And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that he might give [efficacy] to the prayers of all saints at the golden altar which [was] before the throne.
Between the silence in heaven and the first trumpet, a figure with a golden censer takes the prayers of God's people to the altar before the throne. Who is this "another angel"? Which altar does he stand at? And why does prayer set judgment moving?
One writer argues from what this figure does, and from his title, that he cannot be a created being:
"Another angel." Who is he? We are satisfied that the angel priest is Christ, our great High Priest. The service at the altars proves it, for both the bronze altar and the golden altar are named here. No mere creature could make the prayers of saints effective. Only One who has in Himself an independent right and ability could do that. Further, the action at the altars is the work of a mediator, standing between suffering, praying saints on earth and God. Since Christianity knows of only "one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5), the proof is undeniable that the angel priest is Christ and Christ alone, not a representative person or company, as some interpreters take it. The words "another angel" are used of Christ three times in these visions (Rev. 8:3; 10:1; 18:1). The title suggests reserve and distance. Under the trumpet judgments Christ steps back and takes an angel's title and character.
The verse names an altar twice, and calls it golden the second time. One writer reads these as two different altars:
Wherever "the altar" appears with nothing added to describe it, I believe it always means the bronze altar — the first point of contact between God and people on earth. There the whole burnt offering was burned, along with the other sweet-smelling offerings. The fire was taken from there to make the incense rise from its own altar in the holy place… If the same altar were meant at the start of verse 3 as at the end, the full description would surely have come at the first mention, not the second.
The incense followed a fixed recipe, and its ingredients are read as a portrait of Christ:
The incense used in the tabernacle was made of four ingredients, listed in Exodus 30:34-36. It was mixed to a formula God gave. Anyone who made it or used it without God's permission was put to death… No doubt the four precious ingredients, three of which are named only once, show the moral beauties and perfections of Christ as seen in the four Gospels. But it needed the fire of judgment to draw out the full fragrance of Christ, and only the cross could do that.
Several writers read the phrase to mean that he makes the prayers effective, not just that he offers incense with them:
Then another angel — Christ — comes and stands at the altar, and gives efficacy (this is, I believe, the force of it) to the prayers of the saints. It struck me, the other day, that when we see the saints as priests, they do not pray at all. But here, when Christ is priest, He adds incense and gives efficacy to the saints' prayers. These are suffering saints on earth.
(The ESV reads "to offer with the prayers." These writers prefer the sense "give efficacy to.")
One writer notes which throne this altar stands before, and how fast God answers:
The altar stands before the throne — not the mercy-seat here, but the throne of judgment. From this golden altar of incense the prayers of the remnant for deliverance and judgment rise to God, perfumed with all the fragrance of Christ, and draw down a speedy answer.
One writer asks how far "all saints" reaches, and leaves it as a question:
We are told that His incense is offered with "the prayers of all saints." May this not show that in these judgments we see an answer to the prayers of all the saints of Old Testament times, as well as those of the great tribulation?
One writer carries the scene over into our own praying:
There is always the happy thought that thousands of hearts may be quietly talking with God when even the eye of a prophet can find none. It is a great comfort to remember, too, that there is One at least who never grows tired of praying for all saints… His incense added to our prayers is what makes the weakest words of our faith rise with welcome from the altar of our worship (Rev. 8:3).
- The Priest. Commentators name the one with the censer as Christ. No creature can make prayer effective or stand between earth and God.
- The Incense. The incense follows a formula God fixed. Its parts picture the perfections of Christ, and only the cross drew out the full fragrance.
- The Addition. He does not just carry the prayers up. He adds what makes them work, so the weakest cry arrives fragrant.
- The Reach. The prayers come from "all saints" — suffering people on earth, and perhaps saints of earlier ages too.
- The Answer. This altar stands before a throne of judgment. Prayer perfumed by Christ draws down a swift answer, and the trumpets follow.
And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints, out of the hand of the angel before God.
Between the seals and the trumpets, Revelation 8 pauses for one short scene at an altar in heaven. Two questions decide how the verse reads: who holds the censer, and why does this worship end in fire thrown down on the earth?
The setting is not the earthly sanctuary. The golden altar and the throne place it in heaven, and that identifies the one holding the censer.
This scene is clearly in heaven, as marked by the golden altar and the throne. So the angel can be no one less than the great High Priest, the Mediator between God and His people. The prayers of all saints — saints on earth, of course — rise up to God on the golden altar. But it is the "Angel" adding the incense that makes their prayers effective.
Readers often take the incense to mean the prayers themselves. Verse 4 keeps the two side by side — the smoke with the prayers. One writer presses the point by comparing this scene with the earlier one in Revelation 5.
The royal priests in Revelation 5 present the prayers of the saints as incense. The angel high-priest in Revelation 8 adds much incense to the prayers of all the saints. No creature could do that — only He could. Where would be the sense in adding the prayers of the saints to the prayers of the saints?
The distinction matters for what worshippers can and cannot contribute:
They are priests and offer the prayers, but they offer no prayer, no incense of their own. They add nothing and give efficacy to nothing.
The rising smoke is not decoration. One writer reads it as God's own answer to what the angel offers.
In Revelation 8:4 the smoke of the incense going up is the sign that God approves of the incense.
The people praying are on earth while this scene unfolds in heaven. What they ask for shapes what follows. Note where the altar stands.
The incense burned on the golden altar at the hour of prayer (Luke 1:10) stood for the perfect acceptance of Christ, which made the people's prayers effective. So it is in this picture. The altar stands before the throne — not the mercy-seat here, but the throne of judgment. From this golden altar of incense the prayers of the remnant rise to God, asking for deliverance and judgment. All the fragrance of Christ perfumes them, and they draw down a quick answer.
