The Silence of Heaven

 

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood wat the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. (Revelation 8:1-5 ESV).

 

Our reading today introduces the opening of the seventh seal. Since the scroll had seven seals, we might be tempted to think that the story is about to come to a speedy conclusion. However, we do not meet a cosmic display of God’s almighty forces. Instead, we are surrounded by heaven’s silence for an extended time. I believe this is so that we cannot miss the message to be revealed at this moment.

 

In our culture there are very few places where we experience silence. Not only that, but we generally don’t like to have times of prolonged silence. We’ll do anything — listen to a radio, watch TV, send text messages, read or listen to a book, play games or sports, work, do hobbies, and more — to avoid staying in silence for very long. I must confess to filling the void of silence with noise of some kind all to often.

 

However, silence gives us space for God to speak to our hearts. It is God who speaks in Psalm 46, saying, “Be still, and know that I am God.” With the opening of the seventh seal, the story line in Revelation moves toward darkness and devastation, destruction from powers that are allowed to test and challenge people on the earth. As those who live by faith in Jesus, however, we need heaven’s silence—the stillness in which God can make himself known to us—to face any challenges to our faith.

 

When I have simply sat in the silence of solitude, I have found it is most likely then that I hear God. You may be facing challenges today. The prolonged silence in today’s Bible reading promises to be God’s way of assuring us that we are not alone. God is with us as “our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”