by Pat Lunsford

Created on: February 23, 2009   Last Updated: March 31, 2009

Revelation Chapter Eight Explained

Angels with trumpets, incense, prayers of the saints, hail and fire mingled with blood, earthquakes, and wormwood: What does it all mean?

" 1 When the Lamb broke the seventh seal on the scroll, there was silence throughout heaven for about half an hour. 2 I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven trumpets."

The silence in heaven seems to represent the rise of the beast to power as he begins terrorizing the saints. John emphasizes this when he wrote about the prayers of the saints being mingled with incense offered to God upon the gold alter.

"3 Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God's people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God's holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out."

When the smoke of the incense ascended up to God, the results were rather spectacular. Angels act on God's orders and according to John, immediately after the smoke of the incense and prayers ascended, the angel hurled fire to the earth resulting in thunder, lightening, and a massive earthquake.

"5 Then the angel filled the incense burner with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake."

This is an ideal illustration of how heaven reacts to Christians united in prayer to God. Apparently, a multitude of saints are being threatened or tormented by the beast and are urgently crying out to God.

The First Four Trumpets

"6 Then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to blow their mighty blasts. 7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were thrown down on the earth. One-third of the earth was set on fire, one-third of the trees were burned, and all the green grass was burned."

Most of John's visions are mixed with spiritual meaning and literal physical meaning. The Lord Jesus implied as much in the first chapter of Revelation with the golden lampstands and stars.

"20 This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches."

However, the results of the actions are physical. In other words, much of the actions taken by the angels seem spiritual,

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