"Have you ever noticed that there are occasions when the entire universe stops and falls silent to witness the wonders of the almighty God?" Yes! Yes! Somehow a silence can be loud ...
Here again we read about our prayers being offered up. Revelation 5:8 said the prayers were the incense. In Revelation 8:3,4 our prayers are offered up with incense. In our devotion we read who makes our prayers acceptable to God, who carries our prayers directly to him, who answers the prayers we give. We get quite a response and reaction to the prayer we're all praying, "How long, Lord? Come, Lord Jesus!" "the wrath of the Lamb is coming on the earth."
Thank you, Jesus, for answering our prayers! O come, O come, Emmanuel!
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I decided to go ahead and get The People's Bible book on Revelation. A useful piece of info from the commentary on Revelation 8: "Trumpets were used on battlefields and in temples and palaces to call attention to pronouncements."
Here's another line I found illuminating. "If we view all four trumpets as a single picture, without forcing meaning on every detail, we see that this whole section describes natural disasters on earth." The book points out that this aligns with what the rest of Scripture teaches. Passages cited - Romans 8:22, Luke 21:25-26.
I have to say here, that although I do not want to give in to the temptation to force meaning on every detail, it seems there are quite a few passages that talk about heavenly bodies being shaken and stars falling from the sky. (Isaiah 34:4, Matthew 24:29 and the corresponding verse in Mark, here in Revelation 8...) It sure does make it seem likely that some of the natural disasters signaling the coming of judgment day will include meteorites (chunks of something-or-other that are large enough to not get completely burned up as they go through the atmosphere) that cause destruction on earth. Perhaps what we need to be careful about with this idea is to say that, "well, we haven't seen major meteorite activity cause great destruction on earth yet, so judgment day couldn't possibly come right now."
I do so appreciate the focus on prayer in this section. In the midst of this description of terrifying things, we take comfort from the knowledge that God hears and answers our prayers for Jesus' sake!
I just realized now that I'm getting ready to read the section for December 11th, that I took a bigger section from Revelation than I needed to for December 10th. Oopsies. So the whole trumpet thing as well as the natural disasters and meteorites in my comment above goes with a different day. Sorry!
Finally, almost caught up. Could not pass commenting here.
The universe stops and falls silent to witness the wonders of God. Oh how I love those moments! They bring you into them, drawn into the greatness of the Lord, overwhelmingly beautiful.. Awe, silence, I get it!
Imagine 1/2 hour - silence. Shhh, watch, listen!
A censer-reminds me of a church I visited in Jerusalem, it was filled with them. And now I can see, many, many prayers going up to God.
The censer filled with fire, hurled down to earth. How long. End times. Joy, fear.
This is where I am torn. Many say, I am ready. All who are covered with the blood of Christ are ready. But what about those who are not. Thankfully God knows the right time. I will continue to pray for those people. I am in no rush, I'll wait for the others.
Wow - to be in Jerusalem and have a "picture" of these things! What an experience, I'm sure!
Yes, thankfully God does know the right time. May we be the patient ones ...
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