“And 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 seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel who had a golden censer came and stood at the altar, and a large amount of incense was given to him, in order that he could offer the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense went up before God with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel. And the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire from the altar and threw it to the earth, and there were thunders and sounds and lightnings and an earthquake.” - Rev 8:1-6

The opening of the seventh seal is almost anticlimactic in comparison with all that we have seen from Chapter 5 up to this point. Silence. A half hour of silence. Anyone who has observed even 2 minutes of silence knows how oppressive it feels, and how every noise is amplified in that time, even the sound of ones’ own breathing! Now imagine that multiplied and especially in contrast to the thunderous din of song and praise and activity just prior... we would do well to use this time to briefly reflect on what we have seen as well as contemplate just what this silence might signify.

We would like to draw your attention to a pattern. The pattern is 4+3=7. The first 4 (seals, trumpets, bowls) are very different from the last 3.

The first 4 seals are united by a common theme of horsemen, and set off from the last three, each of which talk about something unique (souls under the altar, astronomical sign, silence).

Similarly, the first 4 trumpets (we shall see) unleash physical suffering on the planet (hail, 1/3rd sea afflicted, 1/3rd rivers afflicted, sun/moon/stars afflicted), whereas the last 3 trumpets are distinguished by unleashing “woes” that have a spiritual dimension… “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!” – Rev 8:13

The Woes mentioned are – a unique kind of “locust”, 4 angels that kill a 1/3rd of mankind, and finally one ushered in by the last trumpet, which actually does several things. It signals the ending of the mystery of God’s plan… ” But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. “- Rev 10:7 “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. “-Rev 11:15. The Vision then moves on to describing the last 2 witnesses, a recap of history (Woman and Dragon), the Antichrist and False prophet, prior to ushering in the Harvest of the Earth (Yay!!). The LAST WOE is the REIGN OF THE BEAST!

The Bowls of the Wrath of God also follow the 4/3 pattern. The first 4 are physical (sores, entire sea made blood, all rivers turned to blood, suns heat scorching the earth), the last 3 are very different – kingdom of the beast made full of darkness, Euphrates dried up so that kings of the earth can assemble in the valley of Megiddo, Babylon falls.

Let us go back to the Seals. Thus far, we have seen four seals unleash false Christ’s, war, famine and death on the world.

The fifth seal took us back to OT times. We saw the heavenly brazen altar of sacrifice (the earthly one was placed in the court of the temple), from which the blood of the OT martyrs, like that of Abel, called out to God for justice. We saw those martyrs finally being made perfect ....by being given white robes (Christ’s righteousness – procured for them after His work was finished). We saw the great multitude of the souls of the redeemed of all ages standing before the Lord.

The sixth seal signals to all the world that the “day” of the Lord has started. It is followed by a period of quiet – in Heaven we see only preparations being made – 4 angels are restrained, the people of God are sealed, and there is a period of quiet even after the seventh seal is opened.

After the widespread panic created by the sixth seal – when nothing further happens for a while – the scared people go back to their normal ways. Think back to post 911. Church attendance was at a record high and calls for repentance were rife across the nation. Look at us now....! We are back to where we were or even worse. However - for the faithful that are watching and keeping the words of this prophecy, the sign of the sixth seal is not a time of panic, but a time to gird up, strengthen and prepare.

Which brings us to the seventh seal. It shows us a pause in the affairs of the earth but more importantly, also shows us a progression in Heaven. We see the trumpets handed to seven angels who are preparing to sound, and we see a different altar – a GOLDEN altar, which is before the throne, on which prayers mingled with incense are offered up. This altar is not the brazen altar of sacrifice which stood in the outer court of the temple, this altar is the golden altar – in the earthly temple it was inside the temple, before the holy of holies. The prayers of saints throughout the ages for God’s Kingdom to come, and His will be done are about to be answered!!!! We have moved from the outer court to the sanctuary itself. Finally, once the prayers have ascended, fire from this altar is taken and cast to the earth – and the opening bars of the Trumpet symphony are introduced with thunder, sounds/voices and an earthquake.

It is important to note that though things are happening in the Vision in real-time (as far as the apostle is concerned) it does not necessarily mean that the same time periods are elapsing on earth. For example, if you are traveling faster than light, time passes for you much more slowly than for people who are not traveling at that speed – this is a well known fact – an astronaut leaving earth and traveling out and back at the speed of light for 20 years, will find that hundreds and hundreds of years will have passed on earth while he was gone, but he will have aged only 20 years! Einsteins theory of Relativity.

We submit that the opening of the first 5 seals was done very soon after Christ ascended, and the apocalypsis (Revelation or Opening) here for the church is for them to understand the things that must "shortly come to pass", the period of the “beginning of sorrows” – what they would see on earth, and what trials they should be prepared for. There then seems to be some time elapsed between the 5th and the 6th seals, the 6th and 7th seals, and post the 7th seal. The pause of half an hour after the 7th seal may be to let the 144,000 do their work or to raise up the two final witnesses. It is impossible to be dogmatic about the length of these time periods, but history and our experience tells us that the sixth seal has not yet been opened.

The seventh seal shows us that even when it seems God seems to be doing nothing, evil is rampant, and good people are suffering – their prayers are being heard, and His arm is still moving to bring us closer to Him! The OT saints under the brazen altar are told to be patient for “a season” so that their brethren would be martyred as they have been, and simple logic tells us that this season extends from the days of the 5th seal, till the days of the 7th trumpet.

The Book of Revelation was written to show the church the things that must shortly come to pass, for the purpose that their faith fail not, and they overcome the enemy with their witness. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” – Rev 14:12. Hallelujah!