Silence

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

SILENCE

Rev 8:1-5

8:1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. 3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

NIV

And so the seventh seal has been broken and the scroll is now completely opened. Some scholars would say that all which we read in this revelation does not happen in chronological order, that it goes back and forth, as well as it has scenes in heaven and on earth. Other would say this only concerns the happenings upon Israel because the whole of the scriptures deal with Israel. If both of these are truth then the events as well as the whole of scripture has no meaning for all of Christianity. If Jesus came to die for the whole world, which he did, then the whole of scripture including all that has already been revealed to John and the rest which is to be revealed to him has incredible meaning to us. With the opening of the seventh seal we see there was a great silence in heaven for about half an hour. While this silence was in progress the actions regarding the angels was taking place. Again we could see so much similarity in John’s description of what is happening and the way the Jews practiced worship in both the tabernacle and then the temple. But this is not that, this is something far more significant. But before we get too involved with all the happenings, we should spend some time considering this silence. Even this silence during the ceremony of incense is still practiced by one faith today. But it is not simply a ceremony. This silence should give us a moment to pause. The silence in heaven was about what is about to take place. When something surprising or overwhelming is about to happen we have heard it stand it takes our breath away, or silence. But there is more here about silence or silent prayer, as we see here the prayers of all the saints. So often we think we have to keep talking when we pray, in fact there are times when some would wax on, so to speak, in prayer perhaps to prove their spirituality, or their ability to quote the scriptures in prayer, or for whatever reason. There may be time for that kind of corporate prayer, but when one member of the congregation is praying with many words many of the rest may not be praying with the same thoughts, in fact they may be off somewhere else. It is difficult for us to hear the voice of God when we are engaged with our mouth making so many words.  The prophet Elijah when he was on Mt Horab  was in a cave when fire and an earthquake were happening, but when he heard a gentle breeze he covered his face, for in the gentle breeze he heard the voice of God. This may be the only time in the scripture where we find God speaking in a small gentle voice, but we cannot assume he will be yelling loudly at us with his direction for our lives, so loudly that we will hear him over the sound of our own voice babbling on in prayer. God is not a God of confusion nor is he rude and will not interrupt us during our vocal exhibition of prayer. We need to spend a period of silence if we are to hear from God. We need to just sit, or kneel, or fall prostrate on our faces, or even stand, it really does not matter our position as much as the fact we need to keep quiet, silent, listening instead of talking. Yes he has told us to bring our petitions to him, but what he has to say is so far more important than anything we could ever say. Although we need to deal with these seven angels how they were given the seven trumpets to see if any life lesson could be seen for us, it is better for us to simply stay focused on this moment of silence and learn we too need to spend silent time before the Lord, if we are to hear from him. True we could keep on asking over and over again for our needs, or for the needs of others, but when do we expect to hear from him? Do we think of him as just doing whatever we ask without ever saying a word? True, Jesus said the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. But God is far more than just a giver of whatever as long as we ask in the name of Jesus. But then that is something else altogether. We could ask why we do not have everything we ask the Father for in the name of Jesus. But we digress. We need to see how important it is to hear from him, rather than his hearing from us. Our life is more than just about us, it should be about him. Yes, he does want to hear from us, but he also wants to talk to us, to fellowship with us, to walk in the cool of day, side by side sharing all his wisdom and knowledge with us, guiding our lives, directing our footsteps. It is those times we are silent, even silent in our prayer that we can hear his voice.  We need to know that time of silence.