Silence, Trumpets, Incense & Fire — Danny Bond

The Seventh Seal and the Revelation of God’s Word

We come to the opening of the seventh seal in Revelation chapter eight, the opening of the seventh seal. As we come to Revelation chapter eight, I am mindful of something that Thomas Watson once said.

He's one of the great old Puritan writers. He said the Bible is a rock of diamonds, a chain of pearls, a sword of the spirit and the map by which the Christian daily walks. The balance in which he weighs his actions and the chart by which he sails into eternity is so good.

There's nothing like the word of God and in all of the word of God, there's nothing like the book of Revelation. One thing I think that people fail to realize is that Revelation takes for granted the fact that you have studied all of the Revelation leading up to it.

It assumes a knowledge of the New Testament as a given. It assumes further than that, a knowledge of the Old Testament. And as you begin to study it, if you know the Old Testament, if you know the New Testament, it stands open before you.

And what it does, it has a way of pulling in all of the promises that you've seen in the Old Testament, all of the prophecies, pulling them together and making them real before your very eyes so that it's impossible to read the book of Revelation without having your faith strengthened, without having more confidence put into your heart concerning the word of God.

For to see any Old Testament prophecy come true before your eyes and really before John's eyes, anything that he sees, we get to see. That's kind of a neat thought, isn't it? Anything John gets to see, anytime you see, John says, and I saw just stop and thank God, say, Lord, thank you that I get to see every time John sees.

That's amazing, isn't it? So every time we see an Old Testament scripture fulfilled in revelation or a prophecy or a promise, we are seeing before our very eyes that God is true to his word and we need as much of that inside of us as we can get because we walk by faith and not by feelings.

Let's read from Revelation, verse one, down to verse five. When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets.

Then another angel, having a golden sensor, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand.

Then the angel took the sensor, filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the earth. And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings and an earthquake in this passage before us. We have silence, trumpets, incense and fire, silence, trumpets, incense and fire.

And I want to look at them one by one. They're not hard to understand and they are very powerful. In verse one, when he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. This silence is amazing.

I'm happy to understand it. I say that because for years I didn't. Part of the reason for that, and maybe some of you have heard this, is that many times when I was in a study on Revelation and we came to this passage, whoever was teaching it would say silence in heaven for half an hour.

Gee, that must mean there's no women there. And everybody would laugh because we all know women do like to talk. And, you know, they love the fellowship one with another, but the goodness of God and heaven is the greatest place of all.

So, you know, I remember hearing that more than once. I remember, I confess, even using it myself and I'll tell you why. I think everybody uses it. It's because they don't understand the silence and they picked it up somewhere and it's easy way to read it and move on.

The Silence Before Divine Judgment

Now let's go to the next verse. When in reality, what is going on here is so utterly monumental. You have to get into John's head. John is standing on this island, the panorama of all these visions open before him.

He gets caught up into all the glorious sounds of heaven, the worship, the praise. Starting in chapter four, he sees God's throne and out from the throne come thunder and lightnings and light and glory.

It's rainbow colored. It's beautiful. It's amazing. And then he sees the twenty four elders, the four cherubim. He sees the multitude of the angel, the heavenly host and on through the chapters coming up into chapter seven.

There is all this sound, all this activity. And then suddenly this multitude in chapter seven, verse nine, that no one can number of nations and peoples and tongues before the throne of God, along with the holy angels.

They are all crying out with a loud voice and suddenly there is silence. The silence is the absence of sound and it is also the absence of activity. It isn't just silence with activity, it is silence and the activity ceases as well.

Everything going on in heaven stops. We don't see that anywhere else in the Bible. And there's a reason for this. The reason is, it is a calm before the storm. It is the silence of foreboding. And it is the silence of intense expectation.

And I really think it is the silence of absolute awe, absolute awe, awe is the primary emotional response to God in his fullness. Matthew Henry put it very well when he said, when we cannot, by searching, find the bottom, we must sit down in awe at the brink and adore the depth.

