The Seventh Seal

I. Introduction
A. In Rev.4-5 John had a vision of God on His throne and in His hand was a scroll with seven seals locking it shut. There was no one to open the scroll. Then the Lion of Judah is introduced and John turns to see a Lamb. And the Lamb is the only one able to open the seals.
B. Then in Rev.6 we read about the first six seals being opened. They spell terrible trouble for those on earth, even believers, but God’s people are sealed to protect them from the harmful results, and those who are in heaven are assured that their blood will be avenged.
C. This morning we come to the seventh seal. Now being the final seal, our expectations are high. But our Lord in His word throws us another curve ball in Rev.8:1.
D. “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” 8:1
II. What does Rev.8:1 mean?
A. We expect something climactic. But it seems very anticlimactic. It’s so anticlimactic that it leaves people desperately searching for some content to add to the seventh seal, sometimes too desperate.
1. One thing is for sure. This is not supposed to be blatantly obvious. It is supposed to be feel strange. It’s supposed to make us think. It’s supposed to puzzle us. It’s not supposed to be easy. It’s supposed to be strange – and puzzling.
B. Remember that in Bible prophecy – like Revelation – things are rarely plain and simple.
1. Think about the OT prophecies about Jesus. We can understand most of it now that Jesus has come, but before He came, that was a different matter.
2. It is like a patch work, or a puzzle with pieces missing.
3. We’re given glimpses of things in the future, but God doesn’t spell it all plainly for us.
4. If we approach this book expecting to figure it all out, we’ll be disappointed.
5. No matter how smart we are, we will be left scratching our heads.
6. In a passage like this, there just doesn’t seem like we’re given enough to know what’s going on.
C. So, how should we approach this?
1. Humility – We need help.
2. Don’t rely on your own imagination.
3. Stay within the boundaries of what God says elsewhere in His word.
a. A rule of thumb: the 90/10 principle, so be very hesitant to conclude that a very difficult passage means something that is not said in any other place in Scripture.
4. There are four things we can do here: the context in the book of Revelation, the details of the actual verse, other parts of the Bible which might shed light on this, different ways God’s people down through the ages have suggested to interpret this passage.
D. Of course, there have been many suggestions of how to interpret this.
1. Some say the seventh seal has no content.
2. Some suggest that the seventh seal is God’s rest, like on the seventh day of creation.
3. Some have wondered whether perhaps this silence is not an end in itself but a dramatic pause in anticipation of what is to come next.
4. Some have concluded that the seven trumpets and seven bowls ARE the contents of the 7th seal.
5. But the proposal that I find most compelling is that it is the first moment of the last chapter of the story which eventually culminates in Rev.21:1-22:5; it is a brief snapshot of a dramatic moment on the last day when Christ first gloriously appears and all stand in silent awe before Him.
a. There are plenty more opportunities in the rest of the book to give fuller details of the glorious appearing of Jesus on the last day (see Rev.11:14-19; 14:14–20; 16:17-21; 18:9-24; 19:19-21; 20:11-15). But, at this time, to get things started, John is given just this one snapshot.
E. This introduces the concept of cycles. Many Revelation scholars believe that Revelation contains a series of cycles. In other words, the book doesn’t proceed down a time line, but it tells the same story over and over again in an ever-expanding way. In 8:1 we are at the end of the first cycle.
1. The seven seals are followed by seven trumpets and then seven bowls.
2. There is a lot of parallel between the three sevens such that it has been theorized that they are three cycles of the same story, each one progressively unfolding the story.
3. If this is true, and I think it is, it makes sense of this interpretation of Rev.8:1 as a brief mention of the final appearing of the Lord.
III. Now, let me explain why I think this is the best answer to the dilemma of Rev.8:1.
A. The context in Revelation
1. The removal of the seventh seal indicates that all the seals have been removed.
2. We can tell it is talking about something to do with the end of history, being the seventh seal.
3. Even though time-wise the seven seals are not seven consecutive steps, one following another, their order does have a meaning. This is the final seal, so we expect something final from it.
B. Details of the verse
1. It doesn’t say, “The Lamb opened the seventh seal, period.”
2. Sometimes the Bible says a lot by saying a little. Maybe the silence is the point.
3. Silence isn’t nothing. Silence is something. Silence can be very significant.
4. But we must note that whatever this silence is, it is not an eternal reality, nor is it even long-term.
5. The silence lasts about a half hour.
C. But I think the main key to this verse is in the rest of Scripture, comparing Scripture with Scripture.
1. The Bible in a few places talks about the culmination of history. But I don’t know of anywhere except here where it talks about the final day in terms of silence.
2. But it does talk quite a bit about silence before God in the context of His other appearings and judgments.
a. Zephaniah 1:7 Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near.
b. Zech.2:13 Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
c. Habakkuk 2:20 The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.
d. Israel and Babylon are silent because of God’s judgment against them.
(1) Lamentations 2:10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence.
(2) Isaiah 47:5 Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans.
e. The closest parallel we have in Hebrew may be Dan.4:19, where Daniel’s given the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. It troubled him so deeply that he sat there for about an hour stunned.
f. Revelation 18:22–23 The sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more, and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more, 23 and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more.
g. Romans 3:19 Whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
3. And even to believers – In Deuteronomy 27:9 Moses said to all Israel, “Keep silence and hear, O Israel: this day you have become the people of the LORD.”
4. You can’t walk up to the edge of the Grand Canyon while whistling or chatting on your phone, so God’s appearing has such an awesome effect that silence befits the gravity of the moment.
D. Have you ever walked into a meeting and it’s very quiet, but everyone is totally engaged? The intensity of the moment is palpable but you have no idea what’s going on? 
1. That's what it's like for us to read this verse. It doesn’t tell us why there was silence.
a. It’s like we’re seeing someone’s reaction without seeing what they’re reacting to.
2. Imagine traveling by time machine and arriving at the very moment God found Adam and Eve, clothed in fig leaves in the garden of Eden, hiding in their nakedness, having just sinned. Silence!
3. Or, the moment Jesus locked eyes with Peter in the courtyard right after Peter had denied Jesus three times, in Luke 22:61, before Peter went out and wept bitterly.
4. There’s a story in the Chronicles of Narnia (by CS Lewis) that gives us a taste of this. It’s in Prince Caspian. Aslan hadn’t appeared in Narnia for many, many years, but now had arrived. And when he arrives, he roars: “Aslan, who seemed larger than before, lifted his head, shook his mane, and roared. The sound, deep and throbbing at first like an organ beginning on a low note, rose and became louder, and then far louder again, till the earth and air were shaking with it. It rose up from that hill and floated across all Narnia. Down in Miraz’s camp men woke (and) stared palely in one another’s faces. Down below that in the Great River, the heads and shoulders of the nymphs... rose from the water. Beyond it, in every field and wood, the alert ears of rabbits rose from their holes, the sleepy heads of birds came out from under wings,...the trees stirred. In towns and villages mothers pressed babies close to their breasts, staring with wild eyes, dogs whimpered, and men leaped up groping for lights. Far away on the northern frontier the mountain giants peered from the dark gateways of their castles.”
5. The half hour of silence in Rev.8:1 seems to be the ultimate “Be still and know that I am God” moment (Ps.46:10). It seems to be the moment that every knee will bow. It seems to be the moment which answers the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer: Hallowed by Thy name! 
E. There are days of awe which occur in everyone’s life..
1. Play list: Wasn’t that a mighty day! Greatest natural disaster in American history was a devastating hurricane in Galveston, TX in September 1900. At least two songs written about it.
2. As a society, probably the day which stopped us all in our tracks the most was Sept.11, 2001.
3. Just last month at 4:17 in the morning, people in the region near Tarsus, where Paul the apostle grew up, and Antioch, where the first Gentile church was planted, were sleeping soundly in their beds when a devastating earthquake struck. The death toll in Turkey and Syria is almost 60,000.
4. Just 13 years ago something like 300,000 people were killed in an earthquake in Haiti.
5. A Yellow River flood in China in 1887 killed may have killed two million people.
6. Plagues, wars, heart attacks, car accidents, mass killings
7. There are small moments of awe, moments of fear, moments of stunned silence in life: e.g. a parent shows up when the kids are doing something bad; they stop dead in their tracks & stare.
F. Most of these moments are just that – moments. Even if million people die, that gives us only a small glimpse of the day of Christ’s coming. All of these days and moments are leading to the one great and final appearance.
IV. So, if this is the first glimpse of the final appearing of Christ, then we need to import this into our daily lives. We need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
A. There is a day coming, a terrible day. No one will be laughing, no one will roll their eyes, no one will giggle or make jokes. There will be no snide remarks. There will be no one texting their friends. Not because someone has ordered everyone to be silent, but simply because He has appeared and for a half hour no one is able to verbalize a response.
1. It will be such a stunning moment for every human that it will silence every tongue.
2. No one is going to elbowing his neighbor saying, “What’s this all about?”
3. Some of us love to talk. We will not be talking when He appears.
4. Those with a five minute attention span will not struggle to keep paying attention. Everyone’s attention will be so arrested that there will be silence for about a half hour.
5. What a day that will be! “For God has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.” Acts 17:31
6. The LORD will empty the earth and make it desolate, he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. 2 As with the people, so it will be with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor. 3 The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the LORD has spoken this word. Isaiah 24:1-3
7. “I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD. 3 “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth...14 The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast. Zeph.1:2-3
8. The heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly...10 The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed! 2Peter 3:7-10 (Cf. Luke 12:49-53)
9. But what about God’s people?
10. There shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:1-3
11. If you are being persecuted, you don’t need to fret, for God will “give relief to you...when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.” 2Thes.1:7
12. 2Thes.1:10 talks about “the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you.”
B. For some that day will be a day of terror. It will be their worst nightmares coming true.
1. But for that half hour, they will not be fleeing, they will not be calling to the mountains to fall on them and protect them from the wrath of the Lamb. They will be in stunned silence.
C. But why would believers be stunned into silence? Well, we’ll have plenty to be stunned about too.
D. For some it will be a day of deliverance.
1. Living in terrible pain every day, their sighs and gasps are soon to turn into shouts of glee.
2. But not yet. For this half hour their moans and their shrieks are silenced by Something bigger than their pain and bigger than their healing.
E. For some it will be a day of their dreams coming true. It will be the fulfillment of everything they’ve ever hoped for. But their mourning won’t turn to dancing just yet. They too are in stunned silence as this new reality dawns on them. They are stunned not because it’s finally happening; they’re stunned because it’s so much bigger and better than anything they ever imagined.
F. One day your mouth and my mouth, one day all of our mouths will be shut, just as Job’s put his hand over his mouth when God challenged him out of the whirlwind in Job 40:4: “I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.”
1. You see, at the time, Job thought that his pain was the big thing. He thought the way he had been treated was the big thing. He didn’t realize that there was a much bigger thing than either of these.
2. And this is our problem too. We don’t realize in the moment-by-moment of our lives that there is something so much bigger than all this that, like Job, when it appears, we will all put our hands over our mouths.
G. And knowing that one day He will appear and all will be silent should change the way we live today.
1. 2Peter 3:11-18 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God...13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, & at peace...17 take care that you’re not carried away with the error of lawless people & lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace & knowledge of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.
2. The whole NT is telling us how to live in light of this reality.
3. But no one can live this way without the awareness of the great day which is coming.
4. Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. 9 Don't grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! Jms.5:7-9
5. Today is the day of plowing and sowing. That day will be the day of reaping.
6. Whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:7-10
7. When we remember that day, we stop fretting, we stop complaining, we stop judging God, we stop our chatter and start listening to God.