SILENCE IN HEAVEN

We are living in the days of final preparation. In heaven, in hell and on earth, tremendous activity is erupting as all of creation anticipates the culmination of man’s history.

If the Holy Spirit were to pull the scales from our eyes, we believers would be both joyful and horrified at what we saw. We would cry out, “What is going on? Why is everyone rushing about so determined, so intense? What is about to happen?”

Right now the heavens are ablaze with anticipation! Without question, a final conflict is coming—a time when every enemy will be put under our Lord’s feet. God is busily preparing!

If the veil separating the physical and spiritual could be lifted for a moment, what a sight we would behold! Everywhere we looked we would see preparations taking place. These preparations can be seen only as we are allowed glimpses into the eternal. And, without speculating, we can see what God has revealed in His Word about this final preparation taking place in heaven.

Revelation 6:1 says the Lamb opened one seal, and there was “the noise of thunder.” But following this is one of the most mind-boggling statements in all of God’s Word: “There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour” (Revelation 8:1).

No angelic being cried, “Holy, holy!” No choirs sang—not a single sound was heard in all of God’s eternal kingdom! The heavens literally shook with a holy thunder but then God was silent. Christ and His Holy Spirit were silent. Why this silence? And why half an hour?

The prophet Zechariah provides a clue: “And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation” (Zechariah 2:12-13).

Here we see God ready to claim His inheritance. All things have been put into place. Seven judgment-angels stand before Him, waiting to be given assignments to go forth and smite the earth. The time that was appointed from the foundation of the world has now come.

The words used in Scripture here speak of a holy hush, a great calm before the storm. And this silence is too holy, too incomprehensible for human minds. We can’t even speculate as to why, in this period just prior to the final judgment, God in His heaven is silent.