"The Book of Revelation, An Eschatological Study of the Endtimes", by Chad J. McCoy

THE SEVENTH SEAL -

Rev. 8:1-5: 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.

The seventh and final seal was opened, and there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. You get the sense of something important about to happen here. On earth, we use a moment of silence as a way of showing respect.
Interestingly, the bible usually uses silence to symbolize death.
Psalms 94:17: Unless the LORD had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
Psalms 101:8: Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD.
Psalms 115:17: It is not the dead who praise the LORD, those who go down to silence;
Psalms 143:12: In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.
Isaiah 25:5: and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners; as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled.
Jeremiah 51:55: The LORD will destroy Babylon; he will silence her noisy din. Waves of enemies will rage like great waters; the roar of their voices will resound.
Amos 8:3: "In that day," declares the Sovereign LORD, "the songs in the temple will turn to wailing. Many, many bodies-flung everywhere! Silence!"

It may be that this silence represents all the death that is about to be poured out on the earth.
Or it may be a sign of respect to the Almighty God who is about to unleash his wrath upon the earth.

After the silence, seven angels are given seven trumpets, and another angel who has a golden censer, came and stood at the altar.

A censer is described in Easton's 1897 Bible dictionary, as "censer: the vessel in which incense was presented on "the golden altar" before the Lord in the temple (Ex. 30:1-9). The priest filled the censer with live coal from the sacred fire on the altar of burnt-offering, and having carried it into the sanctuary, there threw upon the burning coals the sweet incense (Lev. 16:12, 13), which sent up a cloud of smoke, filling the apartment with fragrance. The censers in daily use were of brass (Num. 16:39), and were designated by a different Hebrew name, _miktereth_ (2 Chr. 26:19; Ezek. 8:11): while those used on the day of Atonement were of gold, and were denoted by a word (mahtah) meaning "something to take fire with;" LXX. pureion = a fire-pan. "
and in Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary as "censer: \Cen"ser\, n. [For incenser, fr. OF. encensier, F. encensoir, fr. LL. incensarium, incensorium, fr. L. incensum incense. See Incense, and cf. Incensory.] A vessel for perfumes; esp. one in which incense is burned.
Note: The ecclesiastical censer is usually cup-shaped, has a cover pierced with holes, and is hung by chains. The censer bearer swings it to quicken the combustion"

I don't have any particular truth to impart about the censer, I just didn't know what it was. I looked it up and included the definitions as a benefit to the reader.

A censer, it says, is used to hold incense. The angel with the censer was given much incense to burn, along with the prayers of the saints.
Remember Rev. 5:8 : And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
This passage explains that the incense that the elders had was the prayers of the saints.
The incense that the angel burns on the altar is actually the prayers of the saints, combined with incense. This smoke rises up before God on His throne.
What were the prayers of the saints? Rev. 6:10: "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"
The prayers of the saints were appeals for judgement and vengeance. The saints had been told to wait a little longer. They have to wait no longer. These prayers go up before God, burning on the altar. A fire begins to blaze on the altar, and the angel fills his censer with the fire from the altar and hurled it to the earth.
The result of this is thunder, lightning, rumblings, and another earthquake. In other words, a bad storm with an earthquake.
Remember that the fire that was hurled to the earth was created out of the pleas of the saints for God to punish those on the earth who had a part in the slaughter of Christians. So this particular judgement is meted out by God at the request of the saints for justice.
Now begins the pouring out of God's wrath on the world, heralded by the blasts of seven trumpets.

Back
Home
Next