Revelation 8:1-5
 Prayers of the Saints

Chapter eight begins with the opening of the seventh seal. The opening of the seals which began in chapter 6 (6:1). The seals have depicted a series of tribulation which descends upon the earth, each of which would call into question the reign of Christ and more especially, the care of Christ. As each generation of Christians experiences trouble, they find themselves asking: is my Saviour really able to deliver me through these things?   The sixth seal (6:12-17) brought us to the very end of time and the seventh seal describes the Day of Judgment itself.  The final verse of chapter 6 had prepared us for this by saying: "For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"

The answer to that question has been given in chapter 7: all those marked with God’s seal are safe and secure. And how many are they? A number which "no one could count" (Rev. 7:10).

Since the sixth seal has brought us to the end of time, the opening of the seventh seal now depicts the Day of Judgment (as does 11:19 and 16:18). It has some unusual elements about it.

i. Following the opening of the seal, there is silence in haven "for about half an hour" (8:1). Two Old Testament passages seem to be in the background here: Habakkuk 2:20, "But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him" and Zechariah 2:13, "Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling."   Both of these passages depict the Lord "in His temple" in heaven executing judgment, the result of which produces a sense of profound awe at the revelation of God’s holy majesty.

ii. The content of the seventh seal is described in verse 5.  This parallels the account given in 6:12-17, which we have already suggested as an description of the Day of judgment.  Why give this account again?  Because in chapter 8 the answer of judgment is described in terms of its relationship to the prayer, first echoed in 6:10, ""How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until You judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"  And, additionally, to the enlarged description of the effect of such prayers in 8:4.  The fire of God descends in answer to the prayer of the saints of God.

iii. The prayers of the saints (6:10 and now here in 8:4) are described as ascending to God, helped in the process by the addition of incense by the angel who stands at the altar (8:3). Incense is associated with sacrifice (e.g. Day of Atonement, Lev. 16:11-19) and suggests its acceptability and its sweetness to God.  Cleansed and sweetened, these prayers really do come into God’s "nostrils."  If the smell of incense rising (see Lev. 16:12-13, Psa. 141:1-2) is strange to us, for the Jewish worshippers of the Old Testament it demonstrated in a way that fragrance counters in shopping malls do to us the powerful way smell can evoke a response.  It is a picture of the way our prayers rise before God and are accepted by Him as something pleasant and sweet. Angels assist in the presentation of our prayers before God. They rise with the Spirit’s power, the Son’s mediation, and the assistance of the angels in heaven.

iv. Verse 3 suggests that the prayers have already been accepted by God.  We are not to understand this as suggesting that it is necessary for the angels to mediate the prayers of the saints.  In 6:10 they have direct access to the throne of God.   Angels are "fellow servants" (19:10, 22:8).

v. Now the action is as follows: an angel comes before the altar of God (the one in 6:9 under which the souls of persecuted saints stand --the same one as in 8:3, though some suggest that they are different) with a censer, mixes the prayers with incense and fire and hurls the censer down to the earth.  The persecuted souls had prayed for vengeance, but this could happen until history had come to and end (6:11).  Prayer changes the world.  Eugene Peterson, citing George Herbert (1593-1633), makes the following allusion: The prayers which had ascended, unremarked by the journalists of the day, returned with immense force—in George Herbert’s phrase, as "reversed thunder."  Prayer reenters history with incalculable effects.  Our earth is shaken daily by it."

vi. The description of the Day of Judgment as consisting in "thunders, sounds, lightning and quaking," (cf. with some variations, 4:5, 11:19 and 16:18-19) seems almost certainly to borrow from the description of God’s appearance at Mt Sinai in Exodus 19.  The silence is broken by the noise of trumpets.

vii. The nature of the Day of Judgment is vengeance, the vengeance of God.  It is the Day when God vindicates His justice. Wrongs are put right.  Sin is punished.   God’s honour upheld. Whatever may be the inadequacies of judgments in this world, the world to come will be one in which purity and righteousness shall reign.