Now we are back to the seals, with the opening of the seventh seal.
Verse 1
"And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour."
This seems as if when the seal is opened and heaven sees what is revealed that they are taken back with shock and possible horror to such an extent that all of heaven gasps.
Verse 2
"And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets."
The seal is opened and we see that it consists of seven trumpets. These see the beginning of the Trumpet Judgements. Each trumpets will bring a separate judgement on the earth.
There are seven angels mentioned in the Apocrypha and many believe that these may be them
Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Sarakiel, Grabirel, and Phanuel.
Verse 3
"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."
Remember that incense and the alter refers to the prayers of the saints.
Verse 4 - 5
"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 fire of the alter takes us back to Isaiah Ch 6 vs 6 when Isaiah saw a vision of the throne of God and the hot coal was used to purge his sinfulness. John Ch 12 vs 41 tells us that it was Jesus that Isaiah saw there.
Verse 6 & 7
"And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up."
The first thing we have happening here is the hail. Hail is always used in the Bible as judgement. It appears in Isaiah Ch 28, Job Ch 38 etc. It also parallels to the plagues of Egypt.
It is hard to imagine how that a fire mingled with blood could come down and destroy 1/3 of the trees and all the grass. Many say that we cannot take this literally, but again if this isn’t literal then what is in the Bible. This judgement is unparalleled in history
Verse 8 & 9
"And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into
the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed."
Notice here it says “as it were”, it makes it clear that this is not literal, therefore we have to conclude that in other places it would do the same, meaning that were it does not then they must be literal
This is similar once again to the first Egyptian plague in Exodus.
It is interesting to note that more than ¾ of he earth’s surface is sea, and the Atlantic is approx. 1/3 of the earth’s surface.
When it says that 1/3 of ships are to be destroyed, this at present is above 9000 ships, as there are approx. 27,000 merchant ships registered worldwide. Horrific death and destruction is going to occur at sea. Economies are going to collapse due to goods lost.
Verse 10 & 11
"And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter."
The term bitter means that the water will become poisoned, meaning drinking it would result in death. Bitter water is referred to various times in the Old Testament, each time means sorrow or calamity. It is very detailed in the fact that it actually gives us the name of this star. If it is being so detailed we have to believe that we are dealing with an actual literal description of what is going to happen. One interesting piece of information to note, which may not be of any use, but the Russian name for Wormwood is Chernobyl.
So something is going to happen that is going to render 1/3 part of the waters undrinkable.
Verse 12
"And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise."
This also reminds us of one of the plagues of Egypt - 9th.
Jesus when talking about the end times in Luke Ch 21 vs 25 - 28 refers to these events taking place.
Verse 13
"And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!"
This particular angel only appears 4 times in the Bible.
This angel is announcing that we haven’t seen anything yet. The next 3 judgements are known as the WOE judgements and are worse than the 4 we have just seen.
The first 4 are judgements against nature, the physical creation. The next couple are very demonic and a lot worse.
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