Revelation 8: 1: And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
The mysterious silence in Heaven under the seventh seal is understood and makes perfect sense when one examines Israel’s Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23: 26 – 32). The first thing to be considered here is that John had been caught up into Heaven to witness an event that has a measurement of time attributed to it. In Eternity there is no time, so the measurement of time recorded by John must have its relevance to the earth where Time exists, and not to the event taking place in Heaven.
Those who have a good understanding of the message of the hour will be quite familiar with the Cloud that appeared in the skies above Arizona on February 28, 1963. The Cloud appeared in the skies for approximately 28 minutes, which is about the space of half an hour, and revealed the precious face of our Lord Jesus Christ in accordance with Revelation 10: 1: And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
But we must go a little deeper when considering this mysterious silence in Heaven and understand the seventh seal in its correct context. What is actually happening under the seventh seal is explained for us in verses three to five of Revelation 8: And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
The tabernacle built by Moses was but a shadow or reflection of the heavenly sanctuary (Hebrews 8: 1 – 5). John who recorded the Book of Revelation was very familiar with the temple functions and services, having visited Jerusalem and its temple many times and witnessed its daily operations. With this knowledge in mind, we begin to realize that the Book of Revelation is arranged with the framework of a Jewish feast (the Day of Atonement) and John was describing the heavenly realities of it.
Each day in Israel there was an atonement made for the sins of the individual, but then there was the Day of Atonement once a year to cleanse the sanctuary of the nation’s accumulated sin over the past year. The offering of incense that accompanied the daily sacrifice was also a part of the Day of Atonement. This offering of incense was a most solemn time when all the people would be gathered at the sanctuary to pray as the incense was offered up before God (Luke 1: 10: And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.).
Coals from the Brazen Altar in the Outer Court were brought into the Holy Place and put on the Golden Altar. Incense was then sprinkled over these live coals and would burn, creating a smoke and sweet fragrance that went up before the LORD. The Brazen Altar was the place where the sacrifices were burnt for sin, and when the coals were brought to the Golden Altar where the incense was offered, it showed that the prayers of the saints (the incense) are connected with the sacrificial work of Christ on Calvary and the continual unfolding of the bleeding Word for each age.
Luke 1: 8 – 11: And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. The New Testament opens with the Altar of Incense as Zacharias offered it in the temple, and the New Testament closes with the Altar of Incense under the seventh seal in Revelation 8. The Angel of the LORD (Gabriel) came to the Altar of Incense at the beginning of the New Testament, and the same Angel of the LORD (Christ) is seen as the High Priest standing before the Altar of Incense at the end of the New Testament.
Much noise was heard among the congregation of Israel as the Day of Atonement commenced, but at the time of the offering of incense, a solemn silence was kept as the people prayed quietly in their hearts before the LORD. This then is the key to understanding the mystery of the silence in Heaven that John made record of. The people would remain in a hushed silence as they waited for the incense to be offered before God and the blood of the sacrifice to be sprinkled before Him over the Mercy Seat.
Heaven is a noisy place and John made record of the many noises there, so the silence in Heaven spoken of under the seventh seal follows all the voluminous noise that precedes it and follows it. On a typical day in Israel with the offering of the daily sacrifice, the offering of incense before the LORD, and the return of the priest from the Holy Place to give the priestly blessing to the people, all of that took around 30 minutes to complete. This then is what John is referring to when he stated that the silence was about half an hour, because in the temple in Jerusalem, that was the approximate time it took to do all of this.
So what John is witnessing in the heavenly sanctuary is the Lord Jesus Christ as the High Priest standing before the Altar of Incense in a ministry of intercession, where the prayers of the saints are connected with His bloody sacrifice on Calvary, and the blood of such a sacrifice and the prayers of the saints who are connected with the blood are going up before the Father.
If the high priest failed to carry out his duties perfectly here on this most solemn of days, then he would have been smitten dead by God within the sanctuary, thus one can truly appreciate that when the congregation saw the high priest leave the sanctuary and stand before them all, the silence was broken by a tremendous noise of praise and rejoicing because the high priest standing before them all was a testimony that the sacrifice and blood was accepted, the sins of the nation were wiped away, and they were clean in the sight of God.
When Jesus is seen in Revelation 10 coming from Heaven to the earth (from the Holy of Holies to the Outer Court) and clothed with a Cloud (as He was in 1963), this was the High Priest and supreme Judge making visitation to His people to show that they are accepted by God because they are connected to the bleeding Word for their age. This is what the people were waiting for, and that is what makes the appearing of the Cloud a most wonderful thing to the Bride of Jesus Christ because it shows to Her that She is received by God and that Her sins have been all wiped away in this great Day of Atonement, so that God sees us and seven ages of saints as the virtuous, sinless, spotless Bride of the living God.
Jesus’ resurrection was such a momentous thing because it showed that His sacrifice and blood had been accepted by God; then when He showed Himself to His disciples after His resurrection, He was coming to those whom He had died for and who had been received by God. So the appearing of Christ to us in these last days by the Cloud and the revelation of the Word (which is King Theophany Jesus) by the message of the prophet is a surety that the God of Heaven has received those to whom the Word of the age has come to by the Holy Ghost.
There are many more details to be considered when describing the seventh seal, the silence in Heaven, the Day of Atonement, and the cleansing of the sanctuary. These finer details will be explored in other articles as the content matter necessitates it. Sufficient here is the small glimpse we have taken into what was really being achieved in Heaven whilst silence prevailed.