I like that when we cannot, by searching, find the bottom, we must sit down at the brink in awe and adore the depth. You have a lot of that here. The silence is only proper because it is in view of the divine judgment that is about to take place, that we see it.

We see this time of silence, amazingly enough, forecasted in the Bible. I don't know if you know that, but in Psalm 76, let me just read a few verses to you in Psalm 76, verses eight and nine, you find it.

The psalmist wrote, the earth feared and was still when God arose to judgment. Then in Habakkuk 220, but the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. Then in Zephaniah 1 7, Zephaniah, believe it or not, takes on a lot of meaning when you get into the book of Revelation.

I venture to say you may never go there otherwise. Zephaniah 1 7 says, be silent in the presence of the Lord God for the day of the Lord is at hand. So the silence comes in the presence of the Lord God when when the day of the Lord is finally at hand.

Then Zechariah 2 13 says, be silent, all flesh before the Lord. Why? For he is aroused from his holy habitation. That verse right there and Zephaniah as well speak of this silence that comes in the space of a half an hour.

Now, some of you sharpshooters are thinking, but wait, there's no time in heaven. Well, it's silence in the presence of God is a half hour for John. This is John's half hour, the silence in heaven. John looks at his watch.

Gee, it's been a half hour already. Nobody has said anything. It's John's half hour. So that when John is standing there and he sees this silence, he marks the time when his son died. I don't know how he did it.

He just figured about a space of about a half an hour because, you know, that it was soul wrenching suspense on that island. This is being unfolded to him. It's very real. It's full of detail. And as it goes silent, John is watching because while eternal heaven has no time, the apostle John, who is watching this, does each minute of that half hour of silence had to have increased, had to increase the intense, agonizing suspense of John.

And so heaven goes silent after all of the activity and all of the praise. It suddenly goes silent. Why? This is the time of the beginning of God's final judgment. And from here it will be sweeping, all encompassing and complete.

It is the hour, mark this, when the saints will be vindicated, when sin will be punished, when Satan will be vanquished and Christ will be exalted. That is to say, then it stands apart in significance with the great fall of man, because this is the time that begins to reverse the fall of man and its effects and the curse and bring it back to what God had it to be in the beginning.

I say again, it is the time when the saints will be vindicated, sin will be punished, Satan will be ultimately vanquished and Christ ultimately exalted. So it is a time of silence. Don't ever forget this, what I'm about to say right now, the steps of God from mercy to judgment are always slow, reluctant and measured.

The steps of God from mercy to judgment are always slow, reluctant and measured. Why? Because judgment is God's strange act. We read that in Isaiah 28, 21. Judgment is God's strange or unusual act. You must understand it is God's nature to bless.

Yet he is a holy God. God, we read in the Bible, is love. So it is his unusual act to bring judgment because he would rather bring salvation, he would rather bring blessing, he would rather manifest his ultimate love.

So when he begins now to move in final judgment, it is, as Isaiah 28, 21 says, his unusual act. It is God's strange work. Think about it, because it proceeds from a long forbearing heaven to bring the strokes directly from God, the strokes of judgment onto mankind from a long forbearing heaven, forbearing since the Garden of Eden.

The Trumpet Judgments and Their Order

And now the time of the end has come and thus the silence packed with meaning. Let's go to the trumpets. In verse two, I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets.

And then with the sounding of the trumpets come the judgments. Now, in Revelation, there are three different forms of judgment. They are the sealed judgments. The trumpet judgments and the bold judgments, just getting that in order and understanding, it helps you understand where you are and what's going on.

They're very ordered and precise seals, trumpets and bowls. We pass the seals beyond us in the back in chapter seven, we had a break before that chapter six with the seals. We come to the final one now.

