Revelation 8
If you looked at the world
when the Revelation was being disseminated and asked who or what are the
influences of history you might expect it would be the powerful men of
politics. You might think it would be the generals and the armies. You might
even believe it is the people of wealth and riches. If we ask the same
questions today we would likely draw similar conclusions. We might add to that
list the powers of media, entertainment, or the Internet. But the picture we
see in Revelation 8 and 9 offers a very different answer.
Beginning in verse 6 angels
are about to blow their trumpets. Trumpets were the early warning system of the
day. They were used to call attention and to warn people of impending danger.
The events described after each angels’ trumpet blast are warnings to an
unrepentant world. The events are world-shaking and reshaping moments. It is
important to pay attention to the context in which these events are described.
The context begins with
silence, a lost art today, that will give emphasis to the sound of the trumpet.
But that silence is not empty. Between the breaking of the seventh seal and the
first trumpet sound what do you see? We see the prayers of the Saints. While it may appear that the powerful forces
of history and life are the great political, economic, cultural or military
leaders it is not so. We see that the
prayers of the Saints go up to God and then things happen. When faced with the
events that occur after the trumpets sound the world's elites are weak and powerless.
Prayer is the hardest
discipline that a Christian can develop. It is so easy to get distracted, to parrot
without thought the same old words, to slip into freestyle prayer that requires
no heart and no soul. The enemy, our own flesh, the whole world systems will
tell you to do something else, something important, to get busy, to be active
and not just sit and pray and do nothing. One of the messages of this passage
is that we are doing the most when we are praying.
Questions to ponder
It has been said that prayer
is the most difficult discipline to develop in the Christian life. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
We have heard the cliché
that Prayer Changes Things. Do we really believe that? Our prayer life
reflects our conviction about the power and effectiveness of prayer. So what
does your prayer life say about your conviction that prayer is profoundly
powerful?
