"Have An Apocalyptic Day". Chapter 8: "Stop, Hey, What's That Sound?"

 

The Seventh and final seal is broken.
Instead of instantaneous action, we have silence.
Heaven itself--which is in praise and worship unceasing, for eternity--stands completely silent for half an hour. 

Seven angels stand with seven trumpets, but they don't make a sound just yet.

first, an angel with a censer full of incense, with the prayers of the saints, approaches God's altar. Once the prayers and incense reach the altar, then the altar sends forth thunder, lightning, and earthquakes on the earth. 

The first four angels blow their trumpets, unleashing plagues on the earth, not meant just for vengeance, but to bring the people on earth to repentance. Many of them are similar to the plagues unleashed on Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus, in God's effort to convince him to liberate the people of Israel. Bruce Metzger in his commentary "Breaking the Code," also notes that burning mountains and darkened skies bears some resemblance to the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 CE. John's hearers would certainly have heard of this calamity. 

The silence in heaven is striking. A song that has existed through eternity, outside of time as we know it, takes a pause, not for a great proclamation from God or some anointed prophet, but to listen to our prayers. And when our prayers reach the altar, thunder and lightning come rolling in. 

God listens to us. In my busy daily life, I feel I hardly take time even to listen to myself. If the angels of eternity have half an hour to spare for us, what on earth--so to speak--is keeping me so busy that I don't have fifteen minutes to talk with God? What thunder and lightning could be unleashed--what transformation and change, within us and outside us, could take place, if we really prayed as though heaven were grinding to a halt for us? 

My poetic interpretation of REVELATION 8

8. The seventh seal, with rev’rent awe is met

And heaven, silent, waits for half an hour

With incense, forth from God the angel sets,

The plagues for them who cling to Pharaoh’s pow’r. 

The prayers and incense are a holy fire;

They rumble like a storm across the world.

The seven trumpets wait for God’s desire

To see the plans of justice now unfurled.

The first unleashes hail, and fire, and blood,

Consuming land the wealthy once consumed.

The second, third: fresh water is wormwood,

The seas, with greed once claimed, now meet their doom. 

The fourth strikes heaven’s light, that all may see

Great woes, until we set creation free.