An Eerie Silence

     Rev. 6 opened with the 4 angels being held back until the elect were sealed. It closed with the revelation of the 6th seal, the shocking sixth seal of total darkness on the earth. What about the 7th seal? We would logically expect to see it next, but instead we see an intervening event in Chapter 7. We see the elect in Heaven as the result of the rapture.
       We have to admit that the Holy Spirit knows how to tell a story. So now we would logically expect to finally see the 7th seal. Instead we get another surprise. Rev. 8 opens with total silence. What does this mean? Once again we are meant to make the Spirit-inspired connections. Zephaniah 1:7 gives us the answer. “Be silent in the presence of the Lord God; for the Day of the Lord is at hand, for the Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited His guests.”
        Remember, the Day of the Lord is another name for the last Day, the 7th Day in God’s prophetic timetable of the great Week. It’s an awesome, earth-shattering Day.  It should be noted that the events we are about to be shown in the 7th seal don’t necessarily occur one after the other. They occur across the first 3 and one-half years of the 1,000-year period known as the wrath of that Day.
        The silence is then broken. Once again we are told that “there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.” We see seven angels equipped with seven trumpets. We see another angel given a golden censer filled with incense. He mingles it with the prayers of the saints and offers it upon the golden altar before the throne. The smoke that results rises unto God.
        Fire can represent transformation and purification. It can also represent destruction and death. Something monumental is about to happen that shall bring great joy and justice, yet great wrath and vengeance as well. No wonder there is silence in Heaven.
       End-Time Lesson: We’re about to see the overview of God’s vengeance against evil. We’re about to see the shaking of the powers of the heavens when the first four trumpet judgments are sounded. The first trumpet brings hail and fire mixed with blood, striking the vegetation, destroying one-third of the trees and grasses.
       The second trumpet brings a burning mountain (asteroid, meteor, or something akin to these) that strikes a major ocean used for shipping, turning it to blood, killing one-third of the sea creatures and destroying one-third of the ships on the sea.
         The third trumpet brings a great star (meteor) called Wormwood to the earth that burns like a torch. One third of the fresh waters are poisoned by it, and many people die because of the contamination of the water supply. The fourth trumpet is a bit different. A third of the sun, the moon, and the stars are darkened, such that one third of the daytime and one third of the nighttime are effected.
            Then an angelic voice echoes across the globe, in effect saying that the population of the earth hasn’t seen anything yet. Only four trumpets have sounded so far—four is the number of the earth. Three more trumpets are to come; three is the number of the Triune Godhead. The results of the next three trumpets are bad—so bad that they are called woes.