Silence is Golden

Series on Revelation

II The Viewpoint

A Cycle One, The Sovereign, Scroll, and Seven Seals

5 The Seventh Seal

Text: 8:1

Introduction

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Half an hour is not a long time, but half an hour of silence can seem like an eternity, whether it is “dead air” on radio or television or a silent dinner for two after a quarrel between a husband and a wife. To get some idea of the effect, imagine that a church youth group is doing a dramatic reading of the book of Revelation. When it comes to Revelation 8:1, it takes the verse literally so that all speech and all action stops—for thirty minutes—while the congregation fidgets and squirms and probably exits. As soon as each of the first six seals was opened, John either “saw” something or “heard” something, or both. When the seventh seal was opened, however, he saw nothing and heard nothing for “about half an hour* Is the silence a dramatic preparation for the resumption of sound and action? Are we waiting for something more? The fact that the silence is broken by a great deal of noise, “peals of thunder, rumblings and an earthquake” in verse 5 and the blasts of seven trumpets, suggests this. Before the big commotion we read in verses 3 and 4, Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand. This gives us time to consider that what God is about to do is a response to the fifth seal in chapter 6:9-11, When he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they maintained. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “how long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou defer doing justice, and avenging our blood on those that dwell on the earth?” And white robes were given to every one of them, and it was said unto them, that they should have patience yet for a little while, till the number of their fellow-servants, and their brethren, that should be killed, as they were, should be complete. And so they cried and now God answers. Thus we conclude that the dramatic pause is to ready us for the shocking climax that we and God’s people throughout the centuries have been awaiting. The Church of these New Testament pages is a watching Church. The expectancy of the Lord Jesus’ return is the north star of their sky. It never swerves. All the rest revolves around it. They see everything else in relation to this. Their going into all the world and preaching to every creature was not simply for men’s conversion: that surely: but beyond that, it was to bring the Christ back for the consummation of all things. The thrill of expectancy steadied every leader for God: young Joseph in the dungeon, Joshua in the glare of the limelight, into which he was suddenly thrust, psalm singing David fleeing and hiding for his life from the javelin of Saul. It was the clear-seeing eye of Isaiah and Jeremiah in the homeland, and of Ezekiel and Daniel among the weeping exiles, that kept the heart of the nation warm with the vision of what was surely coming. The thrill of expectancy runs through out the Old testament and continues in the New Testament. Now consider with me the anatomy of silence in our lives. Silence is holy, hearing, humbling and helpful.

I Silence Is Holy

Meister Echart said, “Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness.” The prophet in Habakkuk 2:18–20 speaks of the holiness of God. He contrasts the living and true God with lifeless idols that cannot waken or speak. They cannot even breathe. The true God is exactly the opposite and we express this by saying he is holy. Thus Habakkuk writes the message of a Holy God, Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it. But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him. The idols cannot talk but God can and we are therefore bid to be silent in the presence of His holiness. The term “holy” is often understood in its contemporary usage rather than its true meaning in the Scriptures. R C Sproul reminds us that the Bible never calls God love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, or justice, justice justice, but it does say He is holy, holy, holy. The reason is that the primary meaning of holy is ‘separate.’ It comes from an ancient word that meant, ‘to cut,’ or ‘to separate.’ This means that the one who is holy is uniquely holy, with no rivals or competition. I had seen many pictures of the Grand Canyon, but the first time I stood at its rim I was filled with awe. Words were inadequate to describe the majesty of it. How much more true this is of God who is utterly unique and in Revelation 8:1 we are silent in His presence.

II Silence Is Hearing

Zechariah 2:13 says, Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling. Did they hear it? Many did not and therefore Amos begins his prophecy in Amos 1:1 and 2 The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa—what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. He said: “The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers.” Are we so hard of hearing that God must roar? Are we so inattentive? Yes we are. When Isaiah describes the coming age of blessing in chapter 35 it is a time when the lame leap like a deer, and water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. And he says, Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. We do not hear God because we are so busy talking, and we are so busy talking because of sin. The poet writes, “God far exceeds all words that we can here express; In silence he is heard, in silence worshiped best.” A tribute was once paid to a great linguist, that he not only had learned seven languages well–but he had also learned when to be silent in all seven. When we are conversing with others we need to listen to what they say, but most of us are so anxious to get our viewpoint stated that we do not listen. We are the same with God. Here in Revelation 8:1 we need to listen because God is roaring.

III Silence Is Humbling

Richard J. Foster wrote “One reason we can hardly bear to remain silent is that it makes us feel so helpless. We are so accustomed to relying upon words to manage and control others. If we are silent, who will take control? God will take control; but we will never let him take control until we trust him. Silence is intimately related to trust.” In the last century a philosopher wrote, “Be silent about great things; let them grow inside you. Never discuss them; discussion is so limiting and distracting. It makes things grow smaller.” Unfortunately this is precisely why we don’t want to be silent and listen to God. We want Him to be smaller and if we cannot make Him smaller the alternative is that we are humbled. We would rather keep God in the dock than be there ourselves. We would rather put God on trial than be on trial ourselves. Isaiah begins his prophecy in 1:2 and 3 with an indictment of sinful Israel and what is interesting is that God speaks and he calls upon heaven and earth to listen because the people are not listening, Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” The minor prophet Habakkuk wrote in times that were hard to understand. Martin Lloyd Jones wrote a commentary on his prophecy entitled “From Fear to Faith.” Habakkuk must wait in faith and God tells him in 2:3, For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. In other words, God is in control, let all the earth be silent before Him. Our actions and words neither hasten or retard the accomplishment of His ultimate purpose. The commentator writes, that the prophecy personified in verse 3 yearns for its fulfillment in “the end,” not merely at the destruction of the literal Babylon, but in the time of the end — the last time, the Messianic age, when the world power, typified by Babylon, should be overthrown. This is exactly what we shall hear in the ensuing chapters of Revelation and thus we must be silent and wait upon God. Indeed, all these false prophets predicting the date of our doom especially need to be silent in awe.

IV Silence Is Helpful

We live in a noisy time and place in our culture. It is too noisy today. Kids go deaf from listening to loud music. Exposure to loud noise is the second most common cause of hearing loss. Approximately 30 million Americans are exposed to high intensity noise in their workplace and one in 4 of these workers will sustain a permanent hearing loss. Research shows that noise can kill, as it increases the risks for high blood pressure and heart attacks. Noise disturbs sleep and heavily impacts on people’s quality of life. Noise can be hurtful but so can silence when it is due to a lack of communication. In a 1964 song that became famous Simon and Garfunkel sang about the “Sounds of Silence.” Part of the lyrics say, “And in the naked light I saw Ten thousand people, maybe more People talking without speaking people hearing without listening, and no one dared Disturb the sound of silence.” The result of this, according to the song, is, “The people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made.” The song celebrates man’s inability to communicate with other men except at the most superficial and “commercial” level. Ironically it is our culture’s refusal to be silent in the presence of God that leads to the noise that drowns out all real communication. Paul Simon was not saying that the environment is silent but rather that it is tantamount to silent because nobody is communicating. We even have a saying for non-communication. It’s called the silent treatment. There is a humorous commercial for a phone service on TV. A girl calls her former boyfriend and says, “I called to give you the silent treatment. He says this is the eighth time you have called. She says, “ I have this phone service and it’s free.” He says, “I don’t think you understand what the silent treatment means.” Hello? Hello? Hello? The song, “The Sounds of Silence” is not a Christian song, but it touches profoundly on a problem and suggests the solution. It tries to warn these conformists in the lines that read “’Fools’ said I,’ You do not know. Silence like a cancer grows. Hear my words that I might teach you, Take my arms that I might reach you.” We might paraphrase it as, drowning out meaningful communication grows like a cancer. But God says, “Hear my words that I might teach you, Take my arms that I might reach you.” Colleen Townsend Evans wrote, “I remember times when our children used to come running to me, chattering about the events of their day, and it was wonderful to have them share their feelings with me. But there were also the times when they came to me wanting only to be held, to have me stroke their heads and caress them into sleep. And so it is, sometimes, with us and with God our Father.” Either venue has one requirement, silence, helpful silence.