“When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for what seemed like half an hour” (Revelation 8:1).
The Lamb breaks the seventh seal and there is silence in heaven. ‘Silence’ is found 58 times in the Complete Jewish Version. According to a dictionary definition, ‘silence’ means there is a complete absence of sound in heaven. The Hebrew word for ‘silence’ is dmama and has the same three-letter root as ‘Adam’ – adom’ and ‘blood’ – dam. Some scholars that the word ‘silent’ could be translated ‘mourning’ because it comes from the same three root letters – dalet, mem, mem. There is complete absence of sound before the ‘blood of mankind’ is judged –– the silence before the storm of Adonai’s fury.
His ‘silence’ is not inaction, but a moment in time before He acts mightily. With the first 6 seals, the earth judges mankind with war, famine, wild beasts, and earthquakes. With the seventh seal, Adonai remains silent giving those who would repent time to repent before pouring out His wrath. The Hebrew word means ‘hot displeasure’ and has its root in ‘a snake bite’ that creates a hot, burning fever.
All of the elders, living beings, angels, and those dressed in white robes mourn because they know the mankind is going to know the wrath of Adonai. They have seen what has come from the previous six seals, and with the seventh, there is nothing more do except grieve. The judgment of Elohim is imminent.
“Our God is coming and not staying silent. With a fire devouring ahead of him and a great storm raging around him, he calls to the heavens above and to earth, in order to judge his people” (Psalm 50:3-4).
Hebrew Word Picture
Silence – dmama – דממ
Dalet – A Door means ‘pathway.’
Mem – Water means ‘chaos’ or ‘mighty.’
Mem – Water means ‘chaos’ or ‘mighty.’
The Hebrew Word Picture for dmama: pathway of mighty chaos.
Wrath – chemah – חמה
Chet – A Fence means ‘protect.
Mem – Water means ‘chaos’ or ‘mighty.’
Hey – A Window means ‘reveal’ or ‘behold.
The Hebrew Word Picture for chemah: protect the mighty revealed.
According to Yochanan, the silence seemed to last a half an hour. When my children were young, we decided to see how long God’s time is in earth time. If a day is like 1000 years for God, how long is an hour, a minute, and a second? We learned that an hour is about 40 years or a generation, a minute is about nine months, and a second is about 4 days. With judgment being imminent, it doesn’t seem that a half hour in heaven would equate to 20 earth years, but Adonai did wait 120 years to judge the earth in Noach’s day.
In Revelation 3:10, the Congregation of Philadelphia is going to be kept from the ‘hour of trouble’ coming upon the whole world. This ‘hour of trouble’ is also called ‘time of Ya’akov’s trouble’ and the Great Tribulation. From the prophecy in Daniel, this time is the seven-year period Adonai will judge the earth in order before the Messianic Era. ‘Hour’ in this sense is not a specific length of time, but a period of time. The ‘Day of Adonai’ is not a 24-hour day, but a length of Adonia’s time. To Yochanan, a human being in a vision, the period of time seemed like a 1/2 hour.
“Another angel came and stood at the altar with a gold incense-bowl, and he was given a large quantity of incense to add to the prayers of all God’s people on the gold altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of God’s people from the hand of the angel before God. Then the angel took the incense-bowl, filled it with fire from the altar and threw it down onto the earth; and there followed peals of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning and an earthquake” (Revelation 8:3-5).
The Altar of Incense was in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle along with the Menorah and the Table of Presence. It was at this Altar that Zechariah stood when the angel appeared and told him that he and Elizabeth would have a son. The prayers of the people of Isra’el were offered at this Altar in the Tabernacle. According to Psalm 141:2, prayers rise like incense to the nostrils of Adonai, like the aroma of the evening sacrifice.
Before the messengers sound their shofars, the prayers of the people are combined with a massive amount of incense in a golden bowl. The smoke from the incense goes up to Adonai from the hand of the angel. The angel fills the bowl with fire from the Altar and throws the bowl down to the earth. The prayers of those left on earth have been rejected; the faithful ave come out of the Great Tribulation and stand silent in the presence of Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh.
