Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 188

July 10:   Revelation 8:1;   246/260(I);   ‘A Moment of Silence’

Revelation 8:1 When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour

Before the Lord Jesus opened the seventh seal, there was a period of silence.  Ezekiel 33:11 tells us that the Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.  It will be like a moment of reflection, really mourning, before Jesus continues to deal with multitudes who have rejected Him.  What love.  The goal of our Lord Jesus Christ, is that those who are lost would turn to Him.  The 144,000 Jewish evangelists will be sharing the gospel and later in Revelation we will see that even angels are preaching, warning the lost to repent. The Lord is doing all that He can to reach everyone that He can.  Remember how the Lord Jesus cried when He entered Jerusalem, just before His humiliation and crucifixion.  He wept for those who hated Him.  Here, it is still not too late for the unsaved, but what those on the earth are facing, will be unprecedented.  The seven seals show the unsaved that the Lord is in complete control.  In the midst of the chaos, He is still allowing those who have rejected Him to turn to Him.  The opening of the seventh seal releases seven angels, each with a trumpet to sound.  As the first four angels sound their trumpet, one at a time, catastrophic damage is done to nature.  Again and again. the Lord is giving the unsaved more time to repent. These trumpets are similar to the plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians, before the Jews were allowed to leave Egypt.  Non-Jews left Egypt with the Jews, seeing the power of the Lord, knowing He is God and turning to Him.  Similarly, many unsaved people during the tribulation will see the incredible power of God and turn to Him and be saved.