In Revelation 8.1–5 John returns to the opening of the seventh and final seal. After all the noise of the previous two chapters—the clattering hoof beats of the four horses, the loud prayers of the martyrs, the anxious cries of the great ones of the earth, the raucous praise of the heavenly hosts—we are primed to expect something spectacularly loud. What John hears is, well, nothing. “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”
I wonder if it was an uncomfortable silence for John, like the silence at a grade school play when one of the students forgets his lines. It is often difficult for us to sit still when we expect something but hear nothing. As a pastor, I have sometimes wanted to spring silence on an unexpecting congregation. Christians are so geared to progressing through the Sunday order of worship with nary an uncomfortable pause that it would be interesting to make them sit and wonder what would happen next. More than that, it would be instructive. If we truly believe that God is present with us when we gather together for worship, could we take thirty minutes of silent time to listen for his voice, or would we be too busy waiting for the preacher to get up and say something to relieve our tension?
The heavenly silence John describes is not, of course, a dropped line in the heavenly drama. It is a pregnant pause, an opportunity to wait on God. It is, in fact, the time that lapses between our prayers and God’s answer. John describes an angel who stands at the altar with a golden censer, offering its incense with “the prayers of all the saints.”
We saints are not patient people. The martyred souls under heaven’s altar cried out, “How long?” (6.10). We American Christians especially—pampered as we are by microwave ovens, cable modems, and one-hour dry cleaners—cannot stand to wait for God’s reply to our prayers. If we had to wait half an hour for our food to come to us, we would complain about the restaurant’s lousy service.
And that, I think, is one of the reasons why God inserts the half hour of silence in the opening of the seven seals. In a restaurant, the customer may be king. In heaven, God is, and he does things in his own way, at his own pace. Our consumer culture has taught us that we are the center of the universe, and that the service industry exists to satisfy our whims. The seventh seal forces us to realize that God is the center of the universe and we exist to do his will.
Only when we have learned this lesson does God answer our prayers. After the silence of heaven has passed, “the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.” Not to mention seven trumpets (8.6–11.19). God’s answer may come slowly, but it is never late.
Are we humble and patient enough to hear it?
Listen to The Daily Word online.
GeorgePWood.com 