Rev. 8:1-2 (ESV)
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. [2] Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
Silence in heaven for about a half an hour. Brighton spend quite a bit of time talking about this half hour in his commentary. I have to say that just reading this it struck me as odd too. At the end of Brighton’s commentary on this phrase he says “ That is, this awe-inspiring silence (Rev. 8:1) is to be a part of the Christian’s daily worship of the Lord Christ. The “half an hour,” then, reminds the Christian to take time out for intervals of silent meditation in view of God’s acts of judgment on earth—acts which, though fearful now to behold, will in the end serve the Christians eternal hope.) (Revelation, Brighton, CPH, Pg. 214)
Taking time for silence, it is amazing. Our time is so stimulated today, we barely spend an hour of silence when we are sleeping must less when we are awake. But silence has a way of inviting introspection an examination of the soul. One wonders what John was contemplating during this half hour. Silence is golden. One of the things I like about being a pastor is I get to control how much silence there is at the beginning of the service in the confession of sins. Of all the things I do on Sunday morning I get more comments about the silence than anything. People like it. I stop there. I kneel, It is great time as a pastor to gather your thoughts, and focus on what is coming, to pray for your people and confess your own sins, and I normally take enough time to do all that before continuing with the general confession of sins. Silence is golden. Take time for it.
2 comments:
I really like it, too. Todd does it also. Very meaningful silence, not in the empty Buddhist way. There are thoughts and words in that silence, or at least groans.
I like to have a silence before the final hymn while still standing, and then sing the last hymn standing, but usually we are motioned to sit down.
That’s interesting, I’ve Brighton’s commentary and love it. However, in another Lutheran commentary by Becker made different point on it that stuns me and connected to the trumpets about to sound. The silence in heaven is much like the use of “the silent pause” in public or private speaking, it gathers everyone’s attention for the gravity and importance of what is about to be announced. This, he goes on to say, seems further supported in the fact that trumpets are about to announce which too gather attention usually to alert a people and alert an on coming attack. Which then sets the stage for what the next trumpet blasts mean. Ultimately all symbolic forms of the onslaught of false teaching and doctrines that assail the church.
The one that got my attention the most was the locust upon the fourth trumpet (if my count is right from memory, don’t have my scriptures with me right now). Here a great cloud arises to even blot out the sun, the symbolism being out of the pit of hell, the source of all false teachings, which cloud and obscure the light. Which is by John, light, referenced as Christ (Gospel of John…”light of the world”) and early on in Revelation. The locust are not normal locust, “don’t hurt the trees or grass” which is normally what locust, the bugs, do. But rather faces of men with hair like women, showing a disarming good appearance (like sheep’s cloth over wolves), but their teeth, lion’s, reveal them and their deadliness, false doctrine which causes men to beg for death and suffer like scorpion sting (never had one but apparently in John’s place and time it was likely more understood, the comparison). This is supported because they cannot hurt the elect ultimately (Lutheran understanding here not Calvin).
That picture, for better or worse, really rings home to me. I told my wife on several occasions, prior to ever having read this, “why so many close to the truth false teachings that so obscure Christ but not overtly, yet cause tremendous pangs of conscious and inner battle with the faith (is it all true, is it so very sweet? Or is Calvin in the end right?) A true battle within for the faith, words mean and do things, good or evil. When I was an atheist looking into the first glimpses of Christianity, that was a thing, “So many denominations, where’s the truth?” The cloud of locust (false teaching/heterodox denominations) blots out the sun (Christ, the Gospel, orthodoxy), a very nice picture of the reality! It seems to be, especially in our day with the enumerable heterodoxies out there, the difficulty the Lutheran church has in “shining” through the mess of this cloud. It does picture the reality nicely. And this obscuring diverts SO MANY.
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