Seal 7 - Rumor notes 37

 

Revelation 8

1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

2 I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

3 Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.

4 The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand.

5 The angel took the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it on the earth. There followed thunders, sounds, lightnings, and an earthquake.

6 The seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Who was the main agent in the opening of the 7 seals?

Who are the main agents preparing to sound 7 trumpets?

This verse actually belongs to the previous two chapters, but translators stuck it in here, so we need to finish up examining the meaning of the seals before we transition into listening to the trumpets.

In the last seal opening we saw what seems to be clearly a reference to the Second Coming of Jesus, the Lamb who is so full of passionate love that everyone who has made themselves allergic to love run in terror when they see Him approaching. This is not unlike what happened in the Garden of Eden originally after sin damaged the thinking and replaced the basic operating system of our first parent's brains and hearts. Then we studied chapter 7 which is heaven's answer to the burning question posed by those running in terror who cannot imagine living very long in such fire. There we found a group of people being sealed in preparation for just that very purpose – to not only stand in the fire of passionate love but to thrive in it and be ravished by it.

What has puzzled many throughout the years is why in pretty much every set of 7's, it appears that the Second Coming seems to be placed at number 6, though that is not consistently clear either. Personally I am leaving this open for the Spirit to continue to bring new insights and not to resist them with preconceived settled opinions. I rely on emerging patterns to help verify what I am seeing.

We began our examination of the seals with the premise that the seals represent a perfected system of lies intended to lock away forever the real truth about God's character of pure love, truth, fairness and graciousness. As a result the world has lived in constant fear, misapprehension and confusion about how God feels about us and what His intentions are to resolve the problem of rebellion. Until these truths are made clear and evident for everyone in the universe to see and appreciate, it will be impossible for God to govern fully in the way He designed creation to operate – in complete freedom and harmony with love alone and no trace of fear.

It is from this perspective that I study Revelation. That means that everything we propose in interpreting the symbols must always be in harmony with a Jesus-looking version of God.

Silence in heaven

What might be reasons for all heaven to suddenly be silent? Here are some options:

Stunned silence over the immensity of sin's effects and how God chooses to respond to it.

For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of Yahweh shall name. (Isaiah 62:1-2)

Stunned silence as there are no words to describe the surprise and shock at discovering that God is not like what we have imagined Him to be all our lives.

Like as many were astonished at you (his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men), so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand. (Isaiah 52:14-15)

Silence is usually associated with an imminent event of God's impending judgment on the earth, or the result of such judgment when all the objections, lies and unbelief are exposed as being unfounded.

for about half an hour

Keep in mind the context of what we are studying. It is the Lamb who is still the primary operative at work here. Yet at the same time He is increasingly communicating through His faithful followers in this world. What is important to realize is that what Jesus experienced during His life and death as a human on earth will be in many respects repeated in the lives of His special ops forces who allow His Spirit to fully possess them to reflect the same glory of God's heart that the Lamb exposed. So we can find many parallels between the experience of Jesus on earth with the prophetic predictions of what is going to be repeated in the lives of His saints.

The symbolism of the word hour is important to allow Scripture to be our guide for interpreting rather than defaulting to stock interpretations we may have relied on for many years. While there might be some validity in looking at numbers involving time in prophecy through the key of a day for a year principle used for Daniel's prophecies, I am not at all convinced that the same thing works equally when it comes to last day events of earth's history. If we insisted on this approach, it would force us to push out last day events for possibly thousands of more years which I find untenable as do most other students of prophecy. So instead of trying to calculate how long a half an hour might be after running it through the day/year calculator as I was taught to do growing up, I prefer going to the words of Jesus as He has already given us some good clues that fit far better in this situation. (Reference Hour of Power document)

The idea of hour can apply to an event or experience. For instance, the death and resurrection of Jesus occurred over about a 36 hour period of actual time. The first half was darkness in the hands of evil and finally in the grave. The second part of this experience was full of life starting on the morning of the third day. Might this help inform us as to what this half an hour might be referring to?

What if the experience of those following the Lamb as His representatives in the end is limited to their only passing through the first half of the experience of Christ's sufferings but without dying, like Job was not allowed to die at the hands of Satan? We are told elsewhere that these 144,000 do not love their own lives unto the death. So we know they reflect the same disposition as did the Lamb when faced with choosing between survival by relinquishing their complete dependence on God or death. Jesus already suffered the death that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt the truth of God's integrity and trustworthiness, so there is no need for anyone else to repeat in full everything Jesus has already accomplished – the full revelation of the truth about God's heart all the way through death. But while many will indeed follow Jesus all the way into death, it will not be caused by the same experience of death from the crushing weight of sin that Jesus experienced, but rather they lay down their life in temporary sleep trusting in the fact that the One in whom their identity is secure has the keys and will soon spring them from their grave and gift them with immortality.

One observation here is that the Seals begin with weeping and they end with silence. This might be a pattern of the grand finale, the ultimate solution by which God chooses to resolve and expose the mystery of evil. This may be a preview that victory over the accuser and his demise is certain and how every lingering question in the minds of fallen and unfallen beings everywhere will at last be fully answered, yet without resorting to any of the methods of the enemy, including railing accusations or coerced punishments. In this way every mouth will be stopped, yet not through intimidation but rather full exposure of the truth that God is love and love alone. This assurance comes through a revelation of what has been hidden from eternity past that can only be unlocked by sufficient evidence provided through the slaughtered Lamb and reinforced by the reflection of those who allow the Lamb to live in them fully.