Anyone who has ever done radio and television broadcasting knows that silence is not golden. Dead air is death to a broadcast. How do you react to silence? It makes some of us uncomfortable. We surround ourselves with noise because silence can be deafening. Jorge Borges said, “Only speak if you can improve on the silence.”
Sometimes it is quiet in heaven. At the opening of the seventh seal, heaven has thirty moments of silence. Then the angels received their trumpets, one apiece. Another angel, presumably not a trumpeter, has a golden censer with which he can cast fire. What has to happen to get the angel to fling the fire? God’s people have to pray.
This is the second time that the prayers of God’s people are mentioned in John’s vision of God’s throne room. Earlier, we saw that prayers are collected in a bowl of incense in heaven (Revelation 5:8). Here the prayers rise like incense before God. Our prayers get through to God!
While visiting with my dad last week, I noticed a stack of cards. They were prayer cards from Tallowood and First Baptist Church of McKinney. My dad asked me to thank you for praying for him and his wife Ruth. He told me he takes the prayergrams to her hospital room and reads them to her. Prayers make a difference here and in heaven. Our prayers rise upward to God. The angel then takes the censer and flings the fire. One way to improve on silence is to speak to God. Good things happen when we pray. Fire is flung. We should pray!
