Revelation 8: Silence in Heaven

Today’s reading is Revelation 8.

“When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour” (Revelation 8:1, ESV).

Silence in heaven? What on earth does that represent?

I don’t want to shock you with my answer, but I think it represents silence in heaven for half an hour. Think about it. From the moment John was called to God’s throne room he has been met with cacophony. The creatures, the elders, the angels, the inhabitants of the universe have been shouting, singing, crying out, warring, thundering. Certainly, John saw a near-blinding visual spectacle. But don’t forget to imagine the near-deafening sounds.

Then Jesus broke the seventh seal and…

SILENCE!

The thundering ceased. The singing stopped. The shouting ended. No praises. No laments. No crying out. No calling back. Nothing. Silence.

The creatures, the elders, the angels, the multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, became instantly silent. They waited in silence. They sat or stood still. This was a mixture of awe, reverence, and expectation. Each participant equally unwilling to break the mood of the moment.

The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him (Habakkuk 2:20, ESV).

There is, no doubt, a time in God’s temple to shout and sing. But there is a time to be silent. A time to be still in quiet reverence and awe at the presence of God. A time sit in silent reflection on what God has done. A time to stand in concentrated expectation on what God will do next.

This is where every creature in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth stayed for about half an hour in John’s vision. And John was there silent among them.

Can you imagine if we asked for a 30-minute period of silence in our congregational assemblies for worship? What if we asked for simply 2 minutes? Could we do it? Could we sit in silent reverence, reflection, awe, and expectation? Or would we simply find it an awkward interruption to our worship? I can’t help but wonder if the test of our worship-mindedness would not be silence. We are emotionally moved when we get to sing out and express ourselves. We are informed and instructed when someone teaches in our assembly. Being led in prayer can be tough, but at least something is happening. But what if we just had a few moments of silence? What if we were left alone in the crowd with just our thoughts? Would the worship continue in our hearts and minds or would what we commonly call worship be lost to us and hard to restore in that moment?

Why not try it yourself? Find a quiet place and spend some time in silent reflection on God and His work. You don’t have to shoot for thirty minutes. If five is all you can do, do five minutes. Simply be still and know He is God.

Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 8.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Revelation 8 prompt or improve your praise of God?

Revelation 6: Apocalyptic Cycles

Today’s reading is Revelation 6.

In Revelation 5:8, the Lamb had taken the sealed scroll from the hand of Him who sat on the throne. Worship ensued. In Revelation 6:1, the Lamb broke the first of the seven seals. At this point, the apocalyptic story begins in earnest. It will start with a King on a white horse going forth conquering and to conquer. It will eventually end with a wedding for the King and His Bride, which doubles as the King ruling over an amazing city-state which is actually the paradise of God. If you haven’t done so, please, read the entire book in one sitting. Or listen to it. You can listen to the whole thing in about an hour by clicking here. Most Bible books should be read in one sitting if possible before being studied passage by passage, but Revelation perhaps most of all. We need to witness the entire story before we take the story one piece at a time.

Understand what happens when Jesus breaks the seal on the scroll for John. By breaking the seal, John is getting to learn the message on the scroll. However, John did not read the scroll, the words on the scroll came to life. He witnessed the contents of the scroll as a vision. It would be like watching a movie for us. Or with today’s technology, like putting on a virtual reality headset and being immersed in a story–an overwhelming, fantastic story.

Leading the list of people who frustrate the daylights out of me is the movie talker. You know. The person who can’t sit patiently and let the movie unfold and tell its story, but has to constantly ask, “Who’s that? What did that mean? Why did that happen? What are they going to do about that?” And on and on. Very often, the only answer to give is “Keep watching, you’ll find out.” That is Revelation. We need to “watch” the whole vision, then come back and figure out the parts.

But, we need to understand Revelation tells the story in a unique way. Have you ever watched a movie or read a book that tells almost the whole story from one character’s perspective and then backs up and tells it from another character’s perspective and then backs up and tells it from another perspective and so on. Think of the 2005 animated film “Hoodwinked” or the 2008 action thriller “Vantage Point.” These movies tell the same story multiple times from different perspectives. Each time through the story the audience learns new information and finally gets the whole story by the end.

That is precisely how John’s apocalypse works. Jesus shows John the story through a series of apocalyptic cycles. Each time through the cycle, John sees and conveys different details and different information. Each time he sees the beginning of Christ’s work with sure victory, but then the enemy attacks. It looks like Jesus and His friends can’t possibly win, in fact, they’ve lost. But then God brings judgment. Jesus’s kingdom and friends are vindicated and the enemies defeated. Watch this pattern take place multiple times until we finally see the fullness of Jesus’s victory becoming King of His city-state which doubles as His Bride.

Every step of the way, Jesus provides one message to His church through John: Hang on. I’m coming. I’m going to win.

This story and these cycles all begin as the Lamb breaks this first seal. Get ready. It’s going to be a fantastic vision.

Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 6.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Revelation 6 prompt or improve your praise of God?

Revelation 5: The Lion of the Tribe of Judah

Today’s reading is Revelation 5.

When one of the elders told John not to weep because One had been found worthy to open God’s sealed scroll, he claimed:

Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals (Revelation 5:5, ESV)

Here at the end, John is taken back to the beginning. Perhaps not all the way to the beginning, but to Genesis 49:9-12. When Jacob blessed his twelve sons before his death, he declared of Judah:

Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples (ESV).

This lion of the tribe of Judah is the root of David. Isaiah foretold a new “David” in Isaiah 11:1, 4-5:

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit…with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins (ESV).

And again in Isaiah 11:10:

In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples–of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious (ESV).

The elder told John that the Messiah, the King, the Lord, the ultimate David had finally come. God’s plans for His people could finally play out. All that had been sealed and waiting was free to occur because the Lion had conquered. He had won the victory.

That’s our King, the conqueror. He had vanquished the enemies. Therefore, the scroll could be opened. Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 5.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Revelation 5 admonish you?

Revelation 5: The Scroll

Today’s reading is Revelation 5.

Last week, in Revelation 4, we saw John called up to the peak of the heavenly mountain, if you will, in order to gain a heavenly vantage point and be given a heavenly perspective. He witnessed an incredible scene of worship. As the worship occurred, in Revelation 5:1, he noticed the one on the throne held a scroll in His right hand, but the scroll was sealed. Neither John nor anyone else in heaven or on earth was worthy to open the scroll. John wept.

Why would John weep over a sealed scroll?

As long as the scroll remained sealed, its contents remained a mystery. God had brought John up to heaven to gain the heavenly perspective, but the scroll of heavenly perspective was sealed. What good was it to John or anyone else, if John couldn’t read it? In fact, in Isaiah 29:11-12 we read of just such a situation.

And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read” (ESV).

What a lament. God had a message for His people, but they couldn’t read and even if they could read, the message wouldn’t open to them. What a disappointment it would be for God to have a heavenly revelation, but no one was able to open it and reveal it. He had traveled all that way for nothing. So John wept. Wouldn’t you?

Further, John no doubt wept because he had experience with the kinds of messages on God’s scrolls. We find two fantastic pictures in Jeremiah. Repeatedly, Jeremiah was told to write what had been revealed to him in a book or scroll. Two occurrences in particular explain why John, going through tribulation would weep on not being able to hear, read, or see God’s message.

In Jeremiah 30:2-3, we find:

Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. For behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it (ESV).

And then in Jeremiah 50-51, God gave Jeremiah an incredible prophecy regarding judgment on Babylon. Then we find in Jeremiah 51:60:

Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that should come upon Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon (ESV).

John knew the kinds of messages God wrote on these scrolls, messages of hope and restoration for His people and messages of judgment on the enemies of God’s people. John knew he had been called in heaven to learn about hope for Christ’s church and the judgment on the new Babylon. But it seemed his journey into heaven was going to fall short. He was as one that couldn’t read the scroll. It was sealed.

But! Praise the Lord! One was found worthy to open the scroll. One who had been slain and ransomed for God a people to bless and give a kingdom. Of course, Jesus the Christ. Because of His sacrifice, He was worthy to break the seals and unroll the scroll to be read. However, the breaking of the seals was not simply the means by which John could be given the message and pass it on to us. Because Jesus was worthy to break the seals, the events portrayed in that scroll could take place.

Praise God, because Jesus was and is worthy, we get to read this entire message. Think about that, Jesus died and was resurrected to break these seals and give us this message. Sounds like an important message. Let’s keep reading.

Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 5.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Revelation 5 prompt or improve your praise of God?

I Don’t Get to Know Everything

Today’s reading is Revelation 10.

How frustrating! Is God taunting us? Here are seven thunders that said something, but He doesn’t let us know what. Why even make us aware that the seven thunders sounded? Perhaps because we need to understand 1) God knows what we don’t and 2) we don’t get to know everything. However, do you catch what happens next? The angel announces that in the seventh trumpet the mystery of God would be fulfilled just as he announced to His prophets. That is, the mysteries that benefit us, that help us, that we need to know, we get to know. He reveals those to us. Let’s face it. Whether we like it or not, our human minds cannot handle all that God knows. But our God is a good God and reveals all we need to know. The question isn’t whether we should get to know what was in the thunders, the question is whether we will listen to what God has revealed. What about today? Will you spend more time worrying about what God hasn’t revealed, or more time living by what He has?

Tomorrow’s reading is Revelation 11.