7 seals – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

How does heaven see injustice? And how does heaven see judgment when it comes?

I think we find both answers here. Normally, heaven rings with the worship of the cherubim, seraphim, the elders, and all the saints. But when the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was dead silence.

Why? Judgment was coming.

Oh, it had already come in part by the opening of the earlier seals. But from here on out, the judgments only grow in intensity and awfulness, as we shall see.

But it all starts with an angel coming with much incense to the altar of God. And he offers it to God along with the prayers of the saints.

What prayers? Most likely the prayers we saw in chapter 6; the prayers of the martyrs crying for justice.

At that time, God said, “Wait a little while.”

But now the time for justice had come.

Seven angels are given seven trumpets. And one by one, they are blown.

Again, a lot of this language is fantastic and highly figurative, so it’s hard to know exactly what it’s talking about.

But the hail and fire coming after the first trumpet is reminiscent of the plagues God sent down on Egypt. (Exodus 9:23-25)

That could very well be literal hail and fire considering that it happened to Egypt.

Anyway, as a result, a third of the earth and the trees are burned, and all the grass as well.

The “third” may be literal or not, but considering how they often use that number throughout these two chapters, I think it merely has the idea of a significant number.

The second trumpet is blown and a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, perhaps referring to volcanic eruptions and their after-effects.

(There was an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 which destroyed ships and killed marine life).

The third trumpet is blown and a great star fell from heaven making a third of the waters bitter, and killing many people. Whether this is some kind of meteorite, or simply a symbol of something that contaminates the water, I don’t know.

Again, this and the death of the those in the sea from the second trumpet are reminiscent of the plague on Egypt when God turned the Nile to blood. (Exodus 7:20-24)

The fourth angel blows his trumpet and a third of the sun, moon, and stars are struck.

This is why I says the number 1/3 is probably symbolic. How in the world do you strike a third of the sun. And even if you do, do you really reduce it’s light by exactly one-third?

At any rate, like with Egypt, an unexplained darkness falls upon the earth.

And then things get worse, what the eagle calls the three woes. (Revelation 8:13)

The fifth trumpet is blown, and swarms of locust from hell itself come out to devastate the earth, again a reference to one of the plagues on Egypt (Exodus 10:12-15)

But these are not literal locust. They seem to be demons. Why? Their king is an angel whose name is Abaddon or Apollyon, Hebrew and Greek for “destroyer.”

Second, their attack is not on the plant-life, but on people, to torture them. Third, the attack is specifically on those who are not sealed and protected by God (see chapter 7).

Then the sixth trumpet is blown, and the four angels from chapter 7 that were held back from wrecking destruction on the earth are released.

And the picture seems to be that of full-scale war, with a third of mankind being wiped out as a result (an increase from the fourth that were killed in chapter 6 verse 8).

And yet, people do not repent. Rather, they continue in their sin for which they were being judged.

Sometimes people wonder why hell has to be eternal. After all, wouldn’t some, if not all, repent after being sent there?

I think we find the answer here and later in chapter 16. And the answer is a resounding no. Despite their suffering, they continue in their sinful attitudes and even curse God.

Is it any wonder that all heaven was silent at the opening of the seven seals?

God does not delight in judgment. But he is a God of justice. And he will not put off the cries of his saints forever. He hears their prayers. And he will bring judgment.

So remember: If you’re a Christian crying out wondering where justice is in this world, God hears. And the time for justice will come.

But also remember that judgment is not something to be taken lightly. Heaven doesn’t. Neither should we.

The beginning of the end

I am now officially in deep waters.

For that matter, so is everyone else who starts trying to comment on these passages. The number of interpretations for these passages are legion. All I can I say is that many of my interpretations are at best tentative.

In Revelation, you see three categories of judgment, the 7 seals, the 7 trumpets, and the 7 bowls.

Some people think they are all concurrent judgments. Some think they are chronological. One thing is certain: things will go from bad to worse before our Lord comes.

My guess, is that these judgments are chronological with a possibility of overlap between them.

These seal judgments in particular seem to be what Jesus refers to as not the end itself, but rather the “beginning of the birth pains.” (Matthew 24:8)

And I think there’s a good chance that a lot of what’s written here is happening even as I write this.

Jesus opens the first seal, and out comes a white horse with a rider who has a bow and a crown and who is bent on conquest. (Revelation 6:2)

To me, this symbolizes what Jesus speaks of in Matthew 24:6-7. Wars. Rumors of wars. Nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Sound familiar at all?

Jesus opens the second seal and a fiery red horse comes out, and its rider is given power to take peace from the earth and make men slay each other. (4)

In other words, not only will people will die because of war, but people will start murdering each other. Not to say that this had never happened before in history, but it will become almost epidemic.

Again, does this sound familiar? Just read the news everyday with all the terrorism, murders and mass murders.

He opens a third seal and a black horse comes out with scales saying,

A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine. (6)

This seems to indicate famine, where a small amount of food costs an inordinate amount of money. This famine is not as bad as it could be, however, as the oil and wine are not touched.

Again this seems to refer to Matthew 24:7 where Jesus tells us there will be famines as part of the birth pains.

Jesus opens the fourth seal, and a pale horse comes out representing death. And this seems to to sum up the previous three seals with two additional things: plague and even the wild beasts of the earth turning against people.

I’ll come back to the fifth seal tomorrow, but for now will go to the sixth seal.

Here we see a great earthquake, the sun turns black and the moon turns to blood with stars falling from the sky. The sky recedes like a scroll and every mountain and island is removed from its place.

Is all this literal? I don’t know.

Perhaps the main point of all this is that there is a great earthquake; everything else is figurative of how things feel to the people of the earth after experiencing the earthquake.

That is, because of the the earthquake’s awesomeness, the whole world seems to be falling apart.

Here in Japan, we have suffered two great earthquakes in 1995 and 2011, and I wouldn’t be surprised if most of those who went through it would look at these passages and say, “Yes, that’s what it felt like.”

So what do we get from all this?

A theologian named D.A. Carson once said something like this: We can look at all the problems the earth has. War. Murder. Famine. Earthquakes. Plagues.

And when asked about the cause, we can point to a lot of of sociological and natural explanations.

Or we can say God has allowed all these things.

Both are true, but what is more fundamental?

The truth is, because of sin in this world, judgment is coming. And all these things we see on earth now are a mere prelude to the final judgment. God has allowed them all. Why? Is it just to judge us?

No. It is also in part to drive people to him.

If there were never any trouble in this world, I guarantee you that a majority of people would never turn to Christ because they would never see their need for him.

But because of the judgments of God, they see their sinfulness and their need for his salvation, and repent.

The question is, when you see these judgments, how will you respond? Will you merely cringe in fear? (15-16)

Will you scream in defiance? (Revelation 16:9)

Or will you repent?

Judgment is coming. Are you ready?