If Revelation 7 has revealed the seraphim action of God — the purification of this vast multitude from sins, by the blood of the Lamb, the live coal from the altar again; sin put away by the one offering on God’s altar — then also in Revelation 8 we shall find the cherubim action of God in consuming judgment.
It is of all importance to notice, that the ways of God in this book are on the combined principle of seraphim and cherubim, as His throne is revealed to us in Revelation 4. But before the cherubim action, there is silence in heaven. This is very solemn. And now the seven angels prepare to announce the judgments direct from God: and to them were given seven trumpets. Still, before the judgment, another bright gleam of seraphim glory. The prayers of all saints are offered upon the golden altar, the altar of incense. Now is not that a wondrous scene? The prayers of every saint, down there in that world of violence and iniquity, coming up before God, with all the sweet perfume and all the acceptance of the value of Christ, once offered on the altar? How deeply all this will interest us seated in the heavenly vision! Let us think of it now.
And now the most solemn action is brought before us: “The angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth” (Rev. 8:55And 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. (Revelation 8:5)). We must compare this with the cherubim action of Ezekiel 10, as the fire was there cast on the city. Now the fire, mark, of the altar is cast to the earth. And what is fire of the altar? Is it not that wrath of God which consumed the holy One made sin for us? The throne of God is, so to speak, composed of seraphim and cherubim. God must purify by the burning seraphim, by the fire of the altar, or consume by the cherubim judgments of the fire of the altar. In other words, they who have refused the mercy of God, through the atoning death of Jesus on the altar, must endure the same wrath against sin that consumed that holy sacrifice for sin on the altar. My reader, you and I must be either purified by that fire, or forever judged by that fire. Providential judgments there have been, and will be again more terrible, as in Revelation 6. But this is now altogether another thing — fire from the altar — the very wrath that made Jesus cry out on the cross, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Psa. 22:11<<To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.>> My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? (Psalm 22:1)) — that same wrath will then be cast on the earth. Well might heaven pause in silence. If you examine the first four trumpets you will find that they symbolize the blighting of all that supplies the needs, or pleasures, of man — at least on a third part of the earth, where these judgments fall — the trees, the sea, the rivers, the sun, the moon, and the stars. The judgments thus fall on the circumstances of men during the four terrible blasts of these trumpets. Does not this show out the marvelous long-suffering of God? There is warning after warning; and even now, though the judgments of God through angelic agency begin, still the mildest are first.