Why would Elohim reject prayers? Perhaps they aren’t really prayers. How often do people says, ‘give good thoughts’ or ‘send positive messages’ when they should be saying, ‘Please pray!’ These well-intentioned sayings are aren’t prayers from the heart; they are thoughts from the mind.
Proverbs 28:9 states that if someone won’t obey Torah, their prayers are an abomination to Adonai! Those who teach and believe that the Old Testament was abolished or removed from the Bible when Jesus died on the cross leave many in Christiendom without Adonai’s teachings and intructions (Matthew 5:17-19). They live without the full foundation of their faith.
As a Jewish Rabbi, Yeshua said specifically that he did not come to abolish or remove the Torah, but to fulfill it. In rabbinical terminology that means ‘to interpret them correctly.’ Christians who willfully or ignorantly disobey Torah and pray, their prayers are an abomination to Adonai. While Elohim may pour out grace and mercy, there will come a when rejecting His Kingdom rules will have a serious consequence –– their prayers are answered as “peals of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”
There was a time when Adonai tells Jeremiah to stop praying for the nation of Isra’el. Why? Because they embraced their false gods and pagan-rooted traditions to the complete rejection of Adonai. Isra’el embraced the Queen of Heaven and Tammuz, both associated with Ishtar (Easter). Everything written for Isra’el was written for us to learn important truths (1 Corinthians 10:11). When any nation or people claiming to know Elohim no longer listens the warnings of the prophets, they will receive judgment.
There a time of judgment coming when the mind of Adonai will not be changed. When His judgment is at hand, there will be no stopping it. Noach learned that truth with the flood; Abraham learned that truth with Sodom and Gomorrah; those claiming faith in Yeshua will learn it too.
“Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven shofars …. Now the seven angels with the seven shofars prepared to sound them” (Revelation 8:2,6).
Seven messengers standing before Elohim are given shofars. The shofar has been part of Isra’el’s history from the giving of Torah to the mixed multitude at Mt. Sinai to the battle at Jericho to the destruction of the Temple to the return of the exiles. The voice of Yeshua sounded like a shofar to Yochanan; now the shofar will be the voice of Adonai’s judgment to the inhabitants of the earth.
“The first one sounded his shofar; and there came hail and fire mingled with blood, and it was thrown down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up” (Revelation 8:7).
When the first messenger blows the shofar, hail and fire mixed with blood appear. This mixture is thrown down upon the earth. When Ehyeh Asher Ehyey sent the seventh plague of hail and fire on Egypt, He judged the gods of Egypt (Exodus 9:23-24).
The judgment of the seventh plague was against Nut, the Egyptian goddess of the sky and heavenly bodies. Depicted as wearing a dress covered with stars, her body arches over the sky protecting earth. She is given credit for bringing order out of chaos in the heavens. As the hail and fire beat the earth, she had no power to protect Egypt from the chaos coming from the skies.
The worship of foreign gods and goddesses are not as obvious as the worship of mankind or humanism even though pagan worship still exists. As a world that worries about global warming and protecting ‘Mother Earth,’ Adonai will prove through this judgment He is Creator and still wields power over the universe. This plague of chaos doesn’t happen in Egypt, but to one-third of the earth, one-third of the trees, and one-third of green grass that burn up.
The mixture of hail and fire includes blood. In Genesis chapter 4, two sons of Adam and Eve defile the earth with murder (Genesis 4:9-11). Cain kills Abel and his blood cries from the ground as does the blood of all those from that day onward who have been innocently murdered without justice (Isaiah 59:7, 2 Kings 24:4).
“The second angel sounded his shofar, and what looked like an enormous blazing mountain was hurled into the sea. A third of the sea turned to blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed” (Revelation 8:8-9).
When the second messenger blows the shofar, an enormous blazing mountain appears and is hurled into the sea. One third of the sea turns to blood, one-third of all sea creatures die and one-third of the ships are destroyed.
The blood judgment, the first plague in Egypt was against Hapi, the Egyptian god of the Nile. The Nile River was the source of life for Egypt. Turning the water of the Nile River into blood was not only a judgment on the god of the Nile, but a sign to Egypt that Elohim controls their water supply, their lifeline.
Today, most of the world’s commerce is done in and through the sea. From commercial fishing to barges with shipping containers, everything in the global market from food to material goods is transported using the oceans and seas. By destroying ships with everything else in the ocean, global commerce halts.
Mass destruction comes with a blazing mountain hurled into the sea. Taken literally, a giant mountain on fire will be thrown into the ocean. Geologically, a fiery mountain is a volcano, however, the eruption of this fiery mountain has to be large enough to destroy one-third of the ocean, sea creatures, and ships. Some suggest a great earthquake will set off a certain volcano in the Canary Islands and the resulting tsunami will destroy life on the coasts where it hits. Because the fiery mountain is hurled into the sea, the fiery mountain could also be a meteorite. I personally believe the event may be more supernatural than natural, heavenly more than earthly that destroys one-third of the earth’s salt water.
“The third angel sounded his shofar; and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky onto a third of the rivers and onto the springs of water. The name of the star was “Bitterness,” and a third of the water became bitter, and many people died from the water that had been turned bitter” (Revelation 8:10-11).
When the third messenger blows his shofar, a great star blazing like a torch, falls from the sky and turns one-third of the earth’s fresh water to bitter. Adonai continues to judge the water –– water that mankind has polluted to the brink of being deadly. Adonai just finishes the process and many people die from the bitter water.
In the wilderness, the Israelites encountered bitter water (Exodus 15:25). It was made ‘sweet’ from a piece of wood. Unfortunately, there is no piece of wood for this plague to change the water from bitter to drinkable, but there is a lesson to be learned. Adam and Eve were given a choice between two trees, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. Their choice was between obedience to Adonai’s command or rebellion –– a choice between life or death. In Judaism, the Etz Chayim represents the Tree of Life or Torah which brings life (Genesis 2:9, Revelation 22:19).
The spiritual difference between ‘living’ water and ‘bitter’ water is the line between life and death; truth and deception. When the Truth of Elohim’s Word becomes distorted with other ideologies, it breeds deception. The refreshing water of life that people should receive from the Word of Adonai becomes bitter and even poisonous when viewed with an eternal perspective. Elohim tells His people they must do what is right and pay attention to His commands. By turning one-third of the world’s water bitter, Adonai judges the world for their rejection of His Word.
The bitter taste comes from a star called ‘Bitterness.’ The Greek word is apsinthos or ‘absinthe.’ From this plant a bitter oil is extracted that is very toxic to the human nervous system. Some Bible versions call the star “Wormwood” because the oil from the absinthe plant was used to kill intestinal worms. Intestinal worms come from eating meats that are undercooked, and mostly from meats that Elohim called ‘unclean.’ The flesh of the pig has numerous parasites that grow into intestinal worms; the tapeworm invades the brain. Writing this during the Coronavirus 19 outbreak that possibly came from the wet markets in Wuhan, China, I am reminded that Elohim desires His people eat those animals He created to be food. Eating ‘unclean’ animals leads to disease and death, and many people die from the ‘bitter’ water of this judgment.
The star falls like a blazing torch. There are 19 Biblical references that use ‘torch,’ but there are only a couple with ‘blazing torch.’ The prophet Isaiah says, “For Zion’s sake I won’t keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I won’t sit still until her righteousness shines out like a light, and her salvation blazes like a torch” (Isaiah 62:1). Just moments before, there had been silence in heaven, a silence that spoke of Adonai waiting before sending forth the trumpet judgments. It is for Zion’s sake that He could not remain silent, and it is for Jerusalem that He could no longer wait. He wants the righteousness of Jerusalem to shine like a light in the darkness, and for salvation –– Yeshua –– to ‘blaze like a torch.’
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has a dream of a great statue. A stone was cut, not by human hands, and shattered the iron and clay feet of the statue. The stone then became a mighty mountain and it filled the entire earth. According to Daniel’s interpretation of the stone, “the God of heaven will raise up an everlasting kingdom that will be indestructible. Its rule will never pass to another people. It will shatter other kingdoms. It will put an end to all of them. It will stand firm forever, just like you saw when the stone, which was cut from the mountain” (Daniel 2:44-45). The small stone grew into the coming Messianic Kingdom that when thrown down to the earth will destroy every earthly kingdom.
From the Book of Sirach, “Then Elijah the prophet rose up like fire, and his word burned like a torch” (Sirach 48:1). Later in Revelation there are two witnesses who preach in Jerusalem. There are different ideas as to whether the two witnesses are groups of people or two individuals. If individuals, Elijah is always believed to be one of them for he never faced death on this earth. As he ‘rises up’ from wherever the flaming chariot took him, the Words of Yeshua through him burn like a torch.
Around the throne of yod-hey-vav-hey, the seven-fold Spirit was like ‘flaming torches.’ Whether or not one of these spiritual aspects were thrown down to the earth to create ‘bitter’ waters is another supposition for the ‘mountain flaming like a torch’ that destroys the earth’s fresh water (Isaiah 11:1-2).
“The fourth angel sounded his shofar; and a third of the sun was struck, also a third of the moon and a third of the stars; so that a third of them were darkened, the day had a third less light, and the night likewise” (Revelation 8:12).
When the fourth messenger blows the shofar, one-third of the heavenly bodies are darkened. One- third of the sun, one-third of the moon and one-third of the stars make one-third less light during the day and leave a much darker night.
The heavenly bodies created on the fourth day to be the signs for the ‘appointed times’ of Adonai will be dimmed by one-third. The people of the earth will no longer enjoy the light from the the rising and setting of the sun, the phases of the moon or the traveling of the constellations for summer, winter, spring, and fall. Every basic ‘law’ of the heavens and earth will be challenged as the original creation continues its demise. Seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, day and night will no longer exist as it always has (Genesis 8:22).
Even with one-third of the heavenly bodies darkening, they still remain as evidence to the Creator’s power over the sun, moon, and stars. They also remain to prove eternal the promise made to the nation of Isra’el (Jeremiah 31:35-36). As the world and its remaining people are diminished by 30% with each shofar blast, the 144,000 sons of Ya’akov remain sealed as Adonai’s servants.
“Then I looked, and I heard a lone eagle give a loud cry, as it flew in mid-heaven, “Woe! Woe! Woe to the people living on earth, because of the remaining blasts from the three angels who have yet to sound their shofars!” (Revelation 8:13).
There are still three more shofar blasts. As it flies in mid-heaven, a lone eagle cries out, ‘woe’ to the people living on the earth because of what is coming with the lasts three blasts. ‘Woe’ is defined as great sorrow or distress. In Hebrew, the word is oy. In Greek it is ouai and means ‘uttered in grief or public condemnation.’
The eagle reveals the heavenly view of what occurs on earth. As an eagle flies higher than any other bird, it has a wider and clearer vision of what is happening below. From an altitude of one-thousand feet, an eagle can scan an area of nearly three square miles.
When Yeshua used the word ‘woe,’ it was always directed toward the hypocrisy of those who were the spiritual leaders of Isra’el (Matthew 23:13-36). The eagle’s view above the coming storm on earth prophesies the divine judgment. The ‘woes’ that follow the eagle’s warning will bring deep despair to those left on the earth, even to those who have been sealed by Elohim.
“For there will be trouble then worse than there has ever been from the beginning of the world until now, and there will be nothing like it again! Indeed, if the length of this time had not been limited, no one would survive; but for the sake of those who have been chosen, its length will be limited” (Matthew 24:21).
Revelation Chapter 9 – The Abyss
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