Revelation 8:1-5 – Reversed Thunder

Revelation provides an ongoing plot. The images may be confusing, but it’s well-organized story that develops clearly. It’s also a story with some surprises.

Let’s review what’s gotten us to this point. John’s experience began with a vision of Jesus Christ, who commanded him to give specific messages to the seven churches he oversaw. Then John was given the privilege of seeing the world’s events from a heavenly perspective. He saw God on his throne, surrounded by the praise of heavenly beings. God held a scroll upon which was written his plan for the world, but only Christ, the Lamb who had been slain, was able to open its seven seals to reveal the contents. Fantastic and terrible things happened as the first six were opened: the four horsemen of the apocalypse revealed the horrors of life on earth, the martyrs demanded that God settle their accounts, and calamity fell upon the earth. Before the seventh seal was broken, John saw how the faithful were cared for by receiving the seal of protection and taking part in the universal praise of God.

So now we’re ready for the seventh and final seal to be broken. It’s the moment we’ve been waiting for ever since Chapter 5, when the Lamb brought joy into heaven by stepping forward as the one qualified to open the scroll, revealing and enacting God’s will for creation. It’s taken more than two chapters to reach this point. As each of the first six seals were opened, fantastic and terrible things took place. It was so bad that before the seventh seal could be opened, God made special provisions for his people. As bad as everything else was, you know that it’s going to be even worse with the seventh seal. You want to close your eyes, plug up your ears, and hide behind something solid to protect yourself.

So when Christ opens the seventh seal, what happens? Nothing! Like a dud firecracker. All this hype and build-up, for nothing. To put it mildly, it’s a surprising development, maybe even a let-down. It’s hard to believe that’s it.

But appearances are deceiving. Just because it looks like nothing is happening doesn’t mean that it’s not. There are plenty of examples where inactivity, latency, or dormancy is significant. For instance:
• Humans go mad without sleep. Even though it seems like we’re just laying there, it apparently serves some important purpose.
• When we planted grass seed at the church’s construction site last October, I was convinced that the seed was bad or that the birds ate it all, because nothing happened. Now it’s growing in fine.
• The most important part of wine making is the time that it sits and ages in those fancy casks.
• Therapy sometimes goes through phases where the client doesn’t seem to be making any progress. But when the breakthrough takes place, it’s only possible because of the “nothing” that led up to it.
And here’s the best example of all. After six days of amazing creation, what did God do? He rested. He spent a day of doing nothing. How crazy is that?

The seventh seal is broken. God’s plan is ready to be revealed and to take place. But first, there’s a half hour of silence. Nothing. The calm before the storm? No. An important part of the plan. At least in our culture, that’s hard for us to understand. For us to accomplish something, we need to be busy, doing things. Rest and inactivity is wasteful, we think. We need to be active in order to be productive. At least, that’s what we tell ourselves. But it’s certainly not what God tells us. He has told us regularly to spend time in rest. To pause, focus our attention upon him, and purposefully do nothing. It’s so important that he made it one of the Ten Commandments. But of all the commandments, it’s one that we seem to take perverse pleasure in breaking. When we complain about being too busy, it’s almost like we’re bragging. One of the greatest curses, or moral failures, is to waste time doing “nothing.” I’ve known more than one person who was forced into inactivity because of health reasons, and not being able to do anything was actually harder on them than their physical ailment. It’s hard for us to be silent and to do nothing. But there’s value to it.

In this case, we learn what the value of the half-hour time-out is. And once again, it’s a reminder of the incredible way that God includes us in his plans. We’re not just spectators; we’re his teammates. I’ll keep you in suspense for just a moment, but it will all make sense before I’m done.

The breaking of seals meant that God’s plans are now able to be accomplished. To herald them, seven angels are given trumpets to sound. The trumpets are both a way to get everyone’s attention for what’s happening (like an alarm or attention signal), and they’re a way to get things in motion (like a bugle blast to get the troops to charge). And it will take all the way until the end of Chapter 11 for all seven trumpets to be blown. The angels are ready to fulfill God’s will. But first….

In verse three, we learn what the silence was all about, and we find out the important role that it played. During that half hour of inactivity, God was listening. He was listening to his people. He was paying attention to our prayers. It’s a marvel to realize that God takes time to listen to us. In the din of a loud world, God shuts everyone up so that he can hear us. In the middle of huge and important events, he makes us the center of attention. Far too many people beg off of praying about an issue in their lives because “God has more important things to worry about.” Not true! Even if we set aside the fact that God has a limitless ability to pay attention to everything, we should never dismiss how important even the most petty parts of our lives are to him. He counts the number of hairs on our head. He knows our every thought before it comes to our mind. His plans for the world are not as important to him as our prayers are.

So before the seven trumpet-angels set to their work, another angel has a more important task. He takes a giant bowl of incense and offers it on the altar to God. Incense is more than just a pretty aroma, sometimes used to cover up other odors. It was used in the Old Testament to symbolize prayer (see Psalm 141, for example). And that’s what we see here. The incense that the angel offers up is associated with the prayers of the saints (that is, everyone made holy by the work of Christ). Our prayers aren’t merely our requests that we make of God. They are an offering, presented to God as part of our devotion to him.

God receives our prayers, like sacrifices on the altar. But he doesn’t just hoard them away in heaven. He acts on them. The angel is given fire from the altar—God’s very power—to mix with the prayers that we, his people, offer up. Our prayers and God’s power. The angel mixes the two together, and hurls it to the earth. It causes thunder, lightning, and earthquakes.

Thunder is usually something that comes down from the sky to the earth. This is reversed thunder: our earthly concerns go up to heaven, where God adds his power to them and then shakes the world with it.

We have two lessons to learn from this. First, silence and inactivity are powerful. God uses them, and so should we. Second, recognize the significance that God attaches to our prayers. They are the grist for his saving work in the world.