Here is a quick recap of what we have studied so far. In Revelation 6, the Lamb, Jesus Christ, begins to open the seals on the seal judgments. We find in Revelation 5 that no on else was worthy to open these seals and reveal these judgments that the Lord is going to bring on those who rejected Him on earth. So, the Lamb steps up and takes the scroll and opens the seals and we find a number of judgements poured out on the earth that are called Seal Judgments. The Lord opened six of those seals. Before He opens the seventh seal, we have an interlude in Revelation 7 where we saw scenes of heaven and scenes of sealing certain individuals who are followers of the Lord in the Tribulation period. Those followers were protected from the judgments and from the ruthlessness of those who reject Christ. We have the one hundred forty-four thousand, and a great multitude of Gentiles who are sealed in that way and then we find that these martyrs, many of these people that have died a martyr’s death during the Tribulation period, are now in heaven and are calling for the judgment upon those who have killed them.
When we open to Revelation 8, we move to the seventh seal and it says, “When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” We have been having a noisy scene so far starting from Revelation 4 all the way through Revelation 7. We have a lot of action with angels that are worshiping God, voices of people, the four living creatures and so forth. This has been a rather noisy scene so far and the judgments were poured out with a lot of noise as well. We come to Revelation 8 and this final seal, and everything is quite for half of an hour which tells us that we are looking at a very serious and somber situation here. What we have is the fact that this is going to get worse. The Trumpet Judgments cover a lot of the same territory as the seal judgments do, but at the same time, they are more intense, and so it is going to get worse as we move on.
So, there is a quietness even in heaven at that point. Then he says in Revelation 8:2, “And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.” So, now the angels have the Trumpet Judgments, and they are about to sound those judgments, but before that happens it says in Revelation 8:3, “Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and 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.” Remember in Revelation 5:8 we have a picture there of the incense going up to God as an act of worship. That goes back to the time in the Old Testament when incense was used as part of worship. So, we have a beautiful picture that our prayers matter to God and they are perpetually a worship experience before God. Now, we have added to that with incense coming from the angels. So both, the praise of the angels and the prayers and praise of the saints are now going up before the Lord. So, we have a great worship scene here before the trumpets are sounded . . .
