And when it opened the seventh seal, there was silence in the heaven about half an hour.
The Lamb breaks the seventh and last seal. What follows is not a blow but a hush: heaven itself falls quiet. Why does the last seal produce silence instead of judgment, and what is heaven waiting for?
The Book Fully Opened
The Lamb broke six seals in chapter 6. Here He opens the last one.
The seven-sealed book, or scroll, is in the open hand of Jehovah (5:1-2), and the Lamb opens its seals one by one… Now He opens the final one, and the book of God's counsels about the earth lies open before us. The plans and counsels of our God about the vast interests of earth are no longer a secret. Neither are the means and manner by which they will be carried out. All are disclosed. But why is the seventh seal separated from the preceding six?… A whole chapter (Rev. 7) comes in between the sixth and seventh seals, breaking the orderly sequence of events. The seventh seal opens the way to still further and severer judgments. Before it is opened, the veil is drawn aside, and two great companies out of Israel and the nations are brought into the scene — the fruit of a wide work of grace carried on even while judgment is devastating the earth.
Silence Instead Of A Stroke
Each earlier seal brought its own event. This one breaks the pattern.
When the seventh seal is opened, what follows is not the judgment that came with each of the earlier seals. It is silence in heaven for the space of half an hour. This surely shows how solemn the crisis is that has now arrived. It is, as it were, a divine pause before the last and most awful judgments fall on the inhabited world.
What "Half An Hour" Means
Two questions arise here. Does heaven stop praising, and how long is half an hour?
"Silence in heaven" does not mean that the songs and praises of the redeemed are silent. We must read the silence alongside the subject in hand, which is judgment… The course of judgment is halted. There is a pause both in the announcing and in the carrying out of further punishments… "Half an hour" means only a very brief period in which judicial action is held back. The breaking of the seventh seal brings not judgment, but an ominous silence. It is a calm before a storm, like a stillness in nature preceding a tempest.
Why Heaven Falls Quiet
Guesses about the hush abound. One reading stands out, and it turns on who is silent and why.
There have been many guesses about what this "silence in heaven" can mean. Perhaps no one has suggested a better thought than this. Every intelligent being in heaven stood in solemn awe, because the Lord Himself was now about to go out in flaming fiery vengeance, to judge the world in righteousness, and to put all enemies under His feet.
Not The Millennial Rest
Some read this pause as the start of the millennial rest — the coming age of peace on earth. Kelly rejects that, and points to where the silence happens.
The seventh seal must come after the sixth… There was a brief pause of solemn expectancy, the lull that comes before the storm about to blow… Heaven takes note of God's ways. The silence was there, not on earth. Signal judgments were hanging over all creation. How strange to imagine that silence in heaven for half an hour could picture the millennial rest!
The Seal That Contains The Trumpets
The seventh seal is less an event in itself than a door.
The seventh seal was not so much a judgment in itself, as that which contained in it the seven trumpets, and was the signal for their sounding.
Unhurried Judgment
The pause also shows the pace of God's hand.
Divine judgment, when it falls, is not only sure but swift, yet it is never hurried. During this interval of silence the seven angels prepared themselves to sound their trumpets. There is a calm serenity about the divine action in judgment, and God postpones it to the last possible moment.
Summary
- Opened. The Lamb breaks the last seal, and God's hidden counsels about the earth lie open.
- Silent. Every other seal brought an event. This one brings a pause: God holds back both the announcing and the carrying out of judgment.
- Brief. "Half an hour" marks a very short break, the stillness before a storm. It is not the age of rest, and the hush is in heaven, not on earth.
- Awed. Heaven's intelligent beings stand speechless. The Lord Himself is about to go out and judge the world in righteousness.
- Loaded. Seven angels receive seven trumpets in the pause. The seventh seal holds them, and God delays the sounding to the last possible moment.