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#32.
The Seven Trumpets. Temple Judgments (8:).
pp. 33 - 38
The sixth seal leads on to the day of the wrath of the Lamb, when the heavens shall
depart as a scroll. This one statement is sufficient to prove that the sealing of the 144,000
does not follow the sixth seal in time. We are evidently taken back in the history covered
by the six seals. The breaking of the seventh seal is therefore very markedly severed off
from the breaking of the sixth. The seventh seal is the beginning of another series. A
sevenfold judgment is revealed which culminates in the accession of Christ to the throne
of universal dominion under the seventh trumpet.
The opening of the seventh seal is followed by silence, silence for about half an hour.
While we can easily find "great voices" and "thunders" on other similar occasions
which mark a contrast, the silence of this verse seems to indicate something deeper.
Dr. Bullinger in The Apocalypse (pp. 294, 295) has brought together the following
passages which we here quote:--
"On earth, the cry of the saints has been incessant. They `cry day and night'. In
heaven the cry is now about to be answered, and there is a solemn pause--the silence of
expectation."
"The Heb. dumeyyah (silence) (fem. adj.) which occurs four times exactly expresses
the position:--
(1). `O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not; And in the night season
there is no silence to me' (Psa. 22: 2, 3).
(2). `I was dumb with silence' (Psa. 39: 2).
(3). `Truly my soul is silence toward God:
From Him cometh my salvation' (Psa. 62: 1).
(4). `There shall be silence before Thee,
And praise, O God, in Zion,
O Thou that hearest prayer,
Unto Thee shall all flesh come' (Psa. 65: 1. R.V. margin).
In all these four passages the word denotes a period of waiting between the offering of
the prayer, and the giving of the answer which shall call forth praise. The adverb in
Lam. 3: 26 exactly expresses it. `It is good when one doth wait even in silence for the
salvation of Jehovah'."
The words of Hab. 2: 20 seem applicable to this scene, "The Lord is in His holy
temple, be silent all the earth before Him". So also Zech. 2: 13, "Be silent, O all flesh
before the Lord: for He is raised up out of His holy habitation". Some action of intense
moment seems imminent. All heaven awaits the moment when God shall speak.
The first movement that follows the silence is the giving of seven trumpets to the
seven angels which stood before God.
The seven angels (Tous hepta angelous). Before the throne, we read in 4: 5, were
the seven spirits. According to 5: 6 the seven spirits of God were sent forth into all the
earth. Seven angels preside over the seven churches of Asia. The apostle Paul when
writing to Timothy said, "I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
elect angels". This is comparable with Rev. 1: 4, 5, "Grace be unto you and peace, from