keep silence

When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Revelation 8:1

In every description in scripture of the throne of God there is ceaseless praise in God’s presence. It is loud. It is musical. It is antiphonal. In the book of Revelation many beings are ceaselessly celebrating a glorious God around His throne:

• living creatures (Revelation 4:8)
• elders (Revelation 5:9)
• angels (Revelation 5:11-12)
• church saints (Revelation 7:9-10)

Yet at this juncture as the Lamb breaks the seventh seal all the music halts. For half an hour there is silence as the dreadful judgments about to unfold upon the earth are contemplated. There is precedence for this sort of silence before the significance of God’s judgment.

• “Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the LORD is near…” Zephaniah 1:7
• “Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for he has roused himself…” Zechariah 2:13

In silence I think about how God is judge of all the earth. I remember. Jesus bore my judgment on a cross. In silence at the wrath of God poured out on the dying Lamb I am in awe. “The Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him…” Habakkuk 2:20