Commentators differ on how wide "all the saints" reaches. One asks whether it stretches back much further than the tribulation:
May this not show that in these judgments we see an answer to the prayers of all the saints of Old Testament days, as well as those of the great tribulation?
Then comes the turn that unsettles readers. The angel fills that same censer with fire and empties it on the earth, and the trumpets begin.
The effect of intercession in this case is to bring down judgment. There is something of mystery here. "The fire of the altar," the judgment of God which Christ suffered, is turned against the earth. What had been a burnt offering to God with a pleasing aroma becomes man's very judgment.
Every part of the picture fits together. Yet the scene is one of judgment, and the Lord appears under an unusual title:
A priest, saints, an altar (both altars, as it seems to me), incense, the censer, and the fire are all here in their proper order. Yet all of it is communion with God as He chastises the earth. If the Lord is brought out at all, it is as an angel, not in His full dignity as the Son of God consecrated forever.
The mechanism in verse 4 is not reserved for that future hour. It explains why any believer's poor words reach God at all.
In themselves the praises are weak and cold. But the High Priest has "much incense" to offer with them, so they go up to God with all the energy and perfect acceptance of Christ. He Himself says, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." Here is the Priest with the priestly family. He is not ashamed to call them brothers, and He leads their praises up to God. How this dignifies and elevates all true worship.
- Cause. Saints on earth cry out for deliverance. Their prayers are the ones rising here; nothing in this scene starts until they pray.
- Gift. The One at the altar receives much incense and adds it to those prayers. The worshippers bring the asking; He brings the acceptance no creature could supply.
- Ascent. The smoke going up is the visible sign that God approves the incense the Priest added.
- Answer. Fire from the altar goes down as fast as the prayer went up. This altar stands before a throne of judgment, not a mercy-seat.
- Application. The same Priest carries cold praises up today in the perfect acceptance of Christ. That pattern dignifies every prayer you offer.
And the angel took the censer, and filled it from the fire of the altar, and cast [it] on the earth and there were voices, and thunders and lightnings, and an earthquake.
The prayers of God's people have just risen to His throne with incense. Now the same vessel comes back down, filled with fire and thrown at the world — so how does a vessel of worship become a tool of judgment, and why does God answer prayer this way?
The one acting here is a priest doing something no priest in Israel's history was ever asked to do.
The angel here is Christ Himself, for He acts as priest. He presents the prayers of saints to God as a sweet aroma, and He adds a further abundance of incense to them. More than this: He also fills the censer with fire from the altar and casts it upon the earth (v. 5). No priest of the line of Aaron was ever called upon to do such a thing.
Notice which altar this fire comes from. There were two.
Burning coals from the altar go into the censer, and are cast down upon the earth. They come not from the golden altar of intercession, but from the bronze altar of judgment, where the consuming fire of God's righteousness always burns. How unsuited to God's present ways of grace! How suited to the coming day of judgment, and to the state of His oppressed and suffering saints then! The saints offer their prayers from that same censer, so the fire of God's righteous judgment matches those prayers in character as it is hurled down upon the earth.
The fire has a history, and it changes direction.
Here intercession has the effect of bringing down judgment. There is something of mystery in it. "The fire of the altar" is the judgment of God which Christ suffered, and it is now turned against the earth. What had been a burnt offering to God, a sweet aroma, now becomes man's very judgment. These are not only acts of providence. They are religious dealings with the world. The opening of the seals brings out the counsels of God, while the trumpets announce God in judgment.
That turns the verse into a question for every reader, not just a forecast:
And what is the fire of the altar? Is it not that wrath of God which consumed the holy One made sin for us?... So those who have refused the mercy of God, which comes through the atoning death of Jesus on the altar, must endure that same wrath against sin. My reader, you and I must be either purified by that fire, or judged by that fire forever.
Frederick Grant answers the obvious objection.
Some find it hard to believe that this fire means judgment, because it comes from the altar. They remember how a live coal from the altar cleansed Isaiah's lips. They cannot see how fire that has fed on the sacrifice can still be wrath against people. But this is easily answered. Where the heart turns to God, that is certainly true. It is in no way true for those who do not turn. For them there is no sacrifice that avails. Instead it pleads against those who reject it. The cross did not set aside the wrath of God against sin. The cross showed that wrath to be an awful reality. And where the precious blood has not cleansed from sin, the wrath of God rests all the more heavily on those who slight it.
The fire falls because prayer went up. The same link shows us who is praying.
The angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth. He did this as an answer to the prayers of the saints. That is, God is pleased to associate His saints with Himself even in His ways of judgment... They are the saints left on earth after the Church has been caught up to heaven. They are the remnant who appear so often in the Psalms, praying for vengeance on their enemies.
This is not how Christians pray today.
Today God is acting in sovereign grace. Those who have the mind of heaven pray for the salvation of sinners, and God answers their prayers by blessing souls. In the day to come, God will be acting in judgment. Those who have His mind will then be right to use the Psalms that call down judgment on enemies.
The four signs are not new, but the list has grown since John first saw the throne.
There were lightnings and voices and thunders in Rev. 4, but there is more now. Besides those we find an earthquake added. The effect among men becomes more intense.
The earthquake carries its own meaning.
Earthquakes point to the upheaval of the lower masses of society, overthrowing the social system either partly or completely.
- Censer — the same vessel that carried prayers upward carries fire downward; worship and judgment come from one hand, Christ's.
- Fire — it is altar fire: the wrath that fell on the sacrifice, now falling on a world that refused it.
- Cry — the fire descends as the answer to prayers ascending; God links His people to what He is doing.
- Signs — thunder, rumblings, lightning, and now an earthquake as well: the effect on people grows more intense.
- Choice — that same fire either purifies you or judges you forever; there is no third option.