1When the Lamb broke the seventh seal on the scroll, there was silence throughout heaven for about half an hour. 2I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven trumpets. 3Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. 4The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out. 5Then the angel filled the incense burner with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake.
Revelation 8:1-5
Have you had a second sense of déjà vu? I used this French term in the previous Gem, but it struck me at the start of this Gem, that we have been through this process before. Remember the moment of stillness with not a breath of wind across the globe while the four angels held back the winds until the seal of God was placed on the foreheads of God’s servants? [Gem 2258]. That constituted a pregnant pause before the saints of God were protected against what was to follow. Do you realise, the 30 minutes of silence in heaven is another pregnant pause before the breaking of the seventh seal? Just stop and consider this moment of silence. “Well Ian, it is substantially more that a moment. I mean 30 minutes in the midst of all that has been going on is a long time for an extended silence.” My point exactly! Why the silence and why so long? I think these two pause points are for dramatic effect. The time when the winds stopped on earth until the servants were sealed and this 30 minutes of silence are both for dramatic effect. Notice the dramatic way the events were told to John; what he saw and what he heard.
The way in which the breaking of the seals have been drawn out. Prior to that, the search for someone worthy to break the seals and open them. There was no one found worthy to open the seals. All of heaven held its breath and John wept. Were the inhabitants of the earth ever going to know the contents of the seals? Yes, the Lamb alone was worthy to open the seals. Finally we will get to know what is in store for us. Did you detect a pattern in the opening of the seals from Revelation 4:1 onward? It was like it was carefully choreographed. They were broken in units or sets: four, then two and finally the last one. That same pattern is repeated with the 7th seal morphing into seven trumpets. Notice something else – there is no content to the revelation of seventh seal! We have not been told any detail at all surrounding the contents of this seventh seal. The text has dramatised the moment of the breaking of the seventh seal with all the lead up to it. But when it comes to the moment of breaking the seal, it is prefaced by thirty minutes of silence. Imagine for a moment being there. You like me want to know what is to befall us. The question has been asked after the breaking of the sixth seal, “who can survive the wrath of God and the Lamb?”
But before that another question was asked. Do you remember what it was? Those martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their testimony asked, “How long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?” I highlighted both questions to show that both questions were relevant to this passage. Do you see we have returned to that point? The 30 minutes of silence highlights what is to come. You know yourself when there is silence in the midst of something important; a message that is being delivered which is so important you are hanging on every word. The length of the pause becomes proportional to the importance of the message you are waiting for. A half an hour . . . a thirty minute pause . . . 1,800 seconds to go by is a looong time. It highlights what is to follow.
We expect John or the Lamb or an angel, even the archangel to read out the contents of the seventh seal. But John doesn’t give us what we expect. Nothing so mundane as even a short summary, the like of which he has given us for each of the seals before this. You have to admit that we have not been given much detail at all. Now with the seventh seal we have been told NOTHING. Furthermore he doesn’t even mention the scroll again. Actually in chapter 10 (10:2) there is a little scroll mentioned but it has nothing to do with the announcement we are expecting from the seventh seal. It is like we are being kept on tenterhooks. Tenterhooks relate to a frame on which cloth is stretched for drying tent fabric where the fabric is put under tension to test its tensile strength and to dry it quickly while stretching it to increase its durability.
Not only are we told nothing, but the message we are expecting is soon to be delayed again by this seventh seal message being presented by seven trumpeted announcements. One would actually think in ancient or even medieval times an important announcement such as is coming would have been announced with trumpet fanfare. After all we have had lightening, thunder, earthquakes and other momentous happenings. But what do we experience instead? Thirty minutes of silence!
I think I have done John and the Lamb and the angels proud by drawing out this announcement in a way they would all be pleased with. All sorts of commentary has been written about this section. The interlude of Chapter 7, the purpose of the 30 minutes silence, the connectedness to what has gone before it and that which follows it, but quite frankly it leaves me with explanations devoid of the ring of truth. It has to mean more than some commentators have come up with. This has to be dramatic in some way given the dramatic way it has all been introduced. Stop and ponder it for a moment and think of it all in the context of the leading questions asked in chapter 6 of the Revelation. I think it all fits together like a glove. Furthermore, where it is taken from this point onwards seems right and appropriate. What do you think?
I will give you my answer in the next Gem.
“What is truth?” Pontius Pilate never asked a more important question. “And though the man of whom he asked it did not utter a single word in reply, no man ever received a more complete and articulate answer.”
Art Katz
Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.
Leonardo da Vinci
There is a time to speak and a time to keep silent.
Ecclesiastes 3:7
Silence speaks louder than words.
Thomas Carlyle
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.
Maurice Switzer