Revelation 8:1-5

SLIDE 1 Review tribulation views

SLIDE 2 How do you handle waiting? (in the doctor’s office, in traffic, in the speedy checkout at the grocery store.) Patience (longsuffering) is one of the Spirit’s fruit. Afraid I need to cultivate that gift and allow God to control my emotions. Our LORD has many qualities and characteristics. Slow to anger is shown in His delay to kill all unbelievers.

·        Exodus 34:6 "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;

·        Several psalms: Psalms 103:8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.

·        Nahum 1:3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, And clouds are the dust beneath His feet.                                                                                                              

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

SLIDE 3 REVELATION 8:1-5                                                                                  

Revelation 8: When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Heaven is a place of worship, praise, joy and song. Heaven is described as a place alive with sounds from angels, elders, the redeemed throbbing with excitement. Something extraordinary is about to happen?

SLIDE 4 How do you deal with silence? My friend and I can be in a room or sit for a manicure without filling our time with talk. My son and I are the same way, comfortable without words

*But if you are meeting a client or a new friend for lunch or how about teacher conference: a long silence produces anxiety. If you email a friend an apology and they do not respond quickly it causes concern. There are indeed words of wisdom to pray before you speak, and pause to give others time to speak. Sometimes silence is golden. Good lesson.       

SLIDE 5 Imagine standing before a powerful Holy God waiting during 30 minutes of silence. Two of my favorite verses come from Psalms.

·        Job 6:24 “Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray.”

·        Psalms 37:7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;

·        Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God

·        Psalm 62:5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.

·        Zephaniah 1:7 Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near;

GOD WILL LEAVE NO SIN UNPUNISHED.

SLIDE 6 Why trumpets: slide with Scriptures for use of trumpets

·         Leviticus 23:24- Feast of the Trumpets

·         Numbers 10:2- Call people to assemble

·         Numbers 31:6 -Alarm; Call to war

·         Joshua 6:4-24- Walls of Jericho fall down

·         Judges 7:18- 'For the LORD and for Gideon.” War

·         1 Chronicles 13- Rejoicing, celebrating

·         1 Chronicles 16- Blow before Ark of the Covenant

·         2 Chronicles 7- Instruments for music

·         Psalms 98 -Joyful noise before Lord

·        2 Samuel 2:28- Halting the battle               

SLIDE 7 When the Lamb opens the seventh seal; the seven trumpet judgments begin. What is the purpose you think the Lord might be using the trumpets? 

Remember the reasons for trumpets in the Old Testaments

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair;
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,
And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.

Revelation 8:2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.                

Why are there 7 angels? God’s name of Yahweh Saoboth is translated “God of the angels.” It is God who controls our lives and in doing so He has the power to utilize the talents of His angels to deliver messages, execute His judgments  and any other assignment God deems to be appropriate. 

 God does work through angels and it is God who makes the decision to direct an angel to do His bidding, not an angel’s decision to act independent from God: Angels carry out God’s judgment; Angels serve God; Angels praise God; Angels are messengers; Angels protect God’s people; Angels encourage people.             

SLIDE 9³And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne

SLIDE 10⁴and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.

SLIDE 11Psalm 141:2 Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!

SLIDE 12 ⁵Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth,

Levitcus 6: 12 The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out

One reason the ongoing fire was so important is that it was started directly by God:

“Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown” (Leviticus 9:24).

The fire on the altar, therefore, served as a constant reminder of God’s power. It was a gift from heaven. No other source of fire was acceptable to God (see Numbers 3:4).
This fire also represented God’s presence. “God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24). The Shekinah glory was visible in the fire at the altar of burnt offering. This ongoing presence of God reminded the Israelites that salvation is of the Lord. The atonement made at the burnt offering could only be made through Him. gotquestions.org

Has the fires on the altars in America gone out? Altars without fire is like going to Church without God showing up. We end up having performances of personalities on display rather than offering ourselves as living sacrifices on altars of fire.

Nowhere is this clearer than with the Angel of Judgement—or, more precisely, with angels carrying out God's judgement. It is an angel who bars the way back to the garden

of Eden in Genesis (OT),chapter 3; an angel who announces Sodom 's destruction in Genesis, chapter 19; angels who do much of the carrying out of God's judgement both now and in the future, as the book of Revelation (NT) makes clear. Copyright © 2015 Church On the Net.

SLIDE 13and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. GOD WILL LEAVE NO SIN UNPUNISHED.