The pause between the sixth and seventh seals is over. The 144,000 Jews have completed their mission of sharing the gospel throughout the world over. The full number of Gentiles has been martyred and collected in heaven. The moment of judgment has come. It is so surreal and powerful, it inspires silence in heaven for half an hour when the seal is cracked. The Bible isn't clear on whether this has ever happened before or after, but rest assured, it is quite remarkable. Up to this point, we have only known there to be lots of noise in heaven, between the shouting and praising of the angels and multitudes surrounding God's throne.
Considering this silence, a side note of application for us today is to engage in silence appropriately. There is a time to speak and a time for silence. Ecclesiastes 5:1-2 advises us to let our words be few, be humble, and let God be God. In music, there is a great purpose for silence in the rests. Without rests, the music would be continual noise. The silence brings out the character of rythym in life. Remember Job finally put his hand over his mouth when he realized he had already said too much. Let's allow the Lord to quiet our hearts from all the noises of concern and distraction so that we may hear His voice and let Him heal us.
Back to the text. This silence is truly the calm before the storm of judgment. The seven angels are given seven trumpets to blow. Each contains its own nasty wrath upon the earth and its inhabitants. I believe these judgments are to be taken literally. They are as they are written. Trumpets were a big deal to the Hebrews. They announced war, directed orderly moving of camp, and declared times of feasts. The Jews were very familiar and fond of trumpets. You can follow a side study in the book of Numbers for more on trumpets.
Hail, fire, and blood devastate a third of the vegetation on the planet. He created these first and He is destroying these first. Remember He said He would never destroy the Earth again by water, so He set His rainbow in the clouds as a sign of His promise. This time He is using fire. Fire is a purifier. He's making all things new by purging the world of its dirty darkness.
Something like a huge mountain ablaze is thrown into the sea. A third of all sea creatures and a third of the ships are sunk. I imagine a lot of folks took to the sea to avoid the carnage of earthquakes mentioned in the previous chapter. They cannot escape.
Wormwood is a great big star that comes out of heaven to make a third of the waters bitter. It's deadly poison kills many who drink from the tainted waters. I don't know if this star has been identified in our current astrological chart or not, but it might be an interesting study. Believers will be watching its fall from heaven's perspective. That's a good place to be when this thing hits.
A third of the sun, moon, and stars are struck so I reckon we can assume the world gets even darker. That probably means more crime and evil. That probably ushers in even more fear. The climate will change. It will be much colder. It will also be difficult to navigate on those seas without the stars. The tides will be affected. Ash clouds from the fires will cause even more climatological change.
I love this eagle mentioned here. He has a loud voice that speaks in John's language, warning about the remaining three trumpet blasts. Why not an eagle talking? Bring it! Nothing is impossible for God. He used a donkey to talk to Balaam! That'll get your attention! I love that about our God. I love that He wrote the laws of physics but they cannot contain Him. He made the Earth turn backwards for Hezekiah, parted the seas, calmed the seas, raised the dead, and saved a wretch like me. Thank You, Lord! It's truly a miracle of grace. He gives voices to rocks, stars, animals, and sometimes humans. We'll look at that in a bit.
I want to go back to a main point of relevant application from the text in verses 3-4. An angel stands at the altar in front of God Almighty and offers incense. The prayers of the saints mix with the smoke and go before the throne. What are these prayers and whose are they? I think it's reasonable to assume they are the whole collective heart's cry of every believer. I think He designed us humans with a deep longing to be completed in communion and relationship with Himself. I think we are living in frustration as we wait for our redemption in faith. I think we truly want everything to be made right and new. We cry out for justice and healing. We yearn for heaven. He is the answer to our heart's cries. He is answering our prayers, even now.
Do you believe Jesus is hearing your prayers? Do you believe He is answering or going to answer them? When? Are you confident and at peace with His timing? Do you trust Him to provide the right answer for you? How's your faith? We have looked extensively into prayer and I still cannot claim to be a teacher on the subject. I've seen Him radically changing my prayer life over the last few years. He's shown me how selfishly and shallowly I pray. He's exposed a very weak faith and narrow perspective about situations and circumstances. He's bringing me around to a better understanding about it all. There's so much to say about prayer, but I don't want to have too many of my words here in this summary. Go, seek the Lord about this. That's what He really wants. He wants your heart, melding into His, and agreeing with His perfect will to be done in your life. Oh, if you would only let go and trust Him!
Don't give up praying. If we give up on the people we are praying for, that is pretty well giving up on God. It is saying these people are out of His reach. He's way bigger than that. Think bigger. Imagine bigger. Don't give up. The answer is coming. We saw a delayed answer to prayer in an awesome story in Daniel, where an archangel visited him with the answer, stating his prayer was heard the day he prayed, but he was delayed, fighting the Prince of Persia. What? Yep, spiritual warfare, delaying answers to prayers. Abraham stopped praying in the story of Sodom. He somehow had engaged God to relent from destroying the city if He found 50 righteous people, then 20, then 10. But Abraham stopped. He was supposed to go down to one. The city was destroyed. The world is worth saving for one soul. That's the truth about Jesus dying for us. He loves everyone. He would've died for just you, if you were the only one on the planet. It gets that personal. Zechariah stopped praying for a son decades previous to the encounter of the archangel that brought good news to him. Zechariah didn't believe it. The angel made him mute. Zechariah couldn't speak until John the Baptist was born. This sounds like my life. When I speak out in unbelief, I am being dumb-dumber than a rock, that's for sure! Even a rock knows to believe God and cry out to Him in praise!
As I said, He is radically changing my prayer life. I imagine I may lose some folks here, but I pray the Spirit reveals the truth to each one reading. Think about how we pray for others. We pray for things to be all good, that they would be healed, stay on track, encouraged, come to know God, get that job, money, whatever. Now, think about what would be the absolute best thing to ever happen to them? Heaven. This world is full of problems and struggles. We never reach our potential here. We are going to be complete in heaven. We will know in full. We will be holy and different from what we are now. Why wouldn't you pray for others to be taken to heaven, if it is God's will? Isn't that their very best life? We don't pray that way because we are selfish and our short-sighted faith needs to expand to accept the truth that this life ain't it. Are we so wrapped up in building and maximizing this life that our heart's are weak about the next one? Whoa! This is crazy talk, right? Would you pray that way for your kids? Your spouse? Do you trust God that you would be okay without them? Would they be okay without you?Think through this and reckon with the impact. I challenge us to pray for God to take us to heaven soon, then put our hope in God for help, encouragement, and strength if He chooses to leave us here to muddle about in this existence. May our lives bring Him glory, in this life and the next. I guarantee you, the greatest life you can imagine here on Earth, with it's temporary pride of experiences, accomplishments, accolades, and riches, is nothing compared to what He promises heaven to be.