So three different forms of judgment in Revelation. And as they unfold before us, they do so in a telescopic fashion, in a telescopic fashion. That's how God does it. The seven seals open out to the seven trumpet judgments, which open out to the seven bowl judgments, telescopic fashion.

Also, as you look at it closely, you find out there is with each judgment as they telescope out, there is an increasing velocity and a shorter period of time in between the judgments. It becomes more and more rapid fire as you move toward the last ones.

So going from the seals to the trumpets, to the bowls, there's an increase in velocity and speed as they begin to basically bombard the earth. The next thing we see is there are seven angels in the presence of God that are given trumpets.

Verse two, I saw we read the angels and they are given trumpets in the book of Revelation. All of the judgments are carried out, as we see here, by angels. Hold your place and turn to Matthew 13, verse 39.

Jesus foretold this very clearly. Matthew 13, 39, speaking of the harvest at the end of the age, we've already studied how the greatest revival in history will take place around this time. The rest of mankind will be judged.

Matthew 13, 39. Jesus said the enemy who sowed them is the devil. Speaking of the tears in the parable, the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tears are gathered and burned in the fire, so will be at the end of the age.

The son of man will send out his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness. So following the half hour silence in heaven, John sees a new feature of the seventh seal being opened.

And that is the seven angels who stand before the presence of God. Go back to Revelation. So understand, John was with Jesus on the earth when he taught Matthew 13, 39 through 41. Now he's on the island of Patmos and he sees Jesus in heaven glorified, unfolding all that he foretold when he was with him on the earth.

Can you imagine the thrill to his heart to see the reality of it, the truth of it, the might of it, the glory of it, the hugeness of it all. So we find that there are seven angels here who stand before God.

They have been if you look at verse two, I saw the seven angels, the use of the definite article, the. Appears to set them apart as a unique group, the the seven angels who stand before God. Why is that important?

Well, the verb translated to stand is in the perfect tense, which indicates they have been there for some time. What does that tell me? It tells me something I haven't known before about angels. Tells me that there is an order of high ranking angels that stand in the presence of God.

Perhaps Gabriel is one of these. When he appeared to Zacharias in Luke one, 19, he appeared as Gabriel, he said, who stands in the presence of God. Here are seven angels who stand before God in the presence of God.

So there are presence angels involved in all of this, and that adds them to the list of the details of what I know about angels from the Bible. Elsewhere, I find in the Bible from Genesis, there are cherubim.

I find in the Bible and Isaiah, there are seraphim more than one kind of angel. I find there are archangels in Thessalonians, first Thessalonians. In Jude, I find out there are archangels in Colossians.

I find out there are thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities. And in Ephesians, I find out there are powers. And now I find out there are presence angels. What does that do for me? A lot. It fills in the gaps in my understanding of what heaven is all about, and it fills in all the uniqueness that is there that I didn't have before.

And every bit of information that I can glean from the Bible about the angels that are there and all these other things makes my hope of heaven that much more sure and that much more real. And I find as I study revelation, heaven begins to unfold before me and it becomes so real, so clear, so powerful.

And it has then an effect on my life here, an effect on my life here. I begin to live my life with the eternal perspective of heaven before me. And it has a way of taking the afflictions that I have on earth and making them, as Paul the Apostle says, light afflictions that are working for me, light afflictions that are working for me.

They work for me in eternal weight of glory. So I begin to see heaven as Paul saw it, and I begin to see my trials as Paul saw his trials. And I find that I am able to stand up and keep my eyes on Christ and go through them in a way that I wasn't able to before, because I know this isn't my home here.

I know I'm passing through and I'm going there forever. That's powerful. You get that really down into your heart and mind and you will live differently. And far more victoriously. The study then of angels in the word of God is, I would say, fascinating at minimum, and one of the reasons is watching them serve.

