as they increase in severity instead of as separate events. I believe that the scriptures used in Matthew 24:29 and Joel 2:31 are also describing this same event and could be used in each of the three judgments recorded. There is also another scripture that I believe is most certainly speaking of this occasion also.
Isaiah 13
9: Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10: For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11: And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12: I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13: Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
This will be the kind of darkness as described in the section of scripture in Exodus 10: 21-23 where it says it could be ‘felt.’ Because their deeds were evil He will turn them over to their own darkness.
Then we get the warning in the last verse that the worst is yet to come. What a feeling for those that are already wondering how it could be any worse than it is, not knowing that much more is on the way.
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