Revelation 8

SUMMARY.--The Silence in Heaven. The Seven Angels with the Seven Trumpets. The Incense Offered. The Fire Cast on the Earth. The First Angel Sounds; Hail, Fire, and Blood Follow. The Second Trumpet and the Mountain Cast into the Sea. The Third Trumpet and the Great Burning Stars. The Fourth Trumpet and the Sun Darkened.

      In the opening of the seventh chapter we are told that four angels were holding back hurtful winds or destroying agencies until a great work was done for the Church. That work accomplished, the eighth chapter describes how four angels let loose four terrible agencies to a work of destruction. The first four trumpet angels are entirely separated from the remaining three and do a separate work. There ought not to be a doubt that the four agencies let loose by the four trumpet angels of the eighth chapter , are the same as the four hurtful winds held back by the angels in the seventh chapter .

      1, 2. When he opened the seventh seal. It is the Lamb who opens all the seals. There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. There has been a great effort among commentators to interpret the meaning of this silence. I think that it is a hush of awe before the march of the awful judgments about to come, the calm before the storm breaks forth, the oppressive silence before the burst of battle. It is designed to emphasize the events that follow. 2. And I saw. Thus John introduces the vision of each seal. The vision is not the silence in heaven, but what John saw. On this point some commentators make a mistake here. What he saw was the seven angels which stand before God; that is, the angels who act as his immediate ministering servants, to whom were given seven trumpets. The seventh seal, therefore, embraces these angels and their trumpets, and all they do in the following verses belongs to this seal. The seventh and last seal will not be exhausted until the seven trumpet angels have discharged their mission.

      3-5. And another angel came and stood over the altar. The scene reveals the altar of the tabernacle, "a pattern made after heavenly things." This is the altar of sacrifice from which the coal was always taken to light the incense ( Lev. 16:13 ). This angel receives the incense and offers it upon the golden altar, the altar of incense. The incense is "the prayers of the saints;" these to reach the throne must be lighted from the altar of sacrifice; or by faith in the blood of the Lamb of God. 4. And the smoke. As the smoke arose before the throne, so the prayers of the saints in the name of the crucified Savior arise to God. The special significance of all this is that in the terrible judgments about to follow, the prayers of the true and faithful saints will still come before God, and his providence will be over them. 5. And the angel . . . filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it upon the earth. Fire is usually a symbol of suffering. This fire cast from the altar upon the earth indicates that the judgments of God are about to fall upon it. The earth in the sense used by John is the great Roman Empire, which embraced the civilized world. There followed thunders, etc. These mutterings and the quaking are ominous of the terrible scenes to follow when the angels sound their trumpets.

      6. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets. See verse 2 . There is the utmost deliberation. All must be made ready. The four angels hold back the winds ( 7:1 ), then there was the silence of half an hour ( verse 1 ); now the seven angels prepared themselves to sound. This implies that all things were being made ready for the great events to follow. Trumpets. The trumpet is used to give a signal. Usually it implied the march or charge of armies. See Joel 2:1 Joel 2:15 Jer. 4:5 Ezek. 33:1-6 . Sometimes it calls the people to worship. See Numbers 31:6 Numbers 31:1 1 Chron. 15:24 . The reader will see that the first is likely to be the significance here.