Angelic Service and the Meaning of Trumpets

These presence angels are before the Lord given seven trumpets. They do exactly what God calls them to do. Why? Because that's what angels always do. John Newton, who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace. Once wrote these words, he said, if two angels were sent from heaven to execute a divine command, one to conduct an empire and the other just to sweep the street, he said, I think that they would feel no inclination to change their employments.

In quote, that is so good. That is so huge. Two angels were sent down to earth by God, one to run an empire and the other does just sweep the streets in that empire. You would not find either one of them asking God for a change in assignment because they simply serve God perfectly.

Without question. Oh, that God would put the attitude of the angels in our hearts to serve him wholeheartedly, without question. There's so much to learn from watching the angels. And as John watched, he sees seven trumpets are given to these angels in preparation for the trumpet judgments that are going to follow shortly.

But why are trumpets given to the angels? Trumpets are used throughout the entire Bible. There are many musical instruments in the Bible. The most significant and prominent is the trumpet case. You didn't know that trumpets in the Bible are important.

They're all the way through. You follow trumpets all the way through. They're used to summon the congregation of Israel to sound the alarm in time of war, to announce religious feasts, to announce news, to acclaim new kings.

They're used in worship in the New Testament. A trumpet does announce the rapture. We will hit a study in Revelation of the rapture when war breaks out in heaven that will blow your mind and there will be a trumpet there.

Zephaniah 114 through 16 associates trumpets with the day of the Lord. And here they are at the day of the Lord right now. And so the seven angels were six who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound, given the trumpets, prepared themselves to sound.

But notice something. Having been introduced and given their trumpets, the seven angels did not immediately blow them. They had to wait for something else to happen, and that is the incense. And so we've seen the silence and the trumpets.

Incense, Prayer, and Christ’s Atonement

Let's look at the incense in verse three of Revelation eight. Then another angel having a golden censer came and stood at the altar. Now, the golden censer would be not so much like a frying pan with coals in it, as you might imagine, or a shovel, but really a chain with, you know, perhaps three other chains dropping down, holding it.

So he would be holding here and sort of swing yet another angel having a golden censer came and stood at the altar. Now, what's this? He was given much incense. Everything here is important and has meaning, given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne and a smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand.

Just as a side note, I like the word hand there is a distinctly human element about heaven that dials it in more clearly for me in detail from the angel's hand. A priestly service then is performed by this special angel.

Can you hold your place here? I want to show you something. Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one, verse eight. The father of John the Baptist was a priest. I don't know if you've discovered that in your reading, but he was a priest.

And in Luke chapter one, verse eight, he was appointed to serving his time with the incense in the holy place in the temple. Luke one, eight. So it was that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.

So you would wait as a priest and they would draw lots, cast lots, whatever, and they would pick out priests to go serve and offer before the Lord incense in this fashion for a certain time. So he'd been waiting.

He's all excited. He finally gets to go up and do it. We read in verse 10 that the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense, the hour of the incense. And then a surprise for John's father, an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

I see it as a very short journey from the altar in heaven where we see this angel with the incense through the dimension here into time and space with us to stand next to John's father next to the altar of incense.

God told Moses when he made these things, when he gave him the instructions on how to build them, he said, build them very carefully because in heaven they're real. You're making little tiny models on the earth, but in heaven they're real.

So do it right because they speak of the reality in heaven and that angel is there in heaven. He appears at the side of the altar here with John the Baptist's father as he's performing a priestly function.

And we see the angel doing the same thing in heaven. So back to Revelation eight three. The next thing is very interesting, is very encouraging to me, and that is the prayers of all the saints are mixed with this incense that's given by the angel.

Revelation eight three. Then another angel having a golden sensor came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense for what? That he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand.

So in Revelation eight, three and four, the angel is publicly to bring before all of heaven basically three things. Let me give them to you. One is the prayers of all the saints are ever held in memory before God.

That is so good, isn't it? The prayers of all the saints are ever held in memory before God. That is very clear. So that I realize reading this, that no believer's prayer is ever forgotten and it has its effect in due season.

I need to know that because I pray to a God that I cannot see. Pray to a Christ I've never seen. I'm banking my whole eternity on what I know about him. I can't see him. I need to know that my prayers are not forgotten.

And here I am told distinctly that and they have their effect in due season toward the bringing in of the kingdom of God and the Lord's return. Prayer is not a lightweight thing. And when it isn't answered our way immediately, we tend to think it's not answered.

I'm shown here some inside information that they're held waiting for the hour when they will be answered. All the saints prayers, the ones that are especially unanswered, but they will be answered. Then I see not just the saints prayers held in memory before God, but I see that the incense is mixed with the prayers, making them then instantly effectual.

They've been held there at this appointed hour. The angel comes. He is given incense. He mixes it with the prayers. The prayers rise up before God. They are instantly effectual. And this huge effect comes out when the angel throws the fire out onto the earth.

The effect of the prayers finally comes as they're answered. Verse three, the another angel having a golden sensor came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense. William Newell, in his commentary on Revelation, brings out the fact that in scripture, incense is set forth as the power of Christ's atonement acting upon God, power of Christ's atonement acting upon God through our prayers, the power of Christ's atonement acting upon God.

In other words, without Christ's atonement dying for your sin and rising again, your prayers are not even heard by God because of the blood of Jesus. Your prayers become effectual. They go up before God.

Some are answered immediately. The ones that are not forgotten, they will be all answered at this point in time. When the incense is mixed with the prayer, it is speaking of the blood of Christ, the atonement of Christ, blended with your prayers to supercharge them before God and make them absolutely effectual to the point.

The answers to those prayers can only be judgment on a Christ rejecting earth. Does that make sense to you? They have rejected the righteous king. And so the only answer to those prayers and can be an is judgment.

So Revelation eight for the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand. All of my prayers will be answered before it's over. I thank God I can have that confidence in him.

Fire and the Beginning of the Trumpet Judgments

Silence in heaven for John, a space of about a half an hour. Trumpets given to angels, incense given to angels. We come to the fire. The last thing here, Revelation eight, one, we read. He opened the seventh seal and there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Revelation eight, five. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from off the altar and threw it to the earth. And there were noises and thunderings and lightning and earthquakes of the silence is shattered by thunder and lightning and an earthquake shattered big time.

So I see this angel and he's there. He mixes the incense with the prayers of the saints, and then he begins to swing that sensor around and around and around. And then he lets go of it. Fool boom that hits the earth and the judgments of the seven trumpets burst forth rapid fire.

So here we have the seventh seal and it opens out into the trumpet judgments, as I told you, telescopic fashion, look at verse six and then verse seven. So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound and the first angel sounded verse seven and hail and fire followed, mingled with blood and they were thrown down to the earth.

And a third of the trees were burned up and all the grass was burned up. And so it goes from their rapid fire judgments, purging all of God's creation until God is finished and it's done. And we'll see that next time as we get into the seven trumpet judgments that unfold before us.

But before we finish, I want to point out a few things down on the earth. We've been in heaven down on the earth as the sensor of incense with fire hits the earth and the judgments of the trumpet judgments begin to unfold.

The Christ rejecters on the earth do not repent. They do not repent. And you need to realize that at this point in time, because people ask you questions, how could a God of love judge people like that when so many of them haven't ever even heard the gospel?

How could he judge the whole world? God's judgment comes out from mercy, slow and measured. And always there's grace before the judgment comes. Hold your place here. I want you to turn to Revelation 14, six.

Everyone will have heard the gospel before the judgments wipe them out, all the Christ rejecters will have heard. They will all have a fair opportunity to receive the Lord. Revelation 14, six, I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven.

Having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, how far does he go? How complete is this? How comprehensive to every nation, every tribe, every single language, every tongue, every single people.

And he's saying with a loud voice, fear God, give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water. Every person on earth will hear the gospel before the end comes.

God is gracious. God is fair. And when I look at that, not only does it tell me all of these people have a chance to hear the gospel, but it tells me something else very practical right now. When people ask me, what about those poor people out there and they always name off a destination, it used to be the pygmy in Africa, but they're all civilized now.

So what about, you know, what about that poor person in outer Mongolia or wherever, you know, down in the jungles of South America that have never heard the gospel? I read in my Bible of an angel flying through heaven, preaching the gospel.

If God at this point in time records in the Bible of an angel preaching the gospel to every nation, tribe and tongue, and my Bible says God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.

That's my God. I am the Lord. I change not the same yesterday, today and forever. My God is fully able to bring the gospels of some guy with his campfire and his parrot by him and his yams that he's dug from the earth somewhere in the darkest jungle.

He's fully able to bring the gospel by an angel if he wants to. And he's not willing that any should perish. He wants to bring the gospel and he's put a witness in creation to steer every open human heart in the direction of God to give him a head start.

And if you respond to the light that is given you, God will always give you more light until you come up to the full light of the saving knowledge of God and Jesus Christ. The Bible is replete with truth concerning that.

This is my God. He's a saving God. Judgment is a strange work. He's a loving God. So here's the earth, people on the earth responding in apathy. Someone as well said when God has spoken, apathy is evidence of practical atheism.

Apathy is evidence of practical atheism. No practical atheism is it's a good phrase. It is to act like you believe in God to live like you don't. When God has spoken, apathy is evidence of practical atheism.

Tell me what you want about what your brain understands. But if you live like there's no God, you're a practical atheist. So here's the world populated by people that even at this point, at the end of Chapter six, they said they said that they know who is judging them.

Hide us from the lamb and his wrath and they hide in the rocks. So they know, but they're completely apathetic to respond to his message. Evidence of practical atheism. You look at that and you say, well, how could people see an angel flying through heaven, hear an angel and not respond?

Rejection of Light and the Final Judgment

Well, Jesus gave us the key to that. It's so familiar. It's become cliche. Like you to turn your Bible to John. We will not be back to revelation till next time. So go to John as we begin to come to the conclusion of this study.

John 3 19. Jesus tells us how men can be like this and reject God in the face of so much light. John 3 19. Jesus said. This is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light.

Why? Because their deeds are evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deed should be exposed and basically have to turn and repent from them. It isn't that they don't know the light is there, it's that they hate the light and won't come to it because they like what they do in the dark.

That's why. So we have an unbelieving world that rejected Jesus Christ when he came to this earth. At the present time, it is rejecting the life giving message of Jesus Christ. It will continue to reject the truth even during the tribulation period when God is pouring out his wrath and everybody knows where it's coming from.

Men will still continue to reject his message of salvation because they love the sins that they do. What a sad trade off. Think of any sin you've ever committed. Think of the if I could put it this way, the best sins you've ever committed, the darling sins, the ones you ones you really like.

And ask yourself if that is worth giving up eternity with God in heaven forever. It is tragic and sad to see the men do that. What a loss. What a trade off. Pleasure and sin for a season. Then it's over and eternity unfolds before you.

Someone has well said at death, as death leaves us when we die, as death leaves us. So judgment will find us. Oh, my. You will die. I will die. We'll get through that. But then judgment will find us as death leaves us.

Judgment will find us as a believer. I know I will stand before Christ to be tried by the fire of his eyes and I will then be rewarded for all the good things I've done. And the things I've done with mixed motives will be burnt up with hay and stubble.

I'll be rewarded for all the really godly things I've done. But I will be judged in that sense. My works will be tried. But as a way of lighting a fire under me to know, I'll be tried by the fire of his eyes.

All things are naked and open with him, with whom we have to do. Tends to purify the motives, doesn't it? If you don't know Christ, see for the believer, you'll be tried only and judged only to be rewarded.