Sunday School Notes: Revelation 8:1

¹ And when he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven [for] about half an hour.

We kicked off a new season of Sunday School this week with a recap of where we’ve been so far in Revelation. There were some new to the group, and, let’s face it, after a few months we all need a bit of a memory prompt!

The recap ended up taking most of our time, and since you can go back and read previous blog articles, I won’t go into a lot of detail here. But for the sake of those who need a memory jog, here’s a very brief run-through of Revelation 1-7. Bear in mind, I’m skipping a lot of important detail that bears going back to the study notes and reviewing. Where relevant, I’ll draw attention to those things in the coming weeks.

The story so far…

John (who we assume is the same John who wrote the Gospel–there’s no compelling evidence to make us think he is some other John, and the literary comparisons between Revelation and the Gospel as strong enough to be fairly confident they have the same author) is on the island of Patmos, an island used by the Romans as a place of exile. This is why John is there. One Lord’s Day, John has a vision of Jesus who commands him to write all that he is about to see in a book and send it to the seven churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Revelation is, therefore, essentially a letter to these churches.

There is debate over when Revelation was written. The two most popular suggestions are either the late-60s (a Neronian timeframe), or the mid-90s. I lean toward the mid-90s since this would fit a period of intense persecution, moreso than in Nero’s day, which is more in line with the historical circumstance described in the book. However, aside for some minor details, when it was written makes little difference to the interpretation of Revelation. Yes, there are some historical points that bring some clarity to the text, but the message is the same whenever it was written.

Jesus then directs John to write letters to those seven churches. These letters give us an idea of the church’s situation at that time: persecution, temptation to idolatry and backsliding, greed, but also faithfulness in the midst of extreme circumstances. For most of the churches Jesus has words of commendation and words of chastisement. For Smyrna and Philadelphia, he only has words of praise, and for Laodicea, he hasn’t a single word of commendation. Yet he doesn’t promise any kind of physical protection for Smyrna and Philadelphia–in fact he only promises more trouble, imprisonment, and possibly death. This is because the promises to “those who overcome” are spiritual–they will not lose faith, and indeed their names will be in the Book of Life, they will have Christ’s name, and will sit with him on his throne and reign with him. These same promises extend even to the Laodiceans, so all is not lost.

John is then given a glimpse of a heavenly worship service. There’s a throne, and four creatures and 24 elders around the throne worshiping the One on the throne. The four creatures represent the entirety of the created order, and the 24 elders represent the church in its fullness (12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles–God’s Old and New Covenant people).

Then John sees a sealed scroll, and no-one is able to break the seal and open it–neither any of the creatures, nor any of the elders. None are worthy. This upsets John greatly, until the Lamb who was slain appears. He is worthy. The description of the scroll resembles that of the old Roman will and testament, where the details of the will were written on the inside, and a summary written on the outside. According to Roman law, only the executor of the will can open the will, and only after the death of the one who wrote the will. This fits very well with what we see here: as will become apparent, the scroll contains calamities and judgments that will fall upon the world. None of these are a surprise to the Lamb, because he has ordained that they come to pass. Only after he has died and been raised again is he able to open those seals. And only he is worthy because, first, he “wrote” the scroll, and second, because only he is able to pass judgment without himself being culpable of any of the sins for which the world is to be judged.

The Lamb opens the first six seals. In the first four we have what have become known as “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” and they bring conquest, war, famine, death and pestilence. When the fifth seal is opened, John sees the saints under the altar in heaven (representing the fact that they are protected by the Lamb’s sacrifice) crying out to the Lord, “How long…?” They want to see His name vindicated, and justice brought about for His people who are undergoing persecution. The Lord’s response is to hand them white robes and tell them to wait until their number is complete (i.e., wait until the End Times).

When the sixth seal is opened, John sees devastating destruction on a cosmic scale. This is either the End Times, or the beginning of the End. People in the midst of the calamity wonder who is able to stand the Day of the Lamb’s Wrath?

Chapter seven appears to be a break in the action. There are angels holding back the full force of the destruction to come, and they are told not to release it until God’s servants have been sealed. He then sees 144,000 people sealed. 144,000 = 12 x 12 x 1,000. These are the twelve tribes of Israel, and the twelve apostles as we saw before. The number 1,000 is used often in the Old Testament to signify a large number. Psalm 50:10 tells us God owns the cattle on a 1,000 hills–that doesn’t mean He doesn’t own the cattle on the 1,001st hill. It means He owns all the cattle on all the hills. Multiplication also adds to this sense of magnitude. The 144,000 are then listed according to tribes of Israel. The notes on chapter 7 go into more detail, but this is further identification of the church as Israel–not that the church has replaced Israel, but that the church fulfills Israel. What God intended His people to be back in the days of the Patriarchs is what the church eventually becomes: a vast multitude from every tongue, tribe, nation, and people. John then sees this vast number of those who have been sealed–the ones who have stood the Day of the Lamb’s Wrath–in its fullness. So chapter 7 is an answer to the question at the end of the sixth seal.

Before we continue with chapter 8 and the seventh seal, some general reminders:

• The two most important interpretive questions to ask of any biblical book, whether Revelation, Romans, Genesis, or Malachi are: “What did it mean to the writer’s audience?” and  “What does it mean to us?” Nowhere did Jesus instruct John to tell the churches that they won’t be able to understand Revelation for a few thousand years because none of this has happened yet, and it’s all in a code they don’t have the means of deciphering yet. Revelation meant something to the readers in the seven churches (in fact, some of the names used, e.g., “Babylon”, may have been code names just in case the letter fell into Roman hands–the Romans wouldn’t know they are being discussed). And if we avail ourselves of the resources they had–particularly the Old Testament–and a bit of cultural information of the period, we should be able to make sense of it. Granted, there are areas where we will disagree on interpretation, but for the most part, the main message of the book should be clear. It’s God’s eternal word, after all.
• The visions are not necessarily in chronological order. Even though John will say, “And then I saw…” he is simply referring to the succession of visions, and he is not making any reference to a sequence in time. It would be like someone giving you a series of pictures but you have no idea whether you are seeing the pictures in a particular order. All you can say is, “Then he handed me this picture… and then I saw this picture…” It’s possible there is a sequence, but it’s also possible there is overlap in the visions–one vision may be a more full depiction of something seen in a previous vision. We need to look at each vision for clues to their relationship to one another. But we should also remember that John is seeing visions of things from a heavenly perspective, so he’s looking at these things outside of time.
• Some numbers in Scripture are only of passing consequence. But when you have the same numbers used repeatedly, especially within the same book, these must be taken seriously. In Revelation we see much use of the number 7, and the number 4. Seven is the number of completion (seven days of creation) or fullness–especially in a spiritual, or eternal sense. Hence, while the seven churches to which John writes are literal churches, they are also representative of the fullness of the church–all churches everywhere. Four seems to represent worldly fullness–the four creatures, the four winds, and we speak of “the four corners of the earth.” So the four creatures represent all of creation. We’ve already see the significance of 12, 24, 1,000, and 144,000, and we’ll note others as they come up.
• Finally. Revelation is not the last book of the Bible because it tells us how the world will end–though that seems a fitting close to a Bible that starts with creation. As I read and study Revelation, what strikes me most is the fact that in this book, the Lord is drawing together all that He has revealed from Genesis to Jude, through Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, as seen in light of Christ and the gospel. In Revelation we see the images the prophets saw dimly set in the sharp light of the cross–and it becomes much clearer what they were talking about. It’s not so much about the end, but it’s about the fullness of redemption. It’s a letter of hope to Christians that their trial and suffering, and the sin and depravity they see, is not the end of the story. And even when the worst of calamities come, there is hope. The Lord hasn’t forsaken us. Indeed, all that is happening is part of His great plan to redeem His people. And a day is coming when all evil will be crushed, and all those gospel promises will be fulfilled completely.

Now to the Seventh Seal, and Revelation 8:1

When the Lamb opens the seventh seal, there is silence in heaven. Some suggest this seal is an “empty” seal because nothing happens. The assumption is silence is the same as inactivity. However, silence has great Scriptural significance:

• Isaiah 41:11: The Lord calls for silence while He declares His majesty and announces judgment on the enemies of His people.
• Isaiah 47:5: The Lord silences Babylon while He proclaims judgment.
• Jeremiah 7:34: The Lord silences the laughter and joy in Judah in light of the evil done by Judah’s sons.
• Jeremiah 47:2: God brings silence to the madmen as He declares judgment against Moab.
• Lamentations 2:10: The elders of the daughter of Zion sit in silence at the devastation brought about by the Lord’s hand in judgment.
• Habakkuk 2:20: The Lord is in His holy temple–let the earth keep silence! This is in the context of His judgment on the Chaldeans.

So there is a strong judicial sense to this silence. Someone in the group pointed out that the praise in heaven would have ceased. There is a somber, sober atmosphere to this silence, akin (as someone else suggested) to the judge walking into the courtroom after the jury has finished deliberation. Everyone is silent as the judge takes his seat, hears the verdict, then prepares to render a sentence. God has ascended the judgment seat. Silence falls in anticipation of that judgment.

Why for “half an hour”? The Greek literally says “about half an hour” (hôs hêmiôrion) so this is not a precise length of time. It’s the only time in the New Testament this word appears, so we don’t have much Scriptural background for its usage. However, we do have the use of “half-a-time” in Daniel 7:25, 9:27, and 12:7, where he speaks of a duration of time in terms of “times, times, and half-a-time.” He also mentions a “half week.” These all suggest a sudden curtailment of a time period, perhaps emphasizing the sudden, unexpected occurrence of whatever comes next.

So we have a silent anticipation of judgment that lasts for a period of time, and that comes to an end suddenly–like a thief in the night.

We’ll continue our study of the seventh seal next time, Lord willing!