The Eighth Angel of Revelation Eight

Dear Brethren,

The days have become shorter and cooler as we have come to the time of the Fall Holy Days.  What a wonderful time of the year this is.  God opens so much of His word, the Bible, to our understanding as we observe these days.  Each feast day is replete with the revelations of God and His Plan.  We need to put them all together as His obedient Children.  How many people have lived before us who never realized that the Feasts of the Lord bring to light the Plan of God for mankind?

The Feast of Trumpets pictures the day Jesus Christ will return to this earth in awesome power to establish His Father’s Kingdom over the entire earth.  The Book of Revelation, especially, discloses many of the pertinent details.  In the eighth chapter of Revelation, there are a number of angels mentioned with very specific duties to perform.  There are seven angels with seven trumpets who come against the earth delivering the wrath of God.  God's judgments get worse and more devastating as the Day of the Lord goes on.

"Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and awesome: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is filled up." (Revelation 15:1)

Chapter eight opens with an unusual deep silence in heaven.  There is a haunting silence all throughout God’s throne room—you could hear a pin drop.  Usually there is the noisy hustle bustle pace of active praise, worship, music, and singing (Revelation 4:6-8, Isaiah 6:1-3).  But all of a sudden there is silence in heaven for about the duration of half an hour (Revelation 8:1).  It is as if the heavenly host is holding its collective breath in silent expectation of what is about to take place – something really big!  Before the seven angels begin to sound their trumpets, another angel – an eighth angel – stands at the heavenly altar offering up incense before God.  This eighth angel is very important to us in the Church.  Whereas the seven trumpet angels having the seven last plagues bring their great devastation on the earth, the eighth angel brings an answer to the prayers of God’s saints.

“Another angel [the eighth] came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.  And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.  And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.”  (Revelation 8:3-5)

The censer filled with hot coals of the altar being cast into the earth is strangely reminiscent of Napalm being dropped in the Korean conflict — only exponentially greater.  The sacred fire of the heavenly altar is cast upon the earth in direct response to the longing and relentless prayers of the saints all through the ages for God’s intervention and reprisal upon the ungodly.  When the seventh seal is first opened, even before the first angel sounds the first trumpet, God permits the eighth angel to retaliate against all who indulge themselves in bringing misery and torment to righteous saints.

The coals of fire are indicative of God's judgment in response to the prayers of those who are sighing and crying, mourning a weeping over the lawlessness and abominations that have overwhelmed the saints of God.  That massive retaliatory vengeance being administered by the eighth angel is indicative of God’s love and respect for His people who cry out to Him day and night.

“Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?”  (Luke 18:7)

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Sermon:  "Trumpets To Trumpets 2016"  
Sermon:  "The Eighth Angel of Revelation Eight"  


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