The seventh seal opens with a half hour of silence. The second half of the seven years of trouble and wrath of God is ready to fall on this earth. The angel in verse 3 is Christ. The censer is a little box that a priest burns incense in to make a nice smell. Christ is burning incense to offer the prayers of the saints to God. The result is that Christ, the priest, casts down judgments on one-third of the world, which is mostly the Christian countries that turned away from God.
The events that you read about in this chapter are symbolic. The four angels blow their trumpets causing many troubles and disasters. Rich leaders may lose their source of wealth. Food may no longer grow well, and people will become poor. One politically powerful nation that has turned away from Christianity may no longer prosper. The shipping industry may have difficulties, which will cause the import and export of products to stop. Only a few things will be available to buy and only at high prices. People in these countries like to vacation, relax and have fun. Now they will have troubles, poverty and wickedness. Any remaining Christian influence will disappear, which means that people will not love and help their neighbors, but they will do whatever they want to do no matter how it may harm others. Powerful presidents and prime ministers will deny God and turn people away from thinking about God. Evil and spiritual wickedness will increase. “Woe! Woe! Woe!” means that when the last three trumpets blow, even worse troubles will come on the world.
1. How long was the silence in heaven? __________ Revelation 8:___
2. What ascended up before God in the smoke of the incense? __________ Revelation 8:___
3. What was cast into the sea when the second angel sounded? __________ Revelation 8:___
4. What was the name of the star that made the waters bitter? __________ Revelation 8:___
5. What word did the angel repeat three times to give warning that bigger problems were still to come to the inhabitants of the earth? __________ Revelation 8:___