LISTEN! Revelation 8 Complete Jewish Bible 8 When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for what seemed like half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven shofars.
The Seven Trumpets
You weren’t expecting it…
never-the-less, the sound of the coming Wrath of the LORD is come!
OR
You listened to those who predicted it, yet the Wrath of the LORD was not revealed.
So since it’s been millennia and the END has not come, it will not …
or so you thought.
Apocalypse of the END
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.
Mark 13:33 – Caution of the Messiah Jesus to followers
“How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who live on the earth?”
Revelation 6:10b NASB – the cry of the martyrs from beneath the altar
Martyrs
UNANSWERED Questions of those who died for their faith in Jesus Christ:
Where is JUSTICE for those who die by the hands of the evil?
Who will JUDGE those who kill the innocent and oppress the righteous?
the Stoning of Stephen- painting by Rembrandt
And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
“Are these things true? ” the high priest asked.
“Brothers and fathers,” he replied, “listen: The God of glory appeared..
.. and Stephen proceeded to preach the Gospel until those who rejected the God of Glory and cut by Truth silenced him in rage, stoning Christ’s martyr by the weight of their own guilt.
Stephen, the Apostles & many more martyrs among the saints
The Acts of the Apostles record the power of the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen, but also the suffering by the saints of the church for witness of the Gospel to those who would believe.
4:3-4 And they laid hands on them [Peter & John] and put them in prison.. and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.. and you have now become betrayers and murderers of Him; you who received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”
Acts 7:51-53 excerpt NASB – indictment of the Jews through the martyr Stephen
8:1b And on that day [of the stoning of Stephen] a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles.
DATE: ~A.D. 33-36
12:2b-3a [Herod Agrippa I] .. had James the brother of John executed with a sword. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter as well.
DATE: A.D. 44
14:19b–20a .. they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city.
After many additional attacks, Paul would be executed in Rome – DATE: ~ A.D. 64-68
Simon Peter was also crucified in Rome during the persecutions of Nero – DATE: ~ A.D. 64-68 as were many other saints killed throughout the Empire both before and after the fall of Jerusalem.
When will justice be served to those who crucify Truth and destroy the lives of the faithful?
DATE ~A.D. 94–96 + John wrote the Revelation of Jesus Christ
The deaths of martyrs mentioned had already taken place when John writes Revelation. The opening of the seven seals gives the Church a glimpse of Justice at the End of these last days.
Jerusalem would fall in A.D. 70. The Sanhedrin would no more convict Christian or Jew.
Rome would divide and crumble by the third century and the Empire would fall in A.D. 476.
Even so, we realize now in A.D. 2021, the prophesy of the last days revealed by John is for a time nearer to US than that of the Apostles.
9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained..
It is the Altar of the Holy Throne Room of Heaven! The Lamb stands surrounded by seraphim and four living creatures, angels and elders of the heavenly court, hearing the prayers of the saints as these plead for justice.
They cried out with a loud voice,
“Lord, the one who is holy and true,
how long until you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?”
Revelation 6:10 CSB
Oh Lord, δεσπότης – despotēs – as a bond servant addresses one’s Master, as one of the saints, bound to our Lord Christ as husband to the church.
Jesus Christ is HOLY AND TRUE! –
ἅγιος – hagios (an awful One) & ἀληθινός – alēthinos – Real in name and resemblance, but the real nature corresponding to the name.
“How long, O [Master], holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who live on the earth?”
Do you not judge and avenge?
Rest yet a while longer
You servants of the Lord
take comfort in His answer to you;
for only He IS righteous in judgment
and vengeance belongs only
to the Lamb on the Throne.
And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
AWE of things unseen uncovered, creatures of Heaven hardly imagined and devastations of earth unimaginable! This is what the Lord Jesus Christ reveals [ἀποκάλυψις – apokalypsis] to the Apostle John.
.. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here …
.. and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.
.. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones..
And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices:
Revelation 4:5a KJV
6 and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.
! ! ! ! Living Creatures
The first living creature was like a lion.. each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within..
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”
Revelation 4:8b NASB
And when the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever,
the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and they will worship Him who lives forever and ever..
5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?”
.. 6 And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slaughtered..
8 When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb..
“Worthy are You to take the scroll and to break its seals; for You were slaughtered, and You purchased people for God with Your blood from every tribe, language, people, and nation.
Revelation 5:9b NASB
.. 11 Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders..
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing.”
Revelation 5:12 NASB – the loud praise of thousands of angels
.. 14 And the four living creatures were saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.
With inescapable arrows from the string of his bow
The Face of the Lion whose wrath did slay them
His enemies will never know
Roger @talk of Jesus {dot}.com
The Second Seal:
War on Earth
Have you fully fallen in fear and awe before the One on the Throne as the Lamb opened the scroll?
Did the ἀποκάλυψις
‘disclosure of truth concerning things before unknown’
convict your sinful soul as if you were dead before Him?
Could you face any of the four living creatures ever-vigilant in holiness surrounding the Throne of the One Creator and eternal LORD?
Before we observe the opening of the second seal, returning to The Throne Room of Heaven, let’s look once more upon this scene with the second living creature.
Revelation 4-5 excerpt:
.. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne..
.. and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind..
.. the second living creature was like an ox..
.. Each of the four living creatures had six wings; they were covered with eyes around and inside..
I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders..
saying with a loud voice:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power…
3 When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come!”
Notice that the second living creature, which the KJV translates, ‘beast‘also speaks with authority; for these four are nearest worshipers of the Lord God!
The four living beasts serve the Throne of the LORD — they are His messengers, all similar in power and fearful appearance, and yet different as personalities of man are both alike yet individual. The four horsemen also sent (by the living messengers of the Throne) also differ in appearance as do their horses and the judgments for which each is sent out to all the earth.
4 Another horse, fiery red, went out.
And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another;
and there was given to him a great sword.
From the unsealed judgment read from the scroll, two have gone out
– one with a bow to conquer from afar and now
a rider who will spill the blood of war by the hand of a mighty rider of the horse red as fire!
