Image above from Wikimedia commons.

Application of the Major Teachings of Revelation 8

The two points of application in Revelation 8 are:
(1) the Prayers of God’s people for vindication in their persecution and sufferings — “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” [ESV; Rev. 6:10] and
(2) the judgments that fall on the earth-dwellers as a result of God’s intervention in answer to His people’s prayers.

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I. Silence in heaven demonstrates God is attentive to our prayers. 

The Seventh Seal has content and is not just a dramatic pause. All of heaven is brought to silence so God can hear the prayers of His persecuted, suffering people. The suffering is caused by the the earth-dwellers who cannot reach God with their hatred, so they strike out at those who are His people. 

The phrase “those who dwell on the earth” (tous katoikountas epi tēs gēs) refers to those who are permanently at home on the earth and desire no other place (see Thayer, below). God’s people are pilgrims just passing through this earth. Hebrews 11:13-16 states all the Christian’s cherished desire —

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. [ESV; empahsis mine.]

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II. The fact that God halts all other activity in heaven speaks of His feeling of our sufferings.

God is not impassive — that is He is not without true feelings. God is also not capricious — that is He does not have emotions that flare out through loss of control. J. I. Packer clarifies this position over “open theism” that is heresy.

Impassivity [is not] unconcern and impersonal detachment…and is not insensitivity and indifference to the distresses of a fallen world; not inability or unwillingness to empathize with human pain and grief; but simply that God’s experiences do not come upon him as ours come upon us, for his are foreknown, willed and chosen by himself, and are not involuntary surprises forced on him from outside, apart from his own decision, in the way that ours regularly are. (See Packer, p. 16, below; emphasis mine.)

We are never alone in our sufferings. As the old hymn says — “God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears; God shall lift up thy head.”We have One at God’s right hand who intercedes for us in our suffering.

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III. We are right to pray for righteous vengeance if our goal is the glory and vindication of God.

Remember the prayers in Revelation 6:9-11 —

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice,
“O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. [ESV; emphasis mine.]

God hears and answers our prayers like this one from Rev. 6:10! Waiting for the answer is the difficult part. Every evil government will fall in answer to this prayer! Who would have thought the Berlin Wall would have fallen? People sell pieces of it as souvenirs. God rules from His throne and His will comes to pass in His time and way. Our timetable is not His. Ours to to pray in faith and wait. 

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IV. In the first four trumpet judgments we see the removal of life-supports that lead to the fall of evil empires and wicked men between Christ’s first coming and His second coming.

Perhaps a chart might show the effects of the first four trumpets better than writing about them.

These removal of life’s physical supports partially (1/3rd) speaks both to unbelieving persecutors of Christians and to those who are believers in Christ. Unbelievers are warned to repent before it is too late. Those who are too much at home here on earth and adopt its thinking and ways will perish when God judges it. Believers who grow close to the ways and thinking of the earth-dwellers will suffer as a result. I am thinking of how compromise with the world may not affect us so much as it affects our children and grandchildren. (see Johnson, D. E. below)

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V. The last three trumpet judgments show us that God’s patience has a limit. 

Let us witness to unbelievers of His free offer of Grace to all who believe and repent of their sins. As long as the final judgment has not yet come, there is hope for those who are lost. God can even save the church’s persecutors. Don’t forget Paul the Apostle!

Next time we will move on to Chapter 9 and the first woe.

Notes

Beale, G. K. (2015). Revelation: a Shorter Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Kindle Edition.

ESV. (2001). Accessed 24 June 2020 from https://www.biblegateway.com

Johnson, D. E. (2001). Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Packer, J.I. (1986). “Theism for Our Time,” in Peter T. O’Brien and David G. Peterson, God Who Is Rich in Mercy (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker.

Thayer. (2020). Lexicon of the Greek New Testament. Accessed 24 June 2020 from https://biblehub.com/greek/2730.htm

© 2020 C. Richard Barbare All Rights Reserved