Join us as we study through Revelation verse by verse. Our Bible study guides contain discussion questions, verse by verse commentary, and applications which can help you or your small group get the most out of this book as you grow in understanding and obedience.
Revelation 8 Bible Study With Discussion Questions – The Seventh Seal and First Four Trumpets
Revelation 8 Video Bible Study
Revelation 8 Podcast Bible Study
Outline
I. The Seventh Seal and Golden Censor (1-5)
II. The First Four Trumpet Judgments (6-13)
Seal Judgments Review
Today we come to Revelation 8 and the final seal judgment. Before we go further I just want to zoom out and take a look at the big picture again. Revelation gives us its theme in the very first sentence in the book. It is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The focus of the book is not the seals, the beasts, the Antichrist, or the mark of the beast. The focus is Jesus. These things are preludes to the big event when Jesus is revealed to the world. So let us keep our focus on Him as we continue studying Revelation.
We have seen the first six seal judgments. And Jesus is the one opening them.
Seal judgments include: deception, war, famine, pestilence, martyrdom, and cosmic signs. It is easy to get bogged down in the details and debate various points of eschatology.
More important is to consider what unites us. These are the things which all believers should hold to.
- Jesus is coming again.
- There is a bodily resurrection, of the saved to eternal life and of the wicked to punishment.
- Heaven and hell are literal places.
- One day every person will stand before God in judgment.
- God has a plan for history and He is bringing His plan to conclusion.
So I would encourage each of us to be humble. That doesn’t mean we should not hold a viewpoint. We should accurately divide the Word of truth. We are seeking the truth. And we do so humbly, realizing that we are not infallible. But His Word is, so let us seek to understand it.
Before we get into the Revelation 8, I want to highlight two things about the sequence of the seal and trumpet judgments.
Notice that the 6th seal is the first one that is clearly supernatural in nature. For the first 5, these are brought about by human activity. God is behind the scenes and is working things out according to His plan. At the same time an unbeliever could easily attempt to explain away these things as “coincidence” or man-made.
The sixth seal is different. It is cosmic in scale. There is a great earthquake. The sun was blackened and the moon looked like blood. Mountains and islands are leveled. It is clearly a supernatural event. So mankind can no longer explain away what they are seeing as coincidence. They must come to the clear conclusion that God is the author of these things. They clearly recognize it is God’s wrath, but they don’t repent.
This then leads into the seventh seal. Humankind’s unrepentance in the face of divine judgment means that more judgment is on the way. Let’s now zoom in to the text to see the seventh seal.
I. The Seventh Seal and Golden Censor (1-5)
Discussion Questions
- Why do you think there is about half an hour of silence in heaven when the seventh seal is broken?
- Why does John say “about” half an hour?
- What does it mean that our prayers are like incense to God?
- How does knowing your prayers are like incense to God affect your prayer life?
- How are the prayers answered?
- What are some Biblical examples where prayers were answered, but the answer was not seen right away?
- What is the seventh seal?
Cross-References
Exodus 37:29 – He made the holy anointing oil also, and the pure fragrant incense, blended as by the perfumer.
Psalm 4:4 – Tremble and do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.
Verse by Verse Commentary
1. The Lamb opens the seventh seal – Firstly, we see that Jesus is once again the one opening the seal. He is identified as a Lamb. It reminds us that although He is now executing judgment, He is also gentle. Salvation is possible through His sacrifice. So those who face judgment are doing so by their own choice.
2. Silence in Heaven for about half an hour – When this seal is opened there is about half an hour of silence. This does not mean that time passes in heaven the same as it does on earth. John is writing from his perspective.
The silence shows the awesome and terrible nature of what is to come. It also increases the anticipation and focuses everyone’s attention on what will unfold. It may also be that the silence showed the solemnity and seriousness of what was going to happen.
3. Angels preparing for trumpet judgments – The angels then prepare to initiate the next set of judgments. We will talk more about this in a moment.
4. Golden censer / Prayers of the saints – Revelation contains many images that are foreshadowed in the Old Testament tabernacle and temple. And this is one of them. There is an angel with a golden censor and he offers incense together with the prayers of the saints on the golden altar before the throne.
A censer is the small container used to hold coals. Incense is then put onto the coals. As they burn a cloud of incense rises up. We see this description in Leviticus 16.
Leviticus 16:12-13 – And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die.
What we see here is that the incense comes before the Lord together with our prayers. Our prayers are like incense to